This thesis quantified risks of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg) in the diet of First Nations peoples residing on-reserve in the province of Ontario, Canada. Data was obtained from the 2011-2012 First Nations Food, Nutrition, and Environment Study (FNFNES) and Health Canada to construct total diet studies and probabilistic assessments. Results indicated that the majority of the population is at low risk of exceeding the reference values for these contaminants. Average exposures of Pb and Hg were higher than the general Canadian population (1.7 and 1.6 times greater, respectively), whereas Cd was 59% lower than the Canadian average. The upper percentiles of the population exposure distributions were characterized for contributing food items to assist risk management strategies. For cadmium exposures, smokers had elevated exposures compared to non-smokers. Women of childbearing age had lower dietary MeHg exposures than the total population and were largely below the reference value.

Unreinforced masonry construction is considered to be the most vulnerable forms of construction as demonstrated through recent earthquakes. In Canada, many densely populated cities such as (Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa) have large inventories of seismically vulnerable masonry structures. Although measures have been taken to rehabilitate and increase the seismic resistance of important and historic structures, many existing unreinforced masonry structures have not been retrofitted and remain at risk in the event of a large magnitude earthquake. There is therefore a need to identify buildings at risk and develop tools for assessing the seismic vulnerability of existing unreinforced masonry structures in Canada. This thesis presents results from an ongoing research program which forms part of a multi-disciplinary effort between the University of Ottawa’s Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Management Research Centre and the Geological Survey of Canada (NRCAN) to assess the seismic vulnerability of buildings in dense urban areas such as Ottawa, Ontario. A risk-based seismic assessment tool (CanRisk) has been developed to assess the seismic vulnerability of existing unreinforced masonry and reinforced concrete structures. The seismic risk assessment tool exploits the use of fuzzy logic, a soft computing technique, to capture the vagueness and uncertainty within the evaluation of the performance of a given building. In order to conduct seismic risk assessments, a general building inventory and its spatial distribution and variability is required for earthquake loss estimations. The Urban Rapid Assessment Tool (Urban RAT) is designed for the rapid collection of building data in urban centres. This Geographic Information System (GIS) based assessment tool allows for intense data collection and revolutionizes the traditional sidewalk survey approach for collecting building data. The application of CanRisk and the Urban RAT tool to the City of Ottawa is discussed in the following thesis. Data collection of over 13,000 buildings has been obtained including the seismic risk assessment of 1,465 unreinforced masonry buildings. A case study of selected URM buildings located in the City of Ottawa was conducted using CanRisk. Data obtained from the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake in New Zealand was utilized for verification of the tool.

Assessing the risk of transgenic crop products is essential when determining the safety of a crop for deregulation and commercialization. The Organization of Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD), International Standards Organization (ISO), and governmental regulatory agencies require a battery of tests to demonstrate the safety of a GM product against several surrogate species of organisms that perform various ecosystem services. Assays are performed using toxicology methods established for pesticides. These methods have been applied to testing the safety, specificity and fate of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry protein toxins engineered into crop plants and information exists on the effects on non-target organisms (NTOs). Toxicology assays are typically evaluated through a tier-based approach, where, if no or negligible risk via oral toxicity or phenotypic changes then a risk decision can be made. Long term exposure studies are often performed after commercial release of the crop occurs and provide a more in depth understanding of environmental impacts. Risk analyses are currently being performed on the product of the next generation of GM crops that express dsRNAs against Western Corn Rootworm. This thesis provides another such study, primarily focused on Folsomia candida, a microarthropod that is the subject of numerous toxicological studies. I describe the development of dsRNA stability assays, which indicate stability of dsRNA across assay time, both with and without F. candida. When exposed to dsRNA levels several orders of magnitude higher that what would be encountered in the environment, F. candida is not negatively impacted as seen through gene expression and life history trait analysis.

Ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) envisions a new computing environment, where computing devices and related technology are widespread (i.e. everywhere) and services are provided at anytime. The technology is embedded discreetly in the environment to raise users' awareness. UbiComp environments support the proliferation of heterogeneous devices such as embedded computing devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wearable computers, mobile phones, laptops, office desktops (PCs), and hardware sensors. These devices may be interconnected by common networks (e.g. wired, wireless), and may have different levels of capabilities (i.e. computational power, storage, power consumption, etc). They are seamlessly integrated and interoperated to provide smart services (i.e. adaptive services). A UbiComp environment provides smart services to users based on the users' and/or system's current contexts. It provides the services to users unobtrusively and in turn the user's interactions with the environment should be as non-intrusive and as transparent as possible. Access to such smart services and devices must be controlled by an effective access control system that adapts its decisions based on the changes in the surrounding contextual information. This thesis aims at designing an adaptive fine-grained access control solution that seamlessly fits into UbiComp environments. The solution should be flexible in supporting the use of different contextual information and efficient, in terms of access delays, in controlling access to resources with divergent levels of sensitivity. The main contribution of this thesis is the proposal of the Context-Risk-Aware Access Control (CRAAC) model. CRAAC achieves fine-grained access control based upon the risk level in the underlying access environment and/or the sensitivity level of the requested resource object. CRAAC makes new contributions to the access control field, those include 1) introducing the concept of level of assurance based access control, 2) providing a method to convert the contextual attributes values into the corresponding level of assurance, 3) Proposing two methods to aggregate the set of level of assurance into one requester level of assurance, 4) supporting four modes of working each suits a different application context and/or access control requirements, 5) a comprehensive access control architecture that supports the CRAAC four modes of working, and 6) an evaluation of the CRAAC performance at runtime.

This thesis investigates the phenomenon of subsynchronous resonance (SSR) in meshed series compensated AC/DC systems in the presence of operational uncertainties. The main contribution of this research is the novel application of risk assessment methods to SSR studies. In terms of network topology, future electric power transmission networks alongside the current power networks are expected to be meshed, and consequently, exposed to relative low risk of subsynchronous resonance. However, power systems are increasingly operated closer to stability limits in order to enhance efficiency and economics of their use. These stressed operating conditions may contribute to the deterioration in the system reliability. Uncertainty associated with the loads will also further diversify in the future due to new type of devices connected to the network whilst the integration of stochastic renewable generation sources will add another layer of uncertainty to system operation. There is a growing necessity to explore the challenges created by the increased uncertainty in generation and loads, and quantify risk to keep a balance between avoiding potentially catastrophic systems failures and mitigating for extremely rare event. This research work introduces risk assessment in subsynchronous resonance studies. Two indices are developed to quantify the severity of dynamic instability and transient torque amplification. Using these indices generators in the network can be ranked based on potential exposure to SSR. Following the development of indices, a methodology is proposed to evaluate the risk of SSR. The developed methodology takes into account the severity of SSR problem and probabilities of different contingencies and different operating conditions of a turbine generator. A robust investigation, into the effect of uncertainties on both aspects of SSR with symmetrical and asymmetrical compensation schemes, is also performed. The results of the analysis reveal that a critically compensated system in normal meshed network configuration may become dynamically unstable with as low as ±5% uncertainty in mechanical parameters. The critical compensation level with asymmetrical compensation in normal network configuration and each contingency becomes higher. It is also shown that the risk level assessed with the developed methodology does not change under the influence of ±5% uncertainties in the mechanical parameters. After establishing, that risk, based approach provides a better picture of all credible scenarios and risk of SSR in compensated power network, a methodology based on risk evaluation of SSR for selecting an optimal combination of TCSCs and fixed series capacitors for compensation of transmission lines is presented. This proposed methodology maximizes the use of fixed capacitors whilst maintaining the risk of SSR within an acceptable level in all credible contingencies and operating conditions.

This thesis is based on an industry project with Teekay Shipping Co ., which is an international transportation service provider for oil companies, refiners and traders. Teekay is interested in knowing which factors contribute most to its operating incidents and accidents. Based on available data, namely vessel name, team, type, hull, and age, as well as incident and accident records, we quantified in this thesis the effects of these factors on the incident and accident frequency. The thesis presented the technical details of the Poisson regression analysis, which we used for quantifying the risk factors. Teekay is also interested in having a consistent method to present Teekay's overall risk picture, and to indicate best investment areas for its risk reducing purpose. Teekay has already implemented an Online Root Cause Analyses (ORCA) system, which collects the direct cause and root cause soon after an incident happens. We reviewed the ORCA system and made suggestions about certain parts of the system which were subsequently revised. Furthermore, we designed a bubble chart tool to present the overall risk faced by Teekay. The bubble chart tool has the capacity to indicate best investment areas clearly, and it is consistent over time, thereby enabling Teekay to evaluate easily the risk mitigation effect of its earlier investment in risk management. Finally, we designed a continuous monitoring tool, which allows Teekay managers to interactively explore the relationships among near misses, incidents and accidents, and to compare event frequencies of various vessel groups, such as vessel team, age, type and hull structure. The powerful continuous monitoring tool provides Teekay managers a full- range view of the risks the company faces. The design and the sample usage of this continuous monitoring tool are discussed in this thesis. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This thesis examines in detail the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 which allow for the incapacitation of the 'dangerous' offender. Incapacitation has been used as an example of a growing trend in criminal justice towards viewing crime in terms of risk. This risk discourse points to the use of actuarial practices and insurance techniques in this field, with a resultant 'abstraction' of the traditional view of crime as a moral wrong. The technologies of risk assessment are central to the very power of the discourse, it has been argued that these techniques further increase the effectiveness of control and that they are a response to a growing preoccupation in society with security. It is argued that risk is, in a sense, pre-political in that as risk takes hold, overtly political responses to crime become more difficult. Given that incapacitation has been used as an example of crime as risk, this thesis takes the form of a micro-study of the above incapacitatory legislation. It assesses the degree to which this legislation can be seen to be a part of the risk discourse. It is argued that on a general level the legislation does fit within the risk model, seeking to incapacitate 'bad risks'. However, it is argued that as the legislation has been conceived, formulated and employed, it does not make use of the actuarial techniques of risk assessment - seen as so central to 'internal dynamic' of the risk discourse - to a significant extent. Rather, it is argued that the legislation embodies a politically motivated appeal to the idea of risk rather than to risk assessment itself. It is concluded that this use of risk - once shed of its attendant technologies - far from making political responses more difficult, sits well with punitive responses demanded by a government of the right. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

M.Comm. / The demand for products which are distributed through pipelines has increased worldwide over the last decade. These increases in demand have irrevocably impacted upon top management’s perceptions of risks associated with energy pipeline supply chains. Even in South Africa, the increase in demand for products such as diesel, jet fuel and petrol, which are supplied through the energy pipeline supply chains have increased the risks associated with energy pipeline supply chains. This study explores the different risks associated with South African energy pipelines, and investigates whether these risks can have an influence on the business as well as the physical environment of the energy pipeline supply chains. A literature study was conducted and three energy pipeline supply organisations surveyed to determine what their specific viewpoints were regarding the risks faced by the South African energy pipeline supply chains.

The uptake of micro insurance products by low income consumers has been low, especially in the short term insurance industry. Many studies have identified a number of challenges that insurers are faced with when trying to penetrate this market. This study explores this problem from a different angle, where it investigates whether low income consumers already apply risk mitigating strategies to their circumstances, precluding them from purchasing short term micro insurance products. A qualitative design was followed, specifically to understand what the target population understood of insurance and whether they had their own existing methods of how to respond to risk events regarding their assets. 20 interviews were conducted with 10 from two townships namely Thembisa and Alexandra in the Guateng province of South Africa. The research found that risk mitigating behaviour did indeed exist amongst low income consumers; however this behaviour was driven by a prioritisation process. This process was developed considering low income consumers’ dilemmas of having limited resources but needing to mitigate the effect of what they would term as the most significant risk in their household. These risks would differ per household because of the different criteria that households would use to determine what is important, and this will lead to mitigating solutions that these consumers will engage in, thus resulting risk mitigating behaviour. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Magister Scientiae (Physiotherapy) - MSc(Physio) / Physical inactivity is one of the leading risk factors for major non-communicable diseases, which contribute substantially to the global burden of chronic diseases, disability and death. The burden of disability, morbidity and mortality, attributable to non-communicable diseases, is currently enormous in the developed countries and is increasingly growing in the developing countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between participation in physical activity and health risk behaviours among high school students in the Mtwara region, Tanzania. The objectives of this study were to identify the physical activity levels among high school students in Mtwara region, Tanzania, to identify health risk behaviours among the above mentioned high school students, to identify the factors that influenced them to engage in health risk behaviours and to establish the relationship between physical activity and health risk behaviours. / South Africa