MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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The Book Design of ‘A Blow to the Head,\u27 a Poetic Memoir
No full textEdmonton’s eighth poet laureate Nisha Patel weaves a deeply personal and introspective retelling of her history of chronic illness, disability, and more in her poetic memoir ‘A Blow to the Head.’ She elaborates on her firsthand experiences with the Canadian medical and educational systems through profound and beautiful writing. The front cover features an illustration depicting the author who is injured and in the process of being pixelated ⎼ a metaphor for mental and physical disability, concussions, and trauma. The visual approach reflects the complex experiences and struggles the author has gone through, and how her illnesses continue to affect her to this day.
The book is separated into Parts, which feature a variety of different poems and prose that relate to the themes of the chapters. These poems are of varying lengths and complexity, requiring a high attention to detail to showcase the writing while also creating a system to maintain cohesion. The typesetting for each poem reflects the poem itself, allowing the reader space to read the poems in an impactful and meaningful manner. The carefully considered typeface selections in the memoir reflect the intimate writing through the delicate and elegant typefaces.
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pacher 
Time Series Analysis of USD/CAD Exchange Rate
No full textThe exchange rate of Canadian dollars was closely bound up with the US dollars for the past decades. The last time that the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar was in July 2011. It then experienced its fastest decline in modern-day history as commodity prices rapidly deteriorated. We use time series analysis to study the variation of CAD/USD exchange rate since 2010. We fit an ARIMA model and analyze how different economic and social policies in both countries affect the exchange rate.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Cristina Anton 
Impact of Content Reinforcement of Body Tissues on Knowledge Retention in Nursing Students
No full textThe study of human anatomy and physiology is critical in the BScN program to ensure the competency of students within theory and clinical practice. Despite this acquisition and retention of these fundamental concepts within nursing and other health-related programs have shown to be concerningly low. Numerous studies have shown a dramatic decline in retention over time as medical students lose up to 33% of their anatomical knowledge within the first year of acquisition and 50% by the second year. Additionally, many nursing students regard these courses as content-heavy, difficult, and anxiety-inducing, which further provide barriers to acquisition and application. Educational deficits and a lack of knowledge retention in these subjects can have severe consequences including nursing errors, compromised patient care, and poor health-related outcomes for patients. In order to promote the safe and accurate transfer of this core knowledge, this study will investigate how interventional strategies such as content reinforcement and student participation impact retention.
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Raj Narnaware & Melanie Neumeie
Synthesis of Diphenyl Hydrogels for Pharmaceutical Applications: Chemistry Practicum with CNRC-NRC
No full textHydrogels are self-assembling nanofibers with the potential for myriad applications such as; drug-delivery, cell scaffolding, 3-D printing, and many more. As part of the Chemistry Internship Practicum ( CHEM 497), from Jan 2023-April 2023, I interned at CNRC-NRC. In my presentation, I will highlight my project at the NRC focused on synthesizing diphenyl hydrogels. Diphenyl hydrogel consists of stimulus-responsive capping groups attached to two phenylalanine amino acids by a linking group. For my project, I focused on synthesizing a variety of hydrogels and linking groups to see if there were differences in characteristics between the gels. I will highlight how in my internship, I was required to refine my skills in organic chemistry to produce accurate and effective results. Additionally, throughout my internship, I learned various professional skills. I had to have good; time management, project planning, creating deadlines, independence, and careful time management.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Samuel Mugo 
Investigating Microplastic Ingestion in Ringed Seals (Pusa hispida) from the Eastern Canadian Arctic
No full textAnthropogenic pollution in the form of microplastics is present across the world’s oceans, including the Arctic. Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) play an essential role in Arctic marine food webs as predators for fish and invertebrates and prey for polar bears and humans. Their position in the food web may lead to the ingestion and accumulation of microplastics within their stomach, which poses risks to their overall health. However, limited data exist on the accumulation of microplastic within seal species from the Canadian Arctic. To better understand the extent of microplastic accumulation in ringed seals, thirty-five seal stomachs were collected in collaboration with Inuit hunters and trappers from Arviat and Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada. Stomachs were dissected, and contents passed through a series of sieves to fractionate contents based on size (< 53 µm - 1000 µm). The material in each sieve was digested for up to seven days using 20% potassium hydroxide, and anthropogenic particles were isolated using vacuum filtration. Optical microscopy was utilized to count and categorize plastics based on color and morphology, and polymer type was determined by Raman microspectroscopy. Preliminary results (n=6) reveal that ringed seals from both study sites ingest microfibers and micro-fragments less than <1000 µm. Confirmed microplastics were yellow or black and identified as polypropylene, polycarbonate, or polyester. This data will provide baseline information for future plastic pollution monitoring programs in the circumpolar arctic.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Matthew Ross 
Are there microplastics in the stomachs of ringed seals (Pusa hispida) from Arviat, Nunavut?
No full textMicroplastics, any plastic <5mm in size, have increased substantially in our water system within the last century. Microplastics have the ability to enter into the food chain from lower trophic level organisms before bioaccumulating to higher trophic level organisms, such as ringed-seals. When ingested in high concentrations, microplastics can have several toxic effects, for example, damage to DNA infertility, and disruption of the nervous system. We investigated the accumulation of microplastics within the stomachs of 10 ringed seals from Arviat, Nunavut to determine if microplastics are accumulating in higher trophic level organisms and traveling to remote Arctic waters. Stomach contents from 40 seals were removed anddigested in 20% KOH for 7 days, followed by vacuum filtration onto filters. Using a stereomicroscope, microplastics were individually removed from the isolated stomach material, characterized by their size and morphological traits, and the polymer type of each microplastic determined using Raman spectroscopy. everal polyethylene particles were identified within the 1000µm and 500µm size fraction of the isolated material, and we predict more polymer types are present within lower sizes. These findings will allow us to determine that microplastics are bioaccumulating across higher trophic level organisms, demonstrating the severity of plastic pollution within the earth\u27s water system. This data will serve as a baseline for future monitoring studies regarding bioaccumulation of microplastics.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Matthew Ross & Dr. David Lock
Development of New Ionic Exchange Methods: Chemistry Practicum with Sterling Chemicals Ltd
No full textDevelopment of new and more efficient methods of Ionic Transfer using DLE (Direct Lithium Extraction), aiming to increase the recovery percentage of lithium from oilfield and geothermal brines. Sterling Chemicals Ltd is a chemical company with a strong focus on production of specialty chemicals for the energy and power industries. Sterling has a Laboratory in Edmonton at the Nanotechnology Research Center at the University of Alberta. As part of the Chemistry Internship Practicum (CHEM 497), from January 2023 to April 2023, I interned at Sterling Chemicals Ltd.
In this presentation I will highlight my experimental work comprising synthesis of an absorbent to perform the DLE, as well as the treatment of samples to determine the effectiveness of the process. The treatment of the samples involves wet chemistry and is corroborated by titration and pH measurement. The creation of the absorbent has basis on ionic exchange, as well as filtration for its extraction and analysis by spectroscopy and FWA (Full Water Analysis).
In the presentation, I will highlight skill I developed in my work environment, including task delegation, effective communication, and lab movement, application of theory, and practical laboratory skills needed to complete technical tasks, such as correct measuring techniques, organization and cleanliness standards, efficient reporting of results, and many others.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Samuel Mugo 
Observational Air Quality Monitoring in the City of Edmonton: Investigating the Patterns and Presence of Emissions in CO2 Domes
No full textOutputs of CO2 emissions can concentrate above a city, creating what is known as a CO2 dome. Due to Edmonton’s isolation within Alberta, it is expected that the emission concentration will be highest near the city centre and will diffuse outward as we move away from the city. This study will examine the severity of Edmonton’s CO2 dome. The discussion will primarily answer if the emission pattern is measurable by location or, if not, secondary hypotheses will attempt to identify what conditional factors disrupt, add, or interact to affect the expected CO2 pattern. This study uses observational air quality monitoring to assess seven locations five kilometres apart from the city centre to the southern outlying areas. Variables include but are not limited to time, wind speed/direction, location, vehicular activity, and AQI (air quality index), an indexed measure of various pollutants and their concentrations. Results may help identify the associations among factors in creating higher emission rates within the City of Edmonton and encourage investigating such conditions to improve local air quality.
Faculty Mentor: John Fedoruk 
Language Effects on Emotion Recognition in Hearing Children and Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants
No full textIn an increasingly multicultural society, perception and understanding of emotions expressed by talkers across different languages are important for meaningful and effective social communication. The purpose of this study is to examine language effects on listeners’ ability to recognize emotions, specifically in individuals who speak English as their first language. Another goal is to understand how emotion recognition across languages is impacted by hearing loss in deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs). –. Children will listen to sentences spoken in English and Yorùbá and identify whether the talker is happy, sad, angry, or neutral. Tonal languages such as Yorùbá are characterized by more variance in pitch compared to stress-based languages such as English. Therefore, we predict that children with CIs whose first language is English will have more difficulty recognizing emotions in Yorùbá than in English. This is due to the lack of pitch information transmitted by cochlear implants, which would interfere with their ability to perceive emotion. The findings will have implications in expanding our knowledge about the perception of emotions in different language contexts and may have practical implications for improving the rehabilitative outcomes of young CI users.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Tara Vongpaisal 
The behavioural effects of beta-caryophyllene in zebrafish are mediated by CB2 receptor activity
No full textResearch into the effects of terpenes has been on the rise as a result of the recent Cannabis legalization in Canada. Cannabis terpenes have shown a diverse array of therapeutic benefits and have potential as treatments for numerous pathological conditions. Recent research has examined the mechanisms of action of terpenes most commonly found in North American cannabis strains. Other cannabis constituents with medicinal properties, such as THC and CBD, have undergone extensive study and are believed to work in the brain through various mechanisms, most notably CB1 and CB2 endocannabinoid receptors. Terpene compounds selectively binding to CB1 and CB2 receptors may have important implications for medicinal and therapeutic applications. For instance, the endocannabinoid system has been shown to potently modulate anxiety in humans, rodents, and zebrafish. The cannabis terpene, Beta-caryophyllene (BCP), has been of particular interest due to its robust anxiolytic and anti-depressant effects in studies with mice and its potential action at CB2 endocannabinoid receptor sites. The present study utilized the open field exploration test to examine the effects of BCP on zebrafish anxiety-like behaviours, as well as its potential action at cannabinoid receptor sites using CB1 and CB2 receptor antagonists rimonabant and AM630, respectively. This study found BCP to have an anxiolytic effect on zebrafish anxiety-like behaviour, whereby, after BCP administration zebrafish spent less time hugging the outer walls of the arena and more time exploring the center zone. When cannabinoid receptor antagonists rimonabant and AM630 were administered prior to BCP exposure, these effects were eliminated by AM630 and not rimonabant. These findings suggest the behavioural effects of BCP on zebrafish anxiety-like behaviour are mediated by its selective preference for CB2 receptor sites.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Trevor Hamilton