Semantic background knowledge is crucial for many intelligent applications. A classical way to represent such knowledge is through semantic networks. Wikipedia's hyperlink graph can be considered a primitive semantic network, since the links it contains usually correspond to semantic relationships…

Reinforcement Learning is a branch of Artificial Intelligence addressing the problem of single-agent autonomous sequential decision making. It proposes computational models which do not rely on the complete knowledge of the dynamics of stochastic environments. Options are a formalism used…

This thesis investigates possible origins of the distinction between consonant and dissonant auditory events and how persons with and without formal musical training judge the distinction. Two studies comprising six experiments used behavioral methods to explore perceptual and cognitive differences…

Reference documentation is an important source of information on API usage. Programmers, however, can easily overlook reference information because of its tedious nature, and because the information they seek can be buried among irrelevant or boiler-plate text. We propose to…

2010

The purpose of the present thesis was to examine psychosocial and behavioural factors associated with the decision-making process involved in uptake of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. In Canada, the HPV vaccine has been approved for women and men aged…

My study focuses on b-boying, the archetype of hiphop dance, to better understand the informal teaching and learning processes embodied in the freestyle or raw b-boy cipher (improvisational dance circle). I draw from an ethnographic approach to investigate how hiphop…

Knowledge translation (KT) has been referred to as "the methods for closing the gaps from knowledge to practice" (Straus, Tetroe & Graham, 2009). During the 2010-2011 academic year, a research project was conducted in the three high schools of the…

In-silico methods used to aid the development of therapeutic drugs have gained utility in the recent past and continue to grow in importance. Small molecule drugs for the use in the treatment of type 2 diabetes were designed using computational…

A new ethical medical dilemma concerns the use of hormone-blockers or medications that put puberty on hold in the care of transgender/transsexual (TG/TS) adolescents. These medications are taken until she is old enough to legally consent to cross-sex hormones. Such…