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Access status: Embargo ,
Using fats and combined anti-methanogenic feeding strategies to modulate the dairy microbiome and reduce enteric methane emissions
(2026-05-29) Foster, Jacob; Not Applicable; Master of Science; Department of Animal Sciences and Aquaculture; Received; Dr Anne Laarman; No; Dr Natalie Diether; Dr Rhea Lumactud; Dr Stephnanie Collins; Dr Renée Petri
As the Canadian diary industry aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, anti-methanogenic feeding strategies are needed to reduce enteric methane. This research utilized two approaches to investigate how dietary strategies influence rumen microbial communities and fermentation characteristics associated with methanogenesis. Experiment one used a linseed-based product (LP) and a semi-continuous in vitro model to test increasing dietary inclusion levels of LP. Addition of LP did not reduce methane production or alter fermentation dynamics or microbial populations. Experiment two used an in vivo approach to assess the addition of cultivated red seaweed in TMR diets. Seaweed inclusion did not affect rumen pH or overall microbial diversity. However, there were differences in beta diversity and relative abundances. Likewise, methane was reduced with the addition of cultivated seaweed to TMR diet. Using both in vitro and in vivo methods provides insight into how dietary strategies can reduce emissions from the dairy industry.
Access status: Open Access ,
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF GENETIC CIRCUITS FOR ENGINEERING METHYL SELECTIVE DNA BINDING DOMAINS
(2026-05-29) Cucksey, Jordan; Not Applicable; Master of Science; Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Not Applicable; na; Not Applicable; Dr. K. Vanya Ewart; Dr. Barbara Karten; Dr. James M. Kramer; Dr. James Davey
DNA methylation is a crucial epigenetic modification that modifies protein-DNA interactions and regulates many essential processes in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Control over DNA methylation has applications in disease characterization and treatment, memory-based genetic circuits, and cellular reprogramming. However, current approaches to studying and modifying DNA methylation lack the ability to selectively target methylated sequence-specific DNA. Furthermore, the conventional protein engineering workflow for designing DNA-binding proteins with methyl-selective, sequence-specific DNA recognition relies on inefficient multi-step screening processes. To address these limitations, a genetic circuit is proposed as a high-throughput selection platform for engineering sequence-specific, methylation-selective DNA-binding domains. The pCD plasmid was designed to present a helix-turn-helix repressor library with both methylated and unmethylated operators, and to integrate methylation-selective DNA recognition into an output that could be interrogated by GFP screening and kanamycin resistance selection. The pCD plasmid was successfully constructed using PCR-based DNA assembly of modular circuit components. Kanamycin growth results supported the use of kanamycin resistance as a selection marker to evaluate the binding specificity of engineered DNA-binding domains. The initial failure to establish circuit controls suggested the incorporation of a non-functional repressor construct, Rz. A simplified plasmid, pAD.02, was designed to further investigate the interaction between RZ and the corresponding operator, ZZ. RZ variants, XSN, XAN, XKR, and KSX were paired with TTA, TGT, GAC, and CGG operators, respectively, based on previously characterized LacI DNA-binding-domain operator interactions. These interactions were assessed across the proximal, core, and distal operator positions and revealed that the established LacI DNA-binding domain-operator pairings are not fully compatible within the RZ architecture. In total, 14 functional RZ-ZZ operator pairings were identified and can be incorporated as regulatory components in pCD. Overall, this work advances the development of a genetic circuit-based screening and selection platform for engineering methyl-selective DNA-binding proteins and suggests that surrounding structural features may influence DNA binding domain-operator interactions.
Access status: Open Access ,
Current measurements in the Drake Passage
(1972) Foster, Leslie Alexander; Not Applicable; Master of Science; Department of Oceanography; Not Applicable; unknown; Not Applicable; Dr. D. J. Lawrence; R.R. Lively; C.R. Mann
As part of the Hudson 'TO Expedition, an array of 12 current meters was moored in the Drake Passage near longitude 68° W for 10 days in February, 1970. A hydrographic section was run across the passage at the beginning and end of the mooring period. The geostrophic currents using assumed levels of no motion gave results similar to past studies. The current meter records indicated that a minimum velocity is found in the middle of the water column and they also showed the presence of a semi-diurnal tidal component. The best compromise between the current meter data and the hydrographic data is a variable level of no motion with a net transport qf 5 sverdrups toward the west, but because of lack of current meter data at the convergence zone, an unambiguous transport figure could not be determined.
Access status: Open Access ,
Suburban infill : an intervention for Gaborone's pedestrianways
(2008) Othogile, Helen Goabaone; Not Applicable; Master of Architecture; School of Architecture; Not Applicable; Jacques Rousseau; Not Applicable; Peter Sassenroth; Niall Savage
The thesis explores the potential benefits and possibilities of infill interventions within Gaborone's existing pedestrianways. The city was designed and laid out by European planners during the time of the Protectorate at the height of the Garden City movement, to become the new administrative capital for the newly independent Botswana. The resultant pedestrianways are an imported urban model that literally got "lost in translation" and as a result, the pedestrianways remain highly underutilized and could rightly be considered as wasted spaces in the city. Through a historical understanding and critical analysis, the thesis identifies why the pedestrianways are not working; how people are using them; and how the city could begin to redevelop them into meaningful and sustainable spaces.
Access status: Open Access ,
Scales of Change: What lived experiences of deindustrialization in Cape Breton can teach us about "just" energy transitions
(2026) Leviten-Reid, Adlie
As Canada’s energy systems move away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy source, anchor industries are closing in some places and emerging in others. These dynamics are reshaping the economies and social fabrics of communities built around industry towns. As this process unfolds, policy makers and scholars contemplate approaches to a “just transition” so that no one is left behind through these periods of sociotechnical change. Despite consensus among governments and civil society that these periods of transition should unfold in a way that is “just”, approaches diverge. Some emphasize concentrated economic supports and job creation while others call for broader economic and political restructuring away from extractive development models that externalize social and place-based costs. Historical cases of deindustrialization provide a window into the stakes involved in these different transition approaches. With this relationship between deindustrialization and “just transition” in view, we draw on eight oral history style interviews documenting community responses to deindustrialization in Cape Breton from 1967 to the present day. Participants detailed embodied impacts of the closures of central industries (coal extraction and steelmaking), affecting sense of place, health, family structures, and identity. When describing self-organizing to support their own needs during periods of transition, participants also recalled the failure of government employment-oriented initiatives to prioritize community members’ overall well-being, all while blaming them for their circumstances. These findings highlight the limits of treating transition as a technical labour-market problem - approaching transition in this way does not capture the lived realities of deindustrialization. On this basis, approaches that pursue broader transformations that internalize the social and place-based costs of sociotechnical change are more likely to address the full range of impacts experienced by communities facing the loss or significant downsizing of major industries.
Access status: Open Access ,
Leading Us Forward: Leadership Development Programs and the Leaders of the Future
(2026-04-20) Eve Dewing
Leadership development programs have exploded in popularity across Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions. These programs are free, offer no degree or formal accreditation, and yet universities and funders are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into them. This paper seeks to address what these programs teach and why. Using Semi-structured interviews with creators and facilitators of post-secondary leadership development programs, this research works to understand how they view the programs and how post-secondary institutions view these programs. Risk society theory is applied to the data to make sense of why change is the most prominent intended outcome, how self-actualization is used, and why post-secondary institutions want to address global complexity.