Examination of the Effects of Heterogeneous Organization of RyR Clusters, Myofibrils and Mitochondria on Ca2+ Release Patterns in Cardiomyocytes

Spatio-temporal dynamics of intracellular calcium, [Ca2+]i, regulate the contractile function of cardiac muscle cells. Measuring [Ca2+]i flux is central to the study of mechanisms that underlie both normal cardiac function and calcium-dependent etiologies in heart disease. However, current imaging techniques are limited in the spatial resolution to which changes in [Ca2+]i can be detected. Using spatial point process statistics techniques we developed a novel method to simulate the spatial distribution of RyR clusters, which act as the major mediators of contractile Ca2+ release, upon a physiologically-realistic cellular landscape composed of tightly-packed mitochondria and myofibrils.We applied this method to computationally combine confocal-scale (~ 200 nm) data of RyR clusters with 3D electron microscopy data (~ 30 nm) of myofibrils and mitochondria, both collected from adult rat left ventricular myocytes. Using this hybrid-scale spatial model, we simulated reaction-diffusion of [Ca2+]i during the rising phase of the transient (first 30 ms after initiation). At 30 ms, the average peak of the simulated [Ca2+]i transient and of the simulated fluorescence intensity signal, F/F0, reached values similar to that found in the literature ([Ca2+]i 1 μM; F/F0 5.5). However, our model predicted the variation in [Ca2+]i to be between 0.3 and 12.7 μM (~3 to 100 fold from resting value of 0.1 μM) and the corresponding F/F0 signal ranging from 3 to 9.5. We demonstrate in this study that: (i) heterogeneities in the [Ca2+]i transient are due not only to heterogeneous distribution and clustering of mitochondria; (ii) but also to heterogeneous local densities of RyR clusters. Further, we show that: (iii) these structureinduced heterogeneities in [Ca2+]i can appear in line scan data. Finally, using our unique method for generating RyR cluster distributions, we demonstrate the robustness in the [Ca2+]i transient to differences in RyR cluster distributions measured between rat and human cardiomyocytes

Diversity is (not) good enough: Unsettling White Settler Colonialism within Toronto's Queer Service Sector

This dissertation explores the ways in which queer service provision and non-Indigenous lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and trans (LGBTQ)-identified service providers in downtown Toronto can contribute to and become complicit in white settler colonial projects. During this study based on in-depth interviews, forty-three research participants were asked about their experiences working within their respective queer service organizations, and, more specifically, about their understandings of how diversity, anti-racism, and anti-colonialism are practiced. Findings highlight how queer service provision, particularly its perpetual crisis and capacity to care for queerness, can obscure the ways the organizations themselves contribute to the naturalization of a hierarchy of oppression that centralizes the needs of white queers. Additionally, I consider the narratives of white service providers' goodness as easily relocating Indigenous peoples as "problems" and "pathology" who then become unworthy of care. Moreover, this inquiry theorizes how the narratives offered by white service providers fit Indigenous peoples and people of colour into stories of Canadian multiculturalism. I show how non-Indigenous queer and trans service providers' evocations of diversity and inclusion easily deflect their implicatedness in white settler colonialism. Although queer service provision is a rich site of queer politics, it continues to be a site that is tied to state-sanctioned funding regimes and neoliberal models of care used to naturalize Indigenous peoples' elimination, erasure, and assimilation. Thus, this research contends that queer communities in downtown Toronto operate to sustain white supremacy and settler colonialism. I conclude with a set of questions that asks non-Indigenous service providers to engage with how they participate (often unknowingly) in white settler colonial projects, and move beyond queer service provision as a site of emancipation in order to meaningfully support Indigenous resurgence and decolonization.Ph.D

Challenging Settler Colonialism in Contemporary Queer Politics: Settler Homonationalism, Pride Toronto, and Two-Spirit Subjectivities

By centralizing the experiences of seven, urban, self-identified Two-Spirit Indigenous people in Toronto, this paper addresses the settler-colonial complexities that arise within contemporary queer politics: how settler colonialism has seeped into Pride Toronto's contemporary Queer politics to normalize White queer settler subjectivities and disavow Indigenous Two-Spirit subjectivities. Utilizing Morgensen's settler homonationalism, the authors underscore that contemporary Queer politics in Canada rely on the eroticization of Two-Spirit subjectivities, Queer settler violence, and the production of (White) Queer narratives of belonging that simultaneously promote the inclusion and erasure of Indigenous presence. Notwithstanding Queer settler-colonial violence, Two-Spirit peoples continue to engage in settler resistance by taking part in Pride Toronto and problematizing contemporary manifestations of settler homonationalism. Findings highlight the importance of challenging the workings of settler colonialism within contemporary Queer politics in Canada, and addressing the tenuous involvements of Indigenous Two-Spirit peoples within Pride festivals. The article challenges non-Indigenous Queers of color, racialized diasporic, and White, to consider the value of a future that takes seriously the conditions of settler colonialism and White supremacy

“Queer as hell media”: Affirming LGBTQ+ youth identity and building community in Metro Atlanta, Georgia

Within the United States, the American South holds the largest number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) people, which totals to 3.8 million (LGBTQ in 2016). Metro Atlanta is uniquely situated within the South’s geography; the City of Atlanta is hailed as a queer mecca while the suburbs and surrounding rural areas are assumed to reproduce and reinforce racist, conservative, and religious ideologies. A total of 12 qualitative interviews with LGBTQ+ youth (ages 18–26) at Kennesaw State University offer a more nuanced understanding of being LGBTQ+ in the South by shedding light on the ways they thrive, form relationships, and seek out knowledge regarding LGBTQ+ identity and experience. Findings highlight that LGBTQ+ youth utilize all forms of media to affirm their identities, create like-minded communities, and take up space as a “fuck you” to the imagined cisheteronormativity in Georgia. The article centers the voices and critiques of LGBTQ+ young people as they negotiate competing discourses of queer acceptability and inclusivity, turning to new media platforms as spaces where they can find safety, as well as curate themselves and their experiences

Que(e)rying Youth Suicide: Sexism, Racism, and Violence in Skim and 13 Reasons Why

This paper troubles positivist and pathological discourses surrounding youth suicide through critical engagement with young adult fiction: Skim and 13 Reasons Why. These texts offer opportunities for readers to dwell on and question youth suicide prevention and intervention through an engagement with affect, gender, queerness, and race. Skim (2008, Groundwood) and 13 Reasons Why (2017) counter ‘it gets better’ stories: they interrogate the inevitability of bullying, question the predictable approaches that schools take in their response to violence, and assert that the issue at hand is more systematic. Together, these analytics que(e)ry youth suicide by asking: how does the biopolitics (or necropolitics) of livability fit into popularized understandings of youth suicide? Read together, Skim and 13 Reasons Why provide opportunities to meaningfully question livability through the characters of Skim and Courtney—two Asian girls who bear the brunt of racist and sexist violence. Skim becomes a ‘project’ of white girls’ anti-suicide campaign and Courtney is barely living as she attempts to secure the plaform of ‘model minority.’ Both girls are queer, too. In its entirety, this paper  arguse that popularized models of suicide intervention continue to ignore the pressing needs of queer Asian girls—such as Skim and Courtney

Reflections on Undergraduate Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Value of Resilient Pedagogy in Higher Education

This paper utilizes anonymous qualitative survey commentary from seventy-three faculty to explore how perceptions of teaching undergraduate researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic reflect the practice of resilient pedagogy. By examining faculty motivations, experiences in times of disruption, and resiliency beyond the pandemic, this paper contributes to and extends the existing scholarship on resilience and resilient pedagogy in higher education