Calibrating Official War Art and the War on Terror

This paper comprises primary research investigating contemporary official war art in Canada, Australia, Egypt, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Findings are drawn from fieldwork conducted in these countries during the height of the so-called War on Terror, in 2008 and 2009. My thesis suggests that the degree to which nations are willing to provide military support for contemporary artists, to gain access to the frontlines of the War on Terror, serves as a barometer for how different nations either enable or disable conflict-related cultural canons. I demonstrate that official war art can provide important benchmarks for the value and health of liberal arts in liberal democracies

Incorporating Ability and Disability into Curriculum and Community

An initial case study describes how three different U of C classes addressed ability and disability through curricular collaboration with the Calgary based SPARK Disability Arts Festival. This conference workshop will then present strategies for participants to modify their own curricula: enhancing diversity by connecting ability with disability.N

Working with uniqueness: optimizing vocational strengths for people with tourette syndrome and co-morbidities

This paper shares discoveries from a grounded theory inspired study of “optimizing vocational strengths” and the unique attributes of Tourette Syndrome and co-morbidities, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (or TS/TS+), in the workplace. This one year study featured 16 participants with various levels of workplace functioning and health status and was set in an art college. Data gathering methods included individual/group interviews alongside observations of, and products from, studio art workshops in drawing, sculpture, performance, and creative writing. Data collected in this way elicited a breadth and depth of representation and harnessed the uniqueness and imagination of participants pivotal to recovery and supporting vocational optimization. The process of “optimizing vocational strengths” is revealed both visually and textually in this paper and is instructive for educational and vocational supports for people with TS/TS+

The microbiological quality of potable water on board ships docking in the UK and the Channel Islands: an association of Port Health Authorities and Health Protection Agency Study.

Providing safe potable water onboard vessels presents particular challenges and contamination can occur directly from source waters as well as during loading, storage and distribution. Between May and October 2005, 950 potable water samples were collected from 342 ships docking at ports. Comparison with Guidelines found 9% of samples contained coliforms, Escherichia coli or enterococci and 2.8% had faecal indicators (E. coli or enterococci). Action levels of aerobic colony count (ACC) bacteria were detected in 20% (22 degrees C) and 21.5% (37 degrees C) of samples. ACC results from one-off sampling are not informative as this does not enable port health authorities to monitor ACC trends. They should be removed as a routine criterion for remedial action and vessels should adopt the WHO Water Safety Plan approach, whilst continuing to monitor water quality with public health-based indicators (e.g. chlorine residual, coliforms, E. coli and enterococci). Logistic regression analyses identified practices associated with water quality. Practices protective against coliforms, E. coli or enterococci in potable supplies were: good hose hygiene, processing water onboard, maintaining free chlorine residual at >or=0.2 mg/L. This emphasizes the importance of good hygiene during potable water loading and maintaining adequate disinfection of supplies onboard