Innovative Projects Realized

Diversity and Abundance of Beneficial and Pest Insects in Canadian Prairie Agroecosystems

The proposed research project will assess the insect fauna present associated with prairie wetlands, as well as those found in adjacent fields of crop plants (canola, barley, wheat) and restored grasslands. Insects will be collected using various trapping methods to sample taxa exhibiting different lifestyles. Collected specimens will be identified as specifically as possible to determine taxa found in sampled habitats. This will provide information regarding species diversity and richness of insects in prairie wetlands, which act as nutrition for the waterfowl that Ducks Unlimited are focused on protecting. This information can further be used to assess the ecological health of habitats where Canadian waterfowl exist, as well as determine if beneficial or pest insects may be present in the vegetation surrounding those wetlands which may be affecting local waterfowl or other types of animals, or which may exert an effect on the croplands that prairie potholes exists in.

Translating behavioural science into effective hiring practices

While companies are looking to hire the most qualified candidate to fill their positions, they often have a difficult time identifying the right candidate for the job using traditional hiring practices. However, one major barrier is that companies may over-rely on traditional hiring methods such as interviews that may not be the best way to select the most qualified candidates. This is because employers may overly-rely on their experience and intuition, even though they are often led astray. The current project seeks to provide a systematic literature review to examine whether work done in cognitive and behavioural science can address these issues and improve the hiring process.

Childhood Healthy Weights Early Intervention Program: Scale-up

The Early Intervention Program (EIP) is a family-based intervention targeting families of children who are off the healthy weight trajectory. The EIP is a 10-week program offered at community centers across BC where children and their families meet once a week for 90 minutes as well as online. Parents will be provided with healthy lifestyle content and will engage in discussions on how to engage in health behaviours, and children will participate in physical activities aiming to enhance their motor skills. Families will also have access to a web portal with content and suggestions of activities to be completed. The Childhood Obesity Foundation will benefit by working with experienced graduate students (M.Sc and PhD) to evaluate the implementation and the effectiveness of EIP. The intern will contribute with previous experience and innovative perspectives on the use of technologies to promote behaviour change in low income and diverse populations.

Effect of topsoil replacement depth and amendments on wellsite reclamation success in northeastern Alberta

Topsoil is vital to the revegetation success of land affected by oil and gas wellsites and borrow pits. Therefore, the Government of Alberta’s guidelines require that 80% of the topsoil is replaced during revegetation. However, finding topsoil to meet the guidelines is challenging in cases where topsoil was not salvaged during excavation and where salvaged topsoil has been lost during storage and handling. This study examines the use of organic amendments (peat and biochar) to restore soil quality to its pre-disturbance equivalence and achieve revegetation success when the required 80% topsoil replacement depth is not attainable. Soil chemical and physical properties and vegetation growth and biomass yields will be modeled as functions of combinations of amendment and topsoil replacement depth on a borrow pit previously reclaimed using 50% topsoil replacement depth. Check (no amendment) treatments in which topsoil replacement depths are 50% and 80% of adjacent undisturbed (control) sites will be included for comparison.

Predictive Analytics for Charitable giving

Machine learning in the charitable sector is only beginning to be used successfully. Fundmetric Inc has applied various machine learning algorithms to predict donor behaviour, such as who will become a major ($10,000+) donor and which lapsed donors will return if stewarded correctly. There is ample opportunity for research in this domain, including building a super model across various charities, investigating feature synthesis and importance, applying deep learning to make use of the rich temporal data concerning donations, and learning to sequence email appeals. We plan to investigate the application and creation of various machine learning techniques to these and other pressing charitable issues in order to both help the charitable sector be more effective in raising funds and help advance the field of machine learning.

Development and evaluation of semi-passive biological water treatment processes for water impacted by resource extraction

One of the most vital challenges within the mining and oil sands industries is management of water impacted by resource extraction. Semi-passive biological treatment systems (PTSs) treat water close to the source of contamination and often prevent contamination from occurring in the first place, making them suitable options for management of water impacted by resource extraction. These biological treatment systems require minimal or no chemicals and energy input and minimal ongoing management and care. Therefore, semi-passive biological treatment systems are ideal for closure scenarios. However, current biological piloting-scale testing systems pose a great challenge for full-scale design of semi-passive biological treatment systems as the lack the ability to effectively operate on-site and incorporate multiple treatment steps.

Maven Water and Environment (Maven) is developing a modular biological piloting system technology (WaterMaven system) that can mitigate the existing challenges associated with current PTS piloting strategies and allow for integration of multiple treatment technologies. This research will be involved in the development and beta testing of the WaterMaven technology for treatment of impacted by the mining and oil sands industries.

Analysis of the cryptocurrency market microstructure: role of smart order routing

Over the recent years, cryptocurrencies have attracted tremendous amount of attention from both general public and professional investors as a new asset class. However, trading activities of cryptocurrencies are extremely fragmented and unregulated in most of countries around the world. The proposed research project aims to empirically study the microstructure of cryptocurrency exchanges in order to gain insight on what elements are needed to improve the market. In particular, the proposed research focuses on the potential role of smart order router (SOR). The proposed research project will work with Aquanow, a Canadian start-up company working on building a platform to aggregate the fragmented cryptocurrency market for investors. The project focuses on potential improvements in market quality (e.g., depth, costs, liquidity, price discovery) that such an aggregation platform can bring into the current fragmented market. Overall, the proposed project aims to shed light on the role of smart order routing in both the market quality and regulatory perspective.

Cultural memory and diversity in Canadian film festival programming

“Cultural memory and diversity in Canadian film festival programming” will work with the Kingston Canadian Film Festival and the Vulnerable Media Lab at Queen’s University to research best practices related to film and video preservation, media digitization, and public programming. Specifically, interns will investigate the role of historic films made by diverse Canadians – including women, Indigenous and Métis, Inuit, and LGBT2Q+ people – within national film festivals, considering the social roles that these films and their screening cultures play. Through researching, archiving, and digitizing a selection of films made by marginalized Canadians, interns will work with the Kingston Canadian Film Festival to diversify their screenings and preserve their own archive.

W?SÁNE? Law and Governance: Marine and Terrestrial Management in the Southern Gulf Islands

The proposed research project will explore the question: How can existing mechanisms (National Marine Conservation Area Reserve (NMCAR), Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA), and Management Agreements with Parks Canada in the Southern Gulf Islands (GINPR)) be used to uphold Indigenous W?SÁNE? laws, governance structures, values, and responsibilities within W?SÁNE? territory? Exploring the benefits, limits, and processes for funding, establishment, and enforcement of these mechanisms will help the W?SÁNE? Leadership Council make informed decisions regarding the feasibility and potential negotiation of these agreements within W?SÁNE? territory. Importantly, the research will also help the W?SÁNE? Leadership Council asses how these processes might help further objectives of environmental stewardship and care within W?SÁNE? territory, as informed by W?SÁNE? laws, values, and worldview.

The impact of residential displacement on health among people who use drugs living with HIV in Vancouver, Canada

Residential displacement is common among people who use drugs (PWUD). However, we know little about the impact residential displacement has on their social and health outcomes. PWUD living with HIV may experience particularly detrimental consequences due to their structural vulnerability and complex realities of their everyday lives. Focusing on PWUD living with HIV, this study will explore the health consequences of displacement from housing in the West End and Downtown Eastside neighborhoods of Vancouver, British Columbia. The study will employ an innovative research method combining qualitative and geospatial approaches. Findings from this study will inform policies and programs to improve housing stability and health of PWUD living with HIV. This project will be conducted in partnership with the Dr. Peter Centre.

Improvisation and Dramaturgy: an adaptive and embodied approach to theory and research in dance

This important relationship between Mile Zero Dance and the Drama Department at the University of Alberta has been growing over the last ten years through performance and research collaborations between Gerry Morita (MZD) and Lin Snelling (Associate Professor University of Alberta). MZD wishes to address a new series of objectives through inviting Thea Patterson to engage with Mile Zero Dance as a performer, dramaturg, and facilitator for seminars and workshops. These tasks are directly related to Lin Snelling’s research in how interdisciplinary study brings an inclusive edge to performing, problem solving and creative research. These objectives are 1. expansions of engaging discourse through dance writing and performing 2. extended improvisation practice as a viable performance medium 3. deeper knowledge and discussion of current performance forms for all members of the Edmonton arts community. It will culminate in an article written by Snelling titled, Where does a Voice go? Explorations of memory and sound as it shapes the dancing body. This article hopes to expand the conversation from a performing point of view. How does an interdisciplinary collaboration fuel the compositional skills of individual performers?

Development of a tissue culture platform to investigate piscine orthoreovirus infectious cycle in-vitro

The aquaculture industry is constantly growing worldwide. Vast arrays of fish species are farmed in freshwater, brackish, and marine systems. In farms, fish reach high-population densities, which facilitates the outbreaks of infectious diseases. This is a big challenge for the aquaculture industry, particularly in the case of viral pathogens because there are few, if any, efficacious treatments against emergent and re-emergent fish viruses. Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) is an emerging viral pathogen that causes high economic losses in the salmon farming industry. Importantly, by harming invaluable wild fisheries, PRV is suspected to influence both ecological and social damage to the communities that traditionally exploit this resource. The way PRV produces disease is virtually unknown due to the lack of tools for its study and this has seriously delayed the advance of research. The objective of our proposed research is to develop tools for the study of this virus in-vitro. The expected outcome will be an important contribution to the knowledge of PRV pathogenicity and will help to identify possible ways of prevention and treatment of PRV outbreaks.