Background: The World Health Organization defines probiotics as ‘live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit to the host’. Traditionally, probiotic microorganisms have been used to prevent or treat gastrointestinal tract diseases. In the last 15 years, there has been increasing interest of a possible probiotic impact on the oral microbiota and dental caries. Dental caries is a multifactorial disease, and the causative factor in the oral microbiota includes a shift from a balanced microflora to a microflora that includes more aciduric species such as mutans streptococci (MS), non-mutans streptococci, and Actinomyces. MS is considered an opportunistic pathogen although several other bacteria also contribute to the disease. Early acquisition of MS is associated with early development of caries; therefore a desirable complement to other prophylactic measures would be a MS colonization inhibitor. Objective: To better understand how selected strains of probiotic lactobacilli interact with MS in vitro and in vivo and to study the impact of probiotic lactobacilli on caries development during childhood. Material and methods: The in vitro properties of probiotic lactobacilli were studied with regard to (i) acid production from sugars and sugar alcohols, (ii) growth inhibition capacity on clinical isolates and reference strains of MS as well as Candida albicans and (iii) the capacity to co-aggregate with MS. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) tested the short-term effect of intervention with two Lactobacillus reuteri strains on MS, which was evaluated after treatment with chlorhexidine. The re-growth patterns of MS and 19 other selected strains were also evaluated. In the second clinical study  we investigated the long-term effect on MS prevalence and dental caries after an intervention with Lactobacillus paracasei ssp. paracasei F19 (LF19) between 4 and 13 months of age. Results: The results from the in vitro testing showed that strains of probiotic lactobacilli differed in their fermentation patterns, inhibition capacity and their capacity to co-aggregate, which should be kept in mind in the translation to clinical research. The clinical study on short-term effects of two L. reuteri strains on MS and other oral strains showed no effect on re-growth patterns after intervention. The clinical study on long-term effects of LF19 showed no effect on the prevalence of MS. Furthermore, the clinical follow-up at 9 years of age showed no differences in either decayed, missing, and filled surface (dmfs) or DMFS between the probiotic and placebo groups. Evaluation of saliva samples showed no signs of oral colonization with LF19 in the study group. Conclusion: The in vitro testing showed potentials of the selected probiotic Lactobacillus strains for interference with MS and C. albicans. The results from the clinical studies showed no such effect on MS or dental caries. Evidence regarding the effectiveness of specific probiotic applications in the prevention of dental caries is limited and does not allow for conclusions concerning the use of probiotic bacteria as a preventive measure.

This thesis contributes to the literature on language revitalization, a hopeful branch of research that counters the foreboding conclusions of language shift studies. It is based on data collected in May, 1998, at Cumberland House, an Aboriginal community in northeastern Saskatchewan. Fifty-five community members participated in six focus groups organized by the following criteria: administrators, school board trustees, elders, parents, students and teachers. These research participants expressed their vision, expectations, and needs related to an Aboriginal Language Immersion Pilot Program proposed by the Northern Lights School Division. Community members envisioned an education that contributes to their children's Cree and Anglo-Canadian bicultural competence. They expected the Cree immersion program in the provincial school would develop their children's Cree and English bilingual fluency. They needed training, administrative support, materials and ongoing communication between school and community. Factors that instill a sense of optimism about this language revitalization effort, include the role and status of the school, and the strong bonds of kinship and friendship in this community context. The process and content of the research project records the development and product of a research relationship between Aboriginal people. It attests to the value of community involvement in language planning and illustrates the beneficial attributes of community-based participatory action research. Overall, the thesis informs the topic of decolonization at the personal, community, and institutional level.

Previous studies have shown that chemotaxis plays an important role in the colonization of the wheat roots surfaces by Azospirillum brasilense and a chemotaxis operon shown to control motility and chemotaxis in A. brasilense has been isolated. This study looked at the effects of mutations in individual genes coding for chemotaxis proteins from this operon on the ability of the cells to colonize the surface of sterile wheat roots. Using both quantitative and qualitative assays, the study shows differences in the colonization ability of the mutants relative to the wild type: the cheB, cheR, cheBR, and cheOp mutants were significantly impaired in wheat root colonization. Interestingly, the cheA mutant was not affected in its ability to colonize the wheat root surface relative to the wild type. Future studies will look for the factors that compensate for cheA impairment in the rhizosphere.

In 1881, an Ontario-based group known as the Temperance Colonization Society began looking towards the Canadian West with a speculative eye. Interested in acquiring tracts of land from the Canadian Government, the Temperance Colonization Society hoped to one day establish a new colony free from the temptations of alcohol and the troubles associated with older colonies. By 1884, a settlement was established along the south shore of the South Saskatchewan River. This was the beginning of Saskatoon.<p> As Saskatoon grew from a small settlement founded on temperance ideals to a recognized municipal corporation, the meaning of the material culture associated with this transition also changed. Two archaeological sites pertaining to this transition, the Marr Residence at 326 11th Street East (FaNp-5) and the 11th Street Privy site (FaNp-31), currently comprise the only excavated privy assemblages in the city and hold rich potential for shedding light on urban consumption behaviour at the turn of the 20th century. This study will analyze the archaeological assemblages recovered from these excavations under the scope of consumer behaviour. By orienting the essence of this study towards an archaeology of consumerism, information regarding the dimensions of everyday life in the Saskatoon area at the turn of the 20th Century can be ascertained.

This work explores the complex relationships between women, food, and power. Engaging the literature of feminist food studies allowed me to record the narratives and examine the experiences of women living in the United States. I take a close look at how women solidify and strengthen their social relationships to family and community through the use of food, or compromise and weaken these relationships through the denial or refusal of food, in the form of cooking or eating. I also consider both local and global contexts for understanding food, in terms of consumption and chores. Finally, I demonstrate how imagery of food allows women to participate in processes of commodification and fetishism.

This study argues that the American citizen’s choice to perform or not perform sacrificial national duties has been heavily mediated by sentimental representations of sacrifice in popular narratives. Through an analysis of the American captivity narrative from its origins in the seventeenth century up to its current state in the contemporary period, this project also asserts that race plays a central a role in defining the type of citizen who should perform the most traumatic and costly of national sacrifices. Based on the implied reader’s sentimental identification with the suffering, white female captive, clear racial and cultural demarcations are made between the captor and the captive. These strong demarcations are facilitated through the captive’s choice to perform sacrifices that will sustain her social and racial status as a privileged and authentic identity. Her successful defense of her cultural and racial purity from a racialized threat heightens her ethos, investing her marginalized identity with power and influence. This representation of the suffering, sacrificial female captive who gains legitimacy via her fulfillment of national duty offers a sentimental model of civic duty for American citizenry to emulate. In addition, the sentimental representation of sacrifice in the captivity narrative not only stabilizes an authentic national collective, but also suggests to marginalized persons that national sacrifice can supply legitimacy and privilege. In opposition to this narrative representation of legitimacy gained through sacrifice, Indigenous authors Mourning Dove and Leslie Marmon Silko depict the sentimental performance of sacrificial duty as a dangerous discourse that internally colonizes those who desire legitimacy in the United States. These Indigenous counter-narratives show clearly that the narrativization of sentimentality and sacrifice more often than not defines America and its authentically pure citizens as worth the price of death.

Ongoing environmental change is one of the greatest barriers facing programs and policies aiming to achieve sustainable development today. While the concept of sustainable development is relatively new, the threat of environmental change is not. Throughout colonization in Kenya the British colonial government was overly concerned with the quality of soil and increasing possibilities of erosion. Both Victorian ideologies of culture and society as well as the colonial discourse that existed in Kenya lead to a conception of the Africans as environmentally and agriculturally inept. Thus, they were blamed as the greatest threat to soil fertility. These notions together created a colonial environmental narrative based on inaccurate conceptions of the African farmer. International examples of environmental degradation as well as the expertise of Western research were used to support the narrative and further intervention into Kenyan society. The goal of this thesis is to examine exactly what made up the narrative, what purposes it served and who benefited from it. Through analysing the case of the Kikuyu in Kiambu, the district where Africans came in closet contact with the Europeans, this paper examines how a reorganization of power and control occurred. Specifically, archival research was utilized to gain direct insight into colonial perceptions and departmental reporting. The results show that African farmers were wrongly accused as the main culprits of soil degradation; in fact, changes to cultivation methods during much of colonization such as increased output and forced implementation of European techniques had a detrimental effect on soil fertility. While evidence existed to counter the narrative, it was reinforced as truth by Western research and colonial power. The result for the settlers was prioritized agriculture as well as security over land rights; simultaneously, for the colonial administration the narrative served as justification for their humanitarian mandate, while fostering an amount of social control. The results reveal that the creation of a narrative based on environmental change where the African was labelled as the problem, created a situation where colonial and settler interests triumphed over all others.

This study argues that the American citizen’s choice to perform or not perform sacrificial national duties has been heavily mediated by sentimental representations of sacrifice in popular narratives. Through an analysis of the American captivity narrative from its origins in the seventeenth century up to its current state in the contemporary period, this project also asserts that race plays a central a role in defining the type of citizen who should perform the most traumatic and costly of national sacrifices. Based on the implied reader’s sentimental identification with the suffering, white female captive, clear racial and cultural demarcations are made between the captor and the captive. These strong demarcations are facilitated through the captive’s choice to perform sacrifices that will sustain her social and racial status as a privileged and authentic identity. Her successful defense of her cultural and racial purity from a racialized threat heightens her ethos, investing her marginalized identity with power and influence. This representation of the suffering, sacrificial female captive who gains legitimacy via her fulfillment of national duty offers a sentimental model of civic duty for American citizenry to emulate. In addition, the sentimental representation of sacrifice in the captivity narrative not only stabilizes an authentic national collective, but also suggests to marginalized persons that national sacrifice can supply legitimacy and privilege. In opposition to this narrative representation of legitimacy gained through sacrifice, Indigenous authors Mourning Dove and Leslie Marmon Silko depict the sentimental performance of sacrificial duty as a dangerous discourse that internally colonizes those who desire legitimacy in the United States. These Indigenous counter-narratives show clearly that the narrativization of sentimentality and sacrifice more often than not defines America and its authentically pure citizens as worth the price of death.

This thesis contributes to the literature on language revitalization, a hopeful branch of research that counters the foreboding conclusions of language shift studies. It is based on data collected in May, 1998, at Cumberland House, an Aboriginal community in northeastern Saskatchewan. Fifty-five community members participated in six focus groups organized by the following criteria: administrators, school board trustees, elders, parents, students and teachers. These research participants expressed their vision, expectations, and needs related to an Aboriginal Language Immersion Pilot Program proposed by the Northern Lights School Division. Community members envisioned an education that contributes to their children's Cree and Anglo-Canadian bicultural competence. They expected the Cree immersion program in the provincial school would develop their children's Cree and English bilingual fluency. They needed training, administrative support, materials and ongoing communication between school and community. Factors that instill a sense of optimism about this language revitalization effort, include the role and status of the school, and the strong bonds of kinship and friendship in this community context. The process and content of the research project records the development and product of a research relationship between Aboriginal people. It attests to the value of community involvement in language planning and illustrates the beneficial attributes of community-based participatory action research. Overall, the thesis informs the topic of decolonization at the personal, community, and institutional level.

In 1881, an Ontario-based group known as the Temperance Colonization Society began looking towards the Canadian West with a speculative eye. Interested in acquiring tracts of land from the Canadian Government, the Temperance Colonization Society hoped to one day establish a new colony free from the temptations of alcohol and the troubles associated with older colonies. By 1884, a settlement was established along the south shore of the South Saskatchewan River. This was the beginning of Saskatoon.<p> As Saskatoon grew from a small settlement founded on temperance ideals to a recognized municipal corporation, the meaning of the material culture associated with this transition also changed. Two archaeological sites pertaining to this transition, the Marr Residence at 326 11th Street East (FaNp-5) and the 11th Street Privy site (FaNp-31), currently comprise the only excavated privy assemblages in the city and hold rich potential for shedding light on urban consumption behaviour at the turn of the 20th century. This study will analyze the archaeological assemblages recovered from these excavations under the scope of consumer behaviour. By orienting the essence of this study towards an archaeology of consumerism, information regarding the dimensions of everyday life in the Saskatoon area at the turn of the 20th Century can be ascertained.