The Journey of a kêhtê-aya (elder): kiskisi sôhkisiwin, tâpôkêyimoh, sôhkitêhê, nâkatohkê: Memorize the Strength, Have Faith, Have a Strong Heart, Pay Attention

I am from Onion Lake Cree Nation. I am a nêhiyaw-iskwêw (Cree woman). My first language is nêhiyawêwin/Cree. I lived with my great-grandparents until I started residential school in 1956. My PhD research is based on my belief in healing, reconciling, and reclaiming Indigenous education to benefit students, families, and communities. There is a critical need to explore the role of Elders in schools. How are they used and positioned, by whom, and why? How can the education system move away from inviting Elders to check box-type activities and progress to having Elders acknowledged as having integral and continuous roles in schools where their knowledge is central to shaping and informing the unfolding curriculum being lived out with children and families? These are the questions that you will find explored and discussed in the videos that comprise the core of this dissertation, focused on discussions of the commodification and changing role of Elders; cultural trauma; artivism and reparation; and healing, reconciling, and reclaiming Indigenous education for the benefit of students, families, and communities. As a methodological approach, I followed the teachings shared by my mother, who is central to this work. What I did, and how and when I did it, was led by following protocol, prayer/prayer songs, and the offering of tobacco; it guided every aspect of my journey. My daily work began with smudging and prayers, the tobacco led me to invite thought leaders for the four conversations, it inspired my bookwork, and it guided my thought processes and decision making throughout my doctoral journey. Each conversation began with smudging, prayer/prayer song, and the offering of protocol to the thought leaders so that our conversation would unfold in a good way, with open eyes, ears, minds, and hearts. From January through December 2022, I spent one year in the field as an Elder/kêhtê- aya. I kept a journal of my Elder/Knowledge/Keeper requests and recorded my research to prepare for the commitment and my experience. This fieldwork was integral to planning and preparing for four video conversations with invited thought leaders. To fully understand the work asked of Elders it was necessary for me to immerse myself in the work of an Elder/Knowledge Keeper. I made a commitment to accept up to three protocol requests per week. Topics were varied from sharing opening prayers and comments, presenting on residential school history or treaties, and sitting on cultural advisory committees. To prompt each conversation, I created a bookwork arising out of the conceptualization that became the focus. A bookwork is a non-book that relies on the viewer’s interaction with the object to make meaning. Each installation is a narrative that tells a story. Artists’ books, or bookworks, first emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as an expression of social and political activism, a way to “talk back” to mass production and mass media. Creating the bookworks required extensive research on the focus topic, including consulting with artists, art professors, curators and visiting art exhibits. Each bookwork took six months to a year to complete. My video dissertation is a compilation of 10 videos: my introduction to the research journey, the four core conversations with thought leaders conducted in a talking circle format, each with a separate video introduction by me, and a culminating video that shares my research reflections. The videos have an accompanying transcript, in which I included the spoken Cree and I translated the Cree language into English. My doctoral work also includes an eleventh video which captures the gallery show I arranged and hosted at AKA Gallery in the Saskatoon community to profile the four bookworks and showcase the video dissertation. In summary, the videos, the transcripts, the bookworks, and the gallery show are all integral pieces to my doctoral dissertation. Further, I have included a glossary of terms to accompany the viewing/reading of the videos and transcripts, and a bibliography for those individuals who want to pursue aspects of this work more deeply or for purposes that move forward their own work and thinking

Morphological, Histological, And Developmental Features Of Perichondral Bone In Skates And Sharks Suggest That Modern Cartilaginous Fishes Make Bone

Bone is a mineralized (or calcified) tissue type and a defining feature of the vertebrate skeleton. Ancestral vertebrates made bone and most modern vertebrates including bony fishes and tetrapods retain bone. However, bone has never been characterized in modern chondrichthyans (sharks, skates, rays, and chimaeras), and modern chondrichthyans are hypothesized to have lost the ability to make bone during their evolution. Previous studies show that sharks have mineralized tissues with some morphological and histological features that are consistent with vertebrate perichondral bone. These mineralized tissues in sharks have been described as bone-like and occur in neural arches and a specific histological region (i.e., cap zone) of discretely mineralized tesserae. While these observations in sharks challenge the hypothesis that modern chondrichthyans lack bone, it remains debated whether other modern chondrichthyans like skates and chimaeras have bone-like tissues. Because bone-like tissues have been characterized mostly in adult sharks, it is not known whether important developmental features of perichondral bone such as cartilage maturation is demonstrated by bone-like tissues. Besides bone-like tissues, chondrichthyans also display a unique areolar mineralized tissue in the vertebral body (centrum). These chondrichthyan mineralized tissues display distinct mineralization patterns such as a classic polygonal pattern of tesserae, a compact bone-like pattern of neural arches, and a compact pattern of areolar mineralized tissue. These chondrichthyan mineralization patterns have been described in sharks and skates, but relevant data from chimaeras needed to assess whether all groups of modern chondrichthyans demonstrate these morphological features are lacking. This thesis addresses these and other knowledge gaps in the skeletal biology of modern chondrichthyans by testing the hypothesis that bone-like tissues are shared by modern chondrichthyans and are homologous to perichondral bone in other modern vertebrates. Comparative morphology and embryology were the two main approaches adopted to test this hypothesis. Specifically, mineralized tissues in two skate species (the little skate Leucoraja erinacea and the Eaton’s skate Bathyraja eatonii), a shark (the catshark Scyliorhinus canicular), and a chimaera (the spotted ratfish Hydrolagus colliei) were characterized using desktop and synchrotron micro-CT imaging, histological, histochemical, and immunofluorescence assays. Micro-CT renderings showed a bone-like mineralization pattern in neural arches of the skates and the shark, but this was absent in neural arches of the spotted ratfish. Micro-CT renderings and histological analyses of tesserae showed that the bone-like cap zone was present only in the skates, and the polygonal tesseral mineralization pattern was associated with large and laterally extensive bone-like cap zones. Another mineralization pattern described herein as trabecular tesseral was characterized in several endoskeletal regions of the skates, the catshark, and the spotted ratfish. The trabecular tesseral pattern was morphologically distinct from the polygonal tesseral pattern which is classically associated with the chondrichthyan endoskeleton. Micro-CT renderings and histological data also showed that areolar mineralized tissue, which has been described in only sharks and skates, was also present in the spotted ratfish. Perichondral bone formation in other modern vertebrates is driven by cartilage maturation. Developmental data from the little skate showed that the main histological features of cartilage maturation, such as chondrocyte hypertrophy and initiation of matrix mineralization by hypertrophic chondrocytes, were associated with the development of bone-like tissue in neural arches. In addition to limited reports of bone-like tissues in sharks, data in this thesis showed that other modern chondrichthyans like skates have bone-like tissues. Developmental features of perichondral bone demonstrated by neural arch bone-like tissue suggest that bone-like tissues and perichondral bone are homologous

Study of Canola Meal Extract in the Synthesis of Lipids by Mortierella alpina

Quality and cost-effective raw materials and the utilization of agriculture by-products with potential quality attributes and negligible commercial value can be supplemented in several microbial processing industries. Canola meal (CM), a by-product of canola processing, has an excellent nutritional profile composed of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, and could serve as a potential candidate for microbial culture media. Saskatchewan, as a global leader in canola production, has plans for upscaling its canola processing facilities. The efficient utilization of canola meal extract (CME) in the production of lipids and polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as arachidonic acid (ARA) has the potential to serve as valuable ingredients or base chemicals for food, feed, and nutraceutical industries. This current study focused on the incorporation of alkaline extract (AE) and subcritical extract (SE) of CM in a culture medium of an oleaginous fungus, Mortierella alpina ATCC 32223, by replacing conventional yeast extract (YE) at a level of 50 % and 100 %. Extraction for AE was conducted at 75 °C with a pH of 10.5, while for SE, it was carried out at 160 °C without pH control. Initial trials were conducted to examine the effect of aeration at a level of 0.5 to 2.0 vvm on fungal growth and it was found that increasing aeration rate increased fungal growth rate from 0.16 day-1 to 0.39 day-1. Also, the ARA percentage in the lipid increased from 10.39% to 21.86%. It became evident that ARA production was positively correlated with biomass accumulation and its lipid content. During the replacement of YE by CME, it was observed that the 100% substitution of YE by CME yielded growth results similar to that of the control, which employed standard media containing YE. Moreover, AE- and SE-supplemented media exhibited a higher ARA accumulation of 144.91 mg/L and 165.8 mg/L, respectively, in comparison to standard media (124.87 mg/L). Interestingly, when glucose was omitted from the culture, media supplemented with 100% AE performed better as compared to standard media. However, the limitation of glucose had an adverse effect on both the growth and lipid content of the culture

Production of texturized vegetable proteins (TVPs) from pulses and their application in meat products

The overall goal of this thesis was to examine the impact of extrusion parameters on the functional attributes of faba bean and lentil protein extrudates, and their utilization in vegan or hybrid burger applications. Such parameters include screw speed (300 to 450 rpm), die temperature (110ºC to 140ºC), and feed moisture (30, 35, and 40 g water/100 g feed). A lab scale twin-screw extruder was used to produce lentil and faba bean-based TVPs with a wide range of physical and functional properties. The extrusion conditions did not affect the protein content of the TVPs (~84% dry basis) compared to the raw material. For both TVPs the physical properties including color, showed a decrease in brightness with an increase in redness and yellowness attributed to the Maillard reaction. For the specific mechanical energy, there was a trend observed due to the changes in the viscoelastic properties of the raw material affected by all the extrusion variables. For the functional properties, an increase in moisture showed a significant change in the bulk density of TVPs and in consequence in an increase in the rehydration ratio (~214% for lentil-based TVPs and ~308% for faba bean-based TVPs with 40% MC). A significant effect was observed with changes in moisture content and screw speed with no effect of temperature for water and oil holding capacity for lentil-based TVPs. In contrast, for faba bean-based TVPs the functional properties showed a significant effect with the increase of screw speed for water holding capacity and changes in oil holding capacity (<1 g of oil per g of protein) with the changes in temperature and moisture content. The texture profile showed that the changes in moisture content affected properties including hardness, gumminess, and chewiness, while the changes in screw speed affected springiness, cohesiveness and resilience. Finally, the addition of 10% TVP to a traditional meat patty formulation showed a significant increase in cooking yield with a significant decrease in thickness and diameter changes. Overall, the findings suggested that the combination of extrusion variables can affect the functional and physical properties of lentil and faba bean-based TVPs. Also, the data collected suggested that lentil and faba bean-based TVPs are a suitable partial or complete replacement for animal meat in terms of functionality and yield, but future studies are needed to investigate the sensory and nutritional aspects of the final product

Nucleation Simulation Studies of Propane Vapour Condensation

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to study the nucleation kinetics of propane condensation. Using the TAMie potential for propane, equilibrium MD simulations are performed first to calculate the pressure-volume equation of state for the model in the metastable region over a range of temperatures. The resulting data shows good agreement with the predictions of the Peng equation of state (EOS), which makes the Peng EOS suitable to calculate the theoretical predictions of the binodal and spinodal. The nucleation behaviour, including the rate, free energy barrier, Zeldovich factor, and critical cluster size calculations, are obtained using the mean first passage time (MFPT) method over a range of decreasing temperatures that approach the calculated mean field spinodal, at a fixed system volume. As the temperature decreases, the barrier decreases and the sigmoidal MFPT behaviour associated with classical nucleation crosses over to a linear, growth-dominated regime. The MFPT calculations are compared with the classical nucleation theory (CNT), which shows that all the CNT critical sizes are smaller than those calculated from simulation. The nucleation rate and nucleation lag times are also obtained using the survival probability (SP) method. The nucleation rate calculated using the MFPT, CNT and the SP methods are all in very good agreement. The effect of the initial cluster distribution on the measured nucleation rate is also examined by selecting two ensembles of starting configurations from T = 800K and T = 340K. There is no distinguishable difference in the nucleation rates obtained using the different initial conditions. However, the nucleation lag times obtained from T=340K initial condition are consistently smaller. We also compared the results obtained from two commonly used cluster criteria, the Stillinger criterion and the Frenkel criterion. No significant difference in nucleation rates is detected given the statistics obtained in this study

Optimisation of a Radiofrequency Electron Photogun

The thermionic electron source which injects electron bunches to the accelerating complex of the Canadian Light Source (CLS) is ageing, does not produce electron bunches which are frequency matched to a harmonic of the booster ring accelerating frequency, and is not ideally suited to producing single bunches of electrons. To improve the single bunch injection process and the overall injection efficiency, it has been proposed to install a high brightness radiofrequency photogun as a secondary electron injector to the CLS linear accelerator. The photogun which has been acquired by the CLS and is proposed to fulfil this need was not constructed to resonate at 3000.24 MHz — the sixth harmonic of the CLS booster ring accelerating field frequency — and as such the geometry of the photogun must be altered such that the resonant frequency matches the sixth harmonic of the CLS booster ring. To design changes to the photogun geometry 3D electromagnetic modelling software was used to numerically simulate the electromagnetic field configuration within the photogun. Electrodynamic particle tracking software was used to predict the characteristics of electron bunches produced by the photogun. Benchtop measurements using a vector network analyser were performed to characterise the radiofrequency properties of the photogun. It was shown that the photogun geometry can be altered such that the resonant frequency matches the desired 3000.24 MHz. The simulated electron bunches using the new field configuration were shown to have kinetic energy of 3.2 MeV, bunch size less than 1 mm, normalised transverse emittance less than 10 mm mrad, and an energy spread of 5 keV. These characteristics are appropriate for electron bunches which are to be injected into the CLS linear accelerator. The work presented in this thesis indicates that the modified photogun is a suitable candidate be installed as a branch line injector to the CLS linear accelerator. By including this re-optimised photogun as a secondary high brightness electron injector, the injection efficiency can be improved by seamlessly transferring electron bunches from the electron source, to the linear accelerator, to the booster ring by phase locking the harmonic frequencies of the accelerating waves

Catalytic Reaction of Ozone and Ethylene at Ambient Temperature: Ozonative Epoxidation and Deep Ozonation

The abstract of this item is unavailable due to an embargo

Toxicity of surface water and pore water from an oil sands pit lake (Lake Miwasin) to Daphnia

Canada holds approximately one-third of the world's confirmed crude oil reserves, primarily concentrated in the Alberta Oil Sands (AOS) region, in the form of bitumen. However, the extraction process of oil sands generates significant volumes of tailings and process water, which raises concerns about their potential effects on aquatic life and the need for remediation. Lake Miwasin, constructed in 2018, serves as a pilot-scale pit lake and a model for this context. It features treated fluid tailings overlaid by a mixture of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) and freshwater, exhibiting seasonal stratification. Since its establishment, Lake Miwasin has been colonized by various organisms, including the Crustacean, Daphnia pulex. Monitoring data from Lake Miwasin has shown the presence of compounds in both water and sediment that could be detrimental to aquatic organisms. Therefore, the primary goals of this research were to assess surface water and pore water toxicity, including an evaluation of selenium (Se) bioaccumulation in Daphnia species exposed to the conditions representative of Lake Miwasin at its early development stages and possibly other future pit lakes in the AOS region. This study examined the toxicity of Lake Miwasin surface water (LMW) and pore water (LMP) using lab-cultured and native Daphnia species. Interestingly, LMW exhibited no acute or chronic toxicity towards D. magna and D. pulex (lab strains) and the native Daphnia sp. (collected from Humboldt Lake, SK, Canada). However, LMP demonstrated acute toxicity to both lab strains and the native D. pulex (collected from Lake Miwasin, AB, Canada). Lake Miwasin pore water also negatively impacted lab D. pulex reproduction, leading to a reduced number of offspring. Salinity emerged as a significant stressor in LMP, and a Toxicity Identification Evaluation (TIE) phase I suggested ammonia and metals in LMP as potential contributors to the observed toxicity in the tested organisms. On a related point, results showed that concentrations of dissolved Se in LMW from 2019 to 2021 exceeded the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment (CCME) water quality guidelines for long-term aquatic life protection (1 µg/L), and the British Columbia Ministry of Environment (BC MoE) water guideline alert concentration for the protection of aquatic life (1 µg/L). The latter water guideline was also adopted by the Government of Alberta. Further, another experiment assessed Se bioaccumulation in D. pulex through dissolved and dietary exposure routes, drawing comparisons to native specimens collected from Lake Miwasin. In semi-static tests (12 days), lab strain D. pulex exposed to selenate [Se(VI)] showed a Se concentration-dependent increase from days 5 to 12 for most treatments, whereas a lower bioaccumulation occurred at higher Se concentrations, which suggests a potentially internal regulatory mechanism. Native D. pulex exposed to LMW in laboratory conditions showed that Se bioaccumulation levels were similar to those of D. pulex collected directly from Lake Miwasin. Despite these findings, the Se concentrations in D. pulex from both lab exposures and Lake Miwasin collections remained below available regulatory guidelines for invertebrate tissue (4 µg/g), suggesting that D. pulex appears to pose minimal risk as a food source in the Lake Miwasin ecosystem. These findings provide useful insights into the toxicity of Lake Miwasin water to aquatic invertebrates, the potential for Se bioaccumulation in daphnids in Lake Miwasin, the potential enhancement of pit lake monitoring programs, and the decision-making regarding the use of end pit lakes in the reclamation of OSPW and oil sands tailings

Exploring the Relationship Between Crop Rotations, Crop Insurance, Market Prices, and Crop Yields: Evidence from Three Studies in Saskatchewan

The abstract of this item is unavailable due to an embargo

REGULATION OF NUCLEAR RIG-I MEDIATED INTERFERON SIGNALING BY DUSP11 DURING INFLUENZA A VIRUS INFECTION

Influenza A virus (IAV) poses a continuous public health threat owing to its ability of frequent antigenic drift and shift. Seasonal flu outbreaks and periodic pandemics cause significant morbidity and mortality, imposing substantial global economic burden. During the course of evolution, mammals have developed cellular defense mechanisms to combat pathogens, with the innate immune system serving as the first line of defense. The swift response of innate immunity against the invading pathogen triggers an effective antiviral response, while priming specific adaptive immunity. Recognition of IAV by the innate immune system involves various pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), notably the retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I), which plays a crucial role in initiating the type I interferon (IFN) response against IAV. RIG-I has previously been characterized as a cytoplasmic viral RNA sensor that recognizes short double-stranded RNA harboring a 5’-PPP/PP moiety. Despite having a single-stranded RNA genome, RIG-I detects IAV via its, double-stranded, 5’-PPP bearing panhandle structure, created by partial complementarity of the genomic RNA extremities. Notably, IAV replicates in the nucleus, raising the question of how the cytoplasmic RNA sensor RIG-I detects a nuclear-replicating virus. To unravel this mystery, Liu et al. investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of IAV detection by RIG-I and identified a nuclear-resident fraction of RIG-I responsible for sensing IAV replication within the nucleus. The nuclear RIG-I (nRIG-I) -mediated IAV sensing initiates an antiviral IFN signaling in a mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS) dependent manner. These findings have redefined the paradigm of RNA sensing for nuclear-replicating viruses, unveiling a previously unknown subcellular context for RIG-I-like receptor sensing. However, the precise mechanisms governing the regulation of nRIG-I signaling during IAV infection have remained elusive until now. This study presents a revelation that centers on the role of RNA triphosphatase dual specificity phosphatase 11 (DUSP11) in the negative regulation of nRIG-I-mediated IFN production, promoting IAV infection. DUSP11 belongs to a subfamily of protein tyrosine phosphatases known for dephosphorylating serine/threonine/tyrosine residues on protein substrates. Interestingly, DUSP11 lacks the N-terminal domain that typically confers specificity for protein substrates; instead, it exhibits a strong affinity for 5’-PPP/PP bearing RNA, dephosphorylating them to 5’ monophosphate. Crucially, some of the host transcripts, especially those transcribed by RNA polymerase III, are tri-phosphorylated at the 5’end and possess complex secondary structures enabling them to activate PRRs such as RIG-I. DUSP11's catalytic action on these triphosphorylated transcripts prevents an aberrant inflammatory response in the absence of genuine pathogenic stimuli. However, 5′-PPP RNAs are a characteristic feature of viral RNA genomes, prompting the viruses to exploit DUSP11 catalytic activity to modify their RNA and evading detection by the innate immune system. In this study, we show that IAV infection orchestrates the recruitment of DUSP11 into the nucleus, where it exerts its influence on viral RNA. Specifically, DUSP11 acts as an editor of viral RNA by removing 5’-terminal diphosphates. This strategic editing process enables the viral RNA to evade detection by nRIG-I, effectively preventing its activation and the subsequent initiation of an IFN response. The mechanism driving the nuclear translocation of DUSP11 appears to hinge on its interaction with the viral nucleoprotein, the interaction probably mediated by specific amino acid residues, Y99 and Y100 in DUSP11, and, P477 and F479 in NP. Mutant DUSP11s (Y99A/Y100A) are unable to translocate to nucleus upon IAV infection, whereas, IAVs carrying mutant NP (P477A/F479A) are unable to recruit DUSP11 into the nucleus, provoke higher levels of IFN production and exhibit attenuation in replication. Interestingly, this attenuation can be rescued by the introduction of nuclear-targeted DUSP11. Collectively, these findings reveal an ingenious compartmentalization strategy employed by IAV to evade recognition by nRIG-I, thereby evading the host's immune response. This not only adds a new layer of complexity to our understanding of host-virus interactions during IAV infection but also underscores the crucial role of DUSP11 in shaping the outcome of this battle. Targeting DUSP11 could hold promise as a novel approach to bolster the host's defenses against IAV and potentially other viruses employing similar evasion tactics