Innovative Projects Realized

Examining salmon population dynamics on the Central Coast of British Columbia to inform conservation and management

Pacific salmon play an important economic, ecological, and cultural role throughout their range. However, declining salmon populations have diminished this role in many regions. The factors responsible for declines are poorly understood but are of great interest, particularly for First Nations, who have a large role in salmon management. To inform management and conservation, I propose to synthesize salmon population data from the Central Coast of British Columbia, in collaboration with the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance, an organization representing resource interests of First Nations in the region. I will (i) quantify patterns in abundance and survival of salmon over space and time; (ii) determine the population status of salmon stocks; and (iii) test hypotheses to explain the observed patterns in abundance, status, and survival. This work is a critical first step towards understanding

Mortality rate modeling: applications to the pricing of longevity-linked financial derivative instruments and a study of the effectiveness of these hedging instruments in a pension risk management str

We are all well aware of the spectacular improvement in life-expectancy around the world since the 1990’s. While most people would agree that living longer is a good thing, it nonetheless increases the risk of having people outlive their assets so that they become forced to accept lower standards of living in old age. People with a defined benefit pension plan or people with a life annuity contract have transferred their individual “longevity risk” to their Pension Fund or to an Insurance Company. These organizations could in turn hedge their systemic longevity risk with financial instruments linked to the mortality of the population. We study the performance of two of these instruments as risk hedges for Canadian pension funds.

Detection and characterization of biodegradable polymeric biomaterials

Biodegradable polymeric biomaterials have been used extensively for medical applications such as implants, drug/gene delivery, and scaffolds. To determine the end applications, the molecular characteristics of these polymeric biomaterials are important which must be characterized. The development of reliable and fast analytical tool to detect, separate and characterize polymeric biomaterials in medical devices and drug formulations is still challenging. The main goal of this research project is to develop new, reliable and cost-effective molecular analytical methods to characterize biodegradable polymeric biomaterials. These new methods will help Canadian companies like PolyAnalytik dealing with polymeric biomaterials to improve the quality of their products and services. There will be strong impacts of the new developed characterization methods in biomaterials and medical device industries, the field of molecular analysis and molecular research.

Hybrid Solar Panel

The project’s main objective is a further reduction of dependence on fossil fuels in our everyday electric appliances. Fossil Fuels are used to generate electricity and they emit dangerous greenhouse gases to the environment which one of its consequences is the familiar global warming phenomena. By integrating a heat exchanger to the original solar PV system, the efficiency of the solar cells are maintained (17-19%), and with the additional usage of the waste energy to heat domestic water ( or HVAC), the total demand on fossil fueled electricity will decrease dramatically and thus, increasing the overall system’s efficiency and reducing the carbon emissions. Although the total product price will increase, but due to the extra savings through the usage of the waste energy, the payback will decrease from 7 years to 5-6 years.

Une étude numérique du comportement sismique d’un parc à résidus

La stabilité des parcs à résidus est une priorité pour l’industrie minière due aux conséquences graves qui peuvent être associées avec une rupture. Le taux de défaillance de ces ouvrages est dix fois plus élevé que celui des barrages conventionnels et 25 % des défaillances sont attribuables à la séismicité. En raison de leur permanence, les parcs à résidus situés en régions de séismicité modérée doivent être conçus pour l’activité sismique importante. Les méthodes analytiques sont typiquement utilisées pour l’évaluation de la stabilité sismique. Cependant, ces méthodes ont été développées pour les barrages conventionnels et leur pertinence par rapport des parcs à résidus n’est pas certaine. Les objectifs principaux de ce projet sont l’utilisation de l’analyse dynamique numérique pour l’amélioration de la connaissance du comportement sismique des parcs à résidus et la validation et la calibration des méthodes analytique. L’étudiant apprendra l’analyse numérique et comment évaluer la stabilité sismique des parcs à résidus en utilisant les méthodes analytiques et numériques. Les partenaires développeront une meilleure compréhension du comportement sismique des parcs à résidus.

A life cycle impact assessment methodology based on planetary boundaries

Planetary boundaries can be understood as limits for the Earth’s tolerance towards environmental impacts in the form of, for example, greenhouse gas emissions, water use and the release of nitrogen and phosphorous. This project aims at making planetary boundaries useful to the environmental management within companies. This will happen by developing a method that quantifies environmental impacts of a company in the language of planetary boundaries. The method will allow companies to identify the largest potentials for reducing environmental impacts and to understand what types of impacts (e.g. water use or climate change) that should be of priority in a given case. The partner organisation is expected to benefit by gaining insights on the science behind the method to be developed and by applying the method on their own case study and exploring how the results can be used for internal environmental management and stakeholder (costumers, etc.) communication.

Assessing habitat-dependent variation in distribution and abundance of aquatic Invertebrates in Alberta wetlands

This study examines the effect of human footprint and habitat characteristics on aquatic invertebrate abundance and distribution among wetlands across the province of Alberta. This study will contribute to ABMI’s work which aims to monitor species and their habitats to support decision-making about the protection and restoration of provincial biodiversity.
More specifically, the research will: 1) focus on differentiating the effects of different wetland types and different natural and human created habitats on the distribution of aquatic invertebrates; 2) incorporate the effect of spatial scale in assessing aquatic invertebrate diversity. The three main scales are water characteristics, habitats immediately around the water and catchment characteristics; and 3) addresses the relationships for each natural region, or for two broad areas i.e., forested area vs non-forested area i.e., prairie/parkland/dry mixed wood.

Évaluation en laboratoire de la préfissuration de bases granulaires traitées au ciment pour des chaussées non revêtues à faible trafic

Ce projet de recherche traite des bases granulaires de chaussées non revêtues traitées avec des matériaux cimentaires. Le traitement des bases granulaires rallonge la durée de vie de ces chaussées. Dans le cadre de cette étude, une formulation de base granulaire traitée au ciment sera établie, et la possibilité de préfissurer cette couche de matériaux sera étudiée. La préfissuration permettra de ne pas avoir des fissures de grande largeur qui apparaissent de manière aléatoire et endommage la chaussée. Le projet inclut donc la formulation de ce matériau cimentaire de même qui le développement d’un système pour l’évaluation des caractéristiques mécaniques de ce matériau.

Recommendations for Improving Wetland Compensation in Nova Scotia: Investigating Wetland Significance and Function for the Basis of Reclamation

Atlantic Gold is preparing to start construction for an open pit mine near the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. However, significant wetlands will have to be altered to complete this construction. The current policies regarding wetland alteration and compensation in Nova Scotia focus on area. For example, if 25 hectares of wetland are to be altered, it is required that Atlantic Gold will have to create 50 hectares of new wetland to compensate. This proposed project looks to find improvements to this policy – specifically, wetland compensation focusing on ecological significance (and not just area). Existing wetland policies will be looked at to try to find best ecological practices, and ultimately see where Nova Scotia’s policies can improve. This will have the goal of providing a guide that Atlantic Gold and future proponents can follow to help ease the process of wetland compensation, as well as rooting these methods in scientific analysis.

Development of colony-specific genetic markers for murres hunted off Newfoundland and Labrador

Thick-billed murres from breeding colonies throughout the North Atlantic, and common murres from colonies throughout the northwest Atlantic winter off Newfoundland, Labrador and Greenland where they are the object of an annual hunt. The winter murre or ‘turr’ hunt is an important part of the culture of coastal communities, and is protected under Canadian legislation. The colony of origin of hunted murres is unknown, although it is necessary to assess the impact of the hunt on specific colonies. The hunt could target colonies that are suffering great declines. With our project we propose to use genetic markers to assign hunted birds to their colony of origin and assess the impact of the murre hunt on common and thick-billed murres from different colonies.
Our results will be important for the management of the murre hunt, and used by Bird Studies Canada and Wildlife Habitat Canada to inform the government to improve hunting regulations in order to minimize the impact of the hunt on declining colonies.

The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) game in mineral exploration – how is it played?

Using the same Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) voluntary codes (“’rules”), different junior mineral exploration companies obtain different CSR outcomes, i.e. the rules do not make the game. The overall study aims to find out how the game is played ‘on the ground’. This internship covers part of the exploratory phase of

the project that aims to understand the context and to help decide on aspects that should receive priority attention in the more detailed main study. It will also help identify participants in the more detailed study that will follow.

Participation in the internship will benefit the PDAC as the interviews will provide insight into the use of the e3PLUS by companies, which will help improve e3PLUS. GeoQuest International will benefit from participation through the development of expertise that supports its consulting practice.

Les « occasions manquées » de la Prophylaxie pré-exposition du VIH : étude qualitative au sein de la Clinique l’Actuel à Montréal

La Prophylaxie pré-exposition (PrEP) du VIH permet de réduire considérablement le risque d’infection pour des individus séronégatifs à haut risque, en particulier les hommes gais et bisexuels, une population où l’incidence du VIH demeure très élevée. Il s’agit de mieux comprendre les déterminants sociaux du recours (ou non) à la PrEP chez des hommes gais et bisexuels à haut risque pour le VIH. Cette recherche qualitative, menée au sein de la Clinique l’Actuel à Montréal, s’appuie sur la comparaison de deux groupes de patients : récemment infectés par le VIH (n=20) et utilisateurs de PrEP (n=20). Les entrevues permettront d’identifier des potentielles « occasions manquées » de la prescription et/ou du recours à la PrEP. Des entrevues seront menées auprès des professionnels de santé impliqués dans le suivi des patients (n=10). L’étude permettra d’élaborer un nouvel outil d’évaluation des profils de risque afin d’améliorer le suivi des patients.