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Is ‘eliminating’ remote diesel-generation just? Inuit energy, power, and resistance in off-grid communities of NunatuKavut
No full textNation states globally have signaled a rapid pursuit of net-zero emissions and transition to a low carbon economy. The country Canada is a part of this discourse and already has a largely decarbonized electricity grid, which is expected to grow substantially in the coming decades. Despite these ‘on-grid’ successes, remote, northern, and off-grid communities in Canada, most of which identify as Indigenous, remain almost wholly dependent on diesel fuel for space-heating and power generation. The agenda to transition remote communities off diesel-power is often driven by non-Indigenous outsiders, and seldom centers Indigenous knowledge, rights, or ways of being, potentially resulting in adverse socio-economic and ecological impacts and novel forms of ‘green’ colonialism. The current study is a participatory research partnership, between several university-based researchers, as well as representatives of the NunatuKavut Community Council – the rights-based governing body who represent Inuit across nine diesel-dependent communities in southern Labrador. The case-study research uses key informant interviews (n = 14) and a community member survey (n = 34) to assess how existing clean energy initiatives (policies, plans, programs, projects, etc.) in NunatuKavut have respected principles of energy justice. We discover and build upon several categories of distributional, procedural, and recognition injustice. Recognizing the potential harm of injustice discourses, we call on energy researchers to more meaningfully integrate strength-based approaches which focus on Indigenous resistance and response to energy domination. Finally, based on our results, we develop two novel schematics to help further understand distributive and procedural justice in the context of Indigenous energy governance.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaCanadian Institutes of Health Researc
From calf to cow: assessing the long-term associations of early-life management and genetic potential on dairy production and longevity
No full textManagement practices are crucial as they impact the health, production, longevity, and welfare of dairy cattle. However, early-life management practices are often overlooked, particularly regarding long-term outcomes. This thesis aims to estimate the impacts of preweaning calf management on adult cow production and longevity, while accounting for genetic potential at both the calf and herd levels. The first two studies (Chapters 2 and 3) explored the relationship of calfhood management practices on production and longevity at the calf-level. A retrospective cohort study was conducted on eight herds in New Brunswick, Canada. Preweaning practices, health and genetic data were collected for calves, with follow-up six years later to gather production and survival information. In Chapter 2, the impact of calfhood management on 305 d milk, protein, and fat yields was investigated. Lactation differences were addressed by investigating lactation one independently and grouping lactation two and three group. Feeding colostrum 1-2 h or > 2 h after birth and increased weaning weight improved milk and protein yields in the first lactation and milk, protein, and fat yields in the 2nd and 3rd lactations. A bell-curve effect was noted for colostrum feeding time in the first lactation, with optimal results between 1-2 h. Feeding colostrum at 1-2 hours of life resulted in improved milk and protein yields of 626 kg and 18.2 kg, respectively, compared to earlier or later feeding times. Preweaning disease and antibiotic treatment negatively impacted fat yield in the first lactation decreasing yields up to 80.5 kg compared to healthy and treated animals. In Chapter 3, the impacts of calfhood management practices on longevity and different lactation stages (early vs late) were assessed with discrete-time survival analysis. Although genetic potential was assessed, it was not significant. Increased hazard for removal was observed in calves fed pooled colostrum (1.73) compared to colostrum from one dam. Decreased hazards for removal were observed in calves born in the winter (0.62) compared to summer, and calves fed >2 L of colostrum at first feeding (0.63) were less likely to be removed compared to those fed 10 L of milk/d had a negative impact on herd milk production, whereas a positive impact was identified with the interaction of colostrum IgG evaluation and protocol for preweaning pneumonia. Exploratory analyses supported the confirmatory model’s findings. Chapters 2 and 4 demonstrated that including genetic potential provided more accurate estimates and improved model fit when assessing the long-term impacts of calf management on production. The findings presented underscore the importance of calf management on milk production and longevity of dairy cows, in addition to accounting for genetic potential and understanding its influences on analyses
Betanodavirus meningoencephalitis in an Atlantic blue marlin
No full textViral nervous necrosis (viral encephalopathy and retinopathy) is caused by piscine nodavirus (Nodaviridae, Betanodavirus). Since 1986, this highly infectious virus has caused mass mortalities of up to 100% in farmed saltwater and freshwater fish around the world (with the exception of South America and Antarctica), affecting >60 species across 10 orders. The Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans Lacépède, 1802) is a top-level predator found throughout the tropical waters of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans. Despite their popularity as a sportfish, relatively little is known about the Atlantic blue marlin and other billfish. We describe here chronic betanodavirus infection in a juvenile Atlantic blue marlin, which is, to our knowledge, the first report of disease in M. nigricans
Between smart images and fast trucks: Digital surveillance and obscured labour in Hyderabad, India
No full textIn Hyderabad, India, the growing information technology (IT) sector relies on ensuring safe and efficient movements of people and objects, and the city government and private actors have embraced the promise of digital surveillance to reach these goals. The new Telangana State, created in 2014, has built a new city-wide network of smart cameras, and at ‘hackathons’ programmers develop new digital tools, often connected to this network, that will technologically ‘solve’ social problems. In this article, I examine the system of CCTV cameras and programmers’ investments in these systems, and explore how migrant Vaddera stonecutters use cellphones to evade patrolling officers monitoring the streets where they carry the granite stones that they cut and load to construct the city’s buildings. Expanding on what Gilbert Simondon calls ‘the margin of indeterminacy’, this article reveals gaps in the digital infrastructure of surveillance—even as its integration and completion combine human and technical elements
A review: Hydrochar as potential adsorbents for wastewater treatment and CO2 adsorption
No full textTo valorize the biomass and organic waste, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) stands out as a highly efficient and promising pathway given its intrinsic advantages over other thermochemical processes. Hydrochar, as the main product obtained from HTC, is widely applied as a fuel source and soil conditioner. Aside from these applications, hydrochar can be either directly used or modified as bio-adsorbents for environmental remediation. This potential arises from its tunable surface chemistry and its suitability to act as a precursor for activated or engineered carbon. In view of the importance of this topic, this review offers a thorough examination of the research progress for using hydrochar and its modified forms to remove organic dyes (cationic and anionic dyes), heavy metals, herbicides/pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and CO2. The review also sheds light on the fundamental chemistry involved in HTC of biomass and the major analytical techniques applied for understanding surface chemistry of hydrochar and modified hydrochar. The knowledge gaps and potential hurdles are identified to highlight the challenges and prospects of this research field with a summary of the key findings from this review. Overall, this article provides valuable insights and directives and pinpoints the areas meriting further investigation in the application potential of hydrochar in wastewater management and CO2 capture.Discovery Grant, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canad
Supporting rural families during interhospital patient transfers for critical illness events: An exploration of an acceptable communication process
No full textCritically ill patients in rural areas at times require an interhospital transfer from their local hospital to an urban tertiary care centre for advanced critical care services not available locally. Family members have described this transfer window as a communication blackout and one of the most stressful times of their relative’s critical illness event.
Objective
To explore what communication process would be most acceptable between family members and transfer team members (consisting of critical care nurses, paramedics, and physicians) during interhospital transfers of critically ill patients.
Research methodology
Using a qualitative descriptive approach of critical thematic analysis, data were collected in September and November 2022, from focus groups of five family members and four transfer team members who experienced this phenomenon.
Setting
Rural Canada where speciality services such as interventional cardiology and neurosurgery are unavailable, and a tertiary care hospital is more than 160 km away.
Findings
Within themes of unequal power relations and status-based hierarchies, family members described how communication during interhospital transfers supports connection and coping, challenges experienced in accessing information, an overwhelming unknown, and practical challenges of the transfer. Transfer team members described a context of power relations and status-based hierarchies in which themes of transfer team burden, role confusion or connection, protection and management of family members, and complexities of information sharing during interhospital transfers were identified.
Conclusion
In critical illness, communication linkages are created between healthcare providers and family members but are broken during an interhospital transfer resulting in increased stress for family members. Acceptable communication elements described by transfer team members and family members may maintain these linkages during the transfer window.
Implications for clinical practice
These findings provide the foundation for critical care nurses and their professional colleagues to take family care to the next level with an explicit communication strategy during interhospital transfers.PEI Department of Health and WellnessSPOR Primary Care Research Network- PEI nod
The role of awe in psychedelic-assisted therapy: a phenomenological investigation
No full textThere exists a vast and growing body of research on the therapeutic potential and mechanisms of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy; research shows that the quality of the subjective experience is integral for long-term therapeutic outcomes. The current study sought to investigate individuals’ experiences of awe during psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in order to better understand its role in therapeutic mechanisms and outcomes. A phenomenological approach was used to obtain an in-depth account of the awe experience across nine individuals and semi-structured interview transcripts were analyzed using a well-established method for thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Several themes were found to capture individuals’ awe experiences, including participation (characterized by acts of surrender and a willingness to experience the unknown), vastness (feeling of being in the presence of something vast that defies current understanding), ego expansion (a shift in one’s sense of self to encompass greater interconnection), noetic quality (experiences endued with a deep sense of knowing or truth of reality), and effects (the immediate effects of the experience on the individual, including powerful emotional, cognitive, physiological, and sensory changes). These aspects of individuals’ psychedelic-mediated awe experiences were connected to a range of positive therapeutic outcomes, which were captured according to three major themes: mental health impacts of the experience, 2) the emergence of a new framework for experiencing or viewing oneself, others, or the world, and 3) increases in psychological flexibility. Participants’ accounts highlighted that these outcomes were sustained through an ongoing process of integration characterized by three main themes: 1) ongoing (referring to integration as a gradual and ongoing process), 2) meaning-making (referring to the process of accommodating, developing, and implementing the insights gained from the experience), and 3) communal (referring to the role of interpersonal and community support in the process of integration). This research demonstrates
the centrality of the awe experience within the therapeutics of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. It highlights the processes necessary for sustaining positive outcomes and incorporating the power of awe into everyday life
Truth in reconciliation: a discussion of Indigenous scholars' inclusion in the academy
No full textIn April 2023, Universities Canada released their “Commitments to Truth and Reconciliation”
document, which outlines six commitments in response to the TRC Calls to Action. This marks a
critical first step in national commitment to reconciliation within higher education. The current
literature to date, as well as our research, have uncovered incomplete and varied response patterns
and initiatives from universities across Atlantic Canada with regards to support for Indigenous
faculty in higher education. While the TRC calls for full participation of Indigenous Peoples in all
levels of education, the degree to which universities have been able to create space for Indigenous
positionality remains largely unknown. Our project aimed to gauge the levels of intentionality, action
and accountability expressed by Atlantic Canadian universities. Our methodology involved both
interrogation of public documents, such as strategic plans and collective agreements, but also
listening to Indigenous scholars who described their experiences working in higher education
Introduction—Building infrastructural lives: Mobile and creative livelihoods in India and Vietnam
No full textArticles in this special issue compare and contrast how secondary roads and wireless communication devices shape mobility and connectivity for four communities affected by economic, political, and ethnic marginalisation in socialist Vietnam and democratic India. Drawing on the concept of ‘infrastructural lives’, two urban case studies explore the ways by which marginalised migrant communities in India’s Hyderabad and Vietnam’s Hanoi use, adapt, or resist their states’ desires for all residents to embrace secondary roads, greater internet and cellphone interconnectivity, and digital monitoring. In parallel, and by comparing the realities of the Sino-Indian and Sino-Vietnamese borderlands, two rural case studies explore whether upland ethnic minority groups similarly modify or adapt their livelihoods to the expanding secondary roads and wireless communication technologies across the rural highlands of northern India and Vietnam. Taken together, this issue asks: How do the creative engagements of marginalised communities with these infrastructures shape infrastructural lives
Kiskisom: Can a plastic brain be decolonized through stories?
No full textAs an urban Indigenous academic, I struggle to comprehend and work within the schism between Indigenous and Western ways of knowing and being. Kiskisom, a Cree verb meaning 'to remind [someone],' argues that the cultivation of a plastic brain provides a unique opportunity for Indigenous sovereignty through the decolonizing action of reading Indigenous stories. The understanding that we have the power to rewire the brain through the mindful engagement of colonial ontology, or neurodecolonization, is a unique opportunity for chang