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The potential of biofuels in Newfoundland and Labrador's economy: a transdisciplinary case study of Corner Brook pulp and paper (cbppl)
No full textThis study explores the potential of biofuels to support sustainable energy transition in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), using Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited (CBPPL) as a transdisciplinary case study. In response to the province's continued reliance on fossil fuels and its commitment to net-zero emissions, the research examines how locally produced biofuels derived from forestry by-products can phaseout fossil fuels in NL and offer environmental, economic, and social benefits.
Using a mixed-methods approach, I employed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental performance of four biofuels, biodiesel, bio-oil, syngas, and pellets, while Net Present Value (NPV) analysis is used to determine their economic feasibility. Social acceptability and community perspectives are explored through semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the region.
Results show that all four biofuels offer environmental benefits when compared to the fossil fuels currently used in the province. However, each biofuel presents different trade-offs. While some exhibit strong economic performance, others are more socially or environmentally favorable. Among them, biodiesel emerged as the most balanced option, offering consistent advantages across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. I conclude that while no single biofuel is universally optimal in all contexts, biodiesel stands out as the most promising candidate in aligning with the principles of sustainable development.
This research offers practical insights for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and researchers by identifying viable biofuel pathways for the province. It also demonstrates the value of collaborative, transdisciplinary research in addressing complex energy and sustainability challenges
Deliberative minipublics as an exercise of popular constitutionalism
No full textA significant portion of the global population lives under constitutions written long before their birth, authored by a small elite, and adopted without their direct consent. To correct this, politicians and populist leaders have increasingly called for the general public to play a greater role in passing constitutional reforms, through referendums, deliberative mini-publics, and other participatory democratic initiatives. Can ordinary citizens be included in constitution-making? In this thesis, I explore the “deliberative turn” in popular constitutionalism and its implications for democratic institutional design, focusing especially on the relationship between inclusionary design and the successful passage of reforms. I analyse four prominent recent cases: Iceland’s Constitutional Convention (2010–2013), Ireland’s Convention on the Constitution (2012–2014) together with the Irish Citizens’ Assembly (2016–2018), and the Chilean Constitutional Convention (2020-2022). All four cases are characterised by deliberation and varying selection mechanisms and outcomes. My findings indicate that deliberative minipublics, convened through stratified random selection, can effectively take up the role of trusted information and judgement proxy for a successful constitution-making process. Nevertheless, I conclude that the success of deliberative minipublics tasked with constitutional reform depends not only on public trust but also on the trust of political elites and established institutions
Disco es cultura: discourse, hermeneutics, and the social lives of the "Yuyay Jap'ina Tapes"
No full textThis thesis examines the creation, distribution, engagement, (re)contextualization, and (re)signification of a series of recordings known as the “Yuyay Jap’ina Tapes.” Exploring the tapes’ global circulation, this thesis is a case study of the ways that recordings of music are incorporated into multimodal discourses as dynamic elements of social life and musical practice. Recorded in La Paz, Bolivia, during the early 1990s and featuring performances and songs by Luzmila Carpio, an Indigenous singer from the Bolivian Department of Potosí, these recordings were initially used as pedagogical aids in a UNICEF-backed program focused on the promotion of Quechua and Spanish language literacy among rural Bolivian Indigenous communities. Two decades later, these recordings were commercially released by three independent record labels, on three different continents, in three different media formats. Each of these releases is a unique version, contextualizing and engaging the recordings in ways that anticipate particular audiences and forms of musical and media practices. Analyzing these releases provides critical insights into the layers of discourse with which these recordings become entangled as they are circulated through cosmopolitan, colonially inflected, transnational, digitally interconnected cultural economies of musical consumption and engagement. In doing so, this thesis interrogates the nature of musical experience and its relationship to recordings of sound.
Chapter one situates the recordings in the context of the Bolivian commercial recording industry that emerged in the mid-twentieth century and discusses how hegemonic discourses about Indigenous identity and language shaped the way that artists like Carpio were able to express themselves in this repressive cultural milieu. Chapter two examines how the social life of the Yuyay Jap’ina recordings unfolded in the context of the transnational digital cultural economies that emerged at the start of the twenty-first century and how new types of engagement with Carpio’s recordings in diverse locales resulted in emergent forms of discourse and significance. Chapter three uses the case of Carpio’s recording “Tarpuricusum Sarata” to explore the hermeneutics of sound recordings in these digital cultural economies. Chapter four offers a comparative analysis of three different recordings of Carpio’s song “Warmikuna Yupay-Chasqapuni Kasunchik,” bringing them into dialog with concepts and perspectives that I discussed with Leonardo Martinelli, an Argentine producer and musician who works with Carpio
Comparison of sequence-based vs structure-based pangenome analyses of the streptomyces
No full textThe pangenome of a genus is the complete set of gene families found across all
species and strains within that genus, including core families shared across all genomes
and accessory families with variable distribution. Identifying these families is essential
for studying bacterial evolution and functional conservation, yet many computational
approaches rely solely on sequence similarity and therefore have difficulty grouping
remote homologs that have diverged substantially in sequence. In this thesis, we
develop a structure-based framework that uses predicted protein structures to define
gene families and examine its ability to detect conserved core families in Streptomyces,
a genus that produces many clinically used antibiotics. By comparing structure-based
and commonly used sequence-based methods, we find that structural similarity can
recover homologous relationships that are not apparent from sequence alone, leading
to the identification of 211 additional core gene families with low sequence similarity.
These findings show that incorporating structural information can broaden core
genome inference by capturing functionally conserved but sequence-diverged families.
The workflow presented here is broadly applicable and provides an alternative
approach for pangenome analysis in Streptomyces and other bacterial genera
13 years of change? Exploring the climate change debate on Reddit through topic modeling
No full textA growing body of academic literature analyses the public climate change debate carried out on social media platforms. As most studies focused on Twitter/X, little is known about long-term developments on other platforms, despite their popularity. The present study addresses this by analyzing a 13-year timespan during which five million posts and comments discussing climate change were published on Reddit, one of the most popular social media platforms in anglophone countries. Through topic modeling (LDA) and subsequent analyses, the main themes of discussion, the most popular communities, and changes over time are examined to describe the climate change debate on Reddit as well as how it relates to the general public debate and that on other platforms. The debate populates thousands of subreddit communities, and several recurring themes were found, discussing climate change in relation to environmental impact, scientific evidence, politics, and the economy, as well as extreme weather events. Similar to evidence from news media and other social media, the results attest to growing attention to the debate, while also noting how it becomes increasingly intertwined with political day-to-day business and popular discourse. This politicization is also evident in the dependence on mostly political events to generate and sustain significant levels of attention. Meanwhile, discussions pertaining to climate justice appear only marginally in the dominant themes
Development of a malignant hyperthermia educational resource for perioperative nurses
No full textBackground: Malignant Hyperthermia is an inherited, genetic condition that causes a potentially
life-threatening reaction to certain anesthetic agents. Affecting one in 100,000 people, this rare condition causes a cascade of reactions throughout the body when exposed to triggering agents.
If not treated promptly and appropriately, the chances of mortality are approximately 80%. Due
to the rarity of the condition and the importance of understanding roles and responsibilities, it is imperative for perioperative nurses to complete regular education regarding Malignant Hyperthermia. Ensuring this education is appropriately delivered and reviewed regularly is essential to improving patient outcomes during a Malignant Hyperthermia crisis. Purpose: To
develop an educational resource on Malignant Hyperthermia for perioperative nurses. Methods:
A literature review, consultations with key partners, and an environmental scan of available resources were conducted with results utilized to develop the educational resource. Results:
Results from the literature review, consultations and environmental scan outlined inconsistencies in the availability of regularly scheduled education and supports needed for increased education
on Malignant Hyperthermia for perioperative nurses. Informed by these results, the education
module was created, aligning with best practice guidelines and including key information needed
for perioperative nurses during a Malignant Hyperthermia crisis within the operating room.
Conclusion: Readily accessible and regular education regarding Malignant Hyperthermia for
perioperative nurses is important to ensure confidence and competence in their role during a crisis, to ensure patient safety and optimal care within the operating room. The resource developed as a part of the practicum is an important step towards achieving this need
An examination of mindfulness as a predictor of treatment outcome in dialectical behaviour therapy self-help for binge-eating disorder
No full textBackground: Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most prevalent eating disorder and is
associated with significant psychosocial impairment and medical complications. Most
individuals with BED do not receive evidence-based treatment (EBT) and face barriers, such as
stigma and limited access to resources. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is one of the few
EBTs for BED and conceptualizes binge eating as a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy. A
self-help version of DBT has been developed to increase treatment accessibility with promising
results. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which DBT self-help (DBT-SH)
works for BED. Mindfulness is a core tenet of DBT and warrants investigation as a potential
mechanism of change. Mindfulness skills training in DBT for BED aims to enable individuals to
practice awareness and acceptance of internal experiences, which may allow them to engage in
more adaptive emotion regulation strategies. The goal of the present study was to examine
mindfulness as a predictor of change in DBT-SH treatment outcome for BED. Method: The
current study is a secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of DBTSH
for BED. Seventy-one adults meeting criteria for BED were randomized to 12 weeks of
DBT-SH or an active self-help control condition. Binge-eating frequency, eating disorder
psychopathology, mindfulness, and global distress were measured at baseline, post-treatment,
and 3 months post-treatment. Results: Improvement in mindfulness did not differ between DBTSH
and the active control condition. There was a significant association between improvement in
mindfulness and reduction in eating disorder psychopathology from pre- to post-DBT-SH
treatment with a medium effect size. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant
association between improvement in mindfulness and reduction in binge-eating frequency.
Baseline mindfulness did not predict changes in binge-eating frequency or eating disorder
psychopathology. Discussion: The findings of the current study suggest that mindfulness may
have more of an impact on the cognitive aspects of eating disorder psychopathology than on
binge-eating behaviour. Methodological limitations such as a relatively small sample size and
low statistical power may have impacted results. Further research is needed to clarify the role of
mindfulness in DBT-SH outcome for BED. Future research on the integration of mindfulness-based
and behavioural treatment approaches could provide a more effective treatment for BED
Essays on CEO foreignness and investment efficiency
No full textThis thesis investigates how chief executive officers' (CEOs) international backgrounds influence merger and acquisition (M&A) performance, focusing on two distinct dimensions: foreign exposure and foreign origin. Using a large sample of U.S. public firm acquisitions between 2001 and 2016, the analyses employ an event-study framework to examine short-term cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) as the primary measure of market reaction, complemented by long-term buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHARs). Additional tests explore diversification strategies, target size, acquisition premiums, and financial flexibility as mechanisms underlying performance differences.
The first empirical chapter examines foreign exposure, measured through international education and work experience. Firms led by foreign-exposed CEOs consistently underperform their domestic peers in short-term announcement returns, a result robust across alternative windows and deal types. By contrast, BHARs reveal no significant long-run differences. Mechanism analyses suggest that foreign-educated CEOs tend to acquire smaller targets (in terms of assets), pay higher premiums, and pursue more diversified acquisitions, consistent with institutional misfit and overconfidence. These CEOs also lead less financially constrained firms, giving them latitude to undertake riskier transactions. CEOs with foreign work experience are more likely to acquire larger targets (by market value), reflecting confidence in transferring skills across contexts, though without yielding stronger performance.
The second empirical chapter analyzes foreign origin, measured by whether a CEO is foreign-born. Acquisitions led by foreign-born CEOs generate significantly lower CARs than those led by domestic CEOs, with robustness confirmed under alternative windows. Further tests show that foreign-born CEOs are more likely to pursue diversified acquisitions and smaller targets (by assets), consistent with institutional misfit and liability of foreignness. Premiums and financial constraints do not differ significantly across groups.
Taken together, the findings demonstrate that international backgrounds, while offering potential resources, also introduce liabilities that reduce acquisition performance. By distinguishing foreign exposure from foreign origin, the thesis shows that both are associated with weaker short-term market reactions through distinct mechanisms, contributing to upper echelons, resource dependence, institutional theory, and behavioral perspectives on M&A outcomes.
mechanisms: financial flexibility and overconfidence for foreign exposure, versus legitimacy challenges and liability of foreignness for foreign origin. The results contribute to research on upper echelons, resource dependence, institutional theory, and CEO behavioral biases by clarifying how executive backgrounds interact with diversification choices, target size, and acquisition premiums to shape M&A outcomes
Corporate responses to climate risks: a qualitative study of adaptation strategies in Newfoundland and Labrador's resource sectors
No full textClimate change poses simultaneous risks and opportunities for resource-dependent
economies like Newfoundland and Labrador. While organizations increasingly recognize climate
materiality—including physical disruptions, transition risks, and liability exposures—corporate
responses remain heterogeneous and context-specific. This thesis examines how businesses in
Newfoundland and Labrador's energy and technology innovation sectors, perceive and respond
to climate risks, and explores the institutional pressures shaping their adaptation strategies.
Using qualitative methodology, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with six
senior executives across three energy and three innovation firms (March–July 2025),
supplemented by document analysis. Three research questions guided the inquiry: (1) How do
businesses in Newfoundland and Labrador perceive climate risks (physical, transition, and
liability)? (2) What adaptive strategies are businesses employing to mitigate climate impacts? (3)
To what extent do institutional pressures (coercive, mimetic, normative) influence corporate
adaptation strategies?
Findings reveal fundamental divergences in climate risk materiality reflecting business
model specificity rather than uniform sectoral characteristics. Energy utilities demonstrated
formalized governance, scenario-based risk assessment, and investments in infrastructure
resilience. The innovation sector exhibited marked heterogeneity: one clean tech firm adopted
climate mitigation as a core strategy, a fintech company rationally deprioritized climate
governance, and an incubator facilitated ecosystem-level adaptation. Four adaptation archetypes
emerged: infrastructure resilience, product innovation, ecosystem facilitation, and business-as-usual
strategies. Institutional pressures operated conditionally, coercive pressures constraining energy
firms but creating opportunities for clean tech firms; mimetic and normative pressures facilitated
sector-specific peer learning. The research introduces "opportunistic isomorphism," wherein
organizations proactively align with institutional change to capture market opportunities. This
challenges institutional theory predictions of uniform convergence, demonstrating that
organizational agency and capability-driven strategies are crucial for understanding climate
adaptation organizations that treat climate as a strategic imperative
Current and prospective Canadian parents' perceptions of cannabis use during pregnancy and breastfeeding
No full textThis mixed-methods research project explored perceptions of perinatal cannabis use
among Canadian current and prospective birthing parents and their partners. Participants were
recruited through the Angus Reid Forum and completed a cross-sectional survey with
experimental vignettes, traditional survey questions, and two open-ended questions.
An experimental design was used to examine how various factors of use influence
perceptions, including perinatal stage, frequency, cannabis composition, reason for use, and
method of consumption. Among participants ( = 821), cannabis use during pregnancy was
viewed as carrying the greatest risk among the perinatal stages, while use for managing mental
health or physical pain was perceived as having more positive impact on the birthing parent.
Free-text survey responses were analyzed to gain a better understanding of the perceived
health effects of cannabis use during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Among participants ( =
644), responses ranged from negative to positive health effects, highlighted knowledge gaps
representing failures of knowledge translation, called for additional research, and revealed
stigmatizing attitudes.
Given the increasing prevalence of perinatal cannabis use and the potential risks,
understanding perceptions among the reproductive community is crucial. The findings highlight
critical misinformation, significant knowledge gaps, and an urgent need for improved healthcare
provider communication and public health messaging to support informed decision-making