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During my life, I have spent a great deal of time – some would argue far too much time – watching movies. And of the countless films I have seen, few have made more of an impression on me than Steven Spielberg’s 1998 masterpiece, Saving Private Ryan, which is generally regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time. Staff no

Ran Tao, Renz Ocampo, Jason Fong, Abed Soleymani, and Mahdi Tavakoli

Ordinarily, mass attitude change takes place slowly if at all. Many attitudes remain relatively stable over time and even generations. American attitudes on abortion, for example, have remained surprisingly consistent over time. In 1972, 49 percent of Americans favoured access to abortion for poor women and in 2016, 43 percent of Americans felt the same way. Contrast this with attitudes toward same sex marriage. In 1988, a mere 11.6 percent of Americans were in favour of legalizing same sex marriage. In 2016, 59.2 percent were in favour of granting same sex couples the right to marry (Rosenfeld, 2017). This 47 point rise in support represents a remarkable turnaround in mass public opinion. Recent research suggests that public opinion formation is not strictly a bottom up process with individuals as paramount, but that institutions and official policy play a role (Soss and Schram, 2007). So how does the legalization of same sex marriage affect mass opinion? Previous results suggest that legalization leads to an increase in support for the policy. But these analyses treat legalization as constituting a uniform treatment effect. I use data from the 2008, 2012 and 2016 American National Election Surveys to determine if the effect of legalization on opinion is heterogeneous based on psychological predispositions. My results indicate that individuals do respond differently to policy change based on their levels of authoritarianism and ethnocentrism.

Since 600,000,000 people are affected by foodborne illnesses each year all around the world, food safety has become an important issue. Stainless steel is widely used in the food industry so, it is pivotal to endow stainless steel with potent rechargeable antibacterial function. In this study, a “clickable” coating for stainless steel was developed. Quaternized azido-hydantoin (C1), quaternary ammonium compound (C2), azido-hydantoin (C3), and C1 together with azido-poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) were bonded to the stainless steel to yield four samples SSMC1, SSMC2, SSMC3, SSMC1-PEG. The coating was stable during the chlorination process which was used to convert the immobilized C1 and C3 to their N-chloramine counterparts. Results reveal that chlorinated SSMC1 sample has the highest antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli in both high protein medium and phosphate-buffered saline even after 5 cycles of chlorination-dechlorination.

This research focused on utilizing Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and mapping to document over 500 local Indigenous place names at Wasagamack First Nation, Manitoba, and to explore the role of mapping tools in preserving and revitalizing local language and culture. Video interviews with local elder Victor Harper, highlight mapping and GIS as valuable, adaptable, and effective tools in supporting community priorities including: language revitalization, use of syllabics, land-based learning, connecting with the ancestral land, and land-use planning. His interviews, as well as the literature review, share the context of this work countering the immense impact of colonialism and the atrocities of residential school system, which forced a break in the natural order of Indigenous knowledge transfer. This research highlights and records the work of these elders, educators and land use planners in their efforts to reclaim not only local Indigenous place names, but their language and culture. Additionally, the process of mapping local Indigenous place names and including them as part of Manitoba’s Geographical Names Data Base, increases the likelihood that Wasagamack’s Anishinimowin language will enter the mainstream lexicon of Canadian society. The research further indicates that tools like mapping and GIS can have a positive impact on safeguarding language and culture, providing a permanency to knowledge that is otherwise retained orally among elders and at great risk of being lost to the world.

The static correlation challenge, which results due to the degeneracy of molecular orbitals in a system, is still a significant obstacle to electronic structure methods. This work investigates hydrogen clusters in arrangements with particularly significant amounts of static correlation using a cumulant functional theory, ΔNO. Analysis of the performance of ΔNO in conjunction with the on-top dynamic correlation functionals: Colle--Salvetti (CS) and opposite-spin exponential-cusp and Fermi-hole correction (OF), shows that it performs better than functionals that describe systems with a multi-reference and also single-reference wave function. The potential energy surfaces (PESs) of H3 and H4 clusters are analyzed and compared to B3LYP, CCSD(T), and full CI. The H3 dissociation curve computed using ΔNO is near exact. Among the challenging systems, is the H4 cluster and its rectangle (D2h) to square (D4h) geometry transition, which appears as a cusp in energy at θ = 90° on the PES for methods with an inadequate description of static correlation. The vicinity of the cusp region is the challenging part of the system, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. The dissociation curve of square H4 (D4h) is also computed where ΔNO calculated energies are comparable to full CI energies. The ΔNO method effectively describes not only the linear hydrogen systems but also the H4 D2h/D4h transition, and produces a cusp-free PES with adequate description of occupancies.

A 3D meso-scale model is developed to predict the flow of liquid within a semisolid binary Fe-C alloy with various equiaxed microstructure, ranging from dendritic to globular. The model domain consists of a set of 8000 grains given by a Voronoi tessellation. Solidification of each grain is simulated independently via a volume average approach, providing the semi-solid microstructure for the fluid flow simulation. A single domain Darcy-Brinkman model is then used to calculate the resulting pressure field. The model results are found to be in good agreement with the Carman-Kozeny equation for two limiting cases of interfacial area concentration Sv, demonstrating the model’s utility in quantifying permeability of semisolid structures where the fluid flow occurs either in the intra-dendritic (within the envelope enclosed by the dendrite) or extra-dendritic (between dendritic grains) regions. Deviation from Carman-Kozeny behaviour is observed with a transition in microstructure, i.e. when the domain contains a mixture of both dendritic and globular structures or when fluid flow occurs simultaneously in the intra-dendritic and extra-dendritic regions. A permeability microstructure map is created as a function of grain size, secondary dendrite arm spacing, and cooling rate to show the range where the limiting values of Sv are validand, importantly, where they are not. A comparison of the net volumetric inflow caused by shrinkage and deformation is performed, demonstrating that the shrinkage induced by the peritectic transformation is the dominant factor requiring liquid feeding. The present dendritic fluid flow model is useful in the context of multi-physics modelling of defects in peritectic steel grades and other commercially relevant alloys. The authors wish to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the McMaster Steel Research Centre for financial support

This paper explores how to apply the principles of accommodations and universal design (UD) in research methods involved in quantitative research (e.g. questionnaires). In particular, we focus on how to make research more accessible for individuals with Learning Disabilities (LD), while also providing suggestions for potential participants of research more generally. This paper first reviews accommodations provided to students within an educational setting, focusing on the components of setting, timing, presentation and response format. Following this discussion, we discuss UD and how it can be adapted to the research process (e.g. the creation of surveys, and data collection). Next, we draw on components of accommodations and universal design to offer suggestions for those conducting research with individuals with LD. In closing, we provide a table with key UD and accommodation questions that researchers can use to guide questionnaire design thereby advancing the field when it comes to accessible research design