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Access status: Open Access ,
Concepts of Truth in the Photographic Image
(1992-09) Moore, Robert Shippy; Not Applicable; Master of Arts; Department of Philosophy; Not Applicable; unknown; Not Applicable; Rich Campbell; Tom Vinci; Steven Burns
There is a commonsense understanding of photographs that, due to their apparent realism, they are unique among still images. Even when we distrust a photograph it is usually because of some suspicion of fakery. Photographs are presumed evidentially privileged because of their chemical and physical necessity. They exist only because their subjects exist or did exist and because those subjects directly caused the images. As a consequence of these qualities photographs are presumed unique conveyors of the truth and innocent recorders of the real. On the other hand this view frequently excludes photography as a vehicle of the higher truths which we associate with the arts. We assume that the artist expresses her message using materials which are sufficiently malleable that not only the existent is portrayed, but the non-existent and the imaginary as well. This thesis shows that the commonsense notion that photography has a privileged position in its ability to record the real is in error. I examine the underlying assumptions of Roger Scruton's "Photography and Representation", a sophisticated defense of the commonsense view. The result of this analysis is that causal necessity in the photographic process is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for any privileged notion of photographic truth. This opens photography to wider expressive and truth functional uses. Next I examine the book Truth and Falsehood in Visual Images by David Carrier and Mark Roskill. It reveals a range of approaches to the notion of truth in visual imagery. Discussions of photography seldom examine the way truth values shift when subjected to varying contexts and discourses. To address this, I examine a chapter on truth in fictional writing in Lorraine Code's Epistemic Responsibility in order to come to an understanding of the narrative process. The idea of a narrative process is then used in conjunction with the findings of the earlier analyses to suggest that still images must be viewed in their discursive and narrative contexts to understand their relations to truth. Finally I examine how photographs may be viewed as artifacts which absorb narrative from their discursive contexts in order to attain their truth values. Contemporary artists use photographs in ways which call into question these narrative and discursive uses in order to criticize the ways in which imagery is used in popular culture.
Access status: Open Access ,
Child Rescue: The Nova Scotia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, 1880 - 1920
(1977) Ross, Winifred M.; Not Applicable; Master of Arts; Department of Education; Not Applicable; unknown; Not Applicable; unknown; unknown
The purpose of this study is to determine what services were available in Nova Scotia, particularly in Halifax, for the welfare of children during the years 1880 to 1920. The study will determine whether institutions were available for the care of children, and if so, what care they provided. It will also determine if societies and organizations were formed for the welfare of children and what functions they performed. Finally it will consider the legislation passed, if any, concerning children, during this period and attempt to evaluate it in terms of significance to the lives of children and the sources from which the legislation flowed.
Access status: Embargo ,
Integrated Adaptive Super-Twisting Sliding Mode and Variable Impedance Control for Collaborative Multi-Robot Manipulation
(2026-04-02) Wan, Lucas; Yes; Doctor of Philosophy; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Not Applicable; Dr. Yang Shi; Yes; Dr. Robert Bauer; Dr. Thomas Trappenberg; Dr. Ya-Jun Pan
Collaborative and cooperative robotic systems operating in unstructured environments require advanced control strategies that achieve robustness, flexibility, and safe physical interaction. Conventional control methods often struggle to guarantee stability and performance in multi-robot manipulation under disturbances, modelling errors, and dynamic interaction forces. This thesis proposes a unified control framework that integrates robust nonlinear control, adaptive gain tuning, and variable impedance regulation for scalable collaborative multi-manipulator systems. The framework is built around a proposed task-space sliding mode (SM) controller that uses unit quaternions for orientation tracking. To mitigate chattering and ensure finite-time convergence, nonsingular terminal and super-twisting sliding mode (STSM) techniques are employed. The research is organized into four successive studies that iteratively develop the proposed control framework. First, an admittance-based nonsingular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) controller is introduced for decentralized cooperative manipulation in simulation. Second, an adaptive task-space nonsingular terminal super-twisting sliding mode (NT-STSM) controller is experimentally validated on a 7-DOF Franka Emika manipulator, addressing practical challenges such as chattering, stable parameter tuning, and hardware implementation. Third, impedance control is integrated into the robust controller to form a super-twisting sliding-mode impedance (STSMI) controller, which is extended to multi-manipulator systems for coordinated motion and internal force regulation. Finally, an adaptive super-twisting sliding mode variable impedance control (STSM-VIC) method is proposed, providing real-time modulation of the virtual stiffness, damping, and inertia while ensuring the passivity through Lyapunov-based analysis. Comparative simulations and hardware experiments demonstrated that the proposed integrated approach significantly improves tracking accuracy, robustness, and interaction safety compared to conventional controllers. Overall, the results established a scalable and experimentally validated control strategy for reliable cooperative manipulation in real-world collaborative robotic systems.
Access status: Open Access ,
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Navigating China's Approach in the South China Sea from 2009 to 2024
(2026-04-01) Gong, Xinyu; No; Doctor of Philosophy; Department of Political Science; Not Applicable; Paul Evans; No; David Black; Ajay Parasram; Brian Bow
This dissertation investigates China’s strategic logic in the South China Sea from the late 2000s to the early 2020s. It challenges conventional theoretical prediction of "linear expansion" of a rising power by analyzing how Beijing calibrates maritime assertiveness while managing systemic risks. The research argues that China employs a pragmatic "push-and-pull" dynamic, a cycle of assertive expansion followed by tactical restraint. Through a comparative analysis of China’s interactions with Vietnam and the Philippines, the study also demonstrates China's strategic approach in the South China Sea: restraint toward Vietnam through institutionalized channels, and stronger unilateralism toward the Philippines, often followed by moderation under international pressure. These findings reveal a "two steps forward, one step back" trajectory aimed at consolidating regional influence without triggering unified resistance or direct conflict. Ultimately, the dissertation highlights that Beijing tests its power limits and recalibrates in response to external resistance.
Access status: Open Access ,
“Amplitude of human experience”: The relational wellbeing potential of shared reading
(2026-03-30) Brown, Alison; Not Applicable; Doctor of Philosophy; Interdisciplinary PhD Programme; Received; Dr. Paulette Rothbauer; Not Applicable; Dr. DeNel Rehberg Sedo; Dr. Marion Brown; Dr. Vivian Howard; Dr. Sandra Toze
Amid rising social fragmentation, loneliness, and pervasive inequities, practices that invite people to gather, listen, and imagine together carry renewed urgency. Shared reading – small groups convened to read aloud and discuss literature – is one such practice. This dissertation investigates the relational wellbeing potential of participation in shared reading and asks: what happens when people come together around a literary text, and how might those happenings enable participants to be, become, and stay well with one another? Guided by a transformative-relational paradigm, the research unfolds in two interwoven phases. Phase One, a scoping review and thematic synthesis of empirical studies and organizational reports, maps what is already known about the key elements (the literary text, facilitator, group, and atmosphere) and the relational processes (intersubjective engagement, expanded boundaries of self, collective wondering, and (in)articulation) of shared reading. Phase Two, a poetic inquiry rooted in conversations with shared reading participants, attends to the lived, affective textures of participation in shared reading. Participant-voiced poems, set alongside poems woven from theoretical companions, illuminate how the cultivated liminal space of shared reading, with the literary text at the center, engenders practices of recognition and listening otherwise (Lipari, 2009, within which expressions of relational wellbeing emerge. Together, these phases reveal shared reading as an assemblage of heterogeneous components, dynamically configured in ways that open possibilities for resonant relations of wellbeing. Relational wellbeing emerges not as an individual outcome but as a collective, contingent, ongoing process requiring attention to the infrastructures of resonance: the spaces, practices, and facilitators that allow people to encounter and respond to one another and the world with openness, curiosity, and care. This dissertation offers contributions to theory by extending and refining theories of resonance and relational wellbeing; to methodology through a layered inquiry that foregrounds relationality not only as an object of study but also as a mode of research; and to practice and policy by proposing insights to strengthen shared reading as a vital public practice for cultivating connection, attention, and care. This work gathers concepts, stories, and voices to hold open the relational possibilities that shared reading makes possible.
Access status: Embargo ,
Spilling More Ink than Blood: The Royal Navy and the Preservation of Britain’s Informal Empire in China, 1929-1939
(2026-03-29) Caswell, Liam; Not Applicable; Doctor of Philosophy; Department of History; Not Applicable; Dr. Aaron Windel; Not Applicable; Dr. Bill Sewell; Dr. Jerry Bannister; Dr. Ajay Parasram
This dissertation examines the Royal Navy as an agent of British diplomacy and imperialism in China between 1929-1939. Using archival records sourced from all echelons of the Royal Navy’s China Station, Britain’s government ministries, and other official and unofficial agents of British imperialism in the region, this work provides a new perspective from which to explore the nature of British policy in East Asia during a decade of regional instability and crises. Faced with challenges ranging from rampant piracy to violent Japanese imperial expansion, the China Station was tasked with preserving their nation’s empire in China during an era of professed liberal internationalism and severe strategic overstretch. Given these realities, China Station personnel found themselves relying less on material strength and coercion in favour of negotiation, diplomacy, and compromise with a myriad of geopolitical players cohabiting East Asia. British policymakers entered the 1930s with a sense of optimism – the rise of the Guomindang’s Nanjing regime having promised a unified and stable Chinese market for the British to influence and exploit. However, this optimism would not last long as continued Chinese regional instability disrupted British trade, while mounting Japanese continental aggression threatened to dismantle Britain’s informal empire entirely. Recognizing the China Station as “the principle military adviser to his Majesty’s Government” on the preservation of British lives and property in China, Whitehall gave that command a remarkable amount of operational autonomy with which to respond to events and challenges as they unfolded. With little recourse to force for want of material strength, the China Station collaborated with other regional state and non-state actors in disseminating defense responsibility and pursued a pragmatic diplomacy backed by little more than the waning prestige previously accumulated by the British Empire in the region. Through examining the China Station’s experience in the 1930s, one is given an impression of the possibilities and limitations of what can be achieved through local negotiation, compromise, and the invocation of prestige during a decade of global instability and transformation. Building on previous scholarly works concerning Foreign Office and Treasury initiatives aimed at the preservation of Britain’s informal imperial sphere during the 1930s, the work explores how China Station personnel – as the primary representatives of British military power in China –interpreted and executed their role as arbiters of Britain’s imperial and diplomatic policies in a region undergoing political, economic, and social evolution. Furthermore, the dissertation contributes to general studies of geostrategic policy by providing a case study regarding the adaptability of geographically peripheral naval forces in shifting their methods and doctrines when faced by material stringency amid a climate of regional and global instability.