Reflections on the Arts, Environment, and Culture After Ten Years of The Goose

To mark the tenth anniversary of The Goose, we asked prominent ecologically-minded scholars, writers, artists, and educators from across Canada to reflect on the relationship between the arts, culture, and the environment. Their comments illuminate a wide range of triumphs and tensions, from the politics and practices of environmentalist writing and art, to the connections between the environment and matters of diversity and justice, to the past and future of ALECC (Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada), to the world of a single poem

Proof of principle : the adaptive geometry of social foragers

Acknowledgments We thank Cape Nature for permission to undertake the study. We thank Dr Matt Grove and two anonymous referees for comments and suggestions that improved the manuscript substantially. This research was funded by grants from the Leakey Foundation, National Science and Engineering Research Council, Canada to S.P.H. and L.B., and by the National Research Foundation, South Africa to S.P.H. His co-authors dedicate this paper to the memory of P.M.R.C. The authors declare no competing interests.Peer reviewedPostprin

Long-lasting floods buffer the thermal regime of the Pampas

This work was funded by grants from the National Research Council of Argentina (CONICET), the International Research Development Centre [IDRC-Canada, Project 106601-001], ANPCyT [PRH 27 [PICT 2013-2973; PICT 2014-2790], and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research [IAI, CRN II 2031], which is supported by the US National Science Foundation[Grant number 448 GEO-0452325]. We thank Dr. Horacio Zagarese from INTECH for the lagoon temperature dataset provided. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and their many insightful comments and suggestions.Peer reviewedPostprin

Seismic anisotropy of Precambrian lithosphere : Insights from Rayleigh wave tomography of the eastern Superior Craton

The seismic data used in this study are freely available from the CNDC (Canadian National Data Centre for Earthquake Seismology and Nuclear Explosion Monitoring) and IRIS DMC (Data Management Center) via their data request tools. The Leverhulme Trust (grant RPG-2013-332) and National Science Foundation are acknowledged for financial support. L.P. is supported by Janet Watson Imperial College Department Scholarship and the Romanian Government Research Grant NUCLEU. F.D. is supported by NSERC through the Discovery Grants and Canada Research Chairs program. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and the Associate Editor for insightful comments that helped improve the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Confronting semi-analytic galaxy models with galaxy-matter correlations observed by CFHTLenS

Testing predictions of semi-analytic models of galaxy evolution against observations help to understand the complex processes that shape galaxies. We compare predictions from the Garching and Durham models implemented on the Millennium Run with observations of galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGL) and galaxy-galaxy-galaxy lensing (G3L) for various galaxy samples with stellar masses in the range 0.5 < (M_* / 10^10 M_Sun) < 32 and photometric redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.6 in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). We find that the predicted GGL and G3L signals are in qualitative agreement with CFHTLenS data. Quantitatively, the models succeed in reproducing the observed signals in the highest stellar mass bin (16 < ( M_* / 10^10 M_Sun) < 32) but show different degrees of tension for the other stellar mass samples. The Durham models are strongly excluded at the 95% confidence level by the observations as they largely over-predict the amplitudes of the GGL and G3L signals, probably because they predict too many satellite galaxies in massive halos.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, submitted to A&A. Comments welcom

Development and Pilot of a Checklist for Management of Acute Liver Failure in the Intensive Care Unit

Introduction Acute liver failure (ALF) is an ideal condition for use of a checklist. Our aims were to develop a checklist for the management of ALF in the intensive care unit (ICU) and assess the usability of the checklist among multiple providers. Methods The initial checklist was developed from published guidelines and expert opinion. The checklist underwent pilot testing at 11 academic liver transplant centers in the US and Canada. An anonymous, written survey was used to assess the usability and quality of the checklist. Written comments were used to improve the checklist following the pilot testing period. Results We received 81 surveys involving the management of 116 patients during the pilot testing period. The overall quality of the checklist was judged to be above average to excellent by 94% of users. On a 5-point Likert scale, the majority of survey respondents agreed or agreed strongly with the following checklist characteristics: the checklist was easy to read (99% agreed/agreed strongly), easy to use (97%), items are categorized logically (98%), time to complete the checklist did not interfere with delivery of appropriate and safe patient care (94%) and was not excessively burdensome (92%), the checklist allowed the user the freedom to use his or her clinical judgment (80%), it is a useful tool in the management of acute liver failure (98%). Web-based and mobile apps were developed for use of the checklist at the point of care. Conclusion The checklist for the management of ALF in the ICU was shown in this pilot study to be easy to use, helpful and accepted by a wide variety of practitioners at multiple sites in the US and Canada

Patterns of variability in gamma-ray blazars

Preliminary results of a systematic study on the simultaneous optical-to-X-rays variability in blazars are presented. Data from Swift observations of four bright gamma-ray blazars (3C 279, ON+231, S5 0716+71, PKS 2155-304) have been analyzed, compared, and discussed. Specifically, 3C 279 shows a variable flattening in the low energy part of the X-ray spectrum that appears to be confined in a specific X-ray vs optical/UV fluxes region. Some implications are shortly analyzed.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Poster presented at 37th COSPAR Assembly (Montreal, Canada, July 13-20, 2008), Session E17. Revised according to the referees comments. Accepted for publication on Advances in Space Researc

Regulatory History Material as an Extrinsic Aid to Interpretation: An Empirical Study on the Use of RIAS by the Federal Court of Canada

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : Fac. Droit - Coll. facultaire - Droit administratif et Droit municipal]Since 1986, the Canadian Public Administration is required to analyze the socio-economic impact of new regulatory requirements or regulatory changes. To report on its analysis, a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement (RIAS) is produced and published in the Canada Gazette with the proposed regulation to which it pertains for notice to, and comments by, interested parties. After the allocated time for comments has elapsed, the regulation is adopted with a final version of the RIAS. Both documents are again published in the Canada Gazette. As a result, the RIAS acquires the status of an official public document of the Government of Canada and its content can be argued in courts as an extrinsic aid to the interpretation of a regulation. In this paper, an analysis of empirical findings on the uses of this interpretative tool by the Federal Court of Canada is made. A sample of decisions classified as unorthodox show that judges are making determinations on the basis of two distinct sets of arguments built from the information found in a RIAS and which the author calls “technocratic” and “democratic”. The author argues that these uses raise the general question of “What makes law possible in our contemporary legal systems”? for they underline enduring legal problems pertaining to the knowledge and the acceptance of the law by the governed. She concludes that this new interpretive trend of making technocratic and democratic uses of a RIAS in case law should be monitored closely as it may signal a greater change than foreseen, and perhaps an unwanted one, regarding the relationship between the government and the judiciary

AEGIS: New Evidence Linking Active Galactic Nuclei to the Quenching of Star Formation

Utilizing Chandra X-ray observations in the All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS) we identify 241 X-ray selected Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs, L > 10^{42} ergs/s) and study the properties of their host galaxies in the range 0.4 < z < 1.4. By making use of infrared photometry from Palomar Observatory and BRI imaging from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we estimate AGN host galaxy stellar masses and show that both stellar mass and photometric redshift estimates (where necessary) are robust to the possible contamination from AGNs in our X-ray selected sample. Accounting for the photometric and X-ray sensitivity limits of the survey, we construct the stellar mass function of X-ray selected AGN host galaxies and find that their abundance decreases by a factor of ~2 since z~1, but remains roughly flat as a function of stellar mass. We compare the abundance of AGN hosts to the rate of star formation quenching observed in the total galaxy population. If the timescale for X-ray detectable AGN activity is roughly 0.5-1 Gyr--as suggested by black hole demographics and recent simulations--then we deduce that the inferred AGN "trigger" rate matches the star formation quenching rate, suggesting a link between these phenomena. However, given the large range of nuclear accretion rates we infer for the most massive and red hosts, X-ray selected AGNs may not be directly responsible for quenching star formation.Comment: 12 pages. Submitted to ApJ. Comments welcom

Democracy of Pressure Groups

· The report contains positive references to profit, capital, liberty and freedom (including free-market economy), and the struggle of the world’s poor in the developing world – if we dared, and cared to ask them, that is, to achieve these. These references might be too sacrilegious to be tasteful to some. · The report attempts to show the weaknesses of the activism of the pressure groups, and how empty their rhetoric is. This is of course apart from their unethical conduct in trying to force their views on others. The report refutes comments made against businesses, globalization, privatization, and trade deregulation. At the same time, the need of government in providing property rights is emphasized. · Hope this report will leave a feeling that the biggest reason for differences between the prosperity of a rich and a poor country is neither racial nor cultural, but the system of law and order, property rights, and freedom of action in private, economic and social lives; which work as catalysts to prosperity, growth and the fight against poverty .liberty, council of canadians, canada, trade, free, NAFTA, WTO, Exxon