Alaska-Canada Rail Link Economic Benefits

Construction of the 1,740 km Alaska-Canada Rail Link (ACRL) between Fort Nelson, BC and Delta Junction, Alaska to join the North American rail system to the Alaska Railroad will result in tremendous economic benefits for Canada and the US. The ACRL will provide valuable additional east-west rail capacity and tidewater access to the Pacific, hugely benefitting not only the Yukon and Eastern Alaska regions, into which it will introduce rail transport for the first time, but throughout both countries. The economic benefits of ACRL construction are consistent with Canadian government’s desire to promote Northern development and comparable in significance to those of Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880’s and the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950’s. Construction of the ACRL alone will bring unprecedented economic stimulus to the region in terms of job creation, wages and income tax revenue over multiple years. Table 7-1 below summarizes the benefits from ACRL construction for the Yukon, BC and Canada as a whole. However, these estimates are conservative as they exclude benefits associated with pre-construction activities, railway operation post-construction, sales taxes and corporate taxes as well as all such benefits that will accrue to Alaska and the US

Discipline, profession and industry: how our choices shape our future

At the time of writing the practice of coaching is definitely an industry, could be underpinned by a discipline but is yet to be a profession. The current situation is fluid and dynamic. It is evolving as choices are made by practitioners, researchers, Universities and nascent professional bodies. Whether coaching ends up as a chartered profession in its own right, a sub-discipline of psychology, education, or a professional practice of Human Resource Management will have a significant impact on the conduct of the work itself and how it is understood. The status of coaches will to a large extent be determined by their autonomy, influence and perceived value to clients. This chapter examines the implication of an increasingly professionalised practice of coaching and what this means for coaches either as sole practitioners or employees and the expectations that clients can have of the increasingly professional coach. Our analysis draws first upon the sociology of professional work particularly that of Evetts (2013) on the analysis of professional work and the concepts of profession, professionalization and professionalism. We compare coaching with the experience of other areas of practice such as nursing, consulting and social care as they too seek to differentiate their work. Having considered the professional perspective we then turn to the concept of coaching as an academic discipline in part drawing on the constructs developed by Foucault (1975) and others. This analysis highlights how the trends in an increasingly professional coaching practice will have impact upon the work and specifically the issue of alleviation of risk. This brings into focus the ethical aspects of the intervention requiring both scrutiny of standards and regulation with an inherent requirement for qualification. There is also the highly political question of who determines what epistemology is appropriate for the body of knowledge. This question has been robustly debated by amongst others Fillery-Travis & Passmore (2011) and Corrie (2014). The divergent opinion in the literature exists, in part, due to the varying backgrounds of the coaches who seek to apply to coaching research the same criteria for rigor they used in their original discipline. The ‘ownership’ of the body of knowledge is thus critical in determining what research strategy is followed and what evidence is produced and by whom. The answer to these issues determines what questions are or are not asked and therefore how coaching evolves. The list above contains a number of the essential elements that identify a practice to be a profession or a discipline. They have been previously considered by Hawkins (2008), Cavanagh and Grant (2004), Lane (2014) as well as within a recent history by Stec (2012) but this chapter extends the analysis to first consider the place of professions within the organizational context and then within the wider context of the professions in general and the emergent ones specifically. This will allow the coaching practitioner and our associations a framework to consider and plan for the potential challenges of the future and hence design both their individual and collective development

Developing an Intervention Toolbox for the Common Health Problems in the Workplace

Development of the Health ↔ Work Toolbox is described. The toolbox aims to reduce the workplace impact of common health problems (musculoskeletal, mental health, and stress complaints) by focusing on tackling work-relevant symptoms. Based on biopsychosocial principles this toolbox supplements current approaches by occupying the zone between primary prevention and healthcare. It provides a set of evidence-informed principles and processes (knowledge + tools) for tackling work-relevant common health problems. The toolbox comprises a proactive element aimed at empowering line managers to create good jobs, and a ‘just in time’ responsive element for supporting individuals struggling with a work-relevant health problem. The key intention is helping people with common health problems to maintain work participation. The extensive conceptual and practical development process, including a comprehensive evidence review, produced a functional prototype toolbox that is evidence based and flexible in its use. End-user feedback was mostly positive. Moving the prototype to a fully-fledged internet resource requires specialist design expertise. The Health ↔ Work Toolbox appears to have potential to contribute to the goal of augmenting existing primary prevention strategies and healthcare delivery by providing a more comprehensive workplace approach to constraining sickness absence

Valuing intellectual property and calculating infringement damages : a nonauthoritative guide; Consulting services practice aid, 99-2

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_news/1150/thumbnail.jp

An assessment of Prince Colliery effluents and their treatment : final report.

Under subcontract to: Dearborn Environmental Consulting GroupReport describes the steps taken to determine a treatment option for the Prince Mine

Swimming against the tide: a study of a neighbourhood trying to rediscover its ‘reason for being’– the case of South Bank, Redcar and Cleveland.

Many of the programmes and initiatives to regenerate deprived neighbourhoods appear to have had limited lasting impact. It has been argued that one reason for this is that we still have little real understanding of the nature and scale of the problems some communities face (Bernt, 2009). This article attempts to add to our knowledge through close study of an area with multiple problems and a history of failed regeneration attempts. An in-depth case study, undertaken to explore the current situation and future prospects of South Bank, a small neighbourhood in the North East of England, highlights transferable knowledge which may be applied to other regeneration areas. The analysis considers the nature and consequences of industrial decline; entrenched deprivation; the stigmatization of communities; the value of community consultation and the potential impact of retail-led regeneration. We question whether negative stigma attached to places can be changed and we ask what the future may hold for deprived communities now that public sector funding has largely dried up, and we consider an alternative approach: the potential impacts of private sector retail-led regeneration in the absence of public sector funding

Institutional strategies for capturing socio-economic impact of academic research

Evaluation of socio-economic impact is an emerging theme for publicly-funded academic research. Within this context the paper suggests that the concept of institutional research capital be expanded to include the capture and evaluation of socio-economic impact. Furthermore, it argues that understanding the typology of impacts and the tracking from research to impact will assist the formulation of institutional strategies for capturing socio-economic impact. A three-stage approach is proposed for capturing and planning activities to enhance the generation of high-quality impact. Stage one outlines the critical role of user engagement that facilitates the tracking of such impact. Stage two employs an analytical framework based on the criteria of ‘depth’ and ‘spread’ to evaluate impacts that have been identified. Stage three utilizes the outcomes of the framework to devise strategies, consisting of either further research (to increase depth) or more engagement (to increase spread) that will improve the generation of higher quality impact

Understanding consumer demand for new transport technologies and services, and implications for the future of mobility

The transport sector is witnessing unprecedented levels of disruption. Privately owned cars that operate on internal combustion engines have been the dominant modes of passenger transport for much of the last century. However, recent advances in transport technologies and services, such as the development of autonomous vehicles, the emergence of shared mobility services, and the commercialization of alternative fuel vehicle technologies, promise to revolutionise how humans travel. The implications are profound: some have predicted the end of private car dependent Western societies, others have portended greater suburbanization than has ever been observed before. If transport systems are to fulfil current and future needs of different subpopulations, and satisfy short and long-term societal objectives, it is imperative that we comprehend the many factors that shape individual behaviour. This chapter introduces the technologies and services most likely to disrupt prevailing practices in the transport sector. We review past studies that have examined current and future demand for these new technologies and services, and their likely short and long-term impacts on extant mobility patterns. We conclude with a summary of what these new technologies and services might mean for the future of mobility.Comment: 15 pages, 0 figures, book chapte