49 research outputs found
Politics, Policy, and Participation: Contemporary Issues in Canadian Gender Equality
Introduction to the Symposiu
Will e-Governance and e-Democracy Lead to e-Empowerment? Gendering the Cyber State
The onslaught of information and communications technologies (ICTs), the burgeoning popularity of the Internet, and the ideology behind the new information economy has coalesced into a force that is fundamentally reshaping the contours of the Canadian political landscape. This reorganization of the state will profoundly impact womenâs opportunities to participate in and alter conventional notions of citizenship. The establishment of electronic or e-government and the implications behind the development of the cyberstate promise to revolutionize Canadian governance and our traditional understandings of democracy. While there is the political possibility of shaping the emerging cyberstate as a vehicle of empowerment for women and marginalized others, there is also the prospect that Internet-facilitated government will exacerbate inequalities and impair womenâs citizenship status. (author's abstract
Deep Deification: Soteriology for a World in Ecological Crisis
What might an adequate soteriology look like for a world in ecological crisis? This dissertation constructively addresses this problem at the intersection of contemporary ecofeminist theology and Patristic soteriologies of theosis or deification. I examine ecofeminist soteriologies, drawing on the work of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sallie McFague, and Elizabeth Johnson in particular, and deification soteriologies, especially that of Maximus the Confessor, arguing that each of these trajectories offers both fruitful possibilities for a reconstruction of soteriology but that each also raises some problems. In bringing these two trajectories into conversation, I suggest directions for a constructive theology of salvation that speaks to the ecological problems of our time. Theologians, ethicists, and church leaders, including Pope Francis, have called for a more expansive and less anthropocentric notion than traditional atonement theologies of how God relates to, and saves, the world. Two responses to this have been ecofeminist theology and a retrieval in the West of the Greek patristic theme of deification. Ecotheologians call for an expansion of Godâs continuing care for creation to include animals and the earth (or even universe) itself. Deification, meanwhile, expands the meaning of salvation beyond the more typically modern, Western notions of salvation only from sin. Salvation as deification encompasses the whole story of Godâs relationship with human beings, and indeed with the cosmos, from creation through eschatology, to the time in which God will be âall in all.â A deeper conversation that addresses the tensions between these two trajectories will lead to an enrichment of ecotheology. Indeed, as ecotheologians, following Niels Gregersen, speak of âdeep incarnation,â there are rich resources for thinking of a corresponding âdeep deification,â in which the goal of all creation is divinization: the broken and crucified body of God restored to new life and invited into the life of the Trinity
Climate Change Subsystem Structure and Change: Network Mapping, Density and Centrality
Policy capacity in web-based settings is largely the
product of nodality, which provides centralized actors with
enhanced opportunities to detect information and affect
behavior. This paper examines four Canadian virtual policy
networks (VPN) currently facing policy challenges associated
with climate change adaptation including finance, infrastructure,
transportation, and forestry. The four sectors each
face specific types of challenges that will presumably influence
governmentâs policy capacity to respond to climate
change adaptation, which in turn will affect the stateâs nodal
positioning in the VPNs. At the macro level governing capacity
will vary considerably among these sectors with some
more able to affect social behavior and evidence-informed
learning, while others will struggle to lead policy discourse
and development. It is hypothesized that the Canadian federal
governmentâs nodality, which is shaped by both reputational
capital and information credibility, will also be influenced
by the nature of actors involved and the degree to
which the VPN is internationalized
Third Sector and Social Media
While social media has become a mainstay of communication in the twenty-first century, many organizations still struggle to include it in their operations. This is no less the case for organizations in the third sector. However, evidence-based practices tying social media activity to social media success are still elusive in the field. Examining the Facebook and Twitter presence of 45 Canadian organizations concerned with education, disaster relief, and environmental advocacy, the authors evaluate social media practices used by third sector organizations. Borrowing from Mark Granovetterâs (1973) work on the strength of social ties, the authors found that disaster relief organizations tended toward activities to build emotionally intense, or âstrong,â relationships, while educational organizations offered more informational means to build âweakâ relationships based on common interests. Environmental organizations used both strategies, but were less likely to broaden their activities beyond Facebook and Twitter. The authors propose identifying organizationsâ weak-tie/strong-tie strategies as a tool for evaluating social media activity in the not-for-profit sector. They argue that co-ordinating both types of strategies is necessary for successful social media campaigns. RĂSUMĂ Bien que les mĂ©dias sociaux soient devenus omniprĂ©sents dans la communication au 21Ăšme siĂšcle, plusieurs organisations tardent Ă les inclure dans leurs opĂ©rations. Ceci nâest pas moins le cas des organismes du troisiĂšme secteur. En mĂȘme temps, la recherche Ă©tablissant un rapport entre le recours aux mĂ©dias sociaux et le succĂšs dâune organisation demeure peu concluante. Dans cet article, les auteurs Ă©valuent lâutilisation de mĂ©dias sociaux par des organisations du troisiĂšme secteur en examinant la prĂ©sence sur Facebook et Twitter de quarante-cinq organismes canadiens se spĂ©cialisant en Ă©ducation, en secours aux sinistrĂ©s et en activisme Ă©cologique. En recourant Ă lâĆuvre de Mark Granovetter sur la puissance des liens sociaux, les auteurs ont trouvĂ© que les organismes de secours aux sinistrĂ©s tendaient Ă effectuer des activitĂ©s axĂ©es sur des relations intenses dâun point de vue Ă©motionnel, donc « fortes », tandis que les organismes Ă©ducationnels avaient une approche plus informationnelle afin de construire des relations « faibles » fondĂ©es sur des intĂ©rĂȘts communs. Les organisations environnementales quant Ă elles employaient les deux stratĂ©gies, mais elles Ă©taient moins enclines Ă Ă©largir leurs activitĂ©s au-delĂ de Facebook et Twitter. Les auteurs proposent dâidentifier les stratĂ©gies dâattaches faibles et fortes comme outils pour Ă©valuer le recours aux mĂ©dias sociaux dans le secteur sans but lucratif. Ils soutiennent que la coordination des deux types de stratĂ©gie est nĂ©cessaire pour rĂ©ussir les campagnes de mĂ©dias sociaux
Neuromuscular recovery from botulism involves multiple forms of compensatory plasticity
IntroductionBotulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) causes neuroparalytic disease and death by blocking neuromuscular transmission. There are no specific therapies for clinical botulism and the only treatment option is supportive care until neuromuscular function spontaneously recovers, which can take weeks or months after exposure. The highly specialized neuromuscular junction (NMJ) between phrenic motor neurons and diaphragm muscle fibers is the main clinical target of BoNT. Due to the difficulty in eliciting respiratory paralysis without a high mortality rate, few studies have characterized the neurophysiological mechanisms involved in diaphragm recovery from intoxication. Here, we develop a mouse model of botulism that involves partial paralysis of respiratory muscles with low mortality rates, allowing for longitudinal analysis of recovery.Methods and resultsMice challenged by systemic administration of 0.7 LD50 BoNT/A developed physiological signs of botulism, such as respiratory depression and reduced voluntary running activity, that persisted for an average of 8â12 d. Studies in isolated hemidiaphragm preparations from intoxicated mice revealed profound reductions in nerve-elicited, tetanic and twitch muscle contraction strengths that recovered to baseline 21 d after intoxication. Despite apparent functional recovery, neurophysiological parameters remained depressed for 28 d, including end plate potential (EPP) amplitude, EPP success rate, quantal content (QC), and miniature EPP (mEPP) frequency. However, QC recovered more quickly than mEPP frequency, which could explain the discrepancy between muscle function studies and neurophysiological recordings. Hypothesizing that differential modulation of voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC) contributed to the uncoupling of QC from mEPP frequency, pharmacological inhibition studies were used to study the contributions of different VGCCs to neurophysiological function. We found that N-type VGCC and P/Q-type VGCC partially restored QC but not mEPP frequency during recovery from paralysis, potentially explaining the accelerated recovery of evoked release versus spontaneous release. We identified additional changes that presumably compensate for reduced acetylcholine release during recovery, including increased depolarization of muscle fiber resting membrane potential and increased quantal size.DiscussionIn addition to identifying multiple forms of compensatory plasticity that occur in response to reduced NMJ function, it is expected that insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in recovery from neuromuscular paralysis will support new host-targeted treatments for multiple neuromuscular diseases
Evidence of Natural Bluetongue Virus Infection among African Carnivores
Bluetongue is an International Office of Epizootics List A disease described as the century\u27s most economically devastating affliction of sheep. Bluetongue (BLU) viruses were thought to infect only ruminants, shrews, and some rodents, but recently, inadvertent administration of BLU virus-contaminated vaccine resulted in mortality and abortion among domestic dogs. We present evidence of natural BLU virus infection among African carnivores that dramatically widens the spectrum of susceptible hosts. We hypothesize that such infection occurred after ingestion of meat and organs from BLU virus infected prey species. The effect of BLU virus on endangered carnivores such as the cheetah and African wild dog requires urgent investigation. Also, the role of carnivores in the epizootiology of this disease needs elucidation
Disseminating Research News in HCI: Perceived Hazards, How-To's, and Opportunities for Innovation
Mass media afford researchers critical opportunities to disseminate research
findings and trends to the general public. Yet researchers also perceive that
their work can be miscommunicated in mass media, thus generating unintended
understandings of HCI research by the general public. We conduct a Grounded
Theory analysis of interviews with 12 HCI researchers and find that
miscommunication can occur at four origins along the socio-technical
infrastructure known as the Media Production Pipeline (MPP) for science news.
Results yield researchers' perceived hazards of disseminating their work
through mass media, as well as strategies for fostering effective communication
of research. We conclude with implications for augmenting or innovating new MPP
technologies.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, accepted paper to CHI 2020 conferenc