DalSpace Institutional Repository

DalSpace is a digital service that collects, preserves, and distributes digital material produced by the Dalhousie community.

To learn about content guidelines, policies, and how to deposit, view the Help documents.
Contact us to get started submitting content to DalSpace at [email protected]

Communities in DSpace

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 10 of 19

Recent Submissions

Access status: Open Access ,
The combinatorial game theory of Reverse Hex
(2026-01-13) Jeremiah, Hockaday; Not Applicable; Master of Science; Department of Mathematics & Statistics - Math Division; Not Applicable; n/a; Not Applicable; Richard Nowakowski; Julien Ross; Peter Selinger; Svenja Huntemann
Rex, short for Reverse Hex, is a set coloring game in which players try to avoid connecting terminals of their color. Combinatorial game theory (CGT) is the study of perfect strategy games. Until recently, both Rex and Hex were not examined through the lens of CGT. In this thesis we take inspiration from the study of normal play games by Berlekamp, Conway, and Guy, along with the combinatorial game theory of Hex developed by Selinger, to develop methods for analyzing Rex positions. We explore how to tell if one position is preferable to another, how to simplify positions, and some special properties of Rex (and antimonotone set coloring games in general). By the end of this thesis we will be able to take a position in a game of Rex, break it into smaller positions, analyze each of the smaller positions, then add the results back together.
Access status: Open Access ,
The Experience of Persistent Infertility: Beyond the Medical Model
(2026-01-09) Redgrift, Lisa; No; Doctor of Philosophy; Department of Sociology & Social Anthropology; Received; Dr. Sarah Earle; No; Dr. Fiona Martin; Dr. Brenda Beagan; Dr. Emma Whelan
This research explores the experience of persistent infertility among 15 childless Canadian women who discontinued fertility treatments when they did not work, who could not access assisted conception, and/or whose infertility is untreatable. By investigating how women understand their experience with persistent infertility and examining the parallels and divergences within and across the participants’ experiences, this analysis indicates that women’s fertility is an intricate lifelong journey, and persistent infertility disrupts this journey in ways that are biological, social, and gendered. Further, persistent infertility fractures the complex relationship between the body and the self. This research theorizes the embodiment of persistent infertility and the meaning placed on reproductive loss events (e.g., failed embryo transfer, miscarriage, and stillbirth), by the women in this study. Lastly, in the medicalized Canadian context, persistent infertility illustrates that hope for maternity is commodified, stratified, and reenforces the biological standard of normative motherhood.
Access status: Open Access ,
EXAMINING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BREAST CANCER TREATMENTS AND SELF-REPORTED SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION IN CANADIAN WOMEN: A POPULATION-BASED CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY
(2026-01-09) NISHIMAGIZWE, PATIENCE; Not Applicable; Master of Science; Department of Community Health & Epidemiology; Not Applicable; N/A; No; Dr. Jennifer Payne; Dr. George Kephart; Dr. Robin Urquhart; Dr. Cindy Feng
Background The prevalence of female breast cancer survivors in Canada has increased from 1.8% to 2.1% (2007-2021). Sexual dysfunction is a common long-term side effects of breast cancer treatments. Objective To estimate the prevalence of self-reported sexual dysfunction among breast cancer survivors in Canada and examine the association between of single and combined treatment modalities and sexual dysfunction. Methodology This cross-sectional study utilized data from 3772 participants who participated in the 2016 Experiences of Cancer Patients. The outcome was sexual dysfunction. The exposures chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and endocrine therapy. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to evaluate associations. Results Sexual dysfunction was most prevalent among survivors treated with chemotherapy (48.3%). Chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, radiotherapy, and combined modalities were associated with sexual dysfunction, with the highest odds observed among those receiving all three treatments. Conclusion Sexual dysfunction is common among Canadian breast cancer survivors and is associated with all treatment modalities.
Access status: Open Access ,
Framework and Application of a Practical Robustness-Oriented Bridge Upgrade Strategy for Trusses (ROBUST): Supplementary Material
(American Society of Civil Engineers, 2026) Steeves, Edward; Oudah, Fadi
Access status: Open Access ,
A Whale With No Name: Search for an unknown long-duration beaked whale (Cetacea; Ziphiidae) signal across ocean basins
(2025-12-28) Runte, Kiersten; Not Applicable; Master of Science; Department of Biology; Not Applicable; n/a; Not Applicable; Bruce Martin; Andy Horn; David Barclay; Hal Whitehead
Beaked whales (Cetacea: Ziphiidae) are known for producing frequency-modulated (FM) echolocation signals that are characteristic of each species, yet several species still lack confirmed FM signal descriptions. A distinctive FM signal, long in duration, and occurring only at night, has previously been documented in the North Pacific, the western Gulf of Mexico, and the Gulf of Guinea, but its broader distribution has not been assessed. Here, carried out is a basin-wide analysis of numerous passive acoustic monitoring projects to identify additional regions where this signal is present. Our dataset comprised 19 monitoring efforts (156 total datasets) spanning latitudes from 72° N to 42° S. An automated detector-classifier (per file Precision = 1.00 and Recall = 1.00) was run on all audiofiles to identify possible detections, which were subsequently reviewed and confirmed manually. We report the presence of this FM signal in five previously unrecognized areas: along a glider transect (512 kHz) near the Canary Islands; on three bottom-mounted recorders (250–512 kHz) off Western Australia; and from a single detection on Blake’s Plateau in the southeastern United States. Across all monitoring sites, detections occurred only during local nighttime hours and were not observed at latitudes higher than 29° N or 19° S. The signal’s median centre and peak frequencies ranged from 51 to 67 kHz, its median duration from 500 to 630 μs, and its −10 dB bandwidth from 19 to 28 kHz. This FM signal remains the longest known among both identified and unidentified beaked whale FM signal types. Although the producing species has yet to be determined, the signal’s temporal and spectral features were remarkably consistent across ocean basins. These results extend the known distribution of this unique FM signal and highlight the value of broad, cross-regional acoustic collaborations in uncovering previously unrecognized regions of beaked whale vocal behaviour and biogeography.
Access status: Open Access ,
Confronting Acoustic Data Scarcity: A Physics-Informed Approach to Trustworthy Machine Learning in Canada's Arctic
(2025-12-28) Thomson, Dugald; Yes; Doctor of Philosophy; Department of Oceanography; Not Applicable; Peter Gerstoft; Yes; Dale Ellis; Stan Dosso; JF Bousquet; Sarah Fortune; David Barclay
This thesis presents a novel, data-centric framework for building trustworthy artificial intelligence for passive acoustic monitoring in the Arctic, a region increasingly challenged by climate change and geopolitical pressures. The research addresses model brittleness in ship-radiated noise classification, framing it as a data problem that can be solved through a systematic, iterative process of data exploration, diagnosis, and augmentation. A detailed analysis of ship-radiated noise using horizontal line array element data provides a characterization of the complex variability of acoustic signatures. The thesis quantifies the horizontal directionality of radiated noise from individual ships and the broad-scale impact on the ambient soundscape, leveraging a unique data opportunity presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using these insights, a human-in-the-loop methodology is developed to diagnose the specific failure modes of a custom deep neural network classifier. This is achieved by visualising how real-world variability, such as source-receiver range and operational state changes, manifests in the model's learned feature space. The thesis culminates by demonstrating a physics-informed data augmentation strategy as the solution to data scarcity and diagnosed failures. Through the generation of targeted, high-fidelity synthetic data, this approach measurably improves classifier robustness on unseen real-world data, providing a validated methodology for developing reliable automated passive acoustic monitoring systems in complex environments.