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Cellular Stress and Effects on Mitochondrial DNA: An Assessment of Stress Reduction & Protective Effects
No full textIntroduction: Psychological stress results in energy demands and changes in the mitochondria that produce 90% of bodily energy as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Cell-free mitochondrial DNA (cf-mtDNA) is released into the bloodstream under stress which was induced with the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). We hypothesized that participants exposed to mindfulness meditation (MM) instruction would demonstrate lesser increases in cf-mtDNA levels and negative mood states compared to controls.
Methods: Thirty-five females (18-30 years) were randomized to an experimental group (MM) or a control group (educational podcast). Both groups viewed IAPS images, completed questionnaires and two blood draws.
Results: A paired samples t-test revealed no significant differences in cf-mtDNA levels from pre- to post- IAPS stress exposure between groups.
Conclusion: This randomized controlled trial is the first study to explore the potentially protective effects of MM on cf-mtDNA levels and mood after an acute lab stressor. No statistically significant results were found
The Great Banana Fish Migration
No full textIn this reflection, I tell the story of The Great Banana Fish Migration, a picture book I worked on throughout my time in the MES program, and I use it as a framing narrative to understand my return to Canada after being away for more than seven years. Having observed a sense of hopelessness pervading Canadian society upon my return, I explore the origins of this way of thinking and how it can act as an obstacle for positive social and environmental change. In my exploration I delve into how art can empower individuals to adopt alternative perspectives that creatively fuel awareness, resistance, and resilience. I also include examples from my ongoing artistic practice creating banana fish character art as examples of my findings on creativity. In an effort to embody the implications that art can have on culture, I recount the conception and creation of the project, Banana Fish in the City, where I create 100 ceramic banana fish figurines and place them around Toronto with a message of hope to disrupt the notions of hopelessness that inspired my research. Turning a critical eye to this project, I describe how my intentions may have been misaligned with the understandings of art and hope that my research uncovered. The execution of this project also allowed me to realize that the transformation I sought to catalyze in others was actually ongoing within myself and looking at the imagery in The Great Banana Fish Migration, I was able to understand my research on creativity, art, and hope from a deeply personal perspective that summarizes my own subconscious quest for hope, direction, love, and purpose throughout my time in the MES program. This reflection ultimately serves as a diary documenting my personal growth through the program, as a record of how the banana fish as both a concept and art object have grown in tandem with me, and as an example of the kind of thinking that I advocate for as a response to hopelessness in the face of societal and environmental crisis
Emotionally Unavailable by Design: An Analysis of Narrator Reliability in Nevada and The Yellow Wallpaper
No full textThis essay won the H.K. Girling Literature Prize. The H.K. Girling Literature Prize was established in 2002 by friends and family in memory of Professor Harry K. Girling, a member of the York University English Department from 1962 to 1984. The prize is awarded annually, on the recommendation of the English Department, to a student enrolled in a 2000- or 3000-level English course. The recipient is selected on the basis of an outstanding essay written for that course, by a student who shows commitment to literature in both the classroom and in other ways.What readers consider a “reliable” narrator often reveals more about their assumptions than about the narrator’s truthfulness. Imogen Binnie’s Nevada and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper prompt readers to critically examine their internalized biases regarding narrative reliability. Each text achieves this through distinct approaches to narrative structure, perspective, and the portrayal of emotional vulnerability. Nevada employs third-person indirect discourse to follow Maria on a road trip, while The Yellow Wallpaper unfolds through the first-person epistolary format of an unnamed narrator. Despite the immersive intimacy of the first-person voice, Gilman’s narrator remains unnamed. By contrast, Maria is named early, with her gender and social context made clear. Yet the narrative structure flattens her personhood through emotional detachment and stereotyping. The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper appears more emotionally accessible and credible to readers, despite lacking the most basic marker of personhood—a name. Meanwhile, Maria is difficult to empathize with, due to the narrative
distance mirroring her dissociation. This disparity raises important questions about whose pain is believed, and which ways of expressing that pain are accepted as valid or deserving of empathy in literature
Belonging beyond Borders: The Cultural Integration of Yemeni Refugees in Jeju
No full textThis article is published under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license.This article examines the acculturation of Yemeni refugees who arrived in Jeju, South Korea, in 2018 and their adaptation to Korean society five years later in 2023. Based on interviews conducted in 2024 with four Yemeni refugees and five Korean stakeholders, including government and private sector representatives, the article applies Ager and Strang's integration framework to analyse key factors influencing the refugees’ settlement. The findings reveal that state intervention was minimal, while private organisations and individual efforts played a significant role in integration. Factors such as language acquisition, employment, social networks and visa stability were crucial in shaping their adaptation. This article provides insights into how Korea, encountering large-scale refugee arrivals for the first time, managed this challenge and offers recommendations for future refugee policies.This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2024S1A5C2A02046241)
The Role of Planners in Fostering Successful Public Participation Among New Immigrants in the County of Simcoe, Ontario
No full textThis research examines the evolving role of municipal Planners in fostering meaningful public participation among new immigrant communities in Ontario, with a focus on the County of Simcoe. As a rapidly growing County composed of sixteen municipalities and home to over half a million residents, Simcoe is experiencing significant demographic shifts. Between 2016 and 2021, the immigrant population in the County grew by over 33%, with a substantial proportion identifying as part of a racialized group. These changes bring Planning challenges related to housing, infrastructure, and services, but also expose a growing democratic gap when immigrants are not adequately engaged in local decision-making. Despite their increasing presence, many immigrants face persistent barriers to participating in Planning processes. These include language difficulties, unfamiliarity with Canadian systems, cultural mistrust, and socio-economic limitations. Such barriers go beyond access. They reflect deeper patterns of exclusion that can compromise the legitimacy and equity of Planning outcomes. To understand and address these challenges, the study draws on interviews with Planners, community engagement professionals, communtiy service providers, and a few residents from the Town of New Tecumseth. The findings highlight the shortcomings of conventional engagement approaches and underscore the importance of trust-building, clear communication, cultural sensitivity, and flexible engagement formats. Effective strategies include partnerships with local organizations, arts-based methods, plain-language outreach, and compensating participants for their time. The study calls for a shift in how Planners work, with an emphasis on relational practice, empathy, and long-term commitment to communities. It argues that inclusive participation requires more than checking procedural boxes; it demands structural, cultural, and professional change. To support this transformation, the research presents a practical Public Participation Toolkit offering grounded strategies for equitable engagement. The goal is to support municipalities in developing Planning processes that are not only inclusive but truly representative of the communities they serve
Humility Predicts Eudaimonic Well-Being and Compassionate Action in a Daily Experience Sampling Study
No full textHumility predicts greater psychological well-being and prosocial behaviour (Exline & Hill, 2012; Worthington et al., 2017). However, research is largely cross-sectional, and mechanisms underlying these relationships remain unexplored. Further, few studies explore nuances in the relationship between humility and compassion (e.g., motivations for acting compassionately), and none have empirically examined whether humility predicts received compassion. Using the Daily Reconstruction Method (Kahneman et al., 2004), the current study examines the relationship between humility and the following outcome variables: eudaimonic well-being, given compassion, received compassion, and how freely chosen or externally pressured participants felt their compassionate actions were over one week. Multilevel modelling demonstrated that on average, humble individuals report greater well-being, give and receive more compassion, and report more autonomous compassion. Compassion did not mediate the relationship between humility and well-being. These findings suggest humility may be an important individual difference variable with intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits, and implications are discussed
Barriers and Facilitators to Hemodialysis Access and Utilization Among Patients with End-Stage Kidney Disease in Ghana: A Mixed-Methods Study from the Perspectives of Patients, Providers, and Administrators.
No full textABSTRACT
Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major and growing public health issue in Ghana, with a prevalence of 13.3%. Many individuals with CKD progress to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), for which hemodialysis is the principal lifesaving treatment. However, access to and utilization of hemodialysis remain severely limited by financial, geographic, and systemic barriers, including high out-of-pocket costs, inadequate insurance coverage, and the uneven distribution of dialysis centers. Despite the increasing burden of ESKD, limited evidence explores the multifaceted barriers to hemodialysis in Ghana from the perspectives of patients, healthcare providers, and hospital administrators.
Purpose: This dissertation aims to explore and identify the barriers and facilitators to delivering quality care for individuals with ESKD, with a focus on access to and utilization of hemodialysis in Ghana.
Methods: A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed. The quantitative phase involved a cross-sectional study of 264 patients with ESKD, using structured questionnaires. Predictors of hemodialysis access and utilization were identified through bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses using SPSS version 27. The qualitative phase employed maximum variation purposive sampling to recruit 16 adults with ESKD (receiving or in need of hemodialysis) and 16 healthcare providers/administrators from two teaching hospitals. Data from semi-structured interviews were analyzed thematically using Braun and Clarke’s framework with NVivo 14.
Results: Among the 264 patients, 74.2% had hemodialysis access, but only 38.8% regularly adhered to all prescribed sessions. Greater access and utilization were associated with higher income, urban residence, longer duration since diagnosis, and distance to dialysis centers. Qualitative findings revealed shared perspectives across stakeholder groups: individual factors (resilience, family support) facilitated care, while systemic challenges high treatment costs, facility shortages, workforce constraints, limited insurance coverage, and geographic disparities, impeded consistent hemodialysis access. Participants emphasized the need for coordinated multi-level interventions to address these interlinked barriers.
Conclusion: Access to and utilization of hemodialysis in Ghana are shaped by intersecting financial, geographic, systemic, and sociocultural challenges. Addressing these issues requires comprehensive reforms, including increased public investment, infrastructure expansion, targeted health education, and equity-focused health policies to ensure sustainable and equitable dialysis care for patients with ESKD.
Keywords: Hemodialysis; access; utilization; barriers; Ghana; chronic kidney disease; mixed methods; equity; health services
Legacies of Care: Exploring the Migration of Aging Filipina Women in Canada and Its Impact on Transnational Families Across Generations
No full textThis dissertation explores the life histories of aging Filipina migrants in Canada and their family dynamics and caring relations that have evolved over time. I examine how, through mobility, care becomes an agentive force in negotiating the political and economic conditions that inform the life course. Centering the life course as a temporal frame, I examine how migration influences intergenerational relations, career paths, aging, experiences of loss and the navigation of end-of-life care. Throughout the dissertation I build out a legacies of care framework to capture: 1) how Filipino migration is embedded in larger assemblages of relations, including histories of colonialism and global capital systems that shape mobility trajectories and the provision of and experience of care, 2) how the expansiveness of care is borne out of varying states of mobility, specifically related to diverse care practices employed to maintain social ties transnationally and the ways in which care is imbued with several affects, and 3) the multiple temporalities of migration, including how the past, present, and future intertwine and how Filipino migrants' care extends across generations and beyond their lifetimes.
To support this framework, I ground my analysis in Tadiar's (2022) exploration of life-times to illustrate the complex historical, social, political, and economic forces that shape individual lives, particularly the value assigned to care labour and the long-term life outcomes associated with a lifetime of care work. I employ the term acquiescent mobility, an elaboration of Schewel's (2019) aspiration-capability framework, to demonstrate the multiple aspirations that a migrant holds in pursuing migration, the external forces shaping one's mobility pathway, and the movement of people, resources, and caring practices that adapt to various states of mobility. My methodological and theoretical approach centers on female migrants' agency as their stories and the retelling of their narratives reaffirm how migrant women have actively exercised autonomy in making life choices
Examining the Role and Influence of Local and Transnational Anti-LGBTIQ+ Actors on Laws and Policies in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana
No full textThis thesis examines how local and transnational anti-LGBTIQ+ actors influence laws and governance structures in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana. Drawing on document analysis and theoretical frameworks including postcolonial theory, transnational advocacy networks, and vernacularization, it reveals how these actors co-produce political homophobia as a governance strategy. The research finds that transnational actors provide financial resources, ideological frameworks, and legitimizing narratives, while local actors in transnational movements adapt these into culturally resonant forms. Their collaborative actions have expanded colonial-era restrictions into comprehensive systems of criminalization framed paradoxically as resistance to Western imperialism. Beyond LGBTIQ+ rights, these efforts establish precedents for restricting civil society, redefining sovereignty, and limiting rights protections more broadly. The study demonstrates that political homophobia functions not merely as cultural expression but as a governance mechanism with implications for democratic institutions, civil society independence, and human rights frameworks, within a system of authoritarian advancement masked as cultural authenticity
Death and Resistance: Queerness in the Face of Violence and Impunity in Guerrero, Mexico
No full textMexico stands out as a place impacted by anti-queer/trans violence, and the state of Guerrero is the site of a disturbing iteration of such aggression. Recent political struggle for LGBTQ rights there has paralleled a dramatic increase in violence linked to organized crime, with significant impacts for sexual and gender minorities. While a small literature on anti-queer/trans violence in places experiencing political violence and armed conflict exists, it has ignored places where such violence links to organized crime, impunity, and state complicity. Furthermore, this literature has largely failed to engage with two other bodies of work: the study of gender-based violence and of sexuality in such contexts. This dissertation addresses these gaps.
The methodological choices guiding this project are rooted in a rejection of a myopic anthropological lens based on tropes that Orientalize Mexico as a distant, other place engraved with patterns of desire tied to tourism and ‘endemic’ violence. Drawing on a poststructuralist feminist epistemology and guided by feminist, queer, and Latinx scholarship regarding geopolitics and transnationalism, this project takes a geographical and critical human rights approach that recognizes how feminicide and homonationalist narratives about Mexico link to this anti-queer/trans violence. A commitment to constructivist Grounded Theory ensures that theorization emerges from the research findings. Research tools include participant-observation, in-depth interviews with key informants with knowledge of anti-queer/trans violence, hemerographic (media) analysis, and an in-depth study of a visual archive of Pride events in Guerrero.
This dissertation makes three arguments that contribute to a queer theory of violence: First, anti-queer/trans violence is an iteration of feminicide, formed through impunity. Second, anti-queer/trans violence is linked to the political violence of organized crime and related state impunity, which has produced a version of queer/trans activism that has a contradictory, even perverse relationship with the state. And third, the transnational dimensions of this violence established through continental geographies of power with linkages to organized crime, drug trafficking, tourism, extractive activities and geopolitical relationships, further sharpen the danger faced by queer and trans persons through the creation of what I call a sallyport, a sort of metaphorical enclosure that magnifies their vulnerability