Acadia Scholar
Not a member yet
4433 research outputs found
Sort by
Histories of Springhill, Nova Scotia: identity, emotion and transition in a coal community
No full textThis thesis will tell histories of Springhill, Nova Scotia and thereby explore the role that 'identity work' played for the community in its transition from a single-industry, carbon-based economy. Identity work involves "forming, repairing, maintaining, strengthening or revising self-meaning" (Alvesson & Willmot, 2002, 626). Identity work is often left out of community transition planning and this impedes transition efforts (Della Bosca & Gillespie, 2018). In this thesis, I use a critical organization historiography approach to unpack the identity that coal mining culture provided to Springhill. To do so, I immersed myself in the traces of past lives in Springhill and Cumberland County by reading four published history books and over 15 shorter articles and publications, listening to over 20 Nova Scotian coalmining folksongs, and visiting both the Springhill Miners' Museum and the Springhill Heritage Centre. Throughout the process I allowed music to lead my inquiry and my storytelling. I worked to listen to the voices in the songs and piece together a lived history that incorporates a variety of sources. My use of emotion through music is an advancement of critical organization historiography. This work is a call to consider and incorporate understanding of deep identity in single industry-based communities that are facing the need for transition off of fossil-based economies
Layer-by-layer deposition of graphene oxide and phosphomolybdic acid as catalyst layers in a water splitting bipolar membrane system
No full textWater splitting is a means of producing hydrogen fuel from water, a potential clean source of energy. Bipolar membranes facilitate the separation of water molecules into incompatible regions of high and low pH, allowing evolution of hydrogen and oxygen under acidic and basic conditions, respectively. To further aid this, catalyst layers can be added via layer-by-layer deposition to the bipolar membrane system to facilitate water dissociation.
Graphene oxide and phosphomolybdic acid were deposited via layer-by-layer deposition, and these layers were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The completed membranes with catalysts were then evaluated. A custom H-cell, with galvanostatic potentiometry, was used to evaluate the efficiency of these produced bipolar membrane systems. The potential across the membrane relative to applied current density was used to determine the overpotential above the theoretical minimum potential for water dissociation, and thus catalyst efficacy.
Graphene oxide proved to be an effective catalyst. It can be readily deposited via layer-by-layer deposition, and a theoretical efficiency was approached in terms of overpotential at five layers of graphene oxide
deposited within a bipolar membrane system. The efficacy of the experimental system was close to a commercial standard membrane used as a baseline. This research will lead to more efficient bipolar membranes for producing hydrogen fuel
The impact of training related improvements in motor articulation on audio-visual speech perception
No full textThere have been longstanding debates over the validity of "Motor Theories of Speech Perception." Do motor systems contribute to speech perception in every-day speech? Does motor adaptation lead to changes in
audio-visual speech perception? The study examined whether motor learning would lead to a change in audio-visual speech perception. Thirty-two Acadia University students participated in two tasks: an Audio-Visual speech perception task and a Motor Training task. The speech perception task measured participants' ability to distinguish between the phonemes PA and TA when paired with either a video of PA or TA being articulated, or a still image. The Motor Training task had participants learn to rapidly and accurately produce word strings made up of words in which the consonant was articulated using the lips (e.g., "pie poe paw pea bye bow baw bee") or the tongue (e.g., "die doe daw dee tie toe taw tee"). Critically, auditory feedback of speech was blocked during motor training. Audio-visual (AV) speech perception was measured before and after the motor training task. An improvement in word string production with training was observed, but training-related changes in speech perception were not significant due the lack of a significant relationship between the type of motor training group (either lip or tongue produced words) and changes in AV-speech perception
'The other great eye': the politics of working-class women, motherhood, and the modernist art of Käthe Kollwitz in the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933
No full textIn this thesis, I argue that the representation of proletarian women and mothers in the artwork of Käthe Kollwitz can be used to explore the shifts in gender relations during the Weimar Republic. The 'proletarian woman' or 'proletarian mother' was one of Weimar's most dominant Modernist tropes, becoming a powerful symbol at a time when motherhood was effectively politicized by male politicians and women reformers alike.
Many representations of women pervaded the Weimar era in response to women's growing sexual and economic autonomy. Women were politically mobilized en masse as they obtained enfranchisement, championed sex and welfare reform movements, and entered the workforce in droves. For women, the Weimar Republic marked the erosion of pre-war sexual mores and gender divisions –by 1925 around eleven million women worked, comprising roughly thirty-five percent of the total female population. Thus, Kollwitz's artwork will be explored in order to analyse both idealized representations as well as everyday realities of working-class women. Kollwitz's politicization and use of motherhood signifies her use of 'maternal compassion' in order to assert and legitimize her voice in the typically male sphere of political discourse. Both her political and artistic significance serve to reassert women as self-determining participators in the making of Weimar culture. However, despite struggling to liberate working-class women from their material conditions which she
painfully sought to document in her art, Kollwitz's depictions of proletarian mothers also served to reaffirm predominant stereotypes and ideas of women as self-sacrificing mothers naturally bound to the family and home. Ultimately, Kollwitz's work was unable to transcend dominant tropes and liberate women from such constraints
Explainable artificial intelligence for image classification via feature prediction and localization
No full textArtifcial neural networks (ANNs) are state-of-the-art systems for image classifcation tasks. Despite having superior performance to other machine learning tools, ANNs are unusable in some applications due to their lack of explanation of predictions. Currently, prominent explanation tools produce heatmaps which, in essence, show where the network is focusing. This thesis investigates an alternative method for adding explainability to applications of image classifcation by taking a more human-like approach of identifying the features of classifed objects within the images. The theory is that this method will also help classifcation
accuracies, alongside adding an explanation. Experiments using various multiple task learners have shown promising results indicating that it is possible to classify and localize objects and their features in a single model. Certain network architectures also prove capable of at least maintaining (and in certain cases improving) performance after consolidation. The top-performing system provides explanations that are useful for the average input example and areas that require additional improvements are discussed
Diversity of fungi from marine inundated wood from the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada
No full textMarine fungi play an integral role in the decomposition of intertidal organic substrates but remain poorly studied in cold-water habitats. Some fungi are obligately marine; in contrast, facultative marine fungi occupy terrestrial or freshwater habitats but can survive in saltwater habitats. The biodiversity of Nova Scotian marine fungi remains under studied. Through the focus on a specific substrate, marine inundated wood located
in the intertidal zone, a consistent sampling effort was carried out during our study, which is the first of its kind in the Bay of Fundy region. The fungi associated with marine inundated wood including intertidal attached and -loose wood, and driftwood (ie. wharf posts, driftwood) found at 30 sites along the Bay of Fundy coastline were cultured and identified. Marine wood samples were collected and plated onto Artificial Saltwater Agar
containing antibiotics. 299 fungi were isolated into axenic culture and 224 of the cultures were successfully identified using ITS rDNA barcoding. 91 unique species of fungi were identified, 63 of which are new records for the Bay of Fundy, 20 species are potentially new to science, and 43 of which are the first record for the species being isolated from the marine environment. These fungal species represent 9 obligate marine fungi, with the remaining species being facultative marine fungi. Seven species of soft rot fungi, capable of decaying woody material in wet and cold environments, were observed. A comprehensive inventory and culture collection of fungi reported from the Bay of Fundy was developed and β diversity was calculated. Historical records, as well as, roles of wood type, collection location within the Bay of Fundy, and media type are discussed. Herein, I provide the first annotated checklist of fungi isolated from marine wood from the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia
Densities, distributions, and individual size of Orange-Footed Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa) on the Scotian Shelf
No full textTraditional sea cucumber fisheries have collapsed due to over-fishing, however demand for sea cucumber products has continued to rise. Fisheries for the Orange-Footed Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa) have developed in Eastern Canada to fill this void. A review of the current state of knowledge for C. frondosa and an outline and history of all Eastern Canadian C. frondosa fisheries highlights the lack of fisheries-related data. Drop-camera surveying was tested for practicality to supplement fisheries-dependent data for use in management decisions. Techniques proved useful in identifying new areas of high C. frondosa
densities and highlighted the strong connection between hard substrate and high densities. Species of potential bycatch were also identified. Camera survey techniques enabled the collection of ecological data
with minimal impacts on habitat and animal behaviour. Drop-camera surveying is recommended for continued use as a fisheries-independent tool to monitor the effects of fishing pressure. Current fisheries-dependent data collection involves the measurement of lengths and weights of C. frondosa for a portion of each catch. Measurements of size can be used to identify trends and monitor effects of fishing pressure over time. Several measurements of size of C. frondosa were evaluated for consistency and accuracy over various time intervals out of water. Indices that incorporate length and width were more highly correlated
with wet weight than length or width alone. Water expulsion occurred within the first 10 minutes after removal from the tank, suggesting that measurements after 10 minutes out of water provide more consistency. Standard practices for the collection of fisheries-dependent and fisheries-independent data are vital and continued monitoring of densities, distributions, and individual size will provide data for
informed decisions making, leading the maritime C. frondosa industry toward long-tern sustainability
Petrology, age and tectonic setting of the Gunshot Brook pluton, Eastern Cobequid Highlands, Nova Scotia
No full textThe goal of this project was to provide new information about field relations, petrology, age, and tectonic significance of the enigmatic Gunshot Brook pluton in the eastern Cobequid Highlands of northern mainland Nova Scotia. Field mapping showed that pluton intruded the ca. 760-735 Ma Mount Ephraim plutonic suite on its southern margin and the >735 Ma Dalhousie Mountain Formation on its western, northern and eastern margins. Petrographic study revealed that the pluton consists mainly of granodiorite gradational to monzogranite and tonalite, with minor co-mingled dioritic rocks, all cut by mafic and felsic dykes. Whole-rock chemical data from about 40 samples display trends consistent with a comagmatic relationship among the tonalitic, granodioritic, and monzogranitic rocks, and a compositional gap between them and the mingled dioritic rocks. They are calc-alkalic and likely formed in a continental margin subduction zone together with the associated dioritic rocks. U-Pb zircon ages of 630.6 ± 2.7 Ma and 638.6 ± 2.5 Ma for granodiorite samples from the northern and southern parts of the pluton are consistent with petrological similarities which suggest that the cross-cutting Millsville fault does not have significant offset. Granitic and dioritic rocks from the southeastern part of the pluton have chemical characteristics which indicate that they are part of the Mount Ephraim plutonic suite rather than Gunshot Brook pluton, resulting in revision to the mapped extent of the Gunshot Brook pluton. Because these plutons differ in age from the ca. 620-600 Ma plutons of the Jeffers and Bass River blocks of the Cobequid Highlands, the Gunshot Brook pluton, Mount Ephraim plutonic suite, and ca. 735 Ma Six Mile Brook pluton, together with their host rocks, are assigned to a separate Mount Ephraim block, of as yet uncertain relation to the rest of the highlands, and to Avaloniain in general
Redefining second-person narration demonstrated through the address function in Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City
No full textThe purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate my new definition for second-person narration through Jay McInerney's novel Bright Lights, Big City. The definitions of second-person narration provided by scholars Suzanne Keen, Brian Richardson, and Matt DelConte seemed not entirely satisfactory, so I decided to create my own. This new definition hinges on the presence of the address function which invites the reader to insert themselves as the subject of literary address.
The first chapter of this thesis compares and contrasts first-, second-, and third-person narration, but this is difficult to do without a complete definition of second-person narration. With second-person narration put to the side, I examine what both first- and third-person narrations "are" and what they "do," focusing on the effect each have on the reader. The second chapter lays out my new definition for second-person narration and details several different subcategories based on which diegetic planes the narrator, narratee, and protagonist operate on. This chapter explains how the address function fits into each kind of second-person narrative. The final chapter applies this new theory to Bright Lights, Big City, demonstrating how the address function is present throughout. In addition, I contemplate the effects the address function has on my own reading experience as I work my way through the novel.
After showcasing the power of second-person narration, I conclude this thesis by asking the readers and writers to give second-person narratives a chance. Rather than dismissing second-person narration as a gimmick or writing experiment, we should take into consideration its capabilities. It is a fun, creative, and thought-provoking narrative style that deserves dedicated attention
Suicide in the face of existential dread: a goal-regulation perspective on suicide ideation
No full textResearch on the problem of living and dying has found that people reduce death-anxiety by pursuing meaningful life goals. However, when people lose hope for achieving these goals, they may feel that their life lacks purpose and begin to withdraw from the broader goal to remain alive. The current study investigated whether conditions known to produce this life-withdrawn state also promote thoughts about suicide. Accordingly,
71 Acadia University students were asked to think about death (vs. control) and were assigned to a condition that helped or hindered their ability to affirm meaning in their lives. Finally, they completed an implicit measure that gauged the extent to which suicidal thoughts become activated. I hypothesized that individuals who were reminded of death and subsequently had meaning defenses blocked would exhibit increased implicit suicide ideation. Further, I expected this effect would be exacerbated among participants with dispositionally low psychological wellbeing. Results showed no significant effects or interactions. However, the final sample size was smaller than planned, and the pattern of results were the reverse of expectations. Discussion focuses on methodological limitations, alternative theoretical perspectives, and avenues for future researc