Planning to Participate: Exploring Discomfort in Participation

Planning methods designed to engage and encourage the active and meaningful participation of public individuals and groups have become more broadly valued and utilized in recent years. This increase has grown, in part, from an increasingly dissatisfied and civically aware public (Sorensen & Sagaris, 2010). Currently, in Ontario, there are very few formal planning exercises that do not require, by legislation, some level of public consultation. Concurrent with this shift many planning theorists have argued for and written about the benefits of including public citizens in the planning process. Resulting from this value-­‐laden policy shift several corporations and government organizations have in the past and continue to attempt to develop new and exciting strategies to more effectively engage with the public. The primary aim of this research project is to better understand some of the barriers, which inhibit meaningful public engagement, within the field of planning, in order to better understand how planners can work together with members of the public to begin to overcome these barriers. While there are many barriers to meaningful engagement, this research project will primarily focus on the barrier of fear. As will be explained throughout this project, fear, or more gently described as discomfort, experienced by both the planner or facilitator and the participants, has the potential to discourage public citizens from actively engaging with the planning of their communities. In order to better understand fear, how it can inhibit meaningful engagement and how it can be overcome, this research project utilizes a variety of research methods. First a review of the relevant literature is used to identify and describe some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with public participation in the planning process. Relevant literature is also used to explain some common fears, which are experienced by planners and members of the public when they interact with one another in the process of planning. Second, a series of semi-­‐structured interviews with professional planners and private facilitators are used to better understand what makes these individuals uncomfortable when they invite members of the public to engage. These interviews also allow planners and private facilitators to speculate, based on their experience, as to what makes members of the public uncomfortable with participation. Third, this research project utilizes a two-­‐part focus group with public citizens. The first session of the focus group allows participants to describe their experiences with the act of planning in their community and explain what has made them feel both uncomfortable and comfortable about the process. The second session has participants explaining how they believe the process can be improved in ways that would make them feel more comfortable and in turn would increase their likelihood to participate in the future. The majority of the research was conducted in the municipality of Clarington. Clarington, which is located approximately 80 kilometres east of Toronto, is a medium sized municipality with a population of approximately 85,000 residents and is made up of a number of small-­‐urbanized communities including Bowmanville, Courtice, and Newcastle. Clarington also encompasses a number of rural settlements. This municipality was chosen for a number of reasons. First, I was born and raised in Clarington and therefore have strong connections to both the place and a number of the people, including municipal planners, who live and work in Clarington. These previously formed connections have allowed me to make new connections more easily and in turn have helped me to carry out my research. Clarington was also chosen due to the receptive attitude of many of the municipal planners and politicians who work for Clarington. I was fortunate enough to complete my field experience as a student intern planner in Clarington. During this time I had a number of conversations with the municipal planners who informed me that they are always looking for new ways to work with members of the community to ensure they are able to participate in a meaningful way. This receptive attitude has aided in the progression of my research. Finally, Clarington was chosen because its size. As a relatively small municipality it carries with it a number of unique perspectives that are not found in larger urban centres such as Toronto. One such perspective provided by Clarington is the form of interaction that takes place between members of the public and the planning staff. Members of the public can, on any given day, speak directly with planning staff, even the director, by simply visiting the planning department. This as well as the other unique perspectives provided by Clarington has contributed positively to this research project. For these reasons I believe Clarington is a prime municipality for me to carry out my research. Finally, this project concludes with a toolkit, which includes a review and analyses of the comments and insight provided by all the interviewee and focus group participants as well as a review of different engagement strategies, which aim to better connect planners with members of the public by improving the relationship between the parties through open and direct conversation. This toolkit, referred to as Appendix C has been produced for and provided to all the participants involved in this research project

New Clarification About Observation Billing May Improve Care for Behavioral Health Patients

Emergency Physicians provide ongoing care to psychiatric patients beyond the confines of a standard emergency room visit.  Often, when we identify patients who need specialty psychiatric care, patients board in the emergency department awaiting acceptance and transfer to an outside facility.  Even in cases where it has taken multiple days to complete the transfer, it has been unclear how to properly obtain reimbursement for this care.  We discuss a new coding clarification that may provide a pathway to improve part of this situation

Interactions between RAMP2 and CRF receptors: The effect of receptor subtypes, splice variants and cell context.

Corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) acts via two family B G-protein-coupled receptors, CRFR1 and CRFR2. Additional subtypes exist due to alternative splicing. CRFR1α is the most widely expressed subtype and lacks a 29-residue insert in the first intracellular loop that is present in CRFR1β. It has been shown previously that co-expression of CRFR1β with receptor activity modifying protein 2 (RAMP2) in HEK 293S cells increased the cell-surface expression of both proteins suggesting a physical interaction as seen with RAMPs and calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLR). This study investigated the ability of CRFR1α, CRFR1β and CRFR2β to promote cell-surface expression of FLAG-tagged RAMP2. Four different cell-lines were utilised to investigate the effect of varying cellular context; COS-7, HEK 293T, HEK 293S and [ΔCTR]HEK 293 (which lacks endogenous calcitonin receptor). In all cell-lines, CRFR1α and CRFR1β enhanced RAMP2 cell-surface expression. The magnitude of the effect on RAMP2 was dependent on the cell-line ([ΔCTR]HEK 293 > COS-7 > HEK 293T > HEK 293S). RT-PCR indicated this variation may relate to differences in endogenous RAMP expression between cell types. Furthermore, pre-treatment with CRF resulted in a loss of cell-surface FLAG-RAMP2 when it was co-expressed with CRFR1 subtypes. CRFR2β co-expression had no effect on RAMP2 in any cell-line. Molecular modelling suggests that the potential contact interface between the extracellular domains of RAMP2 and CRF receptor subtypes is smaller than that of RAMP2 and CRL, the canonical receptor:RAMP pairing, assuming a physical interaction. Furthermore, a specific residue difference between CRFR1 subtypes (glutamate) and CRFR2β (histidine) in this interface region may impair CRFR2β:RAMP2 interaction by electrostatic repulsion

Ruthenium-Catalyzed Mono-Selective C–H Methylation and d₃-Methylation of Arenes

[Image: see text] Site-selective installation of C–Me bonds remains a powerful and sought-after tool to alter the chemical and pharmacological properties of a molecule. Direct C–H functionalization provides an attractive means of achieving this transformation. Such protocols, however, typically utilize harsh conditions and hazardous methylating agents with poor applicability toward late-stage functionalization. Furthermore, highly monoselective methylation protocols remain scarce. Herein, we report an efficient monoselective, directed ortho-methylation of arenes using N,N,N-trimethylanilinium salts as noncarcinogenic, bench-stable methylating agents. We extend this protocol to d(3)-methylation in addition to the late-stage functionalization of pharmaceutically active compounds. Detailed kinetic studies indicate the rate-limiting in situ formation of MeI is integral to the observed reactivity

Identifying a new intermediate polar using \u3cem\u3eXMM-Newton\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eINTEGRAL\u3c/em\u3e

The bright X-ray source 2XMMi J180438.7-145647 is fortunate to have long baseline observations in INTEGRAL that complement observations taken by other missions. Optical spectroscopy of this object has suggested a distance of ˜7 kpc and an identification with a low-mass X-ray binary. We instead use the X-ray data from 0.3 to 40 keV to identify the source as a bright intermediate polar (IP) with an estimate for the white dwarf mass of ˜0.60 M⊙. This identification is supported by the presence of an iron triplet, the component lines of which are some of the strongest seen in IPs, and the signature of the spin period of the white dwarf at ˜24 min. We note that the lack of broad-band variability may suggest that this object is a stream-fed IP, similar in many respects to the well-studied IP, V2400 Oph. Phase binning has allowed us to create spectra corresponding to the peaks and troughs of the light curve from which we determine that the spectra appear harder in the troughs, consistent with the behaviour of other IPs binned on their spin periods. This work strongly suggests a misidentification in the optical due to the presence of large columns of enshrouding material. We instead propose a distance to the source of \u3c2.5 kpc to be consistent with the luminosities of other IPs in the dim, hard state. The considerable flux of the source together with the strength of the iron lines may, in future, allow the source to be used to diagnose the properties of the shock-heated plasma and the reflected component of the emission

Experimental performance evaluation of a streamline traced inlet at off-design conditions

Scramjet engines used as part of a multi-stage space access system must operate efficiently over a wide range of conditions. This paper describes experimental testing undertaken to evaluate the masscapture performance, self-starting capability, and back-pressure limitations of a streamline-traced three-dimensional inlet. Experiments were conducted in the University of Oxford High Density Tunnel. Instrumentation included fast-response surface pressure measurements and a novel back pressure/mass capture device suitable for accurate measurement of mass flow rate in short duration testing. Tests were performed at Mach 7 between unit Reynolds numbers 4.7 × 106 / and 17.7 × 106 /. The inlet was found to be capable of withstanding a forebody-normalized back pressure ratio 88 before unstarting, with minimal Reynolds number dependance. The started inlet captured 80% of the projected capture area, with a 6% variation across the unit Reynolds number range

Tissue-specific mRNA expression profiling in grape berry tissues

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Berries of grape (<it>Vitis vinifera</it>) contain three major tissue types (skin, pulp and seed) all of which contribute to the aroma, color, and flavor characters of wine. The pericarp, which is composed of the exocarp (skin) and mesocarp (pulp), not only functions to protect and feed the developing seed, but also to assist in the dispersal of the mature seed by avian and mammalian vectors. The skin provides volatile and nonvolatile aroma and color compounds, the pulp contributes organic acids and sugars, and the seeds provide condensed tannins, all of which are important to the formation of organoleptic characteristics of wine. In order to understand the transcriptional network responsible for controlling tissue-specific mRNA expression patterns, mRNA expression profiling was conducted on each tissue of mature berries of <it>V. vinifera </it>Cabernet Sauvignon using the Affymetrix GeneChip^®<it>Vitis </it>oligonucleotide microarray ver. 1.0. In order to monitor the influence of water-deficit stress on tissue-specific expression patterns, mRNA expression profiles were also compared from mature berries harvested from vines subjected to well-watered or water-deficit conditions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, berry tissues were found to express approximately 76% of genes represented on the <it>Vitis </it>microarray. Approximately 60% of these genes exhibited significant differential expression in one or more of the three major tissue types with more than 28% of genes showing pronounced (2-fold or greater) differences in mRNA expression. The largest difference in tissue-specific expression was observed between the seed and pulp/skin. Exocarp tissue, which is involved in pathogen defense and pigment production, showed higher mRNA abundance relative to other berry tissues for genes involved with flavonoid biosynthesis, pathogen resistance, and cell wall modification. Mesocarp tissue, which is considered a nutritive tissue, exhibited a higher mRNA abundance of genes involved in cell wall function and transport processes. Seeds, which supply essential resources for embryo development, showed higher mRNA abundance of genes encoding phenylpropanoid biosynthetic enzymes, seed storage proteins, and late embryogenesis abundant proteins. Water-deficit stress affected the mRNA abundance of 13% of the genes with differential expression patterns occurring mainly in the pulp and skin. In pulp and seed tissues transcript abundance in most functional categories declined in water-deficit stressed vines relative to well-watered vines with transcripts for storage proteins and novel (no-hit) functional assignments being over represented. In the skin of berries from water-deficit stressed vines, however, transcripts from several functional categories including general phenypropanoid and ethylene metabolism, pathogenesis-related responses, energy, and interaction with the environment were significantly over-represented.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results revealed novel insights into the tissue-specific expression mRNA expression patterns of an extensive repertoire of genes expressed in berry tissues. This work also establishes an extensive catalogue of gene expression patterns for future investigations aimed at the dissection of the transcriptional regulatory hierarchies that govern tissue-specific expression patterns associated with tissue differentiation within berries. These results also confirmed that water-deficit stress has a profound effect on mRNA expression patterns particularly associated with the biosynthesis of aroma and color metabolites within skin and pulp tissues that ultimately impact wine quality.</p

<i>Plasmodium </i>Condensin Core Subunits SMC2/SMC4 Mediate Atypical Mitosis and Are Essential for Parasite Proliferation and Transmission

Condensin is a multi-subunit protein complex regulating chromosome condensation and segregation during cell division. In Plasmodium spp., the causative agent of malaria, cell division is atypical and the role of condensin is unclear. Here we examine the role of SMC2 and SMC4, the core subunits of condensin, during endomitosis in schizogony and endoreduplication in male gametogenesis. During early schizogony, SMC2/SMC4 localize to a distinct focus, identified as the centromeres by NDC80 fluorescence and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) analyses, but do not form condensin I or II complexes. In mature schizonts and during male gametogenesis, there is a diffuse SMC2/SMC4 distribution on chromosomes and in the nucleus, and both condensin I and condensin II complexes form at these stages. Knockdown of smc2 and smc4 gene expression reveals essential roles in parasite proliferation and transmission. The condensin core subunits (SMC2/SMC4) form different complexes and may have distinct functions at various stages of the parasite life cycle