This dissertation consists of three essays on the impact of non-market financial flows in developing countries. The first essay answers two questions. First, to what extent are remittances (as private transfers) differentiable from grants (as public transfers) in their effects on capital formation and growth? Second, how might the motivations to remit inform the nature of the relationship between remittances and growth? Using a sample of four developing countries, results suggest that remittances and grants, in fact, do behave differently. Remittances have no significant relationship with investment for all but one country (remittances are positively correlated with growth for Bangladesh). Grants’ impact on investment is negative in Egypt, positive in Pakistan and Syria and insignificant in Bangladesh. Migrants’ motivations to remit are found to be different across countries. Enlightened self-interest motivation to remit is the most likely cause of growth impacts in Egypt. A combination of self-interest and enlightened self-interest explains the growth impact in Bangladesh. Finally, a combination of migrants’ altruistic behavior and self-interest attitude explains the growth impact in Pakistan and Syria. The second essay demonstrates the allocation of foreign aid between consumption and investment with special emphasis on the importance of reverse flows in developing countries. Using a panel of 61 countries from 1980 to 2006, results indicate that, on average, 23 to 25% of any increase in foreign aid has been directed towards financing reverse flows. 78% was consumed and an insignificant amount was invested. Additional investigation suggests that almost 50% of aid is used for reverse flows in Sub-Saharan Africa, 19% in the Americas and 16 to 20% in North Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The third essay examines how remittances are allocated between consumption, investment and reverse flows in developing countries. Using a panel of 36 countries from 1980 to 2006, results suggest that almost 80% of any increase in remittances/GDP was consumed. With respect to investment, remittances had to statistically discernable effect on rate of investment. Additionally, 20% of any increase in remittances was diverted as reverse flows and contributed neither to increase consumption nor to investment.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prelude to the Anatomy Act of 1832, which indulged the anatomists’ scientific ambition, granting a legitimate and sufficient source of cadavers to dissect legally. When read in concert with the history of anatomy and the historical record of body snatching, including case law and anatomy legislation, Frankenstein exemplifies the issues in medico-legal history at the turn of the nineteenth century, for Victor Frankenstein and the Creature’s stories are set amid the context of anatomical study, grave-robbery, crime, punishment and the illicit relationship between medicine and murder. This thesis accordingly addresses the medico-legal history of anatomy, the anatomist’s ambition and complex inhumanity, and the mingled identity of the anatomical subject as illegitimate and criminal. This analysis demonstrates that Frankenstein sheds light upon the anatomist’s ambition, the identity of the human cadaver, and the bioethical consequences of meddling with nature.

Sarada Devi (1852-1920) was the Hindu child bride of the famous nineteenth-century renouncer Ramakrishna (1836 -1886). While Ramakrishna was alive, he worshiped Sarada as a goddess, a woman to be revered but never touched, and ultimately making of her a figure of popular adoration. This thesis addresses the ways in which Sarada has been constructed in devotional and academic texts, in order to not only determine the ways in which different types of followers viewed her and her religious practices, but also to analyze scholarly assumptions about Sarada. It argues that despite Sarada’s renunciatory practices, both scholars and devotees of Ramakrishna, continued to write about Sarada primarily as a helpmate to Ramakrishna rather than as a guru in her own right. Such constructions fail to adequately take account of the advanced Hindu practices adhered to by Sarada herself. This failure is the result of an over-reliance on traditional (i.e. patriarchal) understandings of what it meant to renounce in colonial India and speaks to the neglect of the study of female renouncers in general. In the case of Sarada, a rereading of key texts through postcolonial and feminist lenses enables us to see more clearly the manner in which her idealization as the Mother of India by the Bengali bhadralok, masks the complexities and contradictions of her life as a renouncer and guru.

During the 19th century, British imperialism and Canadian colonialism aspired to subdue, subjugate and assimilate the Plains Cree (cf. Tobias 1992:148). This particular brand of colonialism employed Indian policy – a form of structural violence—rather than military force. I argue that structural violence was both legitimized and supported by cultural violence. The distortion of history is a prime example of cultural violence. That Canada followed an honorable and just policy in its dealings with Plains Indians (cf. Tobias 1983:519) is the contemporary residue of a myth created during colonial times in political circles to justify the dispossession of Aboriginal lands and resources. In the 19th Century, Cree leaders, Piapot and Big Bear, who were perceived as threats to Canadian “progress,” were routinely publicly maligned. The “official” historical literature often uncritically reflected these prevalent ethnocentric views of the day. Critical historical theorists, however, have offered a number of opposing views. This thesis focuses attention on the literature which takes a more critical and culturally informed approach to Canadian nation-building. It places a discussion of structural constraints at the centre of an exploration of the strategies Plains leaders used to resist a variety of Indian policies including reserve settlement.

A sample of 2,435 Canadian pre-retirement women aged 45 to 64 from Statistics Canada’s 2007 General Social Survey was used to examine the effect of sources of financial advice and information, controlling for 7 demographic and socioeconomic factors. The results of logistic regression indicated that levels of income, being in a relationship, having a better state of subjective health, and being born in Canada, were positively associated with women’s perceived adequacy of financial resources for retirement. Retirement planning experts, financial institution employees, accountants, partners, and employers were the key sources of financial advice and information that increased women’s perceived financial security for retirement. The results of this research can be used to better understand who among pre-retirement women are more or less likely to perceive their financial resources for retirement as adequate and whether the use of financial advice and information affects their perceived adequacy of financial resources for retirement.

This study used LA-ICP-MS on a documented sample of modern teeth to sample from a continuous line across the cementum increments thus creating a temporal line graph of the elemental composition against distance. The knowledge of cementum was extended through (1) a more complete elemental composition analysis and (2) the relation of element distribution to the ultrastructure structure throughout the life of a tooth. This study was exploratory and demonstrated that lead, zinc, mercury, and barium follow the same general line of changes, and most likely represent changes in health and exposure to these metals in the general environment. Copper, manganese and vanadium varied very little. Technological limitations prevented the examination of element levels in any one annulation.

The Canadian-descendent Old Colony Mennonites first arrived in Bolivia from Mexico in 1967. Their collective identity has been shaped by a series of migrations through several countries, including Russia, Canada and Mexico. In this thesis I look at which memories are retold and how they are used to define their identity as an anti-modern people, and vice versa, how this identity filters their memories. I also look to see what it is that the Old Colony Mennonites recall of their migration history: the years before arriving in Bolivia in the 1960s, the pioneer years and succeeding decades of life in Bolivia. In addition, I examine how they have used their history to define their worlds and how their views on technology, language, and clothing are articulated by historical accounts.

An extant model was evaluated to assess its adequacy for nutrient management planning for swine operations in Manitoba with regards to phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) excretion and the land base for the optimum spreading of manure based on P requirement of crops. Two dietary treatments were used, control diet formulated to meet the requirement of pigs for nutrients as per the recommendations of NRC (No-phytase) and a diet formulated with P level in the No-phytase diet reduced by an average of 0.1 percentage units and amended with microbial phytase at 500 FTU/kg (Phytase). Data was generated from starter to finisher pigs (10 per dietary treatment) and sows (9 per dietary treatment) to evaluate the model. The model was found to be adequate for the prediction of P outputs from starter to finisher but not sows. Model was found to be inadequate for prediction of N output.

The mucosal antibody repertoire of the cervical mucosa in commercial sex workers from Nairobi, Kenya, who are highly sexually exposed to human immune deficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) but remain persistently IgG seronegative (HEPS), may represent a novel source of broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against HIV-1. Mucosal IgA specific for HIV-1 envelope (Env) subunit gp41 has been suggested as a correlate of protection in HEPS individuals. The in depth studies at both the gene and function level required to confirm their role in HIV-1 resistance are possible only using recombinant monoclonal IgAs. Human mAbs have traditionally been selected from libraries displayed on the surface of microorganisms (phage, yeast). However, due to inherent limitations, such techniques may not be optimal for isolating such rare mAbs from a pool of cervical B cells. We have developed an antibody selection system based on surface display on mammalian cells and used this technology to isolate four novel monoclonal antibodies, against linear epitopes on gp41, from the IgA repertoire of the cervical mucosa in Kenyan HEPS. Furthermore, three of the four mAbs were shown to bind with surface expressed consensus clade B and clade C Env on mammalian cells. Characterization of the variable region cDNA of the two strongest binding mAbs reveals extensive somatic mutations with a bias of replacement mutations clustering in the complementary determining regions (CDR) indicating antigen-driven affinity maturation had occurred. Affinity matured monoclonal IgAs, such as these, may play a role in the identification of new, vulnerable epitopes on HIV-1, or act as a component in a topical microbicide.

The present dissertation reports the findings of a study of cracking behavior of a newly developed superalloy, Allvac 718Plus during high power beam welding and post-weld heat treatment. Microstructures of the base alloy, heat affected zone (HAZ) and fusion zone (FZ) of welded and post-weld heat treated (PWHT) coupons were examined by the use of standard metallographic techniques involving optical microscopy, analytical scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and analytical transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, grain boundary segregation behavior of boron atoms during pre-weld heat treatments was evaluated using secondary ion mass spectroscopic system. In the first phase of the research, 718Plus was welded using a low and high heat input CO2 laser to assess its weld cracking response. Detailed examination of the welds by analytical electron microscopic technique revealed the occurrence of cracking in the HAZ of low heat input welds, while their FZ was crack free. However, both the FZ and HAZ of high heat input welds were crack-free. Resolidified constituents were observed along the cracked grain boundaries of the lower heat input welds, which indicated that HAZ cracking in this newly developed superalloy was associated with grain boundary liquation. However, despite a more extensive liquation of grain boundaries and grain interior in the HAZ of high heat input welds, no cracking occurred. This was attributed to the combination of lower welding stresses generated during cooling, and relaxation of these stresses by thick intergranular liquid. Although HAZ cracking was prevented by welding with a high heat input laser, it resulted in a significant damage to the parent microstructure through its extensive liquation. Thus, the use of low heat input welding is desirable. However, this resulted in HAZ cracking which needs to be minimized or eliminated. Therefore, during the second phase of this research, the effects of pre-weld thermal processing on the cracking response of 718Plus were investigated. Results from the quantification of the cracking of the alloy showed that HAZ cracking may be significantly reduced or eliminated through an adequate selection of pre-weld thermal cycle. In the third stage of this research, crack-free welds of 718Plus were post-weld heat treated using standard thermal schedules. A significant solid state cracking of the alloy occurred during the PWHT. The cracking was attributed to the presence of embrittling phases on HAZ grain boundaries, coupled with aging contraction stresses that are generated by a considerable precipitation of gamma prime phase during aging.