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BEST PRACTICES AND LESSONS LEARNED IN HIGHER EDUCATION ENTREPRENEURIAL PROGRAMS: A CASE STUDY OF THREE PROGRAMS IN ETHIOPIA, UGANDA AND CANADA
No full textLinking to the literature reviewed in this paper, which explores entrepreneurship and youth in agriculture, program design, development and delivery, including supporting internal and external resources, this research explores these topics through an analysis of three entrepreneurial programs in Ethiopia, Uganda and Canada. For the purpose of this study, I answer the following two research questions:
1. What are the best practices in agricultural entrepreneurship programs in higher education?
2. What are the lessons learned from the implementation of these entrepreneurial agriculture programs?In the face of rising youth unemployment, rural out-migration, and the undervaluation of agriculture, entrepreneurship education has emerged as a promising strategy to empower youth and stimulate economic development, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This thesis presents a comparative case study of three agricultural entrepreneurship programs implemented in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Canada; all coordinated through Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Agriculture. Using qualitative methods, including interviews with 36 facilitators and students, the study explores program goals, design, delivery, outcomes, and contextual considerations of the three programs. Findings reveal that while program structures and socio-economic contexts differ significantly, common best practices in programming include experiential learning, mentorship, safe learning environments, gender equity and institutional support. Uganda’s Skills Development Project and the integration of entrepreneurship into formal curricula yielded particularly strong student startup outcomes, while Dalhousie’s Cultiv8 program in Canada emphasized the goals of mindset development and transferable skills. The Agriculture Through Stronger Vocational Education project in Ethiopia demonstrated the potential of targeted funding and mentorship, though systemic barriers such as limited access to land and conflicting government policies hindered success. The study concludes that entrepreneurship education in agriculture must be flexible and adaptable to the context and supported by robust institutional and policy frameworks. It offers evidence-based recommendations for enhancing program sustainability, fostering entrepreneurial mindsets, and aligning educational initiatives with broader development goals. These insights contribute to the global discussion on youth empowerment through agricultural innovation
Validation and Application of a Needs-Based Complexity Case-Mix System for Community-Based Primary Health Care Planning and Research
No full textBackground: Canadian provinces are transforming their primary health care (PHC) systems by developing networks of resources at community and practice levels. This leaves provinces with the challenge of determining how to meaningfully measure the PHC needs of communities and practices. Currently, methods for systematically measuring PHC needs at community and practice levels are inadequate for PHC planning and are not routinely used. Objectives: The objectives of this research were to (1) operationalize and evaluate a complexity case-mix system to measure variation in PHC needs across practices and communities, and (2) apply the system to two areas of resource alignment relevant for PHC planning a) comparing the case-mix of PHC needs of patients unattached to a PHC provider with the attached population, and b) assessing if there are systematic differences in the case-mix of PHC needs between groups with different commuting patterns for PHC. Approach and Results: The setting of this research was Nova Scotia (NS), Canada. We adapted a previously developed case-mix approach for PHC, leveraging administrative data to classify Nova Scotians into a set of needs-based segments ranging from low to high complexity. We evaluated the complexity case-mix system against a set of criteria including consistency with research on what makes PHC needs complex, utility for PHC decision makers, and segment associations with healthcare use. Segments were consistent with research on what makes PHC needs complex, and decision makers found the NS complexity case-mix system to be useful, identifying multiple areas for application including evaluating PHC performance. Segments were further found to be predictive of healthcare costs and primary care costs. We then applied the case-mix system to the unattached patient centralized waitlist in NS and found that patients who are unattached to PHC have less complex needs than the attached population. We further rostered patients to providers and found variability in commuting for PHC by community, region, and need segment, with those who commute for PHC having less complex needs compared to those who do not commute. Impact: The results of this embedded research are enhancing the capacity to design and iteratively improve community PHC systems
Scoring Everyday Rhythms: Improvising the Edges of Louis Armstrong Park
No full textNew Orleans—shaped by layers of European colonialism and African diasporic resilience—finds its most vivid expression in the Tremé district, where jazz once wove together heritage, community bonds, and individual voice. Yet mid‑century “urban renewal” severed these ties: the erection of Louis Armstrong Park and the Interstate 10 overpass carved a deep void through Tremé’s social fabric and fractured its cultural landscape.
This thesis adopts jazz’s inherent improvisational logic to reexamine the park’s latent “event dimensions,” tracing currents of movement, sound, and structural thresholds. Through a notational framework—mapping archival rhythms of second‑line parades, pedestrian flows, and acoustic zones—it proposes adaptable interventions that bridge historic fragments with contemporary needs. Grounded in Tremé’s layered past and its enduring musical legacy, the project reconceives Louis Armstrong Park as a living stage: an architectural composition that orchestrates collective memory, cultural expression, and social resilience across past, present, and future
Alphabetizing Data, Deformance, and Desire in Sheila Heti's Alphabetical Diaries
No full textThis thesis is an exploration of Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries as an act of artistic data visualization and poetic deformance, and a fragmentary feminist praxis. It adds Heti’s text to a lineage of books that reject and reframe canonized structures, and embeds Alphabetical Diaries within a history of women’s diary-writing. Heti’s diaristic impulse to document and record is contrasted with her desire to reorder with alphabetization, making space for new narratives, both in form and content. With its experimental and embodied structure, Alphabetical Diaries creates several intimate encounters between the reader and writer. This thesis examines the hope, love, and curiosity that emerge from that relationship. It turns to artistic data visualization, poetic deformance, and the New Narrative literary movement to propose that Alphabetical Diaries is an auto-archive of situated knowledge and literary relationality that reshapes the way we look at ourselves, others, and the world around us
“I was just taking to suit myself”: Jack Turner’s Photographic Life from Western Prince Edward Island to the Western Front
No full textPhotography is a technological engagement with the act of seeing, and its presumed “authenticity” through technological reproducibility was both valued and feared by the Canadian government. A gunner from O’Leary Prince Edward Island named Brenton Harold “Jack” Turner defied censorship regulations to document his war. From 1915-1919, Turner bore unflinching photographic witness to both the horrors of modern warfare and the necessity of community, without which his clandestine photographs would not exist. The war changed his relationship with photography, and he did not pick up a camera for decades afterwards; perhaps he only saw a landscape he may have felt partially responsible for destroying. Eventually, Turner returned to his wartime images, processing those harrowing experiences into “memory objects.” In inspiring empathy for the individual soldier-photographer reflecting on his experiences, Turner's reflective pieces challenge the national imaginary of the Great War by bearing material witness to the personal trauma of warfare
Cataloguing Palestine: Investigating Cultural Imperialism in Subject Headings
No full textThis thesis examines how library classification systems, particularly the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), participate in the cultural erasure of Palestine. Grounded in anti-colonial theory and the works of thinkers like Frantz Fanon and Edward Said, it explores how settler-colonial frameworks are embedded in systems of knowledge organization, obscuring and distorting Palestinian histories, identities, and narratives. This project undertakes the creation of a critical genealogy (Davis et al., 2022) tracing the works of information professionals both in and out of Palestine in confronting and combatting these frameworks. Weaving together conversations happening in published literature, conferences, and a roundtable discussion featuring information professionals working in Palestine and Gaza, this thesis highlights both the violence of existing cataloguing practices and the potential for resistance through justice-driven approaches to metadata. The findings underscore the urgent need for classification work that centers Palestinian voices and resists the epistemic violence of settler colonialism.This thesis examines how library classification systems, particularly the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), participate in the cultural erasure of Palestine. Grounded in anti-colonial theory and the works of thinkers like Frantz Fanon and Edward Said, it explores how settler-colonial frameworks are embedded in systems of knowledge organization, obscuring and distorting Palestinian histories, identities, and narratives. This project undertakes the creation of a critical genealogy (Davis et al., 2022) tracing the works of information professionals both in and out of Palestine in confronting and combatting these frameworks. Weaving together conversations happening in published literature, conferences, and a roundtable discussion featuring information professionals working in Palestine and Gaza, this thesis highlights both the violence of existing cataloguing practices and the potential for resistance through justice-driven approaches to metadata. The findings underscore the urgent need for classification work that centers Palestinian voices and resists the epistemic violence of settler colonialism
AGE AND SEX-DEPENDENT EFFECTS OF DIETARY NITRATES WITH AND WITHOUT EXERCISE ON FRAILTY AND CARDIAC HEALTH IN C57BL/6 MICE.
No full textNitrate supplements are commonly combined with aerobic exercise to potentially improve both performance and cardiac function, but research has mostly used young male participants. Hence, whether this combination improves cardiac function in females or improves age-related cardiovascular deterioration is unclear. It is also unknown whether the combination of exercise and nitrates improves frailty in young or old mice. This study provided young (7-9 mos) and old (24 mos) male and female mice 1 mM sodium nitrate in drinking water, access to a voluntary running wheel, both, or neither for 12 weeks. Health was measured using a frailty index, body composition scan (DEXA), and treadmill fitness test at baseline and endpoint. Cardiac health was assessed in young and old mice using echocardiography, myocardial strain, electrocardiography, blood pressure, and renal blood flow at baseline, midpoint and endpoint. At endpoint ventricular cardiomyocytes were paced at 2 Hz and loaded with Fura-2 dye to measure contractions and calcium transients. Expression levels of calcium handling proteins were measured in ventricular tissue. In young mice both exercise and nitrates prevented detrimental changes in body composition but only the combination of exercise and nitrates improved frailty and increased exercise volume in females. Nitrates alone protected older female mice against detrimental increases in frailty and improved older male body composition while the combination of exercise and nitrates had little effect. Cardiovascular effects were also assessed in young mice. Exercise was beneficial for cardiac structure and function for mostly female mice. While nitrates improved blood pressure, they reduced systolic function in young male mice. The combination intervention abolished most of the beneficial cardiac effects of exercise in female mice. This occurred as nitrates plus exercise negatively impacted calcium handling in young females. In older mice, nitrates improved blood pressure but also decreased systolic function in older female mice. However, in older males the beneficial effects of exercise were largest in nitrate supplemented mice. In conclusion, there were sex and age specific effects of the combination of aerobic exercise and sodium nitrate where the combination was most beneficial in older male mice and detrimental in young female mice
From Monument to Living Narrative: Resurrecting the Halifax Memorial Library
No full textThis thesis proposes the adaptive reuse of the Halifax Memorial Library, transforming it
from a static monument into an active civic space. Inspired by Andrew Shanken's The
Everyday Life of Memorials, the design explores how memorial sites can be integrate into
the city's daily rhythms, moving beyond periodic activation.
The core intervention directly embeds the library's layered history and narratives into
its architecture, blurring the line between the sacred and the everyday. This approach
allows the building to function as a dynamic, lived environment rather than a passive
commemorative object.
To embody these narratives, the design introduces three archetypal characters: The
Archivist, The Pauper and The Steward. Derived from the site's historical traces, these
characters serve as narrative agents and spatial guides throughout the building. The result
is a library that actively participates in the life of the city, bridging past and present to
become a living storyteller
Effects of ATRX Deficiency and/or Altered Ubiquitination on Candidate Gene Expression in Hippocampal Tissue from C57BL/6J Mice
No full textThe autism-risk gene Atrx encodes the chromatin-remodeling protein ATRX, which regulates histone ubiquitination and gene expression. Clariom™ assays were used to determine the effects of ATRX deficiency and ubiquitination disruption on hippocampal transcription in adult male mice. ATRX deficiency and RING1Bi-mediated ubiquitination inhibition resulted in genome-wide downregulation of memory-related genes, which was partially reversed by USP10 inhibition. Candidate genes were selected from Clariom™ assay STRING analysis. RT-qPCR analyses of mRNA levels for Brap, Crh, Gnrh1, Kras, Nr4a1, Pomc, and Prkcd aligned with the Clariom™ assay results. ELISAs revealed altered protein levels of GNRH1, KRAS, and PRKCD (but not NR4A1) in the ATRX-deficient and ubiquitination-disrupted mice. Increased hippocampal KRAS levels correlated with impaired spatial learning and memory in the Morris water maze. These findings highlight potential mechanistic pathways and upstream targets-such as Brap, Crh, Gnrh1, Kras, Nr4a1, Pomc, and Prkcd-for future studies into gene regulation underlying autism-related cognitive dysfunction
Antigen-Adaptive NK Cell Memory In The Absence Of Functional TCR Genes
No full textNatural killer (NK) cells are among the founding members of innate lymphoid cells, specialized in the recognition and elimination of virally infected cells, tumour cells, and abnormal cells. Recent research studies have uncovered that NK cells also exhibit adaptive immune features similar to T and B cells, which holds promise for using the NK cell memory for the development of new cancer and viral immunotherapies. Research in our lab demonstrated that NK cells can elicit immunological memory in Rag1-/- mice, which are devoid of the adaptive T cells and B cells. However, there remains a need to explore whether this phenomenon persists in the complete absence of TCR genes. The ability of NK cells to mediate adaptive responses was evaluated by studying the contact hypersensitivity ear swelling response to chemical haptens and peptides in TCR-β-/-δ-/- mice. This was done in conjunction with NK cell depletion via anti-NK1.1, Ly49C/I+ NK cell depletion via anti-Ly49C/I, and B cell depletion via anti-CD20. In the absence of NK cells, specifically Ly49C/I+ NK cells, TCR-β-/-δ-/- mice were unable to exhibit immunological memory responses. Furthermore, depleting B cells did not impact TCR-β-/-δ-/- mice’s ability to exhibit adaptive responses. It was essential that mice be sensitized and challenged with the same hapten or peptide in order for NK cell memory responses to be observed. These results show memory responses can be attributed to NK cells in the absence of TCR genes and is antigen-specific. This study shows that NK cells are a physiologically relevant contributor to the adaptive immune response as immunological memory can be observed in the absence of TCR genes. A better understanding of the adaptive NK cell responses elicited in these studies can be exploited in therapeutic and prophylactic treatments of cancer and viral infections