On Fertile Ground: Locating Historic Sites in the Landscapes of Fundy and the Foothills

Since the 1972 National Museums Policy announced its goals of “democratization and decentralization,” national historic sites have been marked by a trend toward regionalization. While scholars have focused on the nationalizing impetus of twentieth-century historiography before 1970, subsequently there have been consistent efforts to incorporate local environmental and cultural diversity into the “family” of national sites. This paper demonstrates this system-wide trend by comparing historic sites in the Bay of Fundy and the Alberta foothills. In both places, designation has evolved from the two-nations narrative of French-English rivalry, in seventeenth-century forts or fur trade posts which could integrate far-flung localities, thereby claiming transcontinental space as national territory. Interpretation now credits local ecological factors with shaping the course of historical events, and acknowledges in situ resources. In addition, Parks Canada has involved groups such as the Acadians or the Blackfoot, whose claims of “homeland” jostle the naturalized Canadian boundaries affirmed by the older national narrative. There are other complications, raised by revisions in public history; notably, these sites continue to play a role in the marketing of place – in a long tradition of using the landscape as an entrée to tourism – and they are not yet conceived in regional groupings.Depuis 1972, alors que la Politique nationale des musées annonce ses objectifs « de démocratisation et de décentralisation », les lieux historiques nationaux sont marqués par une tendance vers la régionalisation. Dès lors, grâce à des efforts soutenus pour intégrer la diversité environnementale et culturelle dans la « famille » des lieux nationaux, l’historiographie nationaliste cède la place. Cet article démontre l'existence de cette tendance à l’échelle du système en comparant les lieux historiques de la baie de Fundy et ceux des contreforts de l’Alberta. Aux deux endroits, le processus de désignation et d’interprétation des forts du XVIIe siècle et des postes de traite des fourrures s’est éloigné de la trame de l’histoire des deux nations et du thème de la rivalité entre Français et Anglais, d’une approche qui avait pu inclure de vastes localités et constituer un espace transcontinental en un territoire national. L’interprétation reconnaît maintenant l’influence formatrice des facteurs locaux dans le cours des événements historiques, et elle rend justice aux ressources des lieux. En plus, Parcs Canada fait participer des groupes tels les Acadiens ou les Pieds-Noirs dont les revendications liées à leur terre d’origine bousculent les frontières canadiennes naturalisées et confirmées par l’ancien récit national. Ces révisions de l’histoire appliquée soulèvent d’autres complications; par exemple, ces lieux continuent à jouer un rôle dans la promotion de l’endroit – dans une longue tradition qui consiste à utiliser le paysage comme porte d’entrée au tourisme – et ils ne sont pas encore organisés en groupements régionaux

Idyll and Industry: Rethinking the Environmental History of Grand Pré, Nova Scotia

In June 2012, UNESCO named the landscape of Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, a World Heritage Site, as ‘exceptional testimony to a traditional farming settlement created in the seventeenth century by the Acadians in a coastal zone with tides that are among the highest in the world’. Grand Pré is the gateway to the Annapolis Valley, a rare stretch of favourable soils and climate in a largely unarable province. From the early nineteenth century onward, ambitions to make the Valley ‘the Orchard of the Empire’ resulted in some of the most intensive rural development in Atlantic Canada. This transformed the physical, ecological and economic landscape of Nova Scotia profoundly, and became central to its sense of place in the global community. Its fields and orchards also inspired a second industry: tourism, promoting, ironically, a decidedly non-industrial picture of blithe fertility and prosperity. In recent decades, both agriculture and tourism in the region have created a new idyll, one that grafts the language of sustainability onto the pastoral image of apple blossoms, and so successfully draws attention away from the ecological costs and economic health of agriculture in the region. With its focus on pre-industrial Acadian settlement, historical commemoration at Grand Pré has the very real effect of affirming the possibility of local and sustainable agriculture in the area today. But the pré is also part of another history, another set of agricultural practices that followed the Acadians and that still frame most agricultural production in Nova Scotia. This essay offers a second public narrative for Grand Pré, one that treats the site as part of the Annapolis Valley as well as l’ancienne Acadie, part of an industrial landscape as well as an idyllic one. It is only by recognizing both histories that we can really appreciate the realities of modern agriculture and the need for sustainable alternatives

Development of easy-use cortisol detector: DTNB, blue squaric dye, and choline oxidase sensitivity to acetylcholinesterase [abstract]

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mark Milanick, Medical Pharmocology & PhysiologyAbstract only availableCortisol, an adrenal hormone released during stressful "fight or flight" situations increases blood glucose levels but also affects other physiological systems of the body such as the cardiovascular, reticular, and limbic systems (Bhagavan 256). Despite its physiological importance, cheap and reliable methods of cortisol measurement for household or field use, such as LifeScan's One Touch Sure Step® for glucose, have not yet been developed. One potential means of determining cortisol concentrations is through the use of an ELISA assay with acetylcholinesterase. The aim of this study was to determine which method of detection, acetylthiocholine with detection reagents 3-Carboxy-4-nitrophenyl disulfide (DTNB), or 1,3-Bis [4-(dimethylamino)-2-hydroxypentyl]-2,4,-dihydroxy-cyclobutenediylium dihydroide (blue squaric dye), or acetylcholine with choline oxidase in combination with LifeScan's One Touch Sure Step, was most sensitive and most probable for a future tool. Acetylcholinesterase, derived from rabbit blood plasma, was used to remove the acetyl group from thiocholine and choline. The change in absorbance of DTNB at 410 nm, blue squaric dye at 650 nm and the change in concentration reading on the One Touch Sure Step® glucose meter were used as measurements of sensitivity for DTNB, blue squaric acid, and choline oxidase, respectively. The Km, or steady state constant, was utilized to distinguish the three systems. The blue squaric dye (Km = 0.05 µM) was more sensitive a detector than either the DTNB (Km= 2.14 µM) or the cortisol oxidase (Km still currently being studied). While the blue squaric dye was the most sensitive, the cortisol oxidase thus far has the most potential for easy usage as a cheap, household instrument for measurement is already available. Future developments on a cortisol instrument must consider both sensitivity of the instrument as well as its convenience and reliability as a household and field instrument

Methodological, Social and Clinical Applications of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP)

The aims of the current thesis were three fold. The first aim was primarily methodological and attempted to determine the stimulus presentation that would produce the strongest IRAP effect. Experiment 1 set out to address this simple experimeental question. The key manipulation involved the presence or absence of the randomisation of the sample stimuli and/or the respponse options within the IRAP. The results indicated that the ramdomisation of the sample stimuli (with or without the randomisation of the response options) generated the strongest D-IRAP scores. Randomising the response options alone without randomising the samples also produced a significant IRAP effect, although this was smaller. The D-IRAP score that resulted from the static presentation of both samples and response options was almost negligible. The second aim of the thesis was to determine the utility of the IRAP as a measure of implicit attitudes to race and this was the core focus of Experiments 2 to 6. In the IRAP in Experiment 2, participants were simply required to relate the phrases WHITE PERSON and BLACK PERSON to a range of simple positive and negative terms that could be readily categorised as safe and dangerous. We predicted that our Irish participants would show a pro- White and anti- Black bias. The D-IRAP trial-type scores were in part consistent with experimental predictions and showed a pro- White bias where White was safe, but not an anti-Black bias. In fact, participants significantly confirmed that Black was safe. This coincided with the explicit measures, on which participants indicated the absence of racial bias against Black people. In line with existing IAT evidence, to determine whether racial pictures would generate stronger IRAP effects than words, and to examine the potential role of attentional weapon bias, the IRAP in Experiment 3 presented pictures of Black and White men holding guns. For correct responding, however, the presence of the guns was incidental and the discriminations among the pictures were based on race alone. We predicted that Irish participants would show a pro- White and anti- Black bias that was perhaps enhanced by the presence of the guns. Participants significantly confirmed that White was safe and Black was dangerous, although they also significantly confirmed that Black as safe. Hence, this was our first evidence of an anti- Black bias, but other effects were not entirely as expected. Again on the majority of explicit measures, participants indicated the absence of racial bias. In order to determine whether the anti-Black bias in the previous study did reflect the influence of the guns, Experiment 4 presented pictures of Black and White men holding mundane objects. We predicted that Irish participants would show a pro- White and anti- Black bias, even though both were holding mundane objects. Participants significantly confirmed that both White and Black were safe, but had mixed views of either as dangerous. Hence, the anti- Black bias from the previous study was now lost, suggesting that the weapons had facilitated the effect. Again, on the majority of the explicit measures, participants indicated the absence of racial bias. In line with previous IAT studies of race and to examine further the outcomes from the previous studies, Experiment 5 presented pictures of Black and White men holding both guns and mundane objects. We predicted that Irish participants would show a pro- White and anti- Black bias that may be differentially influenced by the items presented in the pictures. The four trial-types examined in the previous studies were sub-divided into eight to permit comparisons of the relative influence of the different items held in the pictures. Overall, seven of the eight trial-types were nonsignificant and participants only significantly confirmed that White men with mundane objects were safe. In fact, close inspection of the non-significant effects indicated unexpected evidence of pro- Black bias. Again these agreed with the explicit measures, on which participants indicated the absence of racial bias. In Experiment 6, participants were presented with the same IRAP as the previous study, but were required to discriminate the objects in the pictures as the basis for correct responding and ignore race. That is, on consistent trials guns were always dangerous and mundane objects were always safe and correct responding on inconsistent trials was reverse (guns always safe and mundane objects dangerous). We predicted that Irish participants would categorise guns as dangerous and mundane objects as safe, but expected that these effects might be influenced by race. In this study, six of the eight were non-significant. Participants only significantly confirmed that Black with a gun was not safe and White with a gun was dangerous, but there was no evidence of clear influence of either items or race in the remaining effects. Again, the explicit measures indicated the absence of racial bias. The third aim of the current thesis was to examine the utility of the IRAP as a measure of clinically relevant implicit cognitions. Previous preliminary research had indicated strong IRAP effects that showed a positive bias towards the self in participants with a high explicit self-esteem. In Experiment 7, participants were required to indicate their agreement or disagreement with a range of statements that reflected high self-esteem (i.e. were positive about the self) or reflected low selfesteem (i.e. were negative about the self). Because the study was aslo concerned with whether on not the IRAP would correlate with an explicit measure of self, the positive and negative statements presented in the IRAP were taken directly from the Roseberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and particiants also completed this as an explicit measure. We predicted that participants high on explicit self-esteem would relate the self with the positive self-statements and not relate the self with negative self-statements. The findings indicated that participants significantly confirmed that they agreed with the positive (high self-esteem) statements and significantly disconfirmed that they disagreed with them. They also disconfirmed that they agreed with the negaative statements, although this effect was non-significant. Although these findings were largely as expected from participants who all scored as high in selfesteem on the explicit RSES, there was no significant correlation between the two measures. In Experiment 8, we used the IRAP to explore implicit attitudes towards acceptance and avoidance. For this purpose, we selected undergraduate students who showed an xplicit propensity towards high acceptance/ low avoidance on the Acceptaance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-2). In order to enhance the potential overlap between the two types of measure, as we had done in Experiment 7, we took opposing satements directly from the AAQ and inserted them into the IRAP as target stimuli. The results indicated that participants significantly confirmed that they agreed with the acceptance statements, but all other effects were non-significant. Closer inspection of the trial-types, however, were as expected and showed that particpants disconfirmed that they agreed with the avoidance statements and confirmed that they disagreed with them. In spite of these outcomes, the IRAP data did not correlate significantly with the AAQ. The current reaearch program offered preliminary investigations of the utility of the IRAP as a measure of impicit attitudes to a range of psychological phenomena, including race, self-esteem and acceptance. Although the IRAP effects in many cases were not as significant and predicted, particularly in the context of race, there wasgood evidence thata further investigation would be promising. The findings here make a useful contribution to the small existing IRAP research base by highlighting key issues that influence IRAP outcomes in a range of areas

Reading the History of Place-making through Maps

Environmental History explores the relationships between people(s) and nature in the past. So “place- making” – ways in which people have transformed nature to construct habitats of their choosing – is a major theme in the field. Using historical maps and landscape art, Professor Campbell explores some of the historical processes (many of which are still at work) by which settler society has made places in North America. These include practices of colonization, property, public memory, and, potentially, reclamation. We can see the implications for sustainability, and what may need to change

Fine Roman Dining at Affordable Pompeian Prices: A New Evaluation of the Non-Domestic Gardens of Pompeii

Previous scholarship has designated Roman gardens into otium or negotium designations; however, this research on Roman gardens suggests that these concepts often exist in the spaces simultaneously. To address this issue, I compiled catalogs of garden spaces identified at Regio I and Regio VI of Pompeii. This methodology cuts across traditional public and private or productive and aesthetic designations, which will allow me to draw connections between the gardens found in different types of settings. This new catalog methodology of Roman gardens presented in this thesis allows for an integrative analysis of garden spaces, which reveals that these commercial gardens have coinciding qualities and functions with private elite gardens. This research challenges the assumption that non-domestic, commercial gardens only have qualities indicative of negotium. My research reflects that these gardens were combining elements of otium and negotium, which suggests that non-elite Romans used non-domestic, commercial gardens for otium just as elite members of society did in their own gardens. My work highlights that a new, inclusive, and multifunctional approach to commercial gardens is needed in order to consider the role they had in shaping the urban experiences of the non-elite class. This re-evaluation of non-domestic gardens in this thesis contributes to a more holistic understanding of the urban experience in Roman society by focusing on how the businesses used and democratized commercial gardens in Pompeii during the 1st c CE

The effects of nutrient limitation and cyanophage on heterotrophic microbial diversity

Marine viruses are critically important in the regulation of biogeochemical cycles and host microbial communities. In this study, we tested whether the indirect effects of virus predation on a phototroph (i.e., Synechococcus) affected the composition of co-occurring heterotrophic bacteria under nitrogen and phosphorus limitation in long-term chemostat experiments. Using 454 Titanium barcoded pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, microbial diversity and technical (i.e., sequencing) reproducibility were assessed for nine individual chemostats across five different time points. A total of 325,142 reads were obtained; 194,778 high-quality, non-cyanobacterial sequences were assigned to 110 OTUs. Our results show high reproducibility with most communities clustering closest with their technical replicate, and a similar distribution of taxonomic assignments across replicates. The most abundant phylum was Proteobacteria, with Cyanobacteria representing only 20% of the sequences. OTU-based analyses revealed similar trends across chemostats; Sulfitobacter was the dominant genus while Pseudomonas was unique to the phosphorus-limited chemostats. A statistical examination of biological replicates revealed significant differences between the nitrogen- and phosphorus-limited treatments (p = 0.0001) and time (p = 0.0001), as well as a significant interaction between nutrient limitation and time (p = 0.0091). These results demonstrate the relative importance of nutrient-limitation as a potential primary driver of non-target heterotrophic community change as opposed to the indirect effects of viruses on a marine food web

Studies in bacterial phosphotriesterase evolution, dynamics, and engineering

the author deposited 12/06/201