HISTORICAL EMPATHY AND CANADA: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY

In this article, we examine the CBC/Radio‐Canada series, Canada: A People’s History, for its use of empathy, specifically with regard to its portrayal of Aboriginal people. We call the empathy promoted in the series, emotive empathy, and compare it to the concept of historical empathy constructed by researchers in history education. The emotive empathy employed in this series, while adequate for public audiences, is not sufficient for history classrooms because it lacks a cognitive dimension. We discuss implications for using the series, and by extension, other instructional resources, to promote the development of historical empathy. Key Words: history teaching, historical empathy, history and film, narrative strategies, Aboriginal representations Dans cet article, les auteurs analysent le recours à l’empathie dans la série Le Canada : une histoire populaire / Canada: A People’s History de Radio‐Canada / CBC, surtout pour ce qui a trait à la représentation des autochtones. Les auteurs qualifient d’empathie émotive l’empathie promue dans la série et la compare au concept d’empathie historique développé par les chercheurs qui étudient l’enseignement de l’histoire. L’empathie émotive utilisée dans cette série, bien qu’adéquate pour le grand public, ne l’est pas pour les cours d’histoire parce qu’il manque alors une dimension cognitive. Les auteurs analysent les implications de l’utilisation de cette série et, d’une manière plus générale, d’autres ressources pédagogiques par rapport à la promotion de l’empathie historique. Mots clés : enseignement de l’histoire, empathie historique, histoire et films, stratégies narratives, représentation des autochtones

The study of acidophilic, moderately thermophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria

This study has divided the most frequently isolated types of moderate thermophiles into three groups: isolates of Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans (mol% G + C 47-50), an isolate referred to as strain NAL and other closely related species (mol% G+C 54-57), and the type previously referred to as strain TH3 (mol% G+C 68). An enrichment culture was obtained that could efficiently solubilise a range of mineral sulphides at 48oC under air. Characterisation of this culture indicated the presence of two organisms essential for efficient growth under air: a typical S. thermosulfidooxidans group organism (isolate ICH), and a strain TH3 group organism (isolate ICP). Strain ICP appeared to possess an inducible, high affinity transport system for carbon dioxide during growth under air (unlike any previously studied moderate thermophiles), but extensive oxidation of ferrous iron was not achieved even at enhanced carbon dioxide levels. This lack of oxidation appeared to be the result of autotrophically-growth strain ICP having an apparent higher affinity for the end-product of iron oxidation, ferric iron (Ki 0.4 mM), than the substrate, ferrous iron (Km 0.5 mM). Only when a mixed culture of strain ICP and strain ICH was grown did extensive oxidation occur. A comparative mineral leaching study, with a mesophilic, a moderately thermophilic, and an extremely thermophilic culture indicated that the moderately thermophilic culture was the most robust during the dissolution of a range of minerals. This culture gave consistently better mineral dissolution rates than the mesophilic culture, clearly indicating their immediate commercial potential. In comparison the extremely thermophilic culture often produced faster rates of mineral dissolution than the moderately thermophilic culture, but appeared sensitive to agitation at high mineral pulp densities (10% (w/v)), limiting any present commercial applications of these organisms

Barriers to walking: An investigation of adults in Hamilton

This study investigates perceived barriers to walking using data collected from 179 randomly-selected adults between the ages of 18 and 92 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. A survey (Hamilton Active Living Study) asked questions about socio-demographics, walking, and barriers to walking. A series of binary logit models are estimated for twenty potential barriers to walking. The results demonstrate that different barriers are associated with different sub-groups of the population. Females, senior citizens, and those with a higher body mass index identify the most barriers to walking, while young adults, parents, driver’s license owners, and bus pass owners identify the fewest barriers. Understanding who is affected by perceived barriers can help policy makers and health promotion agencies target sub-groups of the population in an effort to increase walking

People - focus policing: A need for a Paradigm Shift in Texas Policing

How lack of effective communications with people while on the job can escalate tension between police and the public and how empathetic communication might help.With recent events such as the police-involved shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the choking of Eric Garner in New York City, New York, and the handling of a pool party by Officer Eric Caseboldt in McKinney, Texas, a glaring problem has received international media scrutiny. This problem is the failure of police officers in the United States to effectively communicate with people while on the job. As such, officers need to be trained in empathetic communication tactics as part of a larger model of people-focused Policing. Empathetic communication uses emotional labeling and other tactics to show compassion between the officer and the member of the public. This communication style helps bolster the legitimacy of the policing institution and affects the citizenry’s perception of the process of being unfair or fair; this directly supports the concept of procedural justice. Officers must be fair, knowledgeable and empathetic. Training of officers in empathetic communication and the concepts of legitimacy should be conducted for both current officers and recruits in the academy process. The implementation of people-focused Policing will require a cultural change in the policing environment

Formability of Polycarbonate

Current thermoplastic processing techniques involve high capital costs for moulds and significant use of energy to melt or soften the materials. Single-step process cold forming techniques, such as stretch forming, could be cost effective methods for manufacturing large parts with shallow cross-sections from plastic sheet. The present work is a preliminary investigation of a cold forming technique for polycarbonate. The objective of this work is to characterize the bulk deformation behaviour of polycarbonate using tensile tests and dome stretch forming tests. Two different molecular weight polycarbonate sheets with 1.6 mm thickness were studied: (i) one with Mw = 42,000 g/mol and (ii) the other with Mw = 52,000 g/mol. For the latter, 3.2 mm sheets were also studied. Tensile tests conducted at three different cross-head speeds, i.e., 2, 20 and 200 mm/min showed very similar elastic and plastic deformation properties for the two molecular weights. Correspondingly, the activation volumes at yield were almost identical. There was also negligible difference in the thermophysical properties between the two materials as found by differential scanning calorimetry. Dome stretch forming tests were conducted on a metal forming machine. Specimens of varying width were tested to give different strain states ranging from deep drawing to biaxial. The limiting dome height or the maximum level of stretch forming iv increases with specimen width. This is due to biaxial deformation which increases the maximum strain. Forming limit diagrams (FLDs) were also constructed from the local strains measured from printed fine circle grid patterns on the polycarbonate sheet surfaces. The FLDs showed common general characteristics with metals except for a few key differences. An area of very few data points was found to lie between the “safe zone” and the “necked zone”. This void was referred to as the “unstable neck formation zone”. It exists because of the large local increases in strain associated with the unstable nature of polymer neck formation. Much more study is required before polycarbonate can be cold formed at strains below the unstable neck deformation. However, the materials and techniques used in this work have demonstrated that the process can be viable for forming shallow large parts from relatively thin thermoplastic sheet a as long as the local biaxial strains are less than 20%

Examining the relationship between active travel, weather, and the built environment: A multilevel approach using a GPS-enhanced dataset

This study examines how the built environment and weather conditions influence the use of walking as a mode of transport. The Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada is the study area for this work. Data are derived from three sources: a socio-demographic questionnaire and a GPS-enhanced prompted recall time-use diary collected between April 2007 and May 2008 as part of the Halifax Space-Time Activity Research project, a daily meteorological summary from Environment Canada, and a comprehensive GIS dataset from the regional municipality. Two binary logit multilevel models are estimated to examine how the propensity to use walking is influenced by the built environment and weather while controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. The built environment is measured via five attributes in one model and a walkability index (derived from the five attributes) in the other. Weather conditions are shown to affect walking use in both models. Although the walkability index is significant, the results demonstrate that this significance is driven by specific attributes of the built environment—in the case of this study, population density and to a lesser extent, pedestrian infrastructure

Modelling the Impacts of Demographic Ageing on the Demand for Health Care Services

This thesis presents a methodology that predicts the number of individuals aged 50 and older who have one or more of three morbidities within each English local authority district to 2031. The three morbidities are cardiovascular disease, diabetes or high blood sugar and respiratory illnesses. The methodology uses spatial microsimulation to create a representative 2011 base population in each district. This population is then dynamically simulated through time using a process that: ages the population, changes its morbidity status, restructures its composition along demographic lines and replenishes the population at younger ages. An accounting system is used to examine how the demographic changes within each district influence its health status. In terms of prevalence counts and rates the prediction is for significant reductions in both these measures for CVD. For respiratory illness, the prevalence count remains fairly constant but due the increases in the size of the population at risk, the prevalence rate decreases. With diabetes or high blood sugar, both the prevalence counts and rates increase. Examination of the demographic changes affecting these prevalences shows that for the more ethnically diverse districts the changing ethnic structure has a large impact whilst for the more prospering districts the changing age structure has the largest impact. These results suggest that public health messages on circulatory and heart conditions and the reduction in smoking will have beneficial health effects in the future, which will help to mitigate the strains placed on the health care system in England. The prospects for diabetes or high blood sugar are however not so good and some considerations on how best to utilise scarce resources to prevent or treat this morbidity are urgently required

Digestive state influences the heart rate hysteresis and rates of heat exchange in the varanid lizard Varanus rosenbergi

© The Company of Biologists LtdTo maximize the period where body temperature (Tb) exceeds ambient temperature (Ta), many reptiles have been reported to regulate heart rate (fH) and peripheral blood flow so that the rate of heat gain in a warming environment occurs more rapidly than the rate of heat loss in a cooling environment. It may be hypothesized that the rate of cooling, particularly at relatively cool Tbs, would be further reduced during postprandial periods when specific dynamic action (SDA) increases endogenous heat production (i.e. the heat increment of feeding). Furthermore, it may also be hypothesized that the increased perfusion of the gastrointestinal organs that occurs during digestion may limit peripheral blood flow and thus compromise the rate of heating. Finally, if the changes in fH are solely for the purpose of thermoregulation, there should be no associated changes in energy demand and, consequently, no hysteresis in the rate of oxygen consumption (O2). To test these hypotheses, seven individual Varanus rosenbergi were heated and cooled between 19°C and 35°C following at least 8 days fasting and then approximately 25 h after consumption of a meal (mean 10% of fasted body mass). For a given Tb between the range of 19-35°C, fH of fasting lizards was higher during heating than during cooling. Postprandial lizards also displayed a hysteresis in fH, although the magnitude was reduced in comparison with that of fasting lizards as a result of a higher fH during cooling in postprandial animals. Both for fasting and postprandial lizards, there was no hysteresis in O2 at any Tb throughout the range although, as a result of SDA, postprandial animals displayed a significantly higher O2 than fasting animals both during heating and during cooling at Tbs above 24°C. The values of fH during heating at a given Tb were the same for fasting and postprandial animals, which, in combination with a slower rate of heating in postprandial animals, suggests that a prioritization of blood flow to the gastrointestinal organs during digestion is occurring at the expense of higher rates of heating. Additionally, postprandial lizards took longer to cool at Tbs below 23°C, suggesting that the endogenous heat produced during digestion temporarily enhances thermoregulatory ability at lower temperatures, which would presumably assist V. rosenbergi during cooler periods in the natural environment by augmenting temperature-dependent physiological processes

College Students and Yik Yak: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study

This study, employing an exploratory mixed-methods approach, explores college students’ use of Yik Yak, a pseudo-anonymous social media platform that allows users to post short messages and engage primarily with other nearby users. Study 1 qualitatively examined student uses and perceptions of the app through 12 in-depth interviews with Yik Yak users. Study 2 conducted a content analysis of yaks (N = 3,905) from 24 colleges and universities to gain a better understanding of the content that students post and engage with inside the app. The combination of qualitative and quantitative findings offers insight into the complex phenomena of Yik Yak in a university setting. Limitations and future directions of research are discussed

Cocktails and Brainwaves: Experiments with Complex and Subliminal Auditory Stimuli

The paper deals with the problem of processing acoustic signals originating from multiple sources in a potentially noisy environment. Previous research in speech processing and cognitive modelling has tended to concentrate on single sources and relatively noise free signals. Separating out different signals from a multitude of sources is a significant part of human auditory processing. In speech processing research, the problem we are dealing with is known as the cocktail party syndrome. The processing of polyphonic music involves similar challenges, and auditory scene analysis (ASA) has been proposed as a means of separating out component signals and identifying their sources. In subliminal auditory processing, a speech signal which is masked from conscious awareness by a music signal provides an extreme form of the multiple source problem and permits exploration of the boundary between conscious and unconscious auditory processing. The research presented employs machine learning and associative models to characterize and track individual signals, and uses electroencephalographic (EEG) analysis to more precisely characterize human processing of multimodal signals