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    The Dynamics of Yelverton Glacier: An examination of glacier change over the last two decades
    (University of Waterloo, 2026-08-27) Shannon, Kristie
    Under climate change, the Arctic is warming at rates three times faster than the global average, ultimately resulting in widespread glacier mass losses. Within the Canadian High Arctic (CHA), changes in glacier geometry and dynamics have been observed as the climate regime shifts in this region. Marine-terminating glacier systems are particularly vulnerable to change as they experience impacts from warming air and ocean temperatures, and these changes have direct implications for global sea level rise. The Yelverton Bay region of Northern Ellesmere Island in Nunavut contains the only area of tidewater glaciers with floating ice tongues in the CHA. After the major collapse of ice tongues in this region in ~ 2009, it was previously predicted that these features would not be able to regrow as climate warming persists and sea ice concentrations decline within Yelverton Inlet. However, recent satellite imagery reveals a continual regrowth of a floating ice tongue for Yelverton Glacier, located at the southern end of Yelverton Inlet. This study evaluates the dynamic and geometric changes on this individual glacier system in more detail than previously explored, providing the most comprehensive study of Yelverton Glacier to date. The following objectives were completed: (1) determine the changes in ice tongue position for Yelverton Glacier since 1987; (2) produce the densest record of velocity for this glacier across 25 years of change; (3) examine surface elevation change since 2000; (4) map bed elevation and the position of the grounding line; and (5) analyze sea ice change in Yelverton Inlet and associated air temperature change. Yelverton Glacier’s floating ice tongue has indeed been regrowing since ~ 2015 at a rate of ~ 158 m a-1 along four transect lines contrary to previous expectations. Glacier centreline velocity exceeded 300 m a-1 across most of the study period, however, has transitioned into a slower regime of flow from 2021 to 2025 (~ 240 m a-1). This was accompanied by increasing levels of surface elevation lowering since ~ 2010 in the up-glacier extent and near-terminus thickening since ~ 2015. Sea ice concentration in Yelverton Inlet has been variable over time, but since ~ 2022 the presence of landfast ice has been increasing and stabilizing near Yelverton Glacier’s terminus. Despite the observed slowdown in glacier velocity, the ice tongue has continued to advance over the past ~ decade. Two mechanisms by which this is occurring have been proposed: (1) up-glacier controls and the potential for a slow surge; and (2) downglacier stability from grounding line position and sea ice concentrations. It is likely that these two mechanisms work in tandem to stabilize Yelverton Glacier and influence the advancing ice tongue as the climate continues to warm.
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    Reimagining Public Spaces in Immigrant Neighborhoods: Designing for Year-Round Social Life
    (University of Waterloo, 2026-08-27) Fatima Khan, Sana
    Public spaces are the everyday infrastructure of belonging: places where neighbours exchange care, small businesses circulate value, cultural identities are visible, children learn public norms, and civic trust is built. In immigrant neighbourhoods these everyday functions are particularly vital - they sustain multigenerational support networks, enable informal livelihoods, and provide low-cost venues for cultural expression and social integration. Yet the material and spatial conditions that make such life possible are fragile. Physical shortcomings (lack of space, fragmented areas, lack of sheltered seating, poor solar access, and limited micro-climatic comfort), temporal pressures, and socio-economic constraints, all narrow the range of who can linger, gather, or trade in public. Cultural and gendered norms further shape who feels visible and safe outdoors. Seasonality, including cold seasons, intensifies these dynamics but operates alongside everyday barriers: design failures, maintenance deficits, spatial fragmentation, and the disappearance of informal infrastructures that animate streets and plazas. This thesis takes these intertwined problems as its central concern. Using seasonal field observation, spatial mapping, building documentation, parking demand analysis, comparative case studies, and iterative design research, it examines how the built environment, temporal rhythms, and lived cultural practices combine to enable or exclude social life in Thorncliffe Park, Toronto. The research resolves into a design proposal: the adaptive reuse of East York Town Centre and its surplus parking field as the 'All Season Commons', a year-round social and cultural commons that gives the neighbourhood's existing street life a permanent architectural form, supported by a governance and programming framework grounded in working Toronto precedents.
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    Cholesterol and Amyloid β Modulation of Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Signaling in Neural Cell Models
    (University of Waterloo, 2026-08-27) Singh, Kartar
    Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a highly complex condition that results in the gradual yet progressive failures of neuronal signaling, metabolic homeostasis, and glial cell function. Though the exact etiological factor may vary individual to individual, the result is a similar phenotypic convergence of accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau tangles. While both Aβ and lipid dysregulation are well established features of AD pathology, the role of membrane composition changes on modulating cellular signaling pathways remains poorly understood. Cholesterol is a critical structural and functional component of the cell membrane, and has emerged as a key regulator protein organization, receptor clustering, and signal transduction. Yet the molecular mechanisms linking receptor mediating signaling to lipid dysregulation in particularly AD relevant neural cell models remains incompletely understood. This thesis employs molecular neuropharmacology approaches to investigate this interaction, of how cholesterol modulation and Aβ exposure can modulate the signaling of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) across various neural cell types. Using a combination of immortalized cell lines and human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived models, this work systematically examines how cholesterol enrichment and depletion can influence cellular morphology, viability, and intracellular signaling in the presence and absence of Aβ. In the first part of this thesis, a focused review on the field of AD and relevant literature into RTK, cell membrane, and AD interactions was presented. Along with an overview of methods used in this thesis. In the second part of this thesis, we investigate how cholesterol modulation can alter Aβ induced toxicity, morphology, and RTK signaling pathways in the mouse hippocampal neuronal like HT22 cell model. Using molecular biology techniques such as biochemical assays, cell imaging, flow cytometry, and western blotting, cholesterol enrichment was shown to exacerbate Aβ toxicity and induce morphological changes. Cholesterol enrichment was also found to selectively regulate the RTK, PDGFRα’s activation along with altering downstream MAPK and PLCγ1 activity. Interestingly, receptor phosphorylation levels did not predict downstream signaling outputs, revealing a potential novel finding of cholesterol enrichment regulating a decoupling of RTK activation and intracellular signaling pathways. In the third part of the thesis, we detail the optimization, characterization, and workflow development for generating iPSC-derived neuronal and astrocytic models. Using immunocytochemistry, protein analysis, and molecular biology approaches, this chapter established robust differentiation protocols for the generation of cortical neurons along with star shaped astrocytes. A novel approach for generating GABAergic enriched neuronal networks was also detailed. In the final section of the thesis, we focus on employing a phospho-proteomics approach for analysing the RTK signaling profiles of iPSC-derived neural stem cells (NSCs), cortical neurons, and astrocytes. This analysis revealed, previously unreported, distinct RTK activation signatures unique to each of the neural lineages studied. We also explore cholesterol and Aβ interactions in iPSC-derived astrocyte. Revealing that cholesterol enrichment selectively modulated PDGFRβ activity. Collectively, this thesis advances our understanding of how membrane lipid composition influences RTK signaling dynamics in neural cells, providing mechanistic insight relevant to neurodegenerative disorders.
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    Epistemic Counterinsurgency: Residential School Denialism as a Politics of Ignorance
    (University of Waterloo, 2026-08-27) Deslauriers, Yvan
    In this thesis, I develop the concept of epistemic counterinsurgency in order to explain the persistence and intensification of residential school denialism as a politics of ignorance. For this purpose I draw upon the epistemology of ignorance and theories of epistemic injustice and resistance. I begin with Marilyn Frye’s introduction of the concepts of white ignorance and arrogant perception, continue with the greatly expanded concept of white ignorance by Charles Mills and his theory of white supremacy as a political system, examine Miranda Fricker’s theory of epistemic injustice, as well as Gaile Pohlhaus Jr.’s expansion of epistemic injustice with her theory of willful hermeneutical ignorance, before turning to José Medina’s theory of epistemic resistance, and finally looking at Anna Cook’s theory of settler ignorance. I use the U.S. Counterinsurgency Manual along with the work of critical scholars to develop an expansive definition of counterinsurgency grounded in its primary source material, and employ this definition in the conceptualization of epistemic counterinsurgency as a distinct aspect and form of counterinsurgency that responds to what I call epistemic rebellion, a form of intensified epistemically resistant activity that subverts oppressive political conditions. Then I examine the general state and nature of settler denial before attending to the specific form of residential school denial, and apply my concept of epistemic counterinsurgency to residential school denialism in order to qualify it as a form of epistemic counterinsurgency and politics of ignorance that aims to suppress Indigenous political resistance and their epistemic rebellion of making the genocidal nature and intent of the residential school system known and unignorable.
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    Understanding and Responding to the Health Effects of Loneliness and Social Isolation in Ontario Home Care Community-Dwelling Older Adults
    (University of Waterloo, 2026-08-27) Gorgenyi, Emily
    Social isolation and loneliness are distinct concepts that are often treated as interchangeable in the literature. Both have been linked to various health behaviours and outcomes that may increase the risk of mortality, especially in older adults. However, contradictory results are often reported with some studies finding no mediation from health behaviours in the connection between loneliness and health outcomes or mortality. Similarly, the associations reported between loneliness and mortality are not always statistically significant. Within the aging population, home care recipients can be exceptionally vulnerable to loneliness-related outcomes because of their complex health needs and social changes (e.g., widowhood) that may put them at a higher risk of isolation. Social prescribing involves the implementation of social resources and programs to address biomedical concerns by connecting traditional clinical practices with community support services and activities. This upstream approach has been popularized to address and prevent loneliness, particularly after public health isolation measures implemented in COVID-19. However, the evidence base related to social prescribing, loneliness, social isolation, and health outcomes is limited. This dissertation involves a scoping review regarding social prescribing in community based older adults; development of a standardized index of social isolation; secondary analysis of the associations of loneliness and isolation with health behaviours and health outcomes; and description of a community engagement effort to codevelop targeting strategies and map resources that could be used to respond to loneliness and social isolation in one region of southern Ontario. The latter project exemplifies efforts by one region to identify and respond to loneliness and social isolation with available community resources. However, evaluation of the effectiveness of those services is not in scope for this dissertation. Study 1 is a scoping review that investigates the use of social interventions to address loneliness and social isolation in community-dwelling older adults. It provides an overview of existing literature to examine the types of resources implemented in social prescribing, as well as how social isolation and loneliness were measured in each study. The review demonstrates an array of resources that were used to target social isolation and loneliness, with the majority of successful programs including a socialization aspect; however, results were unclear due to inconsistent terminology and measurement tools. This suggests the interest in prescribing social interventions is not matched by consistent empirical evidence in support of its implementation. To establish best practices in this area, terminology and measures need to be standardized for loneliness, social isolation, and for specific types of social prescribing interventions. Study 2 involves the creation and validation of an Index of Social Isolation (ISI) based on data from the interRAI Home Care assessment. Candidate indicators were identified based on the literature. The ISI is intended to serve as an objective measure of isolation, whereas loneliness is considered to be a subjective experience in response, at least in part, to objective isolation. Four variants were created and tested, with the final ISI consisting of a count of six items. This index can be used as a continuous measure, but the analyses also identified meaningful cut-points based on the association with loneliness. Finally, the ISI was examined longitudinally to demonstrate sensitivity to contextual variables and external events. This new measure has strong potential for use within future interRAI data studies and for routine clinical practice in home and community care. Study 3 is a two-part examination of the associations of loneliness and social isolation with health behaviours and health outcomes. First, a cross-sectional analysis was done to examine health behaviours among socially isolated and lonely community-dwelling older adults receiving home care services. These may represent mediating variables linking social isolation to health outcomes. The three health behaviours considered (smoking, inadequate nutrition, medication non-adherence) reflect different mechanisms through which loneliness and isolation may be related to health. This is followed by a longitudinal analysis of the onset of new health outcomes using transitions in three different indicators of health: self-rated health, pain scores, and self-reported mood disturbance. The findings provide further insights regarding the effects of social isolation and loneliness on health, including health effects that differ between social isolation and loneliness. Study 4 is a retrospective cross-sectional needs assessment of community-dwelling older adults receiving home care services in the Huron-Perth region of Ontario, Canada. As part of a collaboration with local community partners, we compared the health needs of older adults in Huron-Perth to those in the rest of Ontario in order to identify opportunities to mobilize social resources in the community. Huron-Perth is overall a healthier region than the rest of Ontario; but important variations are evident within subregions. Loneliness and social isolation were of particular interest due to high prevalences in Huron-Perth. Study 5 provides a resource inventory of all social resources that could be used to target social isolation and loneliness in community-dwelling older adults residing in Huron-Perth, Ontario. Our findings supplemented the needs assessment done in Study 4 by summarizing and understanding the capacity of each nonmedical community service in the Huron-Perth region. Further analysis examined how the resources correspond to those found to be effective in reducing social isolation and loneliness in older adults in the literature in Study 1. The five studies captured in this dissertation provide a comprehensive examination of the complex relationships between loneliness, social isolation, health behaviour, and health outcomes in community-dwelling older adults. The included studies provide a strong foundation for future interRAI research on social isolation and loneliness while simultaneously providing key insights for the development and integration of social isolation and loneliness identification and targeting mechanisms. In conclusion, this dissertation strengthens knowledge on the identification and measurement of social isolation while providing important insights into the relationships of social isolation, loneliness, health behaviours, and health outcomes, as well as how to best implement nonmedical resources to intervene.