Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

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All theses from 2011 to the present are in this collection, as well as some from 2010 and earlier years.

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Attraction and retention of ambulance paramedics in British Columbia
(2026) Matick, Stephen; Cunningham, J. Barton
Acting as the primary responders within provincial ambulance services, adequate staffing of Paramedics is key to the overall functioning of most Canadian emergency medical systems. However, most of the workforce-related research on this important occupational group is based on ambulance services outside of Canada. Studies which focus on the workplace factors affecting the attraction and retention of ambulance personnel within the Canadian context are limited. This is problematic, as there is a wide variance in the structures of emergency medical response frameworks across different jurisdictions; even across Canadian provinces. Additional information on the context-specific factors which influence the attraction and retention of Canadian paramedics would likely prove useful to policy makers and health authorities in B.C. Other Canadian jurisdictions may also benefit from additional validated research constructs to inform cross-provincial comparisons of ambulance structures. To this end, this exploratory study utilized a semi-structured, one-on-one interview format to acquire qualitative data on the subjective workplace experiences of working ambulance paramedics in B.C. In addition to providing practical data on the workplace dynamics of Paramedics in B.C., the study attempted to illustrate a set of theoretical concepts potentially useful for future studies involving ambulance paramedics in the provincial context. A conceptual framework drawn from previous literature was used to inform the interview questions. A convenience sample of 12 Paramedics were asked to discuss the factors which most influenced their decision to enter the profession, as well as the workplace factors they felt most influenced retention. Respondents were also asked if they had recommendations towards improving their working experiences. Interview data was organized into themes. ‘Attractant’ themes were grouped by question intent while retention and improvement-related themes were organized into groups aligning with the concept-categories outlined within the conceptual framework. 3-5 themes arose within each attractant group and conceptual framework. These themes were then analyzed and discussed within the wider academic and environmental context. Respondent recommendations for improvement were also discussed in the course of this wider analysis. The analysis conducted under this study outlined 10 potential areas of future research within the field of Paramedic attraction and retention. 12 recommendations potentially of use for improving the retention of ambulance personnel in B.C. were synthesized from both the explicit recommendations of respondents, as well as the content of the emergent themes. While the conceptual framework utilized within the study requires further validation, the results of this study may nonetheless be useful for both policy makers looking to improve the stability of the provincial ambulance workforce and researchers looking to add to the literature on Canadian Paramedics.
Breaking the culture barrier (shaping the future of diagnostics with direct-from-specimen omics)
(2026) Nartey, Linda K.; Goodlett, David R.; Chen, Michael X.
Microbial analysis directly from specimen offers a powerful alternative to traditional culture-based diagnostics by enabling microbial detection and characterization in their native host environment. In the context of urinary tract infections (UTIs), reliance on urine culture remains a major limitation: culture is slow (24-48 hrs), often discordant with urinalysis (urine dipstick) results, and can obscure clinically relevant microbial features through ex vivo growth. This dissertation breaks the culture barrier by developing and applying direct from urine omics approaches that improve diagnostic speed while preserving biologically meaningful pathogen signatures. A central focus of this work is the development of a lipidomics-based Fast Lipid Analysis Technique (FLAT) for culture-free detection of uropathogens using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). In a clinical cohort of 402 outpatient urine samples, FLAT correctly identified common uropathogens and showed 99% agreement with urine culture for negative samples, substantially outperforming urinalysis, which demonstrated only 37% agreement with culture. Using this approach, negative UTIs were rapidly ruled out in 77% of cases, reducing the need for culture and accelerating clinical decision making. While early implementations of FLAT showed strong performance for Gram-negative bacteria, detection of Gram-positive uropathogens was limited by inefficient cardiolipin release. To address this, a lysozyme pretreatment step was introduced to disrupt the Gram-positive peptidoglycan layer prior to lipid extraction. Optimization using contrived urine samples resulted in a 100-fold improvement in the limit of detection. Validation in a clinical cohort of 76 culture-confirmed Gram-positive urine samples yielded a 95% detection rate, while Gram-negative detection remained uncompromised, enabling reliable identification of both organism classes within a single workflow. Beyond diagnostics, this dissertation demonstrates the biological value of direct from specimen analysis for therapeutic target discovery. Proteomic profiling of Escherichia coli obtained directly from urine of UTI-positive patients was compared to the same isolates after a single laboratory passage. This analysis revealed substantial host-specific adaptation, with 37 proteins consistently present in patient-derived samples but absent after culture. These included outer membrane transporters, virulence-associated proteins, stress-response enzymes, and essential metabolic factors, many of which represent potential diagnostic markers or therapeutic targets that are missed by culture-based approaches. Together, these findings establish direct from specimen lipidomics and proteomics as practical and informative alternatives to traditional culture. By combining rapid diagnosis with biologically relevant pathogen profiling, this work demonstrates how breaking the culture barrier can improve infectious disease diagnostics and expand our understanding of microbial behavior in the host environment.
Classroom assessment and curriculum redesign: Teacher experiences in British Columbia
(2026) Koning, Abby; Harvey, Lyndze
British Columbia has undergone a significant curriculum reform that centred a competency-driven approach to education. This reform also highlighted a focus on proficiency in classroom assessment while maintaining a letter grade and percentage requirement in reporting for Grades 10-12 students. This study focuses on Grades 10-12 teacher experiences with classroom assessment and reporting under this new curriculum through qualitative, constructivist, and evaluative research approaches. Through interviews with eight teachers, this case study explores how teachers are being influenced by curriculum change and what challenges this curriculum change brings to their assessment practices. This study finds that teachers’ assessment practices are unequally influenced by curriculum and that this particular curriculum redesign has ushered in uncertainty and confusion for some teachers. However, this study also identifies that despite this, teachers’ assessment practices and values regarding assessment may still align with high-level goals of the curriculum. Finally, this study identifies that challenges such as time burdens and uncertainty regarding the curriculum can influence how teachers approach, implement, and conceptualize aligned classroom assessment.
Alginate microspheres for targeted delivery of emamectin benzoate in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) aquaculture
(2026) Hardy, Tyler; Hoorfar, Mina
Sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) pose a significant challenge to coastal Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) aquaculture, causing adverse effects on fish health and substantial economic losses. Additionally, concerns have been raised regarding the transmission of parasites from open-pen salmon farming operations to nearby wild salmon populations. In this work, a targeted drug delivery system using alginate microspheres was developed to enhance the efficacy of the commonly used antiparasitic drug emamectin benzoate. Microspheres were fabricated using microfluidics and extrusion techniques, with both methods yielding high encapsulation efficiencies. In vitro testing demonstrated that the microspheres provided protection under simulated gastric conditions and achieved a near 100% drug release after four hours in simulated intestinal fluid. Although the two microsphere formulations had significant size differences and relied on different crosslinking mechanisms, results of the release profile appeared independent of these factors. Instead, the drug release was primarily driven by a combination of polymer swelling and ionic exchange in the intestinal media. Following verification of the pH-responsive release mechanism, probiotic viability was tested after extrusion-based encapsulation and 18-hours of exposure to simulated gastric conditions. Results demonstrated high (82%) viability, demonstrating the microsphere formulation and encapsulation method was applicable to a wide range of bioactive cargos.
Explainable machine learning for diabetes prediction
(2026) Hussain, Sadam; Gulliver, T. Aaron
Diabetes is a growing global health concern, contributing to significant morbidity, mortality, and long-term economic burden. Machine Learning (ML) methods are increasingly applied to diabetes prediction, however, selecting appropriate classifiers and understanding the key features driving model decisions remain essential for reliable and clinically acceptable performance. This is particularly important in healthcare settings where clinicians may have limited familiarity with ML techniques and where transparency and trust in predictive outputs are critical. This study evaluates eight ML classifiers, Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting (GB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), AdaBoost (AB), Decision Tree (DT) and Neural Network (NN) using a dataset of 100,000 patient records for diabetes prediction. Models are evaluated using various configurations which includes baseline training and hyperparameter optimization using RandomizedSearchCV. The global and local interpretability is examined using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME) and Explain Like I’m 5 (ELI5) to identify the most influential features contributing to predictions. These findings show that ensemble based models achieve strongest predictive performance with RF and GB outperforming other evaluated classifiers. Interpretability analyses consistently highlight that Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), blood glucose, Body Mass Index (BMI), and age are the dominant predictive features. A final evaluation using a reduced feature set derived with the help of Explainable AI (XAI) demonstrates that strong predictive accuracy can be maintained while improving model simplicity and interpretability. This work underscores the importance of combining ML performance with transparent feature explanations in order to support trustworthy and clinically meaningful decision support systems for diabetes prediction.
The economics of U. S. reproductive policies: Evidence across five decades
(2026) Reinsch, Emma M.; Feir, Donn
In 2022, the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned federal abortion protections established by Roe v. Wade (1973). Within hours, eleven states began enforcing total abortion bans, expanding to 13 by summer's end. During the Dobbs proceedings, an amicus brief argued that abortion access had no meaningful effect on women's economic participation. This dissertation challenges that claim through three studies examining how reproductive policies—specifically, policies governing access to abortion services and contraception—shape women's labor market outcomes from the 1970s to the present. Chapter 2 reviews existing scholarship on abortion access, labor market outcomes, and intimate partner violence; the review demonstrates how these factors operate as interconnected barriers to U.S. women's economic participation and identifies key data limitations and methodological concerns that subsequent chapters address. Chapter 3 applies modern difference-in-differences designs to study the effects of accessing abortion in late adolescence during the 1970s on women's earnings among employed women. While recent research finds no significant labor market effects from contraceptive access during the same period, I find that teenage abortion access generated substantial long-run earnings returns for some women. Effects concentrate among white women, while Black women's early gains are eroded by subsequent legal restrictions on abortion access that had a disproportionate impact. Chapter 4 examines state-level abortion bans enacted fifty years later, after \textit{Dobbs} overturned federal protections. Using a synthetic difference-in-differences design, I find that bans are associated with an increase in childbearing, a reduction in educational attainment and work intensity, and lower high-skill occupation probability. Effects vary substantially across demographic groups and cannot be explained by interstate travel or out-migration. Together, these chapters provide new evidence that reproductive policies across U.S. states shape women's economic trajectories across policy regimes and time periods.
Bee determined: A mathematical analysis of trapline formation in bees
(2026) Grünenwald, Ferdinand; Lewis, Mark
Traplining is a behaviour where animals visit stationary, renewing food sources in a repetitive, non-random order, like a trapper visiting their traps. Reynolds et al. (2013), Lihoreau et al. (2013) and Dubois et al. (2021)developed biologically plausible models for how traplining might emerge as a result of a simple iterative improvement foraging strategy of bumblebees. While these models have been investigated extensively empirically through simulations, a theoretical understanding of their properties has not yet been determined, and these models have never been fit to data directly. We address both of these research gaps. In Chapter 1, we provide a mathematically rigorous description of the model, framing it as a version of an edge-reinforced random walk. We show that the model outlined by Reynolds et al. can give rise to stable traplining behaviour where simulated bees visit the same set of flowers in the same order at all large times. In fact, under the additional assumption that simulated bees do not visit any flower twice within the same foraging excursion, also called a bout, we show that the process is guaranteed to converge to a stable trapline eventually. We argue further that the model bridges a gap between two seemingly competing hypotheses for how traplines form in bee foraging behaviour, the nearest neighbour-hypothesis and the order of encounter-hypothesis. The nearest neighbour hypothesis says that bees prefer to fly to the nearest neighbour, whereas the order of encounter hypothesis claims that bees simply retrace their steps. We argue that when bees imperfectly retrace their steps, only weakly reinforcing each step, the resulting trapline is more likely to be the nearest neighbour route and under strong reinforcement, the resulting trapline is more likely to resemble the order of encounters. In Chapter 2, we fit these models to flower visitation sequence data. Using a simulation study, we verify that we are able to accurately retrieve model parameters and distinguish among several candidate models. We apply these methods to real flower visitation sequence data collected by Woodgate et al (2017). We are able to show that bees tend to retrace their steps and seem to be able to remember entire bouts. We find that linear reinforcement better models bee learning than exponential reinforcement, indicating that bees might not converge to the stable traplines previously hypothesized.
Thermochronological records of tectonics along the northwestern North American margin: Vancouver Island, Canada
(2026) Qiao, Xin; Jiao, Ruohong; Canil, Dante
How the oceanic plates west of North America evolved and shaped the continental margins remains a subject of active debate. The Eocene ridge-trench interactions between the Kula/Resurrection-Farallon ridge and the western North American margin initiated a complex tectonic regime involving plate fragmentation, ridge subduction and oceanic plateau accretion, the details of which remain debated. The Cenozoic history of Vancouver Island records the long-term response of the crust to changes in this plate configuration of the convergent margin. This thesis employs multiple low-temperature thermochronometers to reconstruct the thermal and exhumation history of crust that underlies Vancouver Island. The objective is to resolve the spatial and temporal variations in the cooling patterns to provide new insights into the paleo-plate configurations and convergence processes that have shaped the northwestern North American margin throughout the Cenozoic. Across the southern Wrangellia terrane of Vancouver Island, apatite fission track (AFT) ages of 85--23 Ma and apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe) ages of 37--14 Ma reveal variable cooling patterns since the late Cretaceous. Thermal history modeling indicates accelerated Eocene cooling (4--5 ℃/Myr) adjacent to major thrust faults, interpreted as a response to oroclinal bending following plateau accretion. In contrast, the west coast experienced minimal cooling (<0.5 ℃/Myr) until ~30 Ma, followed by a moderate phase (1.5--3 ℃/Myr) linked to the establishment of the Cascadia subduction zone. These patterns suggest the presence of a widespread Eocene sedimentary cover, and the Leech River Complex of the Pacific Rim terrane being partly the outboard equivalent of this cover. Along the strike of Vancouver Island, AHe, AFT and zircon (U-Th-Sm)/He (ZHe) ages and inverse thermal models show a stark contrast from north to south. The northernmost region experienced prolonged thermal quiescence before 40 Ma followed by slow exhumation, with ZHe, AFT and AHe ages of 147--101, 138--95 and 45--12 Ma, respectively. In contrast, the central-southern island records more rapid exhumation that decelerated after ~50 Ma, with ZHe, AFT and AHe ages of 83--31, 61--17 and 45--12 Ma, respectively. These di!ering exhumation patterns are explicable if Cascadia subduction established earlier over central-southern Vancouver Island (~50 Ma) than in the northernmost region (~40 Ma), reflecting a northward migration of the Juan de Fuca plate boundary during the early stages of Cascadia subduction. This northern boundary was juxtaposed to the north with the translational motion of the Kula/Resurrection plate. Then the Kula/Resurrection-Juan de Fuca ridge shifted northward ~40 Ma following either complete subduction of Resurrection plate beneath southern Alaska or the merging of the Pacific and Kula plates. This reorganization led to the establishment of a uniform slow exhumation across Vancouver Island thereafter. The northern extent of the Eocene Cascadia margin can thus be constrained to have started o! northern-central Vancouver Island. Finally, thermal history reconstruction of Vancouver Island at temperatures over 250 ℃ was also investigated using the novel approach of dating radiation damage in zircon using Raman spectroscopy. With its thermal sensitivity, age calculation method, and evaluation protocol established, zircon Raman dating has emerged as a new approach to low-temperature thermochronology within the 260--370 ℃ closure interval. Intrusive samples with distinct and well-constrained thermal histories from Vancouver Island, including rapid cooling, multi-stage cooling, and prolonged residence at 2--4 km depth, are analyzed to evaluate the technique’s applicability as a thermochronometer in subduction margin settings. Five samples yield zircon Raman ages consistent with previously constructed thermal history models, whereas three samples show anomalously old outliers. The different Raman bands show different sensitivities to thermal disturbances, necessitating band-specific interpretations of the resulting ages. The results validate the application of zircon Raman dating for reconstructing various cooling paths and suggest that further methodological improvements should focus on low-damage samples, long-term thermal histories, and integration with other thermochronometers. Collectively, this work provides a comprehensive thermochronological framework for Vancouver Island, providing views of how the island’s crust responded to the plate boundary evolution along northwestern North America through the Cenozoic. The results reveal a coherent exhumation pattern associated with the Eocene ridge-trench interactions and transition from Farallon to Cascadia subduction. This work also demonstrates the value of zircon Raman dating in resolving thermal histories in active plate convergence settings.
Investigation of an uncharacterized RNA binding domain in the neurodevelopment-associated protein methyl CpG binding protein 2
(2026) Good, Katrina V.; Ausió, Juan
Mutations in the gene encoding methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) cause the progressive neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome (RTT), for which there is currently no cure. MeCP2 is characterized as having 5 domains, although pathogenic missense mutation ‘hotspots’ cluster in the protein’s Methyl DNA binding Domain (MBD), and the NCoR Interaction Domain (NID), indicating these regions as critical for MeCP2 function. Adding to this, The MBD and NID expressed together as a peptide in RTT mice alleviates their phenotypes. Altogether, the central view of MeCP2 function is to bind methylated DNA and recruit the NCoR complex to repress gene expression. This however ignores the dozens of known MeCP2-interaction partners that involve MeCP2 in nearly all nuclear processes, indicating that there is likely some unknown facet of MeCP2 biology that can reconcile these paradoxical data. A putative RNA Binding Domain (RBD) was identified that overlaps with the NID, yet the role that RNA interaction plays in MeCP2 function remains underexplored. The aim of the work presented in this thesis was to investigate RNA binding at this non-canonical RBD and identify how RNA interaction at this domain regulates MeCP2 function. Biochemical, biophysical, imaging, and immunoprecipitation approaches show that MeCP2-chromatin interaction is likely not regulated by RNA, but the MeCP2-protein interactome is modulated by RNA and the RBD, and interactions with the NCoR complex protein TBLR1 is negatively regulated by direct RNA interaction at the RBD. Cell-based and in vitro molecular assays were used to validate RNA interaction at the NID/RBD of MeCP2 to a dsRNA probe in vitro and to the lncRNA NEAT1_2¬ in cells. Intriguingly, all the evidence gathered indicates that the NID/RBD is not the only MeCP2 RBD, as its deletion does not totally abrogate RNA binding. The work is therefore left with many important knowledge gaps to fill in future directions, including where the other MeCP2 RBD(s) is/are and their relevance to MeCP2 function and RTT. The data presented herein however, validates regulatory RNA binding at a domain known to be pathogenically sensitive and therefore may be a key part of the pathophysiology of Rett syndrome.
Low-cost sensor networks for indoor wildfire smoke exposure: Design lessons and fine particulate (PM2.5) monitoring across residential buildings in Victoria, BC and Edmonton, AB
(2026) Saira, Tanatswa; Minet, Laura
Indoor air quality during wildfire smoke is an emerging public-health concern, yet there is limited data on how homes perform during smoke episodes and on how to design such large campaigns. This thesis addresses both gaps using a network of low-cost Scentroid CTmini sensors deployed across residential and infrastructure buildings in Victoria, BC and Edmonton, AB. Chapter 2 documents the design, calibration, and deployment of a network of low-cost Scentroid CTmini sensors and reference instruments across residential and infrastructure buildings. The design work covers sensor selection, laboratory and field collocation with regulatory monitors, data-logging and networking strategies, participant recruitment, and quality-control procedures, highlighting the importance of calibration, clear file-naming and close coordination with building operators and participants. Chapter 3 uses calibrated CTmini PM2.5 data from a subset of residential homes to quantify how indoor concentrations respond to outdoor levels during the 2024 wildfire season. Minute-level data are aggregated, distinguishing between “typical” conditions and smoke-impacted hours (outdoor PM2.5 ≥ 35 µg/m3). In Edmonton, homes show diverse behaviour under typical conditions but more consistent attenuation during smoke events and bedrooms tend to act as the most protective rooms. In Victoria, a relatively low-smoke year, most homes already maintain indoor PM2.5 at or below outdoor levels, and the impact of portable air purifiers is difficult to separate from mild variations in outdoor smoke. Chapter 4 extends this framework to infrastructure buildings, comparing building types and room uses as potential cleaner-air spaces. Overall, the thesis demonstrates how building characteristics and occupant activities jointly shape indoor exposure during wildfire smoke season and provides practical guidance for future large-scale indoor air-quality monitoring and cleaner-air interventions.
Comparing vanguard leaders: Exploring key Leadership attributes and their links to individual, group, and societal outcomes
(2026) Muzyka, Allison; Marcy, Richard
The prevalence of socio-political vanguard groups has grown in contemporary Western society. Although existing research has examined the ideologies, processes, and impacts of these groups, far less attention has been given to the leaders who shape them and to the attributes of vanguard leadership. Addressing this gap, this study compares and contrasts key characteristics of vanguard leadership through comparative case studies of George Lincoln Rockwell, Malcolm X, and Guy Debord. Using a most similar systems design, the research draws on biographical sources, archival documents, and qualitative and historical content analysis to assess each leader’s traits, skills, behaviours, goals, and strategies. The findings show that while all three cases exhibit core attributes from existing theories of vanguard leadership, there is variation in team leadership, team behaviours, establishing vanguard leader credibility, and shaping public influence. These differences affected the outcomes of one of the case studies, including their ability to build committed followings, sustain momentum, and affect cultural or political discourse. This study advances vanguard leadership theory by identifying specific leader attributes that help explain the variation in short- and long-term outcomes. By comparing and contrasting vanguard leader traits, skills, behaviors, goals, and strategies, this research identified similarities and differences in how these leaders operate and how their leadership attributes may relate to their broader socio-political impact.
Understanding emotion regulation during negative experiences in online group work: A case study of groups with varying sense of belonging
(2026) Yeeun, Choi; Mariel, Miller
As online collaborative learning and teamwork becomes increasingly prevalent, it has become critical to understand how students regulate emotions in these settings. While previous research has highlighted the importance of emotion regulation in collaborative learning, little is known about how students regulate emotions during negative experiences, especially in online environments where varying levels of sense of belonging and limited face-to-face interaction shape the context. To address this gap, this study used a qualitative exploratory case analysis design to explore how students regulate emotions during negative experiences in an online collaborative case-based performance assessment (CCPA), with particular attention to learners’ sense of belonging. Participants were two groups of undergraduate students enrolled in an undergraduate learning-to-learn course. Data sources included self-reported sense of belonging on the Perceived Cohesion Scale (Bollen & Hoyle, 1990), students’ self-reported emotion regulation in a narrative constructor tool completed after the exam, and video recordings of group interactions during negative experiences. Findings indicate that emotion regulation was triggered by a range of emotions situationally embedded in negative experiences. In response to triggers, learners primarily used task- and interaction-focused strategies, rather than direct emotional modulation with different strategies used at the individual and group level. Individuals often used avoidance strategies, while group-level regulation strategies commonly focused on sustaining teamwork. Finally, patterns across groups indicated high belonging did not prevent negative emotion nor guarantee effective regulation. Findings advance understanding of how students with differing levels of belongingness navigated emotion regulation, offering insights for the design of supportive learning contexts that foster connection, care, and collaboration.
A Green Legal Theory for the X-Cene: Diffracting Canadian shelter, reconciliation, and Anthropocene discourses
(2026) Zion, Mark; Johnson, Rebecca
This dissertation joins with and extends Michael M’Gonigle’s Green Legal Theory (“GLT”), which insists upon deeper theoretical questioning, and which offers a fundamental relativization of the assumptions and practices we normally reinscribe around the signifier “law.” First, I engage with Canadian ‘right to shelter’ discourse, with a focus on shared assumptions that do crucial work but are sometimes unstated. I offer a ‘chrono-political’ framework to organize various claims made in the courtroom, in legal academic commentary, and by homeless people themselves. People sleeping outdoors have achieved noteworthy success in court, preventing immediate bodily peril. However, the ‘emergency’ temporality in those cases ultimately offers a limited politics. I evaluate proposals from legal academics who therefore prescribe court orders that aim to transcend emergency protection: the state ought proactively to provide some minimal level of shelter to everyone, thereby conjoining the emergency temporality with a longer term ‘progressive’ temporality. However, I argue that these proposals insufficiently formulate how judges understand their institutional role and the extent to which courtroom doctrine can redirect wider neoliberal trends. Regulative assumptions about ‘gradual improvement’ in the law must themselves be interrogated. Second, I conduct a preliminary chronopolitical interrogation of the term ‘reconciliation,’ emphasising the temporal/historical presuppositions in this (anti-)political watchword. Disclosing both ‘emergency’ and ‘progress’ assumptions, ‘reconciliation’ can be read as an apologia for EP-flux in the domain of Indigenous government, one that is therefore an ideal node for critical redescription. To draw out the conceptual inquiry, I engage with the Ktunaxa case, exploring how the ‘reconciliation’ jurisprudence naturalises certain assumptions about law, land, progress, and sovereignty. I consider the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, demonstrating the astonishing extent to which the Report channels a particular neoliberal political rationality, saturated with the vacuous terminology that operates as a lingua franca in these nihilistic times. Third, I interrogate the notion of ‘a relation,’ beginning with Rodolphe Gasché’s deconstruction and moving toward a transcultural eco-poetics with the help of Edouard Glissant and others. Next, I critique the new epochal grand narrative of ‘the Anthropocene,’ which subtends the intersection between law and ecology. I survey ‘altercenes’ proposed in the literature to qualify, relativise, or displace it, such as the Capitalocene and the Chthulucene. I offer my own playful altercene, drawing on those that already exist: the X-Cene, connecting it with the ecological, postcolonial, and Indigenous threads that have preoccupied this dissertation. To evaluate the status of law specifically in the X-Cene, I build on Michael M’Gonigle’s Green Legal Theory. He distinguishes between ‘legal law’ (familiar positivistic case law, legislation, etc.) and an unavowed but even more determinative ‘social law.’ It is only by transforming ecologically unsustainable social laws that the root dysfunctions of our time may be addressed.
Engaging Inuvialuit youth on global environmental changes using participatory arts-based methods
(2026) Gauthier, Maéva; Gutberlet, Jutta
Rapid environmental change in the Canadian Arctic has been affecting communities by altering their environments, resources, livelihoods, and cultural and biological diversity. Climate change affects multiple levels, from sea-level rise and coastal erosion to the distribution and accumulation of microplastics (and other contaminants) in the environment, ultimately affecting a range of human well-being factors. To understand the full extent of these changes, it is crucial to examine how Arctic coastal communities are experiencing and responding to these changes within their local contexts. This study focuses on engaging Inuvialuit youth on global environmental changes they are facing in Tuktoyaktuk, in the Canadian Western Arctic, using community-based participatory approaches. In my research, I employed an assemblage of theoretical frameworks to guide the exploration of these complex, intersecting themes. These frameworks include political ecology, resilience thinking, and community-based research. To better understand youth resilience and mobilization related to global environmental changes of concern in the Arctic, more specifically, to the community of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, I was guided by these questions: 1. In the context of escalating environmental changes affecting Arctic communities, what do youth identify as their primary concerns? 2. In what ways are youth mobilizing around those issues? 3. What strategies and tools might additionally support and possibly amplify those actions? To answer these questions, I used participatory video to document the youth’s perceptions and solutions on climate change, and used photovoice and StoryMap to engage them on plastics in their environment. Most of the engagement in person took place in the summer of 2019, followed by visits in 2022 and 2023. The study, focusing on the use of participatory video and its long-term impacts on youth, further elaborates on the reframing of resilience as deeply relational, aligning with Indigenous framings that identify the collective dimension of resilience. Our research identifies three interconnected domains in which participatory video fosters relational resilience: (1) Identity and Emotional Meaning-Making, (2) Collective Leadership and Intergenerational Learning, and (3) Policy Engagement and Knowledge Mobilization. This acknowledges the shift from viewing resilience as an individual psychological trait to viewing it as a deeply culturally and socially embedded dynamic process. Results from the engagement on plastics in their environment show that youth perceptions and solutions regarding plastic waste, and how participatory visual methods can support local action pathways. With their reflections and images, they emphasized the importance of being on the land and traditional practices, the beauty of their surroundings, and their growing concerns about plastic waste in the environment. Four interconnected themes emerged: 1) Place, belonging and well-being, 2) Cultural continuity and knowledge transmission, 3) Youth environmental awareness and observation, and 4) Pathways for collaboration and youth agency. These findings demonstrate the potential of participatory arts-based approaches to support community- and youth-led solutions grounded in their reality to strengthen local capacity for action towards the plastic waste issue in the North. Overall, the learnings from this research contribute to multiple spheres: advancing our understanding of youth-led participatory research in Arctic or Indigenous contexts; refining methodologies for community-based and arts-based research; informing practice and policy on youth engagement and climate communication; and expanding theoretical frameworks through feminist, political ecology, and relational resilience perspectives.
Bearing witness to neurodivergent Indigenous people with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Stories of belonging, strength, and resilience
(2026) Alder, Caitlin; Allan, Billie
This research bears witness to neurodivergent Indigenous storytellers with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), demonstrating the significance of how these intersectional identities have been influential in their development of a sense of belonging. Through the experiences of the researcher, who identifies as neurodivergent and Anishinaabe, and nine (9) other neurodivergent Indigenous people living in Canada, this research serves to contextualize the importance of belonging as a fundamental human need. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the growing conversations on the importance of belonging—particularly, how the development of a positive sense of belonging serves as an important indicator of social, mental, and physical wellbeing; and how negative experiences create a sense of unbelonging, contributing to poorer wellbeing and long-term outcomes. This work observes how belonging is used as a tool of oppression, arguing that conceptions of “normal” or “typical” are intentionally used as a method of “othering” to establish metrics of who belongs and who does not through colonial, white supremacist, and ableist ideologies—which are then supported by Eurocentric methods of research and data analyses that favour the medical model of disability. To challenge these notions, this research embraces frameworks that use the medicine wheel to guide the process of bearing witness to Indigenous storytellers and challenge misconceptions and stereotypes associated with both Indigeneity and neurodivergence that negatively impact belonging—as well as demonstrating how a positive sense of belonging requires a balance between our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves.
Hyperbolic vision–language embeddings and loss functions for multimodal meme classification
(2026) Warner, Ryan; Thomo, Alex
This thesis investigates whether hyperbolic geometry can improve multimodal Vision-Language Model (VLM) performance on the Facebook Hateful Memes dataset. The challenge of this benchmark stems partly from subtle semantic hierarchies in how images and text combine. For example, the phrase "you smell great" paired with a skunk conveys a fundamentally different meaning than the same text paired with a rose. Such shifts in meaning are often attributed to entailment relationships within and between the visual and textual components of a meme. We hypothesize that hyperbolic geometry, with its natural capacity to represent hierarchical structure, may capture these entailment relationships more effectively than flat Euclidean space. To explore this idea, we introduce Hyperbolic Flamingo, to our knowledge the first Flamingo-style architecture implemented in hyperbolic geometry. The model combines frozen MERU and CLIP (Contrastive Language-Image Pre-training) encoders with hyperbolic gated cross-attention layers. We adopt Flamingo's frozen-encoder design because the benchmark requires rapid iteration, and lightweight adapters allow efficient experimentation across different geometric configurations. Initial experiments revealed a core difficulty for hyperbolic VLMs: boundary collapse, where embeddings drift toward the edge of the Poincaré disk and gradients vanish. Under these conditions, angle-based losses saturate and performance collapses toward randomness. To address this, our main methodological contribution is a discriminative prototype loss (L_proto). Instead of classifying via token-likelihood, the model predicts labels by geodesic distance to learnable class prototypes. This shift from generative prediction to geometric separation prevents boundary collapse and enables stable hyperbolic training where previous approaches failed. Experiments with centroid-regularised prototypes (L_proto-reg) show mixed, dimension-dependent effects: regularisation helps at high dimensionalities (e.g., +1.15% at 256d) but reduces performance in lower-dimensional settings. Initial experiments (Phase 3) with a simplified architecture demonstrate parity: the hyperbolic prototype head (63.44% ± 2.1% Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve, or AUROC) matches the Euclidean baseline (63.4% ± 0.7%), with hyperbolic cross-attention and the LM head (63.9% ± 1.8%) slightly exceeding the baseline. Extended ablation (Phase 5) with the complete Flamingo architecture (Perceiver Resampler plus six interleaved cross-attention layers) reveals a stronger finding: the hyperbolic prototype head outperforms the LM head by ~3% (67.32% vs 64.37% AUROC), confirming the value of the discriminative pivot. The best configuration achieves 67.97% ± 0.35% AUROC with a best single-seed result of 69.50%. We view the Lorentzian distance losses explored here as a starting point; more advanced formulations (such as Accept-the-Gap's exterior-angle losses or HyCoCLIP's compositional entailment cones) may better realise the theoretical benefits of hyperbolic space. Overall, these findings establish Hyperbolic Flamingo as a practical and extensible foundation for further research on geometric inductive bias in vision-language models. Code availability: Source code is available on Hugging Face (https://huggingface.co/rkwarnerwsslskunkworx/Hyperbolic_Flamingo) with access granted upon request.
The science and art of feminist somatic sex education: Teaching pleasure in the mid- to late twentieth century
(2026) Koehn, Emilia; Cleves, Rachel Hope
Today, female orgasms promise freedom: freedom from bad sex, from unhappy relationships, and sometimes even from the patriarchy. For those who struggle to orgasm, a plethora of “sexperts” offer solutions often in the form of somatic sex education. “The Science and Art of Feminist Somatic Sex Education: Teaching Pleasure in the Mid- to Late Twentieth Century” explores the evolution of somatic sex instruction for pre-orgasmic women from a tradition of scientia sexualis to an ars erotica. Using archival texts, oral histories, and secondary literature, this thesis highlights the sexologists William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, the psychologist Lonnie Barbach, and the artist Betty Dodson as important shapers of the discourse of female sexuality. Dissatisfied with the psychoanalytic treatments of “frigidity,” they set out to create new methodologies. In the 1960s and 1970s, Masters and Johnson achieved nationwide fame for their physiological research into the human sexual response and their consequent method for treating couples’ sexual “inadequacies.” Building on their work, Barbach created “pre-orgasmic therapy groups,” a distinctly feminist alternative to Masters and Johnson. This positions her in a sexual scientific discourse which Foucault termed scientia sexualis. Dodson, on the other hand, created a more artistic and spiritual approach with her Bodysex workshops, which place her in the orientalist and essentializing discourse of ars erotica. This thesis argues that its subjects were not lonesome pioneers who rose against the oppressive mainstream, even though many like to frame them as such. Instead, it locates them within wider discourses, such as the sexual revolution, radical and cultural feminism, neo-spirituality, and oppressive structures of race and gender. Barbach and Dodson have been overlooked by historians, but their stories are an important part of second-wave pro-sex feminism and help us better understand how sex has been framed as a site of empowerment.
Visual and interactive tools in support of a hands-on introduction to quantum computing
(2026) Norrie, Samantha; Stege, Ulrike; Estey, Anthony
The rapid growth of quantum computing technology has created a need for educational tools that help foster intuitive understanding of quantum concepts. Although exploratory learning has demonstrated effectiveness in other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics domains, its role in quantum computing education remains underexplored. This thesis presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of two exploratory learning tools, QNotation and QGrover, which were developed to support introductory quantum computing instruction. QNotation is a browser-based application that displays quantum circuits written using quantum software libraries (such as Qiskit, PennyLane, or Cirq) in circuit, Dirac, and matrix notation. To ensure reliability and conceptual accuracy, QNotation incorporates a comprehensive automated testing and verification framework, including integration tests executed through continuous integration workflows. We conducted an exploratory study to examine how students interact with QNotation. Preliminary survey data and usage observations provide initial insights into learner engagement patterns within exploratory quantum computing environments. QGrover, another browser-based application, complements QNotation by allowing users to interact with Grover’s algorithm through dynamic visualizations. Users can configure the number of qubits, marked states, and iterations (or select the optimal count) used by the algorithm. This enables them to observe how the circuit and state vectors evolve step-by-step. By supporting exploratory manipulation, QGrover helps learners develop intuition about the algorithm’s dependence on its problem parameters. The contributions of this work is an overview of how the aforementioned tools have been designed according to software engineering best practices to align with modern industry needs. Additionally, we demonstrate that well-designed exploratory tools can meaningfully improve the teaching and learning of quantum computing. We also provide example material to enable these tools to be easily integrated into learning exercises and assessments.
Cyclic electron illumination and beam response measurement using < 1 μs multi trigger exposures on the Merlin-Medipix detector
(2026) Fang, Zekun; Blackburn, Arthur M.
There is a need to observe dynamic microscopic phenomena and reduce sample damage in electron microscopy to enable better understanding of physical phenomena and to allow higher-fidelity microstructure determination for materials science and biological applications. This need is driving advances in time resolved electron microscopy and creates the requirement to characterize the dynamic response of the electron beam at the upper frequency limits of the microscope’s scan deflection system. Here we advance time resolved electron microscopy using the previously little-explored multiple-trigger frame mode of the Medipix-Merlin detector on a transmission electron microscope (TEM). We use this detector at trigger rates up 200 kHz with shutter or count-enable durations down to 100 ns, to determine the voltage to beam-deflection transfer function, including the frequency-dependent phase response. Following this, we describe and test a scheme for providing a 50 kHz pulsed illumination mode in a TEM, using a cyclic orbital beam trajectory synchronized with multi-trigger frame acquisition on a Medipix-Merlin detector. This allows us to obtain time or electron-dose resolved series of selected area diffraction data. We apply this scheme to investigate electron damage in C36H74 paraffin (hexatriacontane). This is a model highly electron-beam sensitive material that has previously been characterised using a pulsed-laser excited electron beam source in the TEM. However, owing to experimental uncertainties of our method on this very sensitive material, our damage rate results on this material are inconclusive. Nonetheless our advancement and demonstration of a new pulsed electron beam illumination mode for TEM, and a new method of determining the amplitude and phase response of the beam deflection system, should be useful for those seeking to develop high-speed and lower-cost dynamic electron microscopy systems.
Synthesis and optical applications of ferrocene-containing polymers
(2026) Young, Harrison K.S.; Manners, Ian; McIndoe, J. Scott; LaPierre, Etienne
From commodity plastics which enable large-scale manufacturing of consumer products to the nucleic acids and proteins that allow for biological function, polymeric materials are essential for modern life. However, polymers which display functions beyond low-density structural components has been a well-established challenge due to the synthetic difficulty of creating purely organic polymers which feature technologically relevant properties such as electrical conductivity or magnetism. Therefore, further exploration into the incorporation of elements aside from carbon into polymeric systems, and the properties of such compounds, enables the expansion of the applications of these species. This thesis explores optical applications of iron-containing polymeric compounds known as polyferrocenes to showcase larger applicability for inorganic polymers, in addition to investigating new methods for the inclusion of elements which are underexplored in polymer materials to further enhance the optical properties of the polyferrocenes. Chapter 1 gives a background of the structure of ferrocene, the methods for the inclusion of ferrocene in polymers, and some relevant applications of these polyferrocenes. Chapter 2 discusses the first example of a metallopolymer used in the detection of magnetic field strength via Faraday rotation, using chemically oxidized polyferrocenylsilane thin films. Chapter 3 describes the acid-induced degradation of polyferrocenylsilanes and the use of this property to fabricate photoresists for deep ultraviolet (254 nm) and extreme ultraviolet (13.5 nm) photolithography, as well as electron beam lithography, further expanding on previous polyferrocenylsilane photoresists which undergo photon-mediated crosslinking. Chapter 4 explores the synthesis of a new class of polyferrocenes, linked by antimony atoms, which represents an increase in atomic mass of the linker atom compared to the previously reported polyferrocenylstannanes, as well as the second example of a polymer which contains antimony within the main chain. Chapter 5 outlines the synthesis of polyferrocenes which contain bismuth linkers, the heaviest stable element which can be incorporated into the backbone of a polymer and the only example of a polyferrocenes linked by atom with a principal quantum number greater than 5. Chapter 6 concludes the work described in Chapters 2-5 and discusses potential directions for future work, with emphasis on the use of the antimony- and bismuth-linked polyferrocenes in magnetic field sensing and extreme ultraviolet lithography.

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