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Meaningful change : exploring the process of change through membership in the 7th Step Society
Get PDF186 leaves ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 183-186).The 7th Step Society of Nova Scotia is a peer support group for ex-offenders. The role that such groups play in supporting desistance from crime has received little scholarly attention. To address this knowledge gap, this research explored how the 7th Step Society creates relationships, experiences, and meanings, that facilitate desistance, personal growth, and change within its membership. It examined the process of change as it involves both individual and social variables within a reciprocal process of mutual transformation and exchange between ex-offenders and society. The research is particularly unique in looking at the role and experience of non-offender volunteers within the desistance process. It used an ethnographic framework involving participant observation, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews with 17 participants. Through thematic analysis of the data, the following four themes were produced: 1) Trust and Openness: the foundation of accountability, 2) Accountability: the foundation of change, 3) Giving Back: reintegration and the maintenance of change, and 4) Connection: stabilizing change through relationship with others. These themes tell the story of an interconnected process and cycle of personal growth, understanding, and transformation that is created through 7th Step. The findings indicate that a more holistic approach needs to be taken in terms of the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders, including greater peer support and mentorship within the process of desistance; engaging, empowering, and learning from ex-offenders themselves. The study also points to the need to engage with the expertise and experience of ex-offenders to help develop, deepen, and expand the understanding of desistance, both as a personal path of recovery, and also as a socially mediated process that requires ongoing encouragement and support
2019-02-15 Senate Minutes and Agenda
No full textMinutes and agenda for the February 15th, 2019 meeting of Saint Mary’s University Senate
On the verge of homelessness, incarceration and substance abuse : an analysis and close-up of at-risk youth aging out of the foster care system in the United States
Get PDF1 online resource (59 p.) : colour illustrationsIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (p. 34-37).At first, this study was going to analyze Canadian youth aging out of the foster care system, but due to the fact that there is no national dataset compiled, this was not possible. Using national data from the United States instead, the National Youth in Transition Dataset for FY2011 was provided with special permission from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect. This study investigates whether or not having experienced homelessness in the past has a large effect in experiencing it in the future, once the youth has aged out of the system during wave two and three. The same is done for incarceration and substance abuse. Furthermore, this study also measures other variables which may increase the probability of a youth experiencing one of these three negative outcomes. Since all variables, independent and dependant, are dichotomous, the linear probability model with fixed effects is applied. It is found that having experienced the outcome in the past does indeed play a role in experiencing it in the future, whether it be homelessness, incarceration or substance abuse. It is also found that, Asians on average, are less likely to experience homelessness compared to others, African Americans are more likely to experience incarceration but less likely to experience substance abuse out of all ethnic groups, leaving Caucasians more at-risk. Identifying who is most vulnerable among those already at-risk is important. Policy makers and different levels of government need to cooperate to improve the outcomes of those aging out of their care
Spatial pattern of invasive and native graminoids in the Brazilian cerrado
No full textAuthor's version/PDFInvasive grasses are an important threat in tropical savannas and grasslands and may be affected by natural and anthropogenic features of the environment. They may affect native species at a variety of scales, but a spatially-explicit assessment of their effects is lacking. We studied the spatial pattern of native and invasive graminoids in Brazilian cerrado in southeastern Brazil and assessed the effects of vegetation type, elevation and edges. We sampled native grasses, native sedges, and two invasive grass species (Urochloa decumbens and Melinis minutiflora) along three 301 to 1334 m-long transects encompassing grassland, forest, and savanna. We used wavelet transforms, generalized additive models, and null model simulations for analysis. Invasive grasses were mostly found in open vegetation. Neither native nor invasive species were consistently affected by elevation or edges. Much of the spatial variation could be explained by small-scale autocorrelation, but M. minutiflora had a more heterogeneous pattern than U. decumbens. Invasive grasses were negatively related to native ones at a variety of scales, from 1 to 66 m, and we observed both positive and negative relations between the two invasive species, with positive ones a finer scales. We hypothesize that spatial pattern characteristics of different invasive species may be related to their invasion potential.
Balanced harvest: concept, policies, evidence, and management implications
Get PDFPublished versionBalanced harvest has been proposed to reduce fishing impact on ecosystems while simultaneously maintaining or even increasing fishery yield. The concept has attracted broad interest, but also received criticisms. In this paper, we examine the theory, modelling studies, empirical evidence, the legal and policy frameworks, and management implications of balanced harvest. The examination reveals unresolved issues and challenges from both scientific and management perspectives. We summarize current knowledge and address common questions relevant to the idea. Major conclusions include: balanced harvest can be expressed in several ways and implemented on multiple levels, and with different approaches e.g. métier based management; it explicitly bridges fisheries and conservation goals in accordance with international legal and policy frameworks; modelling studies and limited empirical evidence reveal that balanced harvest can reduce fishing impact on ecosystem structure and increase the aggregate yield; the extent of balanced harvest is not purely a scientific question, but also a legal and social choice; a transition to balanced harvest may incur short-term economic costs, while in the long-term, economic results will vary across individual fisheries and for society overall; for its application, balanced harvest can be adopted at both strategic and tactical levels and need not be a full implementation, but could aim for a “partially-balanced” harvest. Further objective discussions and research on this subject are needed to move balanced harvest toward supporting a practical ecosystem approach to fisheries
A colour-excess extinction map of the southern Galactic disc from the VVV and GLIMPSE surveys
Get PDFPublished versionAn improved high-resolution and deep AKs foreground dust extinction map is presented for the Galactic disc area within 295° ≲ l ≲ 350°, −1.0° ≲ b ≲ +1.0°. At some longitudes the map reaches up to |b| ∼ 2.25°, for a total of ∼148 deg2. The map was constructed via the Rayleigh–Jeans colour excess (RJCE) technique based on deep near-infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) photometry. The new extinction map features a maximum bin size of 1', and relies on NIR observations from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) and new data from ESO’s Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey, in concert with MIR observations from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire. The VVV photometry penetrates ∼4 mag fainter than 2MASS, and provides enhanced sampling of the underlying stellar populations in this heavily obscured region. Consequently, the new results supersede existing RJCE maps tied solely to brighter photometry, revealing a systematic underestimation of extinction in prior work that was based on shallower data. The new high-resolution and large-scale extinction map presented here is readily available to the community through a web query interface
Nuclear spallation in active galaxies
Get PDFPublished versionA number of works point to the presence of narrow emission features at unusual energies in the X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei or to potentially low iron abundances as possible evidence for the spallation of iron. With the imminence of high-resolution calorimeter spectroscopy, the potential to test spallation models in astrophysical sources will soon be possible. Previously determined nuclear spallation reactions of Fe are recalculated making use of improved total inelastic and partial reaction cross-sections that result in different absolute and relative abundances of the main spallation elements Mn, Cr, V, and Ti. The effects of ionization and dynamics near the black hole are examined in simulated spectra with CCD and calorimeter (i.e. Hitomi) resolution. With high resolution, differences in relative abundances and ionization should be detectable if spallation is originating at large distances from the black hole (e.g. torus or disc wind), where blurring is not significant. If spallation were occurring in the inner accretion disc, it would likely be undetected as blurring effects would cause significant blending of spectral features
A unified multi-kingdom Golden Gate cloning platform
Get PDFPublished versionAssembling composite DNA modules from custom DNA parts has become routine due to recent technological breakthroughs such as Golden Gate modular cloning. Using Golden Gate, one can efficiently assemble custom transcription units and piece units together to generate higher-order assemblies. Although Golden Gate cloning systems have been developed to assemble DNA plasmids required for experimental work in model species, they are not typically applicable to organisms from other kingdoms. Consequently, a typical molecular biology laboratory working across kingdoms must use multiple cloning strategies to assemble DNA constructs for experimental assays. To simplify the DNA assembly process, we developed a multi-kingdom (MK) Golden Gate assembly platform for experimental work in species from the kingdoms Fungi, Eubacteria, Protista, Plantae, and Animalia. Plasmid backbone and part overhangs are consistent across the platform, saving both time and resources in the laboratory. We demonstrate the functionality of the system by performing a variety of experiments across kingdoms including genome editing, fluorescence microscopy, and protein interaction assays. The versatile MK system therefore streamlines the assembly of modular DNA constructs for biological assays across a range of model organisms
On the lack of correlation between Doubly ionized oxygen and singly ionized oxygen and Lyman continuum escape fraction
No full textPublished versionWe present the first results of our pilot study of eight photometrically selected Lyman-continuum (LyC) emitting galaxy candidates from the COSMOS field and focus on their optical emission line ratios. Observations were performed in the H and K bands using the Multi-Object Spectrometer for Infra-Red Exploration (MOSFIRE) instrument at the Keck Observatory, targeting the [O  ii], H β, and [O  iii] emission lines. We find that photometrically selected LyC emitting galaxy candidates have high ionization parameters, based on their high [O iii]/[O ii] ratios (O32), with an average ratio for our sample of 2.5 ± 0.2. Preliminary results of our companion Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) observations, targeting LyC and Ly α, show that those galaxies with the largest O32 are typically found to also be Ly α emitters. High O32 galaxies are also found to have tentative non-zero LyC escape fractions (ƒesc(LyC)) based on u band photometric detections. These results are consistent with samples of highly ionized galaxies, including confirmed LyC emitting galaxies from the literature. We also perform a detailed comparison between the observed emission line ratios and simulated line ratios from density bounded H  ii regions modelled using the photoionization code MAPPINGS V. Estimates of ƒesc(LyC) for our sample fall in the range from 0.0 to 0.23 and suggest possible tension with published correlations between O32 and ƒesc(LyC), adding weight to dichotomy of arguments in the literature. We highlight the possible effects of clumpy geometry and mergers that may account for such tension
“Eastern Métis” Studies and White Settler Colonialism Today
Get PDFPublished versionTwo books published in the first half of 2019 by Presses de l’Université Laval - Le statut de Métis au Canada and Les Bois-Brûlés de l’Outaouais - are the latest in a primarily French-language academic subfield (“Eastern métis” studies) that grew out of the Supreme Court of Canada’s (SCC) Powley decision in 2003. Authors in the subfield continue to treat knowledge produced by the courts as the ultimate arbiter of truth when it comes to Indigenous identity, all the while harming Indigenous political efforts at self-determination. Another unmistakable feature of the sub-field is its lack of engagement with Indigenous thinkers. Combined with a bedrock of faulty assumptions about the past and a lavish dose of speculative interpretation, the subfield exemplifies how academia is a generative space for colonial revisionism. These two books in particular aim to ensure that individuals claiming an “Eastern métis” (or “Québec métis” or “Acadian-métis”) identity continue to take up institutional resources reserved for actual Indigenous individuals, whether in the form of scholarships and bursaries, faculty, administrative or advisory positions, or other things