Sex Discrimination in Employment: The Nova Scotia Human Rights Act

Nova Scotia enacted human rights legislation in 1963,2 but it was not until 1972 that the Act was amended to include sex as one of the prohibited grounds of discrimination. 3 Since 1957 women in Nova Scotia had had equal pay protection, 4 but this brought about no noticeable improvement in the status of women in the labour force. Some commentators have suggested that equal pay laws in fact worsened that status by giving employers economic incentives to maintain and consolidate low-paying all-female job ghettoes to avoid the effects of the legislation. 5 Equal pay legislation could have no application to women who were denied access to jobs and promotions, stratified in women\u27s jobs and discriminated against in conditions of employment other than pay. It was in response to public pressure for comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation for women8 to back up equal pay provisions that the 1972 amendments were passed

The Ghetto Biennale: art and agency in a Haitian context

On January 12, 2010, the world was stunned when a massive earthquake struck Haiti. Following the crisis, author Jeremy Rifkin described the collective spirit that developed worldwide as man’s transformation into “Homo empathicus.” The social state described by Rifkin is one in which individuals leave behind their differences and rally around the common humanity that unites all humans. Despite proclamations of the earthquake’s ability to create a sense of equality among all people, the images coming from Haiti only added to the country’s lengthy list of ailments. The spectacle surrounding the earthquake was unsuccessful in generating equality, but instead, further reinforced Haiti’s status as a nation to be pitied. By looking closer at forms of collaboration believed to produce democratic engagement, it becomes clear that these interactions can be more harmful than once believed. The 2011 Ghetto Biennale located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is one such event. The Haitian sculptural collective Atis Rezistans, hosted the event and invited artists into their neighborhood to experience the conditions they work under every day. The biennial’s title, A Salon des Refusés for the 21st Century, and its subsequent tag line, “What happens when First World Art rubs up against the Third World art? Does it bleed?” set the tone for the event. The Ghetto Biennale’s proposed question reveals a belief that the practice of relational aesthetics is a form of democratic engagement. Relational aesthetics purports that radical spaces of equality are created by simply bringing individuals together in the already-available networks of social interaction. The utopian agendas of many contemporary art biennials idealize the practice of relational aesthetics because they are believed to transform the limitations of social interaction into points of access within the existing networks of communication. This thesis will contest these claims by showing that the 2011 Ghetto Biennale projects did not fight, but further reaffirmed, stereotypes against Haiti. This argument will not entirely condemn the Ghetto Biennale, but will propose that a redefinition of the art biennial’s purpose in society be considered to address its current social justice ineffectiveness

Sex Discrimination in Employment: The Nova Scotia Human Rights Act

Nova Scotia enacted human rights legislation in 1963,2 but it was not until 1972 that the Act was amended to include sex as one of the prohibited grounds of discrimination. 3 Since 1957 women in Nova Scotia had had equal pay protection, 4 but this brought about no noticeable improvement in the status of women in the labour force. Some commentators have suggested that equal pay laws in fact worsened that status by giving employers economic incentives to maintain and consolidate low-paying all-female job ghettoes to avoid the effects of the legislation. 5 Equal pay legislation could have no application to women who were denied access to jobs and promotions, stratified in women\u27s jobs and discriminated against in conditions of employment other than pay. It was in response to public pressure for comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation for women8 to back up equal pay provisions that the 1972 amendments were passed

Urine Sodium Concentrations are Predictive of Hypoadrenocorticism in Hyponatremic Dogs: A Retrospective Pilot Study

Abstract OBJECTIVES: To determine if a urine sodium concentration could be used to rule out hypoadrenocorticism in hyponatraemic dogs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical records were reviewed for hyponatraemic dogs (serum sodium/L) that had recorded urine sodium concentrations. Twenty hyponatraemic dogs were included: 11 diagnosed with classical hypoadrenocorticism and nine with non-adrenal causes of hyponatraemia. A Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare results between groups. RESULTS: No dog with hypoadrenocorticism had a urine sodium concentration less than 30 mmol/L. Urine sodium concentration in dogs with hypoadrenocorticism was significantly higher (median 103 mmol/L, range: 41 to 225) than in dogs with non-adrenal illness (median 10 mmol/L, range: 2 to 86) (P CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: These results suggest that urine sodium concentrations can be used to prioritise a differential diagnosis of hypoadrenocorticism in hyponatraemic dogs. A urine sodium concentration less than 30 mmol/L in a hyponatraemic dog makes classical hypoadrenocorticism an unlikely cause of the hyponatraemia. Nevertheless, because of the small sample size our results should be interpreted with caution and a larger follow-up study would be valuable

Noncognitive skills in the classroom

This book provides an overview of recent research on the relationship between noncognitive attributes (motivation, self efficacy, resilience) and academic outcomes (such as grades or test scores). We focus primarily on how these sets of attributes are measured and how they relate to important academic outcomes. Noncognitive attributes are those academically and occupationally relevant skills and traits that are not “cognitive”—that is, not specifically intellectual or analytical in nature. We examine seven attributes in depth and critique the measurement approaches used by researchers and talk about how they can be improved.Publishe

High prevalence of the neonicotinoid clothianidin in liver and plasma samples collected from gamebirds during autumn sowing

Since neonicotinoid insecticides were introduced to the agricultural market, evidence of the negative impacts of these systemic compounds on non-target species has accumulated. Birds are one of the largest groups of species to inhabit farmland, but the extent of neonicotinoid exposure in avian communities is poorly understood and very little is known about how any exposure may affect wild birds. Here, free-living gamebirds were used as a model group to measure the extent of avian exposure to the neonicotinoid clothianidin via seed treatment. During a typical sowing period of winter cereals treated with clothianidin, blood and liver samples were collected simultaneously from individual hunted gamebird carcasses, both pre- (n = 18) and post-sowing (n = 57) and were analysed for clothianidin via LC/MS-MS. Body weight, fat score and faecal parasite load were also quantified in the birds to ascertain whether any of these health parameters were associated with clothianidin exposure under field conditions. Clothianidin was detected in 6% of individuals sampled pre-sowing and 89% of individuals sampled post-sowing. The frequency of clothianidin detection in plasma samples and the concentration of clothianidin in liver and plasma samples decreased significantly between the first week and 2-4 weeks post-sowing. Faecal parasite load was positively associated with concentrations of clothianidin in the liver (but not plasma) of partridge species, but there was no association between clothianidin concentration and fat score or body weight, for either sample type. This study provides clear evidence that treated seed is a source of pesticide exposure for gamebirds following autumn sowing. These findings have implications for gamebirds worldwide where seed treatments are in use, and will aid the design of any future avian biomonitoring studies for agrochemical compounds

Associations between inflammation, coagulation, cardiac strain and injury, and subclinical vascular disease with frailty in older men: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Inflammation, coagulation activation, endothelial dysfunction and subclinical vascular disease are cross-sectionally associated with frailty. Cardiac-specific biomarkers are less-well characterised. We assessed associations between these and frailty, in men with, and without, cardiovascular disease (CVD). METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of 1096 men without, and 303 with, CVD, aged 71–92, from the British Regional Heart Study. Multinominal logistic regression was performed to examine the associations between frailty status (robust/pre-frail/frail) and, separately, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), D-dimer, von Willebrand factor (vWF), high-sensitivity cardiac troponin-T (hs-cTnT), N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) (all natural log-transformed), and, in men without CVD, carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), carotid distensibility coefficient (DC), and ankle-brachial pressure index (ABPI), adjusted for age, renal function, BMI, social class, smoking, polypharmacy, cognition, multimorbidity and systolic blood pressure. Explanatory variables with p < 0.05 were carried forward into mutually-adjusted analysis. RESULTS: In men without CVD, higher CRP, IL-6, vWF, tPA, hs-cTnT, NT-proBNP, cfPWV, and lower DC were significantly associated with frailty; mutually-adjusted, log IL-6 (OR for frailty = 2.02, 95%CI 1.38–2.95), log hs-cTnT (OR = 1.95, 95%CI 1.24–3.05) and DC (OR = 0.92, 95%CI 0.86–0.99) retained associations. In men with CVD, higher CRP, IL-6, and hs-cTnT, but not vWF, tPA, NT-proBNP or D-dimer, were significantly associated with frailty; mutually-adjusted, log hs-cTnT (OR 3.82, 95%CI 1.84–7.95) retained a significant association. CONCLUSIONS: In older men, biomarkers of myocardial injury are associated with frailty. Inflammation is associated with frailty in men without CVD. Carotid artery stiffness is associated with frailty in men without CVD, independently of these biomarkers

From seeds to plasma : confirmed exposure of multiple farmland bird species to clothianidin during sowing of winter cereals

Neonicotinoids are the largest group of systemic insecticides worldwide and are most commonly applied as agricultural seed treatments. However, little is known about the extent to which farmland birds are exposed to these compounds during standard agricultural practices. This study uses winter cereal, treated with the neonicotinoid clothianidin, as a test system to examine patterns of exposure in farmland birds during a typical sowing period. The availability of neonicotinoid-treated seed was recorded post-sowing at 39 fields (25 farms), and camera traps were used to monitor seed consumption by wild birds in situ. The concentration of clothianidin in treated seeds and crop seedlings was measured via liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and avian blood samples were collected from 11 species of farmland bird from a further six capture sites to quantify the prevalence and level of clothianidin exposure associated with seed treatments. Neonicotinoid-treated seeds were found on the soil surface at all but one of the fields surveyed at an average density of 2.8 seeds/m2. The concentration of clothianidin in seeds varied around the target application rate, whilst crop seedlings contained on average 5.9% of the clothianidin measured in seeds. Exposure was confirmed in 32% of bird species observed in treated fields and 50% of individual birds post-sowing; the median concentration recorded in positive samples was 12 ng/mL. Results here provide clear evidence that a variety of farmland birds are subject to neonicotinoid exposure following normal agricultural sowing of neonicotinoid-treated cereal seed. Furthermore, the widespread availability of seeds at the soil surface was identified as a primary source of exposure. Overall, these data are likely to have global implications for bird species and current agricultural policies where neonicotinoids are in use, and may be pertinent to any future risk assessments for systemic insecticide seed treatments