Maple leaf Zeitgeist? Assessing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s policy changes

In the October 2015 elections, the charismatic Justin Trudeau led the Canadian Liberal Party to its first majority government in 15 years, overturning nearly a decade of conservative government. His premiership is generally considered to have begun well. This article examines Trudeau’s conduct of the election campaign, his choice of a young and diverse Cabinet, his courtship of the media and image making, and assesses changes in foreign and domestic policy. These have yet to prove substantive but Trudeau has signalled a reversal of Stephen Harper’s conservative policies and especially in regard to migration has tapped into images of ‘compassionate Canadians’. In foreign policy, this has been evidenced in relations with the United States and with a re-engagement with the Commonwealth especially in its soft power aspects. Trudeau’s green credentials and stance on Climate Change are a contrast to those of his predecessor but he has yet to confront the different environmental profiles and policies of the Canadian states. Canada’s Strategic Partnership with the European Community and the ratification of CETA are priorities and he has to come to terms with the implications of Brexit

EU-Russia strategic energy culture: progressive convergence or regressive dilemma?

This article argues that strategic culture, long consigned to the margins of broader, more substantial IR theories, offers a novel mode by which to explore recent developments in EU-Russia energy relations. Approaching seminal strategic policies from the perspective of institutionalised norms and cultural value-sets, strategic culture explores the power of the past and its ability to produce and influence national attitudes in governments and societies. This enables analyses of strategic energy relations between actors like the EU and Russia to move beyond obvious polarities to nuanced insights about the national value sets by which energy security is itself rendered strategic. Beginning with the individual strategic cultures of both the EU and Russia within the area of contemporary energy security policies, the article then appraises the range of bilateral EU-Russia energy security policies, suggesting that in many ways, these shared policies constitute a sector-specific strategic energy culture that includes both the EU and Russia. Areas of ongoing intransigence and policy convergence in EU-Russia energy security approaches constitute the case studies, illustrating that both sides are essentially motivated toward the same goals of energy security, market prosperity and actor-based prestige, but on the basis of vastly different visions, using widely diverse modes of implementation, and with dissimilar standards of evaluation. The analysis then appraises whether this co-constituted area is progressive or regressive in terms of the cooperation or conflict generated between the two sides, concluding that a basis of acknowleged commonalities – made available through strategic culture perspectives – both sides retain the impetus to cooperate to the point of complete agreement on some areas, whilst simultaneously remaining in conflict to the point of aggression in others

Trump, Trudeau and NAFTA 2.0: tweak or transformation?

President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first meeting was bound to make waves. Social media was fixated by which of the two statesman best managed the handshake. The prime minister was generally applauded for avoiding being hauled into thepresident’s physical sphere of influence. Images showed the two leaders at press podia and in armchairs by the Oval Office desk: separate but generally comfortable. It was not exactly the chummy camaraderie Trudeau enjoyed previously with President Barack Obama. And while there was no high-vaunting rhetoric to match John F. Kennedy’s 1961 encomium that ‘geography has made us neighbours, history has made us friends, economics has made uspartners, and necessity has made us allies’, the focus on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) certainly accentuated the challenges of geography and economics

How extreme are the Wolf-Rayet clusters in NGC3125?

We reinvestigate the massive stellar content of NGC3125 (Tol3) using VLT/FORS1 imaging & spectroscopy, plus archival VLT/ISAAC, HST/FOC and HST/STIS datasets. Narrow-band imaging confirms that A and B knots represent the primary sites of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, whilst HST imaging reveals that both regions host multiple clusters. Clusters A1 + A2 within region A host WR stars. altough is not clear which cluster within region B hosts WR stars. Nebular properties infer an LMC-like metallicity. LMC template WN5-6 & WC4 spectra are matched to the observed optical WR bumps of A1 and B, permitting the contribution of WC stars to the blue bump to be quantified. We obtain N(WN5-6:WC4)=105:20, 55:0, 40:20 for clusters A1, A2 and B1+B2, a factor of 3 lower than optical studies, as a result of a lower E(B-V). Using Starburst99 models to estimate O star populations for individual clusters, we find N(WR)/N(O)=0.2 for A1 and 0.1 for A2 and B1+B2. From Halpha imaging, the O star content of the Giant HII regions A and B is found to be a factor of 5-10 times higher than that derived spectroscopically for the UV/optically bright clusters, suggesting that NGC3125 hosts optically obscured young massive clusters, further supported by VLT/ISAAC K band imaging. Archival HST/STIS UV spectroscopy confirms the low E(B-V) towards A1, for which we have determined an SMC extinction law, in preference to an LMC or starburst law. We obtain N(WN5-6)=110 from the slit-loss corrected HeII 1640 line flux, in excellent agreement with optical result. However, this is a factor of 35 times lower than that inferred from the same dataset by Chandar et al. due to their use of a starburst extinction law. Highly discrepant stellar populations may result in spatially resolved star forming regions from UV and optical studies through use of different extinction laws.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for MNRAS (fixes previous error in Table 2

Education policy: internal consolidator or foreign policy vehicle? EU and Canadian perspectives compared.

Education has emerged as an increasingly rewarding, but highly ambiguous form of foreign policy. Shifting from a domestic dynamic, constructed via internal processes for reasons of national self-identity, the internationalization of education has emerged as one of the most salient trends in higher education across the globe (CBIE 2011, 3), and become a clear component in the foreign policies of states and institutions alike. While scholarly investigation into foreign policy and education have in and of themselves remained popular areas of interest within the political and social sciences, exploring ways in which education is operating as a vehicle of twenty-first century foreign policy, as well as looking at how foreign policy content and ambitions are beginning to impact on the substance and structure of higher education is a relatively new field. This paper explores the role of contemporary higher education in European Union, and Canadian foreign policy terrains

High Angle of Attack Handling Qualities Rating Scales

Aircraft handling qualities rating scales have traditionally been developed for closed-loop handling tasks at moderate angles-of-attack (AOA). The latest fighter aircraft, using fly-by-wire flight controls and vectored thrust, are capable of sustained maneuvers at very high AOA. A pitch control margin test (Lackey, 1991) was performed using a specially developed rating scale, which evolved as an element of tests investigating controllability at high AOA, progressing through conceptualization, simulation, and eventual flight test. This pitch control margin test is analyzed in this thesis as a case study in the development of handling qualities rating scales to evaluate high AOA flying qualities. It was found that choice of the most suitable measures of merit is important when evaluating a new flight regime. It was also found that rating scale design requires specific mission tasks, even for open loop scenarios, as well as a glossary of associated terms to minimize ambiguity

The Effects of Different Organic Pastures on Dairy Heifer Growth and Development

Raising dairy heifers in a certified organic setting can be difficult for producers. Conventionally, heifers are raised in a confined setting, and fed a total mixed ration (TMR) that is balanced daily to contain all the needed nutrients for developing heifers. Organic producers can use a TMR in their operations, but due to high organic feed costs, many choose to raise their heifers in pasture-based systems. While pasture-based systems may lower costs, heifers on pasture commonly have lower rates of gain, which can be financially burdensome to producers. Grass-legume pastures may help improve rates of gain in heifers on pasture-based systems. In this study, yearling Jersey heifers received one of nine different treatments: eight pasture treatments or a conventional TMR control, for a 105-d period. Pasture treatments included four grass pastures: tall fescue (TF), meadow bromegrass (MB), orchard grass (OG), perennial ryegrass (PR) and four mixed pastures with each individual grass interseeded with the legume birdsfoot trefoil (BFT). To determine the effects of different pastures on heifer growth, heifers were sampled every 35 days over a 105-d period. During sampling, weight and hip-height were measured, and blood and fecal samples were taken from each heifer. Blood samples were analyzed for blood urea nitrogen (BUN), an indicator of protein status, and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), an indicator of energy balance. Fecal samples were analyzed to determine the parasite load of each heifer. At day 105 of the study, heifers were bred, and conception rates were determined 35 days after breeding. Heifers on mixed pasture tended to have increased body weights compared to heifers on grass pastures. Heifers fed on mixed pastures had a similar weight gain to those fed a TMR, except for heifers on TF+BFT were lower. Heifers fed on mixed pastures also had higher BUN concentrations than heifers fed on grass pastures. Heifers fed grass and mixed pastures had similar IGF-1 concentrations, parasite load and conception rates. Adding the legume BFT to grass pasture helped dairy heifers grow faster and more efficiently. Interseeding grass pastures with BFT may be a sustainable method to improve growth of developing jersey heifers being raised in a pasture-based system, although additional research is needed

The Wolf-Rayet population of Westerlund 1

New NTT/SOFI near-IR narrow-band imaging and spectroscopy reveals an additional four Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in the massive cluster Westerlund 1, bringing the total WR population to 24. Sixteen of the WR stars in Wd1 have been classified WN5–11, while eight are WC8–9. An observed WR to RSG/YHG ratio of ∼3 suggests an age of 4.5–5.0 Myr, with WR stars descended from 40–55MSolar progenitors. On the basis of dust and hard X-ray emission, we estimate that 40–65% are probable members of massive star binary systems

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with non-periodic dielectric multilayers

We present superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SSPDs) on non-periodic dielectric multilayers, which enable us to design a variety of wavelength dependences of optical absorptance by optimizing the dielectric multilayer. By adopting a robust simulation to optimize the dielectric multilayer, we designed three types of SSPDs with target wavelengths of 500 nm, 800 nm, and telecom range respectively. We fabricated SSPDs based on the optimized designs for 500 and 800 nm, and evaluated the system detection efficiency at various wavelengths. The results obtained confirm that the designed SSPDs with non-periodic dielectric multilayers worked well. This versatile device structure can be effective for multidisciplinary applications in fields such as the life sciences and remote sensing that require high efficiency over a precise spectral range and strong signal rejection at other wavelengths

Current distribution in a parallel configuration superconducting strip-line detector

Superconducting detectors based on parallel microscopic strip-lines are promising candidates for single molecule detection in time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The device physics of this configuration is complex. In this letter, we employ nano-optical techniques to study the variation of current density, count rate, and pulse amplitude transversely across the parallel strip device. Using the phenomenological London theory, we are able to correlate our results to a non-uniform current distribution between the strips, governed by the London magnetic penetration depth. This fresh perspective convincingly explains anomalous behaviour in large area parallel superconducting strip-line detectors reported in previous studies