Search UNB Scholar
About UNB Scholar
UNB Scholar is an institutional repository initiative of UNB Libraries intended to collect, preserve, showcase, and promote the open access scholarly output of the UNB community. Use UNB Scholar to explore specific collections, or search all content in the repository. Material submitted to the repository will also be freely discoverable online through Google and other major search engines.
UNB Libraries welcomes submissions to UNB Scholar. Find out more about depositing your publications!
Communities in UNB Scholar
Select a community to browse its collections.
Recent Submissions
Phylogenetic and biochemical characterization of γ-tocopherol like-N-methyltransferase involved in the biosynthesis of biologically active monoterpenoid indole alkaloids
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-03) Farzana, Maisha; Qu, Yang
N-methyltransferases (NMT) are some of the more extensively studied enzymes in the biosynthesis of alkaloids. Along with the discovery of an NMT catalyzing a key step in vinblastine (anticancer drug) biosynthesis, several other homologous NMTs have been characterized in the formation of other monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIA). The formation of these MIAs such as ajmaline, Nβ-methylajmaline, ervincine, and perivine, all involve catalysis by evolved NMTs from γ-tocopherol C-methyltransferase (γTLMT) family, which appear to be limited within the Apocynaceae species. To understand the catalytic capacity and diversification of these NMTs, transcriptomes of Catharanthus roseus, Vinca minor, Tabernaemontana elegans, and Amsonia hubrichtii were searched for homologs. Phylogenetic analysis showed distinct grouping of several characterized NMTs with uncharacterized ones. These NMTs were thus cloned and heterologously expressed in E. coli to study their in vitro activities with multiple MIA substrates. This led to the discovery and characterization of multiple enzymes involved in the production of different N-methylated MIA derivatives. Kinetic studies were done to compare catalytic efficiency of a T. elegans perivine NMT (TePeNMT) discovered in this study and its previously characterized C. roseus homolog, CrPeNMT. Two other strictamine NMT from C. roseus were characterized as well.
Mindfulness and sport: The role of mindfulness in the lives of athletes prior to and during COVID-19
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-03) Dillman, Brittany; Tymowski-Gionet, Gabriela
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted sports globally. Given such disruption, the athletes were vulnerable to stress and anxiety. Some athletes reported using mindfulness to manage their mental health and well-being. This qualitative study examined the role of mindfulness in the lives of athletes prior to and during COVID-19. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using Facebook Messenger, and data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Eligibility criteria for participants included ages 19 or older, access to Facebook Messenger, competition experience, and experience with practicing mindfulness. A total of twenty athletes participated in the study and ten different sports were represented: Three primary themes were identified: (a) Groundedness: Pre-COVID-19, (b) Uncertainty: Early COVID-19, and (c) Impermanence: During COVID-19. Findings suggested that mindfulness played different roles before and during the pandemic. These findings provide insight into understanding the experience of athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Climate change impacts on forest growth and mortality in eastern North America
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-02) Wang, Jiejie; D’Orangeville, Loïc; Taylor, Anthony
Forests in eastern North America play a critical role in regulating global atmospheric carbon fluxes and sustaining one of the world’s largest lumber and newsprint industry. Unfortunately, tree growth and mortality are expected to be affected by climate change with temperature increases and declines in water availability. These shifts may pose a significant threat to future forest health, wood fiber supply, and carbon stock. However, the impacts of climate change on growth and background mortality remain controversial and overlooked, mainly because of limited data availability, methodological biases, and regional variability in forest dynamics.
In this thesis, I compiled an unprecedented network of tree growth and mortality records from permanent sample plot network distributed across Canada and the United States, spanning a wide climatic gradient, to disentangle the climatic controls on growth and mortality. My results reveal a large, positive effect of warming on tree growth, leading to projected short-term increases in tree growth in the Canadian boreal forest, along with increases in tree mortality that may potentially cancel out some of the gains in forest productivity under climate change and affect net wood supply and carbon sequestration. Comparing the growth response to climate between overstory and understory temperate and boreal tree species, I find divergent patterns which suggest potential biases in current estimates of forest dynamics under climate change. Finally, I develop a novel, empirical approach to improve the climate-growth equations used in forest simulation models which reveals underestimated climate optimums for many species in eastern Canada. The results of this thesis, although not accounting for future changes in disturbance regimes and other forest properties such as composition or structure, should help inform forest management under climate change.
Improving needle retention selection methods and determining the influence of rootstock on balsam fir (Abies balsamea) bud flush and development for use in Christmas tree improvement programs
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-02) Tremblay, Joel; Smith, Ronald; Bourque, Charles
The warming climate has created multiple issues that the Northeastern Christmas tree industry will need to address. This study focused on identifying trees with early cold acclimation in the fall because of its positive correlation with improved post-harvest needle retention and testing for the influence of the rootstock on bud flush timing in balsam fir (Abies balsamea). Sixty-four trees, from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, were tested and seven superior individuals were identified using a quantitative measure of moisture loss. Growth and development of 191 grafted early and late flushing clones from twelve parents were monitored weekly and timing of bud flush was determined to be under strong genetic control. The improved methods to identify trees with increased post-harvest needle retention and the evidence that bud flush timing is under strong genetic control will benefit tree improvement programs that are focused on providing growers with climate change adapted stock.
Emotionally fit: Emotional labour and group exercise instructors
(University of New Brunswick, 2024-02) Thomson, Lisa; Low, Jacqueline
Group fitness classes may appear to be an ordinary place where some people gather, however, this social space does offer a rich site to examine the interface between micro interactions and social structure. Indeed, the group fitness instructors in these fitness classes perform not only physical routines set to music, but also, navigate many social interactions that are emotionally laden. Exploring the emotional lives of group fitness instructors and understanding the impact their emotions have on these interactions, their perceptions of work, their relationships, and themselves as a focus of research, has only very recently come under scholarly attention (Parviainen, 2018; Prochnow et al., 2020).
This area of inquiry is an important focus of research because this occupation group is dominated by women and involves work where the emotional labour required is both unpaid and unacknowledged (James, 1989). The emotional experiences of group fitness instructors demonstrate how the embodied fitness instruction, gendered preferences in fitness routines (Dworkin, 2001, 2003), and the informal gender segregation of the fitness gym play a role of in the maintenance of gender norms associated with the binary model of gender (Dworkin, 2003; Dworkin & Wachs, 2009; Hird, 2002). The use of emotions and the emotional toll in providing group fitness experiences is also gendered.
This study involved over 500 hours of participant observation, 12 face-to-face, in-depth interviews, and a focus group meeting with seven people. The data was then transcribed verbatim and analyzed via thematic and comparative coding (Corbin & Strauss, 1990; Ryan & Bernard, 2003). The findings from the research are grouped into one of three inter-connected conceptual categories developed from the analysis: the embodied nature of emotional labour, emotional labour and sociability, and emotional labour in fitness instruction. These categories conceptualize emotional labour and illustrate the ways in which emotional labour is corporeal. Finally, a key finding in this work is the identification that the group fitness class is a “proximate social structure” where social discourses and relational practices including sexism, homophobia, fatphobia, ageism, and racism are maintained and reproduced (Jacobs & Merolla, 2017, p. 68).