The work that sustains us : worker cooperative development in U.S. cities since 2012

In the United States, city governments have long attempted to influence economic activity within their jurisdictions. Often this has manifested as a competitive effort to attract businesses from other cities. Such tactics are controversial; over time many citizens have fought this tendency, seeking instead to develop institutions and practices that provide direct and tangible benefits to existing residents, especially underprivileged ones. More recently, the threats of climate change and environmental unsustainability have broadened the conversation about the meaning of localized economies and municipal development. In this thesis I examine a new phenomenon - cities developing worker cooperative businesses - within the context of these competing sets of municipal economic development practices. I investigate the hypothesis that municipal support for worker cooperatives indicates a shift in how cities are pursuing and discussing economic development. Specifically, this shift may be in response to the increased prevalence and acceptance of sustainability within urban planning policy in general. The first part of this thesis provides context for understanding the current American municipal economic development landscape. I first relate the history of worker cooperatives in the United States, and government support for their development. Then I locate five “frames” or common ways of understanding how cities focus their economic development efforts. These frames illuminate patterns of discourse - ways people talk - about the scale and purpose of a city’s economic development policy, as well as the mechanisms to do so, and how success is measured. Then, in the second part of this thesis I reconstruct how nine cities have started to support worker cooperatives, and the vocabulary used by all actors involved in these events. Driven by the question, How do public and private actors frame the relationship between economic development and worker cooperatives? I seek to understand what might this framing suggest about the motivations city governments have in supporting worker cooperative development? I answer these questions by analyzing recorded documentation on city’s actions - resolutions, public comment, and staff reports - as well as semi-structured interviews for two select cities. Reflecting on the discourse in each city, and the mosaic of case studies as a whole, I go on to argue in the concluding chapters that worker cooperative development does represent a shift in economic development practice, but a small and still incohesive one. On the one hand, government actors portray worker cooperatives as just another form of (capitalistic) business, with the capacity to create high-quality, well-paying jobs, and increase the city’s tax revenue and economic activity. These are hallmarks of traditional and community economic development ways of thinking that do not incorporate the environmental consequences of economic activity. On the other hand, governments frame their support for worker cooperatives in light of the way cooperatives have the potential to further support sustainable activity in areas such as food, waste, and social relations. Significantly, worker cooperatives are seen as inherently tied to place, both geographically and socially, an important characteristic of many visions of sustainability. While these case studies do not indicate a unified movement amongst cities pursuing this form of economic development, I offer in my conclusion some pragmatic insights for activists and scholars seeking to understand or help implement these tactics in their own cityCommunity and Regional PlanningSustainable Desig

RC-MAPS: Bridging the Comprehension Gap in EAP Reading

In academic environments, reading is assigned not simply to transmit information; students are required to take the information, and based on the task set by the instructor, assess, analyze, and critique it on the basis of personal experiences, prior knowledge, and other readings (Grabe, 2009). Thus text-based comprehension (Kintsch, 1998) alone is not sufficient for academic success. Top-down processing is also required; this involves applying prior knowledge to define purpose(s), to make and verify hypotheses, and to infer and question content (Macaro & Erler, 2008; Urquhart & Weir, 1991). Although research has given teachers direction regarding the approach to use when providing strategy instruction in their classrooms, it has been left to teachers to develop the specific teaching tools required. In this article, I propose Reading Comprehension MAP for Situation-based comprehension (RC-MAPS): an instructional technique that provides teachers with an easily modified tool to assist in developing interpretative comprehension skills among second-language readers in academic environments through the strategy of questioning

Online Personas: Who We Become When We Learn with Others Online

At the beginning of the millennium, Gladwell (2000) introduced the people who “do” the work within networks. These were dubbed connectors, mavens and salesmen. A decade on, Ochman (2013) intriguingly suggested that there were 181,000 social media gurus, ninjas, masters and mavens on Twitter. But who are these unexplained characters or personas? Have connectors, mavens and salesmen translated into contemporary social media and personal learning networks? This paper is therefore about the “who” rather than the “what” and “how” that are typically the focus of investigations into personal learning networks and social media interactions. This paper will contend that connectors, mavens and salesmen are still identifiable and active in network interactions, with the definition of the maven being concatenated into the role of mentor. The findings from an online survey also revealed another set of other discrete personas with characteristics created and affirmed by interactions with others. Interestingly, individuals can adopt different personas dependent on context. Thus “who” we are depends on “where” we are and “who” is with us.

FoMO, but not self-compassion, moderates the link between social media use and anxiety in adolescence

Objective Social media use is ubiquitous during adolescence, and emerging research suggests an association with anxiety symptoms in some individuals. Two psychological constructs which may moderate this relationship are Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and self-compassion. Higher FoMO tendencies may exacerbate the link between social media use and anxiety symptoms through greater fixation on social comparison, whereas higher self-compassion may weaken this link. The purpose of this study was to examine whether FoMO and self-compassion independently moderate the relationship between social media use and anxiety symptoms in adolescents. Method Participants included 951 adolescents (Mage = 13.69, SD = 0.72; 54% male). Online questionnaires assessed frequency of social media use, anxiety symptoms, FoMO, and self-compassion. Results FoMO moderated the relationship between social media use and anxiety, ΔR2 = .022, ΔF(1,945) = 26.26, p < .001. Increased social media use was associated with increased anxiety symptoms in adolescents high in FoMO and reduced anxiety for adolescents low in FoMO. Self-compassion was not a significant moderator. Conclusion These findings have implications for social media use, public guidelines and clinical practice and support adoption of a discerning approach to adolescent’s social media use

Reporting methodological search filter performance comparisons : a literature review

© 2014 The authors. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2014 Health Libraries Journal.Peer reviewedPostprin

Atop Gallows Hill : magnetic susceptibility in archaeological reconnaissance

1 online resource ( iv, 86 p.) : ill. (chiefly col.), col. mapsIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-77).This thesis synthesizes documentary evidence with two major sets of geophysical data in a comparative study between a potential subsurface archaeological feature, tentatively identified as the possible remains of a colonial palisade, and an experimental palisade trench. In 2013 a geophysical survey was undertaken at the Lunenburg Academy National Historic Site, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. This survey revealed several anomalies, including one that may indicate the 18th century palisade line. In an effort to better understand this feature an interdisciplinary methodology was employed. The background study included a review of historic material on the construction and life span of British era palisades. It was enlightened with environmental and remote sensing data to identify the archaeological potential of Gallows Hill and to provide a framework for the interpretation of geophysical responses from the experimental research component. The objectives of the experimental research were to generate a susceptibility response for an earth filled trench of known dimensions, comparable to British North American palisades, and contribute to a literature on the accuracy of the EM38B inphase component as a non-invasive remote sensing technology, for detecting subtle features. The origin of the linear magnetic susceptibility anomaly on Gallows Hill remains unknown, although geophysical surveys conducted for this thesis confirmed its existence and mapped it at a higher resolution than the 2013 survey. The results of the experimental research component do not support the conclusions drawn regarding the tentative identification of the linear anomaly as the palisade. In this case, it appears that traditional archaeological excavation may be the best method for determining the nature and significance of the linear anomaly. Excavation would inform the geophysical survey results, providing insight into the response of the EM38B to the trench feature, contributing to discussion on the effect of tightening magnetic susceptibility transect spacing for detecting features in archaeological mapping

Design, synthesis and antibacterial activity of minor groove binders: the role of non-cationic tail groups

he design and synthesis of a new class of minor groove binder (MGBs) in which, the cationic tail group has been replaced by a neutral, polar variant including cyanoguanidine, nitroalkene, and trifluoroacetamide groups. Antibacterial activity (against Gram positive bacteria) was found for both the nitroalkene and trifluoroacetamide groups. For the case of the nitroalkene tail group, strong binding of a minor groove binder containing this tail group was demonstrated by both DNA footprinting and melting temperature measurements, showing a correlation between DNA binding and antibacterial activity. The compounds have also been evaluated for binding to the hERG ion channel to determine whether non-cationic but polar substituents might have an advantage compared with conventional cationic tail groups in avoiding hERG binding. In this series of compounds, it was found that whilst non-cationic compounds generally had lower affinity to the hERG ion channel, all of the compounds studied bound weakly to the hERG ion channel, probably associated with the hydrophobic head groups

Phase-Contrast OCT Imaging of Transverse Flows in the Mouse Retina and Choroid

Purpose. To test the hypothesis that a novel phase-contrast optical coherence tomography (OCT) system can image retinal and choroidal vessels in the living mouse. Methods. A high-speed spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) system, which measures the reflections for the entire depth of the retina at once with each axial scan (A-scan), was developed for mouse retinal imaging. Acquiring multiple A-scans over a transverse line across the mouse retina offers a two-dimensional cross-sectional image (B-scan); several neighboring B-scans can be assembled into a three-dimensional OCT image. To visualize mobility and transverse flow in retinal vessels, the statistical variance of phase for each location was calculated from multiple B-scans acquired successively for the same retinal cross-section. Such measures of phase variance offer a direct measure of motions over a large dynamic range of flow velocities. Results. Three-dimensional phase-contrast images of the live mouse retina were created using multiple two-dimensional cross-sectional image slices through the retina. For the data presented here, each cross-sectional phase-contrast slice resulted from five images of 100 or 200 transverse pixels, acquired over 25 ms or 50 ms, respectively. The approach offered clear identification of motion regions at different depths, including flow in the retinal microvasculature and in the choroidal vessels. Conclusions. Phase-contrast OCT enables three-dimensional visualization of retinal and choroidal vasculature in vivo

Choosing and using methodological search filters : searchers' views

© 2014 The authors. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2014 Health Libraries Group.Peer reviewedPostprin