Towards a North American Cabotage Regime: A Canadian Perspective

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Canada studied the impact of its cabotage legislation thoroughly and opted to provide protection of the domestic shipping market with new legislation in 1992. This paper traces the decision-making process through this period, and the concurrent discussions within NAFTA under negotiations for liberalization of trade in services. Now that Canada has 13 years experience with the existing cabotage legislation, and has adopted a policy to promote the development of short sea shipping, this paper evaluates Canada’s shipping policy options in order to identify if changes are required given the new policy environment

Short sea shipping: Lessons for or from Australia?

Over the past decade, there has been a substantial volume of research on short sea shipping and related national maritime transport regulation. In spite of significant support for the policy of growing the volume of short sea shipping in Europe, and the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation within NAFTA in 2003, there has not been the level of adoption by cargo interests or shipping lines expected. In Australia, where the regulatory environment is somewhat different from Europe or North America, the industry is more focused on the bulk sector and the Rudd Government is contemplating an agenda of maritime reform. This situation presents an opportunity to build an understanding of why, how and whether short sea shipping works, and, in particular, what lessons from the Australian experience might apply to the Canadian and/or North American context and vice versa. This paper builds on two separate but linked streams of research. On one hand, it will review the research conducted in North America. Large-scale studies have been undertaken for Transport Canada over the past five years, and several studies have also been conducted in the U.S. On the other, it reviews the studies undertaken in Australia, where short sea shipping received considerable attention from both consultants and academics, and there has been a recent government investigation into the coastal shipping industry. In its examination of research done to date, this paper explores the lessons from these studies by answering four research questions. It draws preliminary conclusions about the role of the regulatory environment in promoting or deterring the development of land transport– competitive short sea services and about which research agenda gaps remain to be filled. The paper does not focus on bulk shipping; the key emphasis is on what governments need to consider if they seek to induce switching from land modes, like truck or rail, to coastal shipping in order to revitalise the domestic industry or improve GHG-efficiency in the transport sector or both

Sustaining Tacit and Embedded Knowledge in Textile Conservation and Textile and Dress Collections

Th is article explores the current paradoxical position of textile and dress collections and textile conservation in museums from an English perspective. Textile and dress exhibitions have become increasingly high profile, and conservators are being energized by an expanded vision for communicating the activity of heritage conservation, engaging with the public in different and exciting ways and making this oft en hidden process accessible. Nevertheless, despite many exciting initiatives, the underlying trend in the United Kingdom indicates a creeping loss of specialist textile curatorial and conservation posts. Th e article explores the implications of these losses on tacit and embedded knowledge and expertise and the growing threat to the longterm sustainability of textile and dress collections, particularly in the regions. It studies the reasons for these problems and considers in more detail a key issue, that of the loss of teaching needlework skills. Th e article argues that these issues need to be considered when planning strategies to ensure the sustainable future of textile and dress collections and related curatorial and conservation skills. It includes a case study exploring approaches to embedding sustainable expertise implemented during a Monument Fellowship at York Castle Museum, England

Moving Forward on the Atlantic Gateway: Context and Further Key Questions

This paper begins by exploring the meaning of the word gateway, and the role of ‘gateways and corridors’ in the current global trading environment. It examines the integrated nature of today’s economic environment, to provide context for the discussion about the players and their interests—what they seek to gain from gateway development. It then steps back to look at the lessons identified in various research activities undertaken in the Atlantic Gateway Research Initiative, developing four questions for those seeking to participate in gateway development. In answering these four questions, the remainder of the paper proposes strategies for the various players to consider. The paper closes with reflections on the vision for the Gateway and the future research agenda that the current research has identified. The concept of Gateway support discussed here takes a much larger view of the Atlantic Gateway in the world trading environment, and sees roles for all players, including universities, in developing the economic opportunities presented by the Atlantic Gateway

Maritime Economics in a Post-Expansion Panama Canal Era

(First paragraph) The 2016 opening of an expanded Panama Canal will allow for Post-Panamax containerships up to 12 500 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) in size to transit the Panama Canal. In response, some US East Coast container ports are having their channels and berths dredged deeper—to allow Post-Panamax containerships from Asia (transiting the expanded canal) to call at their ports. What are the implications for the US West Coast ports? Will there be a cargo shift from West Coast to East Coast ports? These topics as well as the impacts of other changes in global shipping lanes (e.g., the Suez Canal and the Arctic shipping lanes) on global trade and ports in the Post-Expansion Panama Canal Era were discussed in various sessions of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) 2014 Conference. This special issue is dedicated to the study of the above impacts. The goal of this special issue is to encourage research in this important area by highlighting the influence of the Panama Canal expansion to the global maritime sectors and examining the potentially dramatic changes in the Post-Expansion Era. Hence, five IAME conference papers and an additional paper by Ducruet are chosen for this reason

Prevalence of maternal complications and neonatal outcomes at a Midwest academic health center

Introduction: The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) serves as the main referral center for Iowa and has seen increased delivery volumes following many hospital closures across the state. Maternal characteristics are also shifting as pre-pregnancy obesity of reproductive-age women is increasing nationally and in Iowa; average maternal age at first delivery has also increased over time. The aim of the current study was to characterize the outcomes of the delivering population at UIHC over a one-year period to better understand the population we serve, as well as compare our population to state and national delivering populations. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of a pre-existing prospectively gathered database related to COVID-19 in pregnancy. The current study included all pregnant patients who delivered or underwent procedures for a spontaneous or induced second-trimester abortion on the labor and delivery unit at UIHC between May 1, 2020, and April 30, 2021. Demographic and clinical data including maternal characteristics, delivery information, maternal complications, and neonatal outcomes were obtained from the electronic medical record and double entered in a Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) database. Continuous and categorical variables were summarized using medians and ranges. Results: The median maternal age among the 2497 delivering patients was 30 (IQR 26, 33). The median pre-delivery body mass index (BMI) was 32 (IQR 28, 37), which included 439 patients (17.6%) with BMI >40 at time of delivery. 1769 (70.8%) patients listed White as their self-defined race and 2275 (91.0%) listed English as their preferred language. 23% had hypertensive disease of pregnancy. The patients delivered a total of 2603 neonates, with 907 (34.8%) born by cesarean section. 18.7% of deliveries were preterm and 16.6% of neonates had low birth weight. Discussion: The delivering population at UIHC has a high rate of obesity and preeclampsia, both of which place patients at higher risk for other obstetric complications. The cesarean section rate was significantly higher than the national rate of 31.8% (p=0.0017). Understanding common complications in our changing population will better equip providers to care for these patients; providing these data also creates a resource for other researchers