The diversification of eutherian mammals following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction was a critical period in evolutionary history. The Palaeocene is marked by the proliferation of archaic mammals which exhibit a mosaic of primitive and derived anatomies and whose phylogenetic affinities with extant mammals remain contentious. Consequently, macroevolutionary studies assessing the timing and recovery of eutherian mammals following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction are inhibited by our relatively poor knowledge of the mammals which thrived during the Palaeocene. One group of Palaeocene mammals in particular, the ‘Condylarthra’ have proven especially enigmatic and, as historically conceived, includes families of ungulate-grade mammals some of which are considered the ancestral stock from which modern perissodactyls and artiodactyls arose. The Periptychidae are a distinctive ‘condylarth’ family and were among the first mammals to appear after the extinction. As such they constitute an excellent empirical case study towards resolving the evolutionary relationships and understanding the palaeobiology of Palaeocene mammals. The overarching aim of this thesis has been to generate a comprehensive higher-level phylogenetic hypothesis of Periptychidae and shed light on the species-level interrelationships of taxa historically identified as periptychids and other ‘condylarth’ exemplars. This aim has been achieved by the undertaking a comprehensive anatomical re-description of the archetypal periptychid, Periptychus carinidens, based on a wealth of new fossils recovered from the San Juan Basin in New Mexico, USA. The anatomical information described in this thesis has also facilitated a greater understanding of ecology and functional morphology of Periptychus and its kin. Periptychus carinidens was a medium-sized, robust, stout-limbed animal that was mediportal and adopted a plantigrade mode of locomotion. The cranial and dental anatomy of Periptychus is broadly concurrent with the inferred plesiomorphic eutherian condition albeit more robust in its overall construction. The broad facial region, tall sagittal and nuchal crests and distinctive dentition with strong enamel crenulations and compressive wear are likely indicative of durophagous diet made up of dense, fibrous, plant-based food stuffs. The postcranial skeleton of Periptychus is a miscellany of morphologies with often paradoxical functional implications. Despite its robustness, Periptychus retained a moderately high degree of multiaxial movement and dexterity in its limbs with prominent muscle attachment sites indicative of powerful, non-rapid limb movements. Well-developed manual and digital flexors and extensors are further indicative of some scansorial and fossorial capability. Periptychus and other Palaeocene mammals are characterised by their robust anatomy and tend to lack any obvious extant analogues impeding our understanding of eutherian ecological diversity during the Palaeocene and the roles of many so-called ‘archaic’ mammals. Multivariate analyses on a dataset of functionally significant limb measurements show that Palaeocene mammals exhibit a distinct and more constrained range of locomotor ability defined by their prevalent robust morphology. However, there are subtle distinctions between archaic taxa indicating ecomorphical diversity possibly due to niche partitioning, that are not easily comparable to extant mammals. This suggests that, far from being generalized ancestral stock, Palaeocene taxa were experimenting with their own unique locomotor styles. The extinction of many archaic groups at the end of the Palaeogene is associated with a trend towards increasingly open habitats, which was less conducive to the survivorship of robust, ambulatory mammals. The anatomy of Periptychus combines a basic early placental body plan with numerous unique specialisations in its dental, cranial and postcranial anatomy that not only exemplify the ability of mammals to adapt and evolve following catastrophic environmental upheaval but provide a prime exemplar by which to tackle the taxonomic and systematic conundrum that is ‘Condylarthra’. A cladistic analysis was conducted to determine the phylogenetic affinities of Periptychidae within Placentalia. 141 taxa were scored for 503 characters including 40 periptychid species and 63 novel characters. The dataset was analysed under parsimony optimality criteria and the resulting phylogeny shows a well resolved strict consensus topology with numerous well-supported relationships which help elucidate periptychid phylogeny. The analysis presented here finds Periptychidae as a monophyletic group to the exclusion of several purported periptychid taxa which are recovered with the ‘arctocyonid’, Baioconodon nordicum. The in-group relationships of Periptychidae are resolved to broadly support the subfamilial arrangement proposed by previous workers. Alticonus is recovered the most basal, unambiguous periptychid taxon. Ampliconus forms a paraphyletic stem from Alticonus to all other unequivocal periptychid taxa. Conacodontinae forms a clade which includes Auraria as the most basal taxon relative to Oxyacodon, which forms a paraphyletic stem to Conacodon. The hypsodont periptychids, Haploconus + Goleroconus form a clade, separate from both ‘Anisonchinae’ and Conacodontinae, both of which they have previously been affiliated to. ‘Anisonchinae’ forms a paraphyletic stem relative to Periptychinae. Mithrandir oligustus is the most basal ‘anisonchine’. Gillisonchus is generically distinct from both Mithrandir and ‘Anisonchus’ due to morphological similarities with Hemithlaeus and the Periptychinae. Periptychinae forms a well-supported clade with Hemithlaeus and Tinuviel resolved to be more closely related to Ectoconus than Periptychus + Carsioptychus. Periptychus is a member of Periptychinae and most closely related to Carsioptychus within Periptychini. The phylogeny reported here indicates that Periptychidae were an incredibly successful family during much of their early history and were particularly prolific during the middle Puercan. Most species were small to medium sized animals; however, members of Periptychinae attained large body sizes within less than half a million years of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Periptychids were prolific during early Puercan, but spent the majority of their evolutionary history exhibiting high turnover, with many short-lived species, with the notable exception of three genera: Anisonchus, Haploconus and Periptychus, which prevailed through the Torrejonian. These periptychids are among the most enduring Palaeocene taxa known and reiterate the importance of the Periptychidae in understanding the recovering and radiation of Placentalia following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

Doctor of Philosophy / There is a current debate in schools of social work in Taiwan about whether they should provide specific HIV/AIDS courses or integrate HIV/AIDS issues into the curriculum. However, an argument that draws on the understandings of curriculum development in social work has not emerged. This project not only explores why this is the case but also aims to resolve the debate. This research is based on two methodologies, the development of a genealogy and content analysis of data collected to build the genealogy. Foucaultian conceptualisation of using a genealogy to explain the relationship between power and knowledge has been utilised as a primary theoretical framework. The texts analysed included social work documents as well as social documents. The research objectives were an exploration of what discourses related to HIV/AIDS were constructed in broader Taiwanese society and within social work; and what forces and stakeholders outside and within social work formed HIV/AIDS curricula in social work in Taiwan. The first PLWHA case in Taiwan was reported in 1984, and four key discourses about HIV/AIDS were gradually constructed. They are individual pathological, programmatic, governmental, and socio-cultural discourses. The individual pathological discourse became dominant in Taiwan. Taiwanese social work did not consider HIV/AIDS as an issue until 1992, nearly ten years after it was recognised as a serious medical and social problem in the West. This genealogical research shows that, over time, four key discourses about HIV/AIDS were also represented in Taiwanese social work texts. The programmatic discourse emerged as more popular in social work documents. The genealogy also showed that four identified subgroups within social work in Taiwan were more able to express their views about HIV/AIDS issues. They were social work scholars, practitioners, students and translated social work documents. Reflecting dominant wider social prejudices the genealogy revealed that Taiwanese social work scholars were likely to adhere to the individual pathological discourse, the discourse that blamed those with HIV/AIDS for their own predicament. The other three groups were likely to express a programmatic discourse, which often reflected the changing governmental response over time. The genealogy also showed that influential forces outside social work included international responses on HIV/AIDS, the Taiwanese central governmental responses, social norms regarding sex, sexuality and homosexuality in Taiwan, and the status of social work in society. The key findings of this research lay in the revelation of the power of the four key discourses, the four visible subgroups within social work and the influential forces outside social work in Taiwan that emerged as dominant throughout the genealogical study. These forces formed and shaped the development of HIV/AIDS curricula in a complex way. What these findings provide is a pathway for the development of a responsive curriculum for the education of future social workers in Taiwan.

Doctor of Philosophy / There is a current debate in schools of social work in Taiwan about whether they should provide specific HIV/AIDS courses or integrate HIV/AIDS issues into the curriculum. However, an argument that draws on the understandings of curriculum development in social work has not emerged. This project not only explores why this is the case but also aims to resolve the debate. This research is based on two methodologies, the development of a genealogy and content analysis of data collected to build the genealogy. Foucaultian conceptualisation of using a genealogy to explain the relationship between power and knowledge has been utilised as a primary theoretical framework. The texts analysed included social work documents as well as social documents. The research objectives were an exploration of what discourses related to HIV/AIDS were constructed in broader Taiwanese society and within social work; and what forces and stakeholders outside and within social work formed HIV/AIDS curricula in social work in Taiwan. The first PLWHA case in Taiwan was reported in 1984, and four key discourses about HIV/AIDS were gradually constructed. They are individual pathological, programmatic, governmental, and socio-cultural discourses. The individual pathological discourse became dominant in Taiwan. Taiwanese social work did not consider HIV/AIDS as an issue until 1992, nearly ten years after it was recognised as a serious medical and social problem in the West. This genealogical research shows that, over time, four key discourses about HIV/AIDS were also represented in Taiwanese social work texts. The programmatic discourse emerged as more popular in social work documents. The genealogy also showed that four identified subgroups within social work in Taiwan were more able to express their views about HIV/AIDS issues. They were social work scholars, practitioners, students and translated social work documents. Reflecting dominant wider social prejudices the genealogy revealed that Taiwanese social work scholars were likely to adhere to the individual pathological discourse, the discourse that blamed those with HIV/AIDS for their own predicament. The other three groups were likely to express a programmatic discourse, which often reflected the changing governmental response over time. The genealogy also showed that influential forces outside social work included international responses on HIV/AIDS, the Taiwanese central governmental responses, social norms regarding sex, sexuality and homosexuality in Taiwan, and the status of social work in society. The key findings of this research lay in the revelation of the power of the four key discourses, the four visible subgroups within social work and the influential forces outside social work in Taiwan that emerged as dominant throughout the genealogical study. These forces formed and shaped the development of HIV/AIDS curricula in a complex way. What these findings provide is a pathway for the development of a responsive curriculum for the education of future social workers in Taiwan.

La population canadienne-française a une histoire démographique unique faisant d’elle une population d’intérêt pour l’épidémiologie et la génétique. Cette thèse vise à mettre en valeur les caractéristiques de la population québécoise qui peuvent être utilisées afin d’améliorer la conception et l’analyse d’études d’épidémiologie génétique. Dans un premier temps, nous profitons de la présence d’information généalogique détaillée concernant les Canadiens français pour estimer leur degré d’apparentement et le comparer au degré d’apparentement génétique. L’apparentement génétique calculé à partir du partage génétique identique par ascendance est corrélé à l’apparentement généalogique, ce qui démontre l'utilité de la détection des segments identiques par ascendance pour capturer l’apparentement complexe, impliquant entre autres de la consanguinité. Les conclusions de cette première étude pourront guider l'interprétation des résultats dans d’autres populations ne disposant pas d’information généalogique. Dans un deuxième temps, afin de tirer profit pleinement du potentiel des généalogies canadienne-françaises profondes, bien conservées et quasi complètes, nous présentons le package R GENLIB, développé pour étudier de grands ensembles de données généalogiques. Nous étudions également le partage identique par ascendance à l’aide de simulations et nous mettons en évidence le fait que la structure des populations régionales peut faciliter l'identification de fondateurs importants, qui auraient pu introduire des mutations pathologiques, ce qui ouvre la porte à la prévention et au dépistage de maladies héréditaires liées à certains fondateurs. Finalement, puisque nous savons que les Canadiens français ont accumulé des segments homozygotes, à cause de la présence de consanguinité lointaine, nous estimons la consanguinité chez les individus canadiens-français et nous étudions son impact sur plusieurs traits de santé. Nous montrons comment la dépression endogamique influence des traits complexes tels que la grandeur et des traits hématologiques. Nos résultats ne sont que quelques exemples de ce que nous pouvons apprendre de la population canadienne-française. Ils nous aideront à mieux comprendre les caractéristiques des autres populations de même qu’ils pourront aider la recherche en épidémiologie génétique au sein de la population canadienne-française. / The French Canadian founder population has a demographic history that makes it an important population for epidemiology and genetics. This work aims to explain what features can be used to improve the design and analysis of genetic epidemiological studies in the Quebec population. First we take advantage of the presence of extended genealogical records among French Canadians to estimate relatedness from those records and compare it to the genetic kinship. The kinship based on identical-by-descent sharing correlates well with the genealogical kinship, further demonstrating the usefulness of genomic identical-by-descent detection to capture complex relatedness involving inbreeding and our findings can guide the interpretation of results in other population without genealogical data. Second to optimally exploit the full potential of these well preserved, exhaustive and detailed French Canadian genealogical data we present the GENLIB R package developed to study large genealogies. We also investigate identical-by-descent sharing with simulations and highlight the fact that regional population structure can facilitate the identification of notable founders that could have introduced disease mutations, opening the door to prevention and screening of founder-related diseases. Third, knowing that French Canadians have accumulated segments of homozygous genotypes, as a result of inbreeding due to distant ancestors, we estimate the inbreeding in French Canadian individuals and investigate its impact on multiple health traits. We show how inbreeding depression influences complex traits such as height and blood-related traits. Those results are a few examples of what we can learn from the French Canadian population and will help to gain insight on other populations’ characteristics as well as help the genetic epidemiological research within the French Canadian population.

This thesis explores how current ways of imagining possibilities for intersexed and trans embodied lives within medical contexts might be informed by and reimagined through the historical lived experiences of intersexed and trans individuals as they have been articulated in autobiographical accounts. Postmodern, queer, intersex, and trans researchers and activists have criticised existing standards of intersex and trans healthcare for limiting the possibilities for diverse embodied lives by articulating certain forms of embodiment and selfhood as more likely to enable a liveable life than others. This has often been done in a medico-legal context by referring to experiences in the past of the unliveability of corporealities and gendersexed situations that differ from privileged positions. With a point of departure in these critiques, this thesis reopens questions about how intersexed and trans people may be embodied and have relations with others by reflecting upon the period of the first three-quarters of the 20th century, when the present standards of care and diagnostic categories were emerging, but had not yet become established. Drawing upon a unique set of historical source material from the archives of the Danish Ministry of Justice and the Medico-Legal Council, intersexed and trans persons’ life stories are rearticulated from their own and medico-legal experts’ accounts written in relation to applications for change of legal gendersex status and medical transition. In this way, the process is traced through which these life stories have been repeatedly rearticulated in order to become a usable basis for diagnosis and decision-making. At the same time, the stories are unfolded once more in a rearticulation focusing on their complexity and diversity. / Denna avhandling undersöker hur nuvarande sätt att föreställa sig möjligheter för intersexuella och transpersoners liv inom medicinska sammanhang kan informeras av och omföreställas genom historiska livserfarenheter hos intersexuella och transindivider, som de har artikulerats i självbiografiska berättelser. Postmoderna, queer, intersex- och transforskare och aktivister har kritiserat existerande normer för intersex- och transhälsovård för att begränsa möjligheterna för olika förkroppsligande liv genom att artikulera vissa former av förkroppsligande och subjektivitet som mer sannolikt att möjliggöra ett levbart liv än andra. Detta har ofta gjorts i ett medicinskt-juridiskt sammanhang genom att hänvisa till förflutna erfarenheter av levbarhet kring förkroppsligande och genusifierande situationer som skiljer sig från privilegierade positioner. Med utgångspunkt i denna kritik, återupptar denna avhandling frågor om hur intersexuella och transpersoner kan bli förkroppsligade och ha relationer till andra, genom att reflektera kring de första tre fjärdedelarna av nittonhundratalet när de nuvarande normerna för vård och diagnostiska kategorier uppstod, men ännu inte blivit etablerade. Med utgångspunkt i en unik uppsättning av historiskt källmaterial från Danska  Justitiedepartementet och Medicinsk-Etiska Rådets arkiv, återges intersexuella och transpersoners livshistorier från egna och medicinsk-etiska experters berättelser skrivna i relation till ansökningar av förändring av juridiskt kön och medicinsk transition. Genom denna process har livshistorier upprepande gånger blivit omartikulerade för att bli en användbar grund för diagnos och beslutsfattande. Samtidigt är dessa livshistorier uppöppnade än en gång i en omartikulation med fokus på deras komplexitet och mångfald.