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Water governance: new performance measures for diagnosing a watershed organization
No full textCollective action problems often impede watershed governance performance, and the need for diagnostic tools to analyze governance performance in the complex network of actors responsible for governing shared waters exacerbates this issue. This research aims to fill this gap by offering new insights into how social network attributes influence a watershed organization's governance performance. Using the Okanagan Basin Water Board network organization as a case study, this research provides a situational context for watershed governance research by exploring the polycentricity literature. Secondly, it examines how exponential random graph models can be employed to evaluate a watershed organization's network performance over time. Finally, it explains how organizational network modelling can be utilized to enhance our knowledge of social capital and watershed governance performance. This research aims to use social network analysis tools based on observed data to diagnose an organization's governance and ecological service delivery performance. An improved understanding of watershed organizational network attributes that contribute to the social capital building, and ecological service delivery will help to enhance organizational governance systems and support our collective responsibility to protect and manage shared and common waters
“Out-of-field”: cinematography of the unseen in Portrait of a Lady on Fire and In the Mood for Love
Get PDFWinning essay - English Department Competition 2022-2023Winning essay - FILM 22
Local perceptions of bilingual education : examining local staff experiences of bilingual education at an Eastern Chinese international school
No full textThis research investigated Chinese teachers' perceptions of bilingual education through a post-colonial lens at an Eastern Chinese international school. I initially planned to ask the teachers about their experiences with bilingual education and working with foreign colleagues at their campus. Once I began collecting data through flexible participant-centered interviews, the contributors gave a profound meaning to this work by presenting their lived experiences and the associated emotions, shedding light on realities that have gone overlooked at their bilingual school.
The research began with an introduction to the investigated school, followed by a literature review on the themes associated with bilingual education in China. The data was then collected and analyzed through an ethnographic lens using interviews and interview-based participant observations. Once collected, the data generated key themes and subthemes that led to outcomes that connect participant contributions to the themes reviewed through the literature. The study includes recommendations relevant to bilingual educational institutions in China and countries with similar policies and styles of governance
Building a literacy toolkit during the reading wars: what primary literacy teams might need to bolster success
No full textThis project aims to produce knowledge and advancements in the development of models of coordinated literacy practices and methods through a lens of inclusive education and response to intervention. Developing cohesive structures and plans was the focus for investigating the question “How can we build on our effective supports for primary students’ literacy learning?”. The research follows the qualitative research methodology of Appreciative Inquiry. Nearly two cycles were completed to produce data from a small school in a rural school district in British Columbia. Main findings from the iterations included desire from the participant teachers to have time for collaboration, a structured framework from which to plan assessment and subsequent targeted instruction, district-level support and training, and consistency of tools and timelines throughout the school. Small districts do not have the resources or manpower to have specialist positions, leaving the job up to inclusive education and classroom teachers. The team discovered a model of ‘Mastery Learning’ that districts could potentially use with their existing staff. This research is intended to put together a generalized plan, or toolkit, for how small districts can approach teaching literacy to as many students with diverse abilities as we can. That is, until future research in teaching educators how to teach reading is as scientific as the research behind how brains learn to read. Other research regarding the need for specialist literacy teachers to be maintained in districts regardless of size could contribute to the field of primary literacy education.https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/26915/Tompkins.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=
Toward automated infrared spectral analysis in community drug checking
No full textThe body of knowledge surrounding infrared spectral analysis of drug mixtures continues
to grow alongside the physical expansion of drug checking services. Technicians
trained in the analysis of spectroscopic data are essential for reasons that go
beyond the accuracy of the analytical results. Significant barriers faced by people
who use drugs in engaging with drug checking services include the speed and accuracy
of the results, and the availability and accessibility of the service. These barriers
can be overcome by the automation of interpretations. A random forest model for
the detection of two compounds, MDA and fluorofentanyl, was trained and optimized
with drug samples acquired at a community drug checking site. This resulted in
a 79% true positive and 100% true negative rate for MDA, and 61% true positive and
97% true negative rate for fluorofentanyl. The trained models were applied to
selected drug samples to demonstrate a proposed workflow for interpreting and validating
model predictions. The detection of MDA was demonstrated on three mixtures:
(1) MDMA and MDA, (2) MDA and dimethylsulfone, and (3) fentanyl, etizolam,
and benzocaine. The classification of fluorofentanyl was applied to a drug mixture
containing fentanyl, fluorofentanyl, 4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine, caffeine, and
mannitol. Feature importance was calculated using shapely additive explanations to
better explain the model predictions and k-nearest neighbors was used for visual
comparison to labelled training data. This is a step toward building appropriate trust
in computer-assisted interpretations in order to promote their use in a harm
reduction context
Narrative inquiry into emergency medical services organizational culture and traumatic experiences
No full textIn recent years, high rates of suicidal behaviour and traumatic psychological injuries resulting in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis have been documented amongst paramedics, both nationally and internationally. Past quantitative and mixed methods research have been utilized to understand this issue more fully and have led to the current supposition that PTSD and suicidal behaviours are most likely caused by acute and chronic exposures to traumatic situations. The available research is firmly rooted within distinct disciplines, largely excluding the participatory contributions of paramedics themselves. There is little purely qualitative research available examining this phenomenon and even less focus on what happens to paramedics that contributes to these high rates of traumatic psychological injuries and suicidal behaviours. As a result, current knowledge is incomplete, lacking vital understanding of how paramedics experience the traumatic situations to which they are exposed and how Emergency Medical Services (EMS) organizational culture influences these experiences. To find new understandings of this phenomenon, this study utilized qualitative and interdisciplinary research methodologies, focusing on three-dimensional narrative inquiry as my primary approach, to broaden understanding surrounding the lived experiences of paramedics. Further, my aim was to engage participants as active agents in the research process and to work with participants to codesign recommendations that are relevant and applicable to their lived experiences. Upon completing my research, my intention is to work with senior leaders within the industry to explore findings and discuss research recommendations to determine if any of the limited recommendations could be implemented in the larger environment. Additionally, I intend to expand the research to a larger population with a view to validating generalizability for the overall paramedic community. My findings will also add to limited existing literature and could be used as a starting point for further inquiry
Planning with inclusive practices in a math 8 classroom: a self reflection of needs
No full textThis project focuses on enhancing the inclusivity of math 8 classrooms in British Columbia through the implementation of four main teaching strategies: universal design for learning, technology integration, differentiated instruction, and direct instruction. The author utilized and reflected upon these inclusive teaching strategies while developing a comprehensive math 8 fractions unit. The unit includes detailed lesson plans, guided note pages, worksheets, interactive games, engaging activities, a quiz, and a final assessment. To foster knowledge-sharing and collaboration, the author created a series of three professional development sessions, during which they will present their research findings and the creation of the math 8 fractions unit to fellow educators. Following this, two additional meetings will be organized to provide participants with the opportunity to discuss and reflect on their progress in implementing inclusive teaching strategies in their respective classrooms. The aim of these sessions is to create a supportive and cooperative environment where teachers can exchange ideas and experiences to further enhance inclusivity in math education.https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/27500/Kristoffersson.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=
Identification of nectar microbes of flat spurred piperia (Platanthera transversa)
No full textPosterThis study investigates bacterial communities in nectar of flat spurred piperia (Platanthera transversa).https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/27257/SadlerPoster.pdf?sequence=3Biology 491 - Undergraduate Research ProjectsThis research was funded by VIURAC Inquiry Award #101240
Gumnuts, plant-human hybridity, and the issue of belonging
No full textThis is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter that was originally published as: Doughty, T. (2023). Gumnuts, plant-human hybridity, and the issue of belonging. In M. Duckworth & A. Herb (Eds.), Storying plants in Australian children's and young adult literature: Roots and winged seeds (pp. 131-148). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39888-9_7May Gibbs, creator of the gumnut babies—humanoid bush babies associated with eucalyptus trees—is popularly recognized as one of the early illustrators of Australian children’s literature to represent indigenous Australian plants in her work. A British settler on colonized Indigenous land, Gibbs participates in both the shaping of an Australian identity for settler-culture children through connection with the Australian landscape and the erasure of Australian First Peoples. This chapter offers a new perspective on the tangled relations between human settlers and indigenous plants (as well as other indigenous more-than-human beings) through a critical plant studies approach, considering the implications of the genealogy and hybridity of the gumnuts, as well as the books’ treatment of multispecies kinship. Whereas the gumnuts embody plant-human kinship and model existence within lively multispecies entanglements, the gumnut books also raise difficult questions about identity and belonging on settler-colonized land, challenging some of the values of settler culture and propagating others.Accepted manuscrip
Regenerative development potentials on commercial sites
No full textThe industrial revolution’s expanding global economies heavily extracted natural resources for industrial growth, resulting in adverse anthropogenic consequences (De Vries, 2013, p. 124). IKEA, a Swedish home furnishings company, is built on the notion of continuous growth. Could countering large retail organizations, such as IKEA's, adverse ecological outcomes to transform retail space land use and profitability systems require understanding the challenges for interventions? I compared regenerative development principles with the current IKEA store designs to identify and reveal potential opportunities to build natural and social capital in IKEA Canada's markets. The research objectives are to explore regenerative design frameworks, the current IKEA store design challenges, and barriers to regenerative development; to discover how regenerative solutions could apply to IKEA’s store design process. Based on my findings, I made recommendations that could also serve as a blueprint for other large retail sites