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Nematodes as indicators of sustainable soil health management practices in corn-soybean production
Full text linkSoil nematodes are multicellular organisms causing significant economic and ecological impacts, and their community composition is widely used as a bioindicator of soil health. Current methodologies for nematode assessment require further refinement and advancement. This thesis addressed knowledge gaps by combining enhanced DNA metabarcoding tools with the standard morphological analyses to evaluate soil nematode communities under different crop management practices. The first study evaluated the use of soil DNA for profiling nematode communities. Compared to the commonly used NF1/18Sr2b primer, degenerate primers (NemF/18Sr2b and NemFopt/18Sr2bRopt) combined with an improved soil DNA extraction protocol greatly increased nematode detection and taxonomic resolution. The enhanced primer specificity enabled the recovery of nematode assemblages from soil DNA, and was comparable to those from nematode DNA. The direct nematode DNA extraction yielded consistent community profiles regardless of the primer used. This demonstrates that DNA source and primer choice can bias biodiversity estimates. These findings suggest that the widely used NF1/18Sr2b primer may have contributed to the commonly held perception that soil DNA extraction is not a reliable method for studying nematode communities.
The second study compared morphological identification with DNA metabarcoding for nematode community analysis. Metabarcoding revealed a greater diversity of beneficial free-living bacterivores, detecting many rare taxa that were overlooked by conventional microscopy. In contrast, the morphological approach provided accurate identification and quantification of herbivore populations, while metabarcoding overrepresented bacterivorous nematodes. Both methods were able to identify key indicator taxa, but also missed others. The inherent differences between molecular and morphological methods, however, prevented alignment of results.
The third study examined how winter cover crops (WCCs) in a corn–soybean rotation influence nematode communities and soil health indicators. The study observed that long-term use of WCCs significantly increased total nematode abundance and diversity, while reducing the prevalence of herbivorous nematodes, relative to fallow. Mixed-species WCCs promoted nematode communities that were more balanced and biologically enriched than those of a single species.
The fourth study demonstrated that conservation tillage practices (occasional tillage within no-tillage and minimum tillage) increased beneficial free-living nematodes and soil organic matter. In contrast, conventional tillage resulted in higher populations of herbivores such as Pratylenchus sp. in deeper soil layers. Over time, occasional tillage within no-tillage systems developed higher soil food web indices and shifted toward communities driven by fungi and herbivorous nematode
Adams, Butler, and Hill Family Fonds, 1843-2003 [non-inclusive]
Full text linkSamuel Adams (1818 –1895) married Martha Ellen Hill (1822-1863) on 21 November 1843 in Sandy Spring, Maryland. Samuel Adams was a free man of African-American heritage and a blacksmith by trade. It was also the profession of his father John and his brothers Remus and John in Catonsville, Maryland.
Samuel Adams moved from Maryland to Canada West with his wife and children about 1854. Martha Hill was the older sister of renowned Underground Railroad conductor and Oakville resident James Wesley Hill and thus Samuel Adams’ brother-in-law. It is perhaps this reason that Samuel Adams chose to relocate to Bronte. Samuel Adams continued the blacksmith trade in Bronte, Ont. until his death in 1895.
Legend has it that Samuel Adams brought $800 in gold with him which enabled him to purchase a blacksmith shop in the village of Bronte. His son John Wesley Adams was killed in the American Civil War while fighting with the Union Army.
John Wesley Adams
John Wesley Adams was born 4 June 1848 in Catonsville, Maryland. In 1861, he was residing in Trafalgar Township, Halton County.
John Wesley Adams died during the US Civil War as part of the Union Army.
Jeremiah Bewley Adams and Eliza Grace Butler
Jeremiah [aka Jerry] Adams was born 8 October 1851 in Catonsville, Maryland to Samuel Adams and Martha Hill. Jeremiah B. Adams was about 3 in 1854 when the family settled in the village of Bronte.
He married Eliza Grace Butler in Hamilton, Ontario on December 25, 1882.
Eliza Grace Butler Adams was born in Bronte in 1857. Her parents were Rev. William James Butler, a minister in the A.M.E. church in Bronte, and Mary Isabella Moore. Rev. Butler was instrumental in founding the church at Bronte.
Their children were William Samuel Adams, Isabella (Mrs. Alex.) Duncan [the mother of Oakville historian Alvin Duncan], Martha (Mrs. Albert) Wayner, Ella (Mrs. W. H.) Crowley, and Nina Adams, and Mary Olive, Stanley Edgar and Gladys Azalia that did not survive to adulthood.
Jeremiah Adams was a farmer in Bronte, Township of Trafalgar. He died 3 February 1948 at age 96. Eliza Adams died 6 May 1948 at age 90.
The Adams family attended Turner A.M.E. Church in Oakville.
William Samuel Adams
W. Samuel Adams was the oldest son of Jeremiah B. Adams and Eliza Grace Butler. Adams was a farmer in the town of Oakville. W. Samuel Adams died 10 October 1971 in Oakville at the age of 83. Adams lived with his parents in Bronte until 1901 when they moved to Oakville. In 1924 Adams purchased a farm near Bronte where he lived with his parents. W. Samuel Adams left Oakville for work with the Canadian Pacific Railway as a porter in 1918.
Butler family
William James Butler and Mary Isabella Moore were married in Toronto in 1856. W.J. Butler, a minister, was instrumental in founding the A.M.E. church at Bronte.
They had four children, Eliza, married to Jeremiah B. Adams; Frederick J. Butler, late of Chicago; Marion I. Butler, James T. Butler and Abyssonia Butler. The Butler’s also had five children that did not live to adulthood – Sydney Francis, Nancy, Henry, Jenette, and George Stanford. The Butler’s owned Lots 11 and 12 on the northwest side of Chisholm Street in the village of Bronte.
Crowley family
Ella Margaret Adams Crowley (1891-1974) was the daughter of Jeremiah Bewley Adams and Eliza Grace Butler. She received training at the Central Technical School in Toronto, graduating with a diploma in the evening domestic art program in 1918. She may have been a domestic worker for a short time living in Buffalo, NY. She was also employed as a domestic worker by barrister E.T. Malone and his wife, residing at 86 Queens Park. On 25 September 1918, at the residence of her parents, Ella Adams married William Henry Crowley. Ella Crowley died 10 November 1974 in Toronto.
William Henry Crowley was born 11 October 1893 at East Preston, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He died 10 October 1983 at age 89. He was the son of Richard Crawley and Emily [Emma] Williams. His siblings included: Hattie, Lena, Arthur, Sadie, Ina [Inez], and Stella.
In 1916 Crowley moved to Toronto and worked at the Dominion Foundry. Crowley received an exemption from military service in 1917 because of a medical issue. He joined the Pullman Company in 1924 where he remained until his retirement in 1959. Crowley was a member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Ella Adams and William Crowley had four children: Emily Marion [Marion Newby of Chatham and mother of donor Dalyce Newby], William Richard, Margaret, Stanley Bernard.
Crowley was a member of First Baptist Church, Toronto and was elected a deacon in 1921. He served in many other church committees and sang in the choir.
Dalyce Newby is the granddaughter of William H. and Ella Margaret (Adams) Crowley. She became the designated family historian, preserving the family records of the Adams, Butler, Hill and Crowley families and their relations. In October 2025 she donated the records to Brock University Archives.
Johnson family
Josephine Martha Adams (1856-1923), sister of Jeremiah B. Adams and daughter of Samuel Adams and Martha Hill married James Richard Johnson. Together they had ten children: Martha Rosabelle, Ernest Samuel, Christopher Randaff, Ida May, Ellen Nora, Wilbur James, William Buelloy, Lulla Elizabeth, Marjorie, and Edna Eva.
Martha Rosabelle Johnson (1878-1952) married Lorenzo Wayner in 1910. They had six children: Richard Jeremiah, Emma, Marjorie, Edward, Martha and James.
Ida May Johnson (1885-1963) married James W. Wayner in 1913. They had one son, Frank Lloyd Wayner.
Nora Ellen Johnson (1887-1952) married Alexander Wayner in 1912. They had four daughters – Ellen Josephine, Jennie Rosabelle, Margaret Beatrice, Gertrude, and two sons – John Percy and Ernest.
Source: Canada Census, 1921, 1931.
*Three Johnson sisters married three Wayner brothers.The textual records and keepsakes of the Adams, Butler, Hill and Johnson families in the Oakville area. The bulk of the material contains photographs, scrapbooks and account books detailing the lives of culturally significant Black families formerly from Maryland.This record contains language that reflects the time period when it was created and the view of its creator(s). This can include offensive and negative language, references, and stereotypes that are no longer used or appropriate today. The item(s) retain their original content to ensure that attitudes and viewpoints are not erased from the historical record. The Archives & Special Collections are actively working on including more respectful and representative language in our own descriptions now and into the future
Home Health Care Routing and Scheduling Problem with Genetic Algorithms
No full textThe Home Health Care Routing and Scheduling Problem (HHCRSP) is an NP-hard optimization problem that involves planning the routes and schedules of caregivers who provide in-home medical services. Despite the extensive use of metaheuristics in related routing problems, the HHCRSP has received limited attention, with only one known Genetic Algorithm (GA) and its variants reported in the literature. This thesis addresses this gap by proposing a novel GA and, for the first time, a Tabu Search (TS) approach for the HHCRSP. The GA incorporates and evaluates the Best-Cost Route Crossover (BCRC) operator—originally designed for vehicle routing problems. In addition, an enhanced version of the BCRC, the Best-Cost Route Crossover with Incremental Swap Optimization (BCRCS), is introduced in this thesis, alongside a route-based encoding scheme that eliminates the need for decoding. Experiments on benchmark instances demonstrate that the proposed methods outperform existing GA-based approaches and achieve competitive results compared to other metaheuristics. Notably, the BCRCSGA with Local Search (BCRCSGA-LS) produced new best-known solutions and superior average performance. These findings expand the limited metaheuristic research on the HHCRSP and provide a solid foundation for future exploration of more efficient and scalable optimization strategies
Transplanting directions issued by Stone & Wellington Nurserymen, ca. 1920
Full text linkStone & Wellington operated the Fonthill Nurseries in Fonthill, Ontario, with their head office in Toronto. The nursery operation, originally founded by Samuel Taylor in 1837, changed hands several times. The business was sold to Edward Morris who formed a partnership with William E. Wellington and George A. Stone, operating as Morris, Wellington & Stone. Ultimately the business came under the sole ownership of Stone & Wellington.The record is a circular produced by Stone & Wellington Nurserymen giving transplanting directions
Neurodivergent Narratives: Restorying Neurodiversity in Twenty-First Century Middle Grade Literature
Full text linkPopularized middle grade literature about neurodivergent characters, typically written by neurotypical authors, often portrays disability as a problem needing to be cured or changed. In contrast, fiction created by neurodivergent authors offers alternative perspectives, reimagining and restorying dominant narratives about neurodivergent individuals, positioning their natural ways of being as valid and valuable. This study explores the question of what neurodivergent representation in twenty-first century middle grade literature can become if we reject and restory the dominant narrative about neurodivergent people. Through paired analyses and (re)readings of historical texts, this dissertation reveals how racism and ableism are deeply embedded in children’s literature of the past, influencing portrayals of neurodivergent characters today. By examining the children’s book publishing industry as an exploitative, capitalist enterprise, this study highlights the social, cultural, and political contexts of middle grade literature and how the ways characters are treated in stories mirrors the treatment of neurodivergent individuals in educational, medical, and social settings. I argue that narratives authored by neurodivergent creators give presence to the neurodivergent lives excluded from popularized novels written by neurotypical authors. These narratives provide examples of restoried and reflective futures where neurodivergent characters—and young readers—thrive as the authors and protagonists of their own life stories
The effects of hand and forearm cooling on self-paced cycling performance in the heat.
Full text linkThis study investigated the effectiveness of hand and forearm per-cooling on self-paced cycling performance in the heat. We hypothesized that continuous, localized cooling would attenuate thermal strain and improve thermal sensation, thereby enhancing performance during a 20-km cycling time trial (TT). Ten trained cyclists (7 male, 3 female) completed three randomized trials in a hot environmental chamber (35°C, 50% RH), immersing their forearms and hands in a circulating water bath at 10°C, 20°C, or a 32∘C (control) throughout the TT. Performance, physiological, and perceptual measures were collected. Results showed no significant differences in time to completion, power output, pacing strategy (p=0.488), core temperature, or heart rate response across the conditions. However, whole-body thermal sensation and comfort were significantly reduced in the 10°C and 20°C trials compared to the 32°C trial from the 5-km mark onward. Despite these perceptual benefits, the lack of a measurable improvement in performance or physiological thermoregulation suggests that continuous, passive water immersion of the extremities is insufficient to overcome the heat stress experienced during a self-paced 20-km TT. Our findings highlight that a reduction in perceptual thermal strain does not necessarily translate to an ergogenic benefit, underscoring the need to consider the specific modality and timing of cooling interventions
Introduction to Science Communication: Pre-worksheet
Full text linkThis worksheet introduces key concepts and definitions while asking thought provoking questions about the ‘what, why, who, how and language’ of science communication. The activities within the worksheet help identify the appropriate knowledge users for your research, how you can most effectively communicate science to these users and how to apply the concepts of science communication to your own research.
This worksheet is from a series of 4 worksheets on the topic of science communication: 1. Introduction to Science Communication: Pre-worksheet; 2. Writing in Plain Language: Getting Started; 3. Creating a Graphical Abstract: 10 Steps to Start; and 4. Prior to the Podcast: Preparing for Your Episode. These worksheets are intended for individuals interested in building their science communication skills to effectively communicate science to the public as well as other knowledge users. The worksheets were developed within the Validation, Prototyping and Manufacturing Institute (VPMI) at Brock University (https://brocku.ca/vpmi/) to support the sharing of scientific findings.Created with funding through a Science Communication Skills Grant (pilot) from NSERC, “Mobilizing science from the lab to the community” to Wendy E. Ward, Brock University
Niagara Brand Spray Co., Limited advertising, ca. 1920
No full textMaxwell C. Smith was a fruit grower and broker living in Freeman, Ontario. Today the village has long since merged with the city of Burlington. The area was known for its market gardens. Smith founded the Niagara Brand Spray Co. Limited in 1909 and sold his interests in the 1930s to Niagara Brand Chemicals, a division of FMC Machinery. (Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation).
Smith was the Reeve of Burlington from 1908-1915 and became the first mayor of Burlington, serving from 1915-1916, and again in 1919.3 items of advertising ephemera promoting the orchard management spray and spraying equipment sold by Niagara Brand Spray Co., Ltd. of Burlington, Ontario
Reducing Latency and Increasing Resilience to Cyberattacks on Networks
Full text linkDue to the constant need for Internet access, the multitude of requests from various user devices for content from multiple sources causes routers to suffer high latency if data transmissions are mismanaged. Furthermore, if an attack, such as Denial of Service (DoS) or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), is launched on a network with mismanaged data transmissions, the result could be catastrophic, making proper transmission management paramount. Various techniques for managing these communications exist, but they are computationally costly and only account for select variables such as energy consumption or the amount of data transmitted. We use a genetic algorithm approach to generate network configurations with reduced latency based on multiple factors: transmission distance, data transmitted over a connection or to a node, and energy consumption, with the eventual goal of these networks having increased resilience to cyberattacks
Osteopathic Techniques and Proprioceptive Exercises for Ankle Sprain Recovery and Remediation: An Introductory Handbook for Allied Health Care Providers
Full text linkAbstract
This project presents a handbook of four osteopathic manual manipulation techniques for treating chronic ankle sprains. The project illustrates through pictures, video demonstrations, and discussions how osteopathic manual manipulation techniques may be combined with proprioceptive exercises to provide a two-pronged approach to ankle sprain recovery and remediation. The handbook is intended to introduce these osteopathic techniques and proprioceptive exercises within the framework of osteopathic philosophy and practices to health care practitioners such as physiotherapists (PTs), athletic therapists (ATs), registered massage therapists (RMTs), and those practitioners who may not be familiar with these techniques or who may not be aware of osteopathy’s holistic philosophy as it relates to the treatment of chronic ankle sprains and overall wellness.
This project also provides readers with historical background on the origin and evolution of osteopathy and discusses its current and future status as an allied health care profession in Canada