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Negotiating Space, Emotion, and Belonging: A Critical Socio-Spatial Approach to Iranian Immigrant Integration in Toronto
No full textThis doctoral thesis aims to reconceptualize immigrant settlement narratives through a critical socio-spatial lens, focusing on the case of established, predominantly economic-class Iranian immigrants in Toronto, Canada. By interrogating residential choices, integration pathways, community-building practices, and homemaking strategies, the study challenges traditional models of immigrant settlement, foregrounding the agency of skilled Iranian immigrants in shaping spaces of belonging within a multicultural metropolis. The analysis integrates Lefebvre's (1991) theory of the social production of space, Askins' (2016) concept of emotional citizenry, and social capital theory (Putnam, 1993; Woolcock, 1998) to analyze how Iranian immigrants negotiate place and identity.
The thesis comprises four interconnected articles. The first interrogates residential concentration in Toronto's affluent northern suburbs through Lefebvre's spatial triad, challenging existing models of immigrant settlement and suburbanization. Using Askins' emotional citizenry, the second article examines the complex interplay between residential and socioeconomic integration, highlighting gendered experiences and emotional belonging. The third investigates multiscale community-building practices, showing how bonding, bridging, and linking social capital, in combination with emotional citizenry, foster affective attachments across private and public spheres. The fourth article frames homemaking as a spatial practice that, through Lefebvre's triad, actively reconfigures suburban homes and environments into contested sites of cultural preservation and identity negotiation.
Employing a mixed-methods approach - including census data analysis, 54 semi-structured interviews with photovoice, ethnographic observations, and 7 key informant interviews - the methodology aligns with the conceptual framework's emphasis on spatial production and affective agency. The study makes three key contributions. First, it offers an integrated conceptual framework bridging structural spatial analysis (Lefebvre) and emotional agency (Askins), challenging deficit-oriented settlement models. Second, it repositions integration as an active, multidimensional process through which immigrants leverage (suburban) spaces to reconcile cultural heritage with social mobility aspirations. Finally, it provides a multiscalar account of how immigrants mobilize social capital across spatial and institutional contexts to foster emotional belonging
Optimizing Glyoxal Fixation for Preserving Quiescence in Muscle Stem Cells
No full textPreservation and healing of muscle structures have been shown to be attributed to a pool of undifferentiated myogenic precursors known as satellite cells or Muscle stem cells (MuSCs). These cells exist in a resting state called quiescence and are activated in response to injury to either self-renew or initiate the myogenic differentiation program. This ability to balance regeneration and repair is essential for muscle homeostasis. Although quiescence is a dynamic and tightly controlled state, the molecular mechanisms that sustain it remain poorly understood. A key challenge in studying quiescent MuSCs is their rapid activation during tissue isolation, which results in the loss of their native molecular features. To preserve their in vivo state, we employed in situ chemical fixation prior to isolation. Selecting the appropriate fixative was critical, as it affects both the preservation of molecular structures and the compatibility with downstream analyses. Paraformaldehyde (PFA) is widely used due to its capacity to halt cellular processes, but it forms extensive crosslinks between nucleic acids and proteins, often compromising RNA extraction and antibody access. To address these limitations, we tested glyoxal, a dialdehyde fixative known for inducing milder crosslinking. We found that glyoxal effectively arrests transcriptional activation in MuSCs while preserving RNA quality and epitope accessibility compared to PFA. We evaluated glyoxal fixation for compatibility with RNA extraction and sequencing in MuSCs and established a preliminary workflow for isolating and analyzing MuSCs from fixed muscle tissue. While glyoxal fixation preserved RNA quality and prevented activation in C2C12 cells, RNA extracted from fixed MuSCs showed lower yield and quality compared to live-sorted controls, suggesting that further optimization is required to fully enable transcriptomic analysis from fixed tissues. This approach supports various downstream applications, including western blot, qRT-PCR, and immunofluorescence. By preserving the native state of quiescent MuSCs, our method offers a reliable framework for studying their molecular features, such as alternative splicing and post-transcriptional regulation. While much attention has been given to activated or proliferating stem cells, quiescence remains relatively understudied. This work helps bridge that gap and opens new avenues for investigating the biology of muscle stem cell quiescence
“You can do this at home and people won’t find out”: a qualitative exploration of women’s experiences with the use of medication abortion drugs received directly from pharmacies in Nepal
No full textAbstract Background In Nepal, over two-thirds of abortion seekers use medication abortion drugs to terminate their pregnancies. However, fewer than half of all abortions occur in government-approved facilities. Although the government of Nepal discourages pharmacy sale of medication abortion drugs without a prescription, pharmacies account for one-fifth of all abortion services in the country. We conducted a qualitative study to gain insight into why women obtain medication abortion care through pharmacies and document their experiences. Methods Using a multi-modal recruitment strategy, we interviewed 25 women from three populous districts of Nepal’s Koshi Province who had used medication abortion drugs purchased from pharmacies within the previous two years. We used ATLAS.ti 24 to manage our data and analyzed interviews for content and themes using inductive and deductive techniques. Results We found that confidentiality, convenience, cost, and connection led women to obtain medication abortion care from pharmacies. Many of our participants were unaware of the free services offered by government health centers or reported that they avoided these facilities due to privacy concerns and/or the perceived need for accompaniment. Most of our participants received the mifepristone/misoprostol regimen from pharmacies without a prescription but were charged more than the mandated maximum retail price. Although pharmacy workers informed women on how to administer the medications, they provided little or no counselling on side effects, complications, post-abortion contraception, or additional medications such as those for pain management. Despite confidence in their decision to terminate their pregnancies and their ability to self-diagnose the pregnancy, take the pills, and confirm completion of the abortion, some of our participants found the abortion process challenging due to insufficient counselling, variable costs, and the lack of pain medications. Conclusion Women seek pharmacy-based medication abortion services for various reasons, including barriers within the health system that limit access to public sector abortion sites. Strengthening the role of pharmacies as medication abortion providers is crucial as they are in a position to enhance women’s agency by providing accurate information, medically sound services, and appropriate referrals. Establishing policies and guidelines to formally integrate pharmacies as safe medication abortion sites in Nepal appears warranted
Exploring the Pharmacy Provision of Medication Abortion in Nepal
No full textOf the nearly 56 million abortions that take place each year, 45.1% are either “unsafe” or “less safe” and almost all of these abortions take place in the Global South. Nepal liberalized its abortion laws in 2002. Nepalese women can obtain an abortion, without restriction as to the reason, through 12 weeks of gestation. In 2009, the government of Nepal introduced medication abortion through a combination of misoprostol and mifepristone permissible up to 63 days of pregnancy to be available free of charge at designated government health centers. Since its introduction, medication abortion has gained wide acceptance with over two-thirds (72%) of Nepalese women primarily using medicines to induce an abortion. However, even after more than two decades of legalization, access to abortion services in Nepal remains limited and disproportionate. Less than half of all abortions occur in government-approved facilities. The majority take place clandestinely, performed by an untrained provider and/or in an unapproved facility or induced by the pregnant woman herself. Pharmacies in Nepal are authorized to stock and dispense medication abortion drugs with a clinician’s prescription however, pharmacy workers are discouraged from directly prescribing or dispensing these medications. Despite this, pharmacies often serve as the first point of contact for individuals seeking abortion-related information and services. In fact, pharmacies account for 19% of all abortion care received by women in Nepal. This thesis aims to explore the current landscape of pharmacy-based medication abortion services in Nepal. Using mixed methods study, this thesis examines the knowledge, practices, and services surrounding medication abortion in pharmacy settings in Nepal, with a specific focus on user experiences
Mindful of Machines: Mental Health AI, Rights, and the Role for Law
No full textThe “Mindful of Machines: Mental Health AI, Rights, and the Role for Law” workshop, held at the University of Ottawa on February 23, 2024, brought together 36 interdisciplinary participants to examine whether Canada’s legal frameworks adequately ensure compassionate, rights-compliant mental health AI. The workshop included individuals with lived experience, healthcare professionals, AI researchers and developers, legal scholars, policymakers, and regulators, all focused on a central premise: strong legal frameworks must support service users’ dignity, equality, and autonomy. Participants heard expert presentations on key legal issues, engaged in vigorous discussion, and reflected on four questions: (1) What is AI’s greatest potential for mental health service users? (2) What are the biggest risks? (3) Is law adequate to support potential and guard against risks? And (4) what messages should we convey to law and policy makers? This report summarizes the workshop presentations, discussions, and findings
Des paradoxes et périls du statut « outsider-intégré·e » : réflexions d’une travailleuse sociale féministe Noire sur la fabrique de la légitimité
No full textL’année 2020 a été marquée par de nombreuses mobilisations pour l’équité et les droits de populations minorisées en Amérique du Nord. Au Québec (Canada), ces mobilisations concernaient les violences sexuelles contre les femmes Noires, depuis le mouvement #MeToo d’octobre 2017, dans la foulée de la résurgence du mouvement #BlackLivesMatter en 2020. Cette contribution émane de ma thèse de doctorat en travail social. Amorcée en 2019, cette thèse porte sur les violences sexuelles et les féminismes Noirs. Cet article explore les enjeux éthiques, politiques et épistémologiques qui accompagnent le processus d’élévation d’individus comme porte-paroles et visages légitimes de mobilisations collectives pour l’équité en matière féministe et antiraciste et les imbrications de ce processus avec la recherche universitaire en travail social. En s’appuyant sur les cas du mouvement #BlackLivesMatter et des vagues de dénonciations de violences sexuelles au Québec, une analyse féministe et autoethnographique Noire (Brown-Vincent, 2019; Ettorre, 2017) me permettra d’articuler mon positionnement d’« outsider-intégrée » (Collins, 1986) et d’intellectuelle publique à la lisière de l’académie, du monde médiatique et des espaces militants et communautaires. À l’aide du concept de « transclasse » (Jaquet, 2014; Jaquet et Bras, 2018) au prisme du concept de « déférence épistémique » (Táíwò, 2020), j’illustre les dangers avérés et les paradoxes liés aux usages des théories de la connaissance située dans les espaces féministes et antiracistes. La manière dont ces théories sont mobilisées, particulièrement pendant et après l’apogée de mouvements sociaux, court le risque de (re)productions d’injustices épistémiques (Fricker, 2007). Ces injustices peuvent mettre en échec la noble visée de la justice sociale qui caractérise le travail social et la recherche universitaire dans cette discipline.Bourse Vanier (Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada), Prix étudiant Fulbright (Fulbright Canada), Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Black Studies (Université Queen's de Kingston
Regulating the Mass Dataveillance Capabilities of Psychopathic Corporations
No full textThe increasing prevalence of corporate mass dataveillance poses significant risks to privacy and societal well-being. This thesis examines the effectiveness of existing data protection regulations in addressing these risks in the current socio-technical landscape. It argues that these regulations are inadequate due to their outdated assumptions: the necessity and acceptability of corporate data processing and the benevolent nature of corporations. Drawing on Joel Bakan's theory of the psychopathic personality of corporations, this thesis highlights the misalignment between corporate profit-driven motivations and regulatory objectives, and proposes a new regulatory framework that aims to restrict corporate mass dataveillance by targeting the business models that have incentivized its development and the institutional structures that enable pathological corporate behaviour.
The thesis begins by mapping the current socio-technical landscape, highlighting the now possible capabilities of public and private organizations by technological advances in the generation, collection, and processing of data about individuals and their behaviours. It analyzes the evolution of the right to privacy within the international human rights framework, particularly its application to government surveillance, before shifting the focus of the analysis to corporations as central actors in the data economy and how this framework applies to them.
Using Uber Technologies Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. as examples of corporations with data-driven business models, it illustrates how these corporations exhibit psychopathic tendencies consistent with Bakan's theory, including an obsession with profit, a lack of concern for others, and a propensity for breaking legal rules. The thesis then discusses corporate mass dataveillance systems as a manifestation of this psychopathic personality, highlighting the economic model of surveillance capitalism, in which these corporations operate, and the risks and harms posed by their extensive data collection and processing practices: such as undermining democratic institutions, interfering with the right to privacy, and facilitating behavioural manipulation. This socio-economic ecosystem, driven by a logic of data accumulation, has propelled the expansion of dataveillance technologies and influenced the design of products and services to maximize corporate profits at the expense of individual rights and societal well-being.
With this landscape in mind, the thesis analyzes the adequacy of data protection regulations, exemplified by the GDPR and PIPEDA, in addressing corporate mass dataveillance. It identifies two key shortcomings: their failure to question the necessity of corporate data processing, and their flawed assumption of corporate empathy. These limitations render these regulations inadequate to limit corporate mass dataveillance and inadequate to protect human rights and society from the risks and harms dataveillance creates.
To address these gaps, I propose a new regulatory framework aimed at restricting corporate mass dataveillance. The framework targets the business models that have incentivized the development of corporate mass dataveillance and the institutional structures that enable pathological corporate behaviour. Specifically, it introduces a new and broader corporate purpose to create value for the benefit of society, a new duty to limit revenues from behavioural data surpluses, and imposes existential consequences on corporations that fail to do so. Under this duty, corporations must ensure their business models do not derive revenues from the sale of technologies, products, or services that either facilitate, are based on, or are informed or improved by the collection or processing of behavioural data surpluses.
The thesis concludes by emphasizing the need for an interdisciplinary approach to effectively regulate corporate mass dataveillance and limit corporate power, thereby protecting democratic values and individual rights
Computational Study of Hydrogen Uptake in Metal Organic Framework Ni3(pzdc)2(ade)2 and Collecting Geometric Properties of Metal Organic Frameworks to Use as Descriptors in a Computational Database
No full textMetal organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of nanoporous materials made of organic and inorganic structural building units (SBUs). MOFs have gathered interest for many applications due to their high tunability leading to materials with very diverse pore chemistries and geometries. The focus of this thesis is on studying the gas separation and storage capabilities of MOFs and analysing their geometric properties.
The first part of this thesis work is a computational study of H2 uptake in the MOF Ni3(pzdc)2(ade)2 to understand its strong uptake. Synthesized in the lab of Professor Kyriakos Stylianou at the University of Oregon, the unactivated crystal structure of the MOF was experimentally determined and following the activation the MOF was found to have high uptake for H2 at low pressures. To understand the adsorption of H2 in the MOF, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to explore the activated structure and understand the H2 binding in the material. The H2 uptake capacity was then explored computationally with grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations whereby the metal was changed to analyze the effects of the metal centre on hydrogen uptake.
The second part of this thesis involved the calculation of geometric properties for the ARC-MOF database curated with the Woo lab that contains around 280K MOFs – both experimentally characterized and computer-generated structures. The database was created to provide the community with a diverse database of MOFs for which DFT derived partial atomic charges are available to conveniently perform high-throughput screening and data-driven studies. For this thesis, the relevant geometric properties for all MOFs in the database were calculated such as the accessible surface area, accessible volume, pore limiting diameter, and largest cavity diameter. The distribution of the descriptors was plotted and compared to existing databases to demonstrate the diversity of the database
The Effects of Metformin-Related Ligand CXCL13 in Myofibroblast Remodeling and Ovarian Fibrosis Mitigation
No full textBackground/rationale: Reproductive aging accelerates ovarian dysfunction, with fibrosis being a key contributor to age-related infertility. Metformin reduces ovarian fibrosis, potentially by promoting CXCL13-mediated signaling between macrophages and myofibroblasts. This study investigates the downstream role of CXCL13 and its receptors, Grm7 and Adra2a, in fibroblast activation and ECM remodeling.
Hypothesis/research questions: CXCL13 attenuates ovarian fibrosis by reducing fibroblast activation and ECM remodeling through Grm7 and Adra2a signaling.
Objective/purpose of the study: To examine the effects of CXCL13 and TGF-β1 on fibroblast activity and to assess the roles of Grm7 and Adra2a receptors.
Materials and methods: NIH/3T3 fibroblasts were treated with CXCL13 and GRM7/ADRA2A agonists. Proliferation was measured using the MTT assay, and gene expression was analyzed via RNA sequencing and RT-qPCR.
Results: CXCL13 and Grm7 agonists reduced fibroblast proliferation under inflammatory conditions. All treatments trended toward reduced activation, with CXCL13 suggesting fibrotic remodeling effects, potentially through pathways independent of the target receptors.
Conclusion/significance interdisciplinarity: This study identifies CXCL13-associated signaling as a potential target to mitigate ovarian fibrosis and improve reproductive health outcomes
Self-harming behaviors among forensic psychiatric patients living with intellectual disability
No full textAbstract Background Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are frequently involved in the criminal justice system, and many subsequently enter the forensic psychiatric system. While individuals with ID in forensic psychiatric settings are known to have a high burden of engaging in self-harming behaviors, limited studies have explored self-harming behaviors among them. Aim To determine the prevalence of ID and explore the burden of self-harming behaviors and the associated factors among forensic psychiatric patients with ID. Methods This retrospective study utilized data on 155 patients diagnosed with ID under the Ontario Review Board during the reporting year 2014 to 2015. The primary outcome variable was engagement in physical self-harming behaviors. Factors associated with self-harm were identified using logistic regression analysis, performed with STATA-17. Results The prevalence of ID among forensic psychiatric patients in Ontario was found to be 13.1%. Of these patients, 43.2% had their Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) score included in the report used for the database. The prevalence of self-harming behaviors among patients with ID was 9.7%. The likelihood of self-harm was significantly lower in males (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.002–0.47, p-value = 0.013) and significantly higher in those with a previous history of self-harm (aOR = 28.21, 95% CI = 1.61–494.66, p-value = 0.022). Conclusion This study found a high burden of both ID and self-harm, especially among females and those with prior history of self-harming. These findings highlight the need for relevant resources, targeted interventions, and specialized programs to mitigate self-harm in this vulnerable population