Exploring The Interconnections Between Mitochondrial Carrier Proteins Involved In Energy Transfer: The Case Of Uncouplig Proteins 2 And 4, Adenine Nucleotide Translocase, And Phosphate Translocase, Marzieh Tabefam

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Mitochondrial carrier (MC) proteins play an essential role in cellular energy metabolism by mediating the transport of solutes and protons across the mitochondrial inner membrane (MIM). This thesis explores the structural and functional characteristics of three groups of MC proteins—Uncoupling Proteins (UCPs), Adenine Nucleotide Translocase (ANT), and Phosphate Translocase (P_iT)—to elucidate their individual and interrelated cooperative roles in mitochondrial proton transport and energy regulation.

The study develops and applies novel methodologies for the overexpression, purification, and reconstitution of MC proteins into model lipid bilayers mimicking the native mitochondrial inner membrane environment. These methods ensure proteins maintain their native-like …

Knowledge, Efficacy, And Experience In Components Of Stem Education: The Impact Of Teacher Professional Development, Emily Krysten Marilyn Spencer-Mueller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

Around the globe, there has been a significant focus on ensuring youth receive sufficient education and training in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) domains. Education reforms often begin with educators, who are responsible for effectively implementing curriculum changes. However, in Canada, although STEM education reform is underway, teacher education and professional learning (PL) and development may not have kept pace, potentially leaving some teachers feeling unprepared to integrate these changes confidently and effectively. This dissertation introduces two studies that investigate pre-service teachers’ readiness to teach STEM domains in the classroom, as well as the impact of a PL …

Structural Insights Into Peptidoglycan O-Acetylation In Gram-Negative Bacteria, Tyler Malloch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Centres for Disease Control has acknowledged that we are entering a post-antibiotic era, where increasing numbers of bacterial pathogens are becoming resistant to known antibiotics. One of the most successfully targeted features of bacteria is also the main component of the cell wall, peptidoglycan (PG). PG is a heteropolymer of alternating sugar residues, namely N-acetylmuramic acid (MurNAc) and N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) which are joined together by b-(1,4)-glycosidic bonds and crosslinked via stem peptide chains. PG is a target, readily lysed by exogenous and endogenous autolysins, such as lysozyme and lytic transglycosylase, respectively. This event leads to cell death …

Influence Of Temperature On Tfm Tolerance In Lake Sturgeon, Emily Bouffard

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The lampricide, 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM), has been used to successfully control invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) in the Laurentian Great Lakes for over 50 years. TFM’s effectiveness is due to the relatively low capacity of sea lamprey to detoxify TFM. Water temperature has been shown to increase TFM tolerance in larval sea lamprey. However, the effects of temperature on TFM sensitivity in non-target species such as the endangered lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) are poorly understood, particularly during their early life stages. To determine how temperature affected TFM sensitivity, age 1-year-plus (1+) lake sturgeon acclimated to 8, 16, …

Impact Of Membrane Lipid Composition On The Structure And Function Of Uncoupling Proteins 1 And 2 From Arabidopsis Thaliana (Atucp1 And Atucp2), Elizabeth Silva

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A proton gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM) is required for the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) via ATP synthase. In other words, generation of the proton gradient is coupled to the synthesis of ATP. Interestingly, uncoupling proteins (UCPs), also located in the IMM, dissipate the proton gradient, meaning that the gradient is not efficiently used for the production of ATP.¹ The mechanism of proton transport activity of UCPs has been hypothesized and widely debated for the past 20 years to also reduce oxidative stress by reducing the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS).² The majority of …

International Students Practicing Their Wellbeing: Social Connections And Use Of Professional Mental Health Services, Lal Ruby Atesoglu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

International students are a growing group of immigrants in Canada, and in particular in Ontario. Literature has consistently showed that international students experience unique mental health challenges, with reasons ranging from uncertainty about the future to having to cultivate social networks from scratch. Despite these stressors, they access professional mental health services at a lower rate than domestic students. Research has also shown that international students turn to their social connections to address their mental health concerns frequently. The aim of this study is to explore how international students utilize professional mental health services as well as their social connections …

Environmental, Governance, And Bibliometric Research On Corporate Tax Avoidance, Harjot S. Mehmi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation is composed of a literature review and three essays positioned in the corporate tax avoidance (CTA) space. The literature review summarizes the relationship between CTA and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. Although there are mixed findings within each of the E-S-G categories in the CTA literature, in general, better environmental circumstances are negatively associated with CTA, social performance displays an inverse relationship with CTA, and governance factors also display an inverse relationship with CTA. The first essay is an empirical archival investigation of the relationship between CTA and an environmental factor – the risk of environmental hazards …

Fallow Fields Or Fertile Ground: Analysing Food Governance In A Changing World, Johanna L. Wilkes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Our food systems are failing us. In particular, industrial food systems fail to deliver healthy, adequate food to billions of people (FAO et al. 2019; FAO et al. 2024) and have led to increased instances of mental health crises for farmers (Jones-Bitton 2019; Younker & Radunovich 2021). In addition, industrial food systems contribute to the devastating impacts of a warming climate (IPCC 2021), biodiversity loss (WWF 2021), and soil erosion (Wise 2019; Badreldin and Lobb 2023) worldwide. Yet, little structural change has occurred in the way agriculture is governed and the problems created by industrial agriculture are becoming increasingly entrenched. …

Lichen It: Optimizing Post-Fire Caribou Lichen Transplantation And Assessment, Elise Brown-Dussault

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Caribou lichen species are common in mid- to late-seral boreal forests, serving as an important winter diet staple for boreal woodland caribou. However, as climate change causes boreal wildfires to increase in size, severity, and frequency, available tracts of mature forest are decreasing, diminishing the extent of mature caribou lichen stands. Caribou lichens reproduce vegetatively, so bigger and more severe fires could exacerbate their dispersal limitations, potentially extending the timeline for caribou lichen stand recovery beyond 80 years. Trials have shown that “transplanting” caribou lichen fragments into disturbed areas can lead to the establishment of caribou lichen mats; as such, …

Individual Differences In The Evolution Of Strategies In Spatial Problem Solving, Jade T. Moussa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Navigating the world requires a strategy – you must choose which information to attend to and use from a wealth of internal and external cues in order to find your way. People have biases to prioritize some kinds of information over other. This is, in part, determined by individual differences in cognitive abilities. For instance, some individuals have a bias for spatial information that leads them to not only solve spatial tasks faster but are also more likely to use spatial information to solve tasks even when other information is available. However, peoples' navigation strategies also evolve over time. Although …

Thermokarst Can Stimulate Tall Shrub Productivity And Plant-Soil Feedbacks In The Low-Arctic Tundra, Claire O'Brien

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Warming temperatures are exacerbating permafrost thaw disturbances in the Arctic. Permafrost thaw disturbances are facilitating tall, deciduous shrub expansion. However, potential productivity differences between shrubs that colonize disturbed areas and those in undisturbed tundra remain understudied. More productive shrubs optimize for fast growth over leaf longevity, meaning they may produce more abundant and higher quality litter which could accelerate decomposition rates and lead to faster nutrient cycling. Faster nutrient cycling could create a positive feedback loop between shrubs and soil, maintaining greater ecosystem productivity. I measured in situ soil characteristics and physiological and structural shrub functional traits for green alder …

Timing Of Migration And Seasonal Movements Of Arctic Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus) In Relation To Water Temperature In The Kakisa River And Upper Mackenzie River, Nwt: Results From An Acoustic Telemetry Study., Levi Snook

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) are a cold-water salmonid that inhabit waterbodies throughout the circumpolar regions of the northern hemisphere. In the last decade, Ka'a'gee Tu First Nation members as well as local sport fishers, have observed lower catches of Arctic grayling during their annual spawning run in the Kakisa River, NWT. Many potential causes of this decline have been hypothesized including climate change and over harvesting. Outside of the general annual spawning activity in the headwaters of the Kakisa River, the ecology of the population, including post-spawn habitat use and migratory patterns, remained understudied. To address these knowledge gaps, acoustic …

Multi-Lingual And Cross-Domain Frontiers In Machine-Generated Content Detection, Gurunameh Singh Chhatwal

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 and their multilingual capabilities, has significantly blurred the distinction between human-authored and machine-generated content. This technological evolution introduces critical challenges concerning the detection and attribution of textual authenticity and authorship, exacerbating societal issues like misinformation proliferation and compromising academic and professional integrity. Traditional detection methodologies, predominantly monolingual and heuristic-based, have demonstrated inadequate generalizability and efficacy against the sophisticated, multilingual capabilities of contemporary generative models.

This thesis addresses two major problems arising from these advancements. Firstly, it introduces novel multilingual detection methodologies explicitly designed to differentiate …

The Divine Invitation To Co-Creation: The Effects Of Creative Practice On The Vocation Of Clergy In The Anglican Church Of Canada, Dawn Dickieson-Leger

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Creative practice has been confirmed as having benefits for health and well-being for people as well as an effective spiritual practice aiding in discernment. Clergy find their purpose in their sense of vocation, often formed and discerned in the context of seeking ordination. The researcher, an Anglican priest and amateur artist, presents a renewed idea of vocation as co-creation with God by engaging in creative practice. Throughout the dissertation she offers reflections from her own experiences in art, health recovery, and ministry. Fifteen Anglican clergy were interviewed about their vocation, ministry, and creative practice. Each of these clergy met the …

Reinforcement Learning For Scheduling And Routing: Electric Vehicles Charging And Patrol Scheduling, Majid Ghasemi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis offers a comprehensive exploration of Reinforcement Learning (RL), beginning with fundamental theoretical constructs, Markov Decision Processes, Dynamic Programming, Monte Carlo, and Temporal Difference methods, and extending into state-of-the-art deep RL approaches such as Deep Q-Networks (DQN) and policy-gradient algorithms. Through analytical experiments in controlled environments, the thesis demonstrates how distinct algorithmic choices (e.g., exploration techniques, eligibility traces, or network architectures) influence convergence and stability. These foundational insights pave the way for two in-depth case studies, which apply RL techniques to critical, real-world scheduling and routing challenges.

The first case study tackles the Electric Vehicle (EV) routing and charging …

Operationalizing Intersectionality Analysis For Urban Agriculture In Quito, Ecuador, Laine N. Young

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis outlines the results of a case study in Quito, Ecuador with the municipally led participatory urban agriculture project, AGRUPAR, an internationally recognized project that promotes women’s empowerment, traditional knowledge, agroecology, and livelihoods. It works to improve the lives of those experiencing high levels of poverty in Quito. This dissertation applies an intersectional analysis to urban agriculture research to enhance attention to power relations, social justice, and equity within its scholarly and practical realms. Intersectionality is an understanding that people have unique experiences of oppression based on their unique social location (what intersecting social categories they belong to) and …

To Encounter The Other? How Journalists Make Catholic Faith-Based Organizations In Mexico And Russia (In)Visible, Xochiquetzal Luna Morales

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Catholic Faith-Based Organizations (CFBOs) in Mexico and Russia are unique entities of study and comparison to understand the power dynamics between majority/minority institutional religions and their media representation. Although both countries recognize their religious diversity, Catholicism is still the major religion in Mexico, not only because of its large number of adherents but also its significant cultural and political capital. In contrast, in Russia, Catholicism is considered a minority religion and is often viewed as foreign to Russian values and traditions. These conditions influence how CFBOs have been featured in the news media in both countries. However, no single factors …

Using Landscape Ecology And Spatial Statistics To Examine The Impacts Of Proposed Removals To Natural Heritage System And The Agricultural System Of Ontario’S Greenbelt, Brianna Downey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The 2022 proposed removals from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Southern Ontario’s Greenbelt would have resulted in negative impacts including, reductions to the size and functionality of the Agricultural System and Natural Heritage System, which are components of protected Greenbelt area. Several removal sites were located either on or in close proximity to corridor areas of the NHS, reducing connectivity and negatively impacting the surrounding ecological area. The removal of Agricultural land primarily consisted of corn and soybeans, as well as large removals of woodland, wetland, and shrubland class areas. The removal sites on local Agricultural composition and configuration were …

Don’T Stop Believin’: Emotion Beliefs And Daily Affective Experiences Across Adulthood, Jocelyn A. Rutledge

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Emotion control beliefs reflect the extent to which people believe emotions “should” and “can” be controlled and have been linked to psychological well-being. Research has yet to examine age-related differences in these beliefs and their daily associations with affective experiences. The present study examines age differences in daily emotion control beliefs and their within-person associations with positive and negative affect. The study used 14-day daily diary data from an adult lifespan community sample (younger adults: 18-36 years old, N = 72; older adults: 66-92 years old, N = 66). The results revealed that older adults reported …

Inside The Circle 2025: Exploring The Ontario Cpe Supervisors' Lived Experience Of The Interpersonal Relations Group Process Portion Of Cpe, Kelly L. Collins

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research used a philosophical phenomenological (primarily Gadamer) methodology and asked the question, “What is the lived experience of Ontario Clinical Psychospiritual Education (CPE) Supervisors in the Interpersonal Relationships (IPR) group process portion of CPE?” It used a 90-minute, semi-structured interview format as it sought to understand the supervisor experience of safety in the group. 11 Ontario Certified Supervisors were interviewed and explored this question in relationship to participant supervisors’ experience as students and/or as educators. In the history of CPE, there has been significant harm done to students by some supervisors who were well-meaning, but unaware of their impact …

Contrasting Trajectories In Adolescent Pro-Environmentalism: Qualitative Differences Between “Engagers” And “Disengagers”, Jaida Brown

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This qualitative study extends Krettenauer and colleagues' (2024) longitudinal research by examining how different developmental contexts shape divergent trajectories in adolescents' environmental engagement. We conducted semi-structured interviews with nineteen adolescents, focusing on two distinct groups: "Engagers" who showed remarkable increases in pro-environmental behavior from ages 13 to 17, and "Disengagers" who exhibited substantial decreases inengagement during the same period. While all participants reported meaningful childhood nature experiences, supportive family sustainability practices and access to environmental information through media, their developmental paths diverged significantly. Disengagers gradually deprioritized environmental concerns as other life goals took precedence, while Engagers actively expanded their environmental …

What Is Success? How Peer Support Workers In Ontario See Addiction & Recovery, Ngaire Rasmussen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The drug crisis in Canada has high mortality rates, especially in remote and rural communities, but there are significant barriers to accessing healthcare to which peer support may represent a partial solution, (Eddie et al., 2019; Englander et al., 2020; The Government of Canada, 2023; Kourgiantakis et al., 2023; Lavalley et al., 2020; Lennox et al., 202; Russell et al., 2021). Research how peer support workers define success in their work with adults experiencing addiction in Ontario, Canada is lacking, but important to understanding the crisis and implementing peer programs. Grounded in Marxist theory, the following exploratory research investigated the …

Exploring Canadian Social Work Students' Aphobic Attitudes: The Role Of Knowledge About Asexuality And Asexual People, Brianna V. Azzoparde

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Aphobic attitudes are negative biases and prejudices against asexual individuals that can contribute to aphobic discrimination. While the Canadian Social Work Code of Ethics states that social workers should not discriminate and should provide culturally responsive services to marginalized populations, individually held aphobic attitudes have the potential to diminish one’s ability to provide culturally responsive services to asexual people. This national study examined aphobic attitudes among 326 Canadian social work students, exploring the relationship between knowledge about asexuality and aphobic attitudes, including controlling for demographic factors, social contact with asexuals, and social attitudes that previous research has identified as being …

“I’M Glad You're Alive.” Survivors’ Stories Of Leaving Intimate Partner Violence While Brain Injured, And The Embodied Experience Of Rebuilding Life And Relationships Post Violence., Robyn T. Mahood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Relationships are a fundamental part of the human experience, providing a buffer against stress and helping individuals live longer, happier, and healthier lives. However, survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) who have experienced a brain injury (BI) encounter barriers to leaving violent relationships and engaging in new, non-violent connections. This qualitative research study drew from Indigenous and non-Indigenous methodologies to establish a blueprint for using storytelling in the IPV-BI population. Intersectionality theory, combined with critical disability theory, was employed as a transformative research paradigm to better analyze and explain the stories. Survivors encountered fear, trust concerns, continued violence from former …

Student Engagement And Resistance: Exploring The Stories Of African Canadian Girls In High Schools In Southwestern Ontario, Esther R. Hayford

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

Student resistance is complex and has been described in existing literature as self defeatist, reactionary, conformist, transformational or strategic. Some Black students respond to interactions considered oppressive at school by engaging in a variety of resistive actions. Existing scholarship about Black student resistance in the US and Canada are largely framed within deficit frameworks with limited focus on Transformational Student Resistance. Research that focuses on transformational student resistance by Black girls, how schools respond, and how some resistive behaviours can be considered opportunities for change, is limited. While a diverse community, studies about Black girls often portray them as …

Marine And Freshwater Habitats Used By Sympatric Anadromous Arctic Char (Salvelinus Alpinus) And Dolly Varden (S. Malma Malma) In The Central Canadian Arctic, Simon W. Depasquale Mr.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Two closely related but distinct species of char, Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus) and Dolly Varden (S. malma), are critically important to the food security and culture of Indigenous peoples in northern North America. Subsistence Inuit fishers in Kugluktuk, NU, Canada, have noticed changes in the timing and locations of their catches of char in the past ~ 10 years. In response, an ongoing partnered research program between the Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Organization (HTO) and scientists was formed to study Arctic Char and northern form Dolly Varden (S. malma malma). Char research near Kugluktuk presents a unique opportunity to further …

Examining And Classifying Reasons For Missing Viral Loads Among Adults Living With Hiv: An Extended Outcome Investigation And Ascertainment Approach In Western Kenya, Harriet Fridah Adhiambo, Jayne Lewis-Kulzer, Edwin Nyagesoa, Sarah Gimbel, Eliud Akama, Dorothy Mangale, Lina Montonya, Ingrid Eshun-Wilson, Sarah Iguna, Everlyne Nyandieka, Elizabeth Bukusi, Lisa Abuogi, Thomas Odeny, Maya L. Petersen, Elvin H. Geng

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Gaps in HIV RNA monitoring persist globally impeding the ability to determine clinical progress and outcomes. This study systematically evaluated provider (e.g., guideline non-adherence), system (e.g., laboratory error) and participant-level (e.g., refusal) drivers of missed viral load (VL) monitoring measurements among people with HIV in Kenya. Adults aged 18-65 years were followed across five health facilities in Kenya as part of a clinical trial (NCT#02338739) where HIV RNA monitoring was done routinely. Instances of missed VL despite being indicated per Kenyan guidelines were identified. An algorithm for assessing root causes of missing HIV RNA was developed and generalized linear models …

The Three Lives Of Mamengwaa: Toward An Indigenous Canon Of Construction, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Articles

For too long, tribal judiciaries have been an afterthought in the story of tribal selfdetermination. Until the last half-century, many tribal nations relied on federally administered courts or had no court systems at all. As tribal nations continue to develop their law-enforcement and police powers, tribal justice systems now play a critical role in tribal self-determination. But because tribal codes and constitutions tend to borrow extensively from federal and state law, tribal judges find themselves forced to apply and enforce laws that are poor cultural fits for Indian communities—an unfortunate reality that hampers tribal judges’ ability to regulate and improve …

Inventing Birthright: The Nineteenth-Century Fabrication Of Jus Soli And Jus Sanguinis, Sam Erman, Nathan Perl-Rosenthal

Articles

Formal membership in a state has been an essential political status for well over a century. It is typically gained at birth, either jus soli or jus sanguinis. Jus soli assigns nationality by birth in a nation's territory; jus sanguinis assigns children their parents’ nationality. This article provides an alternative intellectual history of the modern dominance of these principles for attributing nationality. Contrary to prior scholarship, soli and sanguinis were not restatements of existing principles. The soli/sanguinis binary was a nineteenth-century invention. Old-regime European empires attributed membership in the community under one or another single natural law principle. Parentage and …

Environment Scan Of Generative Ai Infrastructure For Clinical And Translational Science, Hua Xu, Jiang Bian, Chunhua Weng, Yifan Peng, Betina Idnay, Zihan Xu, William G. Adams, Mohammad Adibuzzaman, Nicholas R. Anderson, Neil Bahroos, Douglas S. Bell, Cody Bumgardner, Thomas Campion, Mario Castro, James J. Cimino, I. Glenn Cohen, David Dorr, Peter L. Elkin, Jungwei W. Fan, Todd Ferris, David J. Foran, David Hanauer, Mike Hogarth, Kun Huang, Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer, Manoj Kandpal, Niranjan S. Karnik, Avnish Katoch, Albert M. Lai, Christophe G. Lambert, Lang Li, Christopher Lindsell, Jinze Liu, Zhiyong Lu, Yuan Luo, Peter Mcgarvey, Eneida A. Mendonca, Parsa Mirhaji, Shawn Murphy, John D. Osborne, Ioannis C. Paschalidis, Paul A. Harris, Fred Prior, Nicholas J. Shaheen, Nawar Shara, Ida Sim, Umberto Tachinardi, Lemuel R. Waitman, Rosalind J. Wright, Adrian H. Zai, Kai Zheng, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, Bradley A. Malin, Karthik Natarajan, Nicholson Price, Rui Zhang, Yiye Zhang

Articles

This study reports a comprehensive environmental scan of the generative AI (GenAI) infrastructure in the national network for clinical and translational science across 36 institutions supported by the CTSA Program led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the United States. Key findings indicate a diverse range of institutional strategies, with most organizations in the experimental phase of GenAI deployment. The results underscore the need for a more coordinated approach to GenAI governance, emphasizing collaboration among senior leaders, clinicians, information technology staff, and researchers. Our analysis reveals that 53% of …