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Nucleic acid amplification is responsible for pushing the limit-of-detection of molecular diagnostic assays to unprecedented levels. We developed an assay based on protein-responsive programmable dynamic DNA assembly (PRPDA) to detect proteins via an intermediate process involving nucleic acids for taking advantage of nucleic acid amplification strategies. PRPDA has previously been designed for sensitive protein analysis in fluorescent assay formats. To further push the detection limit and to achieve assay miniaturization and multiplexing, we sought to combine PRPDA with electrochemical readout. We were able to achieve LOD of 1 pM by employing wrinkled gold electrode for the PRDA protein detection scheme. Which is 2800 times improvement compare to the 2.8 nM demonstrated by fluorescent transduction. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Dorothy Marchus Senesh Fellowship / The full-text of this thesis will be embargoed until further notice.

The thesis examines post-event displacement of households in the year following Hurricane Harvey. Using data gathered from a three-page mail survey conducted approximately 1-year after the storm, this study examines two primary research objectives. First this thesis aims to identify variables that predict displacement or non-displacement after the disaster. Second, this study explores patterns in the destination and duration of displaced households following Hurricane Harvey. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the extent to which household composition characteristics and level of damage sustained during Hurricane Harvey predicted post-disaster displacement. Next, independent sample t-tests and descriptive statistical analyses were used to identify patterns in the destination of post-event relocations. Research findings indicate in the overall binary logistic regression model that after Hurricane Harvey, being White, level of home damage, wind damage, and number of days a member of the household returned home post-Harvey increased the likelihood of a household being displaced. Analysis of the survey responses also indicated that many households made multiple moves following Hurricane Harvey and specifically, displaced households were more likely to stay with a friend or relative. Additionally, this study found that with each additional relocation, the duration of stay at each destination increased while the distance from their pre-disaster home decreased. This thesis advances understanding of what predicts household displacement after a disaster and offers new insights into where people go during the short-term and beginning of the long-term recovery phases.

Irrespective of the regional setting, displacement of all kinds results in considerable disruption and loss of assets for both the individual and the collective, with greater likelihood of socio-economic impoverishment and reduced access to rights entitlements. Although there is evidence that displaced people face additional challenges of life in a new environment, living day to day with uncertainties around their survival, the larger proportion of these studies are concerned with physical resettlement and the livelihood restoral of people displaced as a result of conflict or large development projects (whether as refugees or internally displaced people (IDP). There has been relatively little critical reflection on how the policy framework can deliver the rights and entitlements of forced migrants, including those who should be obliged to protect them and the relevance of individual agency . This paper critically engages with current internal displacement protection policies that are based on risk management or short-term relief measures. It considers how a policy paradigm of social protection might offer a framework to minimize the loss of rights so often associated with displacement.

The Syrian civil war and the subsequent displacement crisis it caused, changed the international community’s understanding of forced migration in the contemporary context. Even more than a decade after the conflict began, over half the population of Syria remains displaced indicating the continued importance of this crisis. The literature has overwhelmingly focused on those Syrians who crossed international borders. However, those who remain internally displaced, and the patterns that their displacement within Syria has taken, provide insightful information on the drivers of forced migration more widely. By looking at subnational variation in migration patterns, this study seeks to answer the question: what explains patterns of internal forced displacement within Syria? I argue that the patterns seen throughout the Syrian civil war are an outcome of state policies that push displacement in certain populations and regions of the country as a method of helping ensure regime victory. These tactics go beyond common decision-making explanations, putting culpability for displacement back onto government actors. A qualitative examination of strategies employed by the Syrian regime during the civil war as well as a spatial and temporal analysis of IDP movements within Syria between 2016 and 2019 show evidence for the tactics used by the regime that have driven Syrian internal displacement.

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The dynamics of spin and mechanical displacement in ionic materials are independently well understood. This abstract work aims to investigate the spin and the displacement dynamics of two ions, while including coupled interactions between the ions’ spin and displacement. I have found that the dynamics depend on the speed of both the spin and the displacement. / Joners spinn- respektive förflyttningsdynamik har väl etablerade teoretiska grunder. Med syftet att utöka den teoretiska kunskapen undersöker jag hur spinn- och förflyttningsdynamiken hos två joner påverkas av kopplade interaktioner mellan deras spinn och förflyttning. Resultatet visar att dynamiken beror på spinnets och förflyttningens farter.