UVicSpace | Institutional Repository
UVicSpace is the University of Victoria’s open access scholarship and learning repository. It preserves and provides access to the digital scholarly works of UVic faculty, students, staff, and partners. Items in UVicSpace are organized into collections, each belonging to a community.
For more information about depositing items, see the Submission Guidelines.
Recent Submissions
Virtual reality for healthy aging: Assessing the feasibility of a community-delivered virtual reality intervention for older adults experiencing subjective cognitive decline
(2025) Tat, Natasha; Liu, Sam
Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is an early marker of cognitive decline, yet effective community-based prevention strategies remain limited. Cognitive training (CT) has the potential to support cognitive health among older adults with SCD. Virtual reality (VR) offers an engaging and interactive platform that may enhance motivation and adherence compared to traditional CT programs. However, most VR studies are conducted in laboratory settings, and little is known about its feasibility and acceptability in community contexts. Therefore, this feasibility study examined how virtual reality cognitive training (VRCT) can be used in a community setting to support older adults with SCD.
Objectives: The aims of this study were to (i) assess the feasibility (recruitment, retention, adherence, adverse events) and acceptability of a community-delivered VRCT program for older adults with SCD; and (ii) examine the preliminary efficacy of the VRCT program on cognitive and psychological outcomes.
Methods: Older adults (mean age = 72.11 ± 7.61) who reported subjective cognitive complaints but had no objective cognitive impairment were recruited between April 1st-April 19th, 2025 in Victoria, BC. Participants completed an 8-week VRCT program comprised of six cognitive games delivered through Enhance VR, attending three group-based sessions per week. A mixed-methods, one-group pre–post design was employed, guided by phase IIb of the ORBIT model. Feasibility outcomes were evaluated against a priori “green-light” criteria. Cognitive outcomes (memory, working memory, information processing, executive function) and psychological outcomes (perceived deficits, psychological well-being, depression, anxiety) were assessed pre- and post-intervention using paired-sample t-tests and non-parametric alternatives. Weekly physical activity, social connection, and simulator sickness were assessed for changes using repeated-measures ANOVA and assessed using correlation analyses with outcomes. Semi-structured interviews explored implementation barriers and supports and were analyzed using the Framework Method.
Results: All pre-specified feasibility thresholds were met or exceeded: recruitment (75%, 30/40), retention (90%, 27/30), adherence (96%, 26/27), adverse events (6%, 2/30), and acceptability (76%). Significant improvements were observed on the Color-Word Interference Test (CWIT) inhibition trial (t(26) = –2.91, p = .007, d = –0.56), inhibition/switching trial (z = –3.89, p < .001, r = –.76), and Trail Making Test-A (t(26) = –2.92, p = .007, d = –0.56). Perceived cognitive deficits also decreased significantly (t(26) = 2.26, p = .032, d = –0.44). No other cognitive or psychological measures showed significant changes. Physical activity, social connection, and simulator sickness were not significantly related to outcomes. Qualitative findings emphasized the benefits of group-based delivery and identified logistical considerations for implementation.
Conclusions: Community-delivered VRCT was feasible, acceptable, and safe for older adults with SCD. Preliminary efficacy results were selective, suggesting that while VRCT may strengthen performance on tasks of executive functioning and processing speed, it produces limited changes in broader cognition or psychological well-being outcomes. Future research should integrate VRCT into multi-component interventions, employ standardized test batteries and objective physical activity monitoring, include control groups and longer follow-up, and continue evaluating organizational feasibility for sustainable implementation in community settings.
Trans fats: A white trans social worker’s podcasted autoethnography
(2025) O’Brien, Kaitlin (Katie) Rosemary; Moosa-Mitha, Mehmoona
My podcasted, autoethnographic thesis ruminates on the question: how is my experience of transgender corporeality mediated by pathologising logics? Drawing on decolonial feminism and disability justice, I review the pathologising ways that transness, fatness, and eating disorders are normatively framed, and connect this pathologisation with the ongoing colonial project. I then explore stories about existing in my small fat, nonbinary trans, white settler body, ultimately arguing that the normative (pathologising) story of fat trans folks with complicated relationships with food and eating does colonial violence to trans people. Along the way, I refuse straightforward answers, remaining critical, uncertain, and curious about how my experiences of systemic marginalisation and privilege always overlap. I conclude by imagining a social work context that is abolitionist and deprofessionalised, centred on principles of harm reduction and community care.
An optimized approach for photodynamic inactivation (PDI) and other singlet oxygen applications
(2025) Tieman, Grace M. O.; Buckley, Heather
Chapter 1 introduces the relevant background information for the basis of the project, including fundamentals on photodynamic inactivation (PDI), photosensitization and photosensitizers, singlet oxygen (1O2), and diazirines. The overall description of the project is provided and how it aims to diminish the knowledge gap.
Chapter 2 provides the proof-of-concept material for this thesis, where a porphyrin is covalently tethered to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from thermal activation of diazirines. The material is then assessed for its 1O2 production in conjunction with its antimicrobial efficacy, which was a 1.76 log-reduction of Staphylococcus aureus.
Chapter 3 optimizes the light dose and porphyrin loading onto the surface by exploring how 1O2 production was affected by varying the amounts. With the optimized material in hand, it is then assessed for its durability to photobleaching under different light intensities, high (35,000 lx) and ambient (450 lx), for up to two weeks. The results indicate there was only a loss of 1O2 production after 1 week of high intensity exposure.
Chapter 4 provides the synthesis of other porphyrinoid molecules, including corroles, to explore how structure impacts 1O2 generation. The molecules’ 1O2 quantum yield is determined via direct detection methodology. Two of the porphyrins, with the highest quantum yields, are then tested using the solid-state methodology developed in Chapter 2.
Chapter 5 provides a summary of each chapter and subsequently explores potential future directions for the results from this work.
Numerical construction of K-optimal designs for linear, nonlinear, and generalized linear models
(2025) Zhang, Xiaoqing; Zhou, Julie
This thesis investigates the numerical construction of K-optimal designs for a variety of statistical models. These include linear models such as polynomial, trigonometric, and second-order response models, nonlinear models such as Michaelis–Menten, compartmental, and Peleg models, and generalized linear models with a particular focus on logistic regression. K-optimality aims to minimize the condition number of the Fisher information matrix to improve the numerical stability in parameter estimation. A general algorithm is proposed and applied to all models to construct K-optimal designs, evaluated under different design spaces and parameter values. For nonlinear models, the K-optimal designs are compared with A-optimal and D-optimal designs, while for the logistic regression model, comparisons
are made with D-optimal designs. The results show that K-optimal designs have stable patterns between different models. Factors such as design space, model type, and parameter values influence the support points, their weights, and the condition number. In addition, K-optimal designs achieve smaller condition numbers, indicating better numerical stability, and take less computation time than both D-optimal and A-optimal designs. All key findings are presented in tables and figures, and the MATLAB code used for the computations is provided in the thesis.
Shared Streets: A Case Study of Bear Street in Banff, Alberta
(2025-11-20) McDonald, Kiersten