Graduate Theses & Dissertations (Digital)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14648/123

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Seasonal trends in cold and hypoxia tolerance in three groups of winter active pond insects
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2024) Burton, Lucas; Toxopeus, Jantina; Rodela, Tammy
Winter poses harsh physiological challenges for insects living in temperate ponds due to the combination of low temperatures and reduced oxygen levels (hypoxia). Despite these stressors, water boatmen (Hesperocorixa sp.), backswimmers (Notonecta sp.) and diving beetles (Laccophillus sp.) remain active year-round in eastern Nova Scotia, including when ice forms on top of these ponds. However, the underlying mechanisms that allow pond insects to survive overwintering have not been widely studied. I hypothesized that cold and hypoxia tolerance would improve from September to March in these insects and predicted changes in whole-animal and biochemical correlates of tolerance to both stressors. I collected insects from the field and stocked them in outdoor mesocosms. Every two months, between September 2023 and April 2024, I characterized whole animal responses and biochemical changes. Results of whole insect cold tolerance assays indicate a trend of improved ability to sustain voluntary muscle control (CTmin) at lower temperatures in winter collected insects, but also higher internal fluid freezing temperatures (SCP) in the same period. There were no changes in whole animal correlates of hypoxia tolerance over time (surface respiration frequency, submersion and surface time). Potential cryoprotectants like proline, myo-inositol and trehalose increased in concentration in multiple insect groups during winter but were relatively low compared to other terrestrial insect studies and did not drive a decrease in SCP. Based on the activity of lactate dehydrogenase, I found no evidence of anaerobic metabolism, suggesting, along with the whole-insect results, that the insects may not have been experiencing significant hypoxia stress. Overall, this research has established a baseline cold and hypoxia tolerance dataset in understudied pond insects.
Beginning mathematics teachers’ perceptions of preparedness for an oecs teacher education program
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2024) Porter, Samantha; Mitton, Jennifer
The primary objective of this qualitative case study was to investigate the perceptions of elementary Beginning Mathematics Teachers (BMTs) regarding an OECS teacher education program. This exploration specifically focused on the impact of the program on their mathematics pedagogy and teaching practices, with an emphasis on their preparedness to teach in the practical context of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The study employed theoretical frameworks such as pedagogical content knowledge, signature pedagogies, and problem-based learning to interpret and understand the beliefs and practices of BMTs. Concentrating on the personal experiences of voluntarily participating Beginning Teachers (BTs) who completed the Division of Teacher Education program in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the study utilized 18 semi-structured interviews, 27 classroom observations, 21 artifacts, and 27 BT reflections to gauge participants' perceptions based on their lived experiences. Through coding and analysis, the data were examined to comprehend participants' experiences. The study revealed that although beginning teachers (BTs) generally viewed their Teacher Education Program positively, they faced unanticipated challenges such as insufficient preparation for issues like resource scarcity, large class sizes, diverse student abilities, limited technology integration opportunities, and inevitable classroom management problems. Despite a 10-week teaching practicum, participants unanimously advocated for more microteaching activities integrated into all coursework to enhance their teaching skills. The recommendations for a more effective transition of BTs to full-time classroom teachers involve incorporating an internship period along with a mandatory induction program as they enter the teaching profession.
Learners in a Canadian Diagnostic-Focused Competency-Based Medical Education Program: A Qualitative Case Study
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2025) Garnier-Liot, Margaret; English, Leona
This dissertation explores the experiences of medical residents within a diagnostic-focused specialty, Pathology, who are undergoing training in a competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum in Canada. Through an instrumental case study design, the research aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the learner experience in a mandated outcomes-based education (OBE) curriculum, with a particular focus on the implications for learner-centered education from an adult learning perspective. The study involved six participants across various stages of their residency - three in their first year, two in their third year, and one in their fourth year. Data collection methods included document analysis of relevant program and Royal College materials related to competence by design, a focus group, individual semi-structured interviews, and researcher journaling. The analysis revealed several key themes: the benefits of an outcomes-based approach, the identification of gaps between prior skills and mandated objectives, the balance between learner autonomy and the need for structured support, the critical role of community practice, and the importance of shared understanding between faculty and learners. The findings suggest that while CBME and OBE programs offer significant advantages in aligning educational outcomes with professional competencies, challenges remain in its implementation, particularly in ensuring that all stakeholders - learners and educators alike - share a common understanding of the curriculum’s goals and expectations. The study contributes to educational theory by reinforcing the importance of learner-centered approaches and the role of communities of practice in professional education. It also offers practical implications for enhancing the design and delivery of CBME programs, highlighting the need for tailored learning approaches, structured support mechanisms, and robust faculty development initiatives. This research adds to the existing literature, underscoring the complexity of transitioning to a CBME framework in medical education and calls for further exploration into the long-term impacts of this approach on both learners and educators. It affirms that OBE often presents as a reductionist approach to education, with mandated outcomes becoming a checklist for learners to complete. It does, however, also affirm that there is merit in learners having a roadmap to their educational program in the form of outcomes lists. The study challenges the concept of OBE in the form of CBME being a learner-centred approach to education and illuminates how the construct of a diagnostic-focused residency training program falls short in providing a holistic competency-focused curricula. The findings have broad relevance for the ongoing evolution of medical and professional education programs.
Women Deans: Carving a Unique Path in Academic Medicine
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2025) Cohen, Elissa; English, Leona
The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study is to identify and describe the essence of the lived experience of women deans in the leadership of academic medicine in Canada. The scholarly literature documents a multitude of complex career disadvantages that limit women physician’s ascension through the hierarchy of academic medicine. According to Robb (1999), it was not until 1999 that the first woman became dean of a Canadian medical school. There have only been eight women full deans of medicine in the 174 year history of medical schools in Canada (Tricco et al., 2021). At this current glacial pace it would take 50 years to reach gender parity among deans of medicine (Jacobson et al., 2021). Prior strategies to ameliorate the career trajectories for women in academic medicine have been deemed insufficient as the gender gap in senior leadership has persisted (Larson et al., 2019) despite decades of women comprising greater than 50% of medical school graduates. Eight women deans were selected via criterion-based purposeful sampling, followed by snowball sampling. Four were full dean and four were vice, assistant, or associate deans. Semi-structured, in-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted, digitally recorded, and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. Six themes were elucidated: authentic self, building a support team, sexism and the culture of medicine, woman dean as agent of change, becoming a dean and getting the job, and success on the job. The participants shared that they presented their authentic selves in all contexts while having a carefully cultivated team of supportive people in their lives. They were successful at walking the fine gender line and navigating a unique path through academic medicine. These features of their lived experience allowed the women to be an agent of change and to attain their decanal position while also being exceedingly successful in their role as dean.
When The River Talks, We Listen: A Case Study on River Clean-ups as Environmental Adult Education
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2024) Franke, Skylar; Perry, Adam
There are many outdoor environmental volunteer actions individuals can take to address the growing climate and biodiversity crises. Environmental adult education (EAE) activities bring participants together around a shared solution and offer an opportunity to connect and reflect on relationships with nature and society. This qualitative case study examines the experiences of volunteers participating in river clean-ups in London Ontario. It examines what participants learned and how they made sense of environmental issues through outdoor environmental volunteer activities. An analysis of responses from nine interviewed participants revealed common themes. Participants shared that they found river clean-ups to be a source of connection to the land and to other people, and a way to process their emotions about climate change and biodiversity loss. They also highlighted the importance of being able to take action on an issue that seems too complex to address and affirmed their understanding of responsibility to solve environmental problems. Learners shared lessons from the experience, nature and other participants. A variety of learning modalities were reflected in the shared experiences of participants, including experiential, informal, incidental, and land-based learning. While the experiences evaluated in this study were from river clean-ups not intentionally organised as EAE activities, they provide insights that could inform development of future EAE curriculum applications. If river clean-ups are used as a EAE activity, it is suggested that providing intentional framing of the activity at the beginning and opportunities for reflection towards the end could solidify the learning of the activity.
Women, Menopause and Menopause Learning: A Critical Feminist Analysis
(2024) Blais, Alyssa; Coady, Maureen
Menopause, a significant biological event, has historically been medicalized and often associated with negative societal perceptions. The research study aimed to explore the lived experiences and understanding of menopause among women through a qualitative narrative inquiry approach, investigating how women learn about menopause and the influences that shape their learning. I was particularly interested in how and whether women’s narratives align with or challenge socially constructed perceptions of menopause. The research was guided by an interpretive/social constructivist theoretical framework and critical feminism, which recognizes women’s narratives and the body as sources of knowledge. The study, conducted in Canada, involved seven Canadian women aged 53 to 74. Purposive sampling was used to select information-rich cases. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, and narrative analysis techniques were employed to identify themes and patterns in the participants’ stories. The study’s findings reveal that women’s perspectives on menopause are often shaped by patriarchal influences and societal perceptions of women. This can lead to a devaluation of their experiences. Overall, the women’s narratives shed light on the transformational experiences of menopause, thereby emphasizing the impact of societal conceptions, which result in stigmatization and a lack of open dialogue about this life stage. This research highlights the importance of women’s narratives in understanding their lived experiences, promoting positive conceptualizations of menopause and advancing a women-centred approach to supporting health and well-being. By acknowledging women’s stories and physicality as valuable sources of knowledge, we can gain a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of their unique needs.
Using RNA interference to investigate the role of catalase in the freeze tolerance of spring field crickets (Gryllus veletis)
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2024) Rokosh, Sarah
Freezing winter temperatures bring about many challenges for organisms that overwinter in temperate climates, including oxidative stress. Oxidative stress often occurs when a sudden increase in oxygen availability generates an influx of damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS). Antioxidants – molecules or enzymes that can neutralize ROS – are hypothesized to protect against oxidative damage in organisms that survive freezing. Previous work has shown that the spring field cricket, Gryllus veletis, can survive freezing. Transcriptomic analysis suggests that the antioxidant catalase, which has high activity levels in some of its tissues, may play a role. To test whether catalase is important for freeze tolerance, I have used RNA interference (RNAi) to knock down production of the catalase protein in freeze-tolerant G. veletis. However, RNAi efficacy in this species seems to be temperature-, tissue-, and time-dependent. RNAi was only effective at relatively warm (c. 22°C) temperatures, but these temperatures caused G. veletis to lose its freeze tolerance. With this work, we now know more about the limitations of RNAi in freeze-tolerant crickets, although future work will be required to properly determine the role of antioxidants in freeze tolerance.
Renewing Acadian-Mi'kmaq partnerships through dialogue, two schools at a time
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2016) Carreau, Robert
Pedagogies for building cultures of peace: Challenging constructions of an enemy with Canadian young adults
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2015) Abidi, Catherine Baillie
The informal experience of learning professionally online
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2018) Cocek, Chris
Teachers are using digital devices and their personal environments to fulfill their professional learning needs anytime and anywhere. These self-directed moments are informal in nature; they do not receive recognition from a formal institution, nor do they occur in a typical place of learning. These online learning moments are significant for they provide educators with timely information that is valuable in the diverse classrooms of the 21st century. This dissertation is a phenomenological study of the meaningful encounters teachers shared about their informal online professional learning experiences. The participants in this study were thirteen elementary teachers who used digital technology in an informal environment to support their learning for classroom needs. Their experiences were discussed in two interviews and/or through email exchanges to provide insight for the research question: What is the experience of teachers’ informal online professional learning? The data collected from the participants is represented in the form of anecdotes and they were interpreted hermeneutically and guided through the phenomenological existential traits of temporality, corporality, spatiality, relationality, and materiality. The study examines the participants’ anecdotes as expressed when they access information, encounter the digital other, and share their learning. From these three learning components, the major themes of this study are developed to include evolving, showing deception, having potential, feeling trust, and experiencing desire. These themes provide insightful information and show the richness of the everyday phenomenon of teachers’ informal online learning. The study proposes several adaptions for an informal online learner to embrace.
Effective Vaccination Strategy for Infectious Diseases by Analyzing the Age and Comorbidity Attributes of Individuals on Social Network
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2022) Amin, Sumaiya
The impact of infectious diseases on human society is immense, and the failure to control them can lead to a severe consequences. However, their impact can be minimized and prevented by vaccination, one of the most comprehensive and effective methods available. Therefore knowing how to apply a limited number of vaccines to a population such that outbreaks are minimized is important to maximize the efficacy of vaccination strategies. In this study, we are proposing a system that can be beneficial to minimize disease spread by developing effective vaccination strategies. The system is designed to work with a graph representing a real social network and the Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious, Removed (SEIR) epidemic model was used to model disease spread. We constructed an epidemic model taking into account the age and comorbidity attributes of the individuals in a community, and then ran it using Genetic Programming (GP) to discover new vaccination strategies. Having derived vaccination strategies, we then examined how age and comorbidities of individuals influence vaccination strategies. The results of testing the candidate strategies on multiple graphs indicate that the base strategies (i.e.“vaccinating high degree nodes”, “vaccinating the travelers”, “vaccinating the population randomly”, etc.) perform slightly worse when minimizing the total number of infected as well as minimizing the maximum number of infected. In all the cases, the attribute (i.e. age and comorbidity) derived strategies performed adequately, while age-derived strategies slightly outperform comorbidity-derived ones. Surprisingly, general Powerlaw Cluster Graph-derived strategies also meet the optimization objective expectations, which may imply that considering the attributes as graph measures is not contributing significantly to generating effective vaccination; rather it might increase the computational complexity. Instead, adding the graph topology alone can contribute to the generation of effective strategies. In this study, all the parameters were determined by focusing on COVID-19, however, the method can also be applied to other epidemics. The model that we used for this study is generalizable to any community. We believe that our proposed model will be beneficial for health workers and policymakers with regards to preparing sustainable vaccination strategies for their respective communities and controlling disease spread.
Navigation behaviour of Lymnaea stagnalis relative to odour sources using different strategies in different flow conditions
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2021) Alansari, Areej F
Complexity and coherence: A mixed methods study of educational leadership and the development of supportive leadership standards in Nova Scotia
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2018) Williams, Monica
Around the world, a growing body of evidence has shown that educational leadership influences student success. Consequently, educational leadership has become the focus of multiple policy initiatives and large-scale reforms in public education. As educational leadership has gained greater prominence, leadership standards have proliferated in international and domestic school systems. The research problem at the center of this study was the complexity of developing supportive educational leadership standards for Nova Scotia. The purpose of the study was to design a standards development process. Two research questions were addressed: Who are Nova Scotia educational leaders? How can supportive educational leadership standards be developed for Nova Scotia? The study was framed by a pragmatic theoretical framework and a symbolic interaction conceptual framework, viewed through a transformative social justice lens, and supported by an organizational framework of interconnected leadership variables. The mixed methods research methodology and convergent parallel research design included two research methods: qualitative autoethnography and quantitative surveys. Following separate data collection and analysis for each research method, leader profiles were constructed to facilitate data integration and analysis. The leader profiles strongly corroborated each other, answered the research questions, and generated meta-inferences that resolved the research problem and fulfilled the purpose of the study. The study found that supportive educational leadership standards may be developed for Nova Scotia by utilizing an iterative, seven-step standards development process as part of a coherent and aligned standards framework.
Empowering teachers and students through arts integration in core subjects: Facilitating universal engagement through universal design
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2022) Boutilier, Natasha
There is no denying that the landscape of education is changing at a rapid pace. Today’s classrooms are filled with brilliant learners who have their own distinct sets of interests, cultures, and learning preferences. The ways in which they access, engage in, and represent their learning is unique to who they are as individuals. While all students must have access to and need to be engaged with their learning, research has shown that traditional ways of teaching and learning often exclude some students. Research has also shown that Universal Design for Learning is a culturally responsive and inclusive framework for education that provides equal opportunities for all learners to succeed. To implement Universal Design for Learning effectively in their classrooms, educators require professional learning opportunities that provide them with practical information, exemplars, and tools that they can implement immediately to create inclusive classrooms for diverse learners. Building upon my first Master’s project on the integration of visual arts to support social emotional-learning across the curriculum, the overarching goal of this project is to enable educators to utilize Universal Design for Learning to infuse visual arts into the core subjects in a way that promotes the creativity, engagement, and learning of all students in inclusive classrooms. To support educators, an online professional development series entitled ‘Empowering Teachers and Students through Arts Integration in Core Subjects: Facilitating Universal Engagement through Universal Design’ was developed. This professional development series is comprised of six self-directed, professional learning modules. It is my hope, as an artist, educational leader, and champion of inclusive education, that these modules will inspire elementary educators to integrate UDL-based visual arts lessons into the core subjects to create inclusive classrooms that celebrate the unique strengths, challenges, of interests of each and every learner.
An Ethnographic Exploration of the Experiences of Middle School Teachers Participating in Mandatory, Year-long, Guided Teacher Inquiry
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2018) Gillis, Eleanor
Data-driven quantitative analysis on strength training programs and the discovery of new training methods for high performance athletes with artificial Intelligence
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2022) Ndlovu, Mbongeni
Training methods for athletes need to evolve; the competitive environment in sports is always changing. The current methods we employ today have not changed very much in the last 50 years and were not designed for the competitive environments we see today in sport and often leads to athletes either getting injured or overtrained. When compared to other fields of study, the sports science field has made the least amount of progress in utilizing the recent advancements in artificial intelligence to progress the field to new frontiers. This research was unable to find any standard data repositories, that can fully explain all of the properties contained in any given exercise and this has hampered our ability to get computers to search for new training methods which are better, than the ones we employ today. The goal of this project is to lay the foundation in which to build a standard data repository that will house all of the properties for each exercise (biomechanics characteristics, exercise prescription elements, physiological effects, general information, associated injuries, and relationships with other physical exercises) prescribed by Strength & Conditioning coaches. The repository will give specialists like coaches and therapists access to more information regarding their training programs and will also be used to build machine learning algorithms which are capable of modeling a given physical exercise to discover insights that may offer improvements to established training methods.
Re-creating teaching, writing and identity
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2020) Carey, Marilyn
A Case Study & Analysis of the dindshenchas of Ailend
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2019) Lane-Smith, Benjamin
Real Men Read to our Kids... One Teachers' Program to Help Instill a Love of Reading
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2019) White, Christopher
Towards designing 3D generative models for medical image synthesis
(St. Francis Xavier University, 2023) Wang, Jueqi
This study introduces several contributions on medical image synthesis, especially medical image-to-image translation. In my undergraduate thesis, a robust and flexible architecture has been proposed to solve various magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) translation problems, which applies multichannel input pixel-wise regression 3D U-Net for cross-modality estimation, longitudinal image estimation and diffusion image reconstruction. The first part of this thesis extends my undergraduate thesis by comparing whether using adversarial loss combined the fixed traditional loss will improve performance. A more comprehensive and complete comparison has also been completed with five-fold cross-validation on each application. The results demonstrate that this approach is robust and versatile and can be applied to three different medical image prediction tasks. High-resolution (HR) MRI scans obtained from research-grade medical centers provide precise information about imaged tissues. However, routine clinical MRI scans are typically in low-resolution (LR) and vary greatly in contrast and spatial resolution due to the adjustments of the scanning parameters to the local needs of the medical center. End-to-end deep learning methods for the MRI super-resolution (SR) problem (predicting higher resolution MRI examinations from lower resolution acquisitions) have been proposed, but they require re-training each time there is a shift in the input distribution. To address this issue, we propose a novel approach that leverages a state-of-the-art 3D brain generative model, the latent diffusion model (LDM) from [63] trained on the UK BioBank, to increase the resolution of clinical MRI scans. The LDM acts as a generative prior, which has the ability to capture the prior distribution of 3D T1-weighted brain MRI. Based on the architecture of the brain LDM, we find that different methods are suitable for different settings of MRI SR, and thus propose two novel strategies: 1) for SR with more sparsity, we invert through both the decoder of the LDM and also through a deterministic Denoising Diffusion Implicit Model (DDIM), an approach we will call InverseSR (LDM); 2) for SR with less sparsity, we invert only through the LDM decoder , an approach we will call InverseSR (Decoder). These two approaches search different latent spaces in the LDM model to find the optimal latent code to map the given LR MRI into HR. The training process of the generative model is independent of the MRI under-sampling process, ensuring the generalization of our method to many MRI SR problems with different input measurements. We validate our method on over 100 brain T1w MRIs from the IXI and OASIS dataset. Our method can demonstrate that powerful priors established by LDM can be used for MRI reconstruction.

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