Scholarship @ UWindsor

Scholarship @ UWindsor is the institutional repository of the University of Windsor (UWindsor), showcasing and preserving the UWindsor community’s scholarly outputs, as well as items from the Leddy Library’s Archives & Special Collections. Its mission is to disseminate and preserve knowledge created or housed at the University of Windsor.

Contact scholarship@uwindsor.ca for more information.

Communities in Scholarship @ UWindsor

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Conferences and Conference Proceedings 3167
Papers, presentations and abstracts of conferences held at the University of Windsor, in person and virtually.
Digitized Local Collections 1552
Digitized local items from the collections of the Leddy Library, University of Windsor, and community partners.
Faculties, Departments and Research Units 3262
Open Access Faculty publications, reports and working papers from academic departments at the University of Windsor.
Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 9579
Formal graduate original research from the University of Windsor's Masters and Doctoral programs.

Recent Submissions

Access status: Open Access ,
Bioengineering of soils for ground improvement and stability: A review of nature-based technologies
(Elsevier, 2025-08-30) Albuja-Sánchez, Jorge; Solano-Vinueza, Geovanny; Damián-Chalán, Andreina
In recent years, biologically inspired approaches have emerged as promising and sustainable alternatives to conventional soil improvement techniques. This review systematically examines research published between 2019 and 2024 on five major bioengineering strategies applied in geotechnical contexts: biopolymers, bioclogging, biocementation, revegetation with roots and fungi, and biochar amendment. The analysis evaluates their influence on geotechnical and hydraulic parameters such as unconfined compressive strength, shear resistance, permeability, and matric suction while also identifying technical limitations, environmental sensitivities, and implementation challenges. To ensure methodological traceability, a structured three stage review process was applied, supported by AI powered tools for literature discovery. Each technique is critically assessed in terms of laboratory validation, field scalability, and long term performance. In addition to individual evaluations, this study identifies growing trends in cross application and hybridization, including biochar, biopolymer blends and microbial enhancement of vegetative systems. These integrative solutions reflect a broader shift toward interdisciplinary, systems based engineering. Furthermore, emerging innovations such as enzyme induced calcite precipitation and AI assisted treatment optimization are discussed as drivers of future development. The review also highlights the absence of standardized design protocols and the limited availability of quantitative environmental and economic assessments across all techniques. By consolidating recent findings and mapping critical gaps, this review provides a comparative framework that supports the advancement of nature based soil technologies in slope stabilization, erosion control, and sustainable subsurface infrastructure.
Access status: Open Access ,
Behavioral, Endocrine, and Neuronal Responses to Odors in Lampreys
(MDPI, 2025-07-08) Beauséjour, Philippe-Antoine; Zielinski, Barbara S.; Dubuc, Réjean
Lampreys are primitive fish that rely significantly on olfactory cues throughout their complex life cycle. The olfactory system of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is among the best characterized in vertebrates. In recent decades, tremendous advances have been made by isolating individual compounds from sea lampreys that can replicate natural behavior when artificially applied in the wild. In no other aquatic vertebrate has the olfactory ecology been described in such extensive detail. In the first section, we provide a comprehensive review of olfactory behaviors induced by specific, individual odorants during every major developmental stage of the sea lamprey in behavioral contexts such as feeding, predator avoidance, and reproduction. Moreover, pheromonal inputs have been shown to induce neuroendocrine responses through the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, triggering remarkable developmental and physiological effects, such as gametogenesis and increased pheromone release. In the second section of this review, we describe a hypothetical endocrine signaling pathway through which reproductive fitness is increased following pheromone detection. In the final section of this review, we focus on the neuronal circuits that transform olfactory inputs into motor output. We describe specific brain signaling pathways that underlie odor-evoked locomotion. Furthermore, we consider possible modulatory inputs to these pathways that may induce plasticity in olfactory behavior following changes in the external or internal environment. As a whole, this review synthesizes previous and recent progress in understanding the behavioral, endocrine, and neuronal responses of lampreys to chemosensory signals.
Access status: Open Access ,
BattyCoda: A novel open-source software for bat call annotation and classification
(Elsevier, 2025-05-09) Nunez-Mir, Gabriela C.; Boergens, Kevin M.; Montoya, Jessica C.; ter Hofstede, Hannah; Salles, Angeles
The field of acoustic communication needs tools that facilitate the annotation and labeling of animal calls. Bat acoustic libraries gathered over the past few decades have primarily focused on compiling echolocation calls, which have been leveraged to develop machine learning algorithms capable of classifying bat species. However, because these classification methods require large training datasets, they have not yet been generalized to classify types of bat communication calls. Communication call repertoires in bats are wide, and distinct syllables occur with varying frequency, with some call types being recorded only rarely. Furthermore, collecting communication calls poses greater technical challenges, making these calls more difficult to capture reliably. Here, we present BattyCoda, an open-access, customizable tool to categorize and label bat communication call types within the repertoire of a species using small training datasets (tens to hundreds of labeled calls). In this work, we compiled an initial training dataset of 11 types of big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) calls, tested the performance of various candidate classifiers, and assessed the final classifier's training sample size sensitivity. We found that the best performing classifier achieved a balanced accuracy of ∼50 %, with common call types achieving classification accuracies over 70 %. Our tool can greatly facilitate annotating bat calls in recordings by providing accurate labels for common call types, while also assisting researchers in categorizing rarer communication calls. BattyCoda has the potential to build research capacity in the field of acoustic communication by expanding the availability of libraries including a wider range of bat calls and species, thereby enabling the exploration of new hypotheses.
Access status: Open Access ,
Avian biodiversity in the urban green spaces of Paris: higher bird species richness in larger parks and park centers
(Resilience Alliance) Mennill, Daniel J.; Gamboa, Stephanie M.; Bolger, Emily M.; Bygrove, Madison I.; Carlini, Micaela; Cesca, Katie A.; Drew, Hannah L.; Emerick, Natalie A.; Gaisinsky, Adam; Miller, Reese M.; Nguyen, Linda; O'leary, Liam D.; Regonda, Sona; Robinson, Danielle N.; Tessier, Emily; Doucet, Stephanie M.
Diverse anthropogenic threats drive bird population declines, especially for species living in urban areas. Through studies of avian species richness in urban green spaces, i.e., the parks, gardens, and cemeteries of modern cities, we gain a deeper appreciation of refugia for birds living in the urban jungle. Larger urban green spaces are understood to support higher avian biodiversity than smaller urban green spaces. Within urban green spaces, central habitats are thought to support higher avian biodiversity than edge habitats. Through bioacoustic field recordings, we studied these patterns in the green spaces of urban Paris, one of the largest cities in Europe and one of the most densely populated cities on the planet. We found substantial levels of avian biodiversity, recording 36 species of birds across 37 parks, gardens, and cemeteries. Species richness showed a positive relationship with park size, with more species recorded in Paris’ larger urban green spaces. Species richness also varied with centrality, with more species detected in the central habitats of Paris’ urban green spaces. We conclude that both the size of urban green spaces and the amount of central habitat within those green spaces influence avian species richness. Our findings not only imply that even small green spaces should be protected in dense urban landscapes, but that green spaces should be designed to maximize their size and amount of central habitat to promote high levels of bird species richness.
Access status: Open Access ,
Assessing Driver Comfort and In-Chair Movements in an Automotive Seat with Anti-Fatigue Massage Function
(MDPI, 2025-05-16) Behzad, Adele; Michael, Ifeoma; Eniyandunmo, David; Andrews, David M.; Cole, Shane; Arthurs, Katherine L.; Kim, Eunsik
Prolonged driving is associated with fatigue and reduced comfort, jeopardizing driver safety. This study proposes an innovative Anti-Fatigue Massage Function (AFMF) system integrated into a driver’s seat to improve subjective comfort and decrease compensatory movements during extended driving due to fatigue. In total, 24 participants (12 males, 12 females) completed two 60 min simulated driving sessions—one with the AFMF activated and one with it deactivated. Subjective comfort was measured every 10 min using a 5-point Likert scale, while objective In-Chair Movements (ICMs) were manually recorded by expert researchers from dual-camera recordings. ART ANOVA revealed that the AFMF-equipped seat significantly enhanced comfort ratings and reduced ICM frequencies compared to the deactivated condition. These findings suggest that the AFMF system can enhance driver well-being and mitigate fatigue-related risks during prolonged driving.