19614 research outputs found
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Truly, madly, deeply: Strategic entrepreneuring and the aesthetic practices of craft entrepreneurs
Get PDFResearch Summary: Strategic entrepreneurship research has long focused on high growth and wealth maximization in the creation of primarily economic value. As such, it has largely overlooked craft entrepreneurs, who prioritize skill, materiality, and immersive action in creating broader forms of value. Deep engagement with materials, alongside daily aesthetic (sensory, tacit, embodied) practices are key to how craft entrepreneurs create unique value and strengthen competitive distinction. Drawing on ethnographic data from two craft-based settings, we abductively generated three dimensions and associated tensions by which craft entrepreneurs leverage aesthetics for strategic entrepreneuring: materializing, enchanting, empathizing. Our key contribution is to unpack the embodied—and very human—processes by which craft entrepreneurs imagine and give life to unique offerings while creating distinctive value for both themselves and their stakeholders.
Managerial Summary: The focus of strategic entrepreneurship research is often on economic value creation, along with high growth and wealth maximization. By exploring the everyday practices of craft entrepreneurs, we unpack how creating broader forms of value (e.g., symbolic, artistic, social, cultural) through immersive and embodied actions contributes to stylistic and competitive distinction. For the craft entrepreneurs in our study, remaining competitive is about engaging in sensuous practices that result in meaningful and authentic offerings, for both themselves and their stakeholders. By capturing and exploring these daily practices, along with the tensions that undergird real-time exchanges with stakeholders, we provide fresh insights into how craft entrepreneurs create unique value while delicately balancing tradition with innovation to strengthen competitive distinction.The authors acknowledge financial support from the University of Missouri's Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business.FacultyReviewe
UVic sustainable procurement initiatives: Developing an implementation strategy for supplier code of conduct and EcoVadis Supplier Sustainability Assessments
Get PDFPublic post-secondary institutions are driving Sustainable Procurement (SP), given its impact on various stakeholders and partners through direct expenditures, collaboration, and research. In addition, the higher education sector stimulates economic activity in the broader supply chain and has a multiplier effect on the national economy (Filho et al., 2019). From the early objectives of reducing waste and packaging and evaluating suppliers based on their environmental footprint, SP has extended to social issues like modern slavery, child labour, and internal governance. In recent years, including the triple bottom line of profit, people, and planet metric has expanded the understanding and relevance of SP in the sector. In Canada, various higher-educational institutions have adopted more sustainable sourcing strategies that align with university-wide sustainable goals.UVic Purchasing Services DepartmentGraduat
Bridging the Great Divide: Integrating Experiential Learning into the Academic Study of Religion, Culture, and Society
Get PDFUtilizing spiritual health resources located in the University of Victoria’s Multifaith Centre, this project will explore how to better integrate experiential learning into an interdisciplinary, religious studies academic unit. My goal is to bridge the divide that some regard as separating “secular” scholars of “religion” from people engaging in religious practice. The project aims to bolster a decolonized and experiential pedagogy counterbalancing modern, Western ways of knowing tending toward reductive and objectifying depictions of religion and spirituality. By drawing on UVic’s Multifaith resources, which provide a supportive environment for a diverse body of students through various religious and spiritual programs such as yoga, meditation, and call-and-response singing, I wish to illustrate how religious studies students can benefit from engaging with activities that are analogous to, but not identical with religious practice. I will foreground a variety of textual, material, and embodied religious studies methodologies to foster richer learning practices. By underscoring community-centered and participatory approaches to religious studies research, resulting curricular innovations can help shift the pedagogical focus from colonially-framed, delimited conceptualizations of religion, to a more capacious and inclusive approach.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
Cultivating psychological well-being amongst older gay men: A qualitative exploration
Get PDFThe project was approved by the British Columbia Provincial Ethics
Platform (H22-01799) and the University of Montreal (2021–1263).FacultyReviewe
Taking the temperature of the Anahim Hotspot, British Columbia
Get PDFThe Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province is a 1200 km long and 400 km wide group of more than 100 mapped occurrences of volcanism throughout BC. There are several proposed hypotheses for the origin of volcanism: lithospheric extension, subduction and slab window formation, and migration of North America across a hotspot. Lava samples with olivine phenocrysts and Cr-spinel inclusions were collected from the volcanic centres to test whether the lavas are of a hotspot origin. This was done using LA-ICP-MS and electron microprobe to gather geochemical data from the samples. The chemical data was then used to derive the temperature the olivine and lavas crystallized at, which was used to calculate the mantle potential temperature for each volcanic centre. Potential temperatures of the volcanoes were compared to potential temperatures of known world hotspots and were found to be significantly (~200°) cooler, implying the lavas are likely not of a hotspot origin.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
Receptions of the Roman Emperor Elagabalus as a Queer Figure
Get PDFThis project examines a selection of 20th and 21st century fictional representations of the Roman emperor Elagabalus, aiming to discuss and unpack the ways in which they interpret the ancient sources' claims about his gender expression, sexuality, and Syrian upbringing. The pieces are also considered in the contexts of the political environments under which they were written, and the identities of the authors. The findings were that despite the ancient sources' likely intentions of exaggerating these queer aspects in order to slander Elagabalus in the historical record, the modern pieces sought to empathize with Elagabalus, often through the authors' own identification with him as a social other. As well, similarities were found between the pieces that were not present in the ancient sources, suggesting something akin to a modern tradition in the inspiration they took from each other.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
You are so much more than your diagnosis: Exploring subjectivity and sense of self while living with a chronic sexually transmitted infection
Get PDFThis project focuses on stigma and sexual health by investigating the lived experiences of individuals diagnosed with a chronic sexually transmitted infection (STI). I explore how their STI diagnosis impacts their sense of self and their relationships. Data come from 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews with individuals living with chronic STIs (Herpes Simplex Virus, HIV, and HPV). Interview questions consisted of exploring particular experiences related to living with a chronic STI (i.e. process of diagnosis, disclosing STI status to sexual partners, etc.) and various thoughts and feelings associated with living with a chronic STI. The study found that being diagnosed with a chronic STI disrupts one’s sense of self by forcing them to grapple with negativity and questions of self-worth, self-esteem, and identity disruption. This disruption was often intense and negative in the early stages of living with a chronic STI but improved significantly after rebuilding their sense of sense of self and accepting the often-insignificant realities of living with a chronic STI. Several common themed emerged regarding the impact of being diagnosed with and living with an incurable STI such as impacts on romantic, platonic, and familial relationships. Informants reported the presence and discussions regarding STIs to have one of three impacts: 1) strengthening meaningful and caring dynamics; 2) damaging or ending weak and surface level connections; or 3) largely having no meaningful impact on solid pre-existing dynamics without sexual activity. Informants highlighted several positive impacts that they had not anticipated emerging from living with a chronic STI, including: forming deeper, higher quality connections with others; prioritizing self-love and self-care; dating more intentionally and with higher standards, and finding a special sense of community amongst other STI+ individuals. Overall, despite having intense emotional, personal, romantic, and social struggles associated with the initial process of being diagnosed and living with a chronic STI, most informants discovered that their STI had little-to-no meaningful negative impact on their lives.Graduat
UVic Convocation June 10, 2024 – 2:30 pm
No full textStudents from the Faculties of Graduate Studies and Human and Social Development.UndergraduateUnreviewe
Breast Cancer Prediction Using Machine Learning Algorithms
Get PDFBreast cancer has become a pressing global health issue with its prevalence increasing worldwide. The rise in breast cancer cases is a cause for concern as it not only affects the physical and emotional well-being of individuals but also places a significant burden on the healthcare system. Early detection and timely intervention are critical factors in effectively combatting this disease. The ability to predict and diagnose breast cancer at its earliest stages can have a profound difference in patient outcomes, potentially saving countless lives. In recent years, the importance of Machine Learning (ML) in the field of healthcare has become paramount. This study considers the utility of supervised ML models to address the challenges posed by breast cancer using the publicly available Breast Cancer Wisconsin (Diagnostic) dataset from the University of California Irvine (UCI) ML repository. The Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naive Bayes and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) classifiers are implemented using Jupyter Notebook with Python programming.
The goal of the proposed methodology is accurate breast cancer prediction. First, data preprocessing is employed to clean the dataset by removing null values and duplicates, and handling missing data. In order to balance the target labels of the dataset, Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) is employed. Then, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to reduce the dimensions of the dataset. The number of components is varied (n=2, 5, 10, 15). For training and testing the ML models, five data splits, namely 80/20, 70/30, 50/50, 30/70, and 20/80 are employed to assess the impact on model performance.
The performance of the models is evaluated using the metrics accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and execution time. The results obtained show that SVM and Logistic Regression outperform the other models with SVM having an accuracy of 98.2% and an execution time of 9.99 ms with an 80/20 split using 10 features and Logistic Regression having an accuracy of 97.9% and an execution time of 8.42 ms with a 50/50 split using 15 features.Graduat
Quantifying the value of building demand response: Introducing a cross-sectoral model framework to optimize demand response scheduling
Get PDFThe authors would like to thank Mohammad Miri, Jack Pawlyna, and Harold Stanislaw for insightful feedback during the manuscript editing process.Co-optimization of demand-side electrification and supply-side variable renewable energy integration in electricity systems can lead to dramatically reduced emissions due to synergies between the two sectors. However, few models exist that represent both sectors in sufficient operational detail. To bridge this gap, this paper proposes a novel framework for transferring information from a building stock model to an electricity system model. First, demand response (DR) events are simulated within a model of building stock energy use. Then, the energy characteristics of these events are used to inform a series of constraints within the electricity system model. At the same time, hourly electricity use predictions from the building stock are also incorporated into the total demand met by the electricity system. This allows the electricity system model to determine the grid-optimal times for the building stock to enact DR. To demonstrate the utility of this framework, a case study into the effects of building efficiency increases, DR, and variable renewable capacity expansion in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan is performed, and various ways to reduce the costs and emissions associated with electricity use in Regina are compared.This work has been supported by funding from the MITACS Accelerate Program [grant number IT14846].FacultyReviewe