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Worker Bargaining Power in Canadian Labour Markets
No full textThis thesis comprises three chapters studying topics relating to worker bargaining power in Canadian labour markets. In the first chapter, I construct a measure of labour market concentration using employment shares computed from the Canadian Business Register from 2000 to 2020, documenting its level and changes and studying its implications for wages and employment using restricted Labour Force Survey data. Canadian labour markets, defined as 4-digit industry geography (economic region), are just below the US Department of Justice's threshold for moderate concentration on average and trendless. However, concentration is moderate to high in less populous provinces and rising. I find that a 10\% increase in concentration reduces wages by about 0.3\% but raises the employment probability by twenty percentage points and the probability of being a recent hire by 14 percentage points. The wage effects are even larger for workers aged 55 to 64 or those with only high school diplomas. I do not observe any statistically significant effects of concentration on quit or layoff probability or actual hours worked. The positive effects on employment probability imply that concentration does not explain the minimum wage puzzle in Canada.
Chapter two was motivated by how North American private sector union membership slumped during the 1980s and 1990s, yet rising inequality renewed interest in unionism. Unions remain prevalent in the public sector, and understanding the role they play in public sector wage setting may help answer whether unions can be an effective tool for combating inequality. However, the labor literature has tended to overlook advancements from inequality theory; first in that theoretically unsound measures that can incorrectly measure inequality are often used, and second in that any inequality statistic is necessarily most sensitive to a specific part of the distribution. I use the Generalized Entropy family of indices to address both points and show that unions have a stronger effect on inequality for low-wage public sector workers. However, the effects can give a misleading picture. Inequality is particularly high among low-wage non-union public sector workers compared to their private sector counterparts. Thus, a substantial portion of the public sector union effect is used to `catch up' with private sector inequality for low-wage workers. Conversely, for high-wage public sector workers, unions drive down a low inequality compared to their private sector counterparts. Another implication is that even if private sector union membership recovers, the inequality decrease for low-wage workers may be modest.
Chapter three is motivated by how traditional measures of economic health, such as the unemployment rate, have been derived from stocks of workers, yet changes in these stocks are driven by movements in the underlying flows of workers between employment, unemployment, and being out of the labour force. These flows receive less attention than stock-based measures, yet provide insights on economic health beyond what stocks can show. Employer-to-employer (EE) flows are particularly informative as they move workers to higher-paying positions and more productive firms, but do not change employment levels. In the Canadian context, employer moves are typically measured using the Labour Force Survey. However, I am the first to document that responses to the key question used to identify EE flows have changed systematically even though the wording has been essentially stable. What may have changed is how respondents interpret this question. The result suggests that the conventional measure of Canadian EE flows is biased downwards as it does not capture of flows rehired workers. I estimate these EE rehires and find they are large, about four times the conventional EE flow measure during the 2010s
Uremic Metabolite Adsorption to Polyethylene Oxide Thin Films
No full textPolyethylene oxide (PEO) coatings are commonly used to modify the biomaterials’ surface to minimize non-specific protein adsorption, which can impair the functionality of blood-contacting devices and trigger adverse host responses. Few studies have considered how blood composition changes due to disease may influence the low-fouling properties of PEO films. Kidney failure is an extreme example, marked by the accumulation of uremic metabolites, also known as uremic toxins, in the blood. Building on our previous studies showing that uremic metabolites affect protein adsorption to PEO films, we aim to understand their adsorption to PEO films directly. This thesis investigates the adsorption characteristics of uremic toxins to PEO films, with a focus on understanding the effect of terminal functional groups and chain density on the adsorption behavior.
PEO films with two different terminal groups, hydroxy (-OH) and methoxy (-OCH3), with similar chain densities (~ 0.5 chains/nm2 and ~ 0.8 chains/nm2) were formed on the gold-coated surfaces. The films were characterized using confirmed using dynamic contact angle measurements, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Uremic metabolite adsorption experiments were performed using a model solution of 25 metabolites, formulated based on the kidney failure patients’ blood composition. Adsorption studies using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) revealed that chain density and terminal groups have a significant effect on the adsorption dynamics. High chain density m-PEO demonstrated the highest amount of metabolite adsorption, while the adsorption was minimum for low chain density m-PEO films. This trend was the opposite for PEO-OH films, where the adsorption to high chain density films was significantly lower than both controls and low chain density films. Interestingly, low-concentration metabolites like pyruvic acid exhibited stronger adsorption to both PEO-OH and m-PEO films compared to higher-concentration metabolites such as hippuric acid and creatinine. These findings demonstrated that toxin adsorption is not solely concentration-driven but is influenced by the chemical structure of the metabolite and its interaction with the film.
Together, these studies reveal a complex interplay between uremic metabolites and low-fouling PEO films, governed by the polymer’s chain density and terminal group chemistry, as well as the metabolite’s structure. The current work establishes the foundations for understanding how both surface and uremic metabolite properties influence the surface-toxin dynamic interactions, the knowledge that is crucial in the development of blood-contacting surfaces for disease-specific applications with enhanced longevity and functionality
Building Resilience into Safety Management Systems: Precursors and Controls to Reduce Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs)
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"On January 13, 2021, a contractor, Patrick Poitras was operating a John Deere bulldozer on a frozen
tailings pond at the Suncor base mine, when the ice broke and the dozer fell through, drowning the
operator. Suncor and the contractor, Christina River Construction, each pled guilty to one count of a
violation of Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act. As a joint submission during sentencing,
Suncor asked that penalties be redirected to support learning across mining and related industries.
Mining is an industry with many high-energy hazards. Thus, the overarching objective of this creative
sentencing research is to understand the hazards that cause Serious Incidents and Fatalities (SIF) in
mining operations, the causes, and the most effective controls to prevent fatalities. When people make
mistakes, how do we ensure that there are layers of protection so that they ‘fail safely’, rather than ‘failing
lucky’, or worse ‘failing unsafely/unlucky’?
To answer these questions, we engaged in three complementary research activities: 1) workshops, 2) data
analytics of Critical Controls Assurance (CCA) versus SIF potential + actual (SIFp+a), and 3) surveys and
interviews of hazard identification and human-organizational performance..."
Synthesis and Applications of Non-Canonical Amino Acids for Lasso Peptide Microcin J25 and Epimerase Inhibitors
No full textPeptides, as crucial biological mediators, hold immense potential in the pharmaceutical market. Their extreme selectivity and potency make them promising candidates for addressing unmet medical challenges. Additionally, unlike small molecule drugs, peptides typically exhibit low toxicity, which reduces the risk of adverse effects. However, peptides present several inherent challenges, including poor bioavailability, stability, pharmacokinetics and cell permeability due to their large molecular weight. Hence, synthetic modifications of naturally occurring peptides have been applied to overcome these limitations. Described herein is the chemistry of accessing non-canonical amino acids, fundamental building blocks of peptides, and their applications for peptide synthesis, as well as peptide synthesis.
Chapter 2 discusses efforts toward the chemical strategy of Microcin J25 synthesis. Microcin J25 is of special interest due to its unique “lariat” topology. It has been shown to inhibit Gram-negative species but requires the lasso structure. Stereoselective -thiol amino acids were synthesized as the chemical tools to build Microcin J25. Proposed chemical strategies using disulfide bonds to pre-staple and rigidify the peptide core, followed by macrocyclization, were investigated but failed to afford the desired threaded configuration. The disulfide-containing intermediate peptides were subjected to biological testing but proved to be inactive
A Study of the Impact of Electronic Health Records on the Wellbeing of Physicians
No full textElectronic Health Records (EHRs) are system-wide digital records that gather patient health data from various healthcare providers, capturing medical history, diagnoses, treatments, and medications. While they improve access to patient information, they can affect the wellbeing of physicians in various ways. This thesis explores the impact of EHRs on physician wellbeing which is a crucial factor in delivering high-quality healthcare. Since EHRs are linked to physician burnout, it is important to measure their impact on physician wellbeing. In the first part of this study, an inventory of instruments and metrics used to measure the impact of EHRs was developed through a scoping review. A total of 32 instruments were identified and categorized based on whether they measured wellbeing/burnout, EHR-related factors, or both. Instruments that did not include EHR components had to be modified through the addition of EHR-related questions, or used in conjunction with EHR usage logs. These logs, created from user interactions with the system, reveal patterns in usage frequency, duration, and the features most frequently accessed. The findings revealed gaps in existing instruments, with half lacking metrics related to EHRs, they highlighted the need for the development of more comprehensive instruments.
The second study examined ConnectCare, the EHR system used in Alberta, and its effect on physician wellbeing through two focus groups. The study identified both positive and negative factors associated with ConnectCare that could influence physician wellbeing and contribute to burnout.
This research shows how EHRs affect physician wellbeing and emphasizes the need for better assessment instruments and improved support from healthcare organizations
Yellow-headed Blackbird
No full textThe Yellow-headed Blackbird is the symbol of the Clifford E. Lee Nature Sanctuary. The male displays a full yellow head with a black beak and eye, while the female has brown on the top of the head and yellow around the beak, throat and chest. Yellow-headed blackbirds are a migratory species that can be found throughout much of Alberta. They build nests attached to marsh vegetation such as cattail