Due to recent outbreaks in livestock viruses (coronavirus PEDV), new sanitization protocols have been implemented for livestock trailers in Canada as a result of our research. These new protocols require that interior surfaces of a trailer be heated to at least 75°C for at least 20 minutes to ensure that all viruses and bacteria of concern have been inactivated. The proposed research will work with industry partners to develop a sensing system that will ensure all trailers being heated do in fact achieve the time and temperature criteria for sanitization.
To date, there is a gap in the research determining how in-kind giving can be used to motivate student engagement. In tandem with Algonquin College, this project seeks to understand how in-kind giving can help students get involved in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Through a mixed-methods approach involving interviews, focus groups, and surveys, the research will create a student handbook. This handbook will guide student engagement toward in-kind giving and illustrate how this engagement will deliver on the UN-SDGs.
There is a perceived talent supply and demand gap in Nova Scotia’s ICT and digital tech sector and recruitment is at top of mind for employers. Hiring new employees can be time consuming and costly, however a well-planned onboarding program can increase the proficiency of a new hire and increase retention rates. The objective of the proposed research is to (1) examine best practices for employee onboarding and (2) investigate current practices within the tech sector. To answer these questions, we will conduct a literature review and deploy an industry-wide survey.
Despite its growing prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal disease in society, its cause is still poorly understood. Emerging research suggests that degenerative spine disease may be an important facilitator to the development of chronic inflammatory musculoskeletal disease. We aim to investigate the effect of degenerative spine disease on muscle inflammation, pain and dysfunction by using an animal model of experimentally induced spine osteoarthritis.
The goal of this partnership is to develop data-driven tools that will empower individual Canadians to improve their financial resilience and reduce their levels of financial stress.
The Healthcare Foundation plays an active role in improving patient experiences across Newfoundland and Labrador. The significant findings from research funded by the Healthcare Foundation helps improve the way we diagnose and treat our population. After a grant is received a board member from the foundation is updated on the findings of the research, who then examines how the results will improve healthcare practices in the province. If our study yields significant results, offline resources may become available to the patient population, which can be accessed without seeing a physician.
The COVID19 crisis has had an immense impact in loss of employment across nations and sectors. Youth are one of the most impacted demographic groups as job security has become more precarious. With a main objective of addressing youth unemployment in recovery packages while remaining committed to climate progress, this project proposes a quantitative and qualitative research methodology to analyze the policy recommendations and financial figures found in economic recovery packages and policies.
The research analyzes the structures of social networks, the varying uses of social media and information diffusion among social networking sites’ users in Kyrgyzstan as a pilot study and possibly expand in a subsequent project to Central Asia. We will study social media consequences on politics, the rise of populism, democracy, equality, participation, diversity, deliberation, privacy, surveillance, community building, informal social networks, public sphere and everyday life. The information heterogeneity of social media content in Kyrgyzstan will also be analyzed in this research.
With an increasing concern toward social isolation and loneliness issues in society, there is growing interest in social initiatives aiming to enhance social connectedness within communities. To make such efforts sustainable, the next step would be to evaluate their effectiveness to develop evidence-based practices. The goal of this project is to build a reliable assessment tool, named Community Cohesion Index (CCI), that measures the social cohesion between and among neighbors.
The Lake of the Woods (LOW) is a large transboundary lake that frequently experiences toxic algal blooms that are caused by excessive nutrient inputs to the lake from its watershed. The objective of this research is to quantify nutrient delivery to the LOW from atmospheric deposition and rivers draining the Canadian portion of the basin and use this information to guide management efforts.