News, as we know, saturates our lives: from the morning newspaper to televised late-night reports there is no denying the influence and impact media can have on our daily lives. In the context of a post September the 11th world, one of the dominant trends in press media is the use of fear-based rhetoric. This research paper is concerned with how the Canadian press media constructs fear, particularly the fear of disease, and how this fear is further disseminated through translation. As well, it explores some of the dominant discourses concerning translation in the press and in general. The main hypothesis is that translation acts as a space of contagion with the power to disseminate certain emotions that develop in response to current events. Observations include a case study of French and English-Canadian press articles on the avian flu and the discursive strategies used to convey fear of the disease, as well as a potential framework for translators of the press.

In the eighteenth century, Russia passed through a period of sweeping social reforms. Russia was modernized, and modernization was viewed as westernization. Russia had to accomplish the modernization as quickly as possible and catch up with the rest of Europe, a formidable task requiring transfers of Western European knowledge and values on a massive scale. Translation became the sole means of carrying out these transfers in the least time-consuming fashion. My research focuses on the social role of translation. I applied Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory as well as some concepts from works by Pierre Bourdieu and Lev Gumilev. Luhmann's theory provided a stimulating theoretical basis for analyzing major translation flows, the place of translation in the overall social system of the Russian Empire as well as the contribution translation made to the process of Russia's unfolding westernization. Bourdieu's concepts helped consider the role of agency in the translation 'field' and explain the distribution of symbolic capital in society that led to foregrounding translation as a major means of westernization. Gumilev's ideas about ethnogenetic evolution made it clear that the eighteenth century was the acmetic stage of the evolving superethnos and that is why became such a pivotal period in Russian history. Translation was regarded as a boundary phenomenon of the system (in this case, the Russian Empire). Serving as the system's boundary, translation opened the system to influences from the environment. In eighteenth-century Russia, intrasystemically, translation became a crucial means of introducing new ideas, helping to change the official discourse by introducing a heterodoxa (an alternative social discourse). Translation came to the fore of the social stage and became a principal means of renegotiating the systemic communication. Intersystemically, translation also was instrumental for the system's projecting information about itself into the environment. Finally, translation played a crucial global-systemic role. Europe integrated into a global functional super-system (Luhmann) where law, economy, science, and art formed international functional subsystems, no longer divided by national frontiers. Translation was a sine qua non enabling Russia to become part of this global system.

The ability to communicate effectively in writing is important not only within the educational system but also in business, professional, and domestic life. Most educators agree that this ability can best be developed through regular practice and they agree, further, that this practice can be given direction and purpose through the use of carefully selected and properly employed marking techniques. Over the years various techniques were developed with a view to increasing the reliability of theme grading; others were designed to reduce the marking load; still others were chiefly concerned with the psychological effect upon the students. But there was no conclusive evidence favouring a specific method which would promote composition improvement. In response to the need for such a method the writer proposed the use of "salient feature" comments. An instructional and marking programme involving four equated groups of Grade Eight students was devised. The two experimental groups had all their practice themes marked with letter grades and brief comments respectively. The corresponding control groups had only one-quarter of their practice themes marked. Initial and final test paragraphs provided the numerical bases for making inter-group comparisons. It was hypothesized that, between the pairs of groups to be compared, if there were no significant mean score differences prior to the practice period there would be no significant mean score differences following it. Analysis of the main body of evidence showed that the null hypothesis was sustained throughout. No advantage for any particular marking method could be clained. In fact, the control groups evidently made as much progress as the others. Supplementary calculations focussed attention on smaller subgroups in restricted ability ranges. Here, apparently, the "salient feature" sub-groups made the most consistent gains. Subjective opinion as well as objective evidence was sought. A majority of teachers and students thought that the composition had improved and, given a choice of several marking plans, expressed a preference for written comments. It seemed reasonable to conclude that, while the "salient feature" comments method did not prove significantly advantageous, it might, nevertheless, merit further study. It was suggested further that the kind of marking may be less important than regular, purposeful practice. Perhaps limited marking techniques could be developed which would not only improve composition but also free teachers for the individualized instruction which may, after all, provide the best answer to the question, "How can we help students reach a standard of achievement in composition which is consistent with the demands of an increasingly complex society?" / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

The conversion of ammonia to 2:4-dinitroaniline by reaction with 1-fluoro, 2:4-dinitrobenzene and the subsequent conversion of dinitroaniline to a diazo-dye with N-(1-naphthyl)ethylenediamine has been investigated as an analytical method for determining ammonia at the micromolar concentration level. Particular emphasis was placed upon the possibility of applying this method to the analysis of sea water. Dinitroaniline was formed under alkaline conditions (pH greater than 8) and required the presence of the fluoro-dinitrobenzene as a separate phase for initiation of the reaction. The conversion, which was light sensitive, was accelerated by increases in pH and temperature, but neither of these factors improved the final yield. The yield of dinitroaniline had a marked dependence on the amount of fluorodinitrobenzene; initially increasing with increasing fluorodinitro-benzene content, it then decreased with higher fluorodinitrobenzene concentrations suggesting further reaction between dinitroaniline and fluorodinitrobenzene. In both distilled and sea water, the maximum yield of dinitroaniline from solutions containing ammonia at the micromolar concentration level was found to be 55-58%. The absorbance of the diazo-dye in sea water of salinity 30.4% was only 42% of that observed in distilled water. Although sufficiently sensitive for application to sea water analysis, the precision of the conversion of dinitroaniline to the diazo-dye in sea water was poor compared to that achieved in distilled water. / Science, Faculty of / Chemistry, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

A discussion is presented to illustrate the relationships among landform, soil, vegetation and water chemistry in the intermittent permafrost zone of the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories. Two study areas were examined in this region, one in the vicinity of Wrigley and the other in the vicinity of Fort Simpson, N.W.T. A catenary sequence of soils and vegetation occurring as a transect on five distinctive landforms were examined in the Wrigley area. The transect extended from 1170 m above sea level downslope to 500 m above sea level. The five landforms were: an alpine meadow, an area of stone stripe and stone ring formation, a colluvial slope, a coalescing fan and an area of polygonal bog formation. Information on chemical water quality is presented for each of these areas for the parameters pH, O₂, Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, F and NO₃. Chemical water quality presented for the Fort Simpson study area allows for the differentiation of different types of organic terrain based on the dissolved load of the saturated organic materials. The polygonal bog landform initially examined in the Wrigley area formed one of the differentiated types of organic terrain. The results are discussed with reference to organic terrain morphology and the distribution of permafrost in the study area. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

Studies on purification and properties of potato virus M (PVM) were carried out using an isolate found in British Columbia. The narrow host range of the virus was confirmed, and no new susceptible species was discovered. Potato cultivars failed to develop symptomps even in plants produced by tubers of inoculated plants, but none was immune. An attempt to demonstrate transmissibility of the virus by plant contact was unsuccessful. In undiluted potato sap the virus had a thermal inactivation point (TIP) of 65 to 70°C, and a longevity in vitro (LIV) of 2 to 4 days. The dilution end point (DEP) was 10⁻⁴. The LIV and DEP of the virus in tomato sap were similar to those in potato sap. Crude sap diluted to 10⁻¹ induced more lesions on Red Kidney bean than undiluted sap. An efficient purification procedure for PVM was developed. The virus was purified from leaves of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), by extraction with 0.5 M borate buffer, pH 7.8, clarification with ammonium sulfate (20%), and concentration with ammonium sulfate (30%). Further concentration was carried out by high speed centrifugation followed by polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000) precipitation and high speed centrifugation. Final purification was by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. The yield obtained from this procedure was 3.7 to 4.1 mg per Kg of infected leaves. The purified preparations contained rod-shaped particles 651 nm normal length and 13.4 nm average width. The particles had an A₂₆₀/A₂₈₀ratio of ]^3' an A max/A min ratio of 1.24, a maximum ultraviolet light absorption at 260 nm, a minimum absorption at 245 nm, and a buoyant density in CsCl of 1.304 (suggesting an RNA content of 6.2%). The molecular weight of the protein subunit was about 39,300 daltons. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

This study explores academic women's experience of writing and blocking through ethnographic interviews focusing on the women's history of writing in the academy, impediments to writing they have faced, and strategies they have used to write through blocks. Women in the humanities and social sciences at three-levels of academic accomplishment--master's students, doctoral students, and junior faculty--participated in hour-long interviews. Particular attention was given to the impact of the writer's academic and social context on her ability to compose. The results demonstrated that block, rather than a fixed entity, is a phenomenon that occurs along a continuum. It is affected by the individual's acculturation into the academy, including explicitness of cultural norms, her family and social life, the presence or absence of direct instruction in the discourse modes of her discipline, and the role and type of evaluation she has experienced in relation to her writing. Solutions and potential solutions for writing through block are discussed, as well as implications for future research in teaching, advising, and in the acculturation process of graduate students and junior faculty.

This dissertation uses the rhetorical theory of Kenneth Burke to illuminate the development of Walt Whitman's rhetorical poetics, in which Whitman sought to transform the reader's identity from one based on static and divisive notions of race, class, region, and gender to a malleable identity based on the actions of the human body. I show how this rhetorical poetics is the product of a number of factors, including the variety of roles poetry played in early nineteenth-century American culture, the economics of the publishing industry, the fragmentation of the two-party system, and nineteenth-century oratorical culture, and that a careful examination of the intersection of Whitman and these factors reveals the development of this rhetorical poetics. I focus on four bodies of evidence: Whitman's pre-Leaves of Grass poetry; the various rhetorical roles poetry played in America from 1820–1850 (roles shaped in large part by changing economic conditions) as exemplified by three poets whom Whitman read and admired, McDonald Clarke, Martin Farquhar Tupper, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Whitman's pre- Leaves of Grass notebooks; and the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman's early poetry reveals a young poet, intensely aware of the variety of roles poetry could play, moving progressively toward a poetry that could combine the communal persona of the ballad with the individual persona of the romantic lyric. In his pre-Leaves of Grass notebooks, written from 1848–1855, we see Whitman struggling to discover a poetics that will replace party politics. Close attention to external references, developments in style and rhetoric, and manuscript evidence reveals both the order of the notebooks and the different purposes for which Whitman used them, and the origin of some of the key themes of Leaves of Grass, including slavery, race, class, the body, and sexuality. Finally, the 1855 text itself is an overtly rhetorical text. While C. Carroll Hollis has shown how Leaves of Grass reflects nineteenth-century oratory at the micro-level, I show how the macro-level also reflects that discourse. Specifically, I show how “Song of Myself” employs theories of rhetorical arrangement described by Aristotle and Hugh Blair.

Invention should be privileged in the writing classroom. This is the most important implication resulting from extensive interviews with seven published writers about how they write. There are vast differences in their approaches to writing, but one thing common to all of them is that invention is central. Invention was central for Aristotle and for early eighteenth century pedagogical theorists, and it was again privileged by the theorists involved in the early days of the writing process movement of the 1960s, but historically it has always been gradually neglected. One predominant pedagogy today, often labeled current-traditional rhetoric, privileges form and correctness. The attempts to discredit current-traditional pedagogies have long been raging, and yet writing textbooks continue to teach their methods. Three important approaches to composition often associated with the process approach—expressionism, cognitive rhetoric, and social constructionism—represent a pulling apart of Aristotle's important proofs of ethos, pathos, and logos. The pedagogies of invention that are usually associated with these theories tend to emphasize one proof over another, and the unfortunate result is a narrowing of the concept of invention. Until we privilege and enrich invention we may never see the changes needed in the conceptualization and teaching of the process approach. We need to broaden our perception of a writer's process of writing to understand when invention is occurring and to recognize its powerful drive. Because of its serendipitous nature we need to be less rigid in our pedagogy to allow for and validate a writer's proclivities. Pedagogical implications from this study include the need for student writers to begin their writing and to be continually nourished by their own inventions. They will be motivated by their ideas to improve their writing. Student writers need to know the importance of recognizing and recording their inventions and to trust their individual writing processes that produce the inventions. Student writers will benefit by sharing in-process writing with people they trust, and they will benefit from the positive comments of teachers in response to their writing. Invention centered pedagogy, fortunately, promotes writing worthy of praise by teachers.