Middleborough, Massachusetts 15 Minute Digital Raster Graphic

This layer is a digital raster graphic of the historic 15-minute USGS topographic map of the Middleborough, Massachusetts quadrangle. The survey date (ground condition) of the original paper map is 1885. A digital raster graphic (DRG) is a scanned image of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) standard series topographic map, including all map collar information. The image inside the map neatline is geo-referenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator projection. The horizontal positional accuracy and datum of the DRG matches the accuracy and datum of the source map.

Plymouth, Massachusetts 15 Minute Digital Raster Graphic

This layer is a digital raster graphic of the historic 15-minute USGS topographic map of the Plymouth, Massachusetts quadrangle. The survey date (ground condition) of the original paper map is 1885-1886, the edition date is August, 1894 and this map has a reprint date of March 1898. A digital raster graphic (DRG) is a scanned image of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) standard series topographic map, including all map collar information. The image inside the map neatline is geo-referenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator projection. The horizontal positional accuracy and datum of the DRG matches the accuracy and datum of the source map.

Providence, Rhode Island 15 Minute Digital Raster Graphic

This layer is a digital raster graphic of the historic 15-minute USGS topographic map of the Providence, Rhode Island quadrangle which includes areas in the state of Massachusetts. The survey dates (ground condition) of the original paper map are 1885 and 1887, the edition date is February, 1894 and this map has a reprint date of October, 1911. A digital raster graphic (DRG) is a scanned image of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) standard series topographic map, including all map collar information. The image inside the map neatline is geo-referenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator projection. The horizontal positional accuracy and datum of the DRG matches the accuracy and datum of the source map.

A Virtual Joystick as a Novel Interaction Modality for Surgeon-Computer Interaction During Computer-Assisted Surgical Procedures

Interacting with a computer system in the operating room (OR) can be a frustrating experience for a surgeon, who currently has to verbally delegate to an assistant every computer interaction task. This indirect mode of interaction is time consuming, error prone and can lead to poor usability of OR computer systems. This thesis describes the design and evaluation of a joystick-like device that allows direct surgeon control of the computer in the OR. The device was tested extensively in comparison to a mouse and delegated dictation with seven surgeons, eleven residents, and five graduate students. The device contains no electronic parts, is easy to use, is unobtrusive, has no physical connection to the computer and makes use of an existing tool in the OR. We performed a user study to determine its effectiveness in allowing a user to perform all the tasks they would be expected to perform on an OR computer system during a computer-assisted surgery. Dictation was found to be superior to the joystick in qualitative measures, but the joystick was preferred over dictation in user satisfaction responses. The mouse outperformed both joystick and dictation, but it is not a readily accepted modality in the OR.

Modernist Ecology: Modernism and the Reimagination of Nature

Countering the trend in contemporary ecocriticism to advance realism as an environmentally responsible mode of representation, this essay argues that the anti-realist aesthetics of literary modernism were implicitly “ecological.” In order to make this argument I distinguish between contemporary and modernist ecological culture (both of which I differentiate in turn from ecological science); while the former is concerned primarily with the practical reform characteristic of what we now call “environmentalism,” the latter demanded an all-encompassing reimagination of the relationship between humanity and nature. “Modernist ecology,” as I call it, attempted to envision this change, which would be ontological or metaphysical rather than simply social, through thematically and formally experimental works of art. Its radical vision, suggestive in some ways of today’s “deep” ecology, repudiated modern accounts of nature as a congeries of inert objects to be manipulated by a sovereign subject, and instead foregrounded the chiasmic intertexture of the subject/object relationship. In aesthetic modernism we encounter not “objective” nature, but “nature-being” – a blank substratum beneath the solid contours of what philosopher Kate Soper calls “lay nature” – the revelation of which shatters historical constructions of nature and alone allows for radical alternatives. This essay looks specifically at modernist ecology as it appears in the works of W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, and Samuel Beckett, detailing their attempts to envision revolutionary new ecologies, but also their struggles with the limited capacity of esoteric modernist art to effect significant ecological change on a collective level.

CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTICE IN AFRICA: An Examination of Constitutional Positivism, Fundamental Law and Rights in Ghana and Nigeria

This work explores the idea of constitutional justice in Africa with a focus on constitutional interpretation in Ghana and Nigeria. The objective is to develop a theory of constitutional interpretation based upon a conception of law that allows the existing constitutions of Ghana and Nigeria to be construed by the courts as law in a manner that best serves the collective wellbeing of the people. The project involves an examination of both legal theory and substantive constitutional law. The theoretical argument will be applied to show how a proper understanding of the ideals of the rule of law and constitutionalism in Ghana and Nigeria necessitate the conclusion that socio-economic rights in those countries are constitutionally protected and judicially enforceable. The thesis argues that this conclusion follows from a general claim that constitutions should represent a ‘fundamental law’ and must be construed as an aspirational moral ideal for the common good of the people. The argument is essentially about the inherent character of ‘legality’ or the ‘rule of law.’ It weaves together ideas developed by Lon Fuller, Ronald Dworkin, T.R.S. Allan and David Dyzenhaus, as well as the strand of common law constitutionalism associated with Sir Edward Coke, to develop a moral sense of ‘law’ that transcends the confines of positive or explicit law while remaining inherently ‘legal’ as opposed to purely moral or political. What emerges is an unwritten fundamental law of reason located between pure morality or natural law on the one hand and strict, explicit, or positive law on the other. It is argued that this fundamental law is, or should be, the basis of constitutional interpretation, especially in transitional democracies like Ghana and Nigeria, and that it grounds constitutional protection for socio-economic rights. Equipped with this theory of law, courts in developing African countries like Ghana and Nigeria will be in a better position to contribute towards developing a real sense of constitutional justice for Africa.

Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, and Tessa McWatt: Blackening Canada

This project analyzes contemporary black diasporic writing in Canada, arguing that Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke and Tessa McWatt evince a unique form of double-consciousness in their writings. Their work transforms African-American double-consciousness by locating it simultaneously within both the black diaspora and the practice of Canadian multiculturalism. The objective of this project is to offer a critical framework for situating these writers within the legacy of both Black Atlantic and Canadian cultural production. These writers do not aim to resolve their double-consciousness but rather dwell within that contradictory doubleness and hyphenation, forcing nation and diaspora to contend with one another in a discomfiting and unsettling dialogue. These authors employ the absences of the black diaspora to imagine new forms of black cultural production, multicultural citizenship and national identity. Their works produce a grammar of diasporic double-consciousness that locates the absented origins of diaspora within Canada. Brand’s depiction of temporality and Clarke’s tracing of movement explore the continuities between nation and diaspora while re-membering neglected aspects of the history of black Canada, such as the life and death of Albert Johnson. McWatt extends this blackening of nation by depicting coalitions between diasporic, indigenous, raced and sexed subjects. These authors transform hegemonic Canadian narratives of nation by dwelling in the hyphen, while their evocation of memory, absence, trauma, and desire gives blackness new meaning and legitimacy.

Death Threat Letters: Allegories of American Authorship in the Age of Terrorism

This dissertation examines novels that use terrorism to allegorize the threatened position of the literary author in contemporary culture. Allegory is a term that has been differently understood over time, but which has consistently been used by writers to articulate and construct their roles as authors. In the novels I look at, the terrorist challenge to authorship results in multiple deployments of allegory, each differently illustrating the way that allegory is used and authorship constructed in the contemporary American novel. Don DeLillo’s Mao II (1991), first puts terrorists and authors in an oppositional pairing. The terrorist’s ability to traffic in spectacle is presented as indicative of the author’s fading importance in contemporary culture and it is one way that terrorism allegorizes threats to authorship. In Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock (1993), the allegorical pairing is between the text of the novel and outside texts – newspaper reports, legal cases, etc. – that the novel references and adapts in order to bolster its own narrative authority. Richard Powers’s Plowing the Dark (1999) pairs the story of an imprisoned hostage, craving a single book, with employees of a tech firm who are creating interactive, virtual reality artworks. Focusing on the reader’s experience, Powers’s novel posits a form of authorship that the reader can take into consideration, but which does not seek to control the experience of the text. Finally, I look at two of Paul Auster’s twenty-first century novels, Travels in the Scriptorium (2007) and Man in the Dark (2008), to suggest that the relationship between representations of authors and terrorists changed after 9/11. Auster’s author-figures forward an ethics of authorship whereby novels can use narrative to buffer readers against the portrayal of violent acts in a culture that is suffused with traumatizing imagery.

Children's Postures While Playing at Computer Workstations

There has been a significant increase in the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and the costs associated with these are predicted to increase as the popularity of computer use increases at home, school and work. Risk factors have been identified in the adult population but little is known about the risk factors for children and youth. Research has demonstrated that they are not immune to this risk and that they are self reporting the same pain as adults. The purpose of the study was to examine children’s postures while working at computer workstations under two conditions. One was at an ergonomically adjusted children’s workstation while the second was at an average adult workstation. A Polhemus Fastrak™ system was used to record the children’s postures and joint and segment angles were quantified. Results of the study showed that children reported more discomfort and effort at the adult workstation. Segment and joint angles showed significant differences through the upper limb at the adult workstation. Of significance was the strategy of shoulder abduction and flexion that the children used in order to place their hand on the mouse. Ulnar deviation was also greater at the adult workstation as was neck extension. All of these factors have been identified in the literature as increasing the risk for injury. A comparison of the children’s posture while playing at the children’s workstation verses the adult workstation, showed that the postural angles assumed by the children at an adult workstation exceeded the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) recommendations. Further investigation is needed to increase our knowledge of MSD in children as their potential for long term damage has yet to be determined.

TENDENCIA THATCHERITIS OR ENGLISHNESS REMADE: The Fictions of Julian Barnes, Hanif Kureishi and Pat Barker

Julian Barnes, Pat Barker, and Hanif Kureishi are all canonical authors whose fictions are widely believed to reflect the cultural and political state of a nation that is post-war, post-imperial and post-modern. While much has been written on how Barker’s and Kureishi’s early works in particular respond to and intervene in the presiding political narrative of the 1980s – Thatcherism – treatment of how revenants of Thatcherism have shaped these writers’ works from 1990 on has remained cursory. Thatcherism is more than an obvious historical reference point for Barker, Barnes, and Kureishi; their works demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of how Thatcher’s reworkings of the repertoires of Englishness – a representational as well as political and cultural endeavour – persist beyond her time in office. Barnes, Barker, and Kureishi seem to have reached the same conclusion as political and cultural critics: Thatcher and Thatcherism have remade not only the contemporary political and cultural landscapes but also the electorate and consequently the English themselves. Tony Blair’s conception of the New Britain proved less than satisfactory because contemporary repertoires of Englishness repeat and rework historical and not incidentally imperial formulations of England and Englishness rather than envision civic and populist formulations of renewal. Barnes’s England, England and Arthur & George confront the discourse of inevitability that has come to be attached to contemporary formulations of both political and cultural Englishness – both in terms of its predictable demise and its belated celebration. Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia and “The Body” speak to an alteration that has taken place in which historical Englishness and Thatcherism have become complementary rather than contrasting discourses. What Barker’s Border Crossing and Double Vision offer against this backdrop is a subtle interrogation of how renewal itself comes to be a presiding mode of cultural reflection that absorbs revolutionary possibility.

THE DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF SILOXANE PRECURSORS FOR CHIRAL PERIODIC MESOPOROUS ORGANOSILICA MATERIALS

The development of cost-effective and reliable methods for the synthesis and separation of asymmetric compounds is paramount in helping to meet society’s ever-growing demand for chiral small molecules. Of these methods, chiral heterogeneous supports are particularly appealing as they allow for the reuse of the chiral source. One such support, based on the synergy between chiral organic units and structurally stable inorganic silicon scaffolds are periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs). In the work described herein, I examine some of the factors governing the transmission of chirality between chiral dopants and prochiral bulk phases in chiral PMO materials. In particular, the exploration of 1,1’-binaphthalene-bridged chiral dopants with a focus on the point of attachment into the materials. Moreover, the effects of ordering in the materials are examined and reveal that chirality transfer is more facile in materials with molecular-scale order then those containing amorphous walls. Secondly, the issues surrounding the synthesis and purification of aryl-triethoxysilanes as siloxane precursors are addressed. Both the introduction of a two-carbon linker and the direct attachment of allyl and mixed allyldiethoxysilane species are explored. This work demonstrates that allyldiethoxysilanes are ideal, in that they are stable enough to permit facile synthesis, while still being able to hydrolyze completely to produce well-ordered materials. Lastly, the production of new bulk phases for chiral PMO materials is examined by introducing new prochiral nitrogen-containing siloxane precursors. Biphenyldiamine and bipyridine-bridged siloxane precursors are readily synthesized on reasonable scales. Their use as the bulk siloxane precursor in the production of PMO materials however, is precluded by insufficient gelation and additional siloxane precursors are necessary for the production of ordered materials. In addition to the research detailed above that forms the body of this thesis, two short works are appended. The first details the production of polythiophene assemblies mediated through coordination nanospaces, while the second explores the production of N-heterocyclic carbene functionalized gold nanoparticles through ligand exchange.

ROCK OUTCROPS IN THE CANADIAN SHIELD: AN INVESTIGATION OF CONTAMINANT TRANSPORT FROM SURFACE SOURCES IN FRACTURED ROCK AQUIFERS

Flow, recharge and transport dynamics in fractured rock aquifers with low lying rock outcrops is a largely unexplored area of study in hydrogeology. The purpose of this thesis is to examine these topics in an agricultural area in Eastern Ontario. The study consists of a regional scale groundwater quality study, an infiltration experiment that considers bacteria transport from the ground surface to a well, and a numerical modelling study that tests the parameters that affect surface infiltration of a tracer from a rock outcrop to a deeper horizontal fracture. In the water quality study, approximately 65% of the samples contained total coliform, 16% contained E. coli, and 1% contained nitrate-N at greater than 5 mg/L. Occurrence of E. coli increased when considering seasonality, where wells were drilled on rock outcrops, and for shallow well intervals. Nitrate-N did not occur above the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality (Health Canada, 2012) of 10 mg/L. Rapid arrival times were observed in the infiltration study for both the microspheres (30 minutes) and a dye tracer (45 minutes) in a well approximately 6.0 m in horizontal and 2.8 m in vertical distance from the tracer source. Transport velocities were approximately 38.9 m/day for the dye tracer and 115.2 m/day for the colloidal tracer. Results of the model runs indicate that overburden can provide an effective protective layer to transport in fractures, that high groundwater velocities occur in larger fracture apertures and higher gradients dilute tracer concentrations, and that lower groundwater velocities occur with smaller fracture apertures and lower gradients result in elevated tracer concentrations. Lower rainfall rates, larger fracture apertures, early tracer time, larger gradients, and lower water levels maintained unsaturated conditions for longer time periods such that tracer transport was delayed until saturated conditions were attained. The overall heterogeneity of this aquifer environment creates a source water protection conundrum where the water quality is generally good, while transport can occur very quickly in proximity to rock outcrops and in areas with limited overburden.

"Fit Cradle of the Reviving Art": An inquiry into the the Evolving Material Reality of the Murals in the Camposanto of Pisa from the Perspective of their British Reception from the 17th to the 19th century

The Camposanto of Pisa is an extraordinarily complex and evocative monument, which has captured the imagination of pilgrims, both religious and secular, for centuries. The late Medieval and early Renaissance wall paintings that line the perimeter of the portico surrounding a vast inner courtyard, are unparalleled in early Italian art, not only for their striking variety of composition and narrative complexity, but also for the sheer grandeur of their proportion. However, the passage of time has scarred the structure of the Camposanto and inflicted terrible damage on its wall paintings. This thesis explores the material reality of the Camposanto as experienced over three centuries through the eyes of British travelers. In order to situate the Camposanto mural cycle within an historical and cultural context, the first chapter provides an overview of the construction and decoration of the monument. Notably, Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), the Italian Humanist often recognized as the father of art history, included numerous descriptions of the Camposanto murals in his highly influential text Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori. Accordingly, the second chapter provides an analysis of Vasari’s descriptions and reflects upon the influence that the Renaissance author may have had upon the subsequent British reception of the Camposanto murals. The third chapter utilizes three centuries of travel writing in order to investigate the aesthetic impact of the Camposanto mural cycle upon British tourists from the seventeenth through to the nineteenth century.

SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL, COGNITIVE, AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF ELECTRONIC SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

There has been very little research that has studied the capacities that can be fostered to mitigate the risk for involvement in electronic bullying or victimization and almost no research examining positive electronic behavior. The primary goal of this dissertation was to use the General Aggression Model and Anxious Apprehension Model of Trauma to explore the underlying cognitive, emotional, and self-regulation processes that are related to electronic bullying, victimization, and prosocial behavior. In Study 1, we explored several potential interpretations of the General Aggression Model that would accurately describe the relationship that electronic self-conscious appraisal, cognitive reappraisal, and activational control may have with electronic bullying and victimization. In Study 2, we used the Anxious Apprehension Model of Trauma to explore rejection cognitions as the mediator of the relationships among emotionality (emotionality, shame, state emotion responses, and physiological arousal) and electronic bullying and victimization using structural equation modelling. In addition, we explored the role of rejection cognitions in mediating the relationship of moral disengagement with electronic bullying. In Study 3, we examined predictors of electronic prosocial behavior, such as bullying, victimization, time online, electronic proficiency, electronic self-conscious appraisals, emotionality, and self-regulation. All three studies supported the General Aggression Model as a framework to guide the study of electronic behavior, and suggest the importance of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral means of regulation in shaping electronic behavior. In addition, each study has implications for the development of high quality electronic bullying prevention and intervention research.

Identification of YAP as sperm-PAWP’s predominant binding partner in MII-arrested oocytes and the relevance of this WWI domain modular interaction to oocyte activation

PAWP, a candidate sperm-borne oocyte activating factor, induces oocyte activation and acts upstream of the calcium signalling pathway, however, PAWP’s downstream signalling pathway in oocyte cytoplasm remains to be uncovered. Data from our lab suggested that the interacting partner of PAWP, at least in the frog (Xenopus laevis) model may be YAP, a highly expressed protein in amphibian and mammalian oocytes. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to confirm that PAWP’s predominant binding partner in Xenopus laevis oocyte is YAP; to determine if mammalian oocyte activation is also dependent on PAWP-YAP interaction; and to verify that the PAWP-YAP interaction during oocyte activation is dependent on the WWI domain module. By immunohistochemistry, YAP was localized predominantly in the cytosol of metaphase II-arrested Xenopus laevis oocytes, where presumably the PAWP-YAP interaction occurs. Utilizing Far Western blotting, YAP was identified as the predominant binding partner of PAWP, in metaphase II-arrested frog (Xenopus laevis), swine (Sus scrofa) and mouse (mus musculus) oocytes. The specificity of this interaction was then tested on Far Western blotting of mouse ovarian and oocyte cytosolic extracts, by competition with both wild-type and point-mutated recombinant WWI domains derived from YAP. The removal of GST from the wild-type WWI-GST fusion protein was a requirement for effective blockage of WWI module interaction between PAWP and YAP. As expected, the mutated WWI domain was ineffective in inhibiting the PAWP-YAP interaction. To conclude, this study identified YAP as the predominant binding partner of PAWP in both amphibian and mammalian oocytes, and showed this interaction is dependent on the WWI modular interaction. The results allow us to test the functional relevance of this WWI modular interaction during oocyte activation in vivo, in the future.