European Gas Markets: Market Integration & Market Efficiency: A Network Perspective

In this thesis, I study the market integration of European Natural Gas markets through two papers, whilst the third paper considers the impact of News Sentiment on the pricing and trading of Clean Energy and Traditional Energy stocks. Specifically, the first paper studies the level of harmonisation of European Natural Gas prices, characterised by 12 European gas hubs. The key finding is that, under normal market conditions, European Natural Gas markets are becoming increasingly integrated, with few physical barriers to increased market integration. Conversely, the detection of non-physical barriers to trade suggests that the liberalisation and development of certain national gas markets is yet to be fully achieved, inferring that improvements in technical arrangements are required. The second paper provides a framework for forecasting the short term presence of phys- ical barriers to market integration of European Natural Gas markets. The identification of infrastructure congestion is an important prerequisite in enforcing price competition, and the implementation of an internal European gas market. In order to address this challenge, the underlying infrastructure network is learnt as a graph, and a deep learning framework, Graph Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network (GC-LSTM), based on the topology of the infrastructure network, is applied to learn the interactions between different pipelines, and forecast gas flows throughout the network. Empirical results show that the GC-LSTM outperforms baseline methods in predicting gas pipeline flows. The third paper studies the impact of News sentiment on pricing and trading for European Clean Energy companies and Traditional Energy companies. Using daily news extracted from Bloomberg, we estimate Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models and evaluate the dynamic spillover effects between News sentiment, stock returns and trading volumes. We find that European Clean Energy firms and Traditional Energy firms share the same patterns; that News sentiment positively affects both stock returns and trading volumes, and in return, stock returns and trading volumes have a limited impact on News sentiment. Nevertheless, the spillovers are relatively moderate and asymmetric

European Gas Markets, Trading Hubs, and Price Formation: A Network Perspective

We apply network theory to analyse the interactions of trading hub prices, and to assess the harmonisation of the European gas market. We construct dynamic networks, where the nodes correspond to the twelve EU trading hubs, and where the edges weight the causality between the variations of the respective gas prices. Network density dynamically calculates the aggregate quantity of causal interactions recorded within the system, which provides information pertaining to the integration of the European gas network. We document a number of spikes in network density, suggesting short periods of improved connectivity of European gas markets. We argue that these results appear to be driven by exogenous factors, such as unseasonal weather patterns, seismic activity and pipeline capacity reductions or outages. The findings elucidate the time varying nature of European gas market dynamics, and the importance of continual monitoring of market evolution

Time series analysis of rail freight services by the private sector in Europe

This paper explores rail freight services provided by the private sector in the context of a rail freight corridor through Europe with new EU policy directives in place and assesses the corridor using time series analysis. Comparisons between three different operational time periods are discussed; analysis suggests that these types of services operated on trans-European rail freight corridors appear to be a viable and reliable concept in the near future

HYDROGEOLOGY OF THE INTERMEDIATE ZONE BETWEEN DEEPER ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITIES AND SHALLOW AQUIFERS IN SASKATCHEWAN

Large volumes of often saline formation water are both produced from and injected into sedimentary basins as a by-product of oil and gas production. In Saskatchewan the prominent disposal zone is the Mannville Group and despite this, the distribution and interactions of these waters have not been studied in detail, and the effects of long-term water injection on reservoir pressures and groundwater quality remain uncertain. Even where injection and production volumes are equal at the basin scale, local changes in hydraulic head can occur due to the distribution of production and injection wells. The changes in hydraulic head caused by this injection of fluids are important in understanding the potential to act as a driver of saline fluid flow, possibly leading to contamination of overlying potable groundwater resources where high permeability pathways or leaky abandoned wells are present. Across the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin's (WCSBs) Mannville Group, approximately 250,000,000 m3 of excess water has been injected into the Group. This study evaluates the effects of injection wells on deep groundwater resources by examining wells within the Intermediate Zone of the WCSB. Hydraulic head maps were created for each aquifer within the Intermediate Zone, as well as maps of the difference between aquifer hydraulic heads. By comparing maps detailing the difference in hydraulic head, it was possible to locate areas where there is the potential for waters to migrate upwards through natural pathways or leaky wells. The potential for significant upward migration through natural pathways was deemed low due to the presence of low permeability shales in the Intermediate Zone of the study area, but leaky wells pose a bigger problem. As the leaky well becomes further away from the injection well this problem is not as severe but still poses a problem for freshwater aquifers

Interdisciplinary Lens on Indigenous Health Iniquities: Planning, Nursing, Anthropology, Geography, Education

Indigenous peoples experience poorer health outcomes on almost every measure of health and wellbeing, when compared to the rest of Canada. For decades researchers have been working independently on addressing health inequalities, yet little progress has been made on closing the gap. This Discipline-specific way of thinking is too narrow and neglects indigenous ideologies of holistic approaches to health. An interdisciplinary approach to indigenous health research provides a more collaborative and integrated opportunity to address the multidimensional aspects of health. This paper has the goals to contribute to the limited research on interdisciplinary indigenous health research.https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/headandheartprogram_2019/1000/thumbnail.jp

Differential Rac1 signalling by guanine nucleotide exchange factors implicates FLII in regulating Rac1-driven cell migration

The small GTPase Rac1 has been implicated in the formation and dissemination of tumours. Upon activation by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), Rac1 associates with a variety of proteins in the cell thereby regulating various functions, including cell migration. However, activation of Rac1 can lead to opposing migratory phenotypes raising the possibility of exacerbating tumour progression when targeting Rac1 in a clinical setting. This calls for the identification of factors that influence Rac1-driven cell motility. Here we show that Tiam1 and P-Rex1, two Rac GEFs, promote Rac1 anti- and pro-migratory signalling cascades, respectively, through regulating the Rac1 interactome. In particular, we demonstrate that P-Rex1 stimulates migration through enhancing the interaction between Rac1 and the actin-remodelling protein flightless-1 homologue, to modulate cell contraction in a RhoA-ROCK-independent manner

“They seem to know the story better than I do myself”: The Portrayal of Florence Lassandro in Canadian Popular Culture

In 1922, a court sentenced Florence Lassandro and Emilio Picariello to death for the murder of Alberta Provincial Police (APP) Constable Stephen Lawson in Coleman, Alberta. She was the only woman hanged in the history of the province. This thesis examines the relationship between Florence Lassandro and her representation in Canadian popular culture from 1922 to the present. Many historical works have sensationalized her role in the murder. By placing cultural productions in historical context, this thesis identifies and analyzes important social, cultural, and political moments in Canada’s history to argue that they have driven and altered the image of Lassandro in popular culture considerably more than the facts of the crime. The lack of her own voice has allowed people to mould her persona to fit their agenda. During her trial, newspapers reinforced nativist beliefs. Next, Phillip Godsell used her story to justify the internment of Italian-Canadian citizens in WWII because the public feared they would rise up against the Canadian government. In the 1970s and 1980s, the federal government’s introduction of multiculturalism as an official policy and an increased emphasis on women’s history influenced authors to frame her as an innocent victim. Most recently people have used her story to attract cultural tourists to southern Alberta. Nevertheless, her voice is lost in all reinterpretations of her life

Land Pedagogy Resurgence - First Nations Education during the Pandemic

This paper examines First Nations peoples’ educational experiences during the Covid 19 pandemic, including their engagement with land-based pedagogy. First Nations peoples have always had a deep connection and reciprocal relationship with their ancestral lands. Within Eurocentric school settings, many First Nations students are systemically disadvantaged, and their knowledge systems are often undermined. This paper focuses on the critical importance of how First Nations peoples draw on land pedagogy and center their Indigenous knowledge to continue their formal and informal learning during the pandemic. I have chosen to restrict the literature review to Canadian content as my research is focused on pandemic impacts with First Nations schools and includes First Nations peoples in relation to informal land-based education practices at the community level. Drawing on existing literature, my research question will look at how and in what ways have First Nations peoples engaged in land-based pedagogy during the pandemic? This paper will make use of secondary sources including gray literature.https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/headandheartprogram_2021/1008/thumbnail.jp