VIURRSpace
The Libraries of Royal Roads University and Vancouver Island University collaboratively offer VIURRSpace to digitally preserve and showcase selected scholarly and creative works of the universities, together with special collections that represent the unique character of the region.
Recent Submissions
Item Is "good social work" anti-oppressive practice?: The mainstreaming of critical discourse(University of Windsor, School of Social Work, 2024-11-21)Anti-oppressive social work practice (AOP) has been advanced as a key progressive methodology for some decades. Standing in critical social work, it is founded on clear assumptions and includes several key strategies for implementation. At the same time, however, two factors, namely the alignment of the discourse of good (dominant) social work with social justice, and AOP theorists themselves not consistently distinguishing differences, has led to a blurring of what constitutes good social work versus AOP. In this article we rely on a critical perspective to remind of these essential distinctions. We also establish that this failure to clearly distinguish the essence of AOP has allowed for the disciplining of AOP, thus rendering it largely without any force. We encourage social work educators, students, and practitioners to reclaim the progressive, critical edge of AOP to become effective agents of social change.Item Strategies for Revitalizing the Humanitarian Workforce Program(2025)The Canadian Humanitarian Workforce (HWF) program, funded by Public Safety Canada, plays a vital role in national disaster response. However, barriers such as lack of awareness, time constraints, and inclusivity challenge hinder volunteer engagement. This study utilized mixed-methods research, including a survey of 120 participants and two focus groups, to explore these challenges. Survey findings revealed significant organizational inefficiencies, rigid policies, and financial burdens that exacerbate barriers of volunteer engagement. Focus group participants emphasized the need for improved outreach, inclusivity, and community collaboration. Recommendations include enhancing targeted outreach, offering flexible roles, increasing training accessibility, simplifying human resource policies, and developing tiered incentive structures. Additionally, a longitudinal evaluation is proposed to assess the program's long-term success beyond its current funding expiration in March 2026. These evidence-based strategies aim to sustain volunteer engagement, foster community resilience, and strengthen Canada's disaster response capacity.Item Simultaneous quantitation of urinary albumin and creatinine for rapid clinical albuminuria diagnostics using high-throughput paper spray mass spectrometry(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2024-02-21)Albuminuria is a clinical condition associated with poor kidney function, diagnosed by determining the ratio of albumin to creatinine concentrations in patient urine samples. We present a high-throughput paper spray mass spectrometry (PS-MS) method for simultaneous quantitation of urinary albumin and creatinine for potential diagnosis of albuminuria. Minimal (urine dilution) or no sample preparation is required. The analytical performance of the method was evaluated, achieving linear calibration curves (R2 > 0.99) with little inter-day variability in the slope (N = 5 days), exhibiting coefficient of variation (CV) of 8% and 3% for albumin and creatinine, respectively. LOD and LOQ for albumin were 2.1 and 7.0 mg L−1, and for creatinine were 0.01 and 0.03 mmol L−1, respectively. Intra- and inter-day (N = 5) precisions (%CV) and accuracies (%bias) were <10% and ±11%, respectively, for both analytes. The method was applied to determine albumin-to-creatinine ratios in anonymous human patient urine samples (N = 56), and a correlation of R2 = 0.9744 was achieved between the PS-MS results and validated clinical method results. This work demonstrates the utility of PS-MS to simultaneously quantify a large (albumin) and a small (creatinine) molecule directly in patient urine samples, and its potential as a tool for clinical albuminuria diagnostics.Item Teaching Forests as Living Museums: Case Study Research in Innovative Practices that Further National, Community, and Environmental Sustainability(2025)Teaching Forests are physical entities with numerous attributes for human well-being, including ecological services (e.g., flood control, carbon storage relevant to climate change), provision of timber and non-timber forest harvests, health, and social benefits, and are places of spiritual value. In response to increasingly changing forest environments, Teaching Forest management requires innovative and proactive measures to integrate environmental, social, and economic imperatives in forest sustainability. Using an inductive approach, attributes, and activities of 54 Teaching Forests in the Northern Hemisphere, selected from Canada, the United States of America, and Europe, were reviewed online and from email interviews of management to identify three types of innovation: i) product, ii) processes, and iii) organizational change mechanisms. This study explores the opportunities, challenges, and innovative solutions of Teaching Forests and the potential for transferability of these innovations to Northern Alberta and Nova Scotia, Canada.Item Increased Shipping Activity and Marine Mammals in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait: Developing a Low-Impact Shipping Corridor.(2025)As the Canadian Arctic warms at a rate far surpassing the global average, the changing sea ice regime invites increased development and shipping activity. This increased activity introduces greater anthropogenic pressures on cetaceans, resulting in increased risk of strikes, behavioural disturbances, and other negative impacts. The Canadian waters of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait are experiencing this increased vessel traffic as part of the Northwest Passage. Managing these worsening impacts is of the utmost importance to preserve the sensitive ecosystem of the Canadian Arctic. This thesis explores how increasing vessel traffic trends are overlapping with cetacean distributions and assesses the placement of a low-impact shipping corridor aiming to reduce this overlap. The low-impact corridor is compared to an existing shipping corridor that did not account for ecological inputs. The outcomes of this work and the identified low-impact corridor can be used to inform sustainable development in the Canadian Arctic.
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