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Politics of Visibility: Justice, Intersectional Practice, and Collective Action Frames in Feminist Disability Antiviolence Advocacy
Full text linkWomen with disabilities experience disproportionate rates of violence, yet their experiences have been largely invisible in feminist antiviolence, disability, and government responses. The Disabled Women's Network (DAWN) of Canada emerged in 1985 as the only national organization by and for disabled women. My dissertation examines how DAWN strategically pursued justice, practiced intersectionality, and framed violence across shifting political landscapes over forty years of antiviolence advocacy. I examine how diverse disabled women organize from positions of historical invisibility and exclusion from feminist and disability movements, and government policymaking. What antiviolence advocacy strategies become possible from this marginalized position?
Rooting my analysis in intersectional and feminist disability epistemologies, I analyze 145 publicly available documents (1985-2023) and six key informant interviews to trace how DAWN mobilized, legitimated, and sought to address diverse disabled women’s experiences of violence. Drawing on critical disability theories of justice, intersectionality scholarship, and collective action frame theory, I illustrate that knowledge production practices fundamentally shaped what could be known, said, and done about gendered disability violence. In the first empirical chapter, I trace how pursuing distinct forms of recognition shapes other justice practices. I argue that recognition operated as a generative mechanism: self-recognition through consciousness-raising enabled collective politicization but proved materially unsustainable; “recognition from above” secured policy influence but constrained participation and prioritized reformist solutions; participatory expert knowledge centered disabled women's authority within predetermined frameworks. In the second empirical chapter, I illustrate that centering disability promotes intersectionality through accessibility, participatory knowledge production, and political visibility. The final empirical chapter interrogates the political work of the victimhood frame, showing that over forty years, this same frame enabled radical politicization, organizational survival, or foreclosed transformation depending on accompanying solutions and audiences.
This dissertation contributes to scholarship on social movements, intersectionality and feminist theory, and critical disability studies by demonstrating that movement organizations center knowledge production as a political strategy. It expands feminist and intersectionality scholarship by examining how DAWN has advocated for understanding disability as constitutive of gendered violence and its responses. Empirically, this forty-year longitudinal study documents how a movement organization of marginalized communities navigates material constraints structuring which knowledge production forms become possible or sustainable.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Counci
Fisheries Governance in the Context of Climate Change Adaptation: The Case of A Certified Fishery in Lagonoy Gulf, Bicol Region, Philippines
No full textSeafood is the most valuable and traded food group in the world. Through time, seafood production has faced two major problems - overfishing and climate change - which are leading to the depletion of ocean’s fish stocks with implications for global food security. To address these challenges, policymakers and practitioners have sought to advance fisheries governance - the institutional arrangement that serves to regulate fishing activity towards long-term sustainability.
While the most common forms of fisheries governance are state-led and participatory, market-based governance systems, manifesting in logos like that of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), are increasingly emerging. Indeed in 2021, a Philippine tuna fishery comprising 580 small-scale fishing boats in the Mindoro Strait and Lagonoy Gulf under the fold of the Philippine Tuna Handline Partnership (PTHP) secured the country’s first MSC certification. How, if at all, might this form of governance support fishers’ adjustment to climate change in the context of multiple stressors? This question is especially pertinent given that the Philippines, which is routinely subjected to typhoons and other calamities, is considered the most disaster-prone country in the world. To answer this question, a combination of methodologies was employed, including a scoping review, key-informant and subject interviews, focus-group discussions, and participant observation.
A scoping review of scholarship on fisheries governance in the Philippines revealed that participatory governance predominates. As such, MSC certification represents a novel regulatory approach, which is inconsistent with the Filipino indigenous governance. Engagement with the fishers of Lagonoy Gulf revealed that they face a variety of biophysical, economic, governance, socio-demographic, and technological stressors. Of these, typhoons are most significant, acting as a ‘threat multiplier’ that exacerbates existing vulnerabilities, especially livelihood insecurity. Problematically, MSC certification does not appear to be providing any functional support in terms of fishers’ ability to manage these stressors. Further, MSC certification has functionally failed to support the mobilization of knowledge relevant for fishers to adjust to a changing climate, since MSC certification has not incentivized fishers to learn new practices or even participate in activities that boost their knowledge. To overcome this challenge, knowledge must be better mobilized through the implementation of a strategy that seeks to overcome the barrier of poverty and promote rewards and incentives.2027-01-0
Advancing Automated Taxonomic Classification Methods for COI Barcode Data
No full textLarge-scale DNA barcoding and metabarcoding have become foundational tools in biodiversity and ecological research, enabling rapid taxonomic identification across the tree of life. However, the explosive growth of DNA sequence data has outpaced the scalability of existing classification tools, many of which struggle to balance accuracy, computational efficiency, and taxonomic breadth. This thesis addresses these challenges through a two-part investigation: a benchmarking of three of the most widely used barcode classifiers and the development of a novel, alignment-free taxonomic classifier known as the strobemer-based Profile Hidden Markov Model (sPHMM). In the first component, three widely used methods, TOPBLASTHIT, IDTAXA, and the Ribosomal Database Project (RDP) Classifier, were systematically evaluated across ten diverse Cytochrome c Oxidase Subunit I (COI) datasets spanning multiple animal phyla. Results revealed clear trade-offs between precision and scalability: TOPBLASTHIT achieved the highest accuracy at higher taxonomic ranks but incurred high computational costs, whereas the RDP Classifier delivered comparable accuracy with markedly faster processing times. Accuracy declines were observed at the species level across several groups, underscoring persistent challenges in fine-scale taxonomic resolution. Building upon these findings, a new probabilistic framework, the sPHMM, was introduced to overcome the limitations of alignment dependence in conventional PHMMs. By replacing multiple sequence alignments with taxon-specific sets of strobemers (linked k-mers that capture dispersed sequence context), the sPHMM method preserves position-specific relationships while greatly improving computational efficiency. When applied to extensive COI datasets, the sPHMM method achieved up to 98% classification accuracy with training times nearly threefold faster than standard PHMMs. Although classification speed decreased modestly, the method’s overall performance, scalability, and fine-rank resolution at species and genus ranks demonstrate its potential as a next-generation barcode classifier. Collectively, this research contributes both a critical assessment of current DNA barcode classifiers and the introduction of a powerful new alignment-free probabilistic framework. The sPHMM approach offers a practical and extensible solution for large-scale barcode analyses and lays the groundwork for future extensions to additional barcode regions, RNA and protein sequences.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaGenome CanadaFood from Though
Subverting the Classics: Wilfred Owen and the Fall of the Ancient Hero in British WWI Poetry
Full text linkBy the end of the First World War, Britain’s reliance upon Classical antiquity as a primary source of inherited aesthetic, intellectual, and cultural ideals and institutions was under threat. Indeed, the war had destabilized not only the geopolitical order but much of the ideological framework around which Britain had historically fashioned its self-identity. Long-standing cultural ideals of heroism, sacrifice, honour, masculinity and progress were thrown into crisis as the reality of largescale, industrial warfare rendered Classical paradigms both inadequate and, at times, grotesquely ironic. In this context, the poetry of Wilfred Owen emerges as one of the most important and challenging responses to the Great War. His verse does not merely describe the horror of war; it interrogates the very moral and aesthetic frameworks that had previously permitted such descriptions to claim an air of poetic beauty, and even nobility. Owen’s portfolio indicates a steep learning trajectory, transitioning from simple imitation of 18th- and 19th-century poets to the development of his own individual voice and style. This thesis traces Owen’s adaptation and deployment of Classical materials, beginning with an introductory examination of various major influences, including both his primary 18th- and 19th-century English literary predecessors as well as ancient authors in translation
Behavioral Consequences of Blunting Emotions with Acetaminophen
Full text linkRecent research has suggested that the widely used analgesic acetaminophen (paracetamol) can blunt various emotional states and evaluations, possibly through the same mechanisms by which it dulls the affective component of physical pain. As emotions influence behavior in ways that are adaptive on average, interfering with them could have unintended consequences. Fear promotes protective behaviors in dangerous situations. Empathy promotes helping in response to another’s distress. Even basic evaluations of how pleasant or unpleasant external stimuli are help guide decisions about what to approach or avoid. However, most of the research on acetaminophen’s emotional effects has used self-report or neural measures, and no studies have examined behavior in emotionally salient contexts. This dissertation addresses this gap by directly testing whether acetaminophen alters emotion-driven adaptive behaviors. The first study investigates whether acetaminophen reduces cautious behaviors associated with the fear response. During a virtual reality plank walk at extreme heights, participants on acetaminophen stepped onto the plank sooner, walked across it faster, and had lower heart rates than participants given placebo. The second study explores acetaminophen’s impact on empathy and effortful prosocial behavior. Participants were given the opportunity to reduce the number of electric shocks supposedly administered to another person’s hand (actually a confederate) through physical squeezing effort. Although unbalanced covariates between drug conditions could have contributed to null results overall, exploratory findings may provide tentative support for the possibility that acetaminophen can reduce the willingness to help another. Lastly, the third study directly replicates previous findings that have contributed to the conceptual framework underlying this dissertation, which appear to implicate stimulus evaluation in acetaminophen’s emotional effects (Durso et al., 2015). Compared to the placebo group, participants on acetaminophen rated upsetting and disturbing photographs as less negative, and pleasant, uplifting photographs as less positive. This dissertation collectively suggests that acetaminophen exerts domain-general effects on evaluative processing in ways that can diminish emotions and the behaviors they motivate—highlighting potential risks of inadvertently blunting adaptive responses in daily life.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canad
Choosing the Path: How Organizational Buyers Navigate Buying Channels in Small Retail
Full text linkThis study examines how organizational buyers make buying channel choices within the context of small, local retailers, a setting that is often underexplored in organizational buying behaviour (OBB) research. Small retailers provide unique constraints and opportunities, including close ties to buyers and flexible, context-sensitive buying strategies. Existing literature often overlooks how these motives adapt in response to emerging buying channels, the impacts of COVID-19, and the initiatives to support local business. Using focus groups and interviews with organizational buyers across multiple industries, this research explores both established and context-specific drivers of channel choice. Findings reveal enduring motives, such as efficiency and relationship management, alongside emerging motives, like digital adoption and local engagement. By focusing on a small retail context, this study provides a nuanced understanding of how organizational buyers navigate channel choice and extends OBB literature by highlighting the importance of context
Phenotypic and Label-Free Proteomic Approaches for the Characterization of Strain Diversity and Adaptive Mechanisms in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
No full textPseudomonas aeruginosa is a metabolically versatile and environmentally adaptable bacterium that thrives across diverse ecological and clinical niches. Understanding the phenotypic and molecular basis of this adaptability is essential for elucidating how some strains persist and evolve under different environmental conditions. This research combines phenotypic assays and label-free quantitative proteomic analyses to characterize a diverse collection of P. aeruginosa strains from defined phylogenetic genomic groupings. Comparative phenotypic profiling revealed variability in growth dynamics, biofilm formation, pyocyanin production, and antibiotic resistance, highlighting strain-specific physiological strategies. A methodological comparison of label-free proteomics using data-dependent acquisition (DDA) and deep data-independent acquisition (DDIA) demonstrated the enhanced reproducibility and depth of coverage achievable with DDIA when a pairwise comparison between PAO1 and LESB58 was completed. Furthermore, using DDIA on a small subset of common laboratory strains demonstrated that DDIA was able to demonstrate strain-specific differences along with sequence level polymorphisms. Applying the same methodology, DDIA was used to analyze the proteomic profiles of a select set of 50 strains along with the common laboratory strains. This approach uncovered the divergence of the proteomic groupings from the original genomic groupings. Interestingly, a unique cluster of CF strains were identified in this proteomic analysis that shared a similar proteomic profile. Further analysis of this cluster in comparison to other CF strains, clinical non-CF strains, and laboratory strains highlighted different pathways that this cluster may be using to adapt to its environmental niche. Together, these findings reveal that P. aeruginosa strain diversity is mirrored at both phenotypic and proteomic levels, underscoring the organism’s capacity for metabolic flexibility and environmental adaptation. This integrative framework advances our understanding of P. aeruginosa biology and establishes DDIA-based proteomics as a powerful tool for studying adaptive mechanisms in bacterial systems.2026-12-1
Additively Manufactured Structured Catalysts for Plastic Upcycling: Process Optimization and Catalytic Performance Evaluation
No full textStructured catalysts are increasingly essential for plastic-waste upcycling because packed or washcoated catalysts offer limited control over geometry, pressure drop, and vapor-solid contact, restricting selectivity and efficiency. Yet broad adoption is held back by key gaps: scalable fabrication with dimensional fidelity, a limited understanding of how macro-architecture governs transport, coking, and product distributions, and a lack of data-driven methods that map printable parameters, especially across changing ink formulations. This thesis focuses on process optimization and catalytic performance evaluation of additively manufactured structured catalyst through data-driven approaches. The key contributions are four folds. First, a customized low-cost extrusion-based additive manufacturing (AM) platform is developed to fabricate zeolite-based monoliths with designed channel networks. The printed catalyst exhibits high geometric fidelity, mechanical stability, and regenerability. Second, the monoliths are experimentally evaluated in a staged, ex situ linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) cracking reactor to isolate thermal depolymerization from catalytic upgrading and to enable fair comparison with conventional HZSM-5 catalysts. Under matched conditions, the structured monoliths increase selectivity to light olefins and monoaromatic liquids, suppress methane, ethane, and propane formation, and limit polyaromatics. Performance is retained after oxidative regeneration. Third, to ensure high dimensional accuracy of fabricated catalyst channels, an inverse design framework is introduced that combines automated, layer-resolved computer vision with a feasibility-aware generative model. This approach predicts printer operating conditions that achieve target strand widths and layer heights within ±0.02-0.05 mm (strand-size tolerance) and produces near-second parameter
updates, which is impossible with trial-and-error methods. Lastly, the inverse design-based process optimization method is generalized for new ink formulations (including zeolite- and hydrocharcontaining systems) using a few-shot transfer learning strategy for supporting high-quality catalyst printing. Collectively, these contributions establish a closed, data-driven loop from catalyst manufacturing to catalytic performance evaluation and back to process parameter selection, demonstrating a practical route to scalable, regenerable, geometry-tunable catalysts for catalytic plastic upcycling.2026-12-1
Ilyonectria mors-panacis Latency, Plant Age Susceptibility, and Soil Treatments in Replant Disease of American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.)
Full text linkGinseng replant disease (GRD) prevents American ginseng from growing in the same soil due to high levels of root rot. The main soilborne pathogen involved in GRD is Ilyonectria mors-panacis (IMP). The association of IMP with GRD is based on visible lesions, but this study demonstrated that latent infections by IMP are common in American ginseng roots and are more prevalent in replanted than non-replanted ginseng soil. Latent infections could be activated by wounding or paraquat treatment and are common at lenticels. It was assumed that younger ginseng plants are more susceptible to GRD, but older plants were found to be more susceptible based on IMP disease severity in field trials. This difference was not due to changes in soil nutrients and ginsenosides but may be related to disease tolerance as more IMP was detected in younger roots. Conventional fumigation with metam-sodium has limited effectiveness in managing GRD. Fumigation alternatives (solarization, anaerobic soil disinfestation and biofumigation) showed limited control, but in many cases this was improved when combined with metam-sodium. However, fumigation alternatives still require considerable optimization to achieve an economically viable ginseng yield. Comparisons of levels of soil nutrients and ginsenosides among different treatments did not correlate with GRD
The Directing Influence of Proximal Boron Functionalities on Sulfenate Chemistry and The Sulfoxidation of Boron Containing Sulfides
Full text linkThis thesis explores the directing influence of proximal boron functionalities on sulfenate chemistry and examines the synthesis of boron-containing sulfoxides via oxidation of the corresponding sulfides. The S-functionalization of sulfenic acid anions (sulfenate anions) has emerged as a versatile strategy for sulfoxide synthesis. Although previous studies have highlighted the cooperative reactivity between trivalent boron Lewis acids and sulfinyl Lewis bases, experimental investigations into the Lewis acid–base complex formed between sulfenate anions and trivalent boron centres remain limited.
The first project investigated the interaction between sulfenate anions and trivalent boron functionalities through S-functionalization competition reactions involving ortho-borylated and non-borylated benzyl electrophiles. Across 22 competition experiments employing varied sulfenate anions and boron electrophiles, up to 100% selectivity for the ortho-borylated substrate was observed. DFT computational modelling, ¹¹B NMR analyses, Hammett correlation studies, and control experiments indicated that the formation of a Lewis acid–base complex between the sulfenate oxygen and trivalent boron prior to intramolecular S-functionalization is a key determinant of selectivity.
The second project examined three approaches to exploit the RSO→B interaction for the stereoselective synthesis of chiral sulfoxides. Sulfenate S-alkylation reactions employing chiral trivalent boron Lewis acids afforded products with enantiomeric excesses up to 16%. Attempts to generate chiral boron-containing sulfenate anions yielded a maximum diastereomeric ratio of 58:42. Greater success was achieved using chiral boronate benzyl electrophiles derived from S,S-DICHED and (1S,2S,3R,5S)-(+)-pinanediol, providing sulfoxides with diastereomeric ratios ranging from 52:48 to 85:15. While S,S-DICHED electrophiles gave higher diastereoselectivity, the resulting sulfoxides were unstable and were subsequently transformed via transesterification, tandem Chan–Lam/Staudinger ligation, or boronate oxidation to yield sulfoxide products with up to 99% e.e.
The third project evaluated the H₂O₂/HFIP reagent system as a mild and efficient method for the selective oxidation of boronate-containing sulfides to sulfoxides. Bpin-substituted sulfides afforded sulfoxides in 49–86% yield, with comparable outcomes (66–96% yield) observed for other boronate esters. The operational simplicity and high efficiency of this oxidation protocol render it a practical method for the synthesis of largely unexplored boron-containing sulfoxides.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaUniversity of Guelp