UVicSpace | Institutional Repository
UVicSpace is the University of Victoria’s open access scholarship and learning repository. It preserves and provides access to the digital scholarly works of UVic faculty, students, staff, and partners. Items in UVicSpace are organized into collections, each belonging to a community.
For more information about depositing items, see the Submission Guidelines.
Recent Submissions
Renewable energy options for UVic high temperature district energy system
(2017) Crawford, Curran; Adams, David; Clancy, Daniel; Derekhshan, Rojin
Reducing the carbon intensity of the District Energy System (DES) is important to achieve the 2019 Action Plan carbon reduction goal, and integrating alternative technology (non-natural gas) will be critical for achieving subsequent emission reduction goals (e.g. the 2050 goal of 80% emission reduction). As of the fall of 2016, a project to replace the main campus boilers was underway and included provisions for space to accommodate low-carbon alternative energy technology requirements. However, alternative technology identification was not part of project.
Graduate students in the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, supervised by Dr. Curran Crawford, completed the study. David Adams of Facilities Management will acted as the staff sponsor, providing up-to-date information and data on the district energy system and any relevant reports that discuss the district energy system and technologies previously considered.
UVic Garry Oak Ecosystem Restoration Plan
(2022) Bron, Larissa; Thomas, Janey
The aim of this student-led project was to restore the UVic Garry Oak Meadow ecosystem through participation efforts from the UVic Ecological Restoration Club (ERC). Restoration activities were based on a 5-year plan for the site created by project leader, Larissa Bron. The overarching restoration goal of this project was to support the understory plant community, while also connecting students with experiential learning opportunities within the campus living laboratory, and provide a node for the greater community to engage with UVic's sustainable programming.
The project executed multiple invasive species management trials in a conservation-concern ecosystem on campus. A tool respository was developed with equipment to empower the UVic Ecological Restoration Club (UVic ERC) to continue restoration efforts after the project end date.
The project has involved at least 20 students in higher-level planning and monitoring for the project, as well as hundreds of people participating in implementing restoration techniques.
To join the restoration club for campus restoration events, you can email nature@uvic.ca.
You can also help contribute to long-term monitoring by joining the UVic Garry Oak Ecosystem Restoration iNaturalist project.
Everything is connected: Tracing multiple impacts to seafood access and adaptation assets in Skidegate, Haida Nation
(2026) Faralhi Daolio, Marcela; Singh, Gerald
For thousands of years, coastal Indigenous communities like the Haida Nation have relied on community-led strategies to adapt to environmental changes. Today, however, the cumulative pressures of climate change and anthropogenic activities are rapidly transforming the ecosystems that sustain Haida food systems and way of life. In response, the Haida community of Skidegate has developed adaptation strategies that provide meaningful opportunities, particularly for food independence and security. This research aims to understand Haida perspectives and experiences with social-ecological systems under threat from cumulative impacts across four main ancestral harvesting areas by creating qualitative models of pathways of effects (PoE). It also explores how the community has been responding to these changes by co-developing adaptation plans to clarify the links among locally relevant and effective adaptation strategies. We used an interdisciplinary approach that included a literature review, semi-structured interviews, workshops, and community gatherings. This work also adopts an asset-based perspective, focusing on community strengths and the factors that enable communities to develop adaptive strategies aligned with their values, Traditional Laws, and priorities. The results demonstrates that access to seafood for the Haida’s involves factors beyond those discussed in Western food security literature. As a result, a framework was created based on the perceptions of Skidegate participants to describe these factors. All the harvesting areas examined were described as influenced by multiple interconnected factors. Most pathways of effects identified drivers such as climate change, commercial fishing, habitat loss, and the decline of traditional practices. Specific areas faced unique stressors impacting different aspects of accessibility, although many drivers of change were common across all regions studied. Our findings indicate that deficit-based models can restrict options and foster dependence on external organizations. Results also demonstrate that the Skidegate community responds to environmental and social changes through ongoing food programs that combine harvesting, sharing, teaching, and community coordination, rooted in Haida values. These efforts are based on local knowledge and relationships rather than external adaptation frameworks. Participants described adaptation as an everyday practice involving collective decisions and actions (e.g., supporting harvesters, maintaining access to harvesting sites, and preserving cultural practices essential for harvesting). Therefore, the most effective opportunities to bolster future adaptation efforts lie in strengthening current strategies rather than developing new ones. The research process highlighted the importance of bottom-up approaches that actively involve community members in interpretation and analysis. This research promotes broad community support and expands the range of adaptation strategies by prioritizing Indigenous-led solutions and integrating reconciliation and Indigenous Knowledge. Ultimately, it underscores the vital role of community-driven efforts in addressing environmental challenges caused by cumulative impacts.
Microfluidic fabrication of enteric-coated liquid-core ATPS capsules for colon-targeted probiotic delivery
(2026) Yazdani Motlagh, Kaveh; Hoorfar, Mina
Colon-targeted delivery of live probiotics remains challenging because gastric acidity and intestinal bile salts can severely reduce viability, while premature leakage can prevent sufficient dosing at the site of action. This dissertation presents a simplified microfluidic platform for producing enteric-coated, liquid-core, hydrogel-shell capsules for colon delivery. The system generates water-in-water-in-oil (W/W/O) double emulsions using a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and dextran aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) in a flow-focusing device, with improved droplet stability enabled by increasing channel height at the oil junction and avoiding complex surface treatments.
The capsule architecture integrates (i) a PEG-based liquid core for high cargo loading, (ii) a dextran/alginate/Ca–ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) shell that is crosslinked on-chip via acid-triggered Ca²⁺ release, and (iii) a layer-by-layer coating of chitosan and Eudragit S100 nanoparticles to provide upper-GI protection and pH-responsive gating. To generate Eudragit S100 nanoparticles, a dedicated microfluidic micromixer was designed for continuous antisolvent nanoprecipitation (acetone→water), enabling rapid, reproducible mixing and supporting uniform enteric coating of the capsules. To explain and control emulsion morphology, we combined volume-of-fluid computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with targeted experiments to quantify necking dynamics and internal recirculation patterns, revealing how shell viscosity and geometric confinement drive the formation of one-core or two-core morphologies.
Capsule performance was evaluated under sequential exposure to simulated gastric fluid (SGF, 0–2 h) and simulated intestinal fluid (SIF, 2–6 h). Uncoated capsules showed poor gastric protection, with Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) viability decreasing to 62% after 1 h and reaching 0% by 2 h in SGF. In contrast, chitosan-coated capsules maintained high SGF viability (93% at 1 h; 89% at 2 h), while the Eudragit+chitosan multilayer achieved the highest survival (97% at 1 h; 95.2% at 2 h). After transfer to SIF, both coated formulations remained highly protective, with the Eudragit+chitosan capsules sustaining a consistent ~5.9–6.1 percentage-point advantage over chitosan alone from 2–6 h (95.2→93.0% vs 89→87.1%). Functional assays demonstrated strong retention during simulated upper-GI transit, with negligible release in SGF (0–2 h) and low cumulative release (6.7%) after sequential SGF→SIF exposure (0–6 h). Under colon-mimicking conditions with simulated colonic fluid (SCF) containing dextranase, release followed a lag–acceleration–plateau behavior, reaching ~85–90% by ~3–6 h and ~95–100% by ~7–8 h, consistent with enteric dissolution and enzyme-driven shell loosening.
Increasing waste diversion rates of UVic family housing
(2018) Al-Hashimi, Afnan
This project proposes to bring Sorting-at-Source into Family Student Housing units by providing printed UVic standard signage and colour coded sorting bins in family housing. Currently, Family Student Housing residents collect waste material in containers in their homes and then they take that material to waste compounds. UVic currently expects residents to sort their material in the compounds, but a low diversion rate has resulted. In addition to the infrastructure, this project proposes to create an educational program for the UVic family housing community to assist people to use the bins provided.