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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

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.

Selective laser melting (SLM) popularity is increasing day by day because of its ability to produce a satisfactory part quality. For getting the desired qualities of the product, the process parameters play a vital role in manufacturing. Therefore, the process parameters need to tune appropriately to get good products. Besides, researchers use quality predictive analysis with different combinations of the process parameters to improve the product quality in manufacturing. To predict product quality, the existing methods mostly focus on multiple inputs and one or two outputs-based prediction modeling, which is insufficient. Because more qualities of the products often test for qualifying a good product. That is why this thesis presents a multi-inputs and multi-outputs (MIMO) artificial neural network (ANN) model to predict the SLM product qualities. Among all process parameters used for SLM, four process parameters, that are laser power, scan speed, overlap rate, and hatch distance, have been chosen as the model inputs. And four of the important product’s quality measures, that are relative density, hardness, tensile strength, and porosity, are used as the model's outputs. In order to obtain an accurate neural network model, there are parameters such as the number of hidden layers and neurons in each hidden layer to optimize. This thesis uses the genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize the hidden layer and the number of neurons in each hidden layer from a given bound. After model optimization, sensitivity analysis is performed to evaluate the importance of the input parameters. Regarding the increased demand in SLM, it is also important to reduce its energy consumption. Therefore, an energy optimization method is developed using the neural network and genetic algorithm in this thesis. The objective of the optimization is to minimize the energy consumption of SLM manufacturing with a reduced compromisation of the quality requirements. The results presented in this thesis show a reduction in energy consumption of the selected SLM printer by 26% as compared to one existing study. The results of this study can be used in the industry to decrease their energy consumption further while maintaining the required quality.

The University of Manitoba’s science librarians developed a three-credit, second-year course entitled “Information Skills for the Sciences” that was delivered for the first time in the fall of 2020. The culminating project of the course was a scientific poster session where students shared their research project as a poster presentation with their instructors and classmates. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the course was moved to online synchronous delivery and all assignments needed to be adapted for the online format. We designed a virtual poster session simulating an in-person event, hosting the poster session on Zoom for a class of twenty students using breakout rooms to separate presentations. Our poster details the methods used to deliver an online in-class poster session in an undergraduate setting with visualizations to illustrate the experience. Despite the conditions of remote learning, the poster presentation session allowed students to engage meaningfully with the research of their classmates demonstrating that an exciting end-of-semester event like an in-person poster session was possible in an online environment. We discuss the challenges we encountered creating the poster session as well as our reflections on what worked and what might be improved in the future.

Ice is a prominent characteristic of water bodies in cold regions. For rivers regulated for hydropower operations, the production of ice particles can result in obstructions and subsequent performance issues during energy production. Rough and thickened ice covers resulting from high flow conditions can also lead to substantial hydraulic losses. While ice formations impact hydropower operations, a river’s flow hydrograph also influences ice processes from freeze-up through break-up. Research investigations into the influence of regulation on ice processes benefits not only hydropower practioners, but also those who are impacted by hydropower operations. Further, understanding these cause-and-affect relationships supports design of innovative tools to quantify the impact of ice on river hydraulics. In this study, a detailed characterization of ice processes is presented for the regulated Upper Nelson River region located at the outlet of Lake Winnipeg in Northern Manitoba, Canada. With a focus on freeze-up and mid-winter processes, this characterization informed design of a 2D numerical modelling methodology to simulate ice-affected winter hydraulics. Model development included simulation of both thermal and dynamic ice phenomenon, which relied on derivation of numerous site-specific hydraulic functions. The presence of significant skim ice runs in this region inspired development of a novel treatment to simulate freeze-up jamming of skim ice floes on very mild-sloped rivers. The modelling methodology shows strong performance in simulating both freeze-up and mid-winter hydraulics, which is a signficiant contribution considering the complexity of this lake-outlet system. A quantitative evaluation of the effects of climate change on river ice hydraulics is included, with future projection of shorter and warmer winters leading to greater cumulative discharge from Lake Winnipeg. While discharge increases may lead to increased power production in future years, concurrent projections of increased inter-annual variability may present new operational challenges. Findings from this original research can be applied not only to the Nelson River, but also other regulated regions that are impacted by river ice.

Wikipédia célèbre ses 20 ans cette année. Du rejet à la suspicion puis à la collaboration, des initiatives se mettent en place à partir de 2012, tant dans les bibliothèques universitaires que publiques, sous la forme de journées contributives, ou édit-a-thons, constituant encore aujourd’hui un des principaux scénarios de médiation wikipédienne. Des ateliers de contribution ont été intégrés dans le calendrier de la Grande bibliothèque et dans le réseau des Bibliothèques de Montréal. L'évaluation de ces activités oscillent entre l’enthousiasme et la déception, mais d’une façon générale, on reconnaît que ce n’est pas le nombre de participant.e.s ou le nombre de contributions qui constituent une mesure adéquate de la valeur de ces activités. Nous proposons d'évaluer ces activités par le biais d’un récit ethnologique porté par ces questions : Comment pourrait-on créer une communauté créatrice de savoirs communs numériques en bibliothèque? Comment pourrait-on évaluer et accroître l’impact des ateliers contributifs impliquant les bibliothèques et Wikipédia et d'autres projets soutenus par la fondation Wikimédia? Nous explorerons un cadre de référence visant à étudier ces actions en regard des finalités et des missions des bibliothèques aujourd’hui. Cette "réflexion sur l’action" nous permettra de partager un certain nombre de constats instructifs en s’attachant particulièrement aux leçons que l’on peut tirer pour faciliter l’aménagement social de ces ateliers.