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Reimagining Community Youth Sport Events: Relational Lessons from the Arctic Winter Games
(Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2026-09-04) Alavi, Salman; Dallaire, Christine
This thesis examines the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) as a community youth sport event that offers important lessons for reimagining such events around relationality. While sport events are often evaluated through economic, competitive, or performance-oriented outcomes, this thesis shifts attention to their relational significance. It asks how the AWG creates conditions for meaningful relational experiences, what kinds of relational encounters participants describe during and after the event, and what this case can teach us about the social possibilities of community youth sport events. Drawing on qualitative secondary data analysis, this thesis analyzes materials from two broader research projects on the AWG, including interviews, open-ended survey responses, organizational documents, and observation notes. The analysis is primarily informed by Hartmut Rosa's theory of resonance and Victor Turner's concepts of liminoid and communitas, along with related concepts of relationality. Together, these theoretical perspectives allow the thesis to examine not only how significant relationships emerge during the AWG, but also how particular event conditions may increase the possibility of meaningful relational encounters. Across three article-based analysis, this thesis develops a layered understanding of relationality in the AWG. The first article examines the AWG as a potential space of social resonance, showing how organizational, spatial, temporal, and psychological conditions can support meaningful connection while also illustrating key elements of resonance, such as affection and response, and its preconditions, such as openness and curiosity. The second article considers the pressures that may inhibit resonance in youth sport events, including hyper-competition, sportification, and instrumental rationality, while showing how the AWG may soften these pressures. The third article explores the AWG as a liminoid configuration in which participants experience various forms of relationality, including friendship, networking, belonging, emotional and cultural resonance, enchantment, communitas, and continued involvement after the Games. Taken together, this thesis argues that the AWG can be understood not simply as a youth sport competition, but as an illustrative case for reimagining community youth sport events around relationality. Its significance lies less in producing relationships automatically than in showing how a community-oriented philosophy, sociocultural programming, festive atmosphere, emphasis on northern and Indigenous values, and broader developmental values can create conditions in which relational encounters become more likely.
The Impact of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on Skeletal Muscle Regeneration in Aged Mice
(Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2026-09-04) Chabert, Cassandra; Dort, Junio
Skeletal muscle regeneration is a tightly regulated process mediated by the immune system and muscle stem cells (MuSCs). In aged skeletal muscle tissue, chronic low-grade inflammation drives maladaptive tissue remodeling. Currently, there are no approved therapies to attenuate age-related skeletal muscle disorders, leaving the elderly susceptible to loss of muscle mass/function, fragility, and a decline in quality of life. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) are bioactive lipids with anti-inflammatory properties, primarily stemming from their metabolites. In this study, we have shown that n-3 PUFAs have a direct effect on myoblasts in vitro, and we have shown the effect of an enriched n-3 PUFA diet on skeletal muscle regeneration in vivo using a cardiotoxin injury model. Our results suggest that an enriched n-3 PUFA diet may increase anti-inflammatory markers in the blood, but the effect on inflammation in the tissue is limited, with the exception of inter-fiber lipid deposition. -- La régénération du muscle squelettique est un processus impliquant l'interaction entre le système immunitaire et les cellules souches musculaires (MuSC). En vieillissant, ce processus délicat se dérégule à cause de l'inflammation chronique. Actuellement, il n'existe aucun traitement approuvé pour atténuer les troubles musculo-squelettiques liés à l'âge, ce qui rend les personnes âgées vulnérables à une perte de masse et de fonction du muscle. Les acides gras polyinsaturés omega-3 (n-3 PUFAs) sont des lipides bioactifs qui produisent des effets anti-inflammatoires qui proviennent principalement de leurs métabolites (SPMs). Dans cette étude, nous avons démontré que les n-3 PUFAs ont un effet direct sur les myoblasts in vitro et nous avons démontré l'effet d'un régime enrichi en n-3 PUFAs sur la régénération du muscle squelettique in vivo. Nos résultats suggèrent qu'un régime riche en n-3 PUFAs augmente les marqueurs antiinflammatoires sanguins, mais son effet sur l'inflammation tissulaire est limité, à l'exception d'une réduction du dépôt lipidique interfibre.
Differential Case-Marking in Ecuadorian Siona
(Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2026-09-04) Case, Justin Thomas; Salanova, Andrés; Doetjes, Jenny; Bruil, Martine
This dissertation presents a comprehensive analysis of the complex case-marking patterns as found in the Ecuadorian variety of Siona language, a Tukanoan language belonging to the western branch. This endangered language is spoken today by roughly 350 individuals in the Upper Napo-Aguarico watershed in northwestern Amazonia. The aim of this work is to investigate the mechanisms of differential case-marking (DCM), the phenomenon whereby not all subject, object, or certain spatial arguments bear the same morphological case-markers. To characterize these patterns, this dissertation employs a range of methodological approaches, including a comparative typological survey of case-marking in the region, a quantitative corpus study of DCM in narratives, and a rigorous elicitation-based research program. The corroborating evidence indicates a principled system where the distribution of surface case-marking is conditioned primarily by the interplay of animacy classes and information structure. Ultimately Siona DCM is characterized by an admixture of typologically common properties and unique, language-particular nuances, making this an important contribution to the theory and the typology of DCM in Tukanoan languages, in Amazonia, and in the broader literature.
Behavioural and Neurobiological Effects of Early Postnatal Stress in Mouse Dams and Their Pups
(Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2026-09-04) Mordvinova, Victoria; Audet, Marie-Claude
Background: Early life and postpartum represent periods of increased risk for the development of mental health disorders. Previous studies suggest that stress during these vulnerable periods can contribute to behavioural and neurobiological disruptions, yet the concurrent effects of stressors on the mother and offspring remain poorly understood. This study examined stress-induced disruptions in behaviour and physiological measures using postnatal maternal separation (MS) in both the dam and offspring. Methods: Eighteen female C57BL/6N mice were randomly assigned to a control or an MS condition, which consisted of daily 3-hour separations from postnatal day 2 (P2) to P14. Maternal care behaviour was assessed on P3 and P7. Depressive- and anxiety-like behaviour was examined on P22-23 in dams and on P42-43 in the offspring, with food reward-seeking also being evaluated in the latter. Tissue collection was conducted 24 hours after the last behavioural test, during which the medial prefrontal cortex and colon were collected from dams to assess pro-inflammatory cytokine expression, and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) from pups to examine mesolimbic-related markers. Results: MS disrupted components of maternal responsivity but had no effect on depressive- or anxiety-like behaviour or on cytokine expression in dams. In pups, MS promoted food reward seeking in both sexes but increased dopamine receptor 2 and neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase 2 expression in the NAc of males only, while not changing anxiety- or depressive-like behaviour. Conclusion: MS induced disruptions in select behavioural and physiological measures in both pups and dams, providing insight into the effects of stress during sensitive life periods.
Small Extracellular Vesicles as Mediators and Biomarkers of Platinum-Resistant Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
(Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2026-09-03) Gerber, Emma; Burger, Dylan
Platinum-based chemotherapy has been part of the standard-of-care treatment for ovarian cancer since 1978. However, one-third of patients do not respond to first-line chemotherapy, and most eventually develop platinum resistance with recurrence. To date, the only clinical marker used to evaluate response to chemotherapy is CA125, monitored during and after treatment. Identifying a biomarker of platinum-resistance in treatment-naïve patients would enable individualized therapy and improve outcomes. In this thesis, we demonstrate that identifying a predictive biomarker for chemoresistance is a patient-centred research priority. Through a roundtable discussion with ovarian cancer patient panellists with lived experience of ovarian cancer, this research direction was identified as having meaningful potential benefit for future patients. In two biomarker studies, we quantified plasma gelsolin (pGSN) from small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), which has been shown to be highly secreted by chemoresistant ovarian cancer cells, in blood samples from treatment-naïve patients. In the first study, we found that total circulating pGSN was significantly decreased in chemoresistant patients, while sEV-pGSN was significantly increased. The ratio of total pGSN to sEV-pGSN improved sensitivity and specificity compared to either marker alone. We extended these findings in the second study by incorporating MRI-based radiomics in a machine learning algorithm with total and sEV-pGSN to predict chemoresistance. Consistently, the combined markers improved predictive accuracy. Finally, we investigated the role of sEVs in chemoresistance in vitro. We showed that elevated pGSN is not universal across chemoresistant cell lines. However, in resistant A2780cp cells with high pGSN expression relative to paired sensitive A2780s cells, inhibiting sEV biosynthesis improved chemosensitivity. This was not the case for PEO4 cells, which exhibited comparable pGSN expression to their paired chemosensitive PEO1 cells. Altogether, our findings suggest that pGSN-associated chemoresistance is mediated by sEVs and reflected in patient circulation. Measuring sEV-pGSN offers a strategy to identify chemoresistance prior to treatment and guide personalized therapy.