DalSpace Institutional Repository
DalSpace is a digital service that collects, preserves, and distributes digital material produced by the Dalhousie community.
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Recent Submissions
Air Pollution and Emergency Department Visit Patterns Following the 2023 Halifax Regional Municipality Wildfire
(2025) Burnfield-Wiebe, Piers
Canada experienced a record-breaking wildfire season in 2023, resulting in thousands of evacuations in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) alone. This study examined changes in particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and emergency department (ED) visit patterns, focusing on specific respiratory-related ED diagnoses, and different demographic groups surrounding the 2023 HRM wildfire. A retrospective observational design was used to analyze PM2.5 data from the Lake Major provincial ambient air quality monitoring station and ED visit data from Health Data Nova Scotia. Weekly ED visit counts, ED visit proportions for specific respiratory-related diagnoses from Izaak Walton Killam Health Centre (IWK), and PM2.5 concentrations were compared between these pre, during, and post wildfire periods using statistical methods.
Beaded Buildings: Ornament, Craft and Digital Manufacturing in Canadian Architecture
(2025-04-14) Wallace-Lund, Jessie Hannah; Yes; Master of Architecture; School of Architecture; Not Applicable; María Arquero de Alarcón; Not Applicable; David Correa; James Forren
Ornament is an aspect of architectural practice that has seen a fall from grace since the early 20th century, but a recent “return” of ornament is being recognized in architectural discourse, inviting a new era of artistic and craft exploration that dovetails with the development of digital fabrication technologies.
Beadwork is an ancient and highly valued art form that has so far rarely been incorporated into the built environment. Commonly known as 3D printing, Robotic Additive Manufacturing of ceramics for architectural application is likewise still a new field in architecture. This thesis focuses on the potentials of 3D printed ceramic components for architecture, presenting a suite of functional computational tools for the manufacture of building components, exploiting the unique aesthetic qualities of 3D printing to create “beaded” qualities.
A Girl of Constant Sorrow: The Sad Girl, Authenticity and Personas in Popular Music
(2025-04-15) Leon, Rebekah; No; Master of Arts; Fountain School of Performing Arts; Not Applicable; Steven Baur; No; Jacqueline Warwick; Jennifer Bain
This thesis analyzes the music and careers of Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey to demonstrate how a wave of American female pop stars leveraged the Sad Girl archetype to inform their personas and gain mainstream popularity in the first quarter of the 21st Century. These artists rely upon a culturally constructed sadness that is associated with whiteness and femininity and their inherent privilege to curate their authenticity and market their vulnerability across media. However, artists who adopt the Sad Girl archetype can elicit polarizing appraisals from the public sphere; drawing on works in popular music studies, persona studies, and feminist media studies, I propose a layered approach to persona that divides the public identities of musical performers into a series of coexistent personas to determine that aberrations from audience expectations can confuse the collective consensus and negatively impact artists’ public perception.
Exploring Extended Producer Responsibility with Regional Representatives: The Benefits and Drawbacks for Municipalities in Nova Scotia
(2025-04-23) Annie R. Proulx
Nova Scotia, despite being a leader in waste diversion, sees large amounts of waste end up in landfills, with missed opportunities in recycling. While issues in waste management are not unique to the province, municipalities, organizations, and other entities recognize that to continue leading in waste diversion, more efforts must be made. In addressing waste issues, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Packaging, Paper Products, and Packaging-like products (PPP) comes into play. This program not only addresses waste problems but shifts the financial and operational burden of recycling collection from municipalities and taxpayers to commercial producers of these materials. This study examines existing literature on waste management and EPR and explores what regional representatives identify in EPR as having potential for improvements, opportunities, limitations, and concerns that could impact municipalities in the province. Results examine participant responses and frequency of opinions pertaining to EPR. Through short, semi-structured Zoom interviews, transcripts were coded in Nvivo, and an inductive and deductive codebook was created and analyzed. Results show that interviewees identified possible limitations arising in operations and transportation, and opportunities arising in financial, environmental, and social categories.
Gloves à la Chopin: Androgyny, Disability, and the Performance of Consumption
(2025-04-23) Thomas, James; Not Applicable; Master of Arts; Fountain School of Performing Arts; Not Applicable; Dr. Megan Johnson; Not Applicable; Dr. Roberta Barker; Dr. Steven Baur
Despite the historical evidence of Chopin’s non-normative relationship to gender and disability, musicological scholarship largely neglects this aspect of the revered composer-pianist’s career. Chopin’s Romantic-era Paris put a premium on social intrigue, and the sentimental imagery surrounding consumption posed his chronic illness as a sign of genius, sensitivity and creativity. Presenting himself as a consumptive artist was a compromise between the accommodation of a real, life-altering disease and self-expression through social and artistic means. The resulting artistic persona blurred the boundaries of class, gender, ability, and even that between the real and mythological. Chopin’s artistic persona was celebrated by contemporaneous audiences, who were intrigued by his androgyny and obsessed with his sickness. This thesis explores the interaction between gender nonconformity, disability and romantic pianism. I make the case that Chopin’s artistic persona was both grotesque and fashionable in equal measure, and was wholly emblematic of the Romantic era.
MAST CELL STING ACTIVATION IN INFECTION AND CANCER IMMUNITY
(2025-04-22) Al Bitar, Haya; Not Applicable; Master of Science; Department of Microbiology & Immunology; Received; Dr. Tobias Kollmann; Not Applicable; Dr. Ian Haidl; Dr. Craig McCormick; Dr. Paola Marcato; Dr. Jean Marshall
Mast cells (MCs) are long-lived, tissue-resident immune cells essential for host defense. The STING pathway, a key innate immune response to infection and cellular stress, promotes strong type I interferon (IFN) and pro-inflammatory responses. While the STING pathway holds therapeutic potential in cancer and infection, its role in MCs remains underexplored. Our study demonstrates that MCs trigger type I IFN and NF-κB responses upon STING activation. We show that MCs are susceptible to Shigella flexneri infection, leading to an upregulation of type I IFN and interferon-stimulated gene expression, partially dependent on STING. In a murine ovarian cancer model, MC deficiency led to longer survival, whereas reconstituted MC-deficient mice surprisingly showed improved survival. Treatment with a STING agonist increased survival, but overexpressing STING in MCs within tumors provided no additional benefit. These findings offer valuable insights into STING-mediated immunity in MCs and highlight potential avenues for future therapeutic exploration.