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Telling the Stories of Airwomen in the ‘Forgotten Decade’: 1952-62
Get PDFThe Royal Canadian Air Force’s centennial represents a time for reflection. While thousands of young women served in the RCAF during the 1950s, many of their stories have since been overlooked or forgotten. Joining the air force meant access to international travel, new social connections, and valuable vocational training — all of which were relatively unattainable for many women at this time. By studying the photographs, memoirs and collected paraphernalia of Leading Aircraftwoman Ruth Doreen Wright (née Tower), this paper reconstructs an airwoman’s typical RCAF career and her perceived value of her RCAF experience on the rest of her life
No. 17: South-South Migration, Pandemic Precarity, and the Informal Food Sector in South Africa
No full textThe analysis of COVID-19 pandemic precarity in Africa should focus on the ways in which pre-pandemic migrant vulnerabilities were reconfigured in ways that weakened economic resiliency and reinforced disadvantage. This is the first paper to apply the concept of pandemic precarity to the impact of COVID-19 on migrants working in the informal food sector of African cities. The paper develops a new method for measuring pandemic precarity and applies this to data from a 2021 survey of migrant-owned informal food enterprises in the city of Cape Town. The Informal Pandemic Precarity Index (IPPI) and Informal Pandemic Precarity Scale (IPPS) are used to rate the severity of the pandemic on the business operations of migrant enterprises. Most enterprises score in the mid-range of intense pandemic precarity with smaller numbers experiencing severe and low precarity respectively. The proposed methodology has potential wider application as a way of capturing and quantifying enterprise, household, and individual precarity during times of crisis
No. 01: South Africa at War: Food Insecurity, Migrant Exclusion and COVID-19 Policies
No full textThe policy audit critically examines the South African government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly focusing on the militaristic enforcement of lockdowns and the resulting food insecurity and exclusion of migrant populations. The report aims to inform policy-makers about the impacts of these policies and provide recommendations for crisis management.
On 27 March 2020, South Africa imposed a nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19. This lockdown, enforced by the police and the military, was characterized by stringent measures including curfews, bans on inter-provincial travel, and the closure of non-essential businesses. These measures, while necessary to control the pandemic, had significant socioeconomic repercussions, especially for the country’s large migrant population.
The report argues that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant weaknesses in South Africa’s crisis management policies, particularly concerning the treatment of migrants and workers in the informal sector. The government’s militaristic and centralized response, while effective in some respects, exacerbated the vulnerabilities of marginalized populations. By adopting more inclusive, decentralized and human-rights-based approaches, South Africa can better protect all its residents in future crises
No. 07: Pandemic Impacts on Migrant Food Security in Nanjing, China
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant disparities in food security, particularly among migrant populations in urban settings. Migrant workers, often occupying precarious, low-paying jobs, experienced disruptions to their food access due to job losses, mobility restrictions, and social exclusion during the pandemic. This policy brief highlights key findings from MiFOOD research conducted in Nanjing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed heightened levels of food insecurity among migrant households. Migrants were less likely to access online food systems due to technological barriers and exclusion from government aid programs. This brief provides recommendations to enhance food security resilience, including improving access to affordable food, supporting employment, and leveraging technology for equitable food access
No. 03: Addressing Urban Food Security Challenges for South-South Migrants
No full textThis policy brief examines the growing phenomenon of South-South migration, with a focus on the challenges of urban food security faced by migrants moving from one Global South country to urban areas in another. South-South migration has become increasingly significant, yet it remains under-researched, especially regarding the food insecurity that many migrants face in their host cities. The brief highlights the unique vulnerabilities of these migrants, who often find themselves in precarious employment, facing xenophobia, and excluded from formal social protection mechanisms, all of which exacerbate their food insecurity. The case study of Cape Town, South Africa, underscores the severity of these challenges. Migrants in Cape Town are significantly more food insecure than local populations, often relying on informal networks and precarious employment in the informal food sector to survive. This brief outlines several key findings and proposes policy recommendations aimed at improving food security for South-South migrants. These recommendations include enhancing social protection for migrants, improving urban planning to support migrant food vendors, and promoting inclusive policies that recognize migrants’ contributions to urban food systems. Additionally, further research is necessary to better understand the dynamics of food insecurity among South-South migrants and to develop targeted interventions
Situational Competition and the Motivational Climate of Competitive Sport Teams
No full textSituational competition is a form of intrateam competition (i.e., the type of competition that occurs within a team) that is organized by the coach, has a clear start and end point, can occur between any two members of the same team, and is a crucial method of preparing athletes for gameday (Harenberg et al., 2016a). Motivational climate is a theory that describes the motivational influence that various social agents (e.g., the coach) exert on athletes (Ames, 1992). A performance climate is traditionally labelled as comprising of competitive tasks (e.g., situational competition) and social comparison (Ames, 1992). This climate implies an emphasis from athletes on out-performing others, which is associated with negative achievement patterns (Nicholls, 1984). The purpose of this study was to observe situational competition in practice scenarios and gain insight on its potential association with the motivational climate of competitive sport teams through both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Athletes (N = 64, Mage = 19.62, SD = 5.42) from three interdependent sport teams at the collegiate and representative level completed a questionnaire package assessing time spent in situational competition and their perceptions of their team’s motivational climate directly after participating in researcher-observed team practices. Multiple bivariate correlation analyses indicated that the amount of time athletes spent in situational competition had no significant relationship with their perceptions of motivational climate at the individual level. At the group level, while unstable, a negative relationship was found between the frequency of situational competition and athlete perceptions of a performance climate. Further, three coaches (Mage = 45.75, SD = 14.38) indicated during semistructured interviews that situational competition within competitive sport teams might provide athletes with the opportunity to master the art of competing rather than promote an emphasis on outperforming their teammates. Future research is encouraged to explore the motivational outcomes of situational competition on lower-level sport teams with athletes that are less competitive in nature
Making the Pluriverse Visible: World-Making on the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula
No full textThis dissertation argues that visual artists who live and work on the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula, in Ontario, Canada, are co-creating artworks with non-humans, which is evidence of more-than-human world-making. Such co-creative experiences are the result of, and catalysts for the kinds of enchantment our human worlds need to form meaningful and holistic connections with non-humans, effectively creating a more inclusive pluriverse. After reviewing interdisciplinary literature in posthuman studies, creative geography, arts-based practices, environmental humanities, Indigenous knowledges, and political ontology, I designed my research to include a combination of qualitative methodologies and methods, including autoethnography and research-creation, to investigate fourteen visual artists, plus myself, as a culture sharing group. Evidence was collected through semi-structured interviews, studio visits, visual analyses of artworks, and reflections on my own artistic practice and experimental research methods with dolostone in St. Jean Point Nature Preserve on the peninsula. Using the pluriverse as a critical framework of entanglement and heterogeneous worlding practices inclusive of humans and non-humans, I sought answers to my research questions. I found that contemporary visual culture on the peninsula is not strictly a human construct, but it is a form of co-creation, an artistic materialization of a relationship between a human and non-human. In the acts of co-creation with non-humans, the artists and I experienced forms of enchantment. Viewers of the finished artworks experience enchantment too, which could become a means to a renewed worldview that embraces the wellbeing of non-humans over human exceptionalism. My own autoethnographic reflections and research-creation practice validated these findings, bringing visual form to the geopolitical concept of the pluriverse, which I presented as an exhibition in July 2023. This contribution to Canadian creative geography includes all of the findings, including autoethnographic findings and the research-creation experience, to a tell a new story about the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula
Impacts of environmental stressors on mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) growth and the GH-IGF1 pathway using a laboratory bioassay
Get PDFUsing a flow-through laboratory bioassay, experiments investigated the effects of limited feeding, increased temperature, ammonium chloride (NH4Cl), and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) on juvenile mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) growth. Weight measurements were taken every three days as the apical growth endpoint. Gene expression was examined by qPCR for genes in the GH (growth hormone)-IGF1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) pathway, including gh, igf1, and their receptors (ghra, ghrb, igf1ra, igf1rb). In Experiment 1, juvenile mummichog were exposed to excess or limited feed for 21 days. The limited-fed mummichog weighed less, were shorter, and exhibited lower liver igf1 and muscle ghra mRNA expression than the control. In Experiment 2, juvenile mummichog were exposed to 0, 125, or 200 mg/L NH4Cl for 21 and 33 days. Growth was not altered by Day 21; however, 200 mg/L NH4Cl-exposed mummichog exhibited a decrease in liver ghra and ghrb mRNA expression compared to the control. After 33 days, NH4Cl-exposed mummichog weighed less but those exposed to 200 mg/L NH4Cl expressed higher liver igf1 and ghrb mRNA expression than the control. In Experiment 3, juvenile mummichog were exposed to control (salt water), 250 mg/L NH4Cl, or 250 ng/L EE2 at 20 and 25°C for 21 days. NH4Cl-exposed mummichog weighed less than controls, starting on Day 3 and Day 9 for fish at 20 and 25°C, respectively, and those at 25°C exhibited higher liver igf1ra and igf1rb mRNA expression. EE2 did not affect growth; EE2-exposed mummichog at 20°C exhibited higher liver igf1ra and igf1rb mRNA expression. When adult post-spawning female mummichog were exposed to Experiment 3 conditions, EE2-exposed mummichog at 25°C had higher weights and increased liver igf1 and igf1rb mRNA expression. Exposure to 25°C also increased ovary weights. NH4Cl reduced liver weights but increased liver igf1Rb in NH4Cl-exposed mummichog at 25°C. Together, these experiments demonstrate that food quantity, temperature, NH4Cl, and EE2 influence mummichog growth. Variability in molecular endpoints indicates the need for further studies and consideration of alternate mechanisms, including other hormonal pathways; the GH-IGF1 pathway might not be the main factor driving the mummichog growth effects caused by these environmental stressors
Review of “Treasuring the Tradition: The Story of The Military Museums” by Jeff Keshen and David Bercuson
Get PDFReview of Treasuring the Tradition: The Story of The Military Museums by Jeff Keshen and David Bercuson
Examining Seasonality of Zooplankton Communities and Water Quality in Yellowknife Area Lakes, Northwest Territories
No full textFrame Lake, located in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, is one of the city\u27s main attractions. Unfortunately, urbanization and eutrophication have led to a decline in water quality in the lake. Eutrophication has caused a buildup of organic matter in sediments on the bottom of the lake, which can cause a high oxygen demand when processed by aerobic bacteria. Dissolved oxygen levels are high during the summer, but ice shields the lake from gas exchange with the atmosphere, leading to winter anoxia. This oxygen depletion makes it impossible for sensitive aquatic life, such as fish, to survive in the lake over the winter. One possible solution to winter anoxia is to install a hypolimnetic aerator to exchange oxygen between the lake\u27s deep layers and the atmosphere. Past studies show that aeration will improve dissolved oxygen levels, and it may help break down accumulated organic matter and reduce nutrient levels in the water column. As part of a remediation project funded by Rio-Tinto Diamond Mines, a hypolimnetic aerator will be installed on Frame Lake in early summer 2024. To evaluate the effects of the aerator installation on the lake, data on the natural variability in water quality and biota in Frame Lake and comparable lakes within the region is necessary.
The objectives for my thesis were to examine seasonal variability in water quality and zooplankton communities in Frame Lake and two reference lakes, and to examine the relationships between water quality and zooplankton communities in those lakes to assess if aeration might lead to chemical or biological improvements in Frame Lake. I collected monthly water quality and zooplankton samples from Frame Lake and two reference lakes between March 2022 – November 2024. My results showed seasonal fluctuations in pH, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen in my study lakes, and confirmed that Frame Lake experiences anoxia once the ice cover forms. In addition, nutrient and conductivity levels were higher in Frame Lake than in the two reference lakes. Zooplankton samples showed seasonal variation in richness, diversity, evenness, and abundance, with highs in the summer and lows under ice in the winter. In addition, the abundance of zooplankton in Frame Lake was significantly lower under ice in comparison with the two reference lakes. When examining correlations between zooplankton communities and water quality variables that may be influenced by aeration, I found that zooplankton abundance and richness increased with higher levels of dissolved oxygen and decreased with higher levels of total nitrogen. These findings suggest that the installation of a hypolimnetic aerator in Frame Lake is needed to improve oxygen levels in Frame Lake during the winter, and that it may improve conditions such that zooplankton abundance and richness increase. Ultimately, the chemical and biological improvements that may result from aeration could improve the suitability of Frame Lake for future fish reintroduction