14589 research outputs found
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Climate change and human mobility
Get PDFxv, 308 leaves : colour illustrations, colour maps ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-308).Climatic and non-climatic factors affect small-scale agriculture leading to high cases of food insecurity and subsequent human mobility in Zimbabwe’s communal areas. These farming areas were established by the colonial British government for African farmers during the colonial era, and livelihoods in these marginal areas have endured a long history of poverty, poor agricultural production, and underdevelopment. Communal farming areas still exist today and continue to shape the livelihoods of most African farmers, subjecting them to high cases of food insecurity and poverty. Compounding these livelihood challenges in communal areas, are contemporary global and national economic development decisions brought about by the international community and the new African government in Zimbabwe after independence. The turn of the 20th century has seen climatic factors working together with other human mobility drivers in exacerbating the existing food security challenges, increasing the imperative of people to move in Zimbabwe. The motives behind human mobility have been working together to create a complex web of mobility patterns in Zimbabwe’s communal areas.
Unfortunately, there are no peer-reviewed studies explaining this interplay of
multicausal factors contributing to human mobility patterns in Zimbabwe. As a result, this study examines the interconnectedness of climate change, colonial and contemporary development policies in shaping modern-day human mobility patterns in Zimbabwe. I argue that climate change adaptation challenges in communal areas of Zimbabwe cannot be addressed without first dealing with the complex political and historical context of the country. Additionally, climate change is being ignored in human mobility studies in Zimbabwe, and there is a need to seriously consider climatic factors alongside other traditional human mobility drivers in the country. Lastly, human mobility as a climate adaptation strategy should be incorporated into the country’s climate policy framework, mimicking a strategy at the national level that has been effectively used by households at the local level to cushion themselves from climate and livelihood related stresses over the years
Storytelling leadership : connecting heart, mind, body and spirit to stories of the old days and old ways of Labrador
Get PDFix, 315 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-315).The THEM DAYS stories of the old days and old ways of Labrador have offered me some leadership advise. This dissertation is a personal story of my uncomfortable long loving deeply contemplative multisensory learning journey. I attempt to guide you
through this journey, much of which is emotional, spiritual, and relational.
Leadership in the THEM DAYS network is often about enduring hardship and honouring the spectrums of human emotions that come with the lived experience. The leadership is not always about being strong and in control; it is also about accepting strength from others when the time or timing calls for it and having the endurance and patience to bring strength in. Many of the non-Indigenous forms of leadership position humans as the source of leadership and human traits, behaviours, cognition, and affect as central in the leadership process. I have come to understand leadership as a dynamic, multiple, and interconnected ecosystem, whereas stories centre human and non-human actors; corporeal and non-corporeal actants; past, present, and future actions; individual, collective, and intercorporeal networks; through time, space, and plane. The leadership ecosystem includes heart, mind, body, and spirit ways of being, knowing, doing, and relating. The stories also focused on what is worthy of leading toward (the value-laden foci) such as individual and collective safety, health, wellbeing, dignity, sustainability, resilience, strength, solidarity, compassion, and gratitude. Leadership, learning, and teaching are interconnected concepts within the network. Themes such as self-love, compassion, gratitude, respect, connection, and resistance emerged from within the stories along with ways of transmitting knowledge as sharing, listening, modelling, mimicking, contemplating, failing, co-creating, co-dreaming, co-emerging, co-learning, co-producing, and collaborating.
The stories of Labrador have helped me to welcome my anger, hardship, sadness, love, compassion, respect, and gratitude on my journey toward decolonizing leadership, leadership education, and practice
Application of managed dyke realignment and hydrodynamic modelling for flood mitigation in Truro, Nova Scotia
Get PDF1 online resource (x, 183 pages) : illustrations (chiefly colour), colour mapsIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 138-154).Managed dyke realignment (MR) is to be implemented at a 92-hectare restoration site in the Salmon River Estuary to restore tidal wetland habitat and to help mitigate flooding in Truro. This research examines the accuracy of a hydrodynamic model, predicted flooding within the restoration site and the estuary’s response to MR. Field surveys were conducted to update river bathymetry, and water level and current measurements were collected over several tidal cycles for model calibration and validation. The model successfully reproduced measured water levels, the timing of tides and the tidally-dominated velocity profiles in the channel compared to the field measurements. Modelled water levels in the channel decreased by up to 31.9 cm under the MR scenario, indicating the potential for flood reduction in Truro. The predicted spreading of slow-moving floodwater within the site suggests the potential for net sedimentation followed by halophytic vegetation establishment, indicating net positive benefits of MR
Claiming our space : embedding intersectionality in research with diverse women with disabilities
Get PDF192 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves [127]-151).This document details research I conducted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Arts in Women and Gender Studies program, jointly provided by Saint Mary’s University and Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I applied a theoretical lens consisting of the social constructionist approach to disability, feminist intersectionality and theory of misfitting, to reveal that an intersectional exploration of the experiences of women with disabilities is often absent in academic literature. I developed this research question in response: What tools and practices are necessary to ensure that diverse women with disabilities can fully participate in, and benefit from, research? I employed intersectionality to analyze the themes that emerged from focus group and demographic data to develop three recommendations aimed at supporting researchers wishing to include and reflect diverse women with disabilities in all phases of research — from planning to dissemination of findings
Volunteer burnout : the cost of caring
Get PDF1 online resource (43 pages).Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (page 22)."Graduate Project"Using the Grounded Theory approach to qualitative research, the experience of emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual fatigue or burnout in four Christian volunteers was studied. The participants were interviewed together in a focus group. The data gathered illumined what it was like for these people to become fatigued in the face of slow change
or no perceivable change in the volunteer work where they hoped to see a positive impact. Their experiences showed that burnout or fatigue occurred through a four-step process: 1) an initial motivation to become engaged as volunteers; 2) when positive impacts and effectiveness were not perceived, a decrease in motivation and effectiveness occurred as well as an increase in repetitive, isolating, ineffective behaviours; 3) a period of burnout when the volunteer could no longer engage at all with the tasks, and this burnout impacted other areas of their lives; and 4) an acceptance that involvement in the volunteer work must cease in order to recover. The results showed that burnout might be avoided if volunteers are well-supported by leaders and colleagues, if they learn not to repeat ineffective behaviours, and if they can let go of responsibilities before reaching the burnout stage
2020-01-17 Senate Minutes and Agenda
No full textMinutes and agenda for the January 17, 2020 meeting of Saint Mary's University Senate
Working relations in southeastern Cape Breton Acadian communities, 1767-1820
Get PDF1 online resource (80 pages) : illustrations, maps (some colour)Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (pages 76-80).The story of the Acadians in Nova Scotia is one of self-reliance, devastation, and working relations. The research surrounding the Acadians has focused primarily on their ability to form a unique identity that separated them from other European populations and the Grand Dérangement that saw the British forcibly remove the Acadians from their communities. Due to this displacement, the common belief beyond academia has been that the Acadians and British were always enemies. In an attempt to expand the historical knowledge surrounding the Acadians, this thesis focuses on the adaptability of the Acadian population in southeastern Cape Breton and how they were able to diversify communities and economies. The success of the cod industry and the ability of the Acadians to exploit it, meant that their communities evolved into hubs for British and other European settlers and businesses. The Acadians managed to adapt and form working relations with their neighbours for the betterment of all
2020-08-21 Senate Minutes and Agenda
No full textMinutes and agenda for the August 21st, 2020 meeting of Saint Mary's University Senate
Chemistry of propargyl carbocations
Get PDF1 online resource (viii, 125, ix, 222 pages) : colour illustrations charts (some colour, graphs (some colour)Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (pages 124-125, 219-222).The contents of this thesis have been divided into two separate parts, with permission
from Saint Mary’s University. Each part is to be treated as its own self-enclosed thesis,
with no relation to each other, even though there may be overlaps in the underlying
chemistry.
Investigation of the Photo-Oxidation of Bitumen -
Highly unsaturated organic molecules, commonly referred to as porphyrins, within bitumen are oxidized when exposed to sunlight. These photo-oxidized porphyrins influence the chemical and physical properties of the bitumen. The generation of these oxidized porphyrins have been monitored using infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gas chomatography/mass spectrometry (GCMS), and saturate, aromatic, resin and asphaltene (SARA) analyses.
Chemistry of Propargyl Carbocations -
Highly unsaturated organic molecules are very reactive and readily undergo addition
reactions. The reactivity of unsaturated molecules will be further modified by the
inclusion of a carbocationic center. For instance, the reactivity of an alkyne is believed to
increase with the presence of an adjacent carbocation; a structure referred to as a
propargyl carbocation. The carbocation will withdraw electron density, causing the alkyne carbon to form a dipole moment and become highly reactive. We have been able to isolate several stable propargyl carbocations and made preliminary investigations into
their chemistry
2020-10-26 Senate Minutes and Agendas
No full textMinutes and agenda for the October 26th, 2020 meeting of Saint Mary's University Senate