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Biodiversity, growth and bioremediation use of fungi on marine plastics from Nova Scotia
No full textThe versatility of plastic has led to its use in multiple and diverse industries. Its wide range use has had as a consequence contamination of environments. One environment particularly affected is the marine ecosystem. Although physical and chemical remediation tools are available for use in this area, they have their significant drawbacks. Bioremediation offers to address these drawbacks while dealing with the problem of plastic pollution. Marine fungi have been selected as the main bioremediation agents in this study. These fungi were found on plastic samples collected from three beaches in Nova Scotia: Kingsport, Houston’s Beach, and Scots Bay. The plastic debris was cut up, rinsed, and plated onto SWPDA+ (Salt water potato dextrose agar with antibiotics) plates to encourage fungal growth and inhibit bacterial growth. Subculturing produced axenic fungal cultures for DNA extraction and subsequent Sanger DNA sequencing for species-level identification based on the ITS rDNA region. Four candidate fungi isolated from Nova Scotia beach plastics were selected for further analysis. These four ascomycete fungi were Alternaria alternata, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Pleospora herbarum, and Trichoderma hamatum. Three-month growth assays were conducted to assess their plastic biodegradation capabilities on PP (polypropylene) and LDPE (low density polyethene) plastics including in simulated seawater conditions. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was then used to examine fungal growth and plastic degradation. Comparison between the results obtained and existing scientific literature on fungal degradation of plastic is discussed.</p
A complicated grief
No full textThis Creative Writing Thesis is a collection of forty poems entitled A Complicated Grief, a medical term for debilitating grief that continues to intensify beyond a year, with a nod to Miriam Toews’ novel A Complicated Kindness. The trigger for the project was the death of the author’s father which took place on October 15th, 2022. David Kennedy’s Elegy explains that while grief is part of one’s private life, the feelings of grief are universal, and the elegiac tradition has long provided people with a way to help make sense of their mourning. This thesis was written on the belief that feelings have become too private, leaving a world of people who do not know how to feel with or for each other, making it difficult for humans to truly connect. This thesis says there is strength in vulnerability – cry in public. It is divided into four sections, “Have You Seen My Dad?” containing poems about the author’s father, “Grief Is” exploring the grief process in general, “Sore Spot” revealing how grief takes place in big and small ways every day, and “How to Be Happy,” including healing poems. This structure takes the reader on the journey of a personal experience with grief, starting with loss and ending with hope. Though most poems are written in free verse, a variety of other forms including the sonnet, the ode, the haiku, concrete verse, and other poetic experiments are used to explore the broad spectrum of experiences of grief.</p
Grading aspen wood veneer using machine learning
No full textE&M Burgess manufactures different boxes and baskets made of aspen veneer boards. The company aims to automate its strawberry box construction process. Its current automated box-making machine uses two veneers of size approximately 12 x 4 inches to construct a box. However, defective veneers can jam the machine, which halts the automated process. The veneers must be manually graded and sorted before loading into the machine. This slow manual grading process creates a significant bottleneck in the automated manufacturing workflow. A machine vision solution can detect defects in veneer boards and classify them into three classes (A, B, and C) based on the severity of defects. It can then relay the class information to a physical sorting machine, allowing a faster and automated grading process.We investigate and compare two machine vision solutions: the Cognex In-Sight D900 Vision System, an established solution in the industry, and a custom Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model. We use a set of sample images belonging to each class provided by E&M Burgess to train the predictive models. We train and test both models with identical datasets and compare their average and class-specific F1 scores.Both models can classify the veneer boards with an F1-Score of 1.00, 0.95, and 0.95 for classes A, B, and C, respectively, and an average F1-Score of 0.97. We conclude that both models are capable of classifying the veneer boards of class A with an accuracy of at least 97% and an overall average accuracy of at least 95% for all classes. We recommend the Cognex D900 Vision System for this sorting problem due to its relatively easy implementation and robustness.</p
A diamond seeker's legacy: stolen voices in James Wickenden's Beyond the High Savannahs
No full textMy project is an autoethnographic, postcolonial analysis of a 1956 travel book about Milton Chin, my father, an Afro-Chinese national of British Guiana, a diamond seeker, and his adventures in the jungles of South America where he lived with an Indigenous people, the Patamona. Written by James Wickenden, a Scot, the narrative exploits the supposed authority of an anonymous first-person point of view to appropriate Chin’s experience, obscure his racial heritage and mimic the tropes of a coloniser as he insinuates himself into the lives of the Patamona to find diamonds. I uncover my father’s past and insert the silenced voices of the Patamona along with my own as I question the book’s authenticity and discover unexpected hidden truths in an imperialist fantasy. Close reading exposes narrative strategies which promote Orientalism and reveals how the Patamona women reclaim agency through Quashie’s “quiet” and Lorde’s “power of the erotic”.Keywords: appropriation of voice, autoethnography, family, identity, Indigenous knowledge, mixed-race, postcolonial, travel book</p
Gendered news coverage of Canadian members of parliament: an analysis of local media coverage during the 42nd parliament
No full textThis thesis investigates whether local news media coverage of Members of Parliament (MPs) varies based on MP gender during Canada’s 42nd Parliament by asking: are male and female Members of Parliament reported on by local news media in different ways? Employing content analysis of new articles written about four MPs between October 19, 2015 and October 20, 2019, it is found that while some coverage of MPs varies based on MP gender, others do not. Overall, the findings suggest that the health of local news media in Canada varies across regions and may be equal to or greater than gender as a contributor to differences in news coverage amongst MPs.</p
Winston Churchill and British imperialism: shaping the Middle East
No full textThe modern nations state of the Middle East emerged because of early 20th century European imperialist policy. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War One and its subsequent collapse resulted in the growth of British and French strength in the region. One of the major contributors to British imperial policy for the Middle East was Winston Churchill. From Churchill’s time as First Lord of the Admiralty (1911-1915), through to his time as Secretary of State for the Colonies (1921-1922), his Middle Eastern policies have had significant influence on the Middle East.This thesis argues that, while strengthening and perpetuating British imperialism in the Middle East, Churchill had subsequently played a direct role in creating the modern nation states of Iran, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel and the Palestinian territories. The first chapter of this thesis examines Churchill and his time in the Admiralty from 1911 to 1914 and looks at Churchill’s naval reforms and their implications on the Middle East. The second chapter of this thesis examines the connection between the Gallipoli campaign, which Churchill had actively organized and taken part in, and the effects it had on shaping the Middle East, primarily through the changes in British government and governmental policy that emerged from because of it. The third and final chapter deals with the effects of Churchill’s postwar diplomacy which had directly created the nations of Iraq, Jordan, and Israel and the Palestinian territories.</p
A seat at the table: table banking in Olepolos, Kenya
No full text"A SEAT AT THE TABLE: Table Banking in Olepolos, Kenya" offers a look into how table banking has changed the Maasai community of Olepolos, Kenya. Table banking is a form of community-based microfinance. In this thesis you will hear the story of Sintalo Sena’s life, business, and her first-hand experience with table banking. Alongside Sintalo, interviews with Sarone Ole Sena (a Professor of Anthropology and Maasai cultural expert) will help provide insights about the Maasai people to help us understand the cultural context of Sintalo’s life.By sharing stories and experiences with Sintalo’s table banking group, we will be discussing how table banking acts as a driving force for progress. By embracing entrepreneurship and table banking, women in Olepolos challenge traditional gender roles and redefine societal norms, paving the way for economic inclusivity. By shedding light on her experiences and obstacles, this study shows how many Maasai women, like Sintalo, break down these economic barriers and reshape Kenya’s economic landscape. In this thesis, the core concept of "a seat at the table" acts as a guiding principle in our family philosophy, which runs parallel to the values of table banking, which promotes a vision where every individual, regardless of gender or economic standing, can participate and have a seat at the table.</p
Technology and capitalism in Nova Scotia's new Climate Change Plan
No full textThe failure of global and regional climate policies to effectively mitigate the climate crisis stems largely from their refusal to challenge the political economy of capitalism. This study examines Nova Scotia’s Climate Change Plan for Clean Growth, a new policy document released in December 2022, to situate it in relation to this global policy paradigm. To do so, it systematically analyzes each mitigation-related policy action in the Plan to uncover relevant political and economic trends in the Plan’s proposed climate solutions. The study qualitatively measures two key characteristics of each action: firstly, to what extent the intended reduction in greenhouse gas emissions comes from replacing current technology with “cleaner” options or from creating cultural changes in the collective provision of needs; and, secondly, to what extent the action leverages individual market incentives or direct collective action to mobilize climate change mitigation. The rankings of each action on these two spectrums are placed on a conceptual compass chart for clear visualization of the results. The analysis finds that most actions are technologically-driven rather than culturally-driven, while they range evenly from highly individual to highly collective. The Plan’s reliance on technology and economic growth indicates that it follows a predominantly liberal-capitalist ideological framework, in line with global trends. Based on these findings, the study concludes that Nova Scotia’s overall approach to mitigating climate change is disingenuous, irresponsible, and morally self-contradictory. Lastly, the potential for a more radical climate politics in Nova Scotia is discussed.</p
Cathedrals and flames: a conversation between James K. A. Smith's cultural liturgy and Steven Félix-Jäger's renewal worship
No full textThe worship of Jesus forms believers according to his ways, opposing the formation of secular liturgies. James K. A. Smith sees the primary means for this to occur is by implementing a historic church liturgy. Meanwhile, Steven Félix-Jäger, a Renewal movement theologian, sees the spontaneous move of the Holy Spirit empowering and transforming the worshiper as the primary means. Contemporary Renewal Worship experiences have been critiqued as individualistic, consumeristic, and emotive, while a liturgy stemming from a historic church can tend to have practices that are out of touch with the modern worshiper. Each expression is susceptible to the pit falls of their practice and can no longer achieve its intention, worshiping God, and reforming the worshiper.This thesis explores how the Renewal Worship experience can appropriate aspects of Smith’s cultural liturgy while maintaining its ideals of the spontaneous move of the Holy Spirit and contextuality. Through a hypothetical conversation between James K. A. Smith, supposing a premodern liturgy counter-forms, and Steven Félix-Jäger, rooted in the free movement of the Holy Spirit, we uncover how the two can come together in a contextual ritualized play to produce a counter-forming worship experience for the Pentecostal church.</p
"It is never too late to be wise": settler colonialism as an essential generic feature of the Robinsonade
No full textThis thesis is an investigation of the Robinsonade, which is a genre born out of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and typically features a single castaway on a deserted island or other isolating location. The first chapter of this thesis prefaces said investigation with an explanation of genre theory, pulling from the theories of Alistair Fowler, Northrop Frye, and Kevin Whetter, with an emphasis on Whetter’s theories of a generic or literary community of users and the concept of essential generic features. In the second chapter I argue that there are four essential generic features of the Robinsonade: the shipwreck and the scavenge, or the initial marooning of the protagonist; the island setting; the solitude of the (usually lone) castaway; and settler colonialism. The first three of these features are established by Martin Green and I emphasize that the fourth, settler colonialism, is an overlooked generic element of modern Robinsonades. Chapter Two concludes with a close reading of Robinson Crusoe to demonstrate where these essential generic features appear in the genre’s founding text. Chapter Three demonstrates where these four features appear in modern Robinsonades, namely Minecraft and The Martian. While both texts are incredibly successful, they contain the harmful trope of settler colonialism which remains obscured from their respective audiences. The objective of this thesis is to call attention to themes of settler colonialism in these modern Robinsonades and ask audiences to reflect on their enjoyment of said themes.</p