Intelligent and networked vehicles cooperate to create a mobile Cloud through vehicular Fog computing (VFC). Such clouds rely heavily on the underlying vehicular networks, so estimating communication resilience allows to address the problems caused by intermittent vehicle connectivity for data transfers. Individually estimating the communication stability of vehicles, nevertheless, undergoes incorrect predictions due to their particular mobility patterns. Therefore, we provide a region-oriented fog management model based on the connectivity through vehicular heterogeneous network environment via V2X and C-V2X. A fog management strategy dynamically monitors nearby vehicles to determine distinct regions in urban centres. The model enables a software-defined vehicular network (\Gls{SDVN}) controller to coordinate data flows. The vehicular connectivity described by our model assesses the potential for vehicle communication and conducts dynamic vehicle clustering. From the stochasticity of the environment, our model is based on Markov Decision Process (MDP), tracking the status of vehicle clusters and their potential for provisioning services. The model for vehicular clustering is supported by 5G and DSRC heterogeneous networks. Simulated analyses have shown the capability of our proposed model to estimate cluster reliability in real-time urban scenarios and support effective vehicular fog management.

Although mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) activities have the potential to foster student engagement, few studies have investigated the influence of such activities on undergraduate students’ engagement in College English learning in China, particularly in a newly developed, post-pandemic hybrid learning environment. This study adopted a mixed methods design to examine the influence of mobile learning on student engagement and explored students’ lived experiences of using MALL activities for English learning. For the study’s quantitative data collection, 206 students completed an online questionnaire that included questions regarding motivation and active learning strategies. Ten students participated in the photo-production visual method and semi-structured personal interviews. Findings show that MALL activities enabled a unique opportunity to enhance students’ active engagement and knowledge construction by multiple ways of information sharing and language practices. Easy access and effective ways of communicating on learning apps intrinsically motivated students to participate in language learning. Through mobile learning platforms, students were scaffolded by their instructor or more knowledgeable peers in a more instant, visual, specific, and affective manner. Collaboration among students was not exemplified among undergraduate learners and the challenge of self-regulation in using cellphones was uncovered. These findings are significant for educators and decision-makers to lessen the stereotype of cellphones for learning and recognize the benefits of making use of personal devices for catering to individual learners’ needs, fostering connections, elevating engagement, and increasing English skills. A new MALL model is put forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted patterns of daily life and drastically altered social norms. The ensuing stresses have impacted mental health and wellbeing. As a key driver of positive mental health, human-place interactions have assumed increasingly important roles. Simultaneously, complex, and abrupt change emerged in places due to COVID-19 restrictions and mandates. This thesis aims to understand if and how the abrupt changes associated with COVID-19 impacted human relationships with place through place attachment, wellbeing, and the valuation of community assets. To address this question, two studies of people-place relationships were conducted in two separate settings. The first study was conducted in the Town of Lincoln, a municipality in Niagara. The second study was conducted within the Niagara Parks, a series of protected areas used for outdoor recreation. In the Town of Lincoln, a greater proportion of individuals indicated the way in which they value assets had changed since the onset of the pandemic. This was supported by pre- and post-pandemic data, which found that two categories of community assets, both indoor community assets, were valued less in 2021 than they were in 2019, whereas other community assets were valued comparably from 2021 to 2019. Two categories of community assets were found to contribute most to both place attachment and wellbeing: waterfront/beaches and recreational trails/pathways. In Niagara Parks, 85% of natural area users described observing changes to the natural areas since the onset of the pandemic. Of these participants, 61% found that system change in the natural areas impacted their experience of wellbeing while using the natural areas, and 33% of individuals reported that their attachment to the place was impacted. This thesis explores if and how change can influence the relationship between person and place. With the system variability of climate change already experienced locally and globally, it is increasingly important to understand the dynamics of people-place relationships.

Retinoic acid (RA), the active metabolite of vitamin A, has an established role in development of the nervous system, but has recently emerged as a critical regulator of adult nervous system function. RA is important for learning and memory in both vertebrates and invertebrates. It is also important for synaptic plasticity at rodent hippocampal synapses and is known to interact with Ca2+ signaling to regulate receptor expression and influence synaptic transmission. How RA signaling might mediate plasticity in an invertebrate nervous system has not yet been studied. Voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (CaV) represent a ubiquitous means of Ca2+ entry into a cell, and which regulate neuronal functioning (such as gene expression and neurotransmitter release). As such, CaV channels represent a potentially important locus for inducing plasticity in both vertebrates and invertebrates. It is not known in any species, whether RA might mediate changes in neuronal communication by influencing the functional properties of CaV channels. Here I show, utilizing cultured neurons from the molluscan pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, that RA signaling modulates CaV channel function. RA signaling inhibited CaV channel function by shifting the voltage dependence of channel activation to more depolarized potentials. I found that RA also produced spike broadening and activity-dependent complex spiking, an effect I determined was mediated by RA-induced inhibition of delayed rectifier voltage-gated K+ channels (KV), (and enhanced inactivation of these KV channels). Paradoxically, the effect of RA to induce spike broadening and activity-dependent complex spiking, enhanced Ca2+ influx through CaV channels. However, the concurrent inhibition of CaV2 channels limited this enhanced Ca2+ influx. I also provide evidence that constitutive/basal retinoid receptor signaling upregulates CaV channel function. I show that a retinoic acid receptor (RAR) antagonist produced G-protein-mediated voltage-dependent inhibition of CaV channels, a ubiquitous form of presynaptic plasticity that occurs at vertebrate synapses. I also show that a retinoid X receptor (RXR) antagonist produced a novel G-protein-independent form of voltage-dependent inhibition of CaV channels. Overall, my study indicates that retinoid signaling diversely regulates CaV channel function in this invertebrate species and provides insights into the mechanisms by which RA signaling might mediate neuronal and/or synaptic plasticity.

Background: Pediatric Telemedicine Connecting Hospitals (Peds–TECH), a pediatric tele-resuscitation intervention, was developed in partnership with Niagara Health, Brock University and McMaster Children's Hospital. This network aims to enhance pediatric outcomes for infants and children who present to NH hospitals' emergency departments using telemedicine (TM). Objectives: This study aimed to (i) identify out-of-pocket (OOP) costs and time/productivity losses for parents of pediatric patients seeking care at the emergency department (ED); (ii) calculate financial spending within the Peds-TECH intervention and estimate health resource utilization (HRU) costs; (iii) determine the clinical effectiveness of the Peds-TECH intervention on emergency transfers to a tertiary care hospital, and survival/mortality outcomes; and (iv) estimate an incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) of Peds-TECH intervention compared to usual care (i.e., conventional means of providing resuscitation in ED). Methods: A mixed methods quasi-experimental research design was used for this project that included quantitative and qualitative methods in the economic evaluation. This study used qualitative research in the form of interviews, to explore OOP expenses incurred by parents of pediatric patients treated with the Peds-TECH intervention, and quantitative research when determining costs related to health technology and HRU. The ICER represents the incremental costs (Canadian dollar) relative to the years of life lost (YLL) averted in the intervention compared to usual care. The willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of $50,000 was considered to interpret the cost-effectiveness of the Peds-TECH intervention. Results: Qualitative interviews with parents revealed OOP expenses pertinent to personal transportation, food/meal, and time/productivity losses. In terms of OOP costs, the largest category in terms of both overall cost ($435) and response rate (5/5) was travel/parking costs. The next most common response to expenses incurred was the cost of food/meals ($80) with a response rate of 3/5. One participant did report paying for hotel accommodations for one day ($120). The odds ratio (OR) for mortality among cases was 0.498 (95% CI, 0.173, 1.43) compared to controls (i.e., usual care), indicating that the intervention was protective against mortality. An ICER of $64.61 per YLL averted was determined from the CEA, which represents the cost for an additional life-year saved in the intervention group compared to the control. In the deterministic sensitivity analysis, the ICER ranged as low as (- 138.72) and as high as (489.75) per YLL averted. The probabilistic analysis indicated 96.1% probability that Peds-TECH is cost-effective under a $5K WTP threshold, which is much lower than the standard $50K WTP threshold. Conclusion: This study acknowledged gaps surrounding the OOP costs associated with pediatric emergencies in the Niagara Region. The Peds-TECH intervention is considered clinically effective in preventing mortality among pediatric patients compared to usual care. As well, it was determined that the Peds-TECH intervention is highly cost-effective with an ICER of $64.61 per YLL averted. Further research is warranted to assess the long-term costs and health outcomes of pediatric patients undergoing the Peds-TECH intervention.

Objectives: Inadequate sleep has been afforded relatively little attention, despite known declines over adolescence, a critical period for the onset of mental ill-health. There remains a need for population-level longitudinal studies to better understand links with internalizing symptoms and in managing relevant pressures among adolescents. We examined the bidirectional relationships between sleep and depression and anxiety symptoms, and whether the relationships are mediated by school- and parent-related pressures. Measures: We used 2-year linked prospective data from 25,722 Canadian secondary school students that participated in the COMPASS study in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years. Path analysis models tested autoregressive and cross-lagged relationships between sleep duration and depression and anxiety symptoms. Bootstrap method of indirect effects was used to test school and parent pressures as mediators. Results: Results supported the hypothesized bi-directional relationships between sleep duration and depression and anxiety symptoms across one year. Shorter sleep predicted greater internalizing symptoms, and vice versa. In females, both parental and school pressures mediated the association between sleep duration and depression and anxiety symptoms, and in the reverse direction, parental but not school pressures mediated the association between depression and sleep. In males, school pressures mediated the association between sleep and depression symptoms. Conclusions: This study provides new insights into the nature and directionality of associations between sleep and internalizing symptoms over time and differences by sex. Results further strengthen calls that short sleep should be taken seriously. Interventions promoting regular sleep schedules in adolescence may help mitigate risk for stress-related psychopathology.

While self-reported data shows that lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals have a greater risk of suicide-related behaviours (SRB), little is known about how rurality may amplify the risk of SRB associated with sexual minority status. Sexual minority individuals in rural areas may experience unique stressors due to stigma and a lack of LGB-specific social and mental health services. This is the first study to use a population-representative sample to investigate the contribution of sexual minority status and rurality on clinical SRB outcomes, and whether rurality modifies the association between sexual minority status and SRB risk. A nationally representative survey linked to administrative health data was used to construct a cohort of individuals (unweighted n=169,091; weighted n=8,778,115) in Ontario, Canada, and captured all SRB-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths between 2007-2017. Rural status was captured using three measures which reflect different dimensions of rurality: the Rurality Index of Ontario, the Metropolitan Influenced Zones classification, and the Index of Remoteness. Sex-stratified discrete-time survival analyses were used to examine the interaction between rurality and sexual minority status on SRB risk while controlling for potential confounders. Sexual minority men had 2.18 times higher odds of SRB compared to their heterosexual counterparts (95%CI 1.21 to 3.91), while sexual minority women had 2.07 times higher odds (95%CI 1.48 to 2.89). The Rurality Index of Ontario and the Index of Remoteness were associated with the odds of SRB in a dose-response manner. No significant interactions were observed between rural status and sexual minority status. Rural status and sexual minority status both independently contribute to an elevated likelihood of SRB. Differences in access to healthcare between urban and rural areas appears to be strongly associated with SRB in both sexual minority and heterosexual populations. Future studies should consider incorporating measures of urban-rural status that capture access to healthcare, such as the Rurality Index of Ontario, to predict rural health disparities. This study highlights the need to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and policies to reduce SRB in both rural and sexual minority populations.

Previous research has explored the effects of participants self-controlling components of practice, but little evidence exists as to the relationship between self-control and post-KR delay duration. The purpose of this study was to identify whether motor learning and performance are differentially impacted by having control, versus not having control, over the post-KR delay duration. Participants performed a five key serial-timing task with a goal time of 2500ms for 80 acquisition trials following a 10-trial no-feedback pre-test. They then returned after 24-hours for a 10-trial retention test, a 10-trial sequence transfer test, and a 10-trial duration transfer test, all performed without feedback. Due to Covid-19 restrictions a preliminary sample was collected, and the results based on descriptive statistics of the self-controlled KR + self-controlled post-KR delay group follows. Findings showed that participants decreased their absolute constant error and variable error compared to their pre-test. Participants had longer decision durations prior to requesting KR, while the opposite was found in the post-KR delay where participants had a longer duration after requesting KR. Participants also preferentially requested KR after lower absolute constant error trials. These results are incongruent with self-reports whereby they reported requesting KR after both perceived good and bad trials equally, while also spending a shorter duration in the post-KR delay after perceived good trials. These findings add novel contributions to the post-KR delay and inter-trial interval literature, highlighting dynamic contextual changes in post-KR delay durations. However, due to limitations presented by Covid restrictions, further research is required.

Post-activation potentiation (PAP) describes the enhancement of twitch torque following a conditioning contraction in skeletal muscle. In adults, PAP is greater in muscles with a higher percentage of type-II fibres and PAP-related augmented contractility is accompanied by a decrease in motor unit (MU) firing rates (MUFRs). Children may have lower PAP due to lower type-II muscle fibre composition and lower activation of their higher-threshold (type-II) MUs compared to adults. Changes in potentiated MU activation have not been examined in children. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether there are child-adult differences in PAP and MU activation patterns of the potentiated knee extensors. Twenty-three boys (10.5±1.3 years) and 20 men (23.1±3.3 years) completed familiarization and experimental sessions. In the experimental session, knee extensor maximal volitional contraction (MVC) torque (Biodex System 3) was first determined. Maximal isometric evoked-twitch torque (Digitimer stimulator model DS7AH) and MU activation patterns during submaximal contractions (20% and 70% MVC) were then recorded before and after a conditioning contraction (5s MVC). PAP was calculated as the percent-increase in evoked-twitch torque after the conditioning contractions. MU activation patterns were examined during submaximal contractions before and after a 5s MVC, using Trigno Galileo surface electrodes (Delsys Inc) and decomposed into individual MU action potential (MUAP) trains (NeuroMap, Delsys Inc). PAP was higher in men than in boys (98.3±37.1% vs. 68.8±18.3%, respectively; p=0.002). In both the 20% MVC and 70% MVC contractions, boys and men displayed a reduction in MUFRs for a given MU size (MUAPamp), specifically in the higher-threshold MUs. This reduction was greater in the boys than the men in the 70% MVC contractions, and may be due to their greater fatigue resistance, as well as to a lower impact of potentiation at higher intensities.

This study is the first to examine the effect of exogenous sclerostin injection on myotropic responses to sedentary behaviour and an aerobic exercise intervention. Specifically, changes in myosin heavy chain isoform distribution, muscle mass and myofiber cross sectional area were studied in response to sedentary behaviour and to a 5-week aerobic exercise intervention. Mice (n=24) were assigned to either remain sedentary (SED, n=24), or assigned to a 4-week exercise training program (EXT, n=24) and further spit into their final groupings with sedentary control (SED+C) and exercise control (EXT+C) groups receiving saline injections and sedentary sclerostin (SED+S) and exercise sclerostin (EXT+S) groups recombinant sclerostin. Soleus and extensor digitorum longus muscle were then extracted and analyzed via fluorescent immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Sclerostin injection led to a significant reduction in soleus MHCI, MHC1/IIA, MHCIIA/X and MHC IIB cross-sectional area (p < .5) along with trending declines in MHC IIA (p = .1). In contrast to this, there was no effect of sclerostin injection on MHC IIX or MHCIIXB CSA. In EDL tissue there was a trend towards a decrease in tissue necropsy weight in the sclerostin injection group (p = .1). Sclerostin appeared to have no effect on total MHC protein content or in the examined markers of Wnt signaling (GSK3β, β-catenin) as detected in both soleus and EDL muscle tissue via western blot. Our findings demonstrate that sclerostin negatively influences muscle tissue via decreases in myofibril cross-sectional area and these decreases trend towards a significant reduction in muscle mass.