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Pulp and paper mill biomass boilers generate large quantities of ash in Canada with British Columbia (BC) being the highest ash generating province followed closely by Quebec. Generally, the generated ash is landfilled, particularly in BC, with only a small amount being used beneficially. It is anticipated that the difficulty associated with the management of ash will worsen over time as the industry increases its reliance on green fuel. Thus, there is a strong need to identify beneficial uses of pulp and paper boiler ash for the sake of environmental and economic sustainability. The purpose of this report is to provide the first step in this direction, a review of proposed or implemented uses for coal and hog (or wood) ash around the world. Considering both the properties of the ash and local opportunities, this could be the first step toward screening the applications that may apply to individual mills. Several large-scale practices use ash, such as land application (as a nutrient source or as a liming agent), use in the construction industry (as a replacement for cement or as a fill material), and reclamation of mine sites and stabilization of unpaved forest roads. In some cases, relatively small-scale applications have been used which included uses such as a compost component, agent for pH adjustment of liquid streams and slurries, blasting abrasive, and source of quartz for glass manufacturing to name a few. It is important to note that the chemical nature of both fly and bottom ashes can be quite variable due to the type of wood residues combusted as well as combustion equipment used and must be considered in identifying beneficial applications., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Drug checking services for harm reduction and overdose prevention have been implemented in many jurisdictions as a public health intervention in response to the opioid overdose crisis. This study demonstrates the first on-site use of paper spray mass spectrometry for quantitative drug checking to address the limitations of current on-site drug testing technologies., Methods: Paper spray mass spectrometry was used to provide on-site drug checking services at a supervised consumption site in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada during a 2-day pilot test in August 2019. The method included the targeted quantitative measurement of 49 drugs and an untargeted full scan to assist in identifying unknown/unexpected components., Results: During the pilot, 113 samples were submitted for analysis, with 88 (78%) containing the client expected substance. Fentanyl was detected in 45 of 59 expected fentanyl samples, and in 50 (44%) samples overall at a median concentration of 3.6% (w/w%). The synthetic precursor of fentanyl, 4-anilino-N-phenethyl-piperidine (4-ANPP), was found in 74.0% of all fentanyl samples at a median concentration of 2.2%, suggesting widespread poor manufacturing practices. Etizolam was detected in 10 submitted samples anticipated to be fentanyl at a median concentration of 2.5%. No clients submitting these samples expected etizolam or a benzodiazepine in their sample. In three instances, it was co-measured with fentanyl, and in seven cases it was detected alone., Discussion and Conclusions: The quantitative capabilities and low detection limits demonstrated by paper spray mass spectrometry offer distinct benefits over existing on-site drug checking methods and harm reduction services., (© 2021 The Authors. Drug and Alcohol Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

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In an era of escalating and intersectional crises, the toxic drug poisoning crisis stands out as a devastating and persistent phenomenon. Where we write from in British Columbia (BC), Canada, over 13,000 deaths have occurred in the eight years since the toxic drug poisoning crisis was declared a provincial health emergency. While many of these deaths have occurred in large urban centres, smaller rural communities in British Columbia are also grappling with the profound impacts of the toxic drug poisoning crisis and are struggling to provide adequate support for their vulnerable populations. In response to these challenges, the Walk With Me research project has emerged in the Comox Valley of Vancouver Island, BC, employing community-engaged methodologies grounded in pluralist knowledge production. Walk With Me seeks to understand the unique manifestations of the toxic drug poisoning crisis in small communities, identifying local harm reduction interventions that can foster community resilience, and aiming to catalyze sustainable change by amplifying the voices of those directly affected by the crisis to advocate for policy changes. This paper outlines the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of the Walk With Me project as a harm reduction initiative, which holds community partnerships and diverse ways of knowing at its heart. It presents the community-engaged research framework used by the project to address overlapping health and social crises, offering practical examples of its application in various research projects across sites and organizations. The paper concludes with a reflection on the impacts of Walk With Me to date, highlighting the lessons learned, challenges encountered, and opportunities for future research and action. Overall, this article captures the urgent need for community-engaged approaches to address the toxic drug poisoning crisis and other multidimensional crises facing society, particularly in smaller and rural communities, underscoring the potential for meaningful change through collaborative, grassroots efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Population physical activity promotion (PPAP) is one of the most effective noncommunicable disease prevention strategies, yet coordination is lacking around the world. Whole-of-system approaches and complex systems methods are called for to advance PPAP. This paper reports on a project which (1) used an Attributes Framework with system mapping (group model building and causal loop diagramming of feedback loops) and (2) identified potential leverage points to address the challenge of effective coordination of multisectoral PPAP in British Columbia. Methods: Key findings from stakeholder interviews and workshops described the current system for PPAP in terms of attributes and dimensions in the framework. These were translated into variables and used in group model building. Participants prioritized the importance of variables to address the coordination challenge and then created causal loop diagrams in 3 small groups. One collective causal loop diagram was created, and top priority variables and associated feedback loops were highlighted to explore potential leverage points. Results: Leverage points included the relationships and feedback loops among priority variables: political leadership, visible policy support and governance, connectivity for knowledge translation, collaborative multisector grants, multisector collaboration, and integrating co-benefits. Leveraging and altering "vicious" cyclical patterns to increase coordinated multisector PPAP are key. Conclusions: The Attributes Framework, group model building and causal loop diagrams, and emergent feedback loops were useful to explore potential leverage points to address the challenge of multisectoral coordination of PPAP. Future research could apply the same methods in other jurisdictions and compare and contrast resultant frameworks, variables, feedback loops, and leverage points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many species of fishes around the world are soniferous. The types of sounds fishes produce vary among species and regions but consist typically of low-frequency (< 1.5 kHz) pulses and grunts. These sounds can potentially be used to monitor fishes non-intrusively and could complement traditional monitoring techniques. However, the significant time required for human analysts to manually label fish sounds in acoustic recordings does not yet allow passive acoustics to be used as a viable tool for monitoring fishes. In this paper, we compare two different approaches to automatically detect fish sounds. One is a more traditional machine learning technique based on the detection of acoustic transients in the spectrogram and the classification using Random Forest (RF). The other is using a deep learning approach and is based on the classification of overlapping segments (0.2 s) of spectrogram using a ResNet18 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Both algorithms were trained using 21,950 manually annotated fish and non-fish sounds collected from 2014 to 2019 at five different locations in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada. The performance of the detectors was tested on part of the data from the Strait of Georgia that was withheld from the training phase, data from Barkley Sound, British Columbia, and data collected in the Port of Miami, Florida, United States. The CNN performed up to 1.9 times better than the RF (F1 score: 0.82 vs. 0.43). In some cases, the CNN was able to find more faint fish sounds than the analyst and performed well in environments different from the one it was trained in (Miami F1 score: 0.88). Noise analysis in the 20--1,000 Hz frequency band shows that the CNN is still reliable in noise levels greater than 130 dB re 1 μPa in the Port of Miami but becomes less reliable in Barkley Sound past 100 dB re 1 μPa due to mooring noise. The proposed approach can efficiently monitor (unidentified) fish sounds in a variety of environments and can also facilitate the development of species-specific detectors. We provide the software FishSound Finder, an easy-to-use open-source implementation of the CNN detector with detailed documentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1953, Bellingham's KVOS-TV aired its first broadcast--Queen Elizabeth II's coronation--to audiences in northwest Washington State and southwest British Columbia. KVOS was the second television station in Washington and the first in British Columbia. As the station--and the popularity of television--grew, KVOS turned a persistent focus to attracting television audiences in the Vancouver metropolitan region and Vancouver Island. The station established a subsidiary in Vancouver in 1960 to produce commercials for local Canadian advertisers. This subsidiary grew into a full-fledged film production studio, Canawest Film Productions, which produced commercials, industrial films and animation for clients on both sides of the border. For a brief period, KVOS and Canawest fostered a unique relationship among an American broadcaster, Canadian and American advertisers, and cross-border audiences. Canawest was shuttered in 1977 after the Canadian legislature passed Bill C-58, ending tax deductions for Canadian companies advertising on American TV stations. This paper gives insight into the cross-border design of KVOS as well as Canawest's role in producing audiovisual material in the 1960s and 1970s. In doing so, this paper reflects on the tensions between culture and economics in the face of financial incentive and policy intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reforming environmentally harmful subsidies is an international priority under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Research that links industrial subsidies to negative ecological impacts, however, is limited. This paper contributes to the emerging agenda of global "subsidy accountability" research by linking oil and gas subsidies to the decline of endangered caribou herds in British Columbia, Canada. While existing research concretely attributes the decline of caribou herds to industrial activity, including oil and gas development, we suggest there is a need to identify the political‐economic structures which drive ongoing industrial development in caribou habitat, including public subsidies. We use government data to map oil and gas wells in critical caribou habitat and determine how many are run by operators receiving provincial fossil fuel "royalty credits". Ultimately, we find that 1678, or 54%, of oil and gas wells located within critical caribou habitat are run by companies that have received benefits from one or both of BC's largest royalty credit programs. This paper points to the need for further analysis of subsidies as indirect drivers of biodiversity loss on a global scale, as well as increased emphasis on political‐economic drivers in conservation research. It also highlights the obstacles to implementing appropriate conservation solutions in political‐economic contexts dominated by resource extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian Cordillera in the province of British Columbia witnesses numerous rock falls every year. Studies on the recorded rock fall data in this area show that rock fall hazard follows weather conditions, especially precipitation and freeze-thaw cycles. This relationship indicates that a weather-based approach can be implemented to estimate possible changes in the rock fall hazard due to climate change. In this paper, we used a statistical approach to quantify the relationship between monthly weather averages and rock fall frequencies for a section of a transportation corridor along the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada. In this regard, von Mises distributions are used to find the best-fitted models to the monthly precipitation and freeze-thaw cycles, and proper relative weights are applied to the models in order to calibrate them to the rock fall monthly frequency. The calibrated model is used with input data from climatic predictions for 2041–2070 and 2071–2100 to see how rock fall distribution will be affected due to climate change in the future decades. Results show that between 9 and 19%, more rock fall is anticipated in future winters. Rock falls are expected to decrease in other months, especially in October, November, March, and April. This paper presents a method to predict changes in rock fall hazard seasonality due to climate change and illustrates the method with a case study along a section of the Canadian Cordillera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floodplain wetland ecosystems experience significant seasonal water fluctuation over the year, resulting in a dynamic hydroperiod, with a range of vegetation community responses. This paper assesses trends and changes in land cover and hydroclimatological variables, including air temperature, river discharge, and water level in the Upper Columbia River Wetlands (UCRW), British Columbia, Canada. A land cover classification time series from 1984 to 2022 was generated from the Landsat image archive using a random forest algorithm. Peak river flow timing, duration, and anomalies were examined to evaluate temporal coincidence with observed land cover trends. The land cover classifier used to segment changes in wetland area and open water performed well (kappa of 0.82). Over the last 4 decades, observed river discharge and air temperature have increased, precipitation has decreased, the timing of peak flow is earlier, and the flow duration has been reduced. The frequency of both high-discharge events and dry years have increased, indicating a shift towards more extreme floodplain flow behavior. These hydrometeorological changes are associated with a shift in the timing of snowmelt, from April to mid-May, and with seasonal changes in the vegetative communities over the 39-year period. Thus, woody shrubs (+ 6 % to + 12 %) have expanded as they gradually replaced marsh and wet-meadow land covers with a reduction in open-water area. This suggests that increasing temperatures have already impacted the regional hydrology, wetland hydroperiod, and floodplain land cover in the Upper Columbia River valley. Overall, there is substantial variation in seasonal and annual land cover, reflecting the dynamic nature of floodplain wetlands, but the results show that the wetlands are drying out with increasing areas of woody/shrub habitat and loss of aquatic habitat. The results suggest that floodplain wetlands, particularly marsh and open-water habitats, are vulnerable to climatic and hydrological changes that could further reduce their areal extent in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In British Columbia (BC), there are challenges accessing specialized spinal cord injury care and resources. This paper evaluated the impact of spinal cord injury health educational workshops delivered in regional communities that were informed by persons with lived experience. A community survey was conducted with 44 persons with lived experience in a BC region to identify priority SCI health-related topics. Twenty-five topics were ranked from 1–14, with bowel and bladder management ranked 1 and 4, sexual health ranked 5, and pressure injuries ranked 7. Clinical perspectives on the priorities were collected from 102 clinicians in the BC region, who independently ranked 14 of these SCI topics and considered the former 4 topics to be lower clinical priority (ranked 11–14). These priorities informed a series of SCI clinical education workshops held at healthcare facilities in three regional cities. The goals were to improve clinicians' knowledge and confidence levels when managing spinal cord injury health and to facilitate person-centred care. Positive feedback demonstrated that educational workshops supported by lived experience perspectives effectively enhanced the clinicians' understanding of spinal cord injury and their priorities. Future plans include engaging more administrators as part of this initiative and conducting workshops in other regions of BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crises of seniors' care in countries like the UK and Canada, further highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, have been connected to processes of privatization and financialization. In this paper I argue that rent theory is important for disaggregating mechanisms, including of accumulation by dispossession, the devaluation of labour, and assetization, that underpin the process of financialization in the sector. Work on rents often divides between critical approaches, especially to land rent, and mainstream institutionalist and public choice approaches to rent-seeking. Critical rent theory is evolving beyond this divide to understand a broader range of types of rent. Yet, despite attention to the increasing importance of economic rents and forms of rentierism, labour and social reproduction are often excluded from the analysis of how rent relations arise. This paper demonstrates the problems with these exclusions. The argument is illustrated through an analysis of the restructuring of eldercare in British Columbia, Canada, in the last two decades, and employs a feminist political economy approach to examine the social production of rent relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heterogenous mineralogy of ultramafic deposits hosting mining operations makes it challenging to accurately determine the waste rock's mineral carbonation potential (MCP). Additionally, the significantly higher carbonation capabilities of olivine than serpentine add to the difficulty. To address this issue, in this work, a new and unique tool called the MCP calculator was developed as a Microsoft ExcelTM spreadsheet to accurately determine the amount of anthropogenic CO2 that a given rock mass can sequester through mineral carbonation. The program estimates the modal mineral abundance of ultramafic rocks to aid in MCP estimation. This tool is designed to be cost-effective and tailored for use by the mining industry, utilising abundant lithogeochemical data to evaluate their deposit as a potential substrate for industrial mineral carbonation operations. The paper introduces the MCP calculator, outlines a framework for developing the MCP parameter, and presents an example of its application. The calculator is specific to the mineral assemblage investigated at the Turnagain ultramafic complex in northern British Columbia but can be adjusted to study comparable deposits. The paper acknowledges that using waste rock in a mineral carbonation operation requires economic and practical decisions beyond the scope of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to address the issue of how evidence obtained in violation of a Charter-protected right is to be dealt with in civil forfeiture proceedings. In arriving at the answer, the governing jurisprudence in this area of the law will be canvased to provide a contextual background that informs the parameters of this discussion. However, it will ultimately become clear by the end of this paper that evidence obtained in violation of a Charter-protected right should be dealt with by way of section 24(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982, and the use of a modified Grant test. Civil forfeiture is the process by which the state commences legal action to obtain property that was seized as an instrument or proceed of unlawful activity. Although property can be forfeited through a number of different mechanisms, the scope of this paper is limited to forfeiture proceedings commenced by way of civil action under provincial legislation with a focus on British Columbia. The case law presented in this paper will focus primarily on appellate court decisions from across the country due to the scarce attention this area of the law has received. These cases will highlight the endeavours of litigants who sought to undermine civil forfeiture proceedings through the use of common law principles and the Charter. Finally, commentary will be provided on the direction future research in this area of the law should take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Due to ongoing inequities in the social determinants of health and systemic barriers, homelessness continues to be a significant concern that disproportionately impacts racialized communities. Despite constituting a small proportion of the population, Black individuals are over-represented among people experiencing homelessness in many Canadian cities. However, although Black homelessness in Canada is a pressing issue, it has received limited attention in the academic literature. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reported prevalence of Black homelessness across Canada. Design/methodology/approach: By consulting enumerations from 61 designated communities that participated in the 2018 Nationally Coordinated Point-in-Time Count and two regional repositories – one for homeless counts supported by the government of British Columbia and another from the Rural Development Network – this paper reports on the scale and scope of Black homelessness across Canada. Findings: Significantly, these reports demonstrate that Black people are over-represented among those experiencing homelessness compared to local and national populations. These enumerations also demonstrate significant gaps in the reporting of Black homelessness and inadequate nuance in data collection methods, which limit the ability of respondents to describe their identity beyond "Black." Originality/value: This research provides an unprecedented examination of Black homelessness across Canada and concludes with recommendations to expand knowledge on this important and under-researched issue, provide suggestions for future iterations of homeless enumerations and facilitate the development of inclusive housing policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plastic contamination is commonly reported in urban and rural soils, as well as in fresh and ocean waters. Canada's government has attempted to limit the contamination of single-use plastic by banning the manufacturing and selling of specific types of plastic. In British Columbia, current regulations governing commercial composting state that when compost has less than 1% of its dry weight representing foreign materials (including plastic), it can be sold and used in soils. However, due to the low density of plastic and its potential to break down into microparticles, this amount may be enough to become toxic when used in agricultural soils. This paper studies contamination of plastic in garden soils and summarizes how this can affect the environment with a preliminary examination of a garden soil sample. The examination showed that the garden soil sample contained mainly low-density polyethylene, polyethylene and polypropylene plastics (identified through ATR-FTIR) in oxidized and unoxidized forms that can come from commercial composting and hypothesizes that this plastic could break down into microplastic particles. In order to limit the amount of plastic contamination in agricultural soils, it is necessary to modify current compost regulations in order to treat plastic differently than other foreign materials (glass, metal, wood). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper situates Indigenous social reproduction as a duality; as both a site of primitive accumulation and as a critical, resurgent, land-based practice. Drawing on three distinct cases from British Columbia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and Bua, Fiji, we illustrate how accounting techniques can be a key mechanism with which Indigenous modes of life are brought to the market and are often foundational to the establishment of markets. We argue that accounting practices operate at the vanguard of primitive accumulation by extracting once invaluable outsides (e.g. Indigenous land and bodies) and rendering these either valuable or valueless for the social reproduction of settler society. The commodification of Indigenous social reproduction sustains the conditions that enable capitalism to flourish through primitive accumulation. However, we privilege Indigenous agency, resistance and resurgence in our analysis to illustrate that these techniques of commodification through accounting are not inevitable. They are resisted or wielded towards Indigenous alternatives at every point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) of British Columbia suggested that a paradigm shift from weight to well-being could address the unintended consequences of focusing on obesity and improve the outcomes of efforts to address the challenges facing both individuals and our healthcare system. In this paper, we jointly used artificial intelligence (AI) and participatory modeling to examine the possible consequences of this paradigm shift. Specifically, we created a conceptual map with 19 experts to understand how obesity and physical and mental well-being connect to each other and other factors. Three analyses were performed. First, we analyzed the factors that directly connect to obesity and well-being, both in terms of causes and consequences. Second, we created a reduced version of the map and examined the connections between categories of factors (e.g., food production, and physiology). Third, we explored the themes in the interviews when discussing either well-being or obesity. Our results show that obesity was viewed from a medical perspective as a problem, whereas well-being led to broad and diverse solution-oriented themes. In particular, we found that taking a well-being perspective can be more comprehensive without losing the relevance of the physiological aspects that an obesity-centric perspective focuses on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unprecedented heat wave occurred over the Pacific Northwest and southwest Canada on 25–30 June 2021, resulting in all-time temperature records that greatly exceeded previous record maximum temperatures. The impacts were substantial, including several hundred deaths, thousands of hospitalizations, a major wildfire in Lytton, British Columbia, Canada, and severe damage to regional vegetation. Several factors came together to produce this extreme event: a record-breaking midtropospheric ridge over British Columbia in the optimal location, record-breaking midtropospheric temperatures, strong subsidence in the lower atmosphere, low-level easterly flow that produced downslope warming on regional terrain and the removal of cooler marine air, an approaching low-level trough that enhanced downslope flow, the occurrence at a time of maximum insolation, and drier-than-normal soil moisture. It is shown that all-time-record temperatures have not become more frequent and that annual high temperatures only increased at the rate of baseline global warming. Although anthropogenic warming may have contributed as much as 1°C to the event, there is little evidence of further amplification from increasing greenhouse gases. Weather forecasts were excellent for this event, with highly accurate predictions of the extreme temperatures. Significance Statement: This paper describes the atmospheric evolution that produced an extreme heat wave over the Pacific Northwest during June 2021 and puts this event into historical perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson, F.; Douglas, K.; Li, Z.; Meijer, A.; Stacey, C.D.; Kung, R., and Podhorodeski, A., 2024. A generalized semiautomated method for seabed geology classification using multibeam data and maximum likelihood classification. Journal of Coastal Research, 40(1), 1–16. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. This paper presents a GIS-based model to perform semiautomated seabed classification that can act as a first-pass, pseudoclassified surficial geological map. The user can then edit the output into a finalized map in less time than by manual classification. The model uses maximum likelihood classification with unsupervised classification through iterative self-organizing clusters. This model is fully contained within the ArcGIS software suite as a ModelBuilder workflow composed of geoprocessing tools and Python script tools. Model inputs tested include different combinations of multibeam echosounder–derived data: slope, backscatter, and terrain ruggedness. Furthermore, to test the assumption of Gaussian distribution of input data required for maximum likelihood classification, Box–Cox power transformations were applied to slope and backscatter data and were used as model inputs. To illustrate the performance of the model, two locations are highlighted as case studies: Milbanke Sound and Spiller Channel, located on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. Association between model outputs and ground-truth classes was generally weak to moderate when measured using Cramér's V association scores. Overall, the slope and backscatter parameter model had the highest scores of association. Results from an overlay analysis comparing model outputs with user-confirmed polygons show that the slope and backscatter model performs best in regions with distinct changes in the hardness of sediments but that in fjord regions dominated geologically by steeper bathymetric change, the slope parameter model may perform better. However, all model outputs had difficulty delineating bedrock units. The model has the flexibility to identify certain seabed habitat features as well, including glass sponge reefs—biologically active bioherms that have led to marine protected area designations in other areas of British Columbia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous peoples in Canada have suffered from ongoing impacts of colonization. Narrowing the scope to First Nations people in British Columbia, their perspective on health and wellness spans from individual to kin, to land, economy, socialization, and cy-cles that exist in life. Such intricacies have been impacted by colonial systems wherein many Indigenous people have left their traditional lands and communities to pursue other opportunities or to flee unsettling circumstances. This paper uses Indigenous methodologies to collect qualitative data on the experiences of some First Nations peoples when relocating off-reserve as it relates to their health and wellness. The participants of this study were Elders connected to the Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Friendship Centre, located on Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo) territory, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Elders were selected as the sample group based on the traditional perspective of their knowledge and wisdom. Six common themes from Elders' experiences were connection, way of living, education and employment, colonialism, land, and quality of health care. Further, axial coding found four action-based themes that can be applied from the research: racism, relevance, restrictions and resources--creating the 'four Rs' as recommendations for larger health systems in British Columbia, Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing interest in mixed conifer-broadleaf stands as a way to increase the diversity and productivity of managed forests. This study examined the impacts of varying densities of planted broadleaf trees on conifer performance, total stand productivity, and understory plant cover 20 years after stand establishment. The study took place in the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. It used a randomized complete block design to compare treatments containing low, moderate, or high broadleaf densities added to a constant conifer density. Each block contained a conifer-only plot as a control. Conifers were composed of equal amounts of western hemlock, western redcedar, and Douglas-fir. Broadleaves were composed of either red alder or paper birch. We found that conifer volume was significantly lower in most broadleaf treatments relative to the control, due to lower hemlock and redcedar volumes. Douglas-fir, on the other hand, had a higher volume—albeit not significant—in the broadleaf treatments. There were no significant differences in total stand volume between any of the treatments and the control. Shrub cover was significantly higher in the low and high alder treatments relative to the control, but there were no differences in shrub cover between birch treatments and the control. The results suggest that low alder density provides a good balance of conifer yield and understory development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada's Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline project is one of the country's most controversial in recent history. At the heart of the controversy lie questions about how to conduct impact assessments (IAs) of oil spills in marine and coastal ecosystems. This paper offers an analysis of two such IAs: one carried out by Canada through its National Energy Board and the other by Tsleil-Waututh Nation, whose unceded ancestral territory encompasses the last twenty-eight kilometers of the project's terminus in the Burrard Inlet, British Columbia. The comparison is informed by a science and technology studies approach to coproduction, displaying the close relationship between IA law and applied scientific practice on both sides of the dispute. By attending to differing perspectives on concepts central to IA such as significance and mitigation, this case study illustrates how coproduction supports legal pluralism's attention to diverse forms of world making inherent in IA. We close by reflecting on how such attention is relevant to Canada's ongoing commitments, including those under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a particularly successful avoidance of unwanted catch of protected, endangered, and threatened (PET) species in the form of ecologically important sponge and coral, to be found off Canada's Pacific coast. The fishery causing the unwanted catch—the British Columbia groundfish trawl fishery. A campaign to protect the sponge/coral led by environmental NGOs (ENGOs) resulted in the industry's access to the key California market being threatened. For reasons explained, the national resource manager's ability to take effective direct action had become severely compromised. The groundfish trawl fishing industry responded to the economic threat with a bottom up approach to the unwanted catch problem, by negotiating a habitat agreement with a consortium of ENGOs, with the blessing and full support of the national resource manager. The agreement, now in its tenth year of operation, has proved to be a remarkable success in avoidance of unwanted catch. The paper argues that the success rests fundamentally upon the fact that the fishers have been and are playing a stand alone stable cooperative game, which has led them in turn to play stable cooperative games with both the national resource manager and the ENGO consortium. The paper analyses the factors leading to the stand alone stable cooperative fisher game, doing so by necessity through the lens of game theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ongoing patterns of learning and relationship, this paper offers a reflection and acknowledgement on the notable influence of two rivers and their role as respected and highly valued "eco‐social elders": The Taieri River in Otago, New Zealand, and the Nechako River in northern British Columbia, Canada. The paper is motivated by the question: "If a river has 'voice', what can be learned from the emergence arising from rivers 'in conversation'?". At the heart of the reflection are the themes of confluence and emergence—ways in which we grasp the coming together of things, especially when that combination is more than the sum of their parts. The paper aims to explore a "conversation" between the river teachings of the Taieri River and the Nechako River, identifying examples of patterns and connections between distinct river "voices," and how these may contribute to emergence and ongoing conversations among different rivers and their teachings. The paper commences with an introduction to both rivers, identifying points of direct comparison and contrast, then moving to explore themes of confluence, weaving and emergence, combining ecological, metaphorical, and personal perspectives. The conversation then progresses downstream to river–ocean relationships, reflecting on rivers as eco‐social elders that inspire conversations, provide a sense of home, and offer a point of reference to consider the wider influence on rivers and waterways on the health of diverse species within catchments and across the planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Individual placement and support (IPS) is an evidence-based practice (EBP) designed to help people with severe mental illness re-enter the labour market. Implementing an IPS program within a new context (e.g., primary health care setting) to support populations that are complex and multi-barriered presents a set of unique challenges and considerations. This paper provides community-based perspectives that identify implementation strengths and challenges and highlights potential strategies aimed at addressing emergent barriers. Methods: A case study was conducted across three community health centres in British Columbia (BC), Canada, where a novel IPS program was embedded within primary care services. Data collection consisted of open-ended surveys and focus groups with service providers directly involved in program implementation and their associated clinical and managerial support teams (n = 15). Using the updated Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) as a guide, we performed deductive thematic analysis to identify key areas impacting IPS implementation. Results: Integration with existing health care systems and primary health care teams and support from leadership across all levels were identified as both key facilitators and barriers to implementation. Facilitators and barriers were identified across all domains, with those within innovation and process most easily addressed. Four cross-cutting themes emerged for promoting more integrated and sustainable program implementation: investing in pre-implementation activities, supporting a dynamic and flexible program, building from community experiences, and developing a system for shared knowledge. Conclusions: Implementing an IPS program embedded within primary health care settings is complex and requires extensive planning and consultation with community-based service providers and decision-makers to achieve full integration. Future practice and policy decisions aimed at supporting employment and well-being should be made in collaboration with communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modular construction has become exceedingly relevant against the current scenario of increasing housing demand and can respond to this need in Canada due to its advantages of rapid construction. However, a holistic environmental sustainability framework for this construction method is still lacking. This paper proposes a hierarchical-based framework to benchmark the environmental performance of modular buildings versus conventional buildings. The framework identifies criteria and indicators affecting environmental sustainability, makes composite indicators, and establishes performance benchmarks. Based on expert survey, six criteria (construction waste management, energy performance and efficiency strategies, site disruption and appropriate strategies, renewable and environmentally preferable products, regional materials, and renewable energy use) are first identified. The related indicators and sub-indicators are combined to develop indices using Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution. Robust benchmark scales were established through application of Monte Carlo analysis on data collected through experts. Finally, the developed indices were compared against the benchmark scales at different assessment levels. The proposed framework was examined for two single-family modular buildings in British Columbia, Canada. The overall environmental performance benchmarking informs the policy makers on the usefulness of modular buildings, while the criteria-level indices direct the construction industry practitioners to improve the low performing indicators. The proposed framework will enhance the sustainability of modular and offsite construction in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Rural & Community Development is the property of Brandon University, Rural Development Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Within the field of patient and public involvement in health service research, there is a growing movement towards not only involving patients in research but engaging them as co-producers of knowledge. We explore such a co-productive research relationship in a case study on rural perinatal mental health, with the aim of collaboratively developing knowledge based on both the relevant lived experience of a community partner, and the systemic knowledge of academic researchers. Methods: Data was gathered through a community forum and subsequent interviews with social service program administrators from rural British Columbia, Canada. Interviews were analyzed separately by the community partner and academic researchers using principles of thematic analysis. Both the community partner and academic researchers were involved from project genesis to data collection, analysis, interpretation, and manuscript writing. Results: Common themes identified by the academic and community researchers included needs for peer support, barriers to peer support, and gaps in mental health care. Divergently, the academic researcher focused on systems-level challenges while the community partner emphasized the impact of power dynamics within health systems. Researchers generated five methodological values propositions from the process of co-production, including (a) mutual respect for all viewpoints, (b) a rejection of assumed hierarchy, (c) commitments to truth speaking, (d) attention to process, and (e) equivalence of contribution. Conclusions: Co-production highlights the value of lived experience in health research, sets it in conversation with scientific inquiry, and moves away from hierarchies of assumed knowledge often embedded in traditional health care research. Incorporating both academic researcher and community partner writing into our paper reflects a commitment to maintaining the integrity and authenticity of lived experience, an affirmation of its equal validity as a source of knowledge, and a rejection of qualifying patient voices. The exploration of this co-production research relationship lays groundwork for future research teams considering collaborative methodology. We suggest co-productive research as a means of addressing the epistemic injustice that arises in health care research from the privileging of certain forms of knowledge, and the exclusion of others, namely that derived from patient experience. Plain English summary: Co-production is an approach to research where community partners and academic researchers work together to carry out a study. Our co-production team was made up of a community partner with lived experience of accessing mental health supports in rural areas, and academic researchers experienced in health systems design. Co-production emphasizes both the wisdom of lived experience and the importance of scientific approaches. What emerges is research that is both rigorous and authentic. While this form of patient partner research involvement is growing, few studies describe the process of collaboration. To address this gap, we present a case study of how university researchers worked with a patient partner on a project about mental health services for childbearing people in rural communities. The team worked together at every step, from initial study design, to reaching out to participants, reviewing the data, and writing the paper. We agreed our approach would be guided by principles such as respect for all viewpoints, speaking truth, attention to the process, and ensuring that everyone's contributions were given equal weight. The academic researchers and the community partner identified many common themes in the data. The community partner also emphasized patient experiences of unequal treatment by health care providers. The academic researchers focused on the lack of access to perinatal mental health supports. Exploring differences in perspectives like this allowed for richer interpretation of the findings. This case study offers useful insight into the value of co-production and the important role of lived experience in improving health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper qualitatively examines "privation of inclusion" at work in the lived experiences of racialized participants hired in publicly funded places of employment. Taking the position that the dualistic inclusion-exclusion paradigm fails to capture their lived realities with inclusive exclusions and exclusive inclusions, it presents privative inclusion as a third space, between inclusion and exclusion, for a more robust framework in understanding how racialized bodies were marked and targeted for differential treatment. The paper then outlines and discusses findings as key indicators of privative mechanisms that had undermined life chances by limiting career mobility of racialized participants of this study. It concludes by emphasizing the need for additional research in this area given the salience of racism at work as well as the demographic changes that Canada is currently experiencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the growing body of work on precarious labor, immigration, and social gerontology by examining the racialization of precarious employment across the life course. In particular, the authors examine the impact of precarious employment and discrimination among racialized older immigrants in Canada. Racialized older immigrants are more likely to be disadvantaged by the effects of lifelong intersections of economic and social discrimination rooted in racialization, gender, ageism, and socio-economic status. Drawing from a narrative-photovoice project that focused on the life stories of older immigrants living in Quebec and British Columbia, this paper presents the in-depth stories and photographs of four participants to highlight how intersections of race, gender, age, immigration status, and ability shape and structure experiences of aging, labor market participation and caregiving relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While performing fieldwork in Fort St. John (July 2019-August 2020), I attended two traditional funerals organised by Doig River First Nation, a Dane-zaa First Nation of North-eastern British Columbia. As per the Dane-zaa tradition, drumming, singing, and dancing around the fire were key components of both funerals. Nevertheless, there was an essential difference between the two ceremonies. The 2019 funeral celebrated for Janice Askoty was a blended ceremony where traditional practices were performed alongside a Christian liturgy. Such a ceremony underlined existing tensions between community members regarding faith and systems of beliefs. These tensions were absent in the 2020 funeral celebrated for Annie Oker, where there was no Christian liturgy. Drawing on my observations and using the concept of syncretism, in this paper, I highlight how indigenous cultural practices, symbols, and beliefs have been integrated with Christian practices to the point that new blended practices have been established. At the same time, I point out how some traditional practices (i.e. drumming, singing, and dancing around the fire) have not been modified by external influences, surviving until now. In conclusion, I describe how colonialism's legacy still manifests itself during funerary celebrations and how community members perceive, face, and counter it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How fires burn across British Columbia (BC), Canada is shaped by settler coloniality, timber capitalism, state forestry regimes, criminalization of burning, and Indigenous resistance. Despite the urgency of confronting the fire suppression paradox embedded in settler colonial fire management laws and practices, approaches to studying fire in Canada that foreground Indigenous law and de-center settler colonial governance is scarce. As political ecologists and geographers working and living in the context of unceded and ancestral lək̓ʷəŋən, W̱SÁNEĆ, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səlilwətaɬ, and syilx territories, we engage with Indigenous feminist scholarship to expose how coloniality and gender intersect in attempts to erase Indigenous sovereignty to structure and naturalize provincial fire policy and its emplaced impacts on Indigenous legal orders. Our analysis contextualizes settler-colonial provincial fire management policy in the purview of Indigenous legal orders to foreground how racial-colonial and gendered politics are obscured when colonial fire and wildfire practices are naturalized. Revisiting key moments in the political development of fire suppression across so-called BC, we contend that the suppression paradox is embedded in and reproduces a colonial logic that widens existing social and economic gaps. These gaps are uniquely gendered, as settler coloniality operates upon patriarchal lines that have actively attempted to erase Indigenous women and Two-Spirit peoples, including the laws and legal authorities that they possess and practice. Considering the 1910 Fulton Commission, we highlight an example of how women and Indigenous people were excluded from the political decision-making structures that shaped colonial fire management practices in BC. These gendered and racialized exclusions bear directly on the exclusion of Indigenous women and gender-diverse folx, and Indigenous legal orders guided by matriarchal lines of fire knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. hatcheries in British Columbia (BC) have been the major activity of the Salmonid Enhancement Program since 1977. However, the present diminished abundance of Pacific salmon and loss of fisheries in BC called for a review of hatchery effectiveness. The Pacific Salmon Foundation conducted a review resulting in 15 reports publicly available on the Pacific Salmon Foundation marine science website. The review includes evaluations of effectiveness of hatchery production, evidence of interactions with natural salmon populations (including rebuilding natural populations with hatchery‐produced salmon), and future opportunities via genomics. Beyond the estimation of juvenile production and contribution to catches and spawning escapements, the ability to assess effectiveness was limited. The assessments of interactions provided a few examples of positive outcomes, but most were negative. The lack of comparative assessments in purely wild populations seriously limits interpretations of hatchery–wild interactions. Future evaluations of the hatchery effectiveness require more quantitative and integrated assessments of hatchery and wild salmon, open data sharing for public review or research, and related studies could benefit from application of new genomic technologies. This paper presents recommendations to address these needs and calls for regularized reviews of the Salmonid Enhancement Program and its net value to sustainability of BC's Pacific salmon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper applies a structured grid, 3‐Dimensional Regional Ocean Modeling System to examine wind‐driven currents of an idealized stratified channel, representative of Douglas Channel, British Columbia, Canada, where the increased marine activities require an improved understanding of the physical oceanography. The surface along‐channel elevation slope resulting from the wind stress is strongly affected by the surface stratification and can serve as a proxy for gauging surface stratification in operational systems. In the case of strong surface stratification, due to rotational effects an apparently narrow (width ≪ length) channel can be dynamically wide with pronounced cross‐channel variation. The thickness of the surface wind‐driven layer is scaled using the thermal wind relation, which provides a scaling factor to estimate the thickness of the surface layer. This scaling factor is not restricted to the wind‐driven flow and could be expanded to the surface mean estuarine outflow layers. Plain Language Summary: Douglas Channel is the main waterway in the Kitimat fjord system in the northern British Columbia coast. In this paper, we use an idealized numerical model to study the wind‐driven responses in the channel. We find that the surface slope caused by the wind can be used as a proxy to measure how fast density changes from the surface to the deeper water. Model results show that cross‐channel flow differences exist indicating that if the density changes rapidly in the upper layer, narrow channels like Douglas Channel should be considered as wide for us to not neglect cross‐channel variance. A scaling factor is proposed to explain the thickness of the surface layer depth and this could be expanded to estimate mean estuarine outflow layers. Key Points: Physically narrow channels can be dynamically wide in the case of strong surface stratificationThermal wind provides a scaling argument for determining the thickness of the surface wind‐driven layerOutflowing surface layer can be thicker than the highly stratified surface layer [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic gastrointestinal diseases that negatively affect the enjoyment of food and engagement in social and cultural gatherings. Such experiences may promote psychosocial challenges, an aspect of IBD often overlooked and under‐supported in clinical settings and research. Objectives: This study explored the psychosocial experiences that young adults with IBD have with food via a qualitative patient‐led research process. Methods: Trained patient researchers conducted this study by engaging peers via semi‐structured interviews and focus groups in a three‐step co‐design process. Participants (n = 9) identified the research topic (SET), explored the topic and identified emerging themes (COLLECT), refined themes and made recommendations for healthcare system change (REFLECT). Results: Themes that emerged included: 'Experimenting with Food', 'Evolution Over Time', 'Diet Changes are Emotional' and 'Role of Stigma'. Participants identified the significance and frustrations of repeated testing and experimenting with food compatibility, and noted nuances in food relationships as they gain knowledge and experience over time. They emphasized the importance of maintaining a sense of hope throughout and wished to impart this to newly diagnosed patients. Conclusion: Participants experience numerous psychosocial challenges as they strive to manage their diet, noting gaps in support available from IBD practitioners. Participants made practical recommendations for healthcare system change to improve patient outcomes, highlighting the importance of sharing stories and collaboratively including patients in the development of new services and protocols. Authors recommend further research in this area to build a body of knowledge and support that helps IBD patients maintain hope while navigating challenges with food. Patient or Public Contribution: The first four authors on this paper were the lead researchers in this study's design and analysis and identify as patients; they conducted the research with this identity at the forefront following a peer‐to‐peer research model. These authors were mentored by patient researchers who also contributed to the manuscript, and the research process itself was co‐lead and directed by other patient participants and consultants. Results and recommendations coming from this paper came directly from patient participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a simple analytical scheme and associated qualitative impact scales that capture the spatially varying effects of a regional disaster. Large-scale disasters that affect many towns and cities pose particular challenges for emergency response planning. For example, disruption to transportation systems can impede regional supply chains of critical goods, thereby exacerbating the impacts suffered locally in communities. Conventional metrics of disaster severity, such as number of casualties or intensity of ground shaking, do not adequately capture how community impacts and needs may vary across the affected region, and they do not typically consider regional transportation disruption. Using a series of impact scales, the approach in this paper captures essential attributes of three broad components related to community impacts from a regional disaster—local disaster impacts in a community, regional transportation disruption to the community, and the community's coping capacity—and aggregates them to an overall metric of community impact. The approach can be implemented with widely varying degrees of data availability, as demonstrated in two case applications. Both cases involve an M9 Cascadia subduction zone earthquake affecting a broad region of coastal British Columbia, Canada. The first application illustrates how in a pre-event planning situation, modeled results can be used to anticipate which communities are at greatest risk, and to help prioritize mitigation and emergency response planning. The second case demonstrates how in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, the approach can be used with limited information to help prioritize response and recovery activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an examination of the "residency requirement" found in section 2 of the British Columbia Class Proceedings Act [BCCPA]. This requirement prohibits non-resident claimants from commencing class proceedings in British Columbia. Drawing on the decision in Nevsun Resources Ltd v Araya [Nevsun], this paper elucidates how the residency requirement is incongruent with the objectives of class proceedings legislation: judicial economy, access to justice, and behaviour modification. This conclusion, which is supported by a close review of the decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Nevsun, is problematic, given the proliferation of transnational tort litigation in recent years. This trend is characterized by claimants from foreign jurisdictions seeking a remedy for gross human rights violations and similar harms allegedly perpetrated by multinational corporations headquartered in Canada and other predominantly capital exporting countries. The factual matrices of these claims often lend themselves to potential class proceedings. As these claims are likely to continue, including in British Columbia, this paper argues that the BCCPA should be amended to allow classes consisting entirely of foreign claimants to commence a class proceeding. This would benefit the parties, particularly plaintiffs with little resources, the courts, and the interests of justice more broadly. This paper concludes by recommending that the residency requirement be removed to conform with class proceedings legislation in other Canadian provinces, such as Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. In the alternative, an exception should, at least, be made in cases where denying certification to claimants simply because they are non-residents would result in a "substantial injustice." This paper can therefore inform lawmakers in British Columbia and other provinces that currently maintain a residency requirement in their class proceedings legislation, including Saskatchewan and Manitoba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meaningful engagement and partnerships with people who use drugs are essential to conducting research that is relevant and impactful in supporting desired outcomes of drug consumption as well as reducing drug-related harms of overdose and COVID-19. Community-based participatory research is a key strategy for engaging communities in research that directly affects their lives. While there are growing descriptions of community-based participatory research with people who use drugs and identification of key principles for conducting research, there is a gap in relation to models and frameworks to guide research partnerships with people who use drugs. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for research partnerships between people who use drugs and academic researchers, collaboratively developed and implemented as part of an evaluation of a provincial prescribed safer supply initiative introduced during dual public health emergencies (overdose and COVID-19) in British Columbia, Canada. The framework shifts from having researchers choose among multiple models (advisory, partnership and employment) to incorporating multiple roles within an overall community-based participatory research approach. Advocacy by and for drug users was identified as a key role and reason for engaging in research. Overall, both academic researchers and Peer Research Associates benefited within this collaborative partnerships approach. Each offered their expertise, creating opportunities for omni-directional learning and enhancing the research. The shift from fixed models to flexible roles allows for a range of involvement that accommodates varying time, energy and resources. Facilitators of involvement include development of trust and partnering with networks of people who use drugs, equitable pay, a graduate-level research assistant dedicated to ongoing orientation and communication, technical supports as well as fluidity in roles and opportunities. Key challenges included working in geographically dispersed locations, maintaining contact and connection over the course of the project and ensuring ongoing sustainable but flexible employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subduction zones are recognized as an important class of plate boundaries and are the location of a number of important geological processes. They are also important because of the mineral and geothermal energy resources formed by plate convergence. While subduction zones around the world have a number of common features, there are also significant differences among them. The Cascadia subduction zone in southern British Columbia is characterized by a relatively hot subducting plate, and a broad backarc region that is believed to exhibit a shallow, convecting asthenosphere. The magnetotelluric (MT) method is a useful tool to study subduction zones and backarc regions because measurements of subsurface resistivity are sensitive to the presence of fluids. A number of previous MT studies have taken place in this region, but they were limited to a 2-D approach to data analysis. As the MT method has developed, it has become clear that there is a significant advantage to using a 3-D approach to data analysis. This paper presents the first regional-scale 3-D resistivity model of the southern Canadian Cordillera and provides new insights into the lithospheric structure and the distribution of fluids. The southeastern Canadian Cordillera has high heat flow and numerous thermal springs, the locations of which are often controlled by faults. However, the deeper thermal structure and origin of the fluids are poorly understood. To develop an improved understanding of the structure of this area, MT data measured at 331 locations were used to create a 3-D model of subsurface electrical resistivity. This study is primarily focused on the Omineca and Foreland morphogeological belts in southeastern British Columbia, which are separated by the southern Rocky Mountain Trench. The resistivity model is presented to a depth of 100 km and a number of conductive features are observed in the crust and uppermost mantle of the southeastern Cordillera. The locations of these conductors broadly matched previously reported conductors, but the 3-D inversion revealed new details of their geometry. The previously reported Canadian Cordilleran Regional conductor was modelled as a number of discrete conductors in the depth range 15–55 km beneath the Omineca belt. Temperatures approximately in the range 400–700 °C are expected at depths of 15–26 km and saline aqueous fluids are likely the cause of the low resistivity. Temperatures approximately in the range 700–1300 °C are expected at depths of 26–55 km and small volumes of partial melt may explain the low resistivity. The Southern Alberta–British Columbia conductor, Red Deer conductor and Loverna conductor were imaged as a single connected conductor, whose low resistivity is likely caused by sulphide mineralization. A group of conductors was imaged near the southern Rocky Mountain Trench in the depth range 10–70 km and their low resistivity is likely caused by interconnected saline fluids and possibly interconnected graphite films. To understand if the distribution of thermal springs was correlated with the 3-D resistivity model, a statistical study was undertaken. This showed no clear correlation between crustal conductance and the distribution of thermal springs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Encounters in Theory & History of Education / Rencontres en Theorie et Histoire de l'Educacion is the property of Queen's University, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To support the transformation to clean low carbon technologies, there is a demand for critical metals such as nickel. Awaruite is a less common nickel-bearing mineral with unique properties and responses to mineral separation. This paper presents the findings of a flotation study to recover awaruite from the Baptiste ultramafic deposit, located in central British Columbia, Canada. Nickel recoveries of up to 65% at the rougher stage were obtained with xanthate as a collector at a pH level of 4.5. Awaruite flotation was shown to be highly dependent on the slurry pH. At weakly acidic conditions, the awaruite surface is activated through the dissolution of the passivation layer formed during grinding in alkaline conditions. Desliming was shown to reduce the acid consumption required to maintain the pH, probably by removing the highly reactive serpentine slimes generated during grinding. Rougher, followed by cleaner stages of flotation, showed that a high-grade concentrate can be produced with up to 45% nickel, 1.3% cobalt, 0.7% copper and negligible concentrations of penalty elements, such as arsenic, lead, and selenium, among others. A nickel flotation concentrate from an awaruite deposit is a promising feedstock for not only stainless-steel production but also for clean energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Rural Surgical Obstetrical Networks (RSON) project was developed in response to the persistent attrition of rural maternity services across Canada over the past two decades. While other research has demonstrated the adverse health and psychosocial consequences of losing local maternity services, this paper explores the impact of a program designed to increase the sustainability of rural services themselves, through the funding of four "pillars": increased scope and volume, clinical coaching, continuous quality improvement (CQI) and remote presence technology. Methods: We conducted in-depth, qualitative research interviews with rural health care providers and administrators in eight rural communities across British Columbia to understand the impact of the RSON program on maternity services. Researchers used thematic analysis to generate common themes across the dataset and interpret findings. Findings: Participants articulated six themes regarding the sustainability of maternity care as actualized through the RSON project: safety and quality through quality improvement opportunities, improved access to care through increased surgical volume and OR backup, optimized team function through innovative models of care, improved infrastructure, local innovation surrounding workforce shortages, and locally tailored funding models. Conclusion: Rural maternity sites benefited from the funding offered through the RSON pillars, as demonstrated by larger volumes of local deliveries, nearly unanimous positive accounts of the interventions by health care providers, and evidence of staffing stability during the study time frame. As such, the interventions provided through the Rural Surgical Obstetrical Networks project as well as study findings on the common themes of sustainable maternity care should be considered when planning core rural health services funding schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness is a serious public health concern with devastating consequences for health and wellbeing of homeless people. Visible signs of homelessness often appear in the form of encampments or tent cities. Such sites often raise controversies about public health and safety without attention to the structural, systemic and individual factors that contribute to their existence, including deficits in basic determinants of health and a failure to protect human rights to housing. The purpose of this paper is to explore the conditions that contribute to homeless encampments and ongoing issues of precarity, and right to housing from the perspective of residents of one encampment. The data set was comprised of 47 affidavits taken from 33 people from one tent city in Victoria, British Columbia (BC) in anticipation of legal action to remove residents and their belongings in 2016. We used Braun and Clarke's (2006) approach to thematic analysis to identify, analyze and report patterns within the data. Residents spoke to systemic failures within the homeless sector itself as a factor in decisions to live in an encampment. Participants highlighted the challenges of 'being chained to a backpack' with nowhere to go and the impact of bylaws and policing on their health and well being. They acknowledged that while living in an encampment is a last resort it is often a better option than the streets or shelters with the benefits of a community, albeit a forced one with ongoing precarity. Public health responses to encampments should focus on centring human rights to adequate housing including self-determination and access to determinants of health. Such responses are aligned with public health commitments to health equity and social justice and require public health infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the history of Sikh feminist thought and practice as envisioned by the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak. We contextualise the historical significance of the time Guru Nanak lived in and that of his profound feminist thought. By citing recent case studies and controversies including the 2015 preacher Hari Singh Randhawa Wale at Dukh Nivaran Gurdwara in British Columbia, Canada and the active prohibition for females gaining access to perform kirtan at Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, we argue that Guru Ji's 'radical' feminist philosophies have not been understood or realised in practice to their fullest capacity within the Sikh faith. We connect this to an overall lack of opportunity for representation of women within the diasporic gurdwara spaces for faith maintenance and questioning. We include in this paper an overall argument for the need to push boundaries and interpretations by using Sikh feminist thought within Sikh vichaar and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Craft food and beverage makers regularly emphasize transparency about the ethical, sustainable sourcing of their ingredients and the human labour underpinning their production, all of which helps elevate the status of their products and occupational communities. Yet, as with other niche ethical consumption markets, craft industries continue to rely on employment conditions for agricultural workers that reproduce inequalities of race, class, and citizenship in the dominant food system. This paper interrogates the contradiction between the exaltation of craft cidermakers' labour and the devaluation of farmworker labour by assessing how craft beverage actors make sense of inequalities facing manually skilled agricultural workers. Through a focus on the emerging craft cider industry, this paper draws on in-depth interviews and ethnographic data with a range of urban and rural cider actors in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington State). I find that actors in the craft cider industry engage with inequalities affecting farmworkers through three main patterns: (1) Justifications of the status quo; (2) Supply chain fog; and (3) Misgiving/critique. By using an analytical framework that integrates critical agrarianism and the politics of sight, this study provides insights into both barriers and opportunities to redistribute social recognition and material rewards across food supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Displacement monitoring is a critical control for risks associated with potentially sudden slope failures. Instrument measurements are, however, obscured by the presence of scatter. Data filtering methods aim to reduce the scatter and therefore enhance the performance of early warning systems (EWSs). The effectiveness of EWSs depends on the lag time between the onset of acceleration and its detection by the monitoring system such that a timely warning is issued for the implementation of consequence mitigation strategies. This paper evaluates the performance of three filtering methods (simple moving average, Gaussian-weighted moving average, and Savitzky–Golay) and considers their comparative advantages and disadvantages. The evaluation utilized six levels of randomly generated scatter on synthetic data, as well as high-frequency global navigation satellite system (GNSS) displacement measurements at the Ten-mile landslide in British Columbia, Canada. The simple moving average method exhibited significant disadvantages compared to the Gaussian-weighted moving average and Savitzky–Golay approaches. This paper presents a framework to evaluate the adequacy of different algorithms for minimizing monitoring data scatter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Action Research is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)