Depictions of race : self and other in Tolkien's and Jackson's Lord of the Rings / by Jonathan Epp.

The war between darkness and light depicted in J. R. R. Tolkien’s famous fantasy. The Lord of the Rings, is the subject of much debate and interpretation. At a first reading, Tolkien’s story can be mistaken as following a traditional and predictable template of good versus evil. In this thesis, I challenge this binary reading. I use a postcolonial lens to illustrate the complexities within this work that provide characters on both sides of the conflict with opportunity for redemption and warning against corruption in a complex ideology that defies a narrow interpretation. I also argue that Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptation of The Lord of the Rings overlooks these complexities to portray a simplistic battle between light and dark that racially stereotypes white as good and black as evil. In this reading I follow the Hobbits through the shadows of Otherness on a developmental journey and coming of age. I discuss the hybridity, ambivalence and alterity of various characters as they are drawn into the conflict. In particular, I discuss the role played by Gollum, a hybrid figure who belongs to the world of light as well as the world of darkness, and his influence upon his Hobbit companions. I point out the complex relationships that develop as the young Hobbits appropriate the military tactics of the Other to be used for their own purposes. I then suggest that in Jackson’s cinematic adaptation of Tolkien’s text, the focus of the narrative is shifted away from the complex Hobbit journey to highlight the war itself and that the visual adaptation promotes a racial identification of darkness to evil paralleling, in many ways, the war-on-terror

The Ecology of Urbanization: A Study of Soil Microbial Community Rosponse

Urbanization is associated with global biodiversity loss of macrophauna and flora through direct and indirect mechanisms, but to date few studies have examined urban soil microbes. Although there are numerous studies on the influence of agricultural management on soil microbial community composition, there has been no global-scale study of human control over urban soil microbial communities. This thesis extends the literature of urban ecology to include soil microbial communities by analyzing soils that are part of the Global Urban Soil Ecology and Education Network (GLUSEEN). Chapter 1 sets the context for urban ecology; Chapters 2 addresses patterns of community assembly, biodiversity loss, and the phylogenetic relationships among community members; Chapter 3 addresses the metabolic pathways that characterize microbial communities existing under different land-uses across varying geographic scales; and Chapter 4 relates Chapter 2 and 3 to one another and to evolutionary theory, tackling assumptions that are particular to microbial ecology

Neurogenesis-mediated forgetting minimizes proactive interference.

Established memories may interfere with the encoding of new memories, particularly when existing and new memories overlap in content. By manipulating levels of hippocampal neurogenesis, here we show that neurogenesis regulates this form of proactive interference. Increasing hippocampal neurogenesis weakens existing memories and, in doing so, facilitates the encoding of new, conflicting (but not non-conflicting) information in mice. Conversely, decreasing neurogenesis stabilizes existing memories, and impedes the encoding of new, conflicting information. These results suggest that reduced proactive interference is an adaptive benefit of neurogenesis-induced forgetting

On the modeling, design and validation of two dimensional quasi-static eddy current forces in a mechanical oscillator.

Damping vibrations is important in the design of some types of inertial sensing devices. One method for adding damping to a device is to use magnetic forces generated by a static magnetic field interacting with eddy currents. In this report, we develop a 2-dimensional finite element model for the analysis of quasistatic eddy currents in a thin sheet of conducting material. The model was used for design and sensitivity analyses of a novel mechanical oscillator that consists of a shuttle mass (thin sheet of conducting material) and a set of folded spring elements. The oscillator is damped through the interaction of a static magnetic field and eddy currents in the shuttle mass. Using a prototype device and Laser Dopler Velocimetry (LDV), measurements were compared to the model in a validation study using simulation based uncertainty analyses. Measurements were found to follow the trends predicted by the model

Fiscal Year 2008

This report summarizes design and modeling activities for the MEMS passive shock sensor. It provides a description of past design revisions, including the purposes and major differences between design revisions but with a focus on Revisions 4 through 7 and the work performed in fiscal year 2008 (FY08). This report is a reference for comparing different designs; it summarizes design parameters and analysis results, and identifies test structures. It also highlights some of the changes and or additions to models previously documented [Mitchell et al. 2006, Mitchell et al. 2008] such as the way uncertainty thresholds are analyzed and reported. It also includes dynamic simulation results used to investigate how positioning of hard stops may reduce vibration sensitivity

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Feeling is Believing: Landscape as Communal Influence on Behaviour and Belief

This study integrated and applied effective communication concepts to highlight landscape as both medium and method to improve land use decisions, in the face of uncertainty, such as that posed by global climate change. Grounded theory guided the emergence of a communication model to illustrate impacts of land use scenarios in a study area. Scenarios incorporated socioeconomic trends and biophysical data, including localized climate projections and relevant audience traits assumed from prior assessments. Scenario implications were analyzed by comparing their ecological service values; the communication model’s effectiveness was evaluated against principles derived from the literature. Results suggest that a communication framework grounded in landscape can improve comprehension of environmental and human needs; however, further testing is needed. This framework can help enable broader landscape understanding through shared experience and engagement. Enhancing communication channels in this way is required as increasingly complex environmental problems demand more collaborative and communal solutions.Landscape Architecture Canada Foundatio

The effects of spatial learning on adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus

In the hippocampus, unlike most areas of the mammalian brain, new neurons are continuously produced throughout life. Studies have demonstrated that spatial learning, a process dependent on the hippocampus, regulates neurogenesis (i.e. the survival of new neurons) in the hippocampus. Studies have found that spatial learning either causes an increase, no change, or a decrease in neurogenesis. It was the goal of this thesis to determine under what conditions neurogenesis is increased, decreased or unaffected by spatial learning using the Morris water task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that there was a critical period in the developmental of new neurons in adult rats, at 6-10 days old, during which spatial learning can increase neurogenesis. Experiment 2 showed that spatial learning at a later time point (days 11-15) decreased cell survival but this decrease occurred gradually and as a result may only be seen if several days are waited after training prior to examining levels of neurogenesis. Experiment 3 demonstrated that although neurogenesis may be increased if spatial training occurs when the new neurons are 6-10 days old in adult rats, this effect can be eliminated or reversed by increasing the difficulty of the spatial task. Finally, in Experiment 4 I showed that the effect of spatial learning is affected by the strain of rats used, possibly due to differences in the rate of maturation of new neurons. Sixteen day old bromodeoxyuridine-labeled cells were increased in both Sprague-Dawley and Long-Evans rats following spatial learning but doublecortin-labeling (which labels a broader age of new neurons) is increased only in Sprague-Dawley rats after spatial learning. Thus, numerous methodological factors must be considered when examining the effects of spatial learning on neurogenesis. There are likely more factors (i.e., stress, age, sex, etc.) that interact with spatial learning and neurogenesis than described here however these studies have clarified many prior conflicting studies.Medicine, Faculty ofGraduat

Assessing the Effect of Bacillus Thuringiensis Var. Israelensis on Nontarget Chironomidae Emergence

Bacillus-derived larvicides, which selectively target mosquito (Diptera: Nematocera: Culicidae) populations to reduce nuisance and health risks, were applied in the South March Highlands Conservation Forest near residential neighbourhoods in Ottawa, Ontario. The objective was to assess effects of application on the nontarget mosquito relative, Chironomidae (Diptera: Nematocera: Chironomidae), and other nontarget aquatic taxa captured using emergence traps. A secondary objective was to assess physicochemical variables that influence Chironomidae emergence. Study ponds received an application of Bacillus thuringiensis var. israeliensis, a subset also received an application of Bacillus sphaericus, and a group of control ponds were left untreated over 3 years (2016-2018). Weekly sampling included trap collections and measurements of water temperature, pH, water depth, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, nitrate, and sulphate. Drought in 2016, high precipitation throughout 2017, and seasonal precipitation in 2018 influenced variable physicochemical conditions. Principal component analyses identified differences between sampling groups and between years. Redundancy analyses correlated insect emergence with pond pH, average water depth and water temperature and indicated a strong relationship between Chironomidae emergence and average water depth. Although significantly less Chironomidae annual emergence was observed at treated sites in 2017 and 2018, zero-inflated negative binomial generalized linear mixed modelling failed to detect a significant Bti treatment effect when controlling for within group variation. Rather, variations in pH, mean water depth and water temperature were identified as drivers of Chironomidae emergence. Culicidae emergence was reduced to zero briefly following treatment in 2017 and 2018. The model detected a marginal negative treatment effect on Culicidae in 2017 only, and a positive treatment effect in 2018 at the onset of a secondary hydroperiod, in the absence of treatment. Variations in pH and water temperature were also identified to be drivers of Culicidae emergence. Modelling failed to detect treatment effects on any of the nontarget taxa abundance, including Diptera, Lepidoptera, Ephemeroptera, Odonata, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Arachnida. An inverse relationship between insectivore and prey taxa abundance was observed. In 2018, taxa richness increased between years and trended higher at treated sites and a positive relationship between insectivore and prey taxa richness was observed. In 2017, Shannon-Weiner index and Simpson’s index of diversity were higher at untreated sites, and in 2018 diversity indices were higher at treated sites, with taxa richness increasing between years and higher evenness trending at treated sites. Our data suggest that treatment effects were potentially shrouded by natural variability of physicochemical variables, especially due to the varying hydroperiod observed over the three years of sampling. Additional work is needed to capture average conditions and separate confounding variables from treatment effects. This study provides an inventory of the current wetland insect community in the South March Highlands Conservation Forest landscape that offers a reference for ongoing mosquito management