Conserving the buzz: An interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder approach to pollinator conservation in Ontario, Canada

Southern Ontario is one of the most critical regions in Canada in terms of wildlife-human conflict. It has one of the highest proportions of species at-risk but also dense human population and agricultural productivity. This project proposes to research whether habitat for at-risk pollinators can be adequately incorporated onto private farmland using methods from natural and social sciences. In addition, it seeks to determine whether farmers experience a perceived and/or actual financial benefit from this habitat in the form of increased ecosystem services (e.g.

Multiple shock dependencies with applications to insurance risks

Traditional insurance models build on the assumption of independence of risks. One of the main causes of the recent financial crisis, this assumption has facilitated the quantification of risks for decades, but it has often lead to risks' under-estimation and as a result under-pricing. Importantly, one of the prime pillars of the novel concept of Enterprise Risk Management is the requirement that insurance companies have a clear understanding of risks' interconnections within the risk portfolios. However, modeling dependence is not an easy call.

Investigating Player Behaviour in Social Networking Games

Social Network Games are multi-player games played through social networking sites (e.g. Facebook). Working in conjunction with Big Viking Games, the Canadian company behind Facebook games such as YoWorld and FishWorld, this research seeks to add much needed knowledge about who plays Social Network Games, what activities they undertake while participating in these gameworlds, as well as why some people quit playing.

Feasibility Evaluation Study of LifeguardMobile (designed for supported self-management of patients with chronic and complex conditions)

"Lifeguard Health Networks Inc. (LHN) has developed a secure Virtual Health Assistant application (app), to enhance supported self-management for patients with chronic and complex conditions, by leveraging their network of trusted family and friends, under the direction and guidance of health practitioners.We are conducting a study to evaluate the feasibility of the app and the level of user engagement with this form of supported self-management. This is a non-randomized, interventional study having both objective and self-reported outcome measures.

Dreamcatcher Informatics: A Web-based/Mobile Information System for Aboriginal Land Management, Consultation, and Preservation of History, Culture, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

The role of this internship is to assist in reaching the SSHRC goal for the Dreamcatcher system of capturing cultural data, traditional ecological knowledge, and traditional land use, creating as full a historical, cultural, and economic record as possible, as well as strong land use management/consultation, water and asset management, and public health systems. This information will inform cultural research, treaty negotiations, and community development.

Automatic 3D reconstruction of Indoor Environments from Consumer-graded Cameras

With the increase demand of 3D models in urban environment, automatic indoor modeling has attracted more attention for human trajectory identification, facility management and indoor navigation. To reconstruct indoor models quickly and reliably, this project will propose a new indoor reconstruction method to automatically generate indoor semantic building models through building ground maps and images from consumer-graded cameras. The image of building ground maps will be over-segmented and later semantically classified as ceilings, walls and other indoor elements.

Social sciences research helps digital marketing firm transcend click rates and page views

Treefrog, based in Newmarket, Ontario, knows all about social media for businesses. It provides a variety of marketing services to clients, including ‘traditional’ social media strategy. But a series of ongoing conversations between Sean Stephens, Treefrog CEO, and Laurie Baker, then an anthropology PhD candidate at York University, sparked a shift in how the company approaches social media.

Beyond Climate Justice: Competing Narratives and Ambitious Climate Action in India - implications for Canadian policy makers

My collaborative research project with Nicolette Little will examine the role of climate justice in India’s climate change policy, discourse and action. Embedding the notion of “climate justice” at the core of climate change discourse results in a political frame around risk (Indian) and responsibility (Global North’s). The project seeks to delineate how a focus on climate justice obscures the need for more ambitious national and global action on climate change.

Biomolecular Structure Analysis to Accelerate Develoment of New Vaccines and Monoclonal Antibodies

Manufacturing of consistently high quality products is the commitment of the pharmaceutical industry. To achieve this, new products must be thoroughly tested and the results meet government-approved product specifications. Improving existing and adopting improved analytical technologies for product testing ensure the production of safe and effective products. This is particularly critical for the manufacturing of biologic products which, relative to small molecular drugs, have a larger size, are more complex in structure and are thus more difficult to characterize.

Understanding the Mechanisms of Serotype Replacement in Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

Diseases, there are a number of different serotypes that can cause infection. The vaccine is often targeted towards one or some of the serotypes. There is accumulating evidence that when serotype-specific vaccines are used, other non-vaccine serotypes may gain a competitive advantage and spread in larger magnitudes. This has raised the concern of serotype replacement when vaccination is used against a single or several serotypes of a disease. In other words, serotypes that not targeted by the vaccine are able to able to fill the ecological niche left open by the vaccine-targeted serotypes.

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