University of Saskatchewan Research Archive
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Simulation of the impact of future changes in climate on the hydrology of Bow River headwater basins in the Canadian Rockies
No full textPeer Reviewe
Waste Management & The Circular Economy in Canada: An Analysis of Policy Layering
Get PDFWaste has become intrinsic to everyday life, where the average person throws away packaging or products no longer needed on a regular basis and does not know much about the rest of the item’s life cycle or where it came from originally. However, waste management is increasingly becoming one of the most challenging responsibilities of jurisdictions around the world. With the costs of maintaining operable waste management systems, such as landfilling and recycling, rising at the same time as environmental and socio-economic pressures, innovative solutions are needed. An answer that is becoming increasingly popular is the circular economy, which closes the loop of the linear business model by minimizing the input of new, raw materials and resources. This is achieved through designing products for reducing, reusing, or recycling as much as possible instead of jumping to the traditional ways of waste management. While many countries, industries, and advocacy organizations have already implemented some circular policies, little is known about an optimal design. Much of the literature speaks of the need for a paradigm shift to achieve a circular economy. Given the well known difficulties of bringing about such a shift, I investigated Canadian provincial policy instruments used to generate the circular economy to discover whether incremental first and second order policy changes are bringing about policy designs that promote circularity. Focusing primarily on the provinces of Saskatchewan (Western region), Ontario (Eastern region), and Nova Scotia (Atlantic region) in Canada, I have evaluated the shift from waste management to waste reduction to circular economy using the full spectrum of policy changes from patching to packaging
A Model of Sporadic Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease in Humanized APP & APOE ε4 Knock-in Mice Raised on a High-Sucrose Diet
Get PDFLate-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by a gradual deterioration of the cognitive faculties associated with memory and learning in patients aged 65 or older. Recent advances in the generation of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mice models have allowed for researchers to better capture such phenomena preclinically in a manner that mirrors the condition in humans. Dietary habits associated with sucrose intake have been identified as a pervasive risk factor in AD pathogenesis. The present study aims to identify if sucrose consumption interacts with the genetic backgrounds of mice to further aggravate this risk as well as its severity.
In studying LOAD, mice of both sexes were acquired from various genetic backgrounds:
wildtype (WT), humanized amyloid precursor protein (hAPP) or humanized APP/APOE ε4 (hAPP/APOE ε4). At three months of age, mice were randomly assigned to either the control (con) or high-sucrose (hS) water diets until sacrifice (nine months of age). During the fifth month of their dietary regimens, mice were assessed behaviourally for evidence of cognitive decline. The following month, tissues were harvested, and biochemical testing of the cortical samples for AD biomarkers proceeded thereafter.
Behavioural testing using the Barnes maze and modified Y-maze indicated that male
mice of differing genotypes on the hS diet demonstrated declines in memory in a contextdependent in manner. That is, in either the presence or absence of fear cues. Female hAPP and hAPP/APOE ε4 mice raised on the hS diet, however, only depicted initial impairments in learning on the Barnes maze. Post-mortem spectrophotometric testing was performed to evaluate acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity indicative of early-stage AD. In the cortical samples of male mice that possess the humanized APP gene, AChE activity was elevated, and especially so for the male mice raised on the hS diet.
Together, it can be inferred that AD pathogenesis may follow a genotype-environment
interaction. However, further testing is necessary to confirm the hypotheses mentioned herein
dis/Humanity and Autism: Dehumanizing and Rehumanizing
Get PDFThis thesis aimed to explore the lived experiences of Autistic people, as articulated in online blogs written by Autistic authors. Experiences of dehumanization and counternarratives of rehumanization were the focus. This study was motivated by my lived experiences as an Autistic person. It included exploring my experiences as points of reference and comparing those expressed by the Autistic bloggers in this study. Autistic people have used the internet as a location to reclaim their voices and create counternarratives to the negative paradigms around autism. As part of my goal to explore counternarratives created by Autistic bloggers, I studied how Autistic people experienced intersections of marginalized identities. Non-Autistic voices in society predominate, including researchers, doctors, and parents. To promote Autistic narratives, one must look for their representatives where they organically thrive. The internet is one of these locations. For this study, I used a curated resource list created by an Autistic blogger of blog sites created by Autistic people. Using this resource, I constructed a narrowed list of Autistic bloggers who identified as having intersectional and marginalized identities. These identities included disabilities other than autism, 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, poverty, and race.
Philosopher Rosi Braidotti (2013) told us that the classical ideal of ‘Man’ was the measure of all things. Braidotti said this ideal subject was equated with consciousness, universal rationality, and self-regulating behaviour, whereas those deemed “Other” were equated with inferiority. Those branded as Others are viewed as the negative counterpart of the conscious, universally rational, and self-regulating ethical subject. Their humanity is reduced through othering. Braidotti said “Anti-Humanism,” which rejected the restrictive notion of what counted as human, was a vital step in arriving at the idea of the “Post-Human.”
Disability studies, intersectionality and post-humanism are used in the thesis as a framework to examine prevailing beliefs about the source of rights and agency and justify the reduction of rights and agency. An examination of this kind requires careful criticism of the roles played by structures in society in reducing rights and agency for certain individuals. Anti-humanism encourages holding to account those who historically and currently benefit from structural inequality and othering. Post-humanism encourages the continuation of momentum past this process of accountability, to a reconstruction of agency that includes those who would have been less-than-human subjects, non-human subjects, and even into an exploration of how the world we have historically thought of as non-living affects and is affected by agency. This thesis looked at the question of how safe it is for Autistic people to reject the centring of the human in a society where they still struggle to have full access to human rights and agency, and indeed, if there was a point in trying to reform restrictive notions of agency rather than creating a new understanding.
In this study, I performed a critical discourse analysis. Through this analysis, I found that Autistic bloggers pushed the boundaries around restrictive ideas of agency and reconsidered the utility of moving forward with the concept of “the human” intact. They advocated for rehumanization in areas that intersected with multiple identities and facets of “the human” experience. I was prepared to find the questions I posed in this thesis indirectly alluded to by the bloggers through accounts of their life experiences. Instead, I found the bloggers displayed a keen awareness of how restricted notions of “the human” excluded Autistic people. They also demonstrated their ability to use the vocabulary of academia and advocacy, reinforcing the idea forwarded by Autistic self-advocates and critical scholars, that too much gatekeeping is done regarding who is considered experts in autism. The Autistic bloggers included in this study did not focus solely on their own experiences, preferring to expand their lens to take in the Autistic community and the allistic people around them. They advocated for the rehumanization of Autistic people in myriad ways, including redefining expertise and re-education of allistic people considered experts when they failed to include Autistic voices. This included research that was informed, directed, and performed by the Autistic community, academics, and advocates
Quantum Field Theoretic Approach to The Unruh Effect in Rindler-Anti de-Sitter and Rotating Rindler-Anti de-Sitter Spacetimes
No full textA peculiar prediction of quantum field theory in curved spacetime is that the existence of particles is observer dependent. This peculiarity is associated with the existence of a horizon, either the Rindler horizon due to the accelerating motion of an observer, which is the case of the Unruh effect, or the event horizon of a black hole, which is the case of the Hawking radiation. The Unruh effect predicts that an accelerating observer in the vacuum of flat spacetime will observe a thermal bath with temperature proportional to their acceleration. In this thesis, by means of the quantum field theoretic approach, we find the Unruh temperature in Rindler-AdS and rotating Rindler-AdS by calculating the expected number of particles in the AdS vacuum seen by Rindler observers. Our results for the Unruh temperatures confirm
the temperatures obtained by dimensional analysis arguments in previous studies on the spacetime
Investigating Secular Trends in Metamorphism through the Construction and Application of a Relational Database (MetRec)
No full textRecent studies of metamorphic trends have used dT/dP to compare records. dT/dP is calculated as the temperature estimate divided by the pressure estimate. This approximates a geothermal gradient for the sample (written as °C/GPa). Records are typically categorized by dT/dP into low, medium, and high samples. Previous studies, using a dataset of dT/dP, have looked at cycles of metamorphic trends, including a stark shift away from medium and high-pressure samples towards low pressure samples around 750 Ma. This study created a multi-table relational database, which combines previously published datasets with data from a literature review, with ~1000 records. This study has updated statistical methods, improved methods for categorizing records using facies classifications, and analyzed spatial association using mapping software and plate reconstruction models. The range of modern (<750 Ma) subduction related samples is also compared to modelled ranges of metamorphic records to establish the range of subduction-related material.
It has been shown that subduction-related rocks younger than 750 Ma can span a broad range of dT/dP from less than ~175 °C/GPa to ~875 °C/GPa. This is far broader than previous authors have established (<440 °C/GPa) and records which overlap <750 Ma subduction-related records are far more numerous than previously noted. A comparison of the most common orogens sampled shows that the data is heavily skewed – 372 records from the database come from the Alpine-Himalayan complex, which accounts for 66% of blueschist samples in the database. This pulls the trends of modern data to match those of the Alps and Himalayas and has not previously been discussed in the literature. It is posited by this study that blueschists are much rarer than previously acknowledged and the prevalence of modern blueschist is due to the Alpine-Himalayan bias. There is little evidence for a bimodal distribution of dT/dP which has previously been used as a marker for modern metamorphism. The findings of this study show that metamorphic terranes, while being closely tied to supercontinent cyclicity, have remained relatively stable since the Archean and that all categories of dT/dP can be seen throughout time and back into the Archean
Exploring how women business professionals want to be portrayed in advertisements
No full textPrevious research has offered two critical contributing factors to the gap in female leadership representation— gender bias and female leadership stereotypes. The continual use of stereotypes within media continues to spread and reinforce these assumptions of women’s credibility as professionals and leaders. Amid varying results on the most effective way to portray female business professionals and leaders within marketing communications, I used interpretative phenomenology analysis (IPA) approach to explore female business professionals’ perspectives on how they want to see themselves represented in advertisements and marketing communications. I conducted interviews with twelve women business professionals in their early to mid-career. The major findings of this study express that there is not one ideal portrayals of women business professionals. Instead, women are seeking individualistic and unique portrayals of women business professionals by comprising ad portrayals that contain both masculine and feminine representations of three distinct ad elements. Supporting these major findings are general ad observations and a discussion of the ads used in the study that demonstrate the blending of gender portrayals to create individualized representations of women business professionals and leaders
Understanding the Energy-Poverty Nexus in Northern, Remote and Indigenous Communities Using a Social Value of Energy Approach
Get PDFThe transition from conventional fossil fuel-powered utilities towards renewable energy (RE) and alternative socio-technical arrangements has the potential to either alleviate or exacerbate poverty, especially for marginal communities who rely heavily on energy resources for heating and survival, such as Indigenous communities in northern and remote regions. Therefore, there is a need to understand the dynamic interplay between energy and poverty—or the energy-poverty nexus—from the community level using an approach that is holistic and contextual to inform energy transition initiatives, to work towards value generating rather than value eroding outcomes. This thesis does so using the Social Value of Energy (SVE) approach. First, it develops, based on current literature, a conceptual framework to identify the value generating and value eroding outcomes of RE in northern and Indigenous communities, along with the techno-variables that contribute to identified outcomes, and pathways towards value generating outcomes. Next, it applies the framework on a case study with a northern Indigenous community to generate empirical evidence on the SVE in this context. Finally, it elucidates lessons learned about the SVE in northern, remote and Indigenous communities, to advance our understanding of the energy-poverty nexus