Graduate Theses & Dissertations

Pages

Novel Functional Materials From Renewable Lipids
Vegetable oils represent an ideal and renewable feedstock for the synthesis of a variety of functional materials. However, without financial incentive or unique applications motivating a switch, commercial products continue to be manufactured from petrochemical resources. Two different families of high value, functional materials synthesized from vegetable oils were studied. These materials demonstrate superior and unique performance to comparable petrochemical analogues currently on the market. In the first approach, 3 amphiphilic thermoplastic polytriazoles with differing lipophilic segment lengths were synthesized in a polymerization process without solvents or catalysts. Investigation of monomer structure influence on the resultant functional behaviour of these polymers found distinctive odd/even behaviour reliant on the number of carbon atoms in the monomers. Higher concentrations of triazole groups, due to shorter CH2 chains in the monomeric dialkynes, resulted in more brittle polymers, displaying higher tensile strengths but reduced elongation to break characteristics. These polymers had similar properties to commercial petroleum derived thermoplastics. One polymer demonstrated self-assembled surface microstructuring, and displayed hydrophobic properties. Antimicrobial efficacy of the polymers were tested by applying concentrated bacterial solutions to the surfaces, and near complete inhibition was demonstrated after 4 hours. Scanning electron microscope images of killed bacteria showed extensive membrane damage, consistent with the observed impact of other amphiphilic compounds in literature. These polytriazoles are suited for applications in medical devices and implants, where major concerns over antibiotic resistance are prevalent. In the second approach, a series of symmetric, saturated diester phase change materials (PCMs) were also synthesized with superior latent heat values compared to commercial petrochemical analogues. These diesters exhibit melting temperatures between 39 °C and 77 °C, with latent heats greater than 220 J/g; much greater than paraffin waxes, which are currently the industry standard. Assessment of the trends between differing monomer lengths, in terms of number of CH2 groups of the 24 diesters synthesized exhibited structure/function dependencies in latent heat values and phase change temperatures, providing an understanding of the influence of each monomer on PCM thermal properties. A synthetic procedure was developed to produce these PCMs from a low value biodiesel feedstock. Application of these PCMs in the thermoregulation of hot beverages was demonstrated using a representative diester. This PCM cooled a freshly brewed hot beverage to a desired temperature within 1 minute, compared to 18 minutes required for the control. Furthermore, the PCM kept the beverage within the desired temperature range for 235 minutes, 40 % longer than the control. Author Keywords: Antimicrobial Surface, Click Chemistry, Green Chemistry, Phase Change Material, Polytriazole, Renewable
Stable Isotope Analysis of Archaeological Faunal Remains From the Middle Trent Valley, Ontario
A sample of faunal remains (n=129) from seven archaeological sites located on Pigeon and Rice Lakes, Ontario were sampled and analyzed for the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of bone collagen. These samples date from the Archaic to Late Woodland and include 35 different animal species. The goal of this research was to investigate the isotope ecology of the Middle Trent Valley and characterize the degree to which isotope ratios varied across space and time between different lakes, as wells as variation within and between species. There were no statistically significant differences in the Middle Trent Valley δ13C or δ15N according to space and time. As such, the isotope data for all archaeological sites were combined to construct an isotope food web for the Middle Trent Valley and compared to Katzenberg’s (1989) food web. These isotope data provide some insight into the dynamic interplay between local ecosystems, and anthropogenically modified landscapes in Ontario. Author Keywords: carbon, food web reconstruction, human-animal relations, Middle Trent Valley, nitrogen, Stable isotope ecology
Authenticity, Authority and Control
This three-part history explores Web 2.0’s ability to make music products a collaborative, ongoing creative process that is reflective of early twentieth century live-music publics, where the realization of a performance was actualized by performers together with their audience in a shared physical space. By extension, I follow the changing dynamic of the producer/consumer relationship as they transitioned through different media and formats that altered their respective roles in music making. This study considers the role that rock ideology, specifically that of the ‘indie-rock’ habitus, plays in shaping both a rock artist’s desired image and a fan-base’s expectations. How rock musicians use the internet reveals their own views on authenticity in recorded music and the extent to which they are willing to participate in a public with their audience. Primary case studies used are: Neil Young, Dave Bidini, Beck Hansen and Joel Plaskett. Keywords: popular music; indie-rock; Web 2.0; rock music collaboration; fan participation; publics; authenticity; habitus; Neil Young; Dave Bidini; Beck Hansen; Joel Plaskett; Song Reader; Scrappy Happiness; Canadian music Author Keywords: authenticity, fan participation, indie-rock habitus, popular music, rock music collaboration, Web 2.0
Energy Resilience in Northern Communities
This project examines the factors for success of alternative energy initiatives in remote northern Indigenous communities, and the link between northern community energy and resilience. The case study, in the Gwich’in village of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, focuses upon a biomass boiler district heating project that provides renewable heat fuelled by local wood chips, and the willow harvesting initiative that supports it. Data was collected by interviews and participant observation in Fort McPherson and Yellowknife, and by analysis of resilience, community energy, and biomass literature. Success factors identified include the importance of aligning energy systems with local cultural identity, traditional values and connection to landscape, values often under-represented in financially-driven energy decisions. Autonomy and self-reliance are shown to be critical factors in northern community energy decisions, related to well-being, pride in place and enhanced resilience. Community resilience is revealed as a key component of northern community energy success. Author Keywords: Energy, Indigenous, Northern, Renewable, Resilience, Sustainable
Water Management Amongst the Ancient States of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Java, and Belize
This thesis investigates the organization and development of water management systems in a sample of past tropical societies in Southeast Asia and Mesoamerica. A comparative approach is employed to show how water management affected the trajectories of the ancient states of Angkor, Cambodia, Bagan, Myanmar, Sukhothai, Thailand, Central and East Java, and Caracol, Belize. Differing types of water management is demonstrated through the use of the adaptive cycle, a conceptual framework through which a broad range of socio-ecological data can be examined in order to explore shifting levels of resilience over time. To understand why levels of resilience might change over time, entanglement theory, which looks at the relationships between humans and things, is utilized to determine how entangled these societies were with water management. Particular degrees of entanglement and shifting levels of resilience provide the analysis with the means to explore how water management changed over time as these societies rose, grew, and finally collapsed. Author Keywords: Ancient Tropical Societies, Entanglement, Resilience, Socio-Ecological Dynamics, Southeast Asia, Water Management
Witches and Bawds as Elderly Women in England, 1680-1730
Many print sources from 1680 to 1730 depicted bawds and witches as figures of transgressive elderly femininity. They were often described as having roughly the same anti-social behaviour, age, and gender. Both witches and bawds were seen as seducing innocents into a life of sin, associating with the devil, and acting lustful and unmotherly. Furthermore, they were connected with Catholicism and were thought to unite sinners against English Protestant society. The physical descriptions of the witch and procuress also bore significant patterns in presenting deformity, disfigurement, smelliness, rottenness, and death, traits generally connected with elderly women. Though historians have recognized the tendency of the witch or bawd to be characterized as an old woman, none have conducted a systematic comparison of the two stereotypes. Such an analysis can offer insight about the social anxieties around aging femininity in this period. Author Keywords: bawd, cheap print, elderly women, old age, witch, witchcraft
In the Wilderness at Föhrenwald
In 1945, few refugee cases were as complicated as those of the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who found themselves stranded in defeated Germany but could neither return home due to antisemitic violence nor immigrate to most countries due to extant prewar visa restrictions. Between 1945 and 1947, some 150,000 Jews fleeing ongoing antisemitic violence joined them in American-occupied Bavaria, including thousands who had survived in the Soviet Union—a phenomenon Tony Judt has described as “surviving the peace.” This thesis focuses on Föhrenwald, a United Nations refugee camp outside of Munich. It interweaves oral histories with archival materials from the United Nations and the American Joint Distribution Committee to apply Atina Grossmann’s work on “close encounters” between Jews, Germans, and Americans to a single refugee camp. What emerges is a portrait of the vibrant, if transient, political, social, and educational life Jews built “in the wilderness” of Germany between 1945 and 1947. Author Keywords: Displaced Persons, Föhrenwald, Holocaust survivors, Occupied Germany (1945–49), United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
Mitigating Cold Flow Problems of Biodiesel
The present thesis explores the cold flow properties of biodiesel and the effect of vegetable oil derived compounds on the crystallization path as well as the mechanisms at play at different stages and length scales. Model systems including triacylglycerol (TAG) oils and their derivatives, and a polymer were tested with biodiesel. The goal was to acquire the fundamental knowledge that would help design cold flow improver (CFI) additives that would address effectively and simultaneously the flow problems of biodiesel, particularly the cloud point (CP) and pour point (PP). The compounds were revealed to be fundamentally vegetable oil crystallization modifiers (VOCM) and the polymer was confirmed to be a pour point depressant (PPD). The results obtained with the VOCMs indicate that two cis-unsaturated moieties combined with a trans-/saturated fatty acid is a critical structural architecture for depressing the crystallization onset by a mechanism wherein while the straight chain promotes a first packing with the linear saturated FAMEs, the kinked moieties prevent further crystallization. The study of model binary systems made of a VOCM and a saturated FAME with DSC, XRD and PLM provided a complete phase diagram including the thermal transformation lines, crystal structure and microstructure that impact the phase composition along the different crystallization stages, and elicited the competing effects of molecular mass, chain length mismatch and isomerism. The liquid-solid boundary is discussed in light of a simple thermodynamic model based on the Hildebrand equation and pair interactions. In order to test for synergies, the PP and CP of a biodiesel (Soy1500) supplemented with several VOCM and PLMA binary cocktails were measured using a specially designed method inspired by ASTM standards. The results were impressive, the combination of additives depressed CP and PP better than any single additive. The PLM and DSC results suggest that the cocktail additives are most effective when the right molecular structure and optimal concentration are provided. The cocktail mixture achieves then tiny crystals that are prevented from aggregating for an extended temperature range. The results of the study can be directly used for the design of functional and economical CFI from vegetable oils and their derivatives. Author Keywords: Biodiesel, Microstructure, Polymorphism, Pour point depressants, Triacylglycerol, Vegetable Oil Based Crystal Modifier
Art of the Sustainable Street
ABSTRACT The Art of the Sustainable Street Miriam L. R. Mutton The street influences our sense of community every day. It is argued that getting the street right communicates a collective vision for action leading to sustainable community. This investigation continues conversations for community repair and resilient change, especially for small town Ontario. The researcher is informed by ways of seeing inspired by Walter Benjamin’s literary montage, The Arcades Project. By method of collecting and connecting information from literature sources spanning several decades and recent interviews, this thesis demonstrates in narrative form the value to community of everyday street details of human scale. Recurrent themes are adopted as technique in validation. Findings are presented from various perspectives including those of the design professional and the politician. The sustainable street enables communication. Research outcomes indicate knowledge transferred through the art of storytelling supports place-making and connection to community. Fragments of information connect into themes defining safe streets which foster trust among strangers, and facilitate citizenship and good governance. Key words: sustainable community, citizenship, safe streets, Benjamin, governance Author Keywords: Benjamin, citizenship, governance, safe streets, sustainable community
Alone in Power
The thesis uses three case studies of President Nixon’s foreign policy in South-east Asia to analyze presidential domestic-making. The theoretical concept of personality politics is used to analyze the Nixon administration and foreign policy. Nixon’s secretive nature combined with his mistrust of the press and bureaucracy to create an office structure that restricted the involvement and notification of others of his foreign policy. This thesis also takes into account the domestic climate that Nixon was operating within, including significant antiwar opposition, an adversarial media, and an ideologically opposed bureaucracy. Nixon’s foreign policy was ultimately the result of a perfect storm of factors. The president’s natural penchant for secrecy, along with his mistrust of the press and bureaucracy, combined with the American political environment that was in many instances ideologically set against him, also helped shape his foreign policy. Author Keywords: American Presidency, China, National Security Council, Richard Nixon, US Foreign Policy, 1969-1973, Vietnam War
Novel Aliphatic Lipid-Based Diesters for use in Lubricant Formulations
Structure-property relationships are increasingly valued for the identification of specifically engineered materials with properties optimized for targeted application(s). In this work, linear and branched diesters for use in lubricant formulations are prepared from lipid-based oleochemicals and their structure-property relationships reported. It is shown that the branched diesters possess exceptional physical property profiles, including suppression of crystallization, and are superior alternatives for use in lubricant formulations. For the linear aliphatic diesters, both high and low temperature properties were predictable functions of total chain length, and both were differently influenced by the fatty acid versus diol chain length. Symmetry did not influence either, although thermal stability decreased and thermal transition temperatures increased with increasing saturation. All of the linear diesters demonstrated Newtonian flow behaviour. Viscosity was also predictable as a function of total chain length; any microstructural features due to structural effects were superseded by mass effects. Author Keywords: Crystallization, Phase behaviour, Rheology, Structure-Function, Thermogravimetric analysis, Vegetable Oils
Women as Gifts and the Triple Hecate Myth in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, and Cymbeline
ABSTRACT Women as Gifts and the Triple Hecate Myth in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, and Cymbeline Women are placed into sexual roles by the patriarchal system in which we live. Gayle Rubin terms this a “sex/gender system” and explains that within this system women are exchanged as “gifts” between men to form kinship ties. The sexual roles this system creates are embodied in the “Triple Hecate myth.” Hecate was the goddess of witchcraft in Ancient Greece and was known to have three faces: Maiden, Nymph and Crone. The Maiden is in girlhood and the label is applied to any woman before she becomes sexually active. The Nymph is a sexually active woman who lives within the norms of society. A sexually active woman who lives outside those norms is a Whore. A Crone is a woman who has passed menopause. She is seen as either a wise elder or a wicked stepmother figure. In Shakespeare’s plays Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, and Cymbeline, the female protagonists Cleopatra, Imogen and Cressida are all trying to control their own destinies and rise above or manipulate this patriarchal system of control. These three women are travelling through the “Triple Hecate Myth.” Cleopatra begins a Whore and ends a Nymph, Imogen begins a Maiden and ends a Nymph, and Cressida begins a Maiden and ends a Whore. They each also problematize the “gift” exchange system either by attempting to self-exchange (Cleopatra and Imogen) or by being exchanged multiple times (Cressida). Keywords: William Shakespeare, Triple Hecate Myth, Gift Exchange, Gayle Rubin, Cymbeline, Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, Feminist Criticism, Classical Studies Author Keywords: Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline, Gayle Rubin, Shakespeare, Triple Hecate, Troilus and Cressida

Pages

Description

Graduate student theses produced at Trent University. You may also browse theses and dissertations by year, program, or author.

In collections

Search Our Digital Collections

Query

Enabled Filters

  • (-) ≠ Farell
  • (-) ≠ Bell
  • (-) ≠ Canadian studies
  • (-) ≠ Saville
  • (-) ≠ Master of Science
  • (-) ≠ Fitzsimons

Filter Results

Date

2004 - 2024
(decades)
Specify date range: Show
Format: 2024/04/16

Collection

Author Name

Show more

Name (Any)

Show more

Degree

Degree Discipline

Show more

Subject (Topic)

Show more