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
Nourishing roots: From food insecurity towards food sovereignty for Toronto’s Black diasporic community
(2026) Henry, Sharita Alyssa Anita; Pérez Piñán, Astrid
This thesis examines the capacity-building needs required to advance food sovereignty as a strategy for reducing food insecurity within Toronto’s Black diaspora. While existing research documents disproportionately high rates of food insecurity among Black Canadians, less attention has been paid to the skills, resources, and structural supports needed to sustain community-led food systems. Using Toronto as a case study, this research employs a mixed-methods approach combining questionnaire data and semi-structured interviews with individuals engaged across the food system, including community leaders, farmers, food workers, policy actors, and advocates. Findings highlight land access, household income stability, and sustained funding for Black-serving organizations as central priorities, alongside the importance of culturally grounded education, youth engagement, and policy reform. The study situates these findings within Critical Race Theory, Community Development Theory, and food sovereignty scholarship, arguing that advancing food sovereignty requires coordinated structural, community, and institutional action beyond short-term emergency food access interventions.
Development and in-vivo validation of a subject-specific musculoskeletal modelling framework for reverse total shoulder arthroplasty
(2026) Kuchinka, Kaitlyn Brinn; Giles, Joshua W.
Degenerative upper limb pathologies such as rotator cuff arthropathy lead to severely inhibited joint function. To restore strength and range of motion in end-stage disease, Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty (RTSA) may be performed in which the scapula is implanted with a ball-shaped glenosphere, while the humeral head is implanted with a cup-shaped tray. As a result of the drastic change to joint structure, a departure from normative biomechanics is observed in muscle coordination, movement patterns, and joint loading. It is thought that these outcomes are a result of compensatory mechanisms due to complex interactions between individual bony morphology, and implant configuration.
In-silico methods, specifically Musculoskeletal (MSk) modelling, are well suited for noninvasively quantifying human motion as a multi-body dynamics system with physiologically relevant muscle actuators. Typical modelling workflows approximate individual anatomy through linear scaling, and therefore neglect the full range of anatomic variability. This work aimed to 1) develop a semi-automatic workflow for the development of highly subject_specific MSk models; 2) perform inverse simulation to compute biomechanical values of interest, with validation of muscle activity measures; and 3) collect a unique in-vivo dataset useful for model creation and validation.
Participants (N=3) with RTSA performed two motion tasks, forward elevation and scapula abduction, while synchronized biplane fluoroscopy and optical motion capture kinematics, and Electromyography (EMG) muscle activity were recorded. A previously validated Open-Sim model was modified for each subject using MATLAB scripting. Model bony and muscle geometry were determined from Computed Tomography (CT)-derived surface anatomy, while functional joint centres were determined from experimental kinematics. Muscle actuated dynamic simulations were performed that consider the freely moving nature of the scapulothoracic joint, and simulated muscle activations were compared to experimental EMG. Muscle moment arms, muscle forces, and joint loads were compared to those from literature.
Simulation results broadly suggest the utility of MSk models to consider interactions between individual anatomy, implant configuration, and kinematics. The framework introduced in this thesis rapidly and deterministically generates highly subject-specific models, without the ambiguity and labour-intensivity of manual, often heuristic model creation. The modular processes are modifiable, readily allowing for correcting possible sources of discrepancy, or quantifying model sensitivity to the methodology. These findings may direct future research efforts to achieve the goal of clinically relevant upper limb MSk modelling and simulation.
Critical factors for quality enhancement in the research university: Comparative case studies from the higher education systems of BC and Scotland
(2026) Scott, Lesley M.; Gounko, Tatiana
This research explored quality enhancement (QE) which is commonly present in higher education (HE) policy approaches internationally. QE is specifically core to global trends in higher education quality assurance (HEQA) and is notably central to policy implementation across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). QE is most simply understood as an HE governance policy imperative intended to improve university teaching and learning. Applying qualitative case study, I explored factors shaping QE and what it came to mean, in two different research universities, in two different HE systems, in two international locations. The case study universities were in British Columbia (BC) in Canada, and Scotland in the United Kingdom (UK). The realities of contemporary, multilevel, HE governance were acknowledged in a comparative, global to local exploration of critical factors for QE. The inclusion of Scotland, as a member of the EHEA, allowed both cases to be compared in the context of EHEA guidelines. The findings were approached through three levels: there were factors external to BC and Scotland, factors at BC and Scottish government policy level and factors internal to the institution. Quality itself was understood through stakeholder priorities and theory on teaching excellence. HEQA was approached comprehensively to include a full exploration of the relationship between accountability and enhancement, as two recognized and central purposes for HEQA. The findings are significant for university teaching and learning. Five overarching factors for QE were identified which permitted comparison of the two systems and universities through similarities and differences. There is a tentative model here for exploring how QE is shaped, and currently being approached by different government and universities. At local level, the study adds to the limited number of studies on recent HEQA policy evolution in BC but, perhaps more importantly, places BC’s evolving approach in wider international context. Conclusions from the research confirm that global HE governance reform, to which HEQA has been core, has had profound influence on the role, value and status of teaching and on what is valued as knowledge. HEQA continues to have implications for ancient tensions between the university and state.
Aeroelastic optimization of stick models for parametric flutter investigations in blended-wing-body aircraft
(2026) Bravo, Diogo; Suleman, Afzal; Bras, Mario
This work focuses on assessing the aeroelastic behaviour of a Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) aircraft configuration and proposes a model order reduction framework to enable systematic parametric analysis on aerodynamic shape and structural properties. A high-fidelity baseline aeroelastic model is first developed and assessed under ultimate loading conditions in accordance with certification requirements. Modal analysis identifies the dominant bending and torsional modes governing the dynamic response, and the Modal Assurance Criterion (MAC) is used to assess modal coupling. Aeroelastic investigations reveal two critical instabilities within the flight envelope: symmetric and antisymmetric bending-torsion flutter (BTF).
A reduced-order stick model (SM) was calibrated through an optimization workflow to replace the flexible wing in a hybrid configuration. This condensation approach reduces computational cost for aeroelastic analysis while preserving the physical significance of the model. Three case studies are conducted to match the static deformation, modal response, and aeroelastic behaviour of the full GFEM. Dedicated error metrics are introduced to quantify discrepancies in vertical displacement, twist, natural frequencies, and mode shapes.
Two novel aeroelastic metrics are proposed: an eigenvalue error metric based on the Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) concept and a robust complex mode shape metric tailored for complex aeroelastic eigenvectors. The optimized hybrid model predicts flutter speed within 3% error and accurately reproduces the underlying instability mechanisms, while significantly reducing computational effort.
To better understand the flutter mechanisms of the BWB configuration, the reduced-order model is used in a parametric study involving six geometric and structural parameters. The study characterizes the evolution of flutter mechanisms across the BWB design space. For the 600 configurations evaluated, the governing instability was bending-torsion flutter (BTF). The proposed methodology can suggest modifications to the configuration capable of raising the flutter speed by up to 30%.
Galaxy interactions and active galactic nuclei: Insights from cosmological simulations
(2026) Byrne-Mamahit, Shoshannah; Ellison, Sara L.; Patton, David
Idealized numerical simulations of galaxy mergers have long predicted that in a merger event, the angular momentum of gas is efficiently drained, leading to gaseous inflows that increase the central gas density. These inflows are expected to fuel both bursts of star formation and increased accretion onto the central supermassive black hole (SMBH), which should increase the presence of visual signatures of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Numerous observational studies find that AGN are present in excess in merging systems, compared with non-merger controls. However, the observational literature studying the contribution of galaxy mergers to the AGN population is more complicated, with some studies finding the majority of highly luminous AGN are in mergers while others find that AGN hosts are no more likely to be mergers than similar non-AGN control galaxies. While idealized simulations have provided the foundation for a predicted merger-AGN connection, they are not as well suited to investigate populations of galaxy mergers. Therefore, in order to determine the theoretically expected contribution of mergers to the AGN population, one needs to study AGN triggering within a cosmologically representative merger sample. In my dissertation, I present an analysis of galaxy mergers drawn from the IllustrisTNG cosmological simulations. Mergers identified in large box cosmological simulations preserve the observed diversity in galaxy characteristics (such as gas fractions, star formation rates, environments) and merger characteristics (such as mass ratios, orbital parameters), and are therefore an ideal dataset to investigate the frequency of luminous AGN in mergers and their contribution to the simulated AGN population. While the strongest inflows are predicted to occur in major post-mergers, my research investigates AGN triggering in the regimes of galaxy interactions that are predicted to be weaker (than major post-mergers) but are more common in the galaxy population: the pair phase and the minor (and mini) merger regime. In my research, I find that if one only considers major post-mergers, their contribution to the overall AGN population is subdominant. However, after accounting for AGN in pairs and minor/mini mergers, I find that interactions are associated with the majority (up to 94\% depending on minimum mass ratio considered) of the most luminous AGN population in the simulations. Notably, moderate luminosity AGN are still overwhelmingly associated with secular galaxies that have not had any recent interactions. To address the apparent tension between my findings and numerous observational studies which do not find a majority of AGN are in mergers, I demonstrate that the visual identification of interacting galaxies is challenging in mini and minor mergers. Concerning major mergers, I initially demonstrate that, in TNG, mergers rarely host luminous AGN at any point during the pre and post-merger phase. However, cosmological simulations only provide sparse temporal sampling of the SMBH accretion rate histories in mergers. In order to further investigate AGN in merging systems, I develop and present the Merger zOOm-in Simulation Ensemble (MOOSE), a suite of zoom-in cosmological simulations of galaxy mergers. The suite allows me to investigate AGN stochasticity with higher temporal sensitivity than cosmological simulations (an improvement from ~160 Myr between simulation snapshots to 25 Myr). Using MOOSE, I am able to better sample the SMBH accretion rate history of mergers, and I determine that a large fraction (40\%) of MOOSE major mergers will host a luminous AGN (with an Eddington ratio exceeding 10\%) at some point along the merger sequence. I demonstrate that the fraction of mergers hosting an AGN is highly sensitive to the temporal snapshot spacing, and that if I downsample MOOSE to 150+ Myr spacing (commonly used in cosmological simulations), the fraction of mergers hosting AGN drops by half. Finally, I demonstrate that these events are not localized to near coalescence, and can occur at both wide pair separations and in the late post-merger stage. Overall, my results suggest that wide pairs, late stage post-mergers, minor, and mini mergers may all contribute to a `hidden' population of merger-enhanced AGN which do not show identifiable features of a recent interaction. Furthermore, my results support a prediction that mergers are the dominant contributor to the population of the most luminous AGN. Finally, my results caution that while cosmological simulations are an excellent tool to study populations of AGN or mergers, the coarse snapshot sampling will preferentially lose luminous AGN events along the merger sequence, resulting in missing AGN events when studying any single merger event over time.