Introduction

This is the introductory chapter of Deyohahá:ge:: Sharing the River of Life, edited by Daniel Coleman, Ki\u27en Debicki, and Bonnie M. Freeman. Deyohahá:ge:, “two roads or paths” in Cayuga language, evokes the Covenant Chain-Two Row Wampum, known as the “grandfather of the treaties.” Famously, this Haudenosaunee wampum agreement showed how Indigenous people and newcomers could build peace and friendship by respecting each other’s cultures, beliefs, and laws as they shared the river of life. Written by members of Six Nations and their neighbours, this book introduces readers not only to the 17th-century history of how the Dutch and British joined the wampum agreement, but also to how it might restore good relations today. Many Canadians and Americans have never heard of the Covenant Chain or Two Row Wampum, but 200 years of disregard have not obliterated the covenant. We all need to learn about this foundational wampum, because it is resurging in our communities, institutions, and courthouses—charting a way to a future. The writers of Deyohahá:ge: delve into the eco-philosophy, legal evolution, and ethical protocols of two-path peace-making. They tend the sacred, ethical space that many of us navigate between these paths. They show how people today create peace, friendship, and respect—literally—on the river of everyday life.https://scholars.wlu.ca/books/1006/thumbnail.jp

Negotiated Cultural Identity and Belonging of Self-Identified Indo-Guyanese Immigrant Women

This dissertation examines how young, self-identified Indo-Guyanese women who immigrated to Southwestern Ontario in the 1970s negotiate cultural identity and belonging. Utilizing a bio-ethnographic bricolage narrative methodology, the study explores the impact of postcolonial diaspora and social displacement on these women’s experiences within the third space or borderlands. Grounded in relativist ontology and constructivist epistemology, storytelling serves as the primary data collection method through a critical theory lens. Interviews with 12 participants were analyzed thematically and reflexively, revealing how participants construct meaning and navigate cultural identities. The analysis, conducted through feminist, decolonial, and trauma-informed perspectives, offers insights into psychological homelessness resulting from otherness. Considering the dual migrations across continents, the study employs a bricolage approach, integrating theological, epistemological, and psychological perspectives to understand generational implications and cultural straddling. As philosopher John O\u27Donohue (2002) expressed, the hunger to belong is at the heart of our nature (p. xxi). This research resonates with those exploring the generational effects of negotiated cultural identity and aims to document these lived experiences for future generations, emphasizing the preservation of diasporic cultural heritage

Who We Are: Four Questions for a Life and a Nation

Sinclair, M., Sinclair, S., & Sinclair, N. J. (2024). Who we are: four questions for a life and a nation. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN: 978077109910

Sustaining While Disrupting: The Challenge of Congregational Innovation

Review of Sustaining While Disrupting: The Challenge of Congregational Innovation by F. Douglas Powe Jr. and Lovett H. Weems Jr. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022

Soldiers, Alcohol, and Insanity at Richmond Asylum, 1860s-1900s

This article examines the role of alcohol in the etiology of madness through a case study of soldiers and veterans at Richmond Asylum in Dublin. It argues that the diagnostic process was a complex practice informed by medical and military authorities and patient and family histories. Like any medical records, Richmond casebooks are mediated through the medical gaze, but they do contain significant glimpses into what role patients and families believed alcohol played in soldiers’ mental health. The study highlights moments of consensus and disagreement rather than a singular theory on the role of alcohol in mental illness. Through a detailed study of casebooks and registers, the essay explores the connections between the carceral and asylum systems, competing charges of malingering and feigning sanity, and the specific influence of army life and imperial climate on soldiers’ drinking habits. This article is a case study exploring how the heated debates over alcohol’s role in mental illness unfolded around a military population in a civilian asylum

Review of Empty Spaces by Jordan Abel

A book review of Jordan Abel\u27s Empty Spaces

Review of The Hidden Victims: Civilian Casualties of Two World Wars by Cormac Ó Gráda

Review of The Hidden Victims: Civilian Casualties of Two World Wars by Cormac Ó Grád

Functional Design of Dissymmetric Ligands for Coordination Systems

Herein, the functional design of dissymmetric ligands for coordination systems is explored with a focus on their synthesis and structural characterization. The design strategy of these ligands incorporates the ability to coordinate both metal cations and anions along with a ligand site for other functionalization. Their synthesis, structural and other characterization, Hirshfeld surface analysis, and some metal-coordinated complexes are discussed. Chapter 1 introduces supramolecular and coordination chemistry, along with relevant literature that supports this research and outlines the thesis objective. Chapter 2 investigates the hydrogen bonding of a dissymmetric pyrimidine thioether ligand in its neutral form, water solvate, protonated nitrate salt, and a cobalt(II) complex, highlighting ligand adaptability in these forms. Chapter 3 describes the synthesis of a carboxylate functionalized amino-pyrazole ligand and analysis of its metal complexes with nickel and cobalt. This chapter highlights the expanded coordination capacity for this class of ligands based on versatile ligand functionalization and explores the incorporation of oxygen donors into the ligand framework. Chapter 4 describes the synthesis and fluorescent properties of bridged amino-pyrazole molecules through their reaction with carboxaldehydes demonstrating possible applications in ion sensing. Chapter 5 provides a general discussion and concluding statements of this research. The investigation of structure-property relationships contributes fundamentally to the understanding required for the development of new molecules that advance the field of supramolecular chemistry

The Effects of Mental Fatigue on Decision-Making for Collision Avoidance

Changes to an individual’s physical or cognitive state can influence their perception of action capabilities. Collision avoidance tasks provide a way to assess these perceptual changes under varying conditions. For example, Snyder and Cinelli (2019) found that physical fatigue slowed response time during a collision avoidance task. Mental fatigue, induced by long periods of demanding cognitive activity, may have similar effects, as it has been shown to impair performance on cognitively demanding tasks (Kunasegaran et al., 2023). Interestingly, research comparing athletes and non-athletes suggests that athletes may be more resistant to the effects of mental fatigue (Jaydari Fard et al., 2019). Despite evidence that mental fatigue affects males and females similarly (Jaydari Fard & Lavender, 2018), much of the past research has focused exclusively on male participants. While the effects of physical fatigue on decision-making for collision avoidance tasks are established, the effects of mental fatigue remain underexplored, especially in female athletes. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of mental fatigue on decision-making during a collision avoidance task and determine whether male and female rugby players exhibit similar levels of resistance. Study One compared mentally fatigued non-athlete participants with a Control group, while Study Two investigated sex differences among fatigued varsity rugby players. For Study One, twenty-six participants were randomly allocated to either the Mental Fatigue or Control group. Participants completed a virtual reality crossing order task, where they walked toward a doorway while a virtual person (VP) approached from the opposite direction. When the screen went blank, they responded whether they would pass first. Following this, the Mental Fatigue group completed a 30-minute Stroop task, while the Control group watched a 30-minute documentary. Participants then repeated the crossing order task. It was hypothesized that performance would decrease following mental fatigue and when the VP’s approach speed closely matched the participants’ own walking speed. The findings revealed that participants’ performance improved across both groups. However, accuracy was significantly lower when the VP approached at 1.1x the participant’s walking speed. For Study Two, eighteen (9 male, 9 female) varsity rugby players completed the same procedure as the Mental Fatigue group in Study One. It was hypothesized that decision-making performance would decrease following the Stroop task and during conditions where the VP’s approach speed closely matched their own walking speed. Additionally, no sex differences in performance were expected. The results revealed that athletes maintained their performance despite being fatigued. However, they were less accurate when the VP’s approach speed was 1.1x their walking speed. Interestingly, female rugby players exhibited faster response times than males. In conclusion, mental fatigue did not impair decision-making on this task, possibly because the cognitive demands of the task were insufficient to reveal fatigue-related effects. Additionally, requiring participants to make a binary decision at a fixed point likely simplified the perceptual demands of the task. However, accuracy was lowest when the VP approached at 1.1x the participant’s walking speed, possibly due to participants walking faster than their calculated average speed as they adapted to walking in the virtual environment. The sex differences in response time could possibly reflect differences in cognitive processing. Future research should explore more cognitively demanding tasks involving complex decision-making to better understand how mental fatigue and sex-based differences influence perceptual judgements

Characterization of cellulose O-acetyltransferases: Role in Biofilm Formation

Most bacterial populations reside within biofilms, which are communities of microorganisms embedded in a self-produced polymer matrix. These biofilms play critical roles in colonization and persistence within targeted niches, often contributing to disease progression. Bacterial species under specific conditions produce and export polymers that undergo post-synthesis chemical modifications, such as acetylation or the addition of phosphoethanolamine, which influence the chemical properties of the polymer, biofilm structure, and organism persistence. While well-studied systems, such as the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, demonstrate the role of acetylation in alginate biofilms and their contribution to colonization and persistence in cystic fibrosis lungs, the mechanisms behind similar modifications in Clostridioides difficile and related pathogenic Clostridia species remained largely uncharacterized. In addition, WssI and WssF, cellulose acetyltransferases from Pseudomonas fluorescens will be functionally characterized in tandem. This research identified and characterized the role of CdCcsI, an acetyltransferase encoded within the C. difficile cellulose synthase operon (ccs), in the acetylation of cellulose biofilms along with WssI and WssF from P. fluorescens. Kinetic and enzymatic assays confirmed that CdCcsI catalyzes acetyl transfer to cellulose substrates via a catalytic triad (Ser344, Asp196, and His198) and an oxyanion hole (Arg366, Tyr367). Chromosomal mutation studies demonstrated that loss of the catalytic residues significantly reduced acetylation activity and biofilm biomass by 71%, as confirmed by iii crystal violet assays and fluorescence microscopy. Inhibitor studies identified lead compounds that effectively reduced CdCcsI activity, highlighting potential targets for antibiofilm strategies. Structural studies, including CD spectroscopy, verified that enzymatic activity loss in the active site variants was due to the specific removal of catalytic residues and not misfolding, reinforcing the functional importance of CdCcsI in acetyl-cellulose biofilm production. This work provided novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of CdCcsI, emphasizing its critical role in biofilm formation and its potential as a target for disrupting pathogenic biofilms in Clostridia. These findings elucidate the mechanisms behind biofilm modification in Clostridia and pave the way for developing strategies to weaken the biofilm barrier, enhancing antimicrobial penetration and effectiveness against infections caused by C. difficile and other Clostridial pathogens