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UNB Scholar is an institutional repository initiative of UNB Libraries intended to collect, preserve, showcase, and promote the open access scholarly output of the UNB community. Use UNB Scholar to explore specific collections, or search all content in the repository. Material submitted to the repository will also be freely discoverable online through Google and other major search engines.
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Recent Submissions
Defamiliarizing Concussions: Sports Fandom, Injury, and Potential Attitudinal Shifts
(Sage, 2024-11-15) Kalman-Lamb, Nathan; Silva, Derek
In this article, we examine whether modes of representation that disrupt and defamiliarize the naturalized understandings fans share about the legitimacy and necessity of spectacular violence and sacrifice in sport can have the potential to reframe fan attitudes and investments. We explore the social cognitive and attitudinal shift towards traumatic brain injury (TBI) and injury more broadly in American football of first year students with a stated investment in the spectacle of high-performance sports after viewing Josh Begley’s 2018 short film Concussion Protocol. By comparing the responses of students at the beginning of the semester to their responses immediately after viewing the film, this project reveals how placing fans of sport in a face-to-face relationship with athletic laborers can challenge preexisting assumptions about normalized violence in sport, ultimately effectuating a potentially new and more humane attitude to athletic spectatorship.
An evaluation of the first safer supply program in New Brunswick: The River Stone Recovery Centre
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-11) Thornton, Adrienne; Brunelle, Caroline
In response to the opioid poisoning crisis, safer supply programs (SSPs) have been implemented across Canada, and provide individuals access to prescription medications as an alternative to the illicit drug supply. River Stone Recovery Centre’s injectable opioid agonist treatment program is the only SSP currently operating in New Brunswick. Semi-structured interviews were completed with participants (N = 22), and follow-up interviews (N = 18) were conducted six months later, to assess participant’s experiences and outcomes related to their program involvement. Participants reported positive program experiences and impacts, such as improvements in quality of life, that were attributed to the non-stigmatizing care they were receiving, and to the low-threshold, harm reduction approach of the program. The results from this study demonstrate the positive impact of SSPs in reducing the harms associated with the opioid toxicity crisis, but also highlight areas of unmet needs that can inform harm reduction strategies.
Learning based collaborative task allocation
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-10) Muntaha, Mahjabin; Song, Wei
In the digital era, Mobile Crowdsensing Systems (MCS) utilize mobile and wearable devices for large-scale data collection, forming participatory sensor networks. A primary challenge in MCS is collaborative task allocation, where multiple workers must coordinate to complete tasks. Our approach integrates workers’ social connections, recognizing that those with similar backgrounds collaborate more effectively. We frame this task allocation problem as a graph-based combinatorial optimization task, complicated by spatial, temporal, and social constraints. To ad dress the limitations of traditional heuristics, we propose a Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network-based Double Deep Q-Network (HGDQN). The HGDQN agent autonomously explores and learns to address complex scenarios by capturing nuanced worker-task relationships through subgraphs within the heterogeneous graph. Experimental results show that HGDQN surpasses traditional heuristic methods such as Greedy and ACO methods in scalability, adaptability, and generalization, providing a robust solution for collaborative task allocation in MCS.
It’s all in there, no it isn’t: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Adolescent Education Programme of India as it relates to gender and sexuality hierarchies
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-10) Singh, Rohina; Rogers, Matt W.B.
This qualitative study takes up Critical Discourse Analysis and thematic document analysis to show how power operates through taken-for-granted schooling policies and practices in India. Specifically, this work addresses power by identifying gaps and inequitable discourses in the Adolescent Education Programme (AEP) regarding gender and sexuality. My data analysis has revealed three salient themes, all of which act as mechanisms of gender inequity: (i) the perpetuation of patriarchal gender norms, (ii) the privileging of heteronormativity, and (iii) biases and discrimination against sexual and gender minorities. Sexuality education geared toward youth in India has the potential to address culture-specific gender norms and attitudes before they crystallize. However, for this to happen, it is vital for Indian youth to engage critically with the discourses sexuality education enacts and perpetuates by critiquing, challenging, and questioning issues of power, marginalization, and representation.
The effects of language use on responses in English/East Asian bilingual individuals: A meta-analysis
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-10) Schriver, Jordan; Perunovic, W.Q. Elaine
According to the linguistic relativity hypothesis, language use can influence the way individuals interact with the world (Whorf, 1956). Compelling evidence for this claim comes from research on bilingual individuals. Specifically, experimental studies in which bilingual individuals have been randomly assigned to communicate in one language or another have shown that language use can affect the way that bilingual individuals think (e.g., Lechuga & Wiebe, 2011), feel (e.g., Alvarado & Jameson, 2011), and behave (e.g., So, 2010). An attempt has not yet been made to integrate these findings, and establish a unified understanding of how the language used by bilingual language users affects their behaviours. Therefore, with this dissertation I addressed this gap by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis, wherein I attempted to gather all available published and unpublished research up until 2022 in which bilingual individuals proficient in English and an East Asian language were assigned to complete a culturally relevant task in either language, and in which outcomes from the task in each language were compared. Through multilevel meta-analysis including 269 effect sizes drawn from 63 independent samples reflecting the responses of 6693 participants, I found an overall significant effect (g = .27), indicating that when language is manipulated, responses are generally consistent with the cultural norms associated with the language being spoken. The magnitude of this language effect, however, was moderated by the East Asian language being used, and the Task Type under examination. The language effect was not moderated by the Design of the study, Language Acquisition Style, the Country or the City in which the study took place. This meta-analysis offers a synthesis of an existing research program and poses intriguing questions that warrant investigation in future studies.