Confrontational Stigma and Contested ‘Green’ Developments: Biosolid Facility Siting in the Rural Landscape

This thesis examines responses and reappraisal of a proposed and now operational biosolid (sewage sludge) processing facility, the Southgate Organic Material Recovery Centre (OMRC), in the Township of Southgate in rural Ontario. This research is grounded in geographical literatures related to the geography of health, emotional geography, and risk perception and facility siting. The significance of this research is based on a relative absence of literature on public perceptions of transformed waste products, such as biosolids, in rural landscapes and the need to better understand these perceptions and felt impacts in the context of rural residents’ attachments to place. This is particularly relevant with the current drive towards a circular economy with an increasing acknowledgement of the importance of environmental sustainability put in the context of climate-change. The objectives of the research are to (1) explore the risk perceptions associated with the OMRC and end usage of biosolids; (2) examine how the siting process is affecting residents’ emotional and sensual geographies in time and place, and; (3) examine residents’ reappraisal of an operational facility and reflections on facility siting process that brought the OMRC to their community. Qualitative interviews with residents and municipal officials were conducted during the OMRC siting process (n=23) in 2012 and three years after the facility became operational, during the fall of 2015 to winter 2016 (n=16). Results show that residents’ perceptions of biosolid recycling were varied and their scalar conceptions of place influenced the duality of perceptions of biosolids either as a waste or resource. Further, residents’ varied place attachments, differential experiences of place change and community level identity threats emerged as important contextually based factors influencing residents’ perceptions. Following facility operations, concerns shifted from primarily anticipatory anxieties to increased facility acceptance, although concerns for invisible impacts remained alongside sustained intra-community conflict. Residents called for meaningful consultation and an increased participatory process rather than merely ‘checking boxes’ throughout the siting process. Findings contribute to a limited body of research on place-based factors influencing risk perceptions including varied place attachments and the relational experiences of place change. The results also contribute to an emerging field of inquiry into contested “green” developments, which may be considered by some as necessary for broader environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation. Also emerging from this research is a new form of facility siting risk: the social risk of conflict whereby lingering community conflict has led to what I refer to as Confrontational Stigma as it is related to the siting of contentious green facilities. This dissertation also provides practical contributions and policy implications when dealing with contested green developments in polarized communities. This research therefore calls for increased transparency around the uncertainty inherent in the beneficial reuse of biosolids to facilitate dialogue among community members with differing analytical paradigms. Further, it is important for developers and local officials alike to better understand residents’ differential place attachments where a development is proposed. Given the inherent misunderstanding by the proponent, municipal officials and community at large, the use of a third-party facilitator such as a knowledge broker or conflict resolution specialist may seem necessary in situations such as Southgate to help to reconcile the communication deficits apparent in these contentious development proposals

An investigation of the commitment on entry of students withdrawing from a teacher training course, with consideration of some of the consequences

This thesis attempts to probe some aspects of student wastage from Colleges of Education. Some of the extensive restructuring of teacher training, since the general course was lengthened to 3 years, is outlined. Developments in entry qualifications, attitudes to mathematics and science. Governmental decisions and the reactions of the Colleges are considered. In the light of these changes, college based studies of the problem of "drop-out" are reviewed and the relevance to the Colleges of some of the University studies is sought as the diversification of courses is currently being implemented. Influences on wastage, including selection procedures and some philosophical, psychological and social effects are discussed prior to a consideration of student motivation, reasons for withdrawal and the assessment of teacher trainees. Two questionnaires used are described against a background of some relevant points of survey theory. One given to first and second year students within two voluntary colleges in the year before and the first year of their amalgamation looks at some aspects of strength of commitment to teaching. The other, mailed to all the students known to have withdrawn from the 1970 entry to colleges of two Northern Universities' Institutes of Education, enquires what students who withdrew remember of their courses and what they are doing subsequently, with particular reference to their mathematical experiences. The responses are discussed question by question and comparisons made where possible. The results are reported with some suggestions made for possible future work

F and D Values with Explicit Flavor Symmetry Breaking and \Delta s Contents of Nucleons

We propose a new model for describing baryon semi-leptonic decays for estimating $F$ and $D$ values with explicit breaking effects of both SU(3) and SU(2) flavor symmetry, where all possible SU(3) and SU(2) breaking effects are induced from an effective interaction. An overall fit including the weak magnetism form factor yields $F=0.477\pm 0.001$ and $D=0.835\pm 0.001$ with $\chi^2=4.43/5$ d.o.f. with $V_{ud}=0.975\pm 0.002$ and $V_{us}=0.221\pm 0.002$. The spin content of strange quarks $\Delta s$ is estimated from the obtained values $F$ and $D$, and the nucleon spin problem is re-examined. Furthermore, the unmeasured values of $(g_1/f_1)$ and $(g_1)$ for other hyperon semi-leptonic decays are predicted from this new formula.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, final version to appear in PR

Energy, Development and Health Futures in Poorer Countries

Objective: While the link between health, social and economic development is being re-emphasised; the sustainability of current patterns of energy use which fuel economic development is being questioned because of fossil fuel depletion and climate change. In this paper we review and extend International Energy Agency (IEA) projections for economic growth and energy consumption; and estimate the impact of these on UN Human Development Index health indicators over the next century. Methods: 1) Extension of IEA analysis to 2002-2102. 2) Estimation of the effect of GDP growth and improved education on under-five mortality rate (UFMR) and life expectancy at birth in females (LE) 1970- 2002 using a World Bank regression model and Bank country data. 3) Application of regression coefficients to projected growth in 50 countries with purchasing-power-parity (ppp)GDP < $4,000 per capita in 2002 to project improvement in UFMR and LE 2003-2102. Findings: On optimistic assumptions about energy efficiency and substitution of new energy sources, current conventional oil and gas reserves will be exhausted by the middle of the current century. At the point at which current oil (gas) reserves are projected to be exhausted, 44$4,000; 49% (59%) to have achieved an under five mortality rate of less than 50 per 1,000 births and 65% (77%) to have achieved a life expectancy among females of 65 years Interpretation: The poorest countries are unlikely to achieve the levels of health experienced in rich countries today before a serious energy crisis unfolds. Reduction in consumption in rich countries may be the only way to secure the health and development future of poor countries. Analysis of the evidence concerning the relationship between consumption and wellbeing suggest that such a reduction could improve rather than reduce wellbeing in rich countries

Key barriers to community cohesion: views from residents of 20 London deprived neighbourhoods

The notion of community has been central to the political project of renewal of New Labour in the UK. The paper explores how the discourses of community are framed within New Labour and discusses these in the light of the results from research which focuses on how people within urban deprived areas construct their community. It draws upon the results of one part of a larger research project (the ‘Well London’ programme) which aimed to capture the views of residents from 20 disadvantaged neighbourhoods throughout London using an innovative qualitative method known as the ‘World Café’. Our results show the centrality of young people to the development of cohesive communities, the importance of building informal relationships between residents alongside encouraging greater participation to policy making, and the need to see these places as fragile and temporary locations but with considerable social strengths. Government policies are only partially addressing these issues. They pay greater attention to formally encouraging citizens to become more involved in policy making, largely ignore the contribution young people could make to the community cohesion agenda, and weakly define the shared norms and values that are crucial in building cohesive communities. Thus, the conclusion is that whilst an emphasis of the government on ‘community’ is to be welcome, more needs to be done in terms of considering the ‘voices’ of the community as well as enabling communities to determine and act upon their priorities

Towards measures of the eradicability of rain-splashed crop diseases

Controlling rain-splashed crop diseases is an extremely difficult task. Their spread is a complicated process and large-scale field surveys to determine the extent of an incursion over a large area are often economically intractable. A failed attempt at control or eradication of a pathogen can be very costly. In 1996 there was a major incursion of lupin anthracnose in Western Australia, which crippled the albus lupin industry. At the time of the outbreak a wide-spread survey was undertaken to estimate the extent of the incursion. A containment protocol involving broad-scale crop destruction was put into place with the view of eradicating the disease. This eradication attempt subsequently failed due to wild lupins acting as a reservoir for the disease from road verges and non-arable land outside the cropping area. There was also evidence of long distance dispersal vectors such as native budworm. Had all the relevant information related to spread and spatial habitat suitability been collected and taken into account, the decision to destroy the crops may not have been made and significant economic losses to growers may have been avoided. Estimates of the current extent of an incursion based solely on incomplete empirical data are likely to be inaccurate, as are predictions of the future trajectory of an incursion that do not take into account all available information. Therefore any control or eradication attempt based on these estimates and predictions may be ineffective. Simulation modelling is an important method for making the best use of all available empirical data and integrating all available knowledge to predict the spread of rain-splashed crop diseases. With this prediction, an evaluation of the potential success of control or eradication measures may be estimated. This study describes a model that was built to simulate a situation analogous to that of the 1996 lupin anthracnose incursion in Western Australia, for the purpose of identifying general indicators of the eradicability of rain-splashed crop diseases. We extended the spatiotemporal model AnthracnoseTracer to simulate the spread of lupin anthracnose in a heterogeneous paddock environment analogous to the 1996 conditions. Three control methods aimed at eradication were investigated. A simple detection model was assumed, where the probability of detecting the disease is dependent on the level of passive surveillance and the detectability of the disease. As part of the preliminary analysis contained in this paper we investigated two scenarios to identify potential indicators of eradicability, based on the time taken to detect the disease. Our preliminary results indicate that rain-splashed pathogens are extremely difficult to eradicate and the chance of successful eradication appears strongly dependent on the level of surveillance of the susceptible areas and the detectability of the disease. The level of surveillance and detectability of the disease may both serve as general indicators of eradicability for rain-splashed crop diseases. We discuss further modelling analyses to be carried out to refine these indicators

Neutrino Masses and Leptogenesis with Heavy Higgs Triplets

A simple and economical extension of the minimal standard electroweak gauge model (without right-handed neutrinos) by the addition of two heavy Higgs scalar triplets would have two significant advantages. \underline {Naturally} small Majorana neutrino masses would become possible, as well as leptogenesis in the early universe which gets converted at the electroweak phase transition into the present observed baryon asymmetry.Comment: 12 pages including one figur