University of Lethbridge
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Edward 'Ned' Hanlan: imagining Canadian masculinity and national identity from the success of an early rowing champion
This study explores Canadian professional rower Edward ‘Ned’ Hanlan who became nationally and internationally famous in the mid-to-late Victorian Era (1870s-90s). Applying a deconstructionist methodology to analyse illustrations and text of Hanlan’s numerous races, this project explores how nationalism and manliness were depicted and understood during this time. Images published in two Canadian magazines, Grip and the Canadian Illustrated News are examined to reveal how and why Hanlan was frequently exemplified as a role model for Canadians. The print media’s representation of Hanlan was informed by broader influences such as the Canada First movement and the appropriated sport of lacrosse to provide readers context to appreciate Hanlan as the standard for what it meant to be Canadian. Grip and the Canadian Illustrated News focused on connections between athletic prowess and manliness, and Hanlan’s physical composition in these images is examined through a consideration of hegemonic masculinity, the self-made man, reclaiming masculinity, muscular Christianity, and fatherhood. By equating Hanlan’s feats with the emergence of Canadian nationhood, the rowing world championships resonated with Canadians as well as serving the print media’s interests in promoting a Canadian masculine ideal
Review of the book Algorithms of resistance: the everyday fight against platform power
Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0 DEED) appliesA brief review of Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Treré's book Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight against Platform Power. Cambridge: The MIT Press. 256 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14329.001.0001 (open access eBook); ISBN 9780262547420, 30.00 USD (paperback)
Relationship between desiccation tolerance and biofilm formation in shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli
Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) appliesShiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a major concern in the food industry and requires effective control measures to prevent foodborne illnesses. Previous studies have demonstrated increased difficulty in the control of biofilm-forming STEC. Desiccation, achieved through osmotic stress and water removal, has emerged as a potential antimicrobial hurdle. This study focused on 254 genetically diverse E. coli strains collected from cattle, carcass hides, hide-off carcasses, and processing equipment. Of these, 141 (55.51%) were STEC and 113 (44.48%) were generic E. coli. The biofilm-forming capabilities of these isolates were assessed, and their desiccation tolerance was investigated to understand the relationships between growth temperature, relative humidity (RH), and bacterial survival. Only 28% of the STEC isolates had the ability to form biofilms, compared to 60% of the generic E. coli. Stainless steel surfaces were exposed to different combinations of temperature (0 °C or 35 °C) and relative humidity (75% or 100%), and the bacterial attachment and survival rates were measured over 72 h and compared to controls. The results revealed that all the strains exposed to 75% relative humidity (RH) at any temperature had reduced growth (p < 0.001). In contrast, 35 °C and 100% RH supported bacterial proliferation, except for isolates forming the strongest biofilms. The ability of E. coli to form a biofilm did not impact growth reduction at 75% RH. Therefore, desiccation treatment at 75% RH at temperatures of 0 °C or 35 °C holds promise as a novel antimicrobial hurdle for the removal of biofilm-forming E. coli from challenging-to-clean surfaces and equipment within food processing facilities.Ye
Incorporating mental health support in the treatment and management of individuals with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS): Counsellor and physician manuals
The current approach to treating and managing Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
focuses on physical symptom management, with little attention to the psychological implications
of PCOS. This is problematic given that individuals with PCOS are known to experience higher
rates of psychological distress, depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal behaviour. In this
project, an interdisciplinary approach is proposed to adequately manage and treat PCOS. This
manuscript presents a review of current literature regarding the psychological and physical
symptoms of PCOS, the diagnostic process, the current treatment approach, patient healthcare
experiences, and emerging interdisciplinary approaches for the treatment of PCOS. This
information is then synthesized into two digital manuals for physicians and counsellors,
respectfully. The manuals encapsulate information, resources, and recommendations to aid
physicians and counsellors in taking an interdisciplinary approach to treating and managing
PCOS
GNET-QG: graph network for multi-hop question generation
Question generation involves crafting questions based on a given input context and accompanying answers. While recent advancements in sequence-to-sequence models have proven successful in generating natural language questions, there is an increasing need for models capable of handling more intricate contexts to produce detailed questions. Multi-hop question generation, which is more challenging, aims to establish connections between multiple facts from diverse input contexts to formulate questions. In our research, we study the utilization of a Graph Attention Network (GAT) and a BART model for multi-hop question generation, Our proposed model, is GNET-QG (Graph Network for Multi-Hop Question Generation). GNET-QG efficacy is assessed on the HotpotQA dataset using metrics such as METEOR, BLEU, and ROUGE, showcasing an enhancement over previous methodologies
Play fighting revisited: its design features and how they shape our understanding of its mechanism and functions
Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0 DEED) appliesPlay fighting has been one of the most intensely studied forms of play and so has
provided some of our deepest insights into the understanding of play in general. As
the label implies, this behavior resembles serious fighting, in that the animals
compete for an advantage over one another, but unlike true aggression, for play
fighting to remain playful, it also incorporates a degree of cooperation and
reciprocity – restrained competition seems to be its hallmark. Despite these
common features, it should be noted that both the advantage competed over
and the mechanisms by which restraint is achieved varies across species. Such
variation mitigates simple generalities. For example, how empirical support for a
proposed adaptive function in one species not being replicated in another, is to be
interpreted. What has emerged over the past few decades is that play fighting is
diverse, varying across several dimensions, some superficial, some fundamental,
making choosing species to compare a challenge. In this paper,we explore various
design features that constitute play fighting and the ways these can be modified
across different species and lineages of species. Given that a major pillar of
ethology is that description precedes explanation, having a good grasp of the
behavioral diversity of play fighting is an essential starting point for detailed
analyses of the mechanisms and functions of play. We show that commonalities
across species likely involve different mechanisms than do species idiosyncrasies,
and that different styles of play fighting likely afford different adaptive opportunitiesYe
FeelGrove: a concept for a discursive smartphone application for the visualization of affective states positioned against the neoliberal paradigm
FeelGrove is a concept for a discursive smartphone application with game elements that acts as a response to the neoliberal framework and the values it propagates, such as competition, self-tracking and self-optimization. The app constitutes a tool meant to enable its users to visualize their emotions through the creation and keeping of digital fantastical plants which act as emotional representations. Aside from the concept for the app, the project includes interface design and accompanying artwork, including four distinct 3D plants depicting different emotional categories and 3D representations of physical settings related to these particular emotions. Additionally, this paper examines the roles that information technology, design and play assume in propagating neoliberal values
Discovery and characterization of four Aphelenchid species from cultivated regions of southern Alberta, Canada
Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) appliesThe nematode family Aphelenchoididiae is considered fungal-feeding, predatory, or root hair feeders. Some members of this family are universally present in agricultural landscapes and are an integral part of soil health and conservation studies. In the present soil nematode biodiversity survey, we detected four species of the genera Aphelenchus, Aphelenchoides, and Robustodorus. Because fungal-feeding nematodes from southern Alberta have not previously been reported, we conducted a detailed morphological and molecular investigation, identifying these species as Aphelenchus avenae, Aphelenchoides limberi, Aphelenchoides prairiensis n. sp. and Robustodorus paramegadorus n. sp. The first two species we document as new records from southern Alberta, whereas A. prairiensis n. sp. and R. paramegadorus n. sp. we describe in detail as new taxa. Briefly, A. prairiensis n. sp. is an amphimictic species having 4 lateral lines; hemispherical anteriorly flattened lip region; delicate stylet and swelling-like stylet knobs; excretory pore at the posterior edge of nerve ring. Female tail conical, gradually tapering towards a truncated end with single mucro. Spicule 23.0 (20.0–25.0) µm long having elongated rounded condylus, small, blunt conical rostrum, and lamina that gradually tapers towards the rounded distal end; three pairs of caudal papillae were present on the male tail. Robustodorus paramegadorus n. sp., is a parthenogenetic species with 3 lines in the lateral fields; lip region rounded, anteriorly flattened; stylet robust, with knobs rounded to bean-shaped; excretory pore located posterior to nerve ring; reproductive components were quite indiscernible with a short 24.0 (18.0–27.0) µm post-vulval uterine sac; tail conical, ending with pointed to wedge-shaped tip. We performed molecular characterizations for each species and constructed phylogenetic trees to study the phylogenetic relationship of these aphelenchid species. The discovery of A. prairiensis n. sp. and R. paramegadorus n. sp. indicates that soil nematode diversity is relatively unexplored in southern Alberta. The findings of this study will significantly enhance the identification processes and may contribute towards future soil health and biodiversity efforts.Ye
Some aspects of magpie (Pica hudsonia) learning
I reviewed a method and apparatus used to establish a research paradigm studying the free-ranging black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia) that are local to Western Canada. Corvids, like the magpie, have a long history of being fruitful model species in psychological investigations, and their relative abundance in Lethbridge affords an opportunity to conduct meaningful research in a way that is minimally invasive, cost-effective, and logistically practical. Here, I discuss the exploratory investigation of the factors that relate to magpie engagement with custom, automated feeding apparatus, after considering initial oversights in theoretical rationale and logistical failures to implement theory-driven study design that incited the necessary shift in telos. Several results (including failures) provide fruitful insight into how to better implement future investigations with the custom apparatus. In reflection, this investigation has clearly demonstrated that our apparatus affords a minimally invasive way to study the local corvid populations (both magpies and the common crow) and provides relatively high experimental control compared to typical investigations of organisms in ecological valid settings