English

Atmospheric pollutant deposition poses a risk to ecosystem health; therefore, monitoring the spatial and temporal trends of deposition is integral to environmental sustainability. Although moss biomonitoring is a common method to monitor various pollutants in Europe, offering a cost-effective approach compared to traditional methods of monitoring, it is rarely used in Canada. The focus of this study was a spatial assessment of trace element deposition across a region with a known large-point source of emissions using the moss biomonitoring method. Moss tissues presented strong correlations with modelled deposition in the region, suggesting mosses are a valuable biomonitoring tool of trace element deposition, especially in regions dominated by large-point emission sources. Additionally, a moss species endemic to Canada was compared to commonly used moss species with results indicating this species (Isothecium stoloniferum) can be used reliably as a biomonitor. Moss biomonitoring is recommended as a compliment to fill in spatial gaps in current monitoring networks across the country.

Author Keywords: biomonitoring, bryophytes, Hylocomium splendens, moss, Pleurozium schreberi, trace elements

This thesis is concerned with how specific aesthetic elements function in various contemporary texts to distort, obscure, or illuminate the immoral actions and behaviours being represented. This thesis applies the moral status philosophy of Mary Anne Warren, along with the moral philosophy of Emmanuel Lévinas and Zygmunt Bauman. Close reading and critical analysis are supported by Michele Aaron's theory of spectatorship. The sublime is explored in Dexter (2006) and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), the uncanny in Battlestar Galactica (2003) and Westworld (2016), and the abject in The Walking Dead (2003) and World War Z (2006). The intentions of this project are to conduct a formal examination of the relationship between audience and text as it is filtered through aesthetic representation and moral frameworks. This thesis argues that aesthetic effects must be understood in connection to morality for active consumers to engage with these texts as sites for ethical consideration.

Author Keywords: aesthetic theory, moral status philosophy, Popular fiction, spectatorship, The Walking Dead, Westworld

Although years of research have established that attachment representations are not

consistently transmitted from parent to child (also known as the transmission gap), the

reasons for this gap remain relatively unknown. This transmission gap exists between

parents and peers as well. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the role of

caregiving sensitivity in the relationship between parent attachment and peer attachment

and to test if caregiving sensitivity helps explains the relationship between parent

attachment and peer attachment. This study found support for the transmission of

attachment from parent to peers, but not that caregiving sensitivity explains this

transmission. Results indicate that parenting caregiving sensitivity questionnaires are

inconsistent in assessing the construct of sensitivity. Parenting caregiving sensitivity

questionnaires also do not measure the same concepts as peer caregiving sensitivity

questionnaires. These findings suggest that assessing caregiving sensitivity in parents

differently may help close the transmission gap.

Author Keywords: attachment, caregiving, parenting, peer, sensitivity

Introgressive hybridization between northern (Glaucomys sabrinus) and southern flying squirrels (G. volans) has been observed in some areas of Canada and the USA. However, existing molecular markers lack the resolution to discriminate late-generation introgressants and describe the extent to which hybridization influences the Glaucomys gene pool. I report the first North American flying squirrel (genus Glaucomys) functionally annotated de novo transcriptome assembly with a set of 146,621 high-quality, annotated putative species-diagnostic SNP markers. RNA-sequences were obtained from two northern flying squirrels and two southern flying squirrels sampled from Ontario, Canada. I reconstructed 702,228 Glaucomys transcripts using 193,323,120 sequence read-pairs, and captured sequence homologies, protein domains, and gene function classifications. These genomic resources can be used to increase the resolution of molecular techniques used to examine the dynamics of the Glaucomys hybrid zone.

Author Keywords: annotation, de novo transcriptome, flying squirrels, high-throughput sequencing, hybridization, single nucleotide polymorphisms

This study examines the emergence of the New Left organization, The New Tendency, in Windsor, Ontario during the 1970s. The New Tendency, which developed in a number of Ontario cities, represents one articulation of the Canadian New Left's turn towards working-class organizing in the early 1970s after the student movement's dissolution in the late 1960s. Influenced by dissident Marxist theorists associated with the Johnson-Forest Tendency and Italian workerism, The New Tendency sought to create alternative forms of working-class organizing that existed outside of, and often in direct opposition to, both the mainstream labour movement and Old Left organizations such as the Communist Party and the New Democratic Party. After examining the roots of the organization and the important legacies of class struggle in Windsor, the thesis explores how The New Tendency contributed to working-class self activity on the shop-floor of Windsor's auto factories and in the community more broadly. However, this New Left mobilization was also hampered by inner-group sectarianism and a rapidly changing economic context. Ultimately, the challenges that coincided with The New Tendency's emergence in the 1970s led to its dissolution.

While short-lived, the history of the Windsor branch of The New Tendency helps provide valuable insight into the trajectory of the Canadian New Left and working-class struggle in the 1970s, highlighting experiences that have too often been overlooked in previous scholarship. Furthermore, this study illustrates the transnational development of New Left ideas and organizations by examining The New Tendency's close connections to comparable groups active in manufacturing cities in Europe and the United States; such international relationships and exchanges were vital to the evolution of autonomist Marxism around the world. Finally, the Windsor New Tendency's history is an important case study of the New Left's attempts to reckon with a transitional moment for global capitalism, as the group's experiences coincided with the Fordist accord's death throes and the beginning of neoliberalism's ascendancy.

Author Keywords: Autonomist Marxism, Canada, Labour, New Left, Rank-and-file Organizing, Working-Class History

Sexual assertiveness encompasses skills in refusing unwanted sexual situations and bringing about wanted sexual situations. Measures of sexual assertiveness typically assess both refusal and initiation aspects, yet there is a dearth of research examining these skills in relation to one another. The present study examined the relationship between these skillsets in women, exploring predictors of each. Initiation and refusal assertiveness were moderately correlated. Additionally, the relationship between them was not entirely explained by general assertiveness, indicating that there is something unique to assertiveness in the sexual context. Committed relationship context and erotophilic disposition specifically predicted initiation assertiveness. Less endorsement of the sexual double standard and fewer approach motivations for engaging in unwanted sex specifically predicted refusal assertiveness. Few differences emerged in predictors of assertiveness types when comparing sexual orientation groups, yet non-heterosexual women reported slightly lower levels of refusal assertiveness. Implications for sexual education, therapy, and future research are discussed.

Author Keywords: sexual assertiveness, sexual autonomy, sexual compliance, sexual double standard, sexual satisfaction, sexual self-disclosure

Previous research has found that bullying and victimization is related to poor socioemotional competencies. The present study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and bullying and victimization in a large community-based sample of adolescents. Specifically, we explored the EI of bullies, victims, bully-victims, and those uninvolved. We also examined whether the relationship between EI and types of bullying and victimization activities were consistent across age and gender. We found that stress management and interpersonal skills are important EI dimensions to predicting both bullying and victimization. Moreover, intrapersonal skills were predictive of boys' bullying behaviours and adaptability was the strongest EI dimension in bullies and victims. Age did not contribute much to the overall prediction of bullying and victimization in either gender. Results are discussed in terms of future implications regarding anti-bullying interventions.

Author Keywords: Adolescents, age, Bullying, Emotional Intelligence, gender, social emotional competencies

Wild lupine (Lupinus perennis) restoration efforts seek to increase and connect populations, using seeds, to facilitate the recovery of endangered butterflys in Ontario. This study observed plant growth and phytohormone levels of L. albus, L. polyphyllus, and L. perennis through stages of seed development, each with varying strategies in growth and reproductive investment. L. polyphyllus is similar to L. perennis in morphology, acting as similar comparable with L. albus, a well-studied annual, as an outgroup comparator.

Wild lupines showed a lack of sexual reproductive effort as they did not put as much effort into above ground growth, and few in the population reproduces. They also showed cis-zeatin, a weaker cytokinin, throughout development and had higher amounts of abscisic acid at the end of seed maturity, impacting their ability to develop and germinate. These factors contribute to why wild lupines are difficult to restore using seeds, limiting expansion and challenging restoration.

Author Keywords: L. albus, L. perennis, L. polyphyllus, plant physiology, seed development, Wild blue lupine

Autistic traits are characterized by difficulties with socialization, preference for order, and rigid and repetitive behaviour patterns. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of two measures of autistic traits, the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the Sub-threshold Autistic Trait Questionnaire (SATQ), and their associations with the HEXACO personality framework. The relationships between self-objectification, Need for Cognition (NFC), and autistic traits were also examined. In a student sample (N = 294), autistic traits were found to be negatively related to eXtraversion, but unrelated to self-objectification and NFC. However, individual subscales of the SATQ and AQ revealed different personality profiles, suggesting a non-unitary composition of the autistic trait measures. The AQ's subscales failed to be represented in its factor structure. Intercorrelations between SATQ and AQ subscales showed that some subscales were uncorrelated with others. These concerns challenge whether autistic traits should be considered as a downwards extrapolation of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Author Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Autistic Traits, HEXACO, Need for Cognition, Self-Objectification

Biological differences between island and mainland conspecifics have been well studied, but few studies have addressed differences in stress physiology. Stressors, such as predation and competition for resources, cause the release of glucocorticoids (GCs). Characteristics of island wildlife, called "island syndrome", are attributed to low levels of predators and competitors. I tested the hypothesis that island syndrome includes differences in GC levels between island and mainland rodents using two approaches; first, using white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) from a near-shore archipelago (Thousand Islands, Ontario) and the nearby mainland; second, using study-skins of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) from two archipelagos offshore of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. White-footed mice in the near-shore archipelago did not show characteristics of island syndrome, or changes in GC levels (feces and hair); however deer mice from both archipelagos in British Columbia were heavier and had lower hair GCs for their size than Vancouver Island mice.

Author Keywords: Glucocorticoids, Island rule, Island syndrome, Peromyscus, Stress physiology