The thesis is concerned with a specific example of misunderstanding as a factor in international crisis leading to war. The example is the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941 and the thesis gives special importance to the mistranslation and misinterpretation of "Magic" (Magic, as the thesis explains, was the name given to the American decoding of the secret Japanese codes). The argument is that misunderstanding was a cumulative factor in relations between the United States and Japan, and that in the final negotiations mistranslation of Magic was a significant factor in the failure to reach an agreement. The thesis argues that as late as the last week in November 1941 the attack on Pearl Harbor could have been averted. The thesis opens with an introduction referring to the literature on the causes of war and misunderstanding in international politics. A brief comparison is made with crises which did not lead to war, such as the Cuban missile crisis. Part I is entitled "The Historical Legacy" and surveys briefly the period from the Spanish-American war to 1940. It does not claim to be a comprehensive account of U.S.-Japan relations. It is designed to show how successive crises increased misunderstanding. It emphasises the importance, for Japan, of the danger from Russia and demonstrates the lack of control in Japanese foreign policy. Part II opens with an examination of the way policy was formed and decisions made in the United States and Japan, discussing the role of Roosevelt, Hull and other influential members of the Administration in the United States, and the lack of a central core of decision-making in Japan. It then proceeds with a chronological study of negotiations from November 1940 to October 1941. Part III examines in detail the mistranslations from Magic, including the technical problems of coding and decoding and linguistic factors and problems of translation. Part IV studies chronologically the final negotiations, including Proposal B and the Hull Note, up to the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. It shows in detail the synchronisation and lack of synchronisation between the two sides and demonstrates the points at which accurate translation and clear understanding might have altered the course of events. The brief conclusion explains how the thesis adds to existing literature, notes the present state of archival material and speculates on the possible course of events had the attack on Pearl Harbor not occurred. There are five appendices: (i) Magic materials; (ii) List of Important Magic Misinterpretations; (iii) Historiographic Developments; (iv) Bibliography; (v) Maps.

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In this thesis, I examine the complexities involved in the representation of trauma in both aesthetic and ideological configurations in the relationship between the generic experience of modernity and particular historical events of atrocity. This relationship continues from the discourse of social and moral degradation and the rise of modem psychiatry, to the idea of artistic and literary creation. The discourse of trauma has become intrinsically linked to the aesthetic in the configuration of the experience of modernity that points not only to the problematisation of the self but also the crisis of representation. Starting from the discourse of trauma surrounding the experience of the First World War, the thesis examines the language of technology and mechanisation as a means for overcoming the traumatic experience of the war in the work of Ernst Jünger and other writers and artists across the political spectrum during the Weimar period. I also investigate the aesthetic configurations of `depersonalisation' and `impersonality' as they are figured in the texts and images of the European Avant-garde particularly, the Neue Sachlichkeit, and the thematic origins of the image of trauma since the early modem period. I also examine the pathological rhetoric of disintegration and decay in the discourse of war trauma in the work of Louis-Ferdinand Celine. The thesis proposes that there is a reactionary tendency in the image of disintegration, decay and fragmentation in particular avantgarde movements such as the Neue Sachlichkeit, Expressionism and Surrealism. I conclude that the representation of trauma is intrinsic to diverse political and aesthetic positions articulated through rhetorical strategies in the discourse of scientific rationalism, technological progress, the medical sciences and the modernist aesthetic of fragmentation and disfiguration. In the final part of the thesis, I investigate these aesthetic and ideological themes in the contemporary discourse of trauma surrounding the representation of the Holocaust, particularly the construction of the `Holocaust museum' and its artefacts through examining the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D. C. and the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

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This thesis endeavours to list and compare the finance measures undertaken by the Dominion Government during the two great wars in Canada's history. However, emphasis has been placed on the war effort just concluded. Considerable space has been given over to a discussion of the means by which the Minister of Finance made available the funds necessary for the prosecution of the war — changes in the tax system, government borrowing, price and exchange control have been examined in some detail. A short note on Canadian Aid to Allies has been included. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

Queer youth enactments of agency, resistance, and worldmaking have been under researched in rhetorical studies. Investigating how queer world making for youth takes place at a space entitled Camp Half-Blood, a live action role playing (LARP) fantasy camp for ages 8-18, this study contends that queer youth at Camp Half-Blood utilize Burke's equipment for living, disidentifications, queer relationality, and queer hope as embodiments that create queer lifeworlds and mobilize queer campers toward queer livable futures. By interviewing campers on their perspectives of being queer at camp and the impact LARPing had on the creation of queer youth identity, as well as the ways LARPing and camp affected queer youth camper envisioning of the future, this research maintains that queer youth have the potential to utilize LARPing in radical ways to revise (cis)heteronormative and hegemonic understandings of their social standings in the world. Camp Half-Blood also offers an opportunity to bring research on queer youth in fandoms from online spaces to offline spaces and extends research on youth agency and youth queer world making.

Swimming with the root of the natural character with the wastewater downstream of the recreation area around the pond.

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The key to the RNA world hypothesis is the ribozyme, an information and catalytic agent that preceded proteins and DNA. Prior to ribozymes the sequences of RNA needed to build up to a length that could potentially be a ribozyme. This research focuses on computational modelling of hydrolysis, polymerization, and template-directed ligation to determine sequence patterns and characteristics that may have emerged due to these simple processes. A model containing L- and D-chirality monomers is used that incorporates the advantage of being a uniform chirality to achieve chiral symmetry breaking. Another chirality model is used where being uniform provides no advantage and a symmetry breaking still occurs. Beyond chirality we look at nucleobase models where we use a two letter alphabet containing adenine and uracil to determine symmetry breaking in sequence space. This results in self-complementary sequences dominating this model at all ligation rates but under certain initial conditions including high concentration, other types of sequences can be dominant. If a third base, guanine is added to this model a wobble base is created. In these models the self-complementary sequences containing uracil are the most prevalent due to uracil’s ability to pair with both adenine and guanine. Finally, upon adding a fourth base to the model guanine also becomes a wobble pair and the sequences containing uracil and guanine dominate the system for low ligation rates but at higher rates the uniform uracil and guanine sequences dominate. For each model a version is run with the templating reaction scaling linearly with the number of binding sites and without, where all templates are equally good. Generally, the scaling causes symmetry breakings at lower ligation values for each model. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The origin of life on Earth is a long-debated question that has been asked by nearly every civilization to have existed. This research addresses the origin of life in the context of the RNA World theory, which proposes that the first kind of replicating molecules were RNA strands, specifically, catalytic RNA sequences, called ribozymes. We carry out computer simulations of the formation and break-up of short RNA strands. Strands can grow by joining together randomly, or due to the action of template strands. We find that, if this process occurs repeatedly, the RNA strands in the mixture move towards states in which groups of sequences that are good templates for one another occur together at high concentrations. By studying the possible states that arise in this reaction mixture, we hope to learn about the first replicating RNA strands that lead to the origin of life.

The biology of modern life predicts the existence of an ancient RNA world. A phase of evolution in which organisms utilized RNA as a genetic material and a catalyst. However, the existence of an RNA organism necessitates RNA’s ability to self-replicate, which has yet to be proven. In this thesis, we utilize computational modeling to address some of the problems facing RNA replication. In chapter 2, we consider a polymerase ribozyme replicating by the Qβ bacteriophage mechanism. When bound to a surface, limited diffusion allows for survival so long as the termination error rate is below an error threshold. In Chapter 3, we consider the replication of short oligomers through an abiotic mechanism proposed in prebiotic experiments. When limited by substrate availability, competition results in the emergence of uniform RNA polymers from a messy prebiotic soup containing nucleotides of different chirality and sugars. In chapter 4, we consider the possibility of an RNA world lacking cytosine. Without cytosine, the ability of RNA to fold to complex secondary structures is limited. Furthermore, G-U wobble base pairing hinders the transfer of information during replication. Nevertheless, we conclude that an RNA world lacking cytosine may be possible, but more difficult for the initial emergence of life. In chapter 5, we analyze abiotic and viral mechanisms of RNA replication using known kinetic and thermodynamic data. While most mechanisms fail under non-enzymatic conditions, rolling-circle replication appears possible. In chapter 6, we extend our analysis of the rolling-circle mechanism to consider the fidelity of replication. Due to the thermodynamic penalty of incorporating an error, rolling-circle replication appears to undergo error correction. This results in highly accurate replication and circumvents Eigen’s paradox. Rolling-circle replication therefore presents an appealing option for the emergence of RNA replication in an RNA world. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)