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“You Can’t Fight for Freedom if You Don’t Have Enough Bacon Inside of You:” A Feminist Analysis of the Gendered Spatialization of the 2022 Ottawa Protest
No full textThe 2022 Freedom Convoy protest was a distinct event in Canadian history, as protestors from across Canada lined downtown Ottawa with vehicles. Logistical questions arose regarding how protestors, living in their vehicles, were obtaining fuel. My study focuses on how protestors were being fueled; the logistics and work concerning food provision, services, and supports to individuals who lived and protested in downtown Ottawa. The research draws from interviews, media, and documentary analysis to consider how ‘domestic work’ was conceived or dismissed as political. Empirically, it uncovers the domestic work required to sustain a lengthy protest in cold temperatures. Theoretically, the study deployed insights from feminist theory to understand how representations of 'political' and 'apolitical' activities were gendered and spatialized in the protest. The study concluded that domestic work was intrinsic to the politics of the protest, yet the play on notions of ‘family’ in downtown Ottawa devalued the domestic work
Affordances of Home Studio Jazz: Creation and Negotiation with the Digital Audio Workstation
No full textThe digital audio workstation (DAW) has become an important tool for music creation in the twenty-first century. In this thesis, I extend theories of affordances (Norman 2013; Bell 2015, 2018) to understand my relationship to the DAW in my jazz-based creative recording practice. I employ a Practice-as-Research (Nelson 2013) methodology to reflectively consider the development of my practice over time, placing it within the context of culture and recording practices from jazz’s history. My creative practice unfolds in three phases, during which I (1) explore and (2) develop approaches to jazz-based DAW creation, and ultimately (3) create a final product showing my practice at the end of this process. Through the analysis of this process, I consider the DAW as medium, modular meta-instrument, and sensory archive. I construct a model of the various relationships between hardware and software tools, creative and design conventions, and the creative practitioner from my analysis, foregrounding perception and cognition
Building Through Traces of History: The Value of Salvage Architecture in the Incomappleux Valley
No full textThe value of land can be described by many different overlapping narratives throughout history. In the Incomappleux Valley, the town of Camborne is a physical manifestation of different definitions of value, one layered upon the next. With histories of spiritual connection to the land, resource extraction, recreation, and biodiversity, today Camborne resembles a discarded world, paused in time. With global environmental issues of climate change and warming, environmental stewardship is critical to remediate landscapes scarred by colonial occupation. How can historical narratives be merged to create new forms of value and relationships to land? This thesis seeks to highlight how traces of colonial occupation that have been left with disregard for their lasting impacts can be reformed to create a salvaged architecture that creates new value for the land. This is shown through the design of a cabin-inspired outpost and landscape on a historic mine site constructed from repurposed materials
Differences in Freshwater Littoral Communities Associated with Shoreline Modification for Erosion Control in the Rideau River, Ontario
No full textFreshwater biological communities face multiple pressures, and their study can indicate what effects these pressures have on their environment. Erosion control measures along 25 km of the Rideau River’s shoreline in Ontario, Canada were studied in 2022 and 2023 to compare the aquatic communities associated with modified and unmodified shoreline types. Biological assessments of macroinvertebrates using artificial substrates samplers were conducted and hardened shorelines were identified to have reduced macroinvertebrate family richness. Littoral fishes were sampled using boat electrofishing and macrophytes were sampled using quadrats. Fish abundance, diversity, species richness, and macrophyte species richness were generally lower at modified shorelines with the greatest disparity at hardened shorelines. Shoreline modifications for erosion control within the Rideau River are associated with changes to littoral communities that span macroinvertebrates, fishes, and macrophytes. These effects are relevant to shoreline management and may provide opportunity for improving shoreline condition to benefit freshwater biodiversity
The Evolution and Development of the Tetrapod Neck
No full textThe evolution of the tetrapod neck is one of the anatomical innovations that made the extraordinary range of tetrapod body plans across the history of life on Earth possible. The anteriormost and second vertebra in the column (typically referred to as the atlas and axis) are at the crux of the skull–neck boundary, separating the skull and trunk into discrete anatomical units. They are also two of the most unique vertebrae in the tetrapod vertebral column. For much of their evolutionary history, the atlas and axis are composed of separate component bones that co-ossify in varying combinations on each tetrapod line, complicating comparison between different clades’ atlantes and axes. Despite their evolutionary importance and because of their uniqueness, many studies on the axial postcrania regionalization/evolution, development, and function leave out the atlas and the axis. In this dissertation, I aim to begin to fill this gap in knowledge on these bones between the skull and trunk. First, I lay out what we know about the combinations of ancestral atlas-axis components through evolution in a review and highlight the gaps in our knowledge of their evolution and development. In the following chapters, I find evidence of the axis intercentrum in an alligator, showing that it is not lost. I identify a feature of the lissamphibian atlas that is ancestral to the group – the interglenoid tubercle (often called an odontoid process) – and clarify its non-homology with the similarly named structure on the amniote axis. I then use a modern analogue for finned tetrapodomorphs that lack ossified anterior vertebrae to investigate the capacity of such a neck to bend, flex, and twist. I find that twisting is likely highly limited, head elevations are feasible up to about 10 degrees, and a large lateral range of motion is feasible. Finally, I summarize these findings and identify future directions for research
Designing a Remote Tracking System for Children's Safe Outdoor Play
No full textResearch about children’s safety tracking systems primarily concentrate on the hardware design of monitoring children’s location and physical fitness. However, limitations remain in addressing the children’s outdoor safety risks and the usability of the systems. This thesis aims to fill these gaps by surveying parents to understand their concerns about children’s outdoor activities and the need for children’s tracking systems. Based on parents’ responses, we identified key safety risks in children’s outdoor activities from traffic, stranger harassment and abduction. Therefore, we created a safety tracking system with a parental app and a wearable device for children. We conducted an expert usability evaluation to assess the prototypes’ usability and alignment with parents’ needs and children’s cognitive abilities. Based on the evaluation, we refined the system to improve the usability of the prototype, with the goal of reducing parental anxiety and enhancing children’s safety in outdoor environments
Are There Collective or Partially Collective Interpretations of Universal Quantificational “Each” Sentences?
No full textThe English universal quantifier “each” is usually discussed as distributive in the literature. Yet linguists use the term “distributivity” to reference a number of different phenomena. I focus my analysis primarily on two kinds of distributivity with respect to “each”: ‘predicate distributivity’ and ‘event participation distributivity’. I explore two questions: (1) Can the meanings of any “each”-sentences be used to think about multiple referenced individuals as participating in the same events “collectively” or “partially collectively”? (2) Are there collective predicate interpretations of any “each”-sentences? I explore whether the answer to the first question might be ‘yes’ with respect to “partially collective” event interpretations. I claim that the question as to whether there is a “completely collective” event interpretation of “each”-sentences warrants more investigation and may be open. I embed my analysis within a cognitive instructions framework, and argue for its usefulness in characterizing distributivity and quantification more generally
Feasibility Assessment of Climate Adaptation in Data Sparse Contexts
No full textWith mounting climate impacts, information to guide deployment of climate adaptation technologies is urgently needed. In areas of high need, these assessments are hindered by an absence of data. Here, I look at data availability, its implications for assessment, and opportunities to draw information from a wide range of sources through an evaluation of the feasibility of adaptation technologies for the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka. Employing the multi-dimensional feasibility assessment approach, I scored seven adaptation technology groupings across six dimensions: technological, economic, geophysical, environmental, institutional, and social-cultural. Scores were assessed with the peer-reviewed literature and then using grey literature. Using the peer-reviewed literature, many adaptation options had moderate feasibility on many dimensions, but with significant gaps regarding institutional and social considerations. NGO reports addressed some gaps, although this introduced an additional effort to establish their credibility. This work concludes with recommendations for assessments of climate technologies in data-sparse context
Role of Membrane Permeabilization and Ergosterol Content in the Inhibitory Activity of Membrane-Targeting Antimicrobials
No full textThe growing resistance of fungal pathogens to synthetic fungicides and their environmental impact calls for the development and research of sustainable alternatives. This study investigated the effectiveness of membrane-targeting antimicrobial compound and how fungal membrane composition, including the fungal membrane sterol ergosterol, modulates the effectiveness of various membrane-targeting antifungal compounds including nystatin, iturin, fengycin, surfactin, nisin, and daptomycin. Using unilamellar liposomes with varying ergosterol levels as model membranes, the research explores how these compounds interact with fungal membranes, focusing on changes in size, polydispersity index (PDI), and ζ-potential. The results demonstrated that ergosterol rich membranes are most susceptible to nystatin and iturin, which directly bind to ergosterol and disrupt membrane integrity. In contrast, surfactin and nisin exhibit antifungal activity through different mechanisms that do not rely on increasing membrane permeability. The findings emphasize the critical role of ergosterol in determining antifungal efficacy and provide insights into optimizing antifungal strategies
Investigating the Effect of Interface Scaffolding and Example Design on Learning and Performance in a Code-Tracing Tutor
No full textA foundational programming skill is code tracing. It involves simulating how a computer executes programs by tracking variable values and flow of program execution. Learning this skill is challenging and so research is needed to identify effective forms of assistance. This dissertation involves the design and evaluation of a computer tutor, called CT-Tutor. The tutor provided assistance for code tracing through interface scaffolding during code tracing as well as worked examples. The tutor was evaluated in three studies. Study 1 involved four versions of CT-Tutor to evaluate the effect of two levels of instructional scaffolding (high/reduced) and two types of instructional order (example-first/problem-first). Contrary to my hypothesis, there was no evidence for a learning benefit from high scaffolding. However, the high-scaffolding version improved performance by reducing the number of attempts needed to get an answer correct. Instructional order also influenced performance. The example-first group spent more time per example, less time per problem, and required fewer attempts to produce correct answers. To shed light on student reasoning with CT-Tutor, Study 2 used a think-aloud protocol to analyze students’ self-explanations and reading behaviors with the high- and reduced- scaffolding versions of the CT-Tutor; an exit interview was used to obtain data on the tutor’s usability. Self-explanation was the main variable of interest, as prior research demonstrated it is beneficial for learning. There was no significant difference in the number of self-explanation between the two scaffolding versions. The exit interviews revealed that the CT-Tutor example design could be improved. The CT-Tutor was subsequently re-designed to provide either dynamic and static examples. Previous research suggested that domains involving change over time are best presented by dynamic examples; code tracing is one such domain. The effect of example type on learning was not significant. The dynamic-example group spent more time on the examples, had marginally fewer incorrect attempts, and spent less time producing incorrect answers. In sum, ignoring condition, the CT-Tutor improved learning. However, the effect of the experimental manipulations was inconclusive. Performance was significantly affected by the experimental manipulations: the high-scaffolding problem interface, example-first instructional order, and dynamic examples improved code-tracing performance