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The paper by Mescall et al. (J Bus Ethics, 2016) provides an opportunity to consider the meaning of 'accounting professionalism' in the twenty-first century. To examine the paper, this discussion focuses on three areas, the research question Mescall et al. addresses, contributions of their paper, and what the paper tells us about accounting professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslides involving sensitive clays are recurrent events in the world's northern regions and are especially notorious in eastern Canada. The two critical factors that separate sensitive clay landslides from traditional slope stability analysis are the highly brittle behavior in undrained conditions (strain-softening) characteristic of progressive or retrogressive failures and the large deformations associated with them. Conventional limit equilibrium analysis has numerous shortcomings in incorporating these characteristics when assessing landslides in sensitive clays. This paper presents an extensive literature review of the failure mechanics characteristics of landslides in sensitive clays and the existing constitutive models and numerical tools to analyze such slopes' stability and post-failure behavior. The advantages and shortcomings of the different techniques to incorporate strain-softening and large deformation in the numerical modeling of sensitive clay landslides are assessed. The literature review depicts that elastoviscoplastic soil models with non-linear strain-softening laws and rate effects represent the material behavior of sensitive clays. Though several numerical models have been proposed to analyze post-failure runouts, the amount of work performed in line with sensitive clay landslides is very scarce. That creates an urgent need to apply and further develop advanced numerical tools for better understanding and predicting these catastrophic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urban areas are of great interest due to their significant role in forming ground-level ozone and adverse public health effects. Emission inventories usually compile the outdoor VOCs emission sources (e.g., traffic and industrial emissions). However, considering emissions from volatile chemical products (e.g., solvents, printing ink, personal care products) is challenging because of scattered data and the lack of an effective method to estimate the VOCs emission rate from these chemical products. This paper aims to systematically analyse potential sources of VOCs emission in Canada's built environment, including volatile chemical products. Also, spatial variation of VOCs level in the ambient atmosphere is examined to understand the VOC relationship with ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation. The study shows that VOCs level may vary among everyday microenvironments (e.g., residential areas, offices, and retail stores) depending on the frequency of product consumption, building age, ventilation condition, and background ambient concentration in the atmosphere. However, it is very difficult to establish VOC speciation and apportionment to different volatile chemical products that contribute most significantly to exposure and target subpopulations with elevated levels. Thus, tracer compounds can be used to identify inventory sources at the consumer end. A critical overview highlights the limitations of existing VOC estimation methods and possible approaches to control VOC emissions. The findings provide crucial information to establish an emission inventory framework for volatile chemical products at a national scale and enable policymakers to limit VOCs emission from various volatile chemical products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is an emerging paradigm that allows users to retrieve content items securely, independently of their location. Therefore, an item may be stored in a location outside the administrative realm of its owner (e.g., cache, CDN node). In this paper, we propose a solution that allows these 3rd party storage nodes to verify that a user is authorized to access a a particular content item. We consider an SDN-based ICN deployment and we leverage Verifiable Credentials to build chains of trust, as well as to express users' capabilities. With our solution, users can prove authorization using a single message that can be integrated into a content request. Additionally, verifying entities do not have to store any secret. Our solutions support delegation, and it is lightweight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based monitoring (CBM) is a widely used form of scientific data collection in which local community members directly participate in ecosystem research and also help the process by sharing traditional ecological knowledge and local understanding of land and resources. This paper presents a review of the challenges and opportunities associated with CBM projects in Canada and internationally. While Canadian cases are the primary focus, international examples are drawn on to provide additional context. Based on our review of 121 documents and publications, we found that CBM helps fill science research gaps by providing access to continuous data sets on the ecosystems being studied. CBM also increases the credibility of the data among users, as the community itself takes part in the environmental monitoring process. CBM supports cross-cultural learning and the co-production of knowledge by using traditional ecological knowledge with science, thereby enabling researchers, scientists and community members to learn from one another. Our review suggests that although there are multiple successes, CBM faces several challenges that constrain its progress including funding shortages, lack of support for local stewardship, and inadequate training for local users in the operation of equipment and data collection methods. Data sharing and rights on the use of data are also constraining to the long-term success of CBM programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies whether acculturation by immigrants and other minority groups is associated with economic integration in Canada. We examine immigrants' participation in winter sports, particularly hockey, as a proxy for acculturation given that these sports are popular in Canada but are rarely watched or practiced in the origin countries of many immigrants to Canada. Using the Canadian Community Health Survey, we find that practicing winter sports has a positive effect on the earnings of immigrants and other minority groups. Specifically, practicing winter sports closes the income gap between immigrants and natives. However, the gap does not decrease for visible-minority immigrants, suggesting that acculturation might not be sufficient to combat racial biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automatic classification of marine species based on images is a challenging task for which multiple solutions have been increasingly provided in the past two decades. Oceans are complex ecosystems, difficult to access, and often the images obtained are of low quality. In such cases, animal classification becomes tedious. Therefore, it is often necessary to apply enhancement or pre-processing techniques to the images, before applying classification algorithms. In this work, we propose an image enhancement and classification pipeline that allows automated processing of images from benthic moving platforms. Deep-sea (870 m depth) fauna was targeted in footage taken by the crawler "Wally" (an Internet Operated Vehicle), within the Ocean Network Canada (ONC) area of Barkley Canyon (Vancouver, BC; Canada). The image enhancement process consists mainly of a convolutional residual network, capable of generating enhanced images from a set of raw images. The images generated by the trained convolutional residual network obtained high values in metrics for underwater imagery assessment such as UIQM (~ 2.585) and UCIQE (2.406). The highest SSIM and PSNR values were also obtained when compared to the original dataset. The entire process has shown good classification results on an independent test data set, with an accuracy value of 66.44% and an Area Under the ROC Curve (AUROC) value of 82.91%, which were subsequently improved to 79.44% and 88.64% for accuracy and AUROC respectively. These results obtained with the enhanced images are quite promising and superior to those obtained with the non-enhanced datasets, paving the strategy for the on-board real-time processing of crawler imaging, and outperforming those published in previous papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising housing costs pose challenges for Canadians trying to form independent households, particularly for those that wish to own their home rather than rent it. This is especially true for immigrants, who have had lower homeownership rates than the Canadian-born since the 1980s. This paper investigates the impacts of housing affordability and the three elements of the housing pathways framework—economic resources, family composition, and cultural variations—on household formation and homeownership differences between five racialized immigrant groups and the Canadian-born. Using Public Use Census data and a "difference in difference" analytical approach, we assess the housing progress of six groups (five foreign-born, one native-born) between 2006 and 2016. We find that housing affordability does not hinder immigrants in forming independent households, suggesting that many immigrants may be willing to earmark a greater share of their incomes to live independently in either rented or owned accommodations. Furthermore, we show that, even after controlling for a range of socioeconomic factors related to housing pathways, residential choices remain largely unexplained, both within and across groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the growing body of empirical research demonstrating a substantial co-occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and animal abuse, domestic violence shelters are increasingly offering on- or off-site services to care for the pets of abused women accessing shelter services. This paper analyzes all public websites of first-stage shelters in Canada (n = 337) to offer the first examination of what these shelters are communicating about this co-occurrence of abuse and an appraisal of what services are available to survivors with pets. The findings indicate that less than half of the websites mention pets, and only 1% of shelters report offering on-site pet programs. There are significant relationships between websites addressing the role of pets in both safety planning and help-seeking among abused women and the provision of pet shelter services. The paper concludes with suggestions for pet-related information on domestic violence shelter websites in Canada and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the failure analysis of layered clayey slopes with emphasis on the combined effect of the clay's weakening behavior and the seismic loading using the particle finite element method (PFEM). Diverse failure mechanisms have been disclosed via the PFEM modelling when the strain-weakening behavior of clay is concerned. In contrast to a single layered slope exhibiting either a shallow or a deep failure mode, a layered slope may undergo both failure modes with a time interval in between. Seismic loadings also enlarge the scale of slope failure in clays with weakening behavior. The failure of a real layered slope (i.e. the 1988 Saint-Adelphe landslide, Canada) triggered by the Saguenay earthquake is also studied in this paper. The simulation results reveal that the choice of the strain-softening value controls the slip surface of the landslide and the amplification effect is important in the triggering of the landslide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In countries like Canada with significant immigrant populations, immigrant youth can have various experiences that impact their identity and mental health outcomes. This paper presents findings from a study that examined the perceptions of mental health among African immigrant youth living in Canada and the factors that affect their mental health outcomes, including identity-related factors. An interpretive description design was used and eight participants were recruited. Data were gathered through in-person and phone interviews. The paper focuses on the migration factors that affect African immigrant youths' mental health. Three subthemes emerged from participants' experiences: (a) social support; (b) discrimination and othering; and (c) identity and cultural shock. Using critical theory and intersectionality, the study showed that African immigrant youths' identity and mental health were influenced by deeper socio-political and historical factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Section explores the interplay between Indigenous peoples, industry, and the state in five proposed and active mining projects in Canada and Sweden. The overall aim is to identify factors shaping the quality of Indigenous community-industry-state interactions in mining and mine development. An ambition underlying the research is to develop knowledge to help manage mining related land-use conflicts in Sweden by drawing on Canadian comparisons and experience. This paper synthesizes the comparative research that has been conducted across jurisdictions in three Canadian provinces and Sweden. It focuses on the interplay between the properties of the governance system, the quality of interaction and governance outcomes. We combine institutional and interactive governance theory and use the concept of governability to assess how and why specific outcomes, such as mutually beneficial interaction, collaboration, or opposition, occurred. The analysis suggests there are measures that can be taken by the Swedish Government to improve the governability of mining related issues, by developing alternative, and more effective, avenues to recognize, and protect, Sámi rights and culture, to broaden the scope and increase the legitimacy and transparency of the EIAs, to raise the quality of interaction and consultation, and to develop tools to actively stimulate and support collaboration and partnerships on equal terms. Generally, we argue that Indigenous community responses to mining must be understood within a larger framework of Indigenous self-determination, in particular the communities' own assessments of their opportunities to achieve their long-term objectives using alternative governing modes and types of interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the effectiveness of solar heating using clear polyethylene bags against rice weevil Sitophilus oryzae (L.), which is one of the most destructive insect pests against many strategic grains such as wheat. In this paper, we aim at finding the key parameters that affect the control heating system against stored grain insects while ensuring that the wheat grain quality is maintained. We provide a new benchmark dataset, where the experimental and environmental data was collected based on fieldwork during the summer in Canada. We measure the effectiveness of the solution using a novel formula to describe the amortising temperature effect on rice weevil. We adopted different machine learning models to predict the effectiveness of our solution in reaching a lethal heating condition for insect pests, and hence measure the importance of the parameters. The performance of our machine learning models has been validated using a 10-fold cross-validation, showing a high accuracy of 99.5% with 99.01% recall, 100% precision and 99.5% F1-Score obtained by the Random Forest model. Our experimental study on machine learning with SHAP values as an eXplainable post-hoc model provides the best environmental conditions and parameters that have a significant effect on the disinfestation of rice weevils. Our findings suggest that there is an optimal medium-sized grain amount when using solar bags for thermal insect disinfestation under high ambient temperatures. Machine learning provides us with a versatile model for predicting the lethal temperatures that are most effective for eliminating stored grain insects inside clear plastic bags. Using this powerful technology, we can gain valuable information on the optimal conditions to eliminate these pests. Our model allows us to predict whether a certain combination of parameters will be effective in the treatment of insects using thermal control. We make our dataset publicly available under a Creative Commons Licence to encourage researchers to use it as a benchmark for their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The procurement and provision of expert-driven, evidence-informed, and independent science advice is integral to timely decision-making during public health emergencies. The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the need for sound evidence in public health policy and exposed the challenges facing government science advisory mechanisms. This paper is a jurisdictional case study describing (i) the federal science advice bodies and mechanisms for public health in Canada (i.e., the federal science advice "ecosystem"); and (ii) how these bodies and mechanisms have mobilized and evolved to procure expertise and evidence to inform decisions during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We reviewed publicly accessible Government of Canada documents, technical reports, and peer-reviewed articles available up to December 2021. Canada's federal landscape of science advisory bodies for public health within the Health Portfolio was largely shaped by Canada's experiences with the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome and 2009 H1N1 outbreaks. In parallel, Canada has a designated science advisory apparatus that has seen frequent reforms since the early 2000s, with the current Office of the Chief Science Advisor created within the Science Portfolio in 2018. The COVID-19 pandemic has further complicated Canada's science advice ecosystem, with involvement from departments, expert advisory groups, and partnerships within both the federal Health and Science Portfolios. Although the engagement of federal departments outside the health sector is promising, the COVID-19 experience in Canada supports the need to institutionalize science advisory bodies for public health to improve pandemic preparedness and ensure rapid mobilization of well-coordinated and independent advice in future emergencies. This review also identified pressing areas for further inquiry to strengthen science advice for public health in Canada, including to assess the independence of science advisory actors and the interaction between federal and subnational authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current paper studies the nexus between fiscal decentralization, renewable energy intensity, and carbon footprints in Canada. Preliminary empirical findings strictly reject the preposition of data normality and highlight that the observed nexus is quantile dependent. Additionally, our test looks for systematic deviations from zero in the causality at a certain quantile and frequency. In particular, we consider the bootstrap Fourier Granger causality test in quantile. At each frequency, we test the sample causality against the distribution of the median causality across frequencies estimated for that process, which may disclose the misleading causal link in previous studies using only traditional Granger causality. Our results show a negative one-way Granger causality from fiscal decentralization to carbon footprints (quantiles: 0.1–0.9) and renewable energy intensity to carbon footprints, respectively (quantiles: 0.1–0.9). Herein, results show a positive one-way Granger causality through fiscal decentralization to renewable energy intensity (quantiles: 0.3–0.7). These conclusions are used to formulate policy suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexity of industrial processes imposes a lot of challenges in building accurate and representative causal models for abnormal events diagnosis, control and maintenance of equipment and process units. This paper presents an innovative data-driven causality modeling approach using interpretable machine learning and process mining techniques, in addition to human expertise, to efficiently and automatically capture the complex dynamics of industrial systems. The approach tackles a significant challenge in the causality analysis community, which is the discovery of high-level causal models from low-level continuous observations. It is based on the exploitation of event data logs by analyzing the dependency relationships between events to generate accurate multi-level models that can take the form of various state-event diagrams. Highly accurate and trustworthy patterns are extracted from the original data using interpretable machine learning integrated with a model enhancement technique to construct event data logs. Afterward, the causal model is generated from the event log using the inductive miner technique, which is one of the most powerful process mining techniques. The causal model generated is a Petri net model, which is used to infer causality between important events as well as a visualization tool for real-time tracking of the system's dynamics. The proposed causality modeling approach has been successfully tested based on a real industrial dataset acquired from complex equipment in a Kraft pulp mill located in eastern Canada. The generated causality model was validated by ensuring high model fitness scores, in addition to the process expert's validation of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the experiences during COVID-19 of mothers who have young children, are survivors of domestic violence and who share parenting to highlight the further unsafe situations survivors of violence and their children were placed in during the pandemic. Part of a larger mixed methods study, these participants (n = 19) from three Canadian provinces, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario, engaged in virtual individual one-on-one interviews via zoom. Using thematic analysis, four themes emerged from the data: 1) increased use of coercive controlling behaviors; 2) fear of the unknown; 3) lack of supports; and, 4) finding balance. Direct quotes are used to highlight the meaning of each theme. We outline the challenges these women have that are in addition to those experienced by many during COVID-19 times (increased stress, isolation, disconnect from supports, financial challenges). These include managing the shared parenting arrangements with a former abusive partner who used the pandemic as a further opportunity for coercive controlling behaviors under the guise of the public health order. The mothers were left to manage the difficult exchanges with a former abusive partner and unknown circumstances of the pandemic without guidance and support from legal actors. There will need to be a prioritization of the safety of mothers and their children in post-divorce parenting arrangements both during times of a community lockdown such as during the pandemic and also during non-pandemic times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting global sustainability targets under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement requires paying attention to major land-use sectors such as forestry and agriculture. These sectors play a large role in national emissions, biodiversity conservation, and human well-being. There are numerous possible pathways to sustainability in these sectors and potential synergies and trade-offs along those pathways. This paper reports on the use of a model for Canada's land use to 2050 to assess three different pathways (one based on current trends and two with differing levels of ambition for meeting sustainability targets). This was done as part of a large international consortium, Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land and Energy (FABLE), which allows for incorporating international trade in meeting both national and global sustainability targets. The results show not only the importance of increasingly stringent policies in meeting the targets, but also the role that population and consumption (e.g., diets) play in meeting the targets. Both the medium and high ambition sustainability pathways can drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions while protecting forestland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are one of the most frequently studied injuries in orthopedic care and research. However, limited epidemiological data are available in Canada regarding trend and distribution of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). In this paper, our purpose was to assess trends of ACLR between 2002/03 and 2018/19 by age, sex, season of surgery, and location (inpatient vs outpatient) of surgery. Methods: In this descriptive epidemiological study of retrospective data available from Alberta Ministry of Health, we report annual incidence of ACLR between 2002/03 until 2018/19 among Albertans aged 10 years and older. Information was collected by authors from physician claims database for primary ACLR and revision ACLR and linked with other databases. Incidence proportions (number of ACLR/100,000 population) were calculated and compared by age category and gender over the study period. Results: A total of 28,401 primary ACLR and 2085 revision ACLR were identified during the study period. Age-standardized annual incidence of primary ACLR increased from 40.6 to 51.2 per 100,000 population aged 10 years and older. Average annual increase in ACLR incidence was higher among females (1.8% per years) compared to males (0.96% per year). The overall peak incidence and peak incidence among males was observed in 20–29 year age group, whereas peak incidence in females was observed in 10–19 years of age. The number of ACLR in females outnumbers those among males for 10–19 year age group. Generally, a lower proportion of ACLR were conducted in summer compared to other seasons. Primary ACLR conducted in outpatient setting increased from 72% in 2002/03 to 97% in 2018/19. Conclusion: The incidence of ACLR is increasing in Alberta, especially among females and among younger cohorts under 20 years of age. This information can help clinicians to provide patient education and policy-makers to design and implement targeted ACL injury prevention programs. Level of evidence: Level III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warming temperatures in the circumpolar north have led to new discussions around climate-driven frontiers for agriculture. In this paper, we situate northern food systems in Canada within the corporate food regime and settler colonialism, and contend that an expansion of the conventional, industrial agriculture paradigm into the Canadian North would have significant socio-cultural and ecological consequences. We propose agroecology as an alternative framework uniquely accordant with northern contexts. In particular, we suggest that there are elements of agroecology that are already being practiced in northern Indigenous communities as part of traditional hunter-gatherer food systems. We present a framework for agroecology in the North and discuss its components of environmental stewardship, economies, knowledge, social dimensions and governance using examples from the Dehcho region, Northwest Territories, Canada. Finally, we discuss several challenges and cautions in creating policy around agroecology in the North and encourage community-based research in developing and testing this framework moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic numerous institutions around the world have surveyed students to gain an understanding of their experiences. While these surveys are valuable at a local institutional level, it is unclear as to which findings from individual surveys reflect the broader higher education environment, and which patterns may be consistent across student surveys. It is worthwhile to synthesize survey findings in order to explore patterns and potentially new understandings that may arise from such analysis. In this paper, we reviewed and synthesized 21 surveys examining the impacts of COVID-19 and emergency remote learning on approximately 155,000 student respondents in Canada. Findings reveal that the impacts of COVID-19 and emergency remote learning on students centered around (1) educational experiences, (2) mental health and wellbeing, (3) financial concerns, (4) impact on future plans, and (5) recommendations for future practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries are experiencing an ongoing opioid crisis characterized by high rates of opioid use problems, overdose, poisoning, and death. Stigma has been identified as a central problem for seeking and receiving quality services from health providers and first respondents. The Mental Health Commission of Canada developed a scale that could be used to measure stigma in this population, as no such scale currently exists. This paper provides the results of psychometric testing of this new scale, known as the Opening Minds Provider Attitudes Towards Opioid-Use Scale (OM-PATOS), using exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analysis. EFA findings showed a 15 item 2-factor solution, with subscales of 'attitudes' (6 items) and 'behaviours/motivation to help' (9 items). The confirmatory factor analysis provided some preliminary confirmation of the factor structure suggested by the exploratory analyses, but further research with larger samples is needed to fully confirm the factor structure. Overall, results support the use of the 15-item scale with health professionals and first responders, with factors used for descriptive value rather than as calculated subscales until further research can be completed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adverse drug events (ADEs), harmful unintended consequences of medication use, are a leading cause of hospital admissions, yet are rarely documented in a structured format between care providers. We describe pilot-testing structured ADE documentation fields prior to integration into an electronic medical record (EMR). Methods: We completed a qualitative study at two Canadian hospitals. Using data derived from a systematic review of the literature, we developed screen mock-ups for an ADE reporting platform, iteratively revised in participatory workshops with diverse end-user groups. We designed a paper-based form reflecting the data elements contained in the mock-ups. We distributed them to a convenience sample of clinical pharmacists, and completed ethnographic workplace observations while the forms were used. We reviewed completed forms, collected feedback from pharmacists using semi-structured interviews, and coded the data in NVivo for themes related to the ADE form. Results: We completed 25 h of clinical observations, and 24 ADEs were documented. Pharmacists perceived the form as simple and clear, with sufficient detail to capture ADEs. They identified fields for omission, and others requiring more detail. Pharmacists encountered barriers to documenting ADEs including uncertainty about what constituted a reportable ADE, inability to complete patient follow-up, the need for inter-professional communication to rule out alternative diagnoses, and concern about creating a permanent record. Conclusion: Paper-based pilot-testing allowed planning for important modifications in an ADE documentation form prior to implementation in an EMR. While paper-based piloting is rarely reported prior to EMR implementations, it can inform design and enhance functionality. Piloting with other groups of care providers and in different healthcare settings will likely lead to further revisions prior to broader implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocates have called for universal, quality child care in Canada since the 1970s, but the issue seldom appeared to acquire political urgency. The 2006 election campaign seemed different. The governing Liberals promised to devote billions to a nascent national program. The Conservatives promised parents a cash allowance for young children. Child care seemed to be emerging as a significant issue in a political campaign. How was ECEC written about before, during and after Canadian election campaigns? Who is quoted and how? Our project mapped articles about child care in four major Canadian dailies between 2000 and 2008. We found that coverage spiked in 2000 and 2005-2006-during federal elections. Coverage nearly doubled in 2005-2006 in all but one paper. Using content analysis, we compared coverage of child care and sources in the 55 days before the start of campaigning, 55 days of campaigning, and 55 days following the 2006 election. We mapped and compared who said what, and how about child care policy and related issues, in Canada. We found: (1) that newspapers' ideological slants are apparent in their choice of sources and focus; and (2) that more importantly, despite ideological differences, political figures outnumbered activists, parents and child care providers. With only minor variations across the newspapers, the voices of parents and child care activists were marginal especially in the 55 days of campaigning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the application of a uniform price auction with a hidden reserve price in a field project aimed at discovering Canadian landowners' willingness to accept compensation for placing conservation easements on their lands. This is the only project of this kind in Canada to date, and one of the few worldwide. The paper discusses the design of the auction, describes its implementation, and presents its results. The bids received in the auction conformed with known factors affecting opportunity costs and willingness to accept. The information from this auction was successful in guiding a long-term easement procurement program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many countries, loan guarantee programs are important elements of government policy with respect to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). If loan guarantee schemes are to be effective, a majority of firms obtaining assistance through such a scheme ought not to be able to obtain financing from existing sources: a property known as incrementality or additionality. This paper describes a new approach to measuring incrementality. This work uses a two-stage process to estimate the incrementality of loans made under the terms of the Canada Small Business Financing (CSBF) program. First, a logistic regression-based model of loan outcomes (essentially a credit-scoring model) is estimated based on a large representative sample of SMEs. The resulting model was consistent with prior expectations and exhibited high levels of goodness-of-fit. The model was then employed to classify a sample of firms that had received loans under the terms of the loan guarantee scheme. Incremental loans ought to be classified as “turndowns” by the model; hence the proportion of loan guarantee recipients that the model classified as turndowns is a direct measure of incrementality. For the CSBF loan guarantee program incrementality was estimated (with 95% confidence) as 74.8±9.0%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of large-scale international assessments is to compare educational achievement across countries. For such cross-national comparisons to be meaningful, the participating students must be representative of the target population. In this paper, we consider whether this is the case for Canada, a country widely recognised as high performing in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Our analysis illustrates how the PISA 2015 sample for Canada only covers around half of the 15-year-old population, compared to over 90% in countries like Finland, Estonia, Japan and South Korea. We discuss how this emerges from differences in how children with special educational needs are defined and rules for their inclusion in the study, variation in school participation rates and the comparatively high rates of pupils' absence in Canada during the PISA study. The paper concludes by investigating how Canada's PISA 2015 rank would change under different assumptions about how the non-participating students would have performed were they to have taken the PISA test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents select findings from the quantitative arm of a mixed-method community-based study. The study examines ethnic identity, self-esteem, resilience, and mental health in immigrant and Canadian-born Pakistani youth from a systems perspective. Sixty-one youth aged 18–24 years participated in a survey; among these, 28 completed the survey online and 33 completed the paper-based version. Youth reported on demographics, physical health, mental, and social health, and completed the 4-item Current Self-Esteem Scale (CSE), the 15-item Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM), and the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-12). Descriptives' analysis was applied to the numeric items and content analysis was applied to open-ended questions. Among the sample, 34% youth were male and 66% females, 69% were Pakistani-born, and 20% were Canadian-born. About 36% of the youth had been in Canada for 5 years or less, and 10% reported 5–10 years of stay. Eighty percent of youth (n = 46) reported good to excellent mental health, and 74% felt stressed on most days. Scores for self-esteem (CSE) [6.5 (2.13 SD)], Ethnic Identity MEIM [3.14 (0.21 SD)], and resilience (CYRM-12) [4.23 (0.23 SD)] were moderate to high. Academic success and religious and family connectedness were found to have a positive effect on youth sense of self. Higher levels of ethnic identity and higher rating on mental health in our sample suggests the healthy immigrant effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial bank involvement in the mutual fund industry has been growing globally for the last few decades. General perception of the performance of these bank-managed funds has been negative. Academic studies of the issue have had varying results. This paper examines the issue in Canada where bank and independent funds have similar overall market shares and thus market power is not an issue. Our results show that after properly accounting for double-clustering, risk-adjusted returns are not significantly different between the two groups. Systematic risk, however, is different for equity funds but not for bond or balanced funds. These findings will be useful for both regulators and individual investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that forms of inequality are increasing in Canada. However, one often-overlooked form has been the inequality of retirement time, which is the period between labour market exit and the end of the life course. Divergences that persist in retirement time present opportunities for scrutiny given that they often mirror other forms of inequality across the life course. While racialized immigrants are reported to be less successful in the Canadian labour market, very little is known about their lived experiences navigating retirement time after they exit the labour market. This paper utilizes data from 20 Jamaican Canadian retirees (aged 60 and older) that follows their retirement time experiences after long-term labour market participation in Canada, in order to provide the first qualitative study focused on this significant life transition. Underscoring both precarity and agency as important facets of Jamaican Canadians' retirement time and later life, the paper highlights the interconnections of earlier life course trajectories, livelihood strategies, and their fears of perceived improvidence. It contributes to emergent scholarship on Jamaica's ageing diaspora, who are among growing cohorts of ageing Caribbean immigrants in Canada. Importantly, it foregrounds their strategic responses to the risks and opportunities that contour this lesser-researched phase of the migratory life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I engage with arguments put forth by Anna Günther-Hanssen in her article "A swing and a child: How scientific phenomena can come to matter for preschool children's emergent science identities." Günther-Hanssen argues that new materialism can help us see how scientific phenomena can create affordances in becoming scientific and can also help us to better understand what "becoming scientific" means. Drawing on my own research with doctoral students in physics, I explore how the theoretical concepts presented in Günther-Hanssen's paper, can be useful to investigate identity work at the doctoral level. I draw on empirical data from research conducted in Canada, to investigate the material-discursive entanglements that emerge in doctoral work, and the role that recognition plays in relation to these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates both single and multiple spell hazard models using a sample of workers' compensation claims (with soft tissue musculoskeletal injuries) from Ontario, Canada. Most of the results in this paper are consistent with the estimates in the existing literature. However, the duration elasticities for workers' compensation benefits and pre-injury earnings from the multiple spell hazard models are much larger than the estimates from the single spell models. This suggests that the estimates in existing literature that use single spell hazard models may underestimate the effect of benefits and pre-injury earnings on the duration of soft tissue musculoskeletal claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In theory, the nearest-nickel rounding scheme renders no financial gains for anyone given that each final digit has the same probability of appearing. However, in practice, rounding may yield non-zero net effects as most store prices end with nine. In this paper, price data from representative Canadian grocery stores are used to assess whether the current rounding system imposes a monetary loss on firms or consumers. Specifically, I evaluate how one- to ten-item purchases and the six different Canadian provincial sales tax rates influence penny-rounding. The results show that penny-rounding financially benefits the firms at the expense of the consumers, imposing a net transfer of approximately $3.27 million CAD from consumers to grocery vendors every year. This amount averages to $157 of additional revenue for a typical grocery store per year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using five cycles of a large nationally representative Canadian health survey, covering 2008 to 2012, the present paper examines the extent of labour earnings and household income gaps among gays, lesbians, and heterosexuals. The data used in this paper has the advantage of allowing for a direct classification of sexual orientation, through respondent self-identification. In accord with previous reports, this paper finds that homosexual females holding fulltime employment earn statistically significantly above comparable heterosexual females. Homosexual males with fulltime employment, on the other hand, are found no different in their earnings, from otherwise identical heterosexual males. When household income is considered, data reveal that lesbian households have statistically significantly lower incomes compared with otherwise identical gay households, who outearn heterosexuals as well. This pattern, not previously reported for Canada but observed in some other countries, is likely due to the combined effects of the general gender wage gap, the fading of homosexual males’ wage penalty, and the existence of two male income earners in a gay male household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this paper is to highlight current knowledge gaps that exist with regard to the factors which affect the supply chain, and the inventory management strategies that are utilized by hospital pharmacies in Canada which could lead to drug shortages. Subject and method: This research implements an optimal SLR (systematic literature review) method on drug shortages based on CHPSC (Canadian hospital pharmacy supply chain) literature and databases. This makes it possible to perform a wide review of Canadian hospital pharmacies and understand how continued disruption occurred in this process and caused drug shortages. Results and conclusion: The result of this research is contained in a systematic search methodology which consists of four main tasks, namely: a) building an optimal review process, b) defining search procedures, c) validating the search procedures, and d) conducting literature search. Furthermore, the researchers conducted a SLR which unveiled issues and factors such as raw materials availability and increases in demand which cause drug shortages. In conclusion, the proposed systematic methodology seeks to highlight possible solutions to the supply chain management issues which could cause drug shortages in Canada. Various solutions are proposed and explored, with the relevant information being obtained from studies conducted on how to mitigate the impact on supply chain management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most challenging parameters to estimate in leachate generation quantification is the percolation rate through a landfill cover. Since leachate generation is critical to operators, particularly when discussing walk-away aftercare conditionalities, this topic is still relevant. The best method for estimating the percolation rate of a cover involves placement of a lysimeter below or within the landfill cover to collect the percolating water. Previous work has focused on optimizing the height of the sidewalls of lysimeters to minimize the interference of its presence on the flow regime within the cover. Using numerical modeling, this paper examines the influences of climate, lysimeter geometry, and location, on the effectiveness of lysimeters. Robustness tests were proposed to assess the extent to which lysimeters altered the flow regime. The results show that lysimeter effectiveness depends on the relationship between its wall height, width, and depth within the profile. The lysimeters that passed all three performance robustness tests were considered reliable. Percolation measurement efficacies were found to be high when the height of the lysimeter, H, tended towards the height calculated using a simplified methodology based on steady-state calculations, Hlinear. For example, in the case of the cover soil tested and the Canadian climate, lysimeters whose H = Hlinear would not know any loss of performed for width to height (W/H) ratios greater than 3, no matter the depth it is placed. And it would lose only 5% in percolation efficacy for W/H = 2. In other words, a 3-m wide lysimeter would fit the bill in Canada. In the case of the Floridian climate, even when H = Hlinear, W/H ratios greater than 4 would be required for lysimeters placed nearer to the surface. When placed deeper, lysimeters with H > Hlinear perform better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second quantum revolution has been producing groundbreaking scientific and technological outputs since the early 2000s; however, the scientific literature on the impact of this revolution on the industry, specifically on start-ups, is limited. In this paper, we present a landscaping study with a gathered dataset of 441 companies from 42 countries that we identify as quantum start-ups, meaning that they mainly focus on quantum technologies (QT) as their primary priority business. We answer the following questions: (1) What are the temporal and geographical distributions of the quantum start-ups? (2) How can we categorize them, and how are these categories populated? (3) Are there any patterns that we can derive from empirical data on trends? We found that more than 92% of these companies have been founded within the last 10 years, and more than 50% of them are located in the US, the UK, and Canada. We categorized the QT start-ups into six fields: (i) complementary technologies, (ii) quantum computing (hardware), (iii) quantum computing (software/application/simulation), (iv) quantum cryptography/communication, (v) quantum sensing and metrology, and (vi) supporting companies, and analyzed the population of each field both for countries, and temporally. Finally, we argue that low levels of quantum start-up activity in a country might be an indicator of a national initiative to be adopted afterwards, which later sees both an increase in the number of start-ups, and a diversification of activity in different QT fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to map the emergence and development of a research field around the topic of "gender-based violence (GBV) against women with precarious legal status and their access to social protection in advanced welfare societies". We explore the academic knowledge production around this topic as a specific research field by using bibliometric data. We investigate the place occupied by scholars who publish in well-established journals, and their disciplines, in order to understand the relevance of different disciplines and groups of researchers in the knowledge production within the field. Our methodology includes analysis of co-authorship, cross-country collaboration, and co-citation. The search strategy is informed by discursive practices and knowledge production by influential international civil society actors (CSAs) involved in framing welfare responses to GBV against women with precarious legal status. Our results suggest that the knowledge produced in the field increased in terms of number of publications between 2010 and 2021, indicating a process of institutionalisation. Disciplines oriented towards certain groups of professionals such as clinical psychology, medicine, health, nursing, and social work, affiliated mainly to institutions in the US, Canada, and the EU, have a prominent role in knowledge production in this field. In our conclusions, we discuss the implications of these results in relation to gender studies and migration studies, along with some limitations of the use of bibliometrics software combined with an intersectionality approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) curve describes the relationship between rainfall intensity and duration for a given return period and location. Such curves are obtained through frequency analysis of rainfall data and commonly used in infrastructure design, flood protection, water management, and urban drainage systems. However, they are typically available only in sparse locations. Data for other sites must be interpolated as the need arises. This paper describes how extreme precipitation of several durations can be interpolated to compute IDF curves on a large, sparse domain. In the absence of local data, a reconstruction of the historical meteorology is used as a covariate for interpolating extreme precipitation characteristics. This covariate is included in a hierarchical Bayesian spatial model for extreme precipitations. This model is especially well suited for a covariate gridded structure, thereby enabling fast and precise computations. As an illustration, the methodology is used to construct IDF curves over Eastern Canada. An extensive cross-validation study shows that at locations where data are available, the proposed method generally improves on the current practice of Environment and Climate Change Canada which relies on a moment-based fit of the Gumbel extreme-value distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a growing part of internal medicine training programs. Dedicated POCUS rotations are emerging as a particularly effective tool in POCUS training, allowing for longitudinal learning and emphasizing both psychomotor skills and the nuances of clinical integration. In this descriptive paper, we set out to review the state of POCUS rotations in Canadian Internal Medicine training programs. Results: We identify five programs currently offering a POCUS rotation. These rotations are offered over two to thirteen blocks each year, run over one to four weeks and support one to four learners. Across all programs, these rotations are set up as a consultative service that offers POCUS consultation to general internal medicine inpatients, with some extension of scope to the hospitalist service or surgical subspecialties. The funding model for the preceptors of these rotations is predominantly fee-for-service using consultation codes, in addition to concomitant clinical work to supplement income. All but one program has access to hospital-based archiving of POCUS exams. Preceptors dedicate ten to fifty hours to the rotation each week and ensure that all trainee exams are reviewed and documented in the patient's medical records in the form of a consultation note. Two of the five programs also support a POCUS fellowship. Only two out of five programs have established learner policies. All programs rely on In-Training Evaluation Reports to provide trainee feedback on their performance during the rotation. Conclusions: We describe the different elements of the POCUS rotations currently offered in Canadian Internal Medicine training programs. We share some lessons learned around the elements necessary for a sustainable rotation that meets high educational standards. We also identify areas for future growth, which include the expansion of learner policies, as well as the evolution of trainee assessment in the era of competency-based medical education. Our results will help educators that are endeavoring setting up POCUS rotations achieve success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study conducted in Ontario, Canada with the purpose of identifying the barriers and facilitating factors of access to dementia care by foreign-born individuals, including immigrants and refugees. Interview data revealed seven overarching themes related to access and participation in dementia care programs by migrants, including structural, process, and outcome barriers. Our study findings suggest that incorporating culturally inclusive activity components in recreational dementia care programs will promote program participation by individuals from ethno-cultural backgrounds. It is essential to train health care providers to assist with building competence in working with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. To prevent normalization of symptoms of dementia and promote timely access to dementia care, it is important to focus on generating awareness and acknowledgement of dementia as an illness rather than as a normal part of aging or a condition associated with stigmatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small cities tend to have modest immigrant settlement services and cultural amenities, engendering a distinct sense of place among immigrants and impacting their wellbeing differently from large cities. To study the impacts of place characteristics on settlement needs, this photovoice research examines the sense of place among immigrant women through their attribution of meanings to places of comfort and discomfort as they settled in a small city in Canada. Thirty-two immigrant women of different immigration admission statuses, i.e., economic, family, and refugee classes, ranging in age from 19 to 48, took photographs of places that they considered to be either comfortable or uncomfortable. Most participants were from Asia, Africa, and South America, and they had lived in Canada for less than 10 years. Findings indicated that these women appreciated the warmth and support extended to them by settlement services provider organizations, libraries, and faith-based organizations, attesting to the relational nature of the place. Nevertheless, immigrant women dreaded harsh winter conditions and felt unsafe in downtown areas. A close read of these women's photo stories revealed that their apprehensions about punitive winter conditions are closely linked to their role as primary household caregivers who take their children to public places. Their sense of vulnerability towards downtown areas demonstrates female subordination and their distaste for public spaces. Immigrant women sought comfort in locales that this paper terms "restorative space," showing their creative use of private and public spaces for relaxation. This study contributes to our understanding of the gendered and interwoven nature of the self, social, and physical spaces. The findings from this study call for settlement policies that attend to distinct characteristics of local places to better serve the settlement needs of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on an extensive review of recent literature about resilience and integration, this paper evaluates a social resilience approach to the integration of international migrants in Canadian cities. We advocate a social resilience approach that acknowledges how institutions of all types play critical roles in newcomers' efforts to establish their lives in new places, especially when faced with unanticipated events such as a global pandemic. Centering research around the concept of social resilience goes beyond the neoliberal idea that integration is primarily an individual affair achieved with support from friends, family, and a nebulous community and draws attention to the social diversity of migrants and the complexity of their migration and settlement histories. Inherently relational, a social resilience approach encourages comparative studies of integration across cities that can reveal how different institutions and their programs affect migrants' trajectories. Detailed examinations of local institutions and their responses to shifting selection and integration policies, especially during a pandemic, also hold the potential to provide crucial information for supporting newcomers effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper constructs a direct output measure of the education sector for Canada and uses the measure to examine its productivity performance. It makes an explicit quality adjustment of the output of the education sector by proposing and implementing a hedonic approach. The approach represents a practical approach for the quality adjustment in education output and can be applied using the existing data from statistical agencies. The measurement of education output in the paper is predicated on the notion that the output of the education sector represents investment in human capital and it has two variants. The income-based approach measures investment in education as increments in the future stream of earnings arising from education. The cost-based approach measures investment as total expenditures related to education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to propose a method to predict shear-wave velocities in the process of AVO (amplitude variation with offset) inversion, to interpret seismic converted-wave data, and to match reservoir engineering information with seismic data in regions without shear-wave velocities. During CO2 flooding and sequestration, the shear-wave velocity varies with the pressure that is caused by fluid injection. Predictions of how the shear-wave velocity changes with pressure can be used to interpret 4D seismic monitoring data during different stages of CO2 injection. To verify the calculations, the authors used the characteristic parameters of the Marly dolomite and Vuggy limestone units of the Weyburn Oilfield reservoir in Canada. The Digby's model and Gassmann's equation were used to evaluate the dependence of the shear-wave velocity on the pressure in the carbonate rock formation. The authors have developed a new method for calculating the coordination number of the model and supplement the results with a shale correction, enabling the prediction to match the measured shear-wave velocities more closely. Our method is verified by dipole sonic logging data and petrophysical test data from the Weyburn Oilfield. When applied to petrophysical test data, the average error is below 5%. When the method is applied to well log data, the average error in the porous media is 3.014% in the Marly unit and 6.288% in the Vuggy unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013, the Arctic Athabaskan Council representing the Arctic Athabaskan peoples filed a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Council sought relief for violations of their rights resulting from rapid Arctic warming and melting caused by emissions of black carbon by Canada. The aim of the paper is to show legal complaints and arguments of a particular indigenous people, Arctic Athabaskans—arguments intended to enforce Canada's obligation to reduce or eliminate black carbon emissions, which negatively affect numerous rights of indigenous Athabaskans. Additionally, the article will point to the new legal developments and potential success of those arguments and litigation itself. The article analyses issues at the intersection of human rights, indigenous peoples and climate change. The concluding remarks attempt to answer the research questions and offer some reflections on the potential to protect indigenous peoples' rights offered by this type of advocacy strategy and, more specifically, the petition in particular. The research method adopted is that of legal-institutional analysis as well as content analysis of relevant literature (analysis of the discourse). This paper moves forward existing climate litigation literature which focuses on human rights. As Osofsky and Peel (2018) highlight, human rights-based climate litigation is a new development in the field, and this paper expands it further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberal theories—whether the new public management, principal-agent theory, or performance management—have provided the rationale for sweeping reforms in the governance and operation of higher education. This paper expands our understanding of neoliberal theory and practice by examining a leading neoliberal reform: performance-based funding (PBF) for higher education in the USA, Europe, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere. Our analysis of PBF examines not only its impacts but also its origins and implementation. Neoliberal theory has been used not only prospectively to design and argue for certain public policies but also retrospectively to analyse the origins and implementation of neoliberal policy. Hence, this paper examines this retrospective neoliberal analysis in order to determine how well neoliberal theory helps us understand the origins and implementation of neoliberal policy: in this case, the socio-political forces that gave rise to PBF; and the political and organizational features of the processes by which PBF was implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the process that led to the development of a national survey instrument used to gather over 20,000 observations across Canada. This survey captured aspects of household preferences and behavioural intentions towards electric vehicles through a choice experiment and a comprehensive suite of attitudinal questions. Background information on demographics, residential location and context, vehicle ownership and purchase plans, and travel patterns among other aspects were also collected. Important survey design decisions are examined that include: the choice and implications of using a survey panel, screening criteria for the sample, conceptualization of the observational unit for the sample, critical aspects relating to the choice experiment, and tactics employed to manage and measure survey cognitive burden. Novel aspects associated with the survey design are discussed in this paper and these have enabled new research works on the implications of vehicle body type on choice of powertrain and insights into spatial variation in electric vehicle preferences. Results and insights discussed are seen as relevant for a range of survey practitioners including those with a focus on the consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nonlinear impact of oil prices and inflation on residential prices in the US, the UK and Canada using quarterly data from 1975 to 2017. The study uses nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) bounds testing approach that allows possible asymmetric effects in both short- and long-run. Our results highlight that oil prices, interest and inflation rates and income have asymmetric relationship with residential prices in US, UK and Canada; however, the extent and magnitude of this relationship varies. Long run coefficients of Inflation rate highlights significance for residential prices in all three economies i.e. US, UK and Canada. For international oil prices however, the asymmetric effect is more pronounced in US as compared with UK and Canada. In case of US, long-run asymmetric relationship of residential prices with inflation and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is also witnessed however, interest rate seems to influence residential prices in both UK and Canada. Our paper has implications for the investors in residential housing markets and government authorities regulating housing sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With global action being outpaced by climate change impacts, communities in climate-vulnerable countries are at increased risk of incurring climate-induced losses and damages. In the last few years, disasters from extreme weather events such as typhoons have increased and have breached records, with typhoon Haiyan being the strongest ever typhoon to make landfall. Such an event solicited global compassion and altruism where Canada and the USA, apart from doling out traditional humanitarian aid, also offered immigration relief opportunities to typhoon Haiyan victims who have familial connections to their residents. Drawing from these immigration relief interventions, this paper uses a sociopolitical approach in proposing a climate humanitarian visa that would be offered to climate change victims on the basis of transnational family networks and skilled labor. Noting that several countries such as in Europe have demographic deficits and labor shortages, such a scheme would benefit both climate change victims and receiving countries. To counter the risk of selective compassion against economically trapped populations, potential receiving countries could provide skills upgrading geared toward addressing their labor shortages through their existing development programs. While migration is only one strategy in a spectrum of responses to climate change impacts, a climate humanitarian visa could provide climate change victims a legal choice for mobility while invoking altruism, hospitality, and compassion from potential receiving countries, whether or not they historically cause climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]