Parker, James

Video games have always been intrinsically linked with the technology available for the progress of the medium. With improvements in technology correlating directly to improvements in video games, this has recently not been the case. One recent technology video games have not fully leveraged is Cloud technology. This Thesis investigates a potential solution for video games to leverage Cloud technology. The methodology compares the relative performance of a Local, Cloud and a proposed Hybrid Model of video games. We find when comparing the results of the relative performance of the Local, Cloud and Hybrid Models that there is potential in a Hybrid technology for increased performance in Cloud gaming as well as increasing stability in overall game play.

Author Keywords: cloud, cloud gaming, streaming, video game

Universities produce a significant and increasing share of basic research that is later commercialized by firms. We argue that the university's prominence as a producer of basic research is the result of a differential efficiency in research production that cannot be replicated by firms or individual agents - teaching. By using research accomplishments to signal knowledge and attract tuition-paying students, universities are uniquely positioned to undertake certain types of research projects. However, in a market for innovation without patent rights, a significant and increasing number of basic research projects, that are social welfare improving, cannot be initiated by firms or universities. The extension of patent rights to university-generated research elegantly redresses this issue and leaves us to ponder important questions about the future of our innovation-driven economies.

Author Keywords: Innovation, Intellectual Property Rights, Research, Science Technology and Innovation Policy

Previous research has suggested that childhood sensory sensitivity may predict adult obsessive compulsive (OC) behaviours. To date, however, research has not addressed how the separate dimensions – harm avoidance and incompleteness - may influence this relationship or why it exists. The current study used a retrospective design to test a) if sensory sensitivity in childhood predicts trait incompleteness in adulthood, as well as b) if emotion regulation variables mediate this relationship. Questionnaires pertaining to OC dimensions and childhood anxieties were completed independently by 172 undergraduate participants and their primary childhood caregiver. Results showed a linear relationship between sensory sensitivity in childhood and incompleteness in adults. Emotion regulation variables failed to mediate this relationship, although a trend for mediation was present. Additionally, exploratory analysis found perfectionism in childhood to be a predictor of trait incompleteness but not harm avoidance, whereas physical anxieties predicted harm avoidance and not incompleteness. Results are discussed in the context of clinical and theoretical implications.

Author Keywords: Distress Tolerance, Harm Avoidance, Incompleteness, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Sensory Sensitivity, Symmetry

Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) plays an important role in the health and wellness of children and adolescents. Not surprisingly, the literature on TEI and youth has expanded dramatically. Although the quality of this work continues to be uneven due to the continued proliferation of TEI-related measures with questionable psychometric features. One over-looked TEI measure in the field is the short form developed for the Emotional Quotient Inventory Youth Version (EQ-i:YV-S). The core goal of Study 1 was to examine the overall reliability and validity of the EQ-i:YV-S. The aim of Study 2 was to evaluate the utility of the EQ-i:YV-S as a measure of the effectiveness of a new school-based social and emotional learning program for elementary school students. Results from Study 1 demonstrated that the EQ-i:YV-S had good internal reliability, 6-month test-retest reliability, and convergent validity. Study 2 found that Total EI and most key EI-related dimensions had significant improvement from pretest to post test on the EQ-i:YV-S. These findings have important implications for TEI measurement in youth and the effectiveness of school-based psychoeducational programming for TEI, with the EQ-i:YV-S as a viable option for research in this area.

Author Keywords: emotional intelligence, psychoeducational programming, social-emotional competencies

Recently, equine assisted learning (EAL) has emerged as a novel approach to building resiliency competencies in at-risk youth. This mixed-methods study presents evaluation results for an 8-week community-based EAL program with 83 young women (age 13-18 years) with a history of interpersonal trauma. Analyses examined changes in self-reported mental health symptoms (posttraumatic, depression) and resiliency factors (sense of mastery, sense of relatedness, emotion regulation) from pre- to post-test and at 1-month and 6-month follow-ups. Changes in outcomes were also correlated with intervention processes (attendance, session ratings) to see if program experiences were associated with differential outcomes. Results showed that EAL has potential in improving resiliency outcomes, at least for those participants who derived greater satisfaction and value from the sessions. Many improvements were sustained over the long term. Participants' qualitative feedback provided insight into their subjective experiences and highlighted the unique role that horses played in the EAL process.

Author Keywords: Emotion Regulation, Equine Assisted Learning, Experiential Learning, Resilience, Sense of Mastery, Sense of Relatedness

It is well-established that alexithymia in adulthood is a critical risk factor for numerous negative mental health and well-being outcomes. Although this area of research has begun to receive interest in earlier developmental stages, significant methodological limitations have been noted with current measures of alexithymia for adolescence. As such, the aim of the current thesis was to provide empirical evidence on the psychometric strength of a new adolescent measure of alexithymia, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale – Adolescent Version (TAS-A). Study 1 examined the construct validity of the TAS-A in relation to self and informant reported emotional intelligence (EI), while study 2 examined the predictive validity of the TAS-A in relation to adolescent problematic gambling and academic achievement. Adolescents completed self-reports of alexithymia, EI, and gambling behaviour, parents completed informant reports regarding their child's EI, and academic records were obtained. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed significant relationships between adolescent alexithymia, and self and informant reported EI, indicating significant overlap in constructs. Adolescent alexithymia was also shown to be a significant predictor of problematic gambling and academic achievement; however, some interesting gender differences were observed (a pattern of results reported consistently in the adult alexithymia literature). Results are discussed in terms of methodological and clinical implications during the vulnerable developmental transition of adolescence.

Author Keywords: adolescence, alexithymia, psychometrics

Since British colonization of North America and the beginning of Anglo-speaking Euro-Canada and the United States, myth-making or representations of the forests have witnessed degradation and loss of old-growth forest ecosystems or intact sylvan landscapes. Canadian and American versions of the story of the North American Forests shared the same trajectory: forests as 'wasted-land' or the sylvan wilderness (terra nullius) divided into properties and cleared to "improve" the land for settlement/agriculture, forests as storehouses for timber and imperial expansion, forest landscapes and specific forest trees as identity politics and sources of industrial and economic power. While forests are recognized according to various stakeholders' values today, what is commonly accepted as a forest varies widely. The meaning given to "forest" determines related terms and concepts, such as "sustainable forestry" and "reforestation." This thesis addresses the issue of social-bioecological degradation, loss, and dis(re)membering of old-growth forests and problematizes traditional Western relationships with old wildwoods shaped by notions of space, politics, and economy. In the forest topos, the core question becomes which forest(s) are being imagined, represented, and remembered? Whose environmental imagination is shaping the landscape? As a critical topographical exploration of the North American forests through six witness trees, this thesis demonstrates how the meanings imbued in trees and wild woods come to determine the fate of the forests. It reveals how colonial values and trends persist in our societies still, and calls for an ethical social-ecological reimagining of the forests through traditions of ethical storytelling and environmental witnessing.

Author Keywords: critical topography, environmental generational amnesia, environmental witnessing, forests, social-ecological systems, witness trees

Depression during the transition into adulthood is a growing mental health concern, with overwhelming evidence linking the developmental risk for depressive symptoms with maternal depression. In addition, there is a lack of research on the protective role of socioemotional competencies in this context. This study examines independent and joint effects of maternal depression and trait emotional intelligence (TEI) on the longitudinal trajectory of depressive symptoms during emerging adulthood. A series of latent growth models was applied to three biennial cycles of data from a nationally representative sample (N=933) from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. We assessed the trajectory of self-reported depressive symptoms from age 20 to 24 years, as well as whether it was moderated by maternal depression at age 10 to 11 and TEI at age 20, separately by gender. The results indicated that mean levels of depression declined during the emerging adulthood in females, but remained relatively stable in males. Maternal depressive symptoms significantly positively predicted depressive symptoms across the entire emerging adulthood in females, but only at age 20-21 for males. In addition, likelihood of developing depressive symptoms was attenuated by higher global TEI in both females and males, and additionally by higher interpersonal skills in males. Our findings suggest that interventions for depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood should consider development of socioemotional competencies.

Author Keywords: Depression, Depressive Symptoms, Emerging Adulthood, Intergenerational Risk, Longitudinal, Trait Emotional Intelligence