Rehousing Good Citizens: Gender, Class, and Family Ideals in the St. John’s Housing Authority Survey of the Inner City of St. John’s, 1951 and 1952

This article investigates how gendered middle class family ideals were used to relocate administratively defined “good citizens” from a multidimensional yet often demonized “slum” neighbourhood in St. John’s in the 1950s and 1960s. We argue that under the guise of urban renewal, notions of “good citizens” and “good families” were reconstructed along gendered and class lines through housing eligibility criteria for new subsidized housing projects. Our findings show how housing eligibility criteria initially rehoused only specific families from the inner city area. We conclude by discussing the implications of urban renewal in St. John’s for historical work on modernity and on slum clearance.Cet article examine comment on s’est appuyé sur un idéal sexué de la famille de classe moyenne pour relocaliser de « bons citoyens », selon la définition administrative, d’un quartier de taudis aux multiples dimensions et pourtant diabolisé de St. John’s dans les années 1950 et 1960. Nous soutenons que, sous le couvert du reaménagement urbain, les notions de « bons citoyens » et de « bonnes familles » ont été redéfinies en fonction du sexe et de la classe par les critères d’admissibilité à de nouveaux logements subventionnées. Nous avons constaté qu’au départ seules certaines familles du noyau central de la ville répondaient aux critères d’obtention d’un nouveau logement. Pour conclure, nous étudions les implications du réaménagement urbain à St. John’s pour les recherches historiques sur la modernité et sur l’élimination des taudis

Introduction to fishy feminisms: feminist analysis of fishery places

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Beyond cheap wage labour: an investigation into qualitative labour shortages and mobility in the New Brunswick fishing industry

High unemployment and outmigration (either temporary or permanent) for work are longstanding features of many rural areas in Canada, particularly Atlantic Canada. In recent years, some workplaces in these areas have come to rely on workers from other parts of the world, often brought in as temporary workers. This dissertation considers the apparent paradox associated with a combination of claims of labour shortages and reliance on outside workers in regions and sectors with high unemployment and ongoing outmigration for work, whether temporary or permanent. The seafood industry (both capture and aquaculture) in a rural region of New Brunswick provides an ideal case study to investigate this paradox. The dissertation asks how and why labour forces in seafood processing in a region of New Brunswick have shifted over time from local to regional and international. It also examines the consequences of these changes for work quality and local communities. Work quality includes wages, work schedules, job security, and other aspects of the working lives of employees (including childcare, eldercare, emotional care, and volunteer work) that encapsulate our lived experience and that overlap with, and are intricately connected to, our work rhythms. The conceptual framework that guides the dissertation includes insights from feminist political economy (changing corporate structure and government policy, capital accumulation strategies, financialization, and cheap wage labour), and Nandita Sharma’s distinction between quantitative and qualitative labour shortages. The framework structures the analysis of shifting labour-capital relations alongside changing labour forces, workplaces, and community dynamics associated with this sector for the period between 1900 and 2014, with a focus on the latter fifty years. This framework aids in understanding how historic and current competitive conditions in the global political economy involve cheap and often, mobile workers via gendered, and in some cases racialized, divisions of labour and surplus labour pools on regional, national, and international scales. Data are derived from document analysis and thirty-six semi-structured interviews with seafood processing workers, plant managers, community business owners and key informants associated with seafood processing in one region of New Brunswick carried out in 2012. These interviews explored employee recruitment issues and strategies, employer definitions of good workers, changing work environments, and the industry’s shifting corporate structure. Information about the larger policy and corporate context, as well as the changing structures and investment strategies of regional seafood processing companies and their relationships to labour force change and employment quality, came from qualitative document analysis of newspapers, government reports, and news releases. This dissertation contributes significantly to critical discourses about the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and its impacts, and in particular presents a sustained qualitative assessment of the low-wage stream of the TFWP. It also demonstrates the role of employers and managers in the qualitative construction of vulnerable and cheap labour forces in the context of changing labour forces (local, intraprovincial, interprovincial and international) and how these have intersected within one industry

Target value design: using collaboration and a lean approach to reduce construction cost

Target Costing is an effective management technique that has been used in manufacturing for decades to achieve cost predictability during new products development. Adoption of this technique promises benefits for the construction industry as it struggles to raise the number of successful outcomes and certainty of project delivery in terms of cost, quality and time. Target Value Design is a management approach that takes the best features of Target Costing and adapts them to the peculiarities of construction. In this paper the concept of Target Value Design is introduced based on the results of action research carried out on 12 construction projects in the USA. It has been shown that systemic application of Target Value Design leads to significant improvement of project performance – the final cost of projects was on average 15% less than market cost. The construction industry already has approaches that have similarities with elements of the Target Value Design process or uses the same terminology, e.g. Partnering and Target Cost Contracts, Cost planning, etc. Following an exploration of the similarities and differences Target Value Design is positioned as a form of Target Costing for construction that offers a more reliable route to successful projects outcomes

How to account for sex and gender in occupational health and safety research: are mixed methods the answer?

OHS research has tended to measure the impact of occupational exposures and ergonomic interventions on male bodies and in a limited range of male-dominated occupations. To correct for this, researchers are encouraged to account for sex and gender in health research. It is not clear however how researchers should go about doing this. Taking OHS literature as a case study, in this paper, we argue that while mixed methods approaches alone do not produce analyses of sex or gender that move beyond reproducing binary comparisons or essentializing difference, combined with critical theoretical frameworks that engage in dialogic analysis, mixed methods have the potential to offer a complex and sophisticated understanding of the relationship between sex and/gender and OHS

Opportunities for and challenges of occupational pluralism in seasonal fisheries: Regional cases from Atlantic Canada

This report presents the findings from the Atlantic Canada case studies component of the Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters’ (CCPFH) national study entitled Fisheries Seasonality and the Allocation of Labour and Skills Labour Market Information, which was funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. The Atlantic Canada case studies were coordinated by the Newfoundland and Labrador (NL)-based Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board and carried out by Memorial University researchers Dr. Paul Foley (School of Science and Environment, Grenfell Campus), Dr. Barbara Neis (Sociology) and Dr. Nicole Power (Sociology), with help from Research Assistants Christine Knott (PhD student, Sociology) and Dr. Courtenay Parlee. The funds were administered by Memorial University and the research was carried out with support from the On the Move Partnership (www.onthemovepartnership.ca)

Formulation development and characterization of cellulose acetate nitrate based propellants for improved insensitive munitions properties

AbstractCellulose acetate nitrate (CAN) was used as an insensitive energetic binder to improve the insensitive munitions (IM) properties of gun propellants to replace the M1 propellant used in 105 mm artillery charges. CAN contains the energetic nitro groups found in nitrocellulose (NC), but also acetyl functionalities, which lowered the polymer's sensitivity to heat and shock, and therefore improved its IM properties relative to NC. The formulation, development and small-scale characterization testing of several CAN-based propellants were done. The formulations, using insensitive energetic solid fillers and high-nitrogen modifiers in place of nitramine were completed. The small scale characterization testing, such as closed bomb testing, small scale sensitivity, thermal stability, and chemical compatibility were done. The mechanical response of the propellants under high-rate uni-axial compression at, hot, cold, and ambient temperatures were also completed. Critical diameter testing, hot fragment conductive ignition (HFCI) tests were done to evaluate the propellants' responses to thermal and shock stimuli. Utilizing the propellant chemical composition, theoretical predictions of erosivity were completed. All the small scale test results were utilized to down-select the promising CAN based formulations for large scale demonstration testing such as the ballistic performance and fragment impact testing in the 105 mm M67 artillery charge configurations. The test results completed in the small and large scale testing are discussed

Glycosylation Is Vital for Industrial Performance of Hyperactive Cellulases

In the terrestrial biosphere, biomass deconstruction is conducted by microbes employing a variety of complementary strategies, many of which remain to be discovered. Moreover, the biofuels industry seeks more efficient (and less costly) cellulase formulations upon which to launch the nascent sustainable bioenergy economy. The glycan decoration of fungal cellulases has been shown to protect these enzymes from protease action and to enhance binding to cellulose. We show here that thermal tolerant bacterial cellulases are glycosylated as well, although the types and extents of decoration differ from their Eukaryotic counterparts. Our major findings are that glycosylation of CelA is uniform across its three linker peptides and composed of mainly galactose disaccharides (which is unique) and that this glycosylation dramatically impacts the hydrolysis of insoluble substrates, proteolytic and thermal stability, and substrate binding and changes the dynamics of the enzyme. This study suggests that the glycosylation of CelA is crucial for its exceptionally high cellulolytic activity on biomass and provides the robustness needed for this enzyme to function in harsh environments including industrial settings

Glycosylation Is Vital for Industrial Performance of Hyperactive Cellulases

In the terrestrial biosphere, biomass deconstruction is conducted by microbes employing a variety of complementary strategies, many of which remain to be discovered. Moreover, the biofuels industry seeks more efficient (and less costly) cellulase formulations upon which to launch the nascent sustainable bioenergy economy. The glycan decoration of fungal cellulases has been shown to protect these enzymes from protease action and to enhance binding to cellulose. We show here that thermal tolerant bacterial cellulases are glycosylated as well, although the types and extents of decoration differ from their Eukaryotic counterparts. Our major findings are that glycosylation of CelA is uniform across its three linker peptides and composed of mainly galactose disaccharides (which is unique) and that this glycosylation dramatically impacts the hydrolysis of insoluble substrates, proteolytic and thermal stability, and substrate binding and changes the dynamics of the enzyme. This study suggests that the glycosylation of CelA is crucial for its exceptionally high cellulolytic activity on biomass and provides the robustness needed for this enzyme to function in harsh environments including industrial settings

The Australasian Resuscitation In Sepsis Evaluation : fluids or vasopressors in emergency department sepsis (ARISE FLUIDS), a multi-centre observational study describing current practice in Australia and New Zealand

Objectives: To describe haemodynamic resuscitation practices in ED patients with suspected sepsis and hypotension. Methods: This was a prospective, multicentre, observational study conducted in 70 hospitals in Australia and New Zealand between September 2018 and January 2019. Consecutive adults presenting to the ED during a 30-day period at each site, with suspected sepsis and hypotension (systolic blood pressure <100 mmHg) despite at least 1000 mL fluid resuscitation, were eligible. Data included baseline demographics, clinical and laboratory variables and intravenous fluid volume administered, vasopressor administration at baseline and 6- and 24-h post-enrolment, time to antimicrobial administration, intensive care admission, organ support and in-hospital mortality. Results: A total of 4477 patients were screened and 591 were included with a mean (standard deviation) age of 62 (19) years, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score 15.2 (6.6) and a median (interquartile range) systolic blood pressure of 94 mmHg (87–100). Median time to first intravenous antimicrobials was 77 min (42–148). A vasopressor infusion was commenced within 24 h in 177 (30.2%) patients, with noradrenaline the most frequently used (n = 138, 78%). A median of 2000 mL (1500–3000) of intravenous fluids was administered prior to commencing vasopressors. The total volume of fluid administered from pre-enrolment to 24 h was 4200 mL (3000–5661), with a range from 1000 to 12 200 mL. Two hundred and eighteen patients (37.1%) were admitted to an intensive care unit. Overall in-hospital mortality was 6.2% (95% confidence interval 4.4–8.5%). Conclusion: Current resuscitation practice in patients with sepsis and hypotension varies widely and occupies the spectrum between a restricted volume/earlier vasopressor and liberal fluid/later vasopressor strategy