Legislative Change and Strike Activity in Canada, 1926-1974

Le présent article tente d'expliquer les variations à long terme des grèves au Canada pendant la période 1926-1974. À cette fin, il examine les effets de diverses variables d'ordre économique et organisationnel sur les types de conflits du travail. L'article s'efforce de replacer la grève dans son contexte politique en observant comment les modifications apportées à la législation fédérale du travail ont influencé au cours de ces années les types de grèves survenus au Canada. Ce qui ressort de cette étude, c'est que d'une part, le type de grève varie en fonction de la situation économique et de la capacité des syndicats d'imposer leurs revendications et que, d'autre part, la législation du travail influence le rapport entre les grèves et les deux variables qui viennent d'être citées.Les effets de nombreux facteurs économiques ainsi que de l'activité syndicale ont été étudiés en fonction de trois mesures d'évaluation des grèves, soit la fréquence, l'amplitude et la durée de la grève. On l'a fait pour l'ensemble de la période. Par la suite, les séries chronologiques furent scindées en choisissant une mesure législative fédérale (le C.P. 1003) comme point de rupture. Cette analyse confirme l'importance d'une législation du travail favorable aux travailleurs en tant que variable dans le rapport entre la situation économique et l'action syndicale d'une part, et les grèves, d'autre part. L'examen des données révèle très clairement que les modifications apportées à la législation en 1944 ont eu un impact significatif sur les causes déterminantes des grèves. Durant la période antérieure à 1944, l'état de l'organisation syndicale était la cause principale des variations dans les grèves. Après 1944, la négociation collective s'est institutionnalisée et la situation économique devint la cause principale de la décision de déclencher et de poursuivre les grèves.The authors examine long term variations in the level of strike activity in Canada between 1926 and 1974 by examining the effects of several economic and organizational variables on the pattern of industrial conflict

Dynamics of the hydrocarbon-degrading Cycloclasticus bacteria during mesocosm-simulated oil spills

Original research articleWe used catalysed reported deposition – fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH) to analyse changes in the abundance of the bacterial groups Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, and of hydrocarbon-degrading Cycloclasticus bacteria in mesocosms that had received polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) additions. The effects of PAHs were assessed under four contrasting hydrographic conditions in the coastal upwelling system of the Rías Baixas: winter mixing, spring bloom, summer stratification and autumn upwelling. We used realistic additions of water soluble PAHs (approximately 20–30 μg l−1 equivalent of chrysene), but during the winter period we also investigated the effect of higher PAHs concentrations (10–80 μg l−1 chrysene) on the bacterial community using microcosms. The most significant change observed was a significant reduction (68 ± 5%) in the relative abundance of Alphaproteobacteria. The magnitude of the response of Cycloclasticus bacteria (positive with probe CYPU829) to PAHs additions varied depending on the initial environmental conditions, and on the initial concentration of added PAHs. Our results clearly show that bacteria of the Cycloclasticus group play a major role in low molecular weight PAHs biodegradation in this planktonic ecosystem. Their response was stronger in colder waters, when their background abundance was also higher. During the warm periods, the response of Cycloclasticus was limited, possibly due to both, a lower bioavailability of PAHs caused by abiotic factors (solar radiation, temperature), and by inorganic nutrient limitation of bacterial growth.This research was supported by the MEC contract IMPRESION (VEM2003-20021); an European Community Marie Curie Reintegration Fellowship (MERG-CT-2004-511937) and a Juan de la Cierva-MEC contract.Versión del editor5,84

What’s trending in Breathlessness research? Proceedings from the 8th Annual Meeting of the Breathlessness Research Interest Group

Breathlessness remains a challenging symptom, common to a multitude of malignant and non-malignant diseases, for which there are limited effective therapies once disease control is optimised. The American Thoracic Society (ATS) statement on dyspnoea reports that: i)Progress in dyspnoea management has not matched progress in elucidating underlying mechanisms; ii)There is a critical need for interdisciplinary translational research to connect dyspnoea mechanisms with treatments; iii)There is a need to validate dyspnoea measures as patient-reported outcomes for clinical trials. Research into the many dimensions of breathlessness and its significance to patients and their carers has increased in recent years. This meeting is convened yearly to bring together researchers across various disciplines including respiratory medicine, anaesthetics, medical humanities, engineering and palliative care, to further understanding of the symptom, discuss new techniques and advances in research, and pave the way forward for future studies and interventions. The presentations generated much vibrant discussion amongst the multidisciplinary attendees and highlighted areas where care for breathless patients could be improved. This is a positive time for breathlessness research, with several ATS research priorities being addressed and it is clear that further studies and ensuing interventions are on the horizon.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Maney at http://www.maneyonline.com/toc/ppc/current

Conservation laws and symmetries of quasilinear radial wave equations in multi-dimensions

Symmetries and conservation laws are studied for two classes of physically and analytically interesting radial wave equations with power nonlinearities in multi-dimensions. The results consist of two main classifications: all symmetries of point type and all conservation laws of a general energy-momentum type are explicitly determined, including those such as dilations, inversions, similarity energies and conformal energies that exist only for special powers or dimensions. In particular, all variational cases (when a Lagrangian formulation exists) and non-variational cases (when no Lagrangian exists) for these wave equations are considered. As main results, the classification yields generalized energies and radial momenta in certain non-variational cases, which are shown to arise from a new type of Morawetz dilation identity that produces conservation laws for each of the two wave equations in a different way than Noether's theorem.Comment: Typos corrected in published version, 38 pages. Lagrangian functionals now include missing integration over the time variabl

Evaluación de la continuidad y costo de dos estrategias de calidad ambiental interior en el edificio el cubo de Colsubsidio certificado con categoría gold por el sistema LEED del USGBC versión 2.2

Trabajo de investigaciónEl aumento de la contaminación en el planeta y el uso poco responsable de los recursos naturales, genero un interés global el cual viene desde hace varios años atrás, esto ocasiono que todos los temas medio ambientales y de sostenibilidad tuvieran un auge como respuesta a la problemática ambiental existente, esta problemática creo un interés en todos los ámbitos profesionales y al ser la construcción una de las industrias que más genera residuos y explotación de recursos naturales para su ejecución, era necesario dar una respuesta desde este campo, es por eso que surge LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESING en adelante lo LEED, con una serie de normativas para generar un menor impacto medioambiental. La ejecución de edificios con certificación LEED ha ido en aumento en todo el mundo y como era de esperarse esta situación no fue ajena a Colombia. Es por eso que es tan importante abordar el análisis de los edificios que han sido certificados por el LEED en sus diferentes categorías, en esta oportunidad el caso de estudio es el edificio El Cubo de Colsubsidio, el cual fue certificado como LEED Gold en la versión 2.2 en el año 2013. En detalle, este proyecto se centrará en dos estrategias que componen el capítulo de estrategias de calidad interior del cual su sigla en inglés es IEQ INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, una vez analizadas dichas estrategias de manera puntual para el edifico el Cubo de Colsubsidio, se podrá establecer si las estrategias han permanecido en el tiempo por medio de la gestión administrativa, generando ahorros, lo anterior con el fin que los interesados en el proceso puedan conocer el estado actual de las estrategias planteadas en el diseño del proyecto y ver que oportunidades de mejora tienen dichas estrategias.INTRODUCCIÓN 1. GENERALIDADES 2. MARCO DE REFERENCIA 3. METODOLOGÍA 4. PRODUCTOS A ENTREGAR 5. ENTREGA DE RESULTADOS ESPERADOS E IMPACTOS 6. NUEVAS AREAS DE ESTUDIO 7. CONCLUSIONES 8. RECOMENDACIONES 9. BIBLIOGRAFÍAEspecializaciónEspecialista en Gerencia de Obras Civile

"I feel so stupid because I can't give a proper answer ..." How older adults describe chronic pain: a qualitative study

Background - Over 50% of older adults experience chronic pain. Poorly managed pain threatens independent functioning, limits social activities and detrimentally affects emotional wellbeing. Yet, chronic pain is not fully understood from older adults’ perspectives; subsequently, pain management in later life is not necessarily based on their priorities or needs. This paper reports a qualitative exploration of older adults’ accounts of living with chronic pain, focusing on how they describe pain, with a view to informing approaches to its assessment. Methods - Cognitively intact men and women aged over sixty-five who lived in the community opted into the study through responding to advertisements in the media and via contacts with groups and organisations in North-East Scotland. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed using a framework approach. Results - Qualitative individual interviews and one group interview were undertaken with 23 older adults. Following analysis, the following main themes emerged: diversity in conceptualising pain using a simple numerical score; personalising the meaning of pain by way of stories, similes and metaphors; and, contextualising pain in relation to its impact on activities. Conclusions - The importance of attending to individuals’ stories as a meaningful way of describing pain for older adults is highlighted, suggesting that a narrative approach, as recommended and researched in other areas of medicine, may usefully be applied in pain assessment for older adults. Along with the judicious use of numerical tools, this requires innovative methods to elicit verbal accounts, such as using similes and metaphors to help older adults describe and discuss their experience, and contextualising the effects of pain on activities that are important to them

Tight-binding parameters for charge transfer along DNA

We systematically examine all the tight-binding parameters pertinent to charge transfer along DNA. The $\pi$ molecular structure of the four DNA bases (adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine) is investigated by using the linear combination of atomic orbitals method with a recently introduced parametrization. The HOMO and LUMO wavefunctions and energies of DNA bases are discussed and then used for calculating the corresponding wavefunctions of the two B-DNA base-pairs (adenine-thymine and guanine-cytosine). The obtained HOMO and LUMO energies of the bases are in good agreement with available experimental values. Our results are then used for estimating the complete set of charge transfer parameters between neighboring bases and also between successive base-pairs, considering all possible combinations between them, for both electrons and holes. The calculated microscopic quantities can be used in mesoscopic theoretical models of electron or hole transfer along the DNA double helix, as they provide the necessary parameters for a tight-binding phenomenological description based on the $\pi$ molecular overlap. We find that usually the hopping parameters for holes are higher in magnitude compared to the ones for electrons, which probably indicates that hole transport along DNA is more favorable than electron transport. Our findings are also compared with existing calculations from first principles.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 7 table

Learning is Like a Lava Lamp: The Student Journey to Critical Thinking

This paper explores the ways in which a university Foundation Degree programme supports undergraduate early years students to develop critical thinking, mindfulness and self-actualisation through their lived personal and professional experiences. It considers the impact of this on graduates employed within the Early Years sector. Findings inform future design of a University Foundation Degree programme situated within Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). As undergraduates, students engage in higher-level learning aligned to their practice within the workplace. An interpretive Participatory Qualitative Research methodology is used to gather the views of 6 alumni who completed their studies in 2014. They participated in the research freely within ethical parameters approved by a university ethics committee. Findings revealed that the development of critical thinking is empowered by having a personal or professional impetus, which in the case of Early Years is the child as being at the heart of values based practice. This, with the inclusion of mindfulness, drives students to a sustainable deeper layer of thinking to achieve self-actualisation. Through the acquisition of critical thinking students have been subsequently able to take up positions of authority within the early years workforce