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About MacSphere

MacSphere is McMaster University's Institutional Repository (IR). The purpose of an IR is to bring together all of a University's research under one umbrella, with an aim to preserve and provide access to that research. The research and scholarly output included in MacSphere has been selected and deposited by the individual university departments and centres on campus.

To contribute to McMaster's Institutional Repository, please sign on to MacSphere with your MAC ID.

If you have any questions, please contact the MacSphere Support Team.

Students wishing to deposit their PhD or Masters thesis, please follow the instructions outlined by the School of Graduate Studies.

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Recent Submissions

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    Exploring Barriers Equity-Deserving Families Face in Accessing the CWELCC Child care System
    (Prepared by the McMaster Research Shop for Today's Family, 2025-12) Daniel, Eden; Mahmood, Haniyyah; Roop Kaur, Mehar; Vithanage, Randil; Van Lange, Leiann
    The Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system aims to reduce child care costs to an average of $10, though the average cost of child care in Ontario is currently $19 per day. The aim of this report is to understand the barriers that equity deserving families face in accessing CWELCC-subsidized child care in Ontario. We also wanted to identify strategies that can be implemented to advance equitable access. Today’s Family is an organization participating in CWELCC that provides licensed child care services across Hamilton, Halton, Haldimand, Norfolk, Oxford and Peel, supporting over 7,500 children annually. Despite the reduction in child care costs as a result of CWELCC, it is still relatively expensive, especially for low-income families. Today’s Family provides additional subsidies for households that cannot afford the current $22 per day fee, though barriers still exist in accessing equitable care. To answer our research question, we completed a literature review to examine barriers to entering licensed child care in Canada and promising practices that can support equitable access. Common themes across the literature were identified and integrated with information from Today’s Family’s administrative datasets, which include data on waitlists and active enrolments.
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    Tools to Support Qualitative Research on Employment Standards Act (ESA) Claims
    (Prepared by the McMaster Research Shop for Solidarity Place Worker Education Centre, 2025-12) Karaceper, Senem; Smith, Kyla; Srikanthan, Saranya; Bajwa, Ameeta; Andrawes, Vereena
    Solidarity Place Worker Education Centre (Solidarity Place) is an organization that supports people in understanding and asserting their workplace rights, particularly newcomers to Canada, young workers, and those in precarious or unstable employment. Through its day-to-day programming, the organization regularly assists individuals navigating ESA claims. Over time, Solidarity Place identified a need for more experience-based information about how workers move through the claims process. This kind of insight is critical for advocacy, funding applications, and improving educational programming. The present study was initiated in response to that need and builds on an earlier quantitative work completed by the Research Shop in Summer 2025, which examined the rate, patterns and trends in ESA claims across Ontario. The central research question guiding this project was: How do workers experience the process of filing and navigating an Employment Standards Act (ESA) claim in Ontario?
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    Behaviour Characteristics of Concrete Blocks
    (1992-07) Donald Sandys-Wunsch,
    Masonry construction has a reputation for long-term durability and relative freedom from maintenance. This is largely due to the level of quality control possible in a plant manufacturing environment. Current provisions in the material standard for concrete blocks were not felt to be comprehensive enough in describing properties which might be important for the performance of the material. Blocks from participating manufacturers were tested for: compressive strength, tensile strength, absorption, suction, permeability and shrinkage. In addition to specified standard procedures, alternate test methods for obtaining these properties were investigated. It was found that current provisions in the standard do not adequately account for permability and suction behaviour. A revision of the shrinkage requirements was recommended. Alternate procedures were recommended for some tests
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    WEIGHTLIFTING TRAINING IN CHRONIC AIRFLOW OBSTRUCTION
    (1990-06) Karen Simpson
    The exercise capacity of patients with chronic airflow obstruction is often limited by leg fatigue. The disability associated with the continuous rate of degeneration of lung function is aggravated by the natural aging process and a reduction in physical activity. A decline in strength and endurance capacity increases the stress of performing day to day activities and may reduce the time the patient can remain self sufficient. This study examined the effectiveness of progressive resistance muscle strength training as a mode of exercise in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD). Exercise endurance, quality of life and strength assessment were used as the measurements of outcome. The effects of 8 weeks (24 sessions) of progressive resistance exercises involving upper and lower body extremities of 17 COLD patients (WTTR) were compared with 17 matched COLD, control patients. In the WTTR group the maximum weightlifting strength (1 RM) in single-arm curl, single-knee extension and single-leg press exercises increased by 31 per cent (12.1 + 1.2 to 15.9 + 1.5 kg; p < 0.01), 45 per cent (17.8 + 3.0 to 25.8 + 3.9 kg; p < 0.01), and 16 per cent (106.2 + 7.8 to 123.4 + 8.7 kg; p < 0.01); respectively. There was a 9 per cent increase in the distance walked in 6 minutes in the WTTR group and only a 2 per cent increase in the control group (390.9 + 22.5 to 426.9 + 27.2 m,; N.S. and 368.9 + 32.0 to 376.0 + 32.0 m; N.S.). A significant 73 per cent increase in cycling time at 80 per cent of maximum power output to symptom limitation was observed in the WTTR group (518 + 69 to 898 + 95 sec; p < 0.01). Improvements in the WTTR group subjective evaluations in the domains of dyspnea, fatigue and mastery were recorded from the responses to a chronic respiratory index questionnaire. In these patients with COLD, progressive resistance weightlifting exercise was associated with an increase in submaximal exercise time with attendant reductions in feelings of breathlessness and fatigue. The results of this study indicate that weightlifting training may be , useful as part of a comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation programme.