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Vide-Poche, toponyme générique d’Amérique française?
No full textThe distribution of Vide-Poche hints at its function as a former generic place name. Located in nine different places from Québec to the American Midwest, this toponym has shown resilience in Missouri, in stark contrast with its vanishing twins in the St. Lawrence Valley. Motivation for this place name has perplexed observers, yielding mostly unsatisfactory explanations for the pejorative meanings that have been rooted in several areas since the early 1800’s at least. The study of abundant sources from the last centuries documents and questions the negative load steadily attached to ‘vide-poche’ as a noun as well as a name. A former nickname for the mill provides a possible solution. Yet Vide-Poche also penetrated the fur trade to the extent that this phrase ended up referring to the mixed-blood culture in the St. Louis area. This French-language era enclave in Upper Louisiana left clues that can be used in return to analyze the Laurentian Vide-Poche’s. Far-fetched etymologies, such as the literary one imagined by Québec writer Jacques Ferron, are thus put in perspective and reveal a quest for motivation dating back centuries.Une ancienne fonction générique semble avoir favorisé la propagation du nom de lieu « Vide-Poche » en Amérique du Nord. La distribution de ce toponyme montre neuf occurrences relevées du Québec aux États-Unis. Le mieux connu est un Vide-Poche du Missouri dont la résilience contraste avec l’effacement de ses homonymes dans la vallée laurentienne. L’invariant sémantique négatif du nom, substantif ou toponyme, ressort de l’importante documentation recueillie. La motivation de Vide-Poche et ses connotations péjoratives ont suscité nombre d’interrogations depuis deux siècles. Une réponse inédite se profile dans un surnom jadis donné au moulin. Le défi demeure néanmoins d’expliquer la diffusion de Vide-Poche en Amérique du Nord jusqu’à son développement le plus original dans la culture métissée de la région de Saint-Louis. Ce passé français de la Haute Louisiane conserve des traces qui éclairent la toponymie du Québec en retour. Les étymologies imaginaires de Vide-Poche (cf. Jacques Ferron) sont ainsi mises en perspective et s’inscrivent dans une ancienne quête de sens
Children in a Pandemic: The Impact of Isolation and Economic Recession on the Health of Youth
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic started in China in late 2019 and has since caused social and economic disruption across the globe. While children seem to be less severely affected by the disease, indirect factors may be affecting children’s physical and mental wellbeing. Countries have adopted social distancing policies, including school closures, in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease. Children were forced to be socially isolated from agemates during prolonged home-stay at an unprecedented scale. In addition, the pandemic is causing economic decline surpassing that of the Great Recession in 2008-2009. Other than some preliminary reports, it is unknown how the current situation will affect child health. To estimate how these drastic changes may impact children, we examine previous studies on social isolation and economic recession. Social isolation in the context of infectious disease is understudied, but the limited literature does show a correlation with increased post-traumatic stress scores and need for mental health services. Studies from the 2008 recession show how economic decline may be related to higher rates of infant and child mortality, obesity, mental health concerns, suicide related behaviours and child maltreatment. Potential increases in child maltreatment are of concern because reporting has decreased in a variety of jurisdictions after the onset of the pandemic. Parents and those who work with children should be aware of these indirect consequences during and after the pandemic
Canada’s Hidden History of Medical Violence: An Intersectional Feminist Perspective
No full textMedical violence in the Canadian historical narrative is often overlooked in favour of progress and current advancements. Yet, to deliver compassionate care to all patients requires an understanding and acknowledgement of the medical community’s past and persisting transgressions. The legalization and forced sterilization of Indigenous women is not only an example of blatant disregard for informed consent, but an egregious and continued trauma highlighting the medical community’s policing of marginalized female bodies. In the 1900s and deeply rooted in eugenic theory, sexual sterilization in Canada was framed as the solution for vast disparities in economic classes and social inequities. Indigenous women were disproportionately targeted and vilified by both the Canadian government and the practicing medical body. Such measures nearly halved birth rates in Indigenous populations in as little as two decades. The sociocultural effects of Canada’s medical violence are clear today; laws have yet to pass banning forced sterilization in Indigenous communities, and stereotypes of the ‘promiscuous’ Indigenous woman are cited in current clinical cases with devastating consequences. This article aims to contribute to discourse regarding the violent history of forced sterilization of Indigenous women and describe its institutionalization by the Canadian government as a public health measure with ongoing implications in perpetuating structural racism
The Independent Inventions of General Anesthesia in 19th century Japan and United States: Why the Latter Revolutionized Surgery while the Former was Forgotten
No full textIn October of 1804, surgeon Hanaoka Seishū performed the first documented surgery using general anesthesia. Hanaoka’s formulation, a mixture of plant extracts called tsūsensan, was commonly used in Japan, but it had minimal influence elsewhere. It was not until the 1840s that general anesthesia was used outside of Japan. In the eastern United States, four individuals, including dentist William Morton, were independently experimenting with the use of diethyl ether and nitrous oxide as general anesthetics. Unlike Hanaoka’s invention, Morton’s successful use of diethyl ether in a neck tumour removal surgery sparked the rapid development and proliferation of new anesthetic technologies and compounds throughout the world. This paper examines why Hanaoka’s work was not significantly influential outside of Japan, while the later American discoveries achieved global prominence despite being four decades later. Additionally, historical context behind both stories is included. Reasons for this disparity include Japan’s isolationist policy at the time (sakoku) and differences in 19th century Western and Japanese approaches to medical education and research
We just try to work with the needs in front of us: How teachers in secondary schools enact Ontario's International Education Strategy
No full textThe Ontario government’s International Education Strategy (2015) establishes goals for international education and the hosting of international students in Ontario schools. Using a critical policy lens, we focus on teachers as key to enacting these policy objectives in local contexts. The article presents findings from four focus groups of Ontario teachers working in schools with large international student cohorts. We found teacher participants were generally unaware of a broader vision or strategic goal for the presence of these students in their schools. They found it difficult to meet the needs of this growing cohort, and they faced this challenge with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Factors that influenced their enactment included personal background and education, as well their ability to collaborate and work in contexts with a professional ethos. Overall, teachers expressed a desire for more information, support, and professional development, including opportunities for collaboration, with regard to educating international students in their schools
Book Review: Regimes of Belonging – Schools – Migrations: Teaching in (Trans)National Constellations
No full textThe Psychoanalytic milieu of Margaret S. Mahler and childhood development
No full textThe separation-individuation process is Margaret Mahler’s key contribution to the field of developmental psychoanalysis. As a framework of early childhood development, it describes the emergence of a child’s autonomous sense of self in relation to the emotional availability of a primary caregiver. Over two decades of observations led Mahler to conclude that these factors interact to influence the trajectory of a child’s mood regulation skills and frustration tolerance, among other domains of functioning involved in psychopathology. This paper discusses Mahler’s original research in its proper historical context and argues for its relevance to clinical psychology today. By way of introduction, an autobiographical sketch reveals deeply personal motivations for Mahler’s entrance to pediatric medicine, and later to child analysis. A literature review focuses on her major revisions to classical psychoanalytic concepts, such as the body ego and the self-object representation, and explains how they informed her theoretical approach to the infant-caregiver relationship. Mahler’s conclusions have stimulated an entire literature of disagreement and debate, so this paper concludes by reviewing a small sample of studies that demonstrate the clinical utility of using a separation-individuation framework for understanding personality development throughout the lifespan
Tainted Love: Gendering illicit sex in early modern Europe
No full textThis paper traces various forms of illicit sex across the early modern period, drawing upon broad themes to discern European attitudes toward the role of gender in nonconforming sexuality
A Maple-based introductory visual guide to Gröbner bases
No full textIn 1975 the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (the main Spanish institution for scientific research) published the monograph [14] by the second author (by the way, father and Ph.D. advisor of the first author). Its title could be translated as "Geometric Interpretation of Ideal Theory" (nowadays Ideal Theory is not normally used, in favour of Commutative Algebra). It somehow illustrated the geometric ideas underlying the basics of the classic books of the period (like [2, 11, 16]) and was a success: although written in Spanish, the edition was sold out.Of course there are much more modern books on ideals and varieties than [2, 11, 16], such as the famous [7] or [8], that illustrate the theory with images. Moreover, there are introductory works to Gröbner bases such as [3, 9, 12, 13, 15], as well as books on the topic like [1], and articles about applications, like the early [4]. Even a summary in English of the original Ph.D. Thesis by Bruno Buchberger is available [5].
Nevertheless, we believe that there is a place for a visual guide to Gröbner bases, as there was a place for [14].
For instance, statistical packages are probably the pieces of mathematical software best known by non-mathematicians, and they are frequently used as black boxes by users with a slight knowledge of the theory behind. Meanwhile, Gröbner bases, the most common exact method behind non-linear polynomial systems (algebraic systems) solving, although incorporated to all computer algebra systems, are only known by a relatively small ratio of the members of the scientific community, most of them mathematicians. This article presents in an intuitive and visual way an illustrative selection of ideals and their Gröbner bases, together with the plots of the (real part) of their corresponding algebraic varieties, computed and plotted with Maple [6, 10]. A minimum amount of theoretical details is given. We believe that exact algebraic systems solving could also be used as a black box by non-mathematicians just understanding the basic ideas underlying commutative algebra and computer algebra
Endogenous Demand for Money and Default of a Creditor
No full textWe study a general equilibrium model of perfect competition with production and endogenous demand for fiat (or non-consumable) money (Shubik-Wilson, 1977), with workers, entrepreneurs, and a bank. Workers supply labor (Beker, 1971) and consume, entrepreneurs consume and organize production. There is no barter, and both agent types borrow money from a bank. The bank motivates borrowers to pay loans back with a punishment, which has an impact on demands for credits before a trade. The model has three markets: labor, goods, and credits. We study the results of the credit market with a numerical simulation in Maple. The model has 4 regimes, one of which corresponds to the classical money theory. Three other regimes have defaults as parts of an equilibrium. The special feature of our model is that it allows to study interactions of real (production and demand/supply of labor) markets with a nominal (credit) market, but also it can produce cases, when a value of default of borrowers exceeds total money supply from the bank, what become a reason for insolvency of the bank