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The purpose of this study was to understand the loneliness felt by refugees who are living in Cyprus and Ireland, countries that are foreign to them. This was primarily viewed through the eyes of employees that dedicate their careers to helping them. The research was conducted using qualitative methods. two employees from Cyprus and Ireland were interviewed. Thematic analysis was used in order to identify different themes within the findings. The data was manually analysed in order to bring these themes to light. The refugee theory developed by Kunz was chosen in order to understand the topic on a deeper level. The findings showed multiple examples of how these employees understood the loneliness that refugees feel. It was also revealed that they do believe that loneliness is a prevailing factor amongst all types of refugees.

<p> This thesis describes the isolation and structural determination of flavonoids from the heart wood of Prunus avium as well as synthesis of polyhydroxy pyrrolidine derivatives and aniline core structures as potential antibacterial agents. Nitrogen-synthons containing saturated heterocyclic systems and aniline core structures are important synthons in organic chemistry because of their presence in many biologically-active natural products. Mycobacterial viability is dependent upon the ability of the organism to produce an intact cell wall. Therefore, compounds that interfere with the biosynthesis of the cell wall complex glycons have the potential to become new drugs for the treatment of mycobacterial infections. The oligosaccharide galactan is one of the major structural components of the outer wall of the micro-organism. Galactofuranose is essential for cell growth and survival and therefore, its biosynthesis constitutes a new drug target. The biosynthetic process involves several enzymes having Uridine-diphosphogalacto furanose (UDP-Galf) as the substrate; uridine 5^1 -diphosphogalacto pyranose mutase which catalyzes the interconversion of UDP galacatopyranose to UDP-galactofuranose as well as Galf-transferase. We are seeking and designing molecules that could be mechanistic probes and/or inhibitors of efflux pumps to potentially combat multidrug resistance.</p> <p> The isolation and structure-determination of six naturally occurring Flavan-type Natural products was performed. Such derivatives are known to reverse multiple-drug-resistance (MDR) in persistent microbial infections. The synthesis of pyrrolidine-based antibacterial agents was attempted using two different approaches from tartaric acid. These derivatives were designed as potential transition-state mimics of a carbohydrate processing enzyme specific to TB. A synthetic approach to the aromatic core structure of the antibacterial agent Platensimycin was also investigated. The synergistic use of cytotoxic agents in conjunction with efflux-pump modulators is an emerging area of research in the MDR field; our efforts to make available materials for high-throughput screening in this area will be described.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

<p> There is a large literature discussing social influences on diet choices in rats. However, the ontogeny of social influences on diet choices is poorly understood. Early experiences have dramatic affects on the development and expression of future behaviors.</p> <p> The present research investigates whether early social experience altered the susceptibility to social influences on diet choices in juvenile Norway rats (R. norvegicus). Interactions with dam and siblings between parturition and weaning are prominent features of early rats development. It was hypothesized social behavior developed during this period and rearing pups in social isolation would disrupt the development of normal social behaviors.</p> <p> Conspecifics influence the diet preferences of others by socially interacting. The first experiment investigated whether demonstrators could influence diet choices of rats with no social experience. In terms of diet preferences, demonstrators influenced both normally reared rats and rats reared in social isolation.</p> <p> Interactions with conspecifics and exposure to diet odors without social contexts influenced the diet choices of 21 day old pups. Only interactions with conspecifics influenced diet choices of 28 day old rats. Rearing rats in social isolation may delay the onset of social specificity and the results of experiment 1 may have been the product of two different mechanisms. The second experiment investigated whether rats reared in social isolation attended to socially specific cues or to general olfactory cues. Exposure to flavored diets in a non-social context did not influence diet choices of rats reared in social isolation or normally-reared rats. Thus early social interactions do not appear to be necessary for demonstrator rats to influence the diet choices of other rats.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Seismic isolation systems are widely recognized as beneficial for protecting both acceleration- and displacement-sensitive nonstructural systems and components. Furthermore, adaptive isolation systems have been shown to enable engineers to achieve various performance goals under multiple hazard levels. These systems have been implemented for horizontal excitation, but there has been very limited research on isolation for vertical excitation. Thus, this paper seeks to evaluate the benefit of adaptive vertical isolation systems for component isolation, specifically for nuclear plants. To do this, three vertical isolation systems are designed to achieve multiple goals: a linear spring and a linear damper (LSLD), a linear spring and a nonlinear damper (LSND) and a nonlinear spring and a linear damper (NSLD). To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed systems, a stiff piece of equipment is considered at an elevated floor within a power plant. A set of 30 triaxial ground motions is used to investigate the seismic response of the equipment. The maximum isolation displacement and equipment acceleration are used to assess the effectiveness of the three isolation systems. While all systems significantly reduce the seismic accelerations on the equipment compared to the fixed-base case, a LSND system is shown to exhibit superior seismic performance across multiple hazard levels. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Seismic isolation, in which a flexible layer is used to separate a structure from the ground below, is a proven method for reducing earthquake demands that has been recently introduced into the 2015 Canadian building code. Typical installations of seismic isolation use rigid diaphragms to bound the end plates of the isolators, which is easily implemented in new build scenarios but requires extensive excavation and foundation work in retrofit applications. An alternative form of isolation involves placing the isolation plane on top of first floor columns, potentially resulting in flexible boundary conditions. There have been very few experimental programs that mimic these flexible boundary conditions. To address conditions that may be found in column-top isolation design schemes, such as flexible framing and lightly axially loaded corner bearings, an experimental program on a quarter-scale column-top isolation system was conducted. The goals of the investigation were to investigate how rotations of both top and bottom bearing end plates impact key design assumptions such as horizontal stiffness, rotational stiffness, and stability, and how these effects change with axial load. Experimental findings showed that flexible boundary conditions reduce horizontal stiffness based on the sum of rotation at the ends, regardless of the rotation of one bearing end plate with respect to the other. This decrease is dependent on axial load, with more axial load leading to a higher decrease in horizontal stiffness. The rotational stiffness significantly decreases with bearing shear strain and models that use linear, elastic rotational springs underrepresent rotations at the boundaries. Lastly, traditionally used design limits for stability can be used for bearings of moderate shape factor (S1 = 19.6 used in testing) bounded by flexible framing, but these theoretical limits can overestimate the experimental determined limits by nearly double for bearings of low shape factors (S1 = 7.9 used in testing). / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / Seismic isolation, in which a flexible layer is used to separate a structure from the ground below, is a proven method for reducing earthquake demands that has been recently introduced into Canadian building code. Typical installations of seismic isolation use rigid diaphragms to bound the end plates of the isolators, which is more easily implemented in new build scenarios but requires extensive excavation and foundation work in retrofit applications. An alternative form of isolation involves placing the isolation plane on top of first floor columns, potentially resulting in flexible boundary conditions. To address this, an experimental program on a quarter-scale column-top isolation system was conducted to investigate how rotations of both top and bottom bearing end plates impact key design assumptions such as horizontal stiffness, rotational stiffness, and stability. This research can help to expand the number and types of buildings isolation can be applied to, creating more resilient communities.