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Civic and community engagement is often crucial for the successful development of rural areas and a catalyst of personal transformation. This article examines changes in civic and community engagement among women in rural Bihar, India. Using an exploratory factor analysis of survey data from n = 815 respondents who participated in Heifer’s Values-Based Holistic Community Development [VBHCD] training, the study identifies three factors that constitute civic and community engagement. Next, the study assesses the efficacy of VBHCD’s impact on participants’ civic and community engagement relative to participants’ duration in the program and type of self-help group. The results indicate that pass-on groups are more civically active in their community than original groups. However, civic and community engagement wanes over the course of participation in Heifer’s intervention.

There has been increasing interest in the use of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as artificial intelligence to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Recently, multilateral organizations have sponsored initiatives to make countries aware of the benefits of using artificial intelligence for sustainable developm­ent and to educate citizens to improve quality of life. This paper explores aspects of employing artificial intelligence for sustainable development, with a focus on lifelong learning, and inclusive and equitable quality education. Data are drawn from a thematic review of 32 academic peer-reviewed journal articles and interviews with six international experts. Findings include examples of benefits and challenges of artificial intelligence to address sustainable development and education.

Food literacy is an evolving term fundamental to both health and education. The concept of food literacy typically has been informed by nutrition-focused thinking, with particular emphasis on food skills. Moving beyond this traditional focus is necessary to address the demands of consumers navigating today’s complex food environments. Although the term is increasingly recognized, there is no consensus regarding the definition of food literacy or its conceptual dimensions. This paper describes a Food Literacy Conceptual Model that integrates multiple food literacy perspectives and theoretical frameworks. This Food Literacy Conceptual Model provides an enhanced framework with potential application as a pedagogical tool. As an interdisciplinary approach to food literacy, the conceptual model has the potential to increase teaching and learning effectiveness in the school context through a tailored approach to understanding the core components of this construct. In addition, a learner’s food literacy may increase with the application of this practical and more comprehensive framing in the conceptual model.

Implication Statement: Given the efficacy of simulations as a medical education tool, the inability to provide them during the COVID-19 pandemic may be detrimental to pre-clinical medical student learning. We developed hybrid simulations, where remote learner participants could direct an in-person assistant. This offered a learning opportunity that was more realistic than fully virtual simulations and abided by public health guidelines. Hybrid simulations provided an opportunity for medical students to practice real-time clinical decision making in a remote, high-fidelity, simulated environment. This approach could be adapted for rural healthcare students and professionals to participate in simulations without a local simulation centre.

Left Coast Political Ecology (LCPE) is a network of undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty engaged in a collective practice of political ecology grounded in strong connection to the "Left Coast" of North America. In this manifesto, we build on successful 2015 and 2018 workshops on the practice and value of political ecology today to communicate our origins, efforts, and ideas towards building a community of praxis amid the urgencies and uncertainties of our time. We first articulate those organizing and theoretical lineages that influence and inform our work. We trace the evolution of LCPE through diverse genealogies and cross-pollinations – from the "Berkeley School" to Black, Indigenous, feminist, and decolonial studies, through political struggles within and beyond the academy. In grappling with the challenges of our institutional histories of settler-colonial, capitalist, and racist dispossession, we then propose a "coastal epistemology", one that troubles the notion of a settler-colonial or neoliberal "frontier" while finding value in encounter, conversation, and emergence. We seek to make transparent our positions of relative privilege as well as the precarious contexts in which we work and live, while mobilizing and embodying political ecology's long-standing normative and liberatory aims. Next we share some of the diverse methodological approaches employed by our members and collective, with the aim of providing inspiration and solidarity to others contending with similar challenges. Ultimately, we suggest a vision for what a political ecology adequate to our moment might look like and require: a necessarily collective and hopeful project, amid processes of colonial violence, capitalist inequity, and climate catastrophe. The Left Coast Political Ecology network invites you to dream and organize with us, to share resources, experiences, and community, and to help push our field and our institutions toward more socially just and ecologically sustainable futures. Keywords: Coastal epistemology, Left Coast, network, radical geography, praxis, West Coast

Methylmercury (MeHg) biomagnifies through aquatic food webs resulting in elevated concentrations in fish globally. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes are frequently used to determine dietary sources of MeHg and to model its biomagnification. However, given the strong links between MeHg and sulfur cycling, we investigated whether sulfur isotopes (δ34S) would improve our understanding of MeHg concentrations ([MeHg]) in Arctic lacustrine food webs. Delta34S values and total mercury (THg) or MeHg were measured in water, sediments, and biota from six lakes near Resolute Bay, NU, Canada. In two lakes impacted by historical eutrophication, aqueous sulfate δ34S was ∼8‰ more positive than sedimentary δ34S, suggestive of bacterial sulfate reduction in the sediment. In addition, aqueous δ34S showed a significant positive relationship with aqueous [MeHg] across lakes. Within taxa across lakes, [THg] in Arctic char muscle and [MeHg] in their main prey, chironomids, were positively related to their δ34S values across lakes, but inconsistent relationships were found across entire food webs among lakes. Across lakes, nitrogen isotopes were better predictors of biotic [THg] and [MeHg] than δ34S within this dataset. Our results suggest some linkages between Hg and S biogeochemistry in high Arctic lakes, which is an important consideration given anticipated climate-mediated changes in nutrient cycling.

Background: The Department of Pediatrics at Queen’s University undertook a pilot project in July 2017 to increase the frequency of direct observations (DO) its residents received without affecting the patient flow in a busy hospital-based pediatric ambulatory care clinic. Facilitating DO for authentic workplace-based assessments is essential for assessing resident’s core competencies. The purpose of this study was to pilot an innovative education intervention to address the challenge of implementing DO in the clinical setting. Methods: The project allowed for staff physicians to act as “dedicated assessors” (DA), a faculty member who was scheduled to conduct direct observations of trainees’ clinical skills, while not acting as the attending physician on duty. At the end of the project, focus group interviews were conducted with faculty and residents, and thematic analysis was completed. Results: Participants reported an increase in the overall quality of feedback received during the observations performed by a DA, with more specific feedback and a broader focus of assessment. There seemed to be little disruption to patient care. Some residents described the observations as anxiety-provoking. Conclusions: Overall, this project provides insight into an educational approach that medical residency programs can apply to increase the frequency of workplace-based DO and boost the quality of feedback residents receive while maintaining the flow of already busy ambulatory care clinics.

Residency programs across Canada are transitioning to Competence by Design (CBD). Our innovative framework improves the traditional transition to independent senior overnight call process by adding workplace-based (WBA) assessments. Our process ensures that faculty and residents have a shared understanding of what competencies need to be demonstrated before residents can work independently as the in-house senior resident overnight. This protocol is worth exploring; initial perceptions suggest an increase in resident confidence while on call and improved faculty comfort when paired with these senior residents. We believe that this in turn will be reflected in enhanced patient care.

Canada is one of the only member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) without a national school food program. Good nutrition impacts children’s health, wellbeing, and learning; and school food environments offer an important setting to promote health and other food system sustainability behaviours that can last a lifetime. We present an overview of national and international evidence, with a focus on promising practices that support the establishment of a national school food program in Canada. School food programs have been shown to benefit health and dietary behaviour and critical food literacy skills (learning, culture, and social norms) that support local agriculture and promote sustainable food systems. Finally, we make recommendations for key elements that should be included in a national school food program for Canada.

Les installations récréatives et sportives (IRS) font généralement la promotion de la santé par l’activité physique, mais la qualité de leur environnement alimentaire est souvent négligée. Nous avons exploré les perspectives des intervenants quant aux obstacles à l’offre d’aliments sains dans les IRS en effectuant des entrevues téléphoniques avec dix représentants d’IRS de l’ensemble de la Nouvelle-Écosse. Trois obstacles principaux ont été identifiés : 1) les normes culturelles associées à la nourriture dans les IRS et dans un environnement plus large, 2) la notion ancrée de choix et de responsabilité personnels et 3) les implications financières d’une offre alimentaire saine. Ces obstacles limitent l’offre d’aliments sains dans les IRS et exigent des stratégies variées pour surmonter les normes sociales qui nuisent aux comportements sains.

Recreation and sport settings (RSS) typically promote health in the form of physical activity, but the healthfulness of their food environment is often neglected. We explored stakeholder perspectives on barriers to healthy food provision in RSS through telephone interviews with ten representatives from RSS across Nova Scotia. Three key barriers were identified: 1) cultural norms associated with food in RSS and the broader environment, 2) the persisting notion of personal choice and responsibility, and 3) financial implications of healthy food provision. These barriers challenge healthy food provision in RSS and require multi-faceted strategies to overcome social norms that undermine health behaviours.

This article explores legal consciousness through a consideration of the trust that workers extend to employment law to protect them, and how they react when their expectations are frustrated, tracing evolving legal dispositions and reflections upon the boundaries of legality. Clients of Citizens Advice Bureaux were case-tracked as they attempted to resolve work-related disputes. Generally participants trusted employment law to be there for them, rarely anticipating the limits and conditionality of various rights, or the considerable difficulties that can accompany their enforcement. Frustrated expectations were met with varying degrees of acceptance and fatalism, with the redirection of grievances towards collectivised dissent or activism being exceptionally rare. People tend to engage with employment law in ways that legitimate institutions and reaffirm a system that, for a variety of reasons, offers weak protection and enforcement. Este artículo explora la conciencia jurídica, y, para ello, toma en consideración la confianza que depositan los trabajadores en que la legislación laboral los proteja, y cómo reaccionan cuando sus expectativas se ven frustradas, rastreando las disposiciones legales en desarrollo y sus reflejos sobre los límites de la legalidad. Se siguieron los casos de algunos clientes de las Oficinas de Asesoramiento a los Ciudadanos que intentaban solucionar conflictos laborales. En general, los participantes confiaban en que la ley del trabajo los protegiera, y rara vez preveían las limitaciones y condicionamientos de diversos derechos o las dificultades de su cumplimiento. Las expectativas frustradas generaban diversos grados de aceptación y fatalismo; la canalización de las quejas hacia la disensión colectiva o el activismo se daba de forma excepcionalmente rara. La gente tiende a comprometerse con la legislación laboral en formas que legitiman a las instituciones y que reafirman un sistema débil para ofrecer protección. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3057968

Cutaneous metastatic carcinoma is an unusual clinical finding, with an estimated overall incidence of 5.3%. While it is more frequently found in association with breast cancer than visceral malignancies, it is rarely identified until late in the course of the disease, and quite uncommonly as the heralding manifestation of the underlying malignancy. Because of the prevalence in breast cancer, it is important for primary care clinicians and dermatology specialists alike to be aware of this potential presentation, and able to identify such cutaneous manifestations both in the post breast reconstruction patient as well as the rare patient in which cutaneous manifestations arise as the first indication of the underlying malignancy. This case presentation is an example of the latter situation, with infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast presenting as a small erythematous skin nodule in a young healthy patient with no known risk factors for breast cancer and no initial radiographic abnormalities to indicate presence of the underlying malignancy at the time of dermatologic evaluation. A review of the relevant literature is included to highlight key concepts.

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Increasingly people in the UK are turning to voluntary sector advice organisations for help and support in dealing with everyday problems. Here we argue that advice organisations, who work in the borderlands of law, are nevertheless key players in legal arenas, focusing on local Citizens Advice offices supporting clients with employment problems. We look at the making of advisers as border-workers through programmes which turn volunteers into employment advisers; and the paid advisers who inhabit spaces on the edges of the profession. We examine the social practices of these advisers, the ways in which law-work becomes translation and advice-work becomes a process of co-production between adviser and client. In concluding, we consider how far into the legal arena it is possible to go with limited resources; and what happens when translating the technicalities of law no longer works. Translation comes to mean advisers turning to their activist-selves and adopting political tactics. Las autoras del artículo argumentamos que las organizaciones de asistencia, que operan en los límites de la legalidad, son no obstante actores claves en el campo jurídico. Nos centramos en las oficinas locales de Atención al Ciudadano, y nos fijamos en los asistentes como trabajadores en los límites, a través de programas que forman a los voluntarios para ser orientadores laborales; y los asesores pagados que habitan espacios en los márgenes de la profesión. Examinamos las prácticas sociales de estos asesores, las formas en que el trabajo jurídico se convierte en trabajo de interpretación y el trabajo de asesoramiento se convierte en un proceso de coproducción entre asesor y cliente. Para concluir, reflexionamos sobre cuán lejos se puede llegar en el campo jurídico con recursos limitados, y sobre qué sucede cuando ya no sirve la interpretación de los tecnicismos legales. La interpretación viene a significar que los asesores recurren a su papel de activistas y adoptan tácticas políticas. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3067359

Although substantial advances in geochemical modelling have improved our ability to understand and improve mine site characterization and remediation, the limitations of modelling are often underappreciated. Modelers must have expertise in chemistry, geology, hydrology, geochemistry, and microbiology. Those who use codes must understand inorganic chemistry, thermodynamics, and kinetics for water-rock interactions. They must understand that code output is only useful insofar as they understand the limitations of the database and the built-in assumptions. A brief overview of geochemical code development in this paper reveals strengths and weaknesses in modelling capability. Because early predictions of water quality after mine closure often bear little resemblance to actual conditions, this approach should not be relied upon for permitting. Complex large-scale mine sites are not readily amenable to future predictions of hydrogeochemical conditions through modelling, however, modelling can constrain the possible and probable processes that give rise to specific water compositions. Modelling can also help guide remediation planning to find the most cost-effective alternative. Examples are provided for the Questa, New Mexico natural background study, the Summitville Mine, Colorado, and the Pinal Creek Basin, Arizona acid-contaminated aquifer.

The collection, analysis, and interpretation of 24 years of thermal water chemistry data from Yellowstone National Park have led to substantial insights into the water-rock interactions here and implications for other geothermal areas. New sampling and analytical methods have been developed and tested for trace elements. Quantitative measurements were obtained for changes in redox species of S, Fe, As, Sb, and Hg during outflow of thermal waters in which biotic and abiotic reactions play important roles. Fluoride speciation calculations were confirmed with ion-selective electrode measurements. The fate of contaminants, especially As and F, from thermal features in major rivers revealed no significant attenuation during downstream transport. Continuous monitoring for heat flux using year-round conductivity measurements was established. Testing of the “Multiple Equilibria Geothermometer” was achieved with high-quality, long-term data from Ojo Caliente, a continuously flowing hot spring. Yellowstone continues to be an outstanding field laboratory for expanding our knowledge of thermal water-rock interactions.

Improved support for teachers’ professional development is vital during emergency, chronic crisis and early reconstruction contexts as teachers can have a significant impact on their students’ well-being.

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This editorial provides a brief introduction of the two new English co-editors of the CJNSE, Dr. Kirk Perris and James Corcoran, a positioning of graduate students as central in the expansion of educational research, and a brief description of two research studies, four position papers, and one literature review contained in this issue.

When Capitalists Collide: Business Conflict and the End of Empire in Egypt. By Robert Vitalis. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. 282 pp. Reviewed by Kirk Beattie, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Simmons College, Boston, MA.

In this paper I look at the ways in which certain poems of Sermones Book Two and the Epodes routinely look past their own generic horizons to spy on an alternate, and highly idealized, poetic landscape that lies just ahead in the poet’s career. Like rich fields waiting to be developed and tended, the Odes occupy the poet’s time and thoughts in the late 30’s B.C.E. These ‘singing’ poems, like a newly purchased farm, await his full-time attention, even while he is still deeply enmeshed in the life of the city and the generic enterprises that need to be finished there. The Odes, poems given special urgency by Octavian’s victory at Actium, are thus constructed as a dreamscape that the poet wants to enter but, as yet, cannot. To make my case, I focus especially on Sermones 2.6, treating that poem’s many extra-generic glosses not only as a means of locating the host-genre’s center, but as a way of chafing at its too narrow limits, and perhaps also as a way of signaling how the poet intends to break new ground in the Odes, as a poet deeply committed to mode-mixing, variation, and ironic play. The pressures and restrictions that come with being a satirist in 31-30 B.C.E. are played out in this poem. And Horace’s own extra-generic pipe-dreaming, I suggest, is at the heart of its concluding fable.

This Marxist-oriented ideological study describes how sports commentary ‘layered’ on top of team sporting events serves as a capitalist mass indoctrination method in the United States of America. Despite a general mass consensus to the contrary, popular team sporting events which employ sports commentators are not politically neutral events. The mass media and corporations use sports commentators to politically charge sporting events in order to subtly program the viewing population into accepting capitalist ideological tenets and norms. Capitalist indoctrination embedded within modern sports commentary is particularly effective because of its subtle nature. Capitalist norms are taught within the context and framework of particular sporting events and superimposed over events occurring on the field of play. The majority of the conservative ideology embedded within sports commentary is related to the glorification and maintenance of extreme social stratification based on held or achieved power.

En esta investigación estudiamos los efectos de tres actividades diseñadas para enseñar el uso de las conjunciones del tipo para que en contraste con preposiciones.

This article describes the experiences and perceptions of a small group of Afghan women teachers who have set up a small community school for Afghan children in Montreal. It situates the work that they are doing in the context of knowledge transfer and of social capital building in a diasporic context and discusses this heritage education program in relation to transnational processes of living and learning in multiple sites. The women, who were all teachers in Afghanistan, experienced conflict and a political situation which ultimately forced them to leave their homes; as immigrants to Canada they experience the multiple challenges of individual and family integration. However, as volunteer community teachers, they have strong ideas about the work they do and a strong sense of purpose to it; they use their own professional understandings and skills to transmit the cultural knowledge and language skills which they believe are important for young Afghan Canadians and their families in Montreal.

The growing connections among international economies means that professionals will increasingly find themselves interacting with persons from other cultures. Cultures, however, can have different expectations of what constitutes an effective professional communiqué. This article examines how the rhetorical factors of the forum, ethos, and the special topics provide a mechanism for identifying and analyzing such differences.

UN Security Council Resolution 13251 on women, peace and security, passed on 31 October 2000, was the first UNSCR to specifically acknowledge the impacts of conflict, particularly sexual violence, on women and girls. What has it achieved – and what are its limitations?

Expanding access to education for boys and girls is a critical Millennium Development Goal and peace-building challenge. In southern Sudan, as in other post-conflict societies, many girls remain excluded from schooling opportunities which could help develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to build a peaceful society.