World population is expected to increase between 8 and 11 billion people by 2050. This growth will be accompanied by an increasing demand in food. Additionally, climate change is expected to have consequences on crop productivity because there will be changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. For that reason, there is an increasing concern over food security and farmers must make use of all available technologies to meet future food needs but also make sure that the environmental impact is reduced.

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are natural bio-based nanoparticles that can be used to modify the viscosity and improve the performance of various fluids. For this reason, they are of interest to the oil and gas industry, where they can replace other expensive and non-biodegradable polymers that are commonly used. CNCs must first be modified so that they do not degrade or settle at high temperatures and pressures. To accomplish this, CNCs will be extracted from cotton using a variety of methods or by post-modifying the nanoparticle surface to have new chemical groups and new functionality.

The research project examines how social and political groups make critical policy choices in a challenging economic context. Focusing on the sub-provincial cases in China, the project aims to examine the process of financial reform during a period of declining economic growth. Examining the government-business relations, the research addresses the challenges that the Chinese political elites face to address the critical needs of diversifying its financial system in order to facilitate economic growth without losing control and oversight over its institutions.

Rhodnius prolixus is a hemathophagous insect that has served for decades as a model to study insect physiology. Rhodnius prolixus is also a major vector of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease that kills 45,000 people annually and affects over 8 million people worldwide. The genome of R. prolixus contains ~15,500 predicted protein-coding genes. Many pathways such as the Toll and JAK-STAT pathways were present.

Hypernasality is a speech disorders that results from excessive sound coming through the nose during speech. A speaker afflicted with hypernasality may be perceived as sounding flat and monotonous because the nasal murmur masks the inflections of the fundamental frequency (Kummer, 2008). However, the masking of prosody by the nasal murmur has not been investigated systematically. The first goal of the proposed study is to investigate how the presence of hypernasality affects the listener’s perception of prosodic pitch inflections.

This project explores regional differences during the Shang dynasty (1600-1045BCE) in China by investigating cooking practices and cooking technology. Since cuisine is intimately connected to local culture, researching different approaches to cooking in the archaeological record can help us understand how different regions developed their own culinary traditions and identities even under the same political rulership. I explore this using three sites during the Shang dynasty – two from Northern China, Zhengzhou and Yinxu, and one in the south, Panlongcheng.

This research project will involve analyzing non-structural flood management measures in Shanghai, China - one of the world's most flood vulnerable cities. The Chinese government has invested heavily into structural barriers to flooding, such as the Three Gorges Dam, but there is no fail-safe in times of extreme flood levels. Despite extensive research, there is no information in English literature on the use of public-education and outreach by the government to better prepare Shanghai's most vulnerable residents.

The first part of this thesis project consist in a study of the structural behavior, mainly focusing on shear resistance, of concrete elements affected by alkali-aggregate reaction (AAR), an internal swelling reaction. Especially in the presence of moisture, this reaction causes the concrete to expand and form internal cracks. This expansion and formation of cracks is generally associated with a decrease in the mechanical properties of the concrete material. Shear issues of affected concrete is one critical thing to investigate, as they can lead to brittle failures.

With increasing rates of economic and forced migration globally, there is a great need to deepen our understanding of the relationship between health and family separation due to migration. Under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, farm workers from Mexico are hired to work in Canada for up to eight months a year. From a social determinants of health perspective, the precarious work and migratory conditions paired with the cyclical and long-term separation of families, increases the risk of workers and their families for mental, physical and emotional health problems.