Addressing Relief and Repatriation Needs in Nongovernment-Held Areas: Implications for Policies and Programs

This paper will examine the existing constraints to addressing relief and repatriation needs in nongovernment-held areas and point to areas of possible change. Nongovernment-held areas are held by a force other than a central government army. In the case of Tigray, these areas were not only inaccessible to the army of the former central government of Ethiopia (GOE), but were also administered by an opposition force, theTigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Relative to other national liberation movements, the TPLF's administrative system was quite developed; in addition, the movement controlled a wide area encompassing most of rural Tigray and, by 1988, the whole of the region. Effective access was maintained from neighbouring Sudan, and the Relief Society of Tigray (REST) operated as an effective disaster management agency

Thickwood

My thesis is a novel-length work of historical fiction entitled Thickwood. The novel can be situated within the context of great/interior plains literature, given its substantial focus on the Thickwood Hills, the northern remnant of the Missouri Coteau. This transition zone between the plains and the mixed boreal forest is an area of geographical and cultural tension. Within this drainage system of the Saskatchewan Rivers, Europeans traded for food and furs with First Nations and Métis peoples, leading to the signing of Treaty 6 and the formation of First Nations Reserves. In Thickwood characters travel across the rugged landscape but also travel into their interior landscape to struggle with questions about belonging and place. During formative years of development, certain landscapes become places of significant attachment, laden with emotional connection and sentiment. This historical work, set in Saskatchewan in 1950, takes place during intense changes after World War Two. Many rural communities without power, good roads, and even telephone services struggled to keep up with post-war development. The cooperative movement, encouraged by Premier Tommy Douglas, was a means for rural people to pool resources to improve their communities. Beef prices were climbing to an all-time high, increasing demand for pastureland. Using close third-person point of view, the novel follows a young female character skilled in ranching, horses, and the sport of baseball. Willomena Swift struggles to find a future for herself after returning from two seasons pitching in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The lease to her family ranch is about to end and her father sells the remaining land to the growing community pasture. After a rogue stallion kills Willo’s purebred foal, she begins a quest to control the stallion and avoid its villainous owner, who is also the pasture committee chairman. Willo uses wit and skill to survive the perils of the landscape and gains confidence to confront Nesteroff about taking over her home as the new pasture headquarters after her father’s death. The novel Thickwood explores personal connections to rugged homeland, spirited horses, and love

Issues in representing ethnic residential segregation

This study will look at some of the issues involved in representing ethnic residential segregation. Segregation studies rely heavily upon indices and maps. However, both of these are sensitive to the spatial boundaries used. As well, maps have a visual element which affects the nature and degree of representation. Toronto has been chosen as the area of study because of its high degree of ethnic diversity. Five indices that describe the five dimensions of segregation (Massey and Denton, 1988) will be calculated at four standard levels of aggregation. As well, several types of maps will be produced to illustrate the cartographic alternatives available for representing segregation. Notably, although many of the cartographic techniques are not new, they are rarely used because they are too time-consuming and because these options are often not available in standard mapping packages

A summer time series of particulate carbon in the air and snow at Summit, Greenland

Carbonaceous particulate matter is ubiquitous in the lower atmosphere, produced by natural and anthropogenic sources and transported to distant regions, including the pristine and climate-sensitive Greenland Ice Sheet. During the summer of 2006, ambient particulate carbonaceous compounds were characterized on the Greenland Ice Sheet, including the measurement of particulate organic (OC) and elemental (EC) carbon, particulate water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), particulate absorption coefficient (σap), and particle size-resolved number concentration (PM0.1–1.0). Additionally, parallel ∼50-day time series of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC), and elemental carbon (EC) were quantified at time increments of 4–24 h in the surface snow. Measurement of atmospheric particulate carbon found WSOC (average of 52 ng m−3) to constitute a major fraction of particulate OC (average of 56 ng m−3), suggesting that atmospheric organic compounds reaching the Greenland Ice Sheet in summer are highly oxidized. Atmospheric EC (average of 7 ng m−3) was well-correlated with σap (r = 0.95) and the calculated mass-absorption cross-section (average of 24 m2 g−1) appears to be similar to that measured using identical techniques in an urban environment in the United States. Comparing surface snow to atmospheric particulate matter concentrations, it appears the snow has a much higher OC (WSOC+WIOC) to EC ratio (205:1) than air (10:1), suggesting that snow is additionally influenced by water-soluble gas-phase compounds. Finally, the higher-frequency (every 4–6 h) sampling of snow-phase WSOC revealed significant loss (40–54%) of related organic compounds in surface snow within 8 h of wet deposition

Particulate and water-soluble carbon measured in recent snow at Summit, Greenland

Water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), waterinsoluble particulate organic carbon (WIOC), and particulate elemental carbon (EC) were measured simultaneously for the first time on the Greenland Ice Sheet in surface snow and in a 3-meter snow pit. Snow pit concentrations reveal that, on average, WSOC makes up the majority (89%) of carbonaceous species, followed by WIOC (10%) and EC (1%). The enhancement of OC relative to EC (ratio 99:1) in Greenland snow suggests that, along with atmospheric particulate matter, gaseous organics contribute to snow-phase OC. Comparison of summer surface snow concentrations in 2006 with past summer snow pit layers (2002 – 2005) found a significant depletion in WSOC (20 – 82%) and WIOC (46 – 65%) relative to EC for 3 of the 4 years. The apparent substantial loss of WSOC and WIOC in aged snow suggests that post-depositional processes, such as photochemical reactions, need to be considered in linking ice core records of organics to atmospheric concentrations. Citation: Hagler, G. S. W., M. H. Bergin, E. A. Smith, J. E. Dibb, C. Anderson, and E. J. Steig (2007), Particulate and water-soluble carbon measured in recent snow at Summit, Greenland, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L16505, doi:10.1029/2007GL030110

Moderators To The Effects Of Childhood Traumatic Stress On Childhood Physical Health

According to the United States National Statistics on Child Abuse, in 2017 Child Protective Service agencies in the United States received an estimated 4.1 million referrals involving approximately 7.5 million children. A substantial body of research has revealed that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have detrimental long-term effects on physical health and a large number of health conditions. However, little research exists regarding the effects of childhood maltreatment on childhood physical health. Identifying protective factors such as self-esteem can moderate the effects of ACEs, help children thrive, and potentially lower the risk of a variety of conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes in adulthood. The study’s findings can help change the trajectory of health risk markers in childhood prior to the progression to full-blown disease by positively impacting future health outcomes and decreasing the economic burden on society of adult illness. To fill in the gap in current literature, the following study examined the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and childhood physical health in a high risk, understudied pediatric population. The following research questions were presented: (1) What is the impact of adverse childhood experiences on childhood physical health? (2) Does self-esteem moderate the relationship between ACEs and physical health in welfare-involved children? (3) Do age and gender moderate the relationship between ACEs and physical health in welfare-involved children? In total, this research expands literature on adverse childhood experiences and explores the effects of resiliency on the impact of adverse childhood experiences and childhood physical health

The reproductive number of COVID-19 is higher compared to SARS coronavirus.

Teaser: Our review found the average R0 for 2019-nCoV to be 3.28, which exceeds WHO estimates of 1.4 to 2.5