14589 research outputs found
Sort by
The Xinjiang detention centers : a perversion of Jeremy Bentham’s ideal panoptic structure or its stark reality?
Get PDF1 online resource (35 pages)Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-35).The modern convergence of technology and social control has met its current peak in Xinjiang, China, as millions of ethnic and religious minorities are targeted, confined, and reformed in the region’s camp detention system. In an effort to contain social crisis and reinforce critical control over the region, the Chinese government has introduced harsh surveillance measures purposed to alter the region’s culture and identity. The design and purpose of this immense program is not a new structure to mankind however, as English philosopher Jeremy Bentham had developed a precursor of this system in the form of the Panopticon in the late 18th century. Tracing the development and structure of Bentham’s theoretical concept, it can be shown that the current detention system in Xinjiang is not a perversion of Bentham’s design, but it’s practical implementation in the modern surveillance state
Does education expenditure have a positive impact on economic growth? : a panel data estimation of five developing countries
Get PDF1 online resource (28 pages)Includes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (pages 23-27).The quality of human capital is essential for a nation to grow and keep up with the growing pace of development and innovation. Education is being recognized as a key contributing factor to the sustainable growth of a nation. This paper seeks to find if more investment in human capital will fuel the growth of developing countries. Five Asian developing countries have been selected to study the impact of their public education expenditure on economic growth. The cointegration test shows that education expenditure has a long-run equilibrium relationship with growth. Next, the Random Effect Model used for the panel regression suggests that there is a positive and significant relationship between education expenditure and the GDP per capita. The result implies that to achieve a sustainable growth plan, countries should invest more in public education. In this way, they will be able to reduce unemployment, increase the standard of living, and also eradicate poverty
An assessment of anti-staphylococcal, anti-mycobacterial and anti-candidal properties in fungal isolates of the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) microbiome
Get PDF1 online resource (40 pages) : colour illustrationsIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 36-38).Antibiotic resistance is becoming an increasing problem in global health. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial and fungal infections is expected to increase over the next few years. In an effort to develop therapies to counteract this issue, previously unexplored environmental microbes are assessed in their anti-candidal, anti-staphylococcal and anti-mycobacterial properties. Five strains from the big brown bat microbiome are cross-cultured with three pathogenic strains: Staphylococcus aureus, Mycobacterium smegmatis, and Candida albicans. These pathogenic strains act as proxies for antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Working under the presumption of quorum-sensing occurring between microbes in close proximity, cross-cultures are conducted with the intent of activating dormant pathways. Bat strain growth and phenotypic changes are assessed in these cross-cultures and the possibilities of anti-pathogenic properties in bat strains are determined based on these findings. Two of the five bat strains studied have a strong likelihood of possessing anti-pathogenic properties. The remaining bat strains show promise in further investigations as well, but not to the same extent based on findings
What’s your snapchat? : I’ll be watching you
Get PDF1 online resource (93 pages)Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 57-61).Introduction: Social media is an ever-changing human interaction, especially when it comes to relationships and break-ups. The main objective of this research study was to understand if social media was causing negative affects in its users and if it was causing people to engage in behaviours similar to stalking through normalization of following behaviours promoted by social networking sites and social learning.
Methods: To test this hypothesis, a sample of 101 Saint Mary’s University students took part in an online survey that contained scales such as the DASS 21, The Diane Poole Attachment Scale and a number of other questions designed to understand participant demographics and social media usage.
Results: The results of this study found that students were not engaging in following and/or stalking-type behaviours post break-up, thus the hypothesis was not supported. The results did show that 70% of participants ranked in the moderate range on the DASS and that they have both secure/anxious-ambivalent styles of attachment.
Conclusion: This thesis ends with a discussion of possible reasons for such results. Limitations of this study were the sample only including individuals of the ages of 19-31 and that the sample only included students at a single university. The future direction of this study could include conducting the same survey in five years to see if the results may shifted
Hydrocarbon fingerprinting and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of Cambrian-Ordovician sedimentary rocks, western Newfoundland, Canada
Get PDF1 online resource (74 pages) : illustrations (chiefly colour), mapIncludes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (pages 62-74).For this study, we have investigated marine carbonates and shales deposited as rhythmites from the lower Shallow Bay Formation and upper Green Point Formation of the Cow Head Group spanning the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary in western Newfoundland. Eighteen carbonate and shale samples were collected and processed for their hydrocarbon biomarkers. The resulting solvent extracts were analyzed using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC×GC-MS). Several petroleum biomarkers such as n-alkanes, acyclic isoprenoids, steranes, hopanes as well as various aromatic hydrocarbons were quantified. These compounds are used as parameters to reconstruct the paleodepositional conditions of the depositional environment, and the thermal maturation of the extractable hydrocarbons. Pristane/Phytane (Pr/Ph) ratios of the rock samples range from (~0.16 to ~3.1), indicating that the organic matter was deposited under anoxic to dysoxic and possibly oxic conditions. A comparison of the Ph/n-C18 and Pr/n-C17 suggests the organic matter is derived from mixed Type II/Type III kerogen. The rocks also contains C27, C28, C29 αββand ααα-steranes 24(S+R) and αβ- and αβ-diasteranes in which the C29 stigmastanes dominate. Gammacerane, formed from the biological precursor, tetrahymanol found in ciliated detritivores that commonly thrive in marine stratified water columns was also detected. Gammacerane Index (GI) values are low, ranging from ~0.74 to ~3.5, indicating there is minimal stratification in the water column during sediment deposition. Maturation of source rocks was assessed by monitoring the ratio of trisnorneohopane (Ts) and trisnorhopane (Tm) as well as C31 αβ-hopane 22S/C31 αβ-hopane (22S+22R). Ts/(Ts+Tm) and C31 ⍺ S/(S+R) values are 0 to ~0.68 and ~0.45 to ~0.54, respectively. These low values indicate the organic matter in most of the samples is early to moderately mature. Samples with the highest range of Ts/(Ts+Tm) from 0.57 to 0.62 likely experienced the main phase of oil generation. The δ13C profile across Shallow Bay Formation and Green Point Formation shows alternation of positive and negative δ13C excursions (SPICE event, post-SPICE event, and HERB or TOCE event). Changes in organic matter ratios are observed by using steranes/hopanes and Pr/Ph ratios. Distinct negative shifts of values for the two parameters correspond to negative δ13Ccarb excursions during SPICE, post-SPICE, and HERB events. At the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary, an inverse relationship between these two parameters (high steranes/hopanes percentage accompanied by low Pr/Ph ratios) exists that may be linked to oxygen drawdown from increased productivity in the water column that affected redox conditions at depth
2020-09-18 Senate Minutes and Agenda
No full textMinutes and agenda for the September 18th, 2020 meeting of Saint Mary's University Senate
2020-10-16 Senate Minutes and Agendas
No full textMinutes and agenda for the October 16h, 2020 meeting of Saint Mary's University Senate
Empathy, personality and trauma work
No full text99 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-99).Research on trauma and emergency workers has continued to grow over the past several decades. However, most of the research on this population has tended to focus on the personal consequences associated with trauma work. The current study utilizes a person-centered approach to examine the empathy profiles and professional outcomes of these
workers. Latent profile analyses were conducted on two samples of trauma and emergency workers using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), a four-facet measure of empathy. Two similar groups of empathy profiles emerged from the two samples, with significant differences being observed among the profiles in terms of both work outcomes and occupational groupings. Significant differences were also noted among the empathy profiles in terms of the Big Five personality traits, several of which were covariates in the relationships between the profiles and specific work outcomes. The theoretical implications, practical considerations and limitations of the current study are discussed
Investigation of a yellow lake pigment using 2D-LC and EC-SERS
Get PDF1 online resource (xix, 116 pages) : colour illustrationsIncludes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (pages 102-106).The identification of natural organic pigments is fundamental for the conservation, preservation, and historical interpretation of artwork. Natural pigments, derived from plant and insect sources, can experience fading and degradation over time due to light, air, and humidity exposure. As such, these naturally-derived pigments are referred to as fugitive pigments. Although these pigments are derived from simple sources, it can be a significant challenge to characterize these pigments by a single method since they are found in complex matrices and are comprised of many components varying in their chemical structure and properties. Many spectroscopic techniques have been used successfully for the identification of fugitive pigments, such as Raman and infrared spectroscopy. Although these techniques are quite useful, they have their disadvantages. Raman spectroscopy is inherently weak, with only one in a million photons undergoing inelastic scattering. In addition, molecules which are also fluorescent, such as many natural organic pigments, will be difficult to detect using Raman spectroscopy due to the competing fluorescence. An enhanced variant of Raman spectroscopy, called surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy or SERS, has shown much promise in this area over the past 15 years, with many natural organic pigments being identified in precious artworks as a result. However, a significant limitation of SERS is the ability to identify organic pigments present in a complex mixture and this limitation is due to the fact that SERS by itself offers no separation capabilities. While coupling of separation techniques such as thin layer chromatography and liquid chromatography have been attempted and have been successful, even for artist colourants, the combination of multidimensional chromatography and SERS has not yet been attempted and is the focus of this thesis work.1,2 Multidimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) is appropriate for addressing the increasing demand for decoding complex samples and has recently been found to be useful for the separation of artist colourants.3 However, it remains challenging to identify the components in such complex mixtures in a rapid and confirmatory way. Consequently, this thesis work has explored a 2D-LC-EC-SERS method, wherein electrochemical SERS (EC SERS) is used as the offline detection modality for multidimensional chromatography. This thesis work hypothesizes that 2D-LC-EC-SERS can be used for the identification of components in pigment samples, with a future goal of elucidation of the pigment degradation pathways for yellow lake pigments in particular