19614 research outputs found
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UVic Convocation November 15, 2023 – 2:30 pm
No full textStudents from the faculties of Graduate Studies, Business and Education.UndergraduateUnreviewe
EONS: A new biogeochemical model of Earth's oxygen, carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen systems from the Archean to the present
No full textWe present Earth's Oxygenation and Natural Systematics (EONS): a new, fully coupled biogeochemical model of the atmosphere, ocean, and their interactions with the geosphere, which can reproduce major features of Earth's evolution following the origin of life to the present day. The model, consisting of 257 unique fluxes between 96 unique chemical reservoirs, includes an interactive biosphere, cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and oxygen, and climate. A nominal model run initialized in the Eoarchean resolves emergent surface oxygenation, nutrient limitations, and climate feedbacks. The modeled atmosphere oxygenates in stepwise fashion over the course of the Proterozoic; a nearly billion year lag after the evolution of photosynthesis at 3.5 Ga is followed by a great oxidation event at 2.4 Ga, which appears to be caused by the gradual buildup of organic matter on the continents imposing nutrient limitation on the biosphere by removing key nutrients from the ocean system. The simple climate system shows significant temperature shifts punctuate the oxygenation process, implying that major biological transitions possibly destabilized Earth's climate. This work demonstrates that forward modeling the entirety of Earth's history with relatively few imposed boundary forcings is feasible, that the Earth system is not at steady state, and that our understanding of coupled C-N-P-O cycling as it functions today can explain much of the Earth's evolution.Financial support was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through Discovery Grant RGPIN-2018-05929 and the Canadian Space Agency through FAST Grant 18FAVICB21. High Performance computing resources were provided through NSERC Research Tools and Equipment Grant RTI-2020-00277.FacultyReviewe
Global Otaku: Labels and Japanese Pop-Culture in Translation
No full textThe idea of what an otaku is and how an otaku might act has changed gradually over the years. The phrase in it of itself has its own cultures and subcultures that intermingle and disassociate from one and other in varying ways. However, the consensus of the term from a Japanese context is its use to describe people with a strong interest in a particular object or subject, that also lack social skills. From a more western perspective, otaku means for a general interest in Japanese popular culture and media. This research will be looking to understand the history/origins of otaku, then comparing that to how it holds up today. Additionally, it’ll be looking into of the usage of devices such as the Gatebox, online communities, and other virtual mediums used for communication. This serves the purpose of looking into what it means for the “Global Otaku” as a sphere of communication, both inside and outside of Japan.Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)UndergraduateReviewe
UVic Convocation June 11, 2024 – 2:30 pm
No full textStudents from the faculties of Graduate Studies and Social Sciences
The Codcast
No full textThis four episode podcast series explores the discovery of a sound. It is a faint but distinct sound produced by a fish, the Arctic cod. Only recently have scientists realized how important sound is in the lives of fishes. The Arctic cod was never thought of as a sound producing, or soniferous species, until researchers from the Juanes Lab put a recording device in an Arctic cod tank. The sound they heard was clearly biological, produced by the fish in the tank, and is now known as a 'grunt'. This one discovery launched a multi-year investigation into the sound producing ability of this species. Why do they produce sound? How do they produce sound? When do they produce sound? Is noise pollution interfering with their sound production in the wild? These are the questions this series will dive into, getting accounts from the investigating scientific team, bioacousticians, and fish sound experts. This series also explores noise pollution in the ocean more broadly, and how it is affecting not just fish, but all sound producing marine species.Unreviewe
Degradation of ice-wedge polygons leads to increased fluxes of water and DOC
No full textWe would like to thank Moritz Langer and Sebastian Westermann for sharing their insights into modelling of ground freeze-thaw cycles.Ice-wedge polygon landscapes make up a substantial part of high-latitude permafrost landscapes. The hydrological conditions shape how these landscapes store and release organic carbon. However, their coupled water‑carbon dynamics are poorly understood as field measurements are sparse in smaller catchments and coupled hydrology-dissolved organic carbon (DOC) models are not tailored for these landscapes. Here we present a model that simulates the hydrology and associated DOC export of high-centered and low-centered ice-wedge polygons and apply the model to a small catchment with abundant polygon coverage along the Yukon Coast, Canada. The modeled seasonal pattern of water and carbon fluxes aligns with sparse field data. These modeled seasonal patterns indicate that early-season runoff is mostly surficial and generated by low-centered polygons and snow trapped in troughs of high-centered polygons. High-centered polygons show potential for deeper subsurface flow under future climate conditions. This suggests that high-centered polygons will be responsible for an increasing proportion of annual DOC export compared to low-centered polygons. Warming likely shifts low-centered polygons to high-centered polygons, and our model shows that this shift will cause a deepening of the active layer and a lengthening of the thawing season. This, in turn, intensifies seasonal runoff and DOC flux, mainly through its duration. Our model provides a physical hypothesis that can be used to further quantify and refine our understanding of hydrology and DOC export of arctic ice-wedge polygon terrain.This research has been supported by Horizon 2020 (Nunataryuk; grant agreement no. 773421).FacultyReviewe
A resilience-based transformations approach to peacebuilding and transformative justice
Full text linkWe are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers whose feedback and engagement with our ideas has greatly improved this paper.Moving from a state of war or violent conflict will require a transformation, but there are no guarantees that transformations automatically lead to peace, sustainability, and justice. This review focuses on the temporary phase when a system is in limbo between the existing, dominant state and a new alternative state. We combine insights from a resilience approach to transformations with peacebuilding and transformative justice studies to focus on three roles that hybrid approaches to transformative and transitional justice may play in this phase, including 1) addressing ‘backlash’ dynamics, 2) strengthening the capacities needed to navigate cross-scale dynamics of conflict, and 3) responding to additional shocks, crises, and disturbances beyond the primary conflicts. Together, these findings advance the theoretical foundations for understanding peacebuilding as a transformative change process.FacultyReviewe
A simulation platform for connected autonomous vehicles incorporating physical and communication simulators
Full text linkThis project report provides a holistic record of the development of a connected autonomous vehicle simulation framework incorporating a physics simulator and a communication simulator. The development of this tool aims to help researchers in vehicle communication protocols to evaluate the simulated performance of their solutions in the physical world. By using this tool, communication researchers can observe the impact of their communication protocols on the actual connected autonomous vehicle operation process without the need to delve into the underlying logic of vehicle kinematic simulation. They only need to configure simple parameters and deploy their own protocols on the communication simulator and see the effect. This project report will start by introducing the components and operating principles of the entire system, and then demonstrate its usage through a simple simulation example.Graduat
Reducing alcohol use to prevent cancer deaths: Estimated effects among U.S. adults
Full text linkIntroduction:
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025 recommends non-drinking or no more than 2 drinks for men or 1 drink for women in a day. However, even at lower levels, alcohol use increases the risk for certain cancers. This study estimated mean annual alcohol-attributable cancer deaths and the number of cancer deaths that could potentially be prevented if all U.S. adults who drank in excess of the Dietary Guidelines had instead consumed alcohol to correspond with typical consumption of those who drink within the recommended limits.
Methods:
Among U.S. residents aged ≥20 years, mean annual alcohol-attributable cancer deaths during 2020–2021 that could have been prevented with hypothetical reductions in alcohol use were estimated. Mean daily alcohol consumption prevalence estimates from the 2020–2021 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, adjusted to per capita alcohol sales to address underreporting of drinking, were applied to relative risks to calculate population-attributable fractions for cancers that can occur from drinking alcohol. Analyses were conducted during February–April 2023.
Results:
In the U.S., an estimated 20,216 cancer deaths were alcohol-attributable/year during 2020–2021 (men: 14,562 [72.0%]; women: 5,654 [28.0%]). Approximately 16,800 deaths (83% of alcohol-attributable cancer deaths, 2.8% of all cancer deaths) could have been prevented/year if adults who drank alcohol in excess of the Dietary Guidelines had instead reduced their consumption to ≤2 drinks/day for men or ≤1 drink/day for women. Approximately 650 additional deaths could have been prevented annually if men consumed 1 drink/day, instead of 2.
Conclusions:
Implementing evidence-based alcohol policies (e.g., increasing alcohol taxes, regulating alcohol outlet density) to decrease drinking could reduce alcohol-attributable cancers, complementing clinical interventions.This publication was partially supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $71,286 (ASandTSN), with 100% funded by CDC. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services. None of the authors have any conflicts of interest. AS reports receiving grant funding from the Canadian Cancer Society and Canadian Institutes for Health Research.FacultyReviewe
Chemistry and biochemistry of Populus leaf bud resin
Full text linkPoplar trees, such as black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa), balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), and eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides) are known to secrete resinous exudate from their leaf buds as their adaptation to temperate climate. The leaf bud resin protects the developing leaf buds from frost during winter dormancy. During bud break, the sticky resin coats the young leaves, protecting against insect herbivory during the early stages of leaf development. Leaf bud resins from different poplar species contain diverse phenolic secondary metabolites, especially hydrophobic flavonoids, which are biologically active. Due to their flavonoid-rich composition, poplar bud resins have been used widely in traditional medicine for their antimicrobial properties. Poplar leaf bud resins are also essential for honeybees, which utilize them as a building material and antibiotic protection for their hives in the form of propolis.
In this thesis, I characterized seasonal patterns of leaf bud resin accumulation, as well as genes involved in the biosynthesis of secreted flavonoids in leaf buds of P. trichocarpa, P. balsamifera, and P. deltoides using a combination of metabolomic analysis and transcriptomics. I used targeted and non-targeted analysis of the chemical composition of poplar bud resins to identify and quantify characteristic flavonoids in each poplar species. In parallel with the metabolomic analysis, transcriptomics and biochemical techniques were used to identify and characterize novel genes associated with the production of methoxylated and acylated flavonoids. The identified candidate genes were tested as recombinant proteins to characterize and verify their function. This work provides insight into the dynamic nature of poplar leaf bud resin biosynthesis and the enzymes involved in synthesizing characteristic flavonoids of poplar bud resin.Graduate2025-01-1