Living to Fight Another Day: The Story of Dalhousie Legal Aid

On Friday, January 31, 1986 at 4:00 p.m., The Nova Scotia Legal Aid Commission and the Provincial Department of Social Services issued a Press Release announcing the withdrawal of funding for Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, a teaching Clinic associated with Dalhousie University\u27s Faculty of Law. The announcement was made without warning to the Executive Director of Dalhousie Legal Aid, the Chair of its Board of Trustees or the Dean of Dalhousie Law School. Although reasons for this unexpected move were advanced by the Government at the time, it is this author\u27s view that the funding cut was a patently political action designed to silence a very effective reformist voice which has frequently set its sights on Nova Scotia Government legislation and policy. This paper attempts to provide the background to the decision, to explore the stated and the real reasons for it and to discuss the very serious implications such actions have for the continuation of non-government legal clinics in the Province of Nova Scotia and elsewher

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Worth Fighting For: Factors Influencing Selection Decisions in School Libraries

Intellectual freedom is one of the basic tenets of the library profession. However, most librarians will face attempts to censor or control access to information at some point in their careers. School librarians might choose to self-censor because they fear facing a challenge that calls into question not only their professionalism but also their personal values and ethics. While there have been numerous studies on censorship in other types of libraries, there is little research in the area of censorship and intellectual freedom as it pertains to the school library field. The purpose of this study is to understand the decisions being made by school librarians when choosing or not choosing materials for addition to the collection. To that end, the following research questions were the focus of this study: How do school librarians describe their own selection process? To what extent do school librarians engage in self-censorship as part of the collection development process? When school librarians engage in self-censorship, what are the ways they do it and the factors that influence their decision making? This study used a mixed methods design composed of two phases: an initial survey distributed to school librarians in North and South Carolina and follow-up interviews with school librarians who volunteered to be interviewed. Four hundred seventy-one responses were collected as part of the initial survey. Out of this sample, one hundred thirty of the responders volunteered to participate in the interview portion of the research. Using purposeful sampling in order to obtain representation from both states and the different types of school settings, forty-nine school librarians were interviewed. The survey instrument was designed to collect demographic data, as well as to test the usefulness of a scale to measure the likelihood of self-censorship. The interview questions included nine questions designed to elicit descriptions of the selection process and censorship experiences of school librarians. The following themes emerged through analysis of the survey and interview responses: 1) Communication with those who presented concerns to materials in collections was key in allaying concerns and avoiding a full, written challenge; 2) Support of administration for school libraries and during the challenge process varied widely and influenced the decisions school librarians made when choosing materials and when choosing whether or not to defend them; 3) The grade levels of a school greatly impacted the decision making of school librarians when choosing to add materials, with middle school librarians finding the issue of age appropriateness especially difficult; 4) The awareness of and implementation of both materials selection policies and reconsideration policies influenced both the selection of materials and the successful defense of challenged materials; 5) School librarians sometimes chose to voluntarily remove or restrict access to materials when they thought they might face a full, formal challenge; 6) The funding of school libraries varies widely both within districts and across states; 7) LGBTQ content was particularly troubling for school librarians when undergoing the selection process; 8) Librarians at combination schools (elementary/middle, middle/high) faced unique challenges when making selections and providing access to materials; 9) School librarians’ perceptions of the community environment, particularly those located in rural communities, impacted their decision-making process. The findings of this research suggest that school librarians are influenced by multiple factors when making selection decision and better preparation on dealing with controversial materials may assist them in avoiding self-censoring or censoring behaviors

Interviews with Samuel Orville Withers, Linnie Bell Withers, Debra Sue Dawkins, Dillie Doryl Rader, and Marth Kathreen Highland

Interviews with Myrtice M. Dawkins, Linnie Bell Withers, Debra Sue Dawkins, Dillie Doryl Rader, and Marth Kathreen Highland 00:00:01 - Introduction, Samuel Orville Withers of Bucklin, KS on June 10, 1962 00:00:09 - Song, It Came In My Window 00:01:55 - Untitled song 00:02:20 - Introduction, Linnie Bell Withers on June 15, 1062 00:02:48 - The blizzard of 1886 00:05:41 - Introduction, Debra Sue Dawkins on June 15, 1962 00:06:12 - Jump rope rhyme, Postman, Postman 00:06:33 - Jump rope rhyme, Cinderella Dressed in Yellow 00:06:50 - Jump rope rhyme, Down In The Valley 00:07:15 - Jump rope rhyme, I Like Coffee 00:07:38 - Song parody, My eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school 00:08:27 - Introduction, Dillie Doryl Rader on June 15, 1962 00:09:03 - How songs are passed from generation to generation 00:10:19 - Song, Might Near Like Soldier\u27s Joy 00:11:44 - Song, [title unclear] 00:12:46 - Song, Up Jumped Trouble 00:13:51 - Recording picks up in the middle of a song 00:14:56 - Narrator introduces the song The Red Apple Rag but the song was not recorded. 00:15:00 - Introduction, Mary Kathreen Highland on June 17, 1962 00:15:25 - Birth on a homestead in 1882 00:16:35 - Working for the Spearville Newspaper, as a teacher, and as a farmer 00:21:05 - Poem, Kansas 00:24:14 - Gardening in the early days versus today 00:27:23 - Poem, Kansas Land written by A.H. Farrell in 1888 00:34:25 - History of 100 years of teaching in the family 00:35:30 - Myrtice M. Dawkins reading from her grandmother, Ada M. Jackson\u27s autograph book from 1882-1888https://scholars.fhsu.edu/sackett/1078/thumbnail.jp

Innovations that Address Socioeconomic, Cultural, and Geographic Barriers to Preventive Oral Health Care

This report focuses on nine oral health innovations that integrate service delivery and workforce models in order to reduce or eliminate socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural barriers to care. Two additional reports in this series describe the remaining programs that provide care in non-dental settings and care to young children. Although the programs are diverse in their approaches as well as in the specific characteristics of the communities they serve, a common factor among them is the implementation of multiple strategies to increase the number of children from low-income families who access preventive care, and also to engage families and communities in investing in and prioritizing oral health. For low-income children and their families, the barriers that must be addressed to increase access to preventive oral health care are numerous. For example, even children covered by public insurance programs face a shortage of dentists that accept Medicaid and who specialize in pediatric dentistry.(Guay, 2004).The effects of poverty intersect with other barriers such as living in remote geographic areas and community-wide history of poor access to dental care in populations such as recent immigrants . Overcoming these barriers requires creative strategies that address transportation barriers; establish welcoming environments for oral health care; and are linguistically and culturally relevant. Each of these nine programs is based on such strategies, including:-Expanding the dental workforce through training new types of providers or adding new providers to their workforce to increase reach and community presence;-Implementing new strategies to increase the cost-effectiveness of care so that more oral health care services are available and accessible;-Providing training and technical assistance that increase opportunities for and competence in delivering oral health education and care to children;-Developing creative service delivery models that address transportation and cultural barriers as well as the fear and stigma associated with dental care that may arise in communities with historically poor access.The findings from the EAs of these programs are synthesized to highlight diverse and innovative strategies for overcoming barriers to access that have potential for rigorous evaluation that could emerge as best practices. If proven effective, these innovative program elements could then be disseminated and replicated to increase access for populations in need of preventive oral health care

Modeling the lowest-cost splitting of a herd of cows by optimizing a cost function

Animals live in groups to defend against predation and to obtain food. However, for some animals --- especially ones that spend long periods of time feeding --- there are costs if a group chooses to move on before their nutritional needs are satisfied. If the conflict between feeding and keeping up with a group becomes too large, it may be advantageous to some animals to split into subgroups of animals with similar nutritional needs. We model the costs and benefits of splitting by a herd of cows using a cost function (CF) that quantifies individual variation in hunger, desire to lie down, and predation risk. We model the costs associated with hunger and lying desire as the standard deviations of individuals within a group, and we model predation risk as an inverse exponential function of group size. We minimize the cost function over all plausible groups that can arise from a given herd and study the dynamics of group splitting. We explore our model using two examples: (1) we consider group switching and group fission in a herd of relatively homogeneous cows; and (2) we examine a herd with an equal number of adult males (larger animals) and adult females (smaller animals).Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

On the necessity of complexity

Wolfram's Principle of Computational Equivalence (PCE) implies that universal complexity abounds in nature. This paper comprises three sections. In the first section we consider the question why there are so many universal phenomena around. So, in a sense, we week a driving force behind the PCE if any. We postulate a principle GNS that we call the Generalized Natural Selection Principle that together with the Church-Turing Thesis is seen to be equivalent to a weak version of PCE. In the second section we ask the question why we do not observe any phenomena that are complex but not-universal. We choose a cognitive setting to embark on this question and make some analogies with formal logic. In the third and final section we report on a case study where we see rich structures arise everywhere.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

Dental Professionals in Non-Dental Settings

This report focuses on nine oral health innovations seeking to increase access to preventive oral health care in nondental settings. Two additional reports in this series describe the remaining programs that provide care in dental settings and care to young children. The nine innovations described here integrate service delivery and workforce models in order to reduce or eliminate socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural barriers to care. Although the programs are diverse in their approaches as well as in the specific characteristics of the communities they serve, a common factor among them is the implementation of multiple strategies to increase the number of children from low-income families who access preventive care, and also to engage families and communities in investing in and prioritizing oral health. For low-income children and their families, the barriers that must be addressed to increase access to preventive oral health care are numerous. For example, even children covered by public insurance programs face a shortage of dentists that accept Medicaid and who specialize in pediatric dentistry. The effects of poverty intersect with other barriers such as living in remote geographic areas and having a community-wide history of poor access to dental care in populations such as recent immigrants. Overcoming these barriers requires creative strategies that address transportation barriers, establish welcoming environments for oral health care, and are linguistically and culturally relevant. Each of these nine programs is based on such strategies, including:-Expanding the dental workforce through training new types of providers or adding new providers to the workforce toincrease reach and community presence;-Implementing new strategies to increase the cost-effectiveness of care so that more oral health care services are available and accessible;-Providing training and technical assistance that increase opportunities for and competence in delivering oral health education and care to children;-Offering oral health care services in existing, familiar community venues such as schools, Head Start programs and senior centers;-Developing creative service delivery models that address transportation and cultural barriers as well as the fear and stigma associated with dental care that may arise in communities with historically poor access.The findings from the EAs of these programs are synthesized to highlight diverse and innovative strategies for overcoming barriers to access. These strategies have potential for rigorous evaluation and could emerge as best practices. If proven effective, these innovative program elements could then be disseminated and replicated to increase access for populations in need of preventive oral health care

ALTRUISM VIA KIN-SELECTION STRATEGIES THAT RELY ON ARBITRARY TAGS WITH WHICH THEY COEVOLVE

Hamilton's rule explains when natural selection will favor altruism between conspecifics, given their degree of relatedness. In practice, indicators of relatedness (such as scent) coevolve with strategies based on these indicators, a fact not included in previous theories of kin recognition. Using a combination of simulation modeling and mathematical extension of Hamilton's rule, we demonstrate how altruism can emerge and be sustained in a coevolutionary setting where relatedness depends on an individual's social environment and varies from one locus to another. The results support a very general expectation of widespread, and not necessarily weak, conditional altruism in nature.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72180/1/j.0014-3820.2004.tb00465.x.pd