In recent years, researchers have continued to examine factors that contribute to the ongoing loss of women in mathematics programs and careers at a higher rate than their male counterparts. An important element in women choosing to persist in mathematics may be the ability to identify as mathematically able, however popular culture often constructs ideas of ‘mathematicians’ and ‘femininity’ in ways which render them difficult to reconcile. This research explores the narratives of Canadian female undergraduate students in mathematics-intensive programs in order to develop further understanding of how they negotiate identities as ‘feminine’ and mathematically able. Four students from a Canadian university were recruited to participate in narrative research interviews. Using Holland et al.’s (2003) concept of figured worlds, this study employs a thematic analysis of the data to examine how participants use, adapt or reject available discourses to perform identities as feminine and mathematically able. Depuis quelques années, les chercheurs continuent d'examiner les facteurs contribuant à la déplétion continue des femmes dans les programmes et les carrières en mathématiques à un taux plus élevé que leurs homologues masculins. Un élément important dans le choix des femmes de persévérer dans les mathématiques semble être la capacité de s'identifier comme mathématiquement capables, or la culture populaire construit souvent des concepts de «mathématiciens» et de «féminité» de manière à les rendre difficiles à concilier. Cette recherche explore les rapports narratifs d'étudiantes canadiennes au baccalauréat dans des programmes intensifs en mathématiques afin de mieux comprendre comment elles négocient des identités tel que «féminine» et mathématiquement capable. Quatre étudiantes d'une université canadienne ont été recrutées pour participer à des entrevues de recherche narrative. En utilisant le concept de «figured worlds» de Holland et al. (2003), cette étude utilise une analyse thématique des données pour examiner comment les participantes utilisent, adaptent ou rejettent les discours pour réaliser des identités comme féminines et mathématiquement capables.

abstract: Jupiter’s moon Europa is an active target of research because of its unique geology and its potential for habitability. Europa’s icy chaos disrupts and transforms the previous terrain, suggesting melting is involved. Chaos occurs alongside several types of endogenic surface features. These microfeatures are under <100 km2 in area and include uplifts and domes, pits, spots, and hybrid features. The distribution of microfeatures is known in the ~10% of the Europa’s surface that are covered by the regional mosaics (“RegMaps”). The efforts to connect microfeature formation to any kind of heat transport in Europa are confounded because microfeatures are difficult to identify outside of RegMaps because of low image resolutions. Finding microfeatures outside of RegMaps would provide new observational constraints for microfeature formation models. First, I mapped microfeatures across four of Europa’s RegMaps and validated them against other mapping datasets. Microchaos features are the most numerous, followed by pits, domes, then hybrids. Spots are the least common features, and the smallest. Next, I mapped features in low-resolution images that covered the E15RegMap01 area to determine error rates and sources of omission or misclassification for features mapped in low-resolution images. Of all features originally mapped in the RegMap, pits and domes were the least likely to be re-mapped or positively identified (24.2% and 5%, respectively). Chaos, spots, and hybrids were accurately classified over 70% of the time. Quantitatively classifying these features using discriminant function analysis yielded comparable values of accuracy when compared to a human mapper. Finally, nearest-neighbor clustering analyses were used to show that pits are clustered in all regions, while chaos, domes, and hybrids vary in terms of their spatial clustering. This work suggests that the most likely processes for microfeature formations is either the evolution of liquid water sills within Europa’s ice shell or cryovolcanism. Future work extending to more areas outside of the RegMaps can further refine microfeature formation models. The detection of liquid water at or near the surface is a major goal of multiple upcoming Europa missions; this work provides predictions that can be directly tested by these missions to maximize their scientific return. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geological Sciences 2019

Internet commerce has risen steadily for over a decade. During this period, innovations have occurred to make using the Internet easier and more engaging as a consumer online shopping experience. An innovation with increasing availability is the three-dimensional (3D) representation of an area where the user has an agent, called an "avatar," to navigate in a computer-generated environment. As technical options become available to view standard web pages through this innovation, virtual reality envionments may change the overall look of a website and may potentially change the way a consumer perceives a website and shape the consumer's purchase intent. In this study, an experimental design was used in which student subjects were asked to view a set of products derived from a search of a retail webpage. Some subjects saw the webpage in a normal two-dimensional (2D) format, while others were shown the same page through a program called ExitReality that converts 2D webpages into 3D environments. Tests were first done to compare the results of some common constructs, as found in the Marketing literature on websites, between 2D and 3D online retail shopping to identify the differences in a set of variables. Second, the variables were combined into a path model to compare between 3 groups: A group trained in 2D and untrained in 3D who shopped in a 2D environment; a group trained in 3D who shopped in a 2D environment; and a group trained in 3D who shopped in a 3D environment. The perceptions used in the study centered on Attitude toward the Site (AST) and constructs that were related to AST in various other studies. The path model was defined through the use of partial least squares (PLS) path modeling techniques, based on previous research, to align the use of the new 3D environments with existing theory. One key potential consequence considered was the purchase intent as compared to the three groups studied. This study is important for two major reasons. First, it is an important step toward understanding the possible effects from presenting consumer online retail shopping experiences that more feasibly imitate physical-world shopping experiences. As technology advances and virtual spaces become easier to create, companies may be able to apply the lessons learned through this study to better understand the potential benefits of converting online retail websites into 3D virtual spaces. Second, this study fits into the research conducted to improve the understanding of how website-related constructs work. For example, the extant literature has shown some contention regarding the best measurement AST and whether AST has an impact on purchase intent. This study provides useful evidence in that debate.

In spite of the growing popularity of virtual worlds for gaming, recreation, and education, few studies have explored the efficacy of 3D immersive virtual worlds in post-secondary instruction; even fewer discuss the ability of virtual worlds to help young adults develop creative thinking. This study investigated the effect of virtual world education on creative thought for university level students. Over the course of two semesters, a total of 97 university students participated in this study. Forty-six of these participants (experimental group) spent time in a specially designed virtual world environment, the V.I.E.W., while 51 of the participants (control group) met exclusively in a real-world classroom. Creative thought was measured before and after the intervention with the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Verbal Forms A and B. Although the experimental group's ending scores did not reach the level of the control group's scores, results showed overall statistically significant gains for the experimental group at p = .033. The experimental group also achieved greater gains in the subcategories of fluency and flexibility, with significance at p = .036 and p = .043, respectively. At the end of the course, independent raters measured the creativity expressed in student art critiques, using a scale developed for this study. No overall significant differences between groups were found in the art critiques, except in the category of spatial awareness, where the experimental group's scores were significantly higher than the control group's scores at p = .039. For both instruments, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate statistical data. Results suggest that immersive worlds can be at least as well suited as traditional university classrooms for developing creative thought—particularly in the context of art education. Implications for researchers, students, educators, and administrators are discussed.

Possibilities divide into two kinds. Non-qualitative possibilities are distinguished by their connection to specific individuals. For example, the possibility that Napoleon is a novelist is non-qualitative, since it is a possibility for a specific individual, Napoleon. In contrast, the possibility that someone---anyone at all---is a novelist is a qualitative possibility, since it does not depend upon any specific individual. Haecceitism is a thesis about the relation between qualitative and non-qualitative possibilities. In one guise, it holds that some maximal possibilities---total ways the world could be---differ non-qualitatively without differing qualitatively. It would, for example, be only a haecceitistic difference that distinguishes actuality from a maximal possibility where Napoleon and Nefertiti swap all of their qualitative properties and relations. According to this alternative possibility, things are the very same qualitatively, but which individuals occupy which qualitative roles differs: Nefertiti would be a stout conqueror, while Napoleon would be a beautiful consort. This dissertation is an examination of the nature of haecceitism, the arguments in its favor, and the consequences that follow from it. In Chapter One, I distinguish various conceptions of haecceitism and related theses concerning maximal possibilities, possible worlds, the identity of indiscernibles, and non-qualitative properties. In Chapter Two, I develop and defend conceivability arguments for haecceitism in the face of various anti-haecceitist challenges. In Chapter Three, I consider the relation between haecceitism and the Humean approach to plenitude, which aims to characterize the space of possible worlds in terms of combinatorial principles. In Chapter Four, I examine the distinction between qualitative properties like redness and non-qualitative properties like being Napoleon and argue in favor of fundamental non-qualitative properties. In Chapter Five, I present a novel version of non-qualitative counterpart theory, which employs bare particulars to reconcile modal realism and haecceitism. In Chapter Six, I clarify and defend quidditism, the property-theoretic analogue of haecceitism. I conclude in Chapter Seven by defending the modal view of essence.

We introduce an alternative method for open-world scene generation. In this thesis, Graph-based Wave Function Collapse (GWFC) is integrated with Space Colonization Algorithm (SCA) and used to place objects in an unstructured 3D environment. This combined algorithm, Space Colonization Graph-based Wave Function Collapse (SC-GWFC), leverages the constraint-based capabilities of GWFC and the ability of SCA to populate arbitrary 3D volumes. We demonstrate that objects of variable scale can be successfully used with SC-GWFC. Since this algorithm is run in an interactive environment, we demonstrate iterative modifications to a partially complete scene and incorporate PCG into a scene editing process. As part of the implementation, we also introduce our Scene Modeling Application for rendering and editing 3D scenes. This modeling application allows for editing and viewing constraints for our SC-GWFC scene generator. We evaluate the performance characteristics of SC-GWFC in the Scene Modeling Application to demonstrate that SC-GWFC can be used interactively. Through the application, users can specify adjacency requirements for objects, and SC-GWFC will attempt to place objects in patterns that respect these rules. We demonstrate the ability to place up to 5000 items on a terrain using our proposed SC-GWFC technique.

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Climate warming has been extensively documented over the last few decades, with northern environments experiencing greater increases in temperature than lower and mid-latitudes. Impacts of climate warming include: an increase in the rain to snow ratio, changes in precipitation magnitude and timing, increased soil warming, permafrost thaw, latitudinal and altitudinal expansion of tree-line, proliferation of tall shrubs into tundra, intensification of the freshwater cycle, and changes to stream volume and water quality. However, forecasting how these changes will affect northern, high latitude environments is difficult due to a lack of process-based research across scales. Wolf Creek Research Basin (WCRB) in Southern Yukon is a well-established mesoscale alpine catchment comprised of three ecozones and has hydrometric and meteorological records spanning 25 years. In this thesis, extensive field campaigns generated hydrochemical, stable isotope, and high-frequency in-situ datasets that were analyzed in conjunction with historical data from WCRB to refine and advance existing conceptual models. These distinct datasets were collected within a nested experimental design to more precisely describe relationships between catchment conditions, ecohydrological processes and stream water quantity and quality beginning at the headwater scale and with scaling to the outlet of WCRB. Optical data was combined with dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations to assess source areas and in-stream dissolved organic matter (DOM) quality across landscape units. Headwater DOC concentrations and fluxes from 2015-2016 were compared to the previous decade to assess changing export. In situ sensors that record chromophoric DOM (CDOM) at high frequency were paired with discharge and conductivity measurements to assess concentration-discharge relationships at event, seasonal and annual scales. Conceptual models of conductivity and major ion transport were confirmed while high-frequency CDOM-Q insights refined our understanding of DOC movement. As vegetation community composition and characteristics change, it is expected that components of the water balance will be altered at both the canopy level and within the critical zone. Compartmentalization of water within the critical zone is increasingly important to provide insights into how water cycles within catchments. Dual isotope and lc-excess approaches showed that bulk and xylem water were significantly different from the LMWL and stream water isotopes of δ2H and δ18O. Meanwhile, an increasingly enriched xylem water isotope signal overlapped with bulk soil water values as the growing season continued, which suggests the opportunistic use of available mobile soil water. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Climate warming has been extensively documented over the last few decades, with northern environments experiencing greater increases in temperature than lower and mid-latitudes. Impacts of climate warming include: an increase in the rain to snow ratio, changes in precipitation magnitude and timing, increased soil warming, permafrost thaw, latitudinal and altitudinal expansion of trees and shrubs becoming taller and moving to new areas. Climate change has the capacity to then affect the cycling of water leading to differences in how much water is present in streams and possibly leading to decreasing in water quality. Models and other tools are used to forecast these changes but benchmarking outcomes is difficult because northern environments are less well studied than other, more accessible locations. New types of information, including water quality, isotope and optical datasets, were used to explore previous understanding of how processes interact in space and time.

yes / This paper critically analyzes the fiction-view of scientific modeling, which exploits presumed analogies between literary fiction and model building in science. The basic idea is that in both fiction and scientific modeling fictional worlds are created. The paper argues that the fiction-view comes closest to certain scientific thought experiments, especially those involving demons in science and to literary movements like naturalism. But the paper concludes that the dissimilarities prevail over the similarities. The fiction-view fails to do justice to the plurality of model types used in science; it fails to realize that a function like idealization only makes sense in science because models, unlike works of fiction, can be de-idealized; it fails to distinguish sufficiently between the make-believe (fictional) worlds created in fiction and the hypothetical (as-if) worlds envisaged in models. Representation characterized in the fiction-view as a license to draw inferences does not sufficiently distinguish between inferences in fiction from inferences in scientific modeling. To highlight the contrast the paper proposes to explicate representation in terms of satisfaction of constraints