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The International Joint Commission (IJC): an exploration of its fit as a binational commission
No full textThe signing of the Boundary Waters Treaty (BWT) in 1909 between Canada and the United States established the International Joint Commission (IJC). The main responsibilities of the IJC are to evaluate projects that affect water level and flows across the borders, and to investigate transboundary issues and provide possible solutions. One of the main attributes of the IJC is that, in theory, it is binational. A binational agreement means that Canada and the United States work together on common issues rather than on separate problems along national preferences. The IJC has been studied by many scholars, however, they mainly focus on its history, functions, and activities. A weakness in the literature is the lack of attention to the commission and binational nature of IJC. It is generally assumed that the IJC is a binational commission without evaluating whether or not it meets the requirements of a binational commission. To investigate this gap in the literature, this thesis asks: is the IJC truly a binational joint commission?
To assess the question, this thesis draws on existing literature to analyze the characteristics of the IJC and employs two case studies: the Zosel Dam applications and the Garrison Diversion Unit (GDU) reference which provides a good test of the IJC’s commission and binational status. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that the IJC is indeed a binational commission.
Given that environmental and economic uncertainties are growing in the world and even allies, American and Canadian policy analysts and decision-makers should look to the IJC’s binational mechanisms to develop mutually acceptable solutions to water border issues.October 202
PIV investigation of turbulent flow around partially submerged circular cylinders with and without simulated upstream ice blocks
No full textTwo sets of particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiments were conducted around stationary, partially submerged horizontal circular cylinders. The first set investigated the effects of blockage ratio (BR), submergence level, and a simulated upstream ice cover on the spatiotemporal dynamics of the wake flow at a Reynolds number of 10 000. The results were compared to a reference case of a cylinder fully immersed in the uniform flow. Due to the absence of an upper shear layer, the recirculation lengths of the submerged cylinder are longer, but the turbulence levels are lower compared to the uniform case. Increasing BR has no significant effect on the recirculation length but increases turbulence levels. Conversely, a decrease in submergence level shortens the recirculation length but has negligible impact on turbulence levels. An upstream ice cover further reduces the recirculation length and decreases the turbulence levels around the cylinder due to the boundary layer beneath the ice cover. The sources of turbulence production were investigated, and the unsteady dynamics were examined using frequency spectra of fluctuating velocities, proper orthogonal decomposition, and the reverse flow area.
The second set of experiments examined the effects of different lengths, thicknesses, and undersurfaces of simulated upstream ice blocks on the mean flow and turbulence transport phenomena around a submerged cylinder. The cylinder was submerged 50% below the free surface, and the Reynolds number was 25 500. The cylinder encounters an approach flow with lower momentum but higher turbulence intensity when placed behind a longer ice block, and undersurface roughness reduces the momentum but enhances the turbulence intensity of the approach flow. The recirculation length, mean velocities, and turbulence levels around the cylinder reduce with increasing ice block length and subsequent roughening of its undersurface.October 202
The novel role of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in mediating adiposity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
No full textMetabolic abnormalities characterized by obesity is linked with hepatic disease. This dissertation explored the role of cytokine, macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (MIF) in regulating obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We have two key findings: (1) Adipose MIF regulates obesity through inhibiting hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL): Extracellular MIF downregulates HSL through binding with its cell membrane receptor, CD74 leading to activation of AMPK/JNK signaling pathway following high fat diet (HFD) feeding. Blocking this extracellular effect by either neutralizing MIF antibody or knocking down CD74 reversed the occurrence of obesity. Unexpectedly, mice with MIF global deletion also had reduced HSL activation and expression in adipose tissue. This finding led us to investigate the role of a potential distinct MIF regulatory pathway, in which intracellular MIF downregulates JNK activation by binding to the intracellular protein, Jab1/Csn5. Thus, our present data suggest that both intracellular and extracellular MIF have opposing effects to regulate HSL, but the extracellular actions predominate to downregulate HSL and exacerbate the development of obesity during HFD. (2) MIF upregulates stability of CD74 which contributes to the development of NAFLD: High MIF receptor, CD74 exacerbates the development of NAFLD. MIF has non-inflammatory effects in regulating CD74. Normally, caspase-4 promotes the degradation of CD74. Following endocytosis, MIF inhibited caspase-4 cleavage and activation. Thus, inhibition of intracellular MIF accumulation upregulated cleavage of caspase-4, leading to CD74 degradation. Our results suggest that MIF stabilizes CD74 through inhibition of caspase-4, which may be an important mechanism for regulating NAFLD in the absence of inflammation.
Overall, our study elucidates the complex mechanisms by which MIF regulates obesity and NAFLD. These findings provide valuable insights into potential therapeutic avenues to address metabolic dysfunctions associated with obesity and NAFLD.Fellowship from China Scholarship Council (CSC)May 202
Exploring the impact of familial and cultural values on physical activity engagement among international Muslim women students in Canada
No full textThis study explored the experiences and perspectives of physical activity participation among Iranian International Muslim women graduate students living away from their families in Canada. Specifically, this study investigated how distancing from Islamic society and Muslim familial supervision could affect their perspectives on physical activity participation within Canadian culture and system, compared to their experiences before migrating to Canada.
The literature review indicated that previous research on Muslim women and physical activity has mainly focused on identifying the barriers that prevent them from participating in physical activity. This study, therefore, sought to understand the cultural and familial influences on Muslim women's participation in physical activity when they live in a non-Islamic country.
The study used an interpretive approach and focus group to gather data from the participation of 10 Muslim women at the graduate level of education. Thematic analysis was applied to identify the themes that construct the participants' experiences. The study's quality was ensured by adhering to six quality criteria: reflexivity, credibility, resonance, significant contribution, ethics, and coherence.
The findings from this research provide an in-depth understanding of the factors influencing physical activity participation among Iranian Muslim women graduate students in Canada. The interplay of cultural capital, societal expectations, supportive environments, and the negotiation of cultural identity all play crucial roles in shaping their experiences in Canada. In addition, this research contributes to the literature on Muslim women's participation in physical activity by providing insights into the cultural and family influences shaping their experiences in a non-Muslim country. Additionally, the research findings will assist policymakers and practitioners in promoting physical activity among Muslim women outside of Islamic countries.February 202
Practice variation in urine collection methods among pre-toilet trained children with suspected urinary tract infection: a systematic review
No full textBackground
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a common cause of acute illness among infants and young children. There are numerous methods for collecting urine in children who are not toilet trained. This review examined practice variation in the urine collection methods for diagnosing UTI in non-toilet-trained children.
Methods
A systematic review was completed by searching MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CENTRAL (Ovid), PsycInfo (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), and JBI (Ovid) from January 1, 2000 until October 9, 2021 and updated on May 24, 2023. Studies were included if they were conducted in an acute care facility, examined pre-toilet trained children, and compared one urine collection method with another for relevant health care outcomes (such as length of stay in an ED, or re-visits or readmissions to the ED) or provider satisfaction. Two independent reviewers screened the identified articles independently, and those included in the final analysis were assessed for quality and bias using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.
Results
Overall, 2535 articles were reviewed and 8 studies with a total of 728 children were included in the final analysis. Seven studies investigated the primary outcome of interest, practice variation in urine collection methods to diagnose a UTI. The seven studies that investigated novel methods of urine collection concluded that there were improved health care outcomes compared to conventional methods. Novel methods include emerging methods that are not captured yet captured in clinical practice guidelines including the use of ultrasound guidance to aid existing techniques. Three studies which investigated healthcare provider satisfaction found preference to novel methods of urine collection.
Conclusions
There is significant practice variation in the urine collection methods within and between countries. Further research is needed to better examine practice variation among clinicians and adherence to national organizations and societies guidelines. PROSPERO registration number CRD42021267754
Shady beats: unveiling colourism in hip-hop and rap music
No full textColourism, the act of discriminating individuals as a result of their skin tone, is often
perpetuated by members of the same ethnic group, resulting in this form of prejudice being intraracial.
Colourism prevails within Black communities worldwide. Within the growing body of
literature, which primarily reveals the experience of African American women in the United
States, research shows African American women of darker skin tones face barriers in their
everyday lives due to this discrimination. This research examines instances of colourism within
rap and hip-hop music. I examine the lyrics of 20 popular songs performed by Black North
American artists who all reinforce colourist ideologies. Drawing on Black Feminist Thought to
explain the systemic discrimination faced by Black women, the research finds the ongoing
negative colourist messaging within hip-hop and rap music to be prevalent within the last twenty
years. This research addresses the ongoing struggles faced by Black women, particularly those of
darker skin tones.October 202
Diversity and development of Indigenous rehabilitation professional student identity
No full textBackground
In Canada, disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples continue to exist in health and education because of the past and current harms of racism and colonization. One step towards closing health gaps is clinicians who can provide health and social care services that are free of racism and mistrust. Indigenous health providers are in the best position to provide this culturally relevant and safe care to their own communities. Therefore, more Indigenous students graduating from health professional programs are required to meet these needs. Indigenous identity support can be a facilitator for Indigenous student academic success but developing one’s Indigenous identity can be challenging in post-secondary education environments. We explored how Indigenous rehabilitation students expressed, and wanted to be supported in their identity and academic success.
Methods
Using a narrative inquiry approach, we conducted interviews with seven students from the occupational, physical, and respiratory therapy programs of a Canadian university. Students were asked to tell their story of learning about, applying to, and being in their rehabilitation program and how their Indigenous identity impacted these experiences. Data analysis was conducted by Indigenous and non-Indigenous team members, analyzing the stories on interaction of the participant with (1) themselves and others, (2) time, and (3) situation or place.
Results
The researchers developed seven mini-stories, one for each participant, to illustrate the variation between participant experiences in the development of their Indigenous and professional identity, before and during their rehabilitation program. The students appreciated the opportunities afforded to them by being admitted to their programs in a Indigenous Peoples category, including identity affirmation. However, for most students, being in this category came with feared and/or experienced stigma. The work to develop a health professional identity brought even more complexity to the already complex work of developing and maintaining an Indigenous identity in the colonized university environment.
Conclusion
This study highlights the complexity of developing a rehabilitation professional identity as an Indigenous student. The participant stories call for universities to transform into an environment where Indigenous students can be fully accepted for their unique gifts and the identities given to them at birth
Source memory, wishful thinking, and emotion
No full textWishful thinking has been shown to impact an individual’s ability to accurately source monitor (Gordon, Franklin, & Beck, 2005). In Gordon et al.’s (2005) study, participants studied a set of positive, negative, and neutral psychic predictions, with the origin of each attributed to one of two (fictional) psychics. Participants were informed that one of these psychics was reliable at predicting the future, whereas the other one was not reliable. During a later test phase, participants were again presented with the set of predictions presented in the study phase and were given the task of identifying the psychic previously identified as having made the prediction. Their key finding was that participants were biased to remember positive predictions as originating from the reliable psychic and negative predictions as originating from the unreliable psychic, reflecting a memory error arising from wishful thinking. The aim of this study was to replicate the wishful thinking bias seen in Gordon et al’s. (2005) study and add to the literature by seeing if one’s mood impacts this wishful thinking bias. By using updated stimuli that were properly valenced (Experiment 1), this study successfully replicated the wishful thinking bias on source memory (Experiment 2). Research has also shown that the valence of stimuli as well as the mood of an individual can impact their susceptibility to memory distortions. Mood induction in Experiment 4 was shown to be effective by establishing the effects of the induction procedure in experiment 3. Experiment 4 replicated the paradigm used in Experiment 2, but induced individuals’ mood state (positive or negative) either before or after encoding the predictions. Experiment 4 successfully replicated the findings of a wishful thinking bias on source monitoring accuracy, shown by Gordon et al. (2005) and Experiment 2, however there was no impact of an individual’s mood state on the accuracy of source monitoring or the wishful thinking bias. I discuss these results in reference to existing empirical findings and theoretical accounts of the contribution of mood and other affective factors to performance on source memory tasks.May 202
Power and paradigms in accounts of Iran’s human rights situation: a case of epistemic injustice
No full textThis thesis investigates paradigms and power dynamics perpetuating epistemic injustice against Iranians seeking recognition as victims of systemic human rights abuses. Chapter One critiques three methodological paradigms—cultural relativism, cultural essentialism, and methodological nationalism—that influence discourse on cultural rights and identity in non-Western contexts. Chapter Two uses Ontological Security Theory to analyze how the states’ international representation of cultural identities and domination of cultural discourse within the United Nations clash with people’s cultural rights. Chapter Three explores the Iranian government’s communicative strategies and victim-based identity claims, hijacking the victimhood of Iranians as true victims of systemic human rights abuses. The findings advocate for a reconceptualization of cultural rights and cultural identity within international human rights law based on a cosmopolitan approach, de-essentializing identities and states’ withdrawal from the realm of culture and identity, acknowledging that human dignity relies fundamentally on autonomy and self-determination. This thesis also makes the case that conceptualizing identity, victimhood, and resistance should center around human suffering rather than the state-centric concept of internationally wrongful acts, as recognizing the priority of human dignity over state sovereignty minimizes the influence of states’ communicative strategies to politicize and hijack narratives of victimhood.October 202
Biochemical and phenotypical characterization of Clostridium thermocellum metabolism to identify solutions for increase ethanol yield
No full textClostridium thermocellum, is an anaerobic, cellulolytic bacterium (cellulose hydrolysis specialist) with the ability to ferment the released mono- or oligomeric sugars to multiple bioproducts, including ethanol. The low yield in ethanol can be attributed to three factors: the branched fermentation pathway, thermodynamic bottlenecks at key points in the glycolysis pathway, and redox balancing centered around redox cofactors. Heterologous expression of an ATP-dependent phosphofructokinase (PfkA) has been a suggested solution to overcome the upper glycolysis bottleneck, caused by the highly expressed pyrophosphate-dependent phosphofructokinase. However, C. thermocellum inherently expresses a PfkA, as well as a fructokinase, both characterized to utilize either ATP or GTP. The latter two genes show low expression levels when grown on model substrates; therefore alternate substrates were queried for potential upregulation of PfkA. C. thermocellum metabolism is generally studied using cellobiose as the sole carbon source to understand carbon and electron flux to fermentation end-products. Adaptive growth on glucose and sorbitol was performed, resulting in a ~2.5-fold and ~4.5-fold increase in ethanol yield, compared to the wild-type strain fermenting cellobiose. Initial expectations were that fermentation of sorbitol would produce higher ethanol and hydrogen concentrations by virtue of the sugar alcohol being a more reduced substrate in comparison to cellobiose, but the reason for the increase during glucose fermentation required investigation. The increase in ethanol yield was accompanied by a decrease in canonical end- products, most notably lactate for glucose adapted strains, while acetate, lactate, and formate decreased for sorbitol adapted strains. The stable fermentation profiles for adapted strains were disrupted after a single passage with cellobiose. The shift in end-products still maintained a higher ethanol yield compared to wild type strains, suggesting that potential mutations, and/or differential expression of genes or metabolites, remained constant after passage with cellobiose. Sorbitol metabolism led to an ~250-fold increase in an alcohol dehydrogenase gene, whose gene product likely oxidizes sorbitol to provide additional electrons, conferring the increase in ethanol yield, with a concomitant diversion of electrons from amino acid synthesis, as supported by the decrease in amino acids detected in the supernatant. An increase in available electrons rather than pfkA expression led to an increase in ethanol yield.University of Manitoba Graduate Scholarship
NSERC Discovery grant RGPIN 05878-19October 202