The purpose of this research is to explore how people make sense of the word feel in their communication across different social relationships and contexts. Assuming the use of the word feel is linked to the act of emotional expression, a secondary purpose is to examine how the perceived management of the word feel may be linked to well-being. Fifteen individual participants shared their perceptions about how they use the word feel over eight types of interpersonal relationships. Discourse analysis revealed that the function of the word feel was to self-disclose emotions or to inquire about them in others. The word feel emerged as a tool that can be wielded to achieve catharsis, intimacy, or social support while framing several subject positions within a discourse of emotional disclosure. When the word feel was reciprocated with others, participant perceptions showed how social status influenced how it was managed in relationships. In particular, the vulnerable disclosing parties were required to take risks in order to achieve the benefits of disclosure. Ruptures in the discourse occurred when participants who did not have opportunities to self-disclose experienced an unwanted emotional tension, an interest in receiving social support, or a drive to find closeness. These instances led to a use of the word feel outside of its emergent social rules. Finally, the beliefs of participants showed it was not just status that played a role in its management but gender as well. The findings show that although the deployment of feel requires judicious management of the risks inherent in emotional self-disclosure, the use of this can indicate the exchange of social resources known to have positive effects on well-being.

The advent of microfluidic technology presents many difficulties but also many opportunities for separation science. Leveraging the potential of micro- and nanofluidic geometries is not only a matter of shrinking systems. Miniaturization can shift the relative importance of physical phenomena leading to separation. Theoretical and computational studies into the consequences of miniaturization are vital. Mesoscopic, multi-particle collision dynamics simulations are performed on polyelectrolytes and hard, colloidal solutes. Multiple variations of this simulation algorithm are implemented to achieve versatility for simulating non-equilibrium flows and dispersed solutes. The algorithm is extended to simulate the effects of finite Debye layers on the electro-hydrodynamics of electrophoresing macromolecules and used to study the electrophoresis of charged oligomers, polyelectrolytes and polyampholytes in both free-solution and confined geometries. Multi-particle collision dynamics simulations of hydrodynamic chromatography and field-flow fractionation are also performed to test the predictions of the derived unified, ideal retention theory. This unified, ideal retention predicts the transitions between multiple operational modes, including Faxén-mode FFF. Simulations and the theory show that increases in drag due to hydrodynamic interactions with microfluidic channel walls perturb the retention curves from the ideal predictions at large particle sizes. Further complications to field-flow fractionation including undesirable forces perpendicular to the flow direction, slip at channel walls and rectangular channel geometries are investigated. These theoretical studies lead to the proposal of several novel fractionation techniques, namely adverse-mode FFF, slip-mode FFF and polymer/depletant HC.

A human safe, Alhydrogel adjuvanted whole cell Trichomonas vaginalis vaccine was tested for efficacy in a BALB/c mouse model of vaginal infection. Additionally, the systemic and local immune response were measured. Vaccination reduced incidence and increased clearance of infection, and induced both systemic and local humoral immune responses. CD4+ cells were detected in vaginal tissues following intravaginal challenge with T. vaginalis, but were not seen in uninfected mice. CD4+ cells were detected more often, earlier, and in greater numbers in vaccinated vaginal tissues compared to unvaccinated controls. Presence of CD4+ T cells following infection can have significant implications of increasing HIV susceptibility and transmission. These data suggest that the vaccine induces local and systemic immune responses, and confers significantly greater protection against vaginal challenge than unvaccinated vaginal challenge. These data support the potential for a human vaccine against T. vaginalis infection that could also impact the incidence of HIV infections.

As the impacts of climate change become more severe, coastal communities are required to prepare plans for adaptation to the invasive environmental changes. A well-prepared adaptation plan can effectively reduce the overall risks of coastal communities. However, a plan is not the final solution for the climate change on coastal communities. How to take the plan into action and implement it in the local communities and find the opportunities for the enhanced preparedness and development of coastal communities is the primary consideration of this thesis research. Many organizations are engaged in developing adaptation tools and guidebooks. For completing their adaptation plans, communities need to develop clear, operational, action plans, and discover the opportunities to enhance the sustainability of coastal communities. To make coastal communities more sustainable in the face of the changing climate, the public’s attention and community participation is critical. The purpose of this study is to develop an adaptation framework and action plan process system for coastal communities and at the same time, provide the general public with an enhanced opportunity to contribute their understanding about what is being done for their costal community around them and how to react when an event happens. The research is applied to the coastal communities of Richmond County, Cape Breton, Canada as a case study. The result of the work develops an adaptation “Action Plan” website for Richmond County. The website features the development, application, and simulation of a mobile communication “Action plan” application designed and implemented with the action website along to provide coastal community with communication options that exploit the local community network and enhance the community’s capacity for climate change adaptation. The emergency response community mobile app and the accompanying website are models for other communities especially those that from the coastal communities in Canada and the Caribbean as part of the C-Change ICURA project to which this research is affiliated.

Performance of Emergency Department (ED) physicians (MDs) is multi-faceted since it impacts multiple dimensions such as health outcomes of patients, utilization of resources, throughput of patients and timeliness of care. Therefore, the assessment of their performance demands the use of a tool that allows considering multiple evaluation criteria. However, commonly used multi-criteria evaluation methods often require assigning weights to dimensions in order to define their relative importance on a final performance score. This feature introduces subjectivity in the development of weights and has the potential to produce biased results. The purpose of this thesis research is to develop a multi-dimensional evaluation tool for evaluating performance of ED MDs. The proposed evaluation tool relies on a mathematical programming model known as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The use of DEA does not ask for subjective weighting assignments for each dimension that describe the ED MDs’ performance. It is capable of considering multiple heterogeneous performance measures to identify benchmark practice and the individual improvements leading to best practice of each evaluated unit. The DEA model described here was developed from real data to assess the performance of 20 PED MDs from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). Multiple evaluations were run on stratified data in order to identify benchmark practice in each of seven categories of patients’ complaints and to determine the impact of accompanying MD trainees on PED MDs’ performance. For each PED MD, performance scores and improvements in each category of patients’ complaints (i.e. respiratory, trauma, abdominal, fever, gastroenterology, allergy and Ear-Nose-Throat complaints) were determined. This helped identifying the required improvements that would lead PED MDs to achieve benchmark performance. Regarding the influence of MD trainees on PED MDs’ performance, results show that most PED MDs (15 out of 20) perform better when they are not accompanied by a trainee which motivates further research to assess trade-offs between teaching and clinical performance. In summary, DEA proved to be an appropriate tool for performance evaluation of PED MDs because it helped to identify benchmark performers and provided information for performance improvements under a multi dimensional performance evaluation framework.

Studies show that vasomotor and sudomotor activity is compromised in individuals with Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM) which could lead to altered thermoregulatory function. However, recent work suggests that the impairments may only be evidenced beyond a certain level of heat stress. We therefore examined T1DM-related differences in heat loss responses of sweating and skin blood flow (SkBF) during exercise performed at progressive increases in the requirement for heat loss. Participants were matched for age, sex, body surface area and fitness cycled at fixed rates of metabolic heat production of 200, 250, and 300 W•m-2 of body surface area, each rate being performed sequentially for 30 min. Local sweat rate (LSR), sweat gland activation (SGA), and sweat gland output (SGO) were measured on the upper back, chest and forearm while SkBF (laser-Doppler) was measured on the forearm and upper back only. We found that despite a similar requirement for heat loss, LSR was lower in T1DM on the chest and forearm only, relative to Control and only different at the end of the second and third exercise periods. Differences in chest LSR were due to reduced SGA whereas the decreased forearm LSR was the result of a decrease in SGO. SkBF did not differ between groups. The reduction in the sweating response in the T1DM group was paralleled by a greater increase in core temperature. We show that T1DM impairs heat dissipation as evidenced by reductions in LSR and not SkBF. A compromised thermoregulatory response during and following physical exertion is of considerable concern due to the associated increased risk of post-exertion heat-related injury.

Despite the importance of tropical rivers to the global carbon cycle, the nature of carbon cycling within these watersheds has been dealt with by only a handful of studies. The current work attempts to address this lack of information, using stable isotope and concentration measurements to constrain sources and sinks of carbon in two Peninsular Malaysian watersheds. The basins are located on the central-western and northeastern coasts of the Malaysian Peninsula, and are drained by the Langat and Kelantan Rivers, respectively. Water samples were collected from three points along the two rivers twice a month, in addition to the sampling of groundwater in adjacent aquifers. Principal component analyses (PCA) on water chemistry parameters in the Langat and Kelantan Rivers show the dominance of geogenic and anthropogenic influences, grouped in 4 to 6 components that comprise over 50 % of the total dataset variances. The geogenic input is reflected by components showing strong loadings by Ca, Mg, Mn, Si, and Sr, while anthropogenic influences via pollution are indicated via strong loadings by NO3, SO4, K, Zn and Cl. The carbon isotope and concentration data appear unrelated to these groups, suggesting that the riverine carbon cycle in both locations is dominated by other factors. These may include alternative sources of organic pollution, or inputs from the local vegetation and soils. The mean riverine 13CDOC of -27.8 ± 2.9 ‰ and -26.6 ± 2.2 ‰ in the Langat and Kelantan Basins, respectively, are consistent with the dominance of C3-type vegetation in both watersheds. Riverine 13CDIC signatures approach C3-like values at high DIC concentrations, with measurements as low as -19 ‰ in the Kelantan Basin and -20 ‰ observed in the Langat Basin, consistent with a biological origin for riverine DIC. However, the average 13CDIC in river water is 13C-enriched by about 10 ‰ relative to the expected C3 source in both rivers, and this 13C- enrichment appears to be largest with smaller DIC concentrations. Because of the overpressures of CO2 in the rivers, entrainment of isotopically-heavy atmospheric CO2 is not a likely explanation for the observed 13C-enrichment. Theoretically, dissolution of carbonates could be an alternative source of 13C-enriched carbon, but this lithology is scarce, particularly in the Langat watershed. The increase in DIC downstream and generally high pCO2 values in most river sections argues against aquatic photosynthesis as a primary causative factor for the observed isotopic enrichment. This elimination process leaves the speciation of riverine DIC and the evasion of CO2 as the most likely mechanisms for 13C-enrichment in DIC, via isotope fractionation during HCO3- hydration and CO2 diffusion. Potentially, methanogenic activity could also be, at least partially, responsible for the 13C-enrichment in DIC, particularly immediately downstream of the Langat Reservoir, but due to the absence of empirical data, this must remain only a theoretical proposition. The aquatic chemistry and dissolved carbon data suggests that pollution discharge into the Langat and Kelantan Rivers is the major factor that is responsible for the considerable CO2 overpressures and high DIC and DOC concentrations in the river waters, particularly in the downstream sections. This pollution is likely of biological origin, via sewage and palm oil mill effluent (POME) discharge, and therefore isotopically indistinguishable from natural C3 plant sources. Carbon budgets of the Langat and Kelantan River show CO2 degassing to be a significant mechanism of fluvial carbon loss, comprising roughly 50 %, or more, of the total riverine carbon export in both watersheds. The remainder of the river carbon is transported to the ocean in the form of DIC, DOC and POC in broadly comparable proportions. However, the combined riverine carbon export from the Kelantan and Langat Basins amount to 2 % or less of the total carbon sequestration of the watersheds. Thus, most of the sequestered carbon is returned to the atmosphere via respiration, with smaller amounts incorporated into ecosystem biomass . These results highlight the complexity of carbon cycling in tropical rivers, and agree with previous studies in showing riverine systems to be more than simple conduits of carbon from the land to the ocean.

Adopting the Ecological Contextual Model of Acculturation and Adjustment (Birman, 1994; Trickett, 1996) and the Stress and Coping paradigm (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, 1986, 1991), the present thesis explored the psycho-social, work, and marital adjustment of 200 established older middle-aged refugees from the Former Yugoslavia living in the Ottawa area. More specifically, three studies were conducted to examine specific stressors and resources of relevance to the adjustment of Former Yugoslavian men and women, across the following three distinct life domains: psycho-social, work, and marital. Study I explored the potential buffering effects of interpersonal trust on the relational growth of Former Yugoslavian refugees. Results demonstrated that interpersonal trust moderated the negative effects of war-related trauma on the relational growth of Former Yugoslavian women. No such buffering effect was found for the men. Study II investigated Former Yugoslavians' work adjustment by exploring the influence of pre-migratory work-related expectations-outcome congruence, occupational mobility, work stress (general and discrimination), as well as personal (education, English language proficiency) and social resources (support at work) on their work satisfaction and distress. Results indicated that different factors emerged as significant predictors of work satisfaction and work distress for Former Yugoslavian men and women. Study III explored the potential moderating role of marital resilience on the relationship between marital stress (general and acculturative) and marital adjustment. Results showed that marital resilience moderated the negative effects of marital stress on the marital adjustment of Former Yugoslavian women. No protective effect of marital resilience was found for the men. Taken together, the results of the three studies provide support for the relevance and importance of studying the stress, resources, and adjustment of refugees across contexts and gender. Given that important gender differences were found in different adaptational domains, the need to study further the impact of gender in refugees is reinforced. The findings are discussed within the current gender and migration literatures as well as the multidimensional theories of cross-cultural adjustment. Theoretical, research, and clinical implications were presented, along with recommendations for future research.

This dissertation analyses the use of the word “religion” in Canadian law and theorises the consequences of its use for the legal protection of religious movements in Canada. Chapter One establishes the problems of the word “religion” in academic discourse by providing an overview of work in the field of critical religion. This dissertation considers whether the critiques of the term “religion” by scholars working within critical religion are equally relevant when considering the role of religion in human rights law. Chapter Two turns an investigative eye toward Canadian case law using the word “religion”, from Chaput v Romain (1959) to Alberta v Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony (2009). The analysis highlights how the use of “religion” in Canadian law does indeed reflect academic concerns. Chapter Three uses queer theory to speculate the consequences of an unstable concept of religion for the protection of religious freedom, especially as it pertains to new religious movements. Judith Butler’s notions of performativity and drag are applied to theorise the performance of “religion” and its outcomes. Some suggestions for how to proceed conclude the dissertation.

Many elderly patients visiting the emergency department for minor injuries are not assessed for functional status and experience functional decline 6 months post injury. Identifying such high-risk patients can allow for interventions to prevent or minimize adverse health outcomes including loss of independence. For the purpose of a planned clinical decision rule to identify elderly patients at high risk of functional decline a survey of physicians was conducted. A random sample of 534 Canadian geriatricians, emergency and family physicians was selected with half randomly selected to receive an incentive. A response rate of 57.0% was obtained with 90% of physicians considering a drop in function of at least 2 points on the 28-point OARS ADL scale as clinically significant. A sensitivity of 90% would meet or exceed 90% of physicians' requirements for a clinical decision rule to identify injured seniors at high risk of functional decline 6 months post injury.