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Shadow of the Living Brightness
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-09) Béchard, Dominique; Sinclair, Sue
Shadow of the Living Brightness comprises a collection of poems informed by theories of unknowing in Christian mystical theology. Although written from a position of secular faith, the dissertation pulls from the gloomy, passionate writings of the Christian mystics (Gregory of Nyssa, Meister Eckhart, Simone Weil) to further ideas about negative capability, the metaphorical image, desire, loneliness, and suicide. These poems attempt to embody what I value in much unorthodox, mystical theology: a focus on the emotion of religion, and a desire for transcendence that has less to do with overcoming aspects of the physical world, and more to do with uncovering layers of proximity to unknown modes of being.
The critical introduction to the poetry is made up of four interconnected sections. I look at the metaphorical image’s unknowable properties, as partially defined by Robert Bly’s theory of the emotive imagination (aka “deep image”) and Federico Garcia Lorca’s theory of duende, and I evaluate the paradox of divine union in mystical theology— mysticism’s insistence on the annihilation of selfhood to be near the incomprehensible divine. I also examine mystical loneliness and the concept of objectless desire (desire with no definable end-consolation). Finally, I look at the possibilities of an unfixed, unknowable despair and how these interact with suicidality.
Rather than “remaining content” with not-knowing (as Keats famously asks of a poet), the Christian mystics make a point of embracing the agony of unknowing. Mysticism, based on my readings, allows for the painful sense of being meaningfully torn between the corporeal and the transcendent. It relies on ideas of God that abandon the possibility of consolation: “The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering, but a supernatural use for it" (Weil 132).
Deformation estimation of industrial objects from a single image
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-09) Eivazi Adli, Sahand; Dubay, Rickey; Pickard, Joshua K.; Sun, Grace
Deformations introduced during the manufacturing process of plastic components degrade the accuracy of their 3D geometric information, hindering computer vision-based inspection. This phenomenon is prevalent among the primary plastic products where the objects are devoid of texture. This work proposes a solution for the deformation estimation of texture-less plastic objects using only a single RGB image. This solution encompasses a unique image dataset of five deformed parts, including both real-world and synthetic images, a novel method for generating mesh labels, sequential deformation, and a training model based on graph convolution. The sequential deformation method overcomes the prevalent chamfer distance algorithm in generating precise mesh labels. The model achieves a sub-millimeter accuracy on synthetic images and approximately 2.0 mm on real images, with an average testing time of 1.5 s on the Google Colab’s resources. The model’s high precision and speed make it suitable for real-world applications.
Housing as a social determinant of health: A closer examination of mental and physical health and housing affordability
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-09) Dweik, Imad; Woodhall-Melnik, Julia
Canada is among the wealthiest nations in the world, yet despite its wealth, many low-to-moderate-income households struggle to afford basic needs such as housing and food. Subsidized housing is offered for renters who struggle with housing unaffordability; however, the demand for this housing is high and growing, which results in long wait times for access to subsidized housing. These waitlists are long and differ in socioeconomic status, stability, and health and supportive services needs and include households who are unhoused and those who are housed in unaffordable and/or precarious accommodations. Despite the varied economic, social, and housing statuses of households on subsidized housing waitlists, there is a dearth of evidence that comprehensively characterizes their particular challenges and needs. Furthermore, the impacts of subsidized housing as a social determinant of health are still being debated and additional research on mechanisms that connect housing to physical and mental health is needed.
This dissertation presents a series of manuscripts summarize existing evidence on the relationship between subsidized housing and depression and anxiety, and subsidized housing and physical health. The final paper addresses the question: is being unhoused associated with different scores of depression and psychological distress than being precariously housed? My analysis indicates that both precarious renters and unhoused individuals experience comparably high levels of depression, whereas the unhoused group had higher levels of distress (p =.004).
The findings indicate that unstable and unaffordable housing is associated with depression in both renters and unhoused individuals. Further, they display that both groups experience social and economic precarity, which, from a social determinants of health perspective, may be improved through access to affordable and adequate housing. Ultimately, the findings lend support to human rights-based arguments on the state of affordable housing provision in Canada, in that the current nature of housing policies do not provide access to affordable housing for all those who are in need. Hence, I conclude with a call to reimagine systems that are designed to address housing affordability pressures with the goal of providing affordable housing for all those in need.
Photoacclimation strategies of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in response to high-light stress in stationary phase
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-09) Devkota, Shilpa; Durnford, Dion G.
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii can photoacclimate to excess light through short- and long-term mechanisms. During prolonged light stress, cell growth and division help reduce photosynthetic protein concentrations, establishing a new photosynthetic baseline. As nutrients deplete, division rate declines but persists during the declining growth phase (DGP), partially aiding photoacclimation through dilution and quenching mechanisms. This study explored C. reinhardtii’s protection from high-light stress during its stationary phase when cell division is limited. We monitored wildtype strain (CC125) over five days in stationary phase under low-light (LL) and high-light (HL) conditions. Both showed chlorophyll decline, signifying senescence, with HL cells declining faster. HL-exposed cells resumed growth after two days, likely due to metabolite availability from photosynthetic complex turnover. We also found that the npq4 mutant (CC4614), lacking LHCSR3, survived HL without significant NPQ induction, suggesting alternative survival mechanisms. These findings demonstrate how C. reinhardtii manages high light during stationary phases to maximize longevity.
Tulip bulbs and maple leaves: 1st Canadian Corp veterans’ memories of the Second World War from Sicily to the Netherlands
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-08) Smith, Mackenzie; Windsor, Lee
In 1995, around the 50th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands, Dr. Agatha Bonga collected over one thousand questionnaires completed by Canadian Second World War veterans. Dr. Bonga died before she could utilize the data. Three decades later, this project re-opens this untouched, rare collection that reveals new perspectives on the known, but thinly told story about the end of Canada’s Second World War. The questionnaire responses contained in the collection examine veterans’ prewar lives, their wartime service, and their postwar transitions. This thesis examines a sample of 336 questionnaire responses completed by 1st Canadian Corps veterans who fought in Italy and in the 1945 Liberation Campaign in the Netherlands. These questionnaire responses from middle and lower ranking Canadian Army veterans corroborate, nuance, and at times challenge Canadian historical writing, especially regarding the spring 1945 Liberation Campaign, the sudden shift from war to peace, and post-war veterans’ lives.