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This concept paper builds on comparative work on sustainable agriculture in Canada and Cuba by exploring the role of agricultural co-operatives. Findings indicate that Canada and Cuba's agricultural co-operatives face the challenges of membership renewal and economic presence in their national economies. The paper argues that components of each agricultural co-operative system at the farm and tertiary levels could be adapted to the other nation's agricultural co-operatives in order to strengthen community control of local food systems. The paper further argues that a new approach to agricultural co-operatives must incorporate the state itself in any potential reform agenda in both countries. The paper calls for movement-to-movement contacts between the two countries, and the wider Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pareto-lognormal frequency distribution, which can result from multifractal cascade modeling, previously was shown to be useful to describe the worldwide size-frequency distributions of metals including copper, zinc, gold and silver in ore deposits. In this paper, it is shown that the model also can be used for the size-frequency distributions of these metals in Canada which covers 6.6% of the continental crust. Like their worldwide equivalents, these Canadian deposits show two significant departures from the Pareto-lognormal model: (1) there are too many small deposits, and (2) there are too few deposits in the transition zone between the central lognormal and the upper tail Pareto describing the size-frequency distribution of the largest deposits. Probable causes of these departures are: (1) historically, relatively many small ore deposits were mined before bulk mining methods became available in the twentieth century, and (2) economically, giant and supergiant deposits are preferred for mining and these have strongest geophysical and geochemical anomalies. It is shown that there probably exist many large deposits that have not been discovered or mined. Although overall the samples of the size-frequency distributions are very large, frequencies uncertainties associated with the largest deposits are relatively small and it remains difficult to estimate more precisely how many undiscovered mineral deposits there are in the upper tails of the size-frequency distributions of the metals considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New institutionalism predicts a global convergence in how higher education is organized. This convergence might be expected to intensify in professional education given accreditation requirements of professional bodies. Engineering presents an opportunity to study how international mobility agreements facilitate the development and normative diffusion of global norms in accreditation. This paper investigates how changing logics of accreditation influence the academic organization of engineering schools in Canada. Using three case studies of Canadian universities, we show how regulative and normative institutional pressures influence decisions by engineering schools to take visible action to demonstrate their conformity to global norms, while still pursuing local missions. Our findings contribute to understanding the complex mediation processes between professions and universities, and they represent a critique to dominant rationalist perspectives on quality assurance mechanisms in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how 15 Ethiopian-Canadian immigrants define and express their post-migration intentions. Specifically, this paper explores how the linguistic and cultural features embedded in language inform their return-thinking process. This paper contributes to emerging scholarship that expands the dominant conceptualization of language and migration to include a focus on how language becomes integral to the experience of migration through beliefs and value systems. Particularly, this paper argues that it is essential to recognize the multifaceted nature of migration, language, identity, and transnationalism and to recognize how migrants' agency in straddling two distinct societies shapes their return-thinking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper places Latour's (2004) concept of "body talk" alongside literature on symbolic boundaries to consider how the symbolic judgements and evaluations that comprise body talk frame the impact of structural pressures on the body. Drawing from individual and focus group interviews with 36 first-generation Arab Canadian immigrant women, this study shows that the female body, and practices of feeding and exercising it, are sites where structural inequalities embedded in the immigration process are materially experienced, resisted, and managed. In constructing boundaries between Arab women's bodies in Canada and the Arab world alongside those of so-called "Canadian" women, we argue that women communicate their immigration and settlement struggles and recoup dignity otherwise compromised in the migration process—ultimately allowing them to frame their struggles as products of their moral integrity as immigrant wives and mothers. Through these findings, this paper demonstrates the role of body talk in framing the impact of structural pressures on the body, while simultaneously highlighting the centrality of boundary work to that framing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review uncovers the extent to which immigrant and minority women find HPV self-sampling an acceptable and feasible alternative to PAP testing for screening for cervical cancer. A focused literature review was conducted using CINAHL, Medline, Proquest and Pubmed databases to search for content relating to acceptability or feasibility of HPV self-testing for immigrant populations or minorities. 575 prospective relevant papers were included in the final analysis and 28 selected using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. HPV self-sampling was found to be acceptable and feasible among immigrant and minority women. Participants studied indicated the importance of providing in-depth educational documents, diagrams, illustrations and supplementary resources in future HPV self-sampling studies. HPV self-sampling has the potential to significantly increase cervical cancer screening participation rates amongst immigrant and minority women. Future research studies should incorporate methods to increase the efficacy and acceptability of HPV self-testing amongst immigrant and minority women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, numerous developed and developing nations have witnessed a remarkable shift from manufacturing-based economies to those that center around the service sector. This development has led to a staggering growth in the consumption of energy-intensive goods, and Canada has not been immune to this trend. Despite being home to abundant energy reserves, the country's economic expansion has manifestly relied on prodigious energy consumption. Within this context of symbiotic energy-economic growth, this study investigates the empirical relationship between energy consumption and economic growth using Canadian time-series data from 1980 to 2020. In doing so, this paper offers a vital contribution to the development of theoretical frameworks within the sphere of endogenous growth. Besides, to arrive at empirical findings, a model known as the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, renowned for its ability to discern both short- and long-term coefficients, is employed. The results reveal that economic growth has a significant positive long-run effect on energy consumption and other explanatory variables. All variables other than trade openness demonstrate a positive relationship with economic growth in the short run. From Toda-Yamamoto causality test, it is evident that there exist bidirectional causal links between economic growth and energy consumption and between economic growth and financial development. Several unidirectional causalities were also observed for other variables. Based on these findings, it is recommended that Canada boosts its investment in energy infrastructure, especially in rural and backward regions, to deliver necessary energy services. An optimal trade-off between Canada's vast energy resources and economic growth can perhaps be achieved by minimizing the disparity in access to energy services across all parts of the country. Other policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is unquestionably necessary for economic progress; nevertheless, it also produces CO2 emissions, which are the primary cause of climate change and environmental degradation. Renewable energy, which consists of non-carbohydrate energy sources that do not or seldom emit emissions, can assist the accomplishment of both ecological sustainability and sustainable development in this respect. Against this background, this paper takes into account political risk and assesses the impact of renewable energy use on CO2 emissions in Canada from 1990 to 2018 controlling economic growth and trade globalization. The present research utilized an innovative dynamic ARDL method that overcomes the limitations of the ARDL method. The results revealed significant evidence of cointegration. In the long run, we established that a surge in economic growth, political risk, renewable energy use, and trade globalization mitigates environmental degradation. Furthermore, the outcomes of the frequency domain causality disclosed that in the long term, economic growth, political risk, renewable energy use, and trade globalization can predict CO2 emissions in Canada. Since the political stability in Canada has helped to attract foreign firms to invest. Therefore, ensuring political stability will bring in more foreign investment, forcing the Canadian government to take its climate crisis problem more seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many sediment attributes have been proposed as proxies for determining salinity conditions under which sediment is deposited, and six attributes (Sr/Ba-HAc, Sr/Ba-NH4Ac, δ13Corg, C/N, and the relative abundances and concentrations of dinoflagellate cysts) are compared here. In this paper, sediment attributes from the Fraser River Delta, Canada and surrounding coastal areas are compared by depositional position along the fluvial-to-marine transition, by salinity, and by sedimentological characteristics. Along the fluvial-to-marine transition, most attributes exhibit distinct trends between parts of the river that experience sustained marine water (saltwater) influence over seasonal and tidal timeframes, and parts that experience only freshwater or periodic saltwater influence. No attributes are reliable indicators of depositional position where saltwater incursion is short lived or where water is fresh. Where marine influence is sustained, Sr/Ba-HAc and Sr/Ba-NH4Ac are the most reliable positional indicators along the fluvial-to-marine transition. When compared strictly to salinity, Sr/Ba-HAc, Sr/Ba-NH4Ac, and δ13Corg all correlate predictably except in delta front and prodelta settings. Our data show that all six sediment attributes are heavily impacted by river-derived sedimentation, and it is not appropriate to compare values from strongly river-influenced settings (e.g., deltas) with those from weakly river-influenced settings (e.g., bays and estuaries). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the short-run and long-run asymmetric impact of fiscal decentralization, green energy, and economic policy uncertainty on environmental sustainability proxied by ecological footprint. Using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed lag (NARDL) approach in selected five OECD countries, we find that ecological footprint responds to positive and negative fiscal decentralization asymmetrically in the long run and short run. However, the nature of the response varies significantly across countries. The result also suggests that green energy is a major factor in reducing the ecological footprint in all countries except Canada. Finally, economic policy uncertainty plays a negative and significant role in the ecological footprint in the UK, USA, and Germany while insignificant in Australia and Canada. Implications for effective environmental policies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rural, remote, and northern parts of Canada, the pre-existing vulnerability and risk for intimate partner violence has been exacerbated by COVID-19. The purpose of this commentary is to identify the unique impact of COVID-19 on intimate partner violence both in terms of the bearing on those experiencing abuse and on the service sector in rural, remote and northern communities where the rates of intimate partner violence and intimate partner femicide pre-pandemic are higher than in larger cities. The recommendations offered in this paper include enhanced safety planning, alternate housing for victims fleeing violence, and suggestions for service providers. We also offer ways to move forward with further research in the COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was published in 2007. By posing a right to self-determination, the UNDRIP opens a path to redefining Indigenous peoples' place in the international community. This paper considers how public archives in Canada can address the implementation of the UNDRIP and engage with Indigenous peoples to find new pathways to reanimate and promote the cultures and identities of Indigenous peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last three decades, Canadian universities have grown in size and complexity and undergone deep transformations. Meanwhile, who should be appointed as highest-ranking administrative officers and what they ought to be doing once appointed has remained hotly debated. This paper examines how Canadian universities' understanding and framing of their presidents and provosts in job advertisements has changed over this last thirty-year period. Our study analysed 153 job advertisements published between 1987 and 2017 to determine how these positions were portrayed over time. The analysis relied on a conceptualization of academic administration as a combination of scholarship, management, and leadership roles. Overall, the findings show an important shift in the symbolic language used to describe these positions, shifts which appear to be linked to Canadian universities' increasing use of recruiting firms. Presidents, first depicted as respected scholars, are now portrayed as charismatic heroes, while depictions of provosts have remained largely stable, focusing on their administrative support roles. Overall, the findings suggest that popular, if unrealistic, heroic depictions of Canadian university senior administrators are becoming prevalent in the crafting of job advertisements. Recognizing how these in turn shape how stakeholders understand these positions, greater attention should be given to the crafting of these key role signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Social adversity experiences have increased during the pandemic and are potential risk factors for both depression and support for violent radicalization (VR). However, the cumulative and independent effects of various social adversity experiences on support for VR have yet to be explored. This paper examines the cumulative and independent effects of COVID- and non-COVID-related discrimination, exposure to violence, traditional and cyberbullying victimization on support for VR. In addition, we investigate whether depression mediates the relationship between these forms of social adversity and support for VR. Methods: A total of 6003 young adults (Mage = 27, SDage = 4.40, range 18–35) living in metropolitan areas in Canada responded to an online survey. We used multivariable regression models, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, to infer covariate adjusted associations between social adversity measures and support for VR. Additionally, we conducted a formal mediation analysis to estimate the proportion mediated by depression. Results: There was a cumulative relationship between experiences of social adversity and support for VR (β = 1.52; 95% CI: 1.32, 1.72). COVID-related discrimination and cyberbullying victimization were independently associated with stronger support for VR. Depression partially mediated the effect of cumulative social adversity, COVID-related discrimination and cyberbullying on support for VR. Conclusion: Prevention programs during the present pandemic should prioritize decreasing discrimination and providing psychosocial support to depressed young adults who experience social adversity. Practitioners should prioritize developing programs that foster digital literacy skills and critical thinking among young adults to address the concerning impact of cyberbullying on support for VR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Differences in disability duration after work injury have been observed across jurisdictions, regions and urban and rural settings. A key aspect of effective disability management is the access and utilization of appropriate and high quality health care. This paper presents a framework for analyzing and thus understanding how health service spending and utilization vary across and within work disability management schemes and affect work disability management. Methods Our framework was developed through a literature review and policy analysis. Existing frameworks describing geographic variation in general health care systems identified factors believed to drive that variation. A review of policy and practice documents from Canada's no-fault cause-based work disability management system identified factors relevant to work disability systems. Results We expand on previous frameworks by taking a systems approach that centers on factors relevant to the work disability management system. We further highlight predisposing, enabling, workplace environment and need-based factors that could lead to variation in health care spending and utilization across and within jurisdictions. These factors are described as shaping the interactions between workers, health care providers, employers and work disability management system actors, and influencing work disability management health and employment outcomes. Conclusion Our systems-focused approach offers a guide for researchers and policymakers to analyze how various factors may influence spending and utilization across regions and to identify areas for improvement in health care delivery within work disability management systems. Next steps include testing the framework in an analysis looking at geographic variation in spending and utilization across and within Canadian work disability management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Drawing on qualitative interviews, this paper examines the labour market integration experiences of immigrants from Turkey to Canada. Analysis is framed in the context of Bourdieu's theoretical framework in order to understand the ways in which members of certain immigrant groups follow varied integration trajectories. This paper contributes to the literature by first focusing on the experiences of immigrants who arrived with varied levels of education and under different immigration classes, settling in diverse segments of the labour market and, second, by exploring strategies developed to deal with job search challenges. The findings show that capital and habitus travelled with participants from Turkey and that the intersection of their immigration status with the set of written and unwritten rules of the Canadian labour market and its subfields (both professional and non-professional) shaped their integration experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the dataset of measurements collected and published in the context of the comprehensive experimental campaign on downburst-like outflows that was performed at the WindEEE Dome at Western University, Canada. Downbursts are strong downdrafts of air that originate from thunderstorm clouds and create vigorous radial outflows upon hitting the ground. Downbursts are here simulated as transient phenomena produced by large-scale impinging jet. Two jet velocities were adopted in the experiments. The three-component velocity measurements were recorded using 7 Cobra probes mounted on a vertical stiff mast and displaced at 10 radial positions in respect to the downdraft centerline. For every radial position, each experiment with the same initial condition was repeated 20 times to inspect the deterministic features of the signal. Overall, the total of 2800 tests (2 jet velocities × 20 repetitions × 10 radial positions × 7 heights) represent one of the largest experimental campaigns on downburst winds carried out in a wind tunnel facility thus far. Measurement(s) atmospheric wind speed Technology Type(s) Cobra Probe Factor Type(s) wind velocity Sample Characteristic - Organism wind flow Sample Characteristic - Environment wind tunnel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a direct platform-to-platform comparison of ground, helicopter, and unmanned aircraft system (UAS) magnetic data acquired over a 4.96 km2 prospective gold area in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt of the Canadian Precambrian Shield. Qualitative comparison focused on visual inspection of residual and gradient magnetic maps, focusing mainly on features associated with iron formations. Quantitative comparison employed maps of cell-by-cell absolute difference, percent difference, and coherence, as well as three global image similarity parameters: the structural similarity index, the mean squared error, and the peak signal-to-noise ratio. The qualitative comparison revealed that lateral continuity along the dominant E–W structural geological trend was better captured in the ground and UAS data than in the helicopter data. The UAS data had the additional advantage over the ground data of having undergone minimal processing. The quantitative comparison metrics were the same between all three datasets. This study showed that UAS technology is delivering the same data quality as traditional survey techniques in addition being an attractive economic and safety choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the threshold separating poor from non-poor populations is one of the most influential choices when measuring poverty. Commonly used selection criteria leave considerable room for discretion or are not appropriate as academic standards. This vacuum in academic guidance leads to arbitrary and/or ideologically driven choices. This can greatly influence the measurement of a societal phenomenon, and thus research and public policy decisions over a period that extends well beyond the mandate of those making that threshold decision. This paper sets out an empirical validation method that contributes to reducing the range of thresholds and thereby aids decision-makers in making that normative decision. Our method uses an absolute concept of empirical validity and requires that the microdata for measuring poverty hold additional information closely associated with poverty. The method builds on insights from theory on measurement error that, for any given threshold, some persons are wrongly identified as poor (false positives) and others are wrongly identified as not poor (false negatives), and that the reduction of one error can only be attained by increasing the other. Our method uses the additional microdata to disaggregate the population into (likely) false positives and (likely) false negatives and analyzes marginal changes in this composition as the poverty threshold becomes stricter. Using Canadian data, we show that this approach substantially narrows the range of thresholds for two unidimensional poverty indicators, namely a material deprivation and an income poverty indicator. The underlying principle of the method extends to other (unidimensional) social indicators. The analysis itself can also serve other purposes, such as deepening our understanding of poverty and the cost-effectiveness of policies to reduce it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) is a widely used patient-reported measure of health status in patients with coronary artery disease. Comparisons of SAQ scores amongst population groups and over time rely on the assumption that its factorial structure is invariant. This study evaluates the measurement invariance of the SAQ across different demographic and clinical groups and over time. Methods: Data were obtained from the Alberta Provincial Project on Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease registry, a registry of patients who received coronary angiogram in Alberta, Canada. The study cohort consists of adult patients who completed the paper-based version of the 16-item Canadian version of the SAQ (SAQ-CAN) 2 weeks and 1-year post-coronary angiogram between 2009 and 2016. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess configural, weak, strong, and strict measurement invariance across age groups, sex, angina type, treatment, and over time. Model fit was assessed using the comparative fit index and root mean square error of approximation. Results: Of the 8101 patients included in these analysis, 1300 (16.1%) were at least 75 years old, while 1755 (21.7%) were female, 5154 (63.6%) were diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome, 1177 (14.5%) received coronary artery bypass graft treatment, and 3279 had complete data on the SAQ-CAN at both occasions. There was evidence of strict invariance across age, sex, and angina type, and treatment groups, but partial strict invariance was established over time. Conclusion: SAQ-CAN can be used to compare the health status of coronary artery disease patients across population groups and over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mining industry, considered a traditional and conservative industry with respect to innovation, finds itself at a turning point due to the increasingly complex challenges, such as declining ore grades. These challenges have created an imperative to innovate. Parallel to the above, several digital innovations are being implemented in many mining operations across the globe. Not only do these provide solutions to the existing problems but also radically transform mining processes, increasing efficiency, profitability, and the ability to comply with stricter regulations. The incorporation of mature and incipient technologies into the mining industry has opened up many opportunities for long-established firms as well as knowledge-based start-ups. This includes potential suppliers in countries where mining accounts for a significant share of the GDP but the development of productive linkages remains suboptimal, as in Latin American countries. While in recent years, some suppliers in Latin America have made important contributions to increasing innovation in the mining industry, most suppliers in the region have not been able to do so. This paper provides an overview of the innovation paradigm of the mining sector from a global perspective, i.e., how innovation processes take place in countries with a long-established technological leadership in the mining sector, such as Australia and Canada. Given the importance of suppliers in this process, a special attention is paid to innovation in various stages of the supply chain. This is in order to provide a departure point for identifying windows of opportunity for equipment and service suppliers in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the (break) stationarity null hypothesis using data for 25 interest rates with different maturities and risk characteristics in Canada and the US. In contrast to a large part of the literature, this paper reports strong empirical evidence in favour of the null hypothesis of stationarity for the interest rate series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the second of a two part series which critically evaluates the notion that Catholic schools are permeated with a sense of Catholic identity. Building on the theoretical base established in part 1, this paper sets out some of the practical dimensions of permeation. As with part 1, this article focuses on Catholic schools in Canada with a particular stress on those in the province of Alberta. One of the most important aspects of permeation is the role of religious education in Catholic schools. If religious education in general is not given strong, ongoing and substantial support it is unlikely that claims of permeation of religious identity in Catholic schools can be sustained. A critical aspect of strong support of religious education is in curriculum development and in support of religious education teachers. In the first part of this paper it was argued that a very common theme in Catholic educational discourse is the idea that Catholics schools should seek to provide an educational vision where the religious dimension is given prominence. This is not just in formal religious education classes but throughout the curriculum and in the wider life of schools. One way of expressing this idea is to argue that Catholic identity should permeate all that is done in the school. This idea is very influential, for instance, in Canadian Catholic schools. While permeation may be a worthwhile goal for Catholic schools to strive for, this must be seen within the context of a number of significant challenges that face Catholic schools today. These challenges include, most notably, the changing demographics of schools where many parents, students and teachers no longer exhibit high levels of religious commitment. This results in a loss of the critical mass needed for effective collaborative action which, in turn, makes the permeation ideal difficult to realise. In this paper three specific and practical examples are given which are fundamental to permeation of Catholic identity being realised. The focus for this paper is on how permeation can be realised through what occurs in the classrooms of Catholic schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses content analysis and interviews to produce case studies of Fairchild Group's Talentvision (Mandarin) and two local current-affairs talk show programs in Mandarin. Based on the concept of geo-ethnic media and multicultural communication infrastructure model, the paper argues that geo-ethnic media can be a powerful means to promote civic virtues in a large, pluralistic modern society and to help new immigrants transform their 'formal' citizenship into a 'substantive' citizenship. The geo-ethnic media also provides a transnational supplement to the mainstream public sphere, which allows a sub-national ethnic community to maintain its cultural identity. The paper concludes that further efforts should be made to foster communication and interaction between the mainstream media and the diverse world of ethnic media in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian contributions to International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 were designed to improve the understanding of climate change impacts and adaptation and to gain insight into issues surrounding community health and well-being in Canada's arctic. Fifty-two research projects, involving scientists, northern partners and communities, focused on the arctic atmosphere and climate, cryosphere, oceans, sea ice, marine ecosystems, terrestrial ecosystems, wildlife as well as human health and community well-being. Key research findings on these topics are presented in this special issue of Climatic Change. This introductory paper presents an overview of the international and Canadian IPY programs and a summary of Canadian IPY results, including progress made in data management and capacity building. The legacy of IPY in Canada includes expanded international scientific cooperation, meaningful partnerships with northern communities, and more northern residents with research training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the centrality of permaculture design courses (PDCs) as the principal sociopolitical strategy of the permaculture community in Canada to transform local food production practices. Building on the work of Antonio Gramsci and political agroecology as a framework of analysis, we argue that permaculture instruction remains deeply embedded within market and colonial relations, which orients the pedagogy of permaculture trainings in such a way as to reproduce the basic elements of the colonial capitalist economy among its practitioners. In the specific case of eastern Ontario, this embeddedness had the effect of diluting the transformative capacity of permaculture practitioners who were unable to create its own social movement organization. The paper then highlights key elements of the agroecological pedagogy used by the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and the Escola Latinoamericana de Agroecología (Latin American School of Agroecology, or ELAA) in Paraná, Brazil. The objective is to draw lessons from these inspiring experiences, in a rather unique context of struggles that can help to critically assess the pedagogical practices and principles presently informing permaculture communities in Canada and in advanced industrialized countries more generally. We then conclude by reiterating the key arguments and lessons drawn from the Brazilian pedagogical experiences, pointing out the importance of engagement and coalition-building with established rural and urban movements, as well as progressive farmer, Indigenous, and rural associations to foster a just and sustainable transformation of agri-food systems, starting at the local and regional levels. It also emphasizes the need for the most marginalized sectors to lead the way towards an agroecological transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The typical centralized cloud model is poorly suited to latency-sensitive applications requiring low-latency and high-throughput. This paper proposes an integrity-preserving serverless framework for live-video streaming that runs on the edge of the network. We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel P2P service based on WebRTC (web browsers with Real-Time Communications) called MioStream. MioStream is an open-source alternative for distributed media streaming that runs on the edge of the network without incurring in costly and extensive CDN infrastructure. We contribute a unique mix of algorithms using WebRTC data channels. For instance, under network degradation and high-churn environments, MioStream restructures the topology dynamically. MioStream provides authentication, privacy, and integrity of video chunks. This paper exposes a set of micro-benchmarks to measure the quality of service under network degradation and high churn environment (inducing failures). The Mesh topology offers the highest goodput per peer; the stalled playback on a node equals 1.8% of the total video play. Our results show the feasibility of this proof of concept under high-churn environments. The total stream interruptions in the topology are not longer than one second under a binomial distributed series of failures. The integrity check applied to each package includes a considerable overhead and impact the quality of service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a geotechnical study of a Champlain Sea clay landslide at Breckenridge, Quebec, Canada. Previous studies have interpreted the landslide as triggered by an earthquake occurred about 1020 cal years BP. The current study is to estimate the minimum ground acceleration required to trigger the landslide as part of an effort to further understand the earthquake. The study consists of field and laboratory testing and slope stability analysis. Considerable evidences are presented to understand the slope failure mechanism. The result indicates a minimum horizontal ground acceleration of 0.28 g occurred at the site. Most importantly, the paper provides a case history for better understanding landslide hazards associated with sensitive clay failures in the region. Particularly, the study finds that the landslide is a "flake" type failure as opposed to a retrogressive failure commonly perceived for Champlain Sea clay landslides. It brings to light the "flake" slide as an important factor to consider for improvement of the current predictive models for sensitive clay failures. It also shows that earthquake-triggered "flake" slide can be much larger than retrogressive failures in the same settings. The case history may therefore help as a reference for improved mitigative measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the risks and costs associated with disasters and climate change escalate, international, national, and regional governments are searching for ways to increase citizen engagement, as well as develop innovations and investments to reduce disaster risks and enhance climate change adaptation. As a signatory to the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction (DRR), Canada has committed to a whole of society approach to DRR that includes engaging youth as credible stakeholders. Historically, in the context of disasters, young people (children and youth) have more often been framed one-dimensionally as a population at high risk of experiencing negative impacts during disasters, and, therefore, a population in need of protection. However, youth have more recently been recognized as having potential as change agents in their communities and stakeholders in the development and implementation of DRR policies and practices (Cox et al. in Int J Disaster Risk Reduct 22:249–356, 2017). As the first digitally native generation, youth today are equipped with unprecedented technological savvy, an entrepreneurial orientation, and confidence in their ability to change the world. From this perspective, youth, aged 15–24, stand poised as a significant capacity multiplier in Canada's efforts to reduce the risks and impacts associated with disasters and climate change. This paper explores the current state of youth engagement in DRR in Canada and opportunities for extending and deepening that engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, with the evolution of digital video broadcasting, as well as, the advent of high speed broadband networks, a new era of TV services has emerged known as IPTV. IPTV is a system that exploits the high speed broadband networks to deliver TV services to the subscribers. From the service provider viewpoint, the challenge in IPTV systems is how to build delivery networks that exploits the resources efficiently and reduces the service cost, as well. However, designing such delivery networks are affected by many factors including choosing the suitable network architecture, load balancing, resources waste, and cost reduction. Furthermore, IPTV contents characteristics; particularly size, popularity, and interactivity play an important role in balancing the load and avoiding the resources waste for delivery networks. Ignoring the content status in solving delivery networks issues particularly replica placement, request distribution, and resource allocation problems leads to load imbalance, which in turn, leads to performance degradation in IPTV system. In this survey paper, we introduce IPTV delivery networks terminology and taxonomy. Upon that, we investigate the challenges related to the contents' awareness in those delivery networks. At the end of the paper, we propose a content-awareness in ITV delivery networks and CDN as the future direction and discuss its importance in different aspects as request redirection, resource allocation, and replica placement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with how government research funding and collaboration between researchers affect academic technological production in the context of nanotechnology in Canada and in the United States. We use the co-invention and co-authorship networks of scientists to build indicators of collaborative behaviour and investigate whether the nature of the network plays a role in the academic technological productivity and quality. Results suggest that technological output has the potential to offer governments useful guidance concerning the effectiveness of academic grants and collaboration in the United States and in Canada. This paper provides evidence that the position of researchers in both co-invention and co-publication networks does influence technological productivity and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the problem of sex trafficking has become an alarming global concern. Reports suggest that half of active cases of sex trafficking involve female children and youth. This paper considers the mental health impact of sex trafficking on illegalized female trafficked youth under the age of 29 who live in Canada without legal immigration status. It will draw on a qualitative research, including individual interview and survey questionnaires, to explore the lived conditions and mental health outcomes of illegalized trafficked youth in the Greater Toronto Area. Sex trafficking is a gender and human rights violation, as well as a total control over an individual's body, sexuality, and livelihood. Trafficking negatively impacts the social determinants of health and mental health of trafficked persons. This paper provides three recommendations to improve mental health conditions of illegalized trafficked youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential energy efficiency improvements have a great potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Evidences suggest that there is an underinvestment in residential energy efficiency improvements, pointing out the existence of "energy efficiency gap". To address this in Canada, the government has introduced home energy efficiency audit programmes since 1998, to encourage homeowners to get their homes audited professionally for energy efficiency and implement recommended upgrades. Using the 2011 and 2013 Household and Environment Surveys, this paper investigates whether household environmental behaviours have played roles in determining household participation in these audit programmes during the last 10 years. To the best of our knowledge, no study in Canada has examined the association between household participation in other pro-environmental activities and energy efficiency audit programmes. We find that pro-environmental behaviours such as water conservation, composting, recycling, participation in unpaid conservation activities, purchase of green goods, carrying own grocery shopping bags and lowering heating temperatures in winter nights are good predictors of household participation in energy efficiency audit programmes. Given that these other pro-environmental activities demonstrate environmental awareness of the households, our results suggest that besides the financial incentives, a more strategic and holistic approach to environmental programmes is both needed and possible when designing policies addressing residential energy efficiency gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholder engagement is increasingly common in health research, with protocols for engaging multiple stakeholder groups becoming normative in patient-centered outcomes research. Previous work has focused on identifying relevant stakeholder groups with whom to work and on working with stakeholders in evidence implementation. This paper draws on the expertise of a team from four countries-Canada, Australia, the UK, and the USA-to provide researchers with practical guidance for carrying out multi-stakeholder-engaged projects: we present a list of questions to assist in selecting appropriate roles and modes of engagement; we introduce a matrix to help summarize engagement activities; and we provide a list of online resources. This guidance, matrix, and list of resources can assist researchers to consider more systematically which stakeholder groups to involve, in what study roles, and by what modes of engagement. By documenting how stakeholders are paired up with specific roles, the matrix also provides a potential structure for evaluating the impact of stakeholder engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periodic revelations about the workings of data interception, analysis and collection in Canada have each time prompted successive administrations to amend laws and regulations in order to calm public opinion. This has been referred to as “accountability through scandal” and has, for the most part, produced cosmetic changes rather than significant reform. Most of the practices and the ethos of the organizations have remained the same, setting the stage for the next scandal. This paper reviews the last scandal to befall the Canadian Security Establishment, caused by the Snowden revelations, and the subsequent political response. Approached with part of Foucault’s toolbox it becomes clear that the business of the state and state security requires a particular form of “management of illegalisms,” or differential treatment of rule-breaking, at the higher echelons of state power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

griculture-related discussions in climate change research have been largely focused on the effects of a changing environment on agriculture and the possible consequences for global and regional food security. However, from a policy standpoint, it is also essential to address the impact of agriculture and related activities on environmental change. Over the last 50 years, most of the world’s agriculture has transitioned into industrial agriculture that requires greater inputs of fossil-fuel energy, water, synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, which have created substantial harmful effects on air, soil, water and biodiversity. Sustainable farming that uses less chemicals and fossil-fuel energy and emphasizes localized production and consumption has come to be viewed as an eco-friendly alternative to modern agriculture. This paper will examine the concept of sustainable agriculture and compare and contrast its practice in Canada and Cuba. The paper will conclude with lessons that the two countries can learn from each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study measures the extent to which P2P file-sharing activities act as substitutes or complements to music purchases in markets for CDs. The paper breaks with the mainstream economics approach which dominates the music file-sharing discussion. Whereas such models assume relationships at the micro level (e.g. between file-sharing and purchases) based on observations made at the macro level, our evolutionary economics approach measures the direct effects using micro data representative of the Canadian population. The behavioral incentives underpinning free music downloading, novel to this paper, are the multiple effects of: ‘unwillingness to pay’ (market substitution), ‘hear before buying’ (market creation), ‘not wanting to buy a whole album’ (market segmentation), and ‘not available in the CD format or on electronic pay-sites’ (market creation). Although the two first mentioned incentives significantly influence CD album purchases—i.e. there is a negative and significant market substitution effect and a positive and significant market creation effect—on the whole, these two effects ‘cancel’ one another out, leading to no association between the number of P2P files downloaded and CD album sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to shed quantitative light on the implications of a scenario of deeper economic integration between Canada and the United States, where the barriers for foreign direct investment are preferentially eliminated. Our model distinguishes between the activities of domestic and foreign-owned firms at the microeconomic level, both in terms of demand and production characteristics. Overall our findings suggest that further investment liberalization between the two countries will accelerate the shaping of Canada’s industrial structure, as manifested by recent trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2004, the archival appraisal working group of the Association of German Archivists (Verband deutscher Archivarinnen und Archivare) presented a position paper outlining the present status of the debate on appraisal within the Federal Republic of Germany. What follows is an overview of this discussion as background and context for the group’s position paper; an examination of the common ground between appraisal as practised in Germany and macroappraisal as developed in Canada; and a glimpse at the future directions of this discussion in Germany. The position paper is appended to this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cities across Canada, suburbs have become important immigrant-receiving sites. This 'suburbanization of immigrants' is significantly affecting the housing situation in the Vancouver area, as the market responds to the preferences and requirements of new immigrant groups. This paper draws from a case study examining the settlement and housing experiences of recent immigrants from Mexico living in three Vancouver suburbs (Burnaby, Surrey, and Abbotsford). The findings from our survey of 129 Mexican immigrants and interviews with 60 key stakeholders reveal that housing affordability is a major issue for Mexican immigrant homeowners and renters. Almost half of the survey respondents spent more than 30% of their monthly income on housing. Renters used various strategies to afford housing, including sharing housing with relatives and co-ethnic friends (sometimes in overcrowded conditions), while some homeowners sublet rooms or rented out basement suites. The findings also revealed that in addition to facing employment and housing market challenges similar to other immigrant groups in Vancouver, Mexican immigrants experienced housing discrimination related to suspicions about undocumented immigration. Despite facing barriers to integration, the Mexican immigrants in our study were largely successful in improving their housing status in Canada. Policymakers and service planners must understand the 'ethnic refashioning' of major city suburbs and the housing issues faced by new groups of immigrants to better assist their integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Human milk expression has become an increasingly common means for providing milk to an infant, with women expressing to address breastfeeding problems or to allow for flexible feeding options. This study explored the experiences and recommendations of mothers who expressed human milk, with this paper reporting on the advice mothers would offer to other mothers to address common challenges. Methods: Interpretive description was used in this qualitative project. Using purposive sampling, mothers of infants aged 0–24 months who expressed human milk were recruited to participate from two health regions in western Canada. Individual, audio-taped interviews were completed with 35 women. NVIVO™ software was used for data analysis. Results: Mothers reported the desire to offer experiential advice to other mothers navigating milk expression and encouraged other mothers to seek guidance from health care professionals such as lactation consultants, peer support online, and from family and friends. Experiential knowledge shared included: (a) product recommendations, (b) expression tips, (c) support for workplace expression, (d) encouragement to seek help, and (e) moral support. Conclusions: Healthcare professionals should include evidence-based expression information as part of routine lactation support, while recognizing the importance of mother-to-mother knowledge transfer and emotional support. Services that assist mothers to determine and access pumps appropriate to their unique breastfeeding needs and goals should be offered, and the opportunity for peer support through creation of, or referral to, appropriate in-person or online support groups should be made available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between religion and health has been the subject of growing interest in academia. However, limited reviews of such studies in Canada exist. The paper systematically reviews and synthesizes existing literature on the relationship between spirituality and health in Canada. Available general databases such as: Medline; Web of Science, PubMed, Sociological abstract, Social Service Abstracts, Google scholar, Humanities International Index, JSTOR, CPI.Q Canadian Periodicals, and American Theological Library Association were searched for the period between 2000 and April 2019 inclusive. Collected data were then systematically analysed for common themes about spirituality and health in Canada. In total, 151 articles were found, but only 128 had relevance with the study objectives. Overall, the analysis showed that religion and spirituality do influence health behaviours, and well-being. However, more gender-based studies need to be conducted to tease out the differences in religion/spirituality and health across different genders, and ethnic groups in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, teaching online became a norm for universities in Canada. Besides the challenges of teaching topics that may be impossible to be taught online, a major issue that the mandatory physical distancing brought is the relationality between teachers and students. In order to investigate how educators were making sense of such changes, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 education professors across Canada. In light of Derrida's and Ruitenberg's ethic of hospitality, this paper explores how the abrupt shift to online education unveiled the nature and challenges of hospitable education, especially in the online context. The implications of online instruction to professors' relationality, however, are also instrumental in illuminating the complexities and ambiguities of a teacher's responsibility even in what could be considered the "normal circumstances" of face-to-face instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable global energy production is back-stopped by hydropower which is responsible for a significant share of the green energy produced worldwide. Hydropower, however, does not come without some environmental impacts but has worked to reduce those impacts. Here, we discuss the historical, legislative, and design configurations of hydropower facilities located in three of the world's most important producers: Brazil, Canada, and Norway. The background is intended to inform the collection of scientific papers from each country aimed at assessing and improving the sustainability of hydropower production that form the core of this special issue on sustainable hydropower. We review the development and key legislative history for hydropower in each country and point out the common backgrounds and interests each nation has in the continued sustainable development of its hydropower resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropeaking refers to the mode of hydropower dam operation where sub-daily changes in flow are used to vary the generation of electricity in accordance with demand. A typical pattern produces maximum power during the day (i.e., the peak), and minimal power at night. Hydropeaking is considered necessary to stabilize the energy grid since it is the only reliably flexible method of producing electricity besides fossil fuels. With the planned phase-out of traditional coal-fired electricity production across Canada by 2030, and the increased reliance on intermittent wind and solar generation, the flexibility of hydropeaking will assume an increased importance. However, hydropower generation comes with costs; hydropeaking in particular is considered one of the most ecologically harmful modes of operation since downstream biota are subjected to flows that deviate greatly from typical natural flow regime patterns. The ecological effects of hydropeaking have been examined in a growing body of literature, but mitigation options do exist that include dam operational and/or structural modifications. This paper will explore the importance of hydropeaking in the Canadian electricity system, the ecological consequences of flexible hydropower, and mitigation options that could potentially strike a balance between meeting Canadian energy needs and minimizing ecosystem impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new annually laminated record (varves) from Lake Walker, Québec North Shore (eastern Canada) spanning the period from ~ 3230 to 2320 ± 20 cal BP. A ~ 3.5-m-long composite sequence was established with the best regular and continuous laminated intervals using computed tomography and high-resolution photographs. The varve chronology was built based on two methods: manual multi-parameter counting using the PeakCounter software, and manual counting on thin-section images obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The latter correlates more closely with the ages derived from AMS radiocarbon dating, suggesting that thin-section analysis is here a more reliable counting technique. Varves are clastic, composed of a silt layer deposited in spring and summer, and a clay layer deposited in winter. Annually resolved grain size obtained using image analysis technique on SEM images of thin sections and elemental composition from X-ray microfluorescence analyses performed on the floating varve chronology suggests that the record is sensitive to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), as revealed by the strong co-variability with another lower resolution record from Greenland. This suggests that periods of negative winter NAO promoted a thicker snow cover that resulted in higher river discharges and stronger clastic component in the varves. In modern times, cooling of the North Atlantic in the mid 1970s to the late 1980s was also characterized by concurrent negative phase of NAO, which condition translated into increase snow precipitation over the region. Overall, these results highlight that the new Lake Walker varve record presents remarkable prospects of developing a longer and high-resolution paleoclimatological reconstruction of the NAO in a region where similar records are scarce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The lack of attention to transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people in undergraduate medical education (UME) is a point of concern, particularly among medical students. A project was undertaken to develop a UME curriculum framework for teaching the healthcare needs of TGD people. Methods: Using a modified Delphi methodology, four rounds of surveys were presented to an expert stakeholder group that included content experts, generalist physicians, UME teaching faculty, and medical students. Questions covered what content should be taught, who should teach the content, and how much time should be dedicated for this teaching. Once the Delphi process was complete, feedback on the provisional framework was sought from members of the TGD community to ensure it represented their needs and perspectives. Results: 71 panel members and 56 community members participated in the study. Core values included the scope of the framework, and topics such as inclusivity, and safety in practice and in teaching. The framework included terminology, epidemiology, medical and surgical treatment, mental health, sexual and reproductive health, and routine primary care. There was also guidance on who should teach, time to be allocated, and the learning environment. Discussion: There is a clear need to train tomorrow's doctors to provide competent and respectful healthcare services to and for TGD patients. Although local factors will likely shape the way in which this framework will be implemented in different contexts, this paper outlines a core UME-level curriculum framework for Canada and, potentially, for use in other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated school closures globally, resulting in an abrupt move to online/distance teaching or emergency remote teaching (ERT). Teachers and students pivoted from face-to-face engagement to online environments, thus impacting curriculum, pedagogy, and student outcomes across a variety of disciplines. In this paper, the authors focus on science/STEM teachers' experiences with online teaching and learning in a Canadian context during the pandemic. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through an online questionnaire administered to 75 Grade 1–12 science/STEM teachers in a Canadian province in May–July 2020. Through the TPACK framework and self-efficacy theory, the authors explore i) curriculum planning and implementation in online settings, ii) assessment practices and their effectiveness, and iii) student outcomes, as observed by the teachers. Results indicate that teachers used a variety of platforms, and choice of platform was mainly due to user-friendliness and interactivity, or administrative decision making. Despite teachers organizing online lessons during ERT, gaps were identified in teachers' TPACK framework and self-efficacy, thus impacting their curriculum development, pedagogical approaches, and assessment practices. In general, teaching strategies included pre-recorded videos and self-directed learning in which teachers assigned specific tasks for students to perform independently. Teachers prioritized subject content and covering curriculum objectives over creative and student-centered pedagogical approaches. Assessment techniques employed were viewed by teachers as unauthentic and generally ineffective. Moreover, teachers reported difficulties addressing student needs and abilities, resulting in challenges providing equitable and inclusive online teaching. Finally, online teaching was viewed negatively by most teachers, in terms of student engagement and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of the pulp and paper produced in eastern Canada is affected by the proportions of black spruce ( Picea mariana), balsam fir ( Abies balsamea) and jack pine ( Pinus banksiana) present in the wood chips used. A rapid analytical method capable of differentiating the wood of these three species of conifer is a prerequisite to developing a procedure to determine these proportions. This differentiation was achieved through the use of an electronic nose made up of an array of conductive polymer-carbon black composites-based sensors. The procedure is rapid and involves training and validation of the e-nose using reference wood samples followed by identification of unknown samples. Principal Component Analysis is performed on the smell-prints obtained during the training phase. Complete discrimination of the sapwood and heartwood of the three conifers was achieved. The reference and the unknown samples must be measured under identical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]