252 research outputs found
Funny Fables of Fundy and Other Poems for Children
No full textThis is a book of rhyming couplets for children. The prologue mentions Aesop. The twenty-one stories have explicit attached morals. A typical story might be that of the crow whose wife suggests that he put together a radio for the family. Significant adventures convince him that it is not worth it. Bird Law (23) gets complex but is close to a fable. The Duck's Device (41) is sentimental but does what a fable does. The fox attacking the ducks is ultimately drowned.Third printingWritten and Illustrated by Grace Helen Mowa
The Effectiveness of Training for Displaced Workers with Long Prior Job Tenure
No full textProduced by the Mowat Centre at the School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto.Workers displaced from long-tenure jobs often have difficulty finding new employment and can take a substantial drop in earnings in the new job. Canadian evidence shows that displaced workers with at least five years’ tenure on the old job have an average earnings loss of 25-30 per cent, even many years after the initial job separation. These losses are large and persistent; they dwarf the transitory losses from the initial period of nonemployment. Policy response for these long-term problems has centred on education, training and skill development. How effective are such policies likely to be?
This turns out to be a complicated question to answer. Displaced workers differ in many ways, not all observable, and any one displaced worker can only be observed either with training or without training. Policy needs to answer the counterfactual question of what would have happened, if this particular worker had made the other choice, to assess the net effect of training. The paper surveys and assesses a variety of strategies that have been employed to determine training effectiveness, using results from field experiments and from econometric work based on non-experimental data.
Unfortunately, findings from this large research enterprise are not encouraging. Both experimental and non-experimental research shows that the returns to training for displaced workers are low, almost surely less than the (well-estimated) returns to formal schooling which lie in the 6-9% range. On a cost-benefit basis, the body of evidence does not show that training pays off for most of the displaced population.
Alternative means to compensate the losers from economic adjustment might include modified or expanded EI coverage, without any necessary link to training expenditures, and perhaps consideration of alternative policies, such as Wage Insurance. Since evidence on training programs for displaced workers gives only limited promise, it is important to search for other creative ways to ensure that the costs of economic restructuring do not fall disproportionately on a narrow group
Spotlight on Classic Authors: Farley Mowat
No full textThis article looks at the Canadian writer and environmental advocate, Farley Mowat, author of books such as Never Cry Wolf
Henry Mowat: Miscreant of the Maine Coast
No full textThis article follows the career of Captain Henry Mowat as he took charge of operations for the British Navy off the Maine Coast during the Revolutionary War. Mowat was involved in three decisive actions during this time: the dismantling of Fort Pownall at the mouth of the Penobscot River; the burning of Falmouth, or present-day Portland; and the defeat of the Massachusetts naval expedition to the British-occupied Bagaduce Peninsula on the eastern side of Penobscot Bay. The author asks the question: did this British officer deserve his reputation among Mainers as an “execrable monster?” Louis Arthur Norton is a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington. Dr Norton has published extensively on maritime history topics, including a biography titled JOSHUA BARNEY: HERO OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND 1812 by the Naval Institute Press in 2000. He received the 2002 and 2006 Gerald E.Morris Prize for maritime historiography from the Mystic Seaport Museum
Recurrence of Mowat-Wilson syndrome in siblings with the same proven mutation
No full textMowat-Wilson syndrome (MWS) is a mental retardation syndrome associated with distinctive facial features, microcephaly, epilepsy, and a variable spectrum of congenital anomalies, including Hirschsprung disease (HSCR), agenesis of the corpus callosum, genitourinary abnormalities, and congenital heart disease. Heterozygous mutations or deletions involving the gene ZFHX1B (previously SIPI) [OMIM 605802] have recently been found to cause MWS. There have previously been no reports of a sibling recurrence of this syndrome. A brother and sister are described with clinical features of MWS, where both have the same truncating mutation in exon 8 of ZFHX1B. As their parents are phenotypically normal and do not have the mutation in lymphocyte-derived DNA, the most likely explanation is germ-line mosaicism. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc
Mowat-Wilson Syndrome
No full textMowat-Wilson syndrome (MWS) is a rare genetic disorder that causes systemic deficiencies and abnormalities during development. Common presentations of this disorder include Hirschsprung disease (HSCR), intellectual disability, delayed development, distinctive facial features, microcephaly, epilepsy, and heart defects. Prevalence of MWS is estimated between 1/50,000 to 1/70,000 live births, with over 200 cases reported so far. MWS is likely underdiagnosed, especially in patients who do not display HSCR. Prognosis for MWS depends on the severity and presence of congenital anomalies, and few patients have been reported to live into early adulthood. Therapy may also be required to control seizures, while occupational and speech therapy may help with delayed psychomotor development which is prevalent in all patients. MWS is caused by a pathogenic variant of the ZEB2 gene that follows an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance. A mutation of the ZEB2 gene suggests that the myelination process may represent a potential therapeutic target. Current treatments focus on symptoms, however, a potential therapeutic target may focus on the effects the mutation has on gene expression
The Effectiveness of Training for Displaced Workers with Long Prior Job Tenure
No full textProduced by the Mowat Centre at the School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto.Workers displaced from long-tenure jobs often have difficulty finding new employment and can take a substantial drop in earnings in the new job. Canadian evidence shows that displaced workers with at least five years’ tenure on the old job have an average earnings loss of 25-30 per cent, even many years after the initial job separation. These losses are large and persistent; they dwarf the transitory losses from the initial period of nonemployment. Policy response for these long-term problems has centred on education, training and skill development. How effective are such policies likely to be?
This turns out to be a complicated question to answer. Displaced workers differ in many ways, not all observable, and any one displaced worker can only be observed either with training or without training. Policy needs to answer the counterfactual question of what would have happened, if this particular worker had made the other choice, to assess the net effect of training. The paper surveys and assesses a variety of strategies that have been employed to determine training effectiveness, using results from field experiments and from econometric work based on non-experimental data.
Unfortunately, findings from this large research enterprise are not encouraging. Both experimental and non-experimental research shows that the returns to training for displaced workers are low, almost surely less than the (well-estimated) returns to formal schooling which lie in the 6-9% range. On a cost-benefit basis, the body of evidence does not show that training pays off for most of the displaced population.
Alternative means to compensate the losers from economic adjustment might include modified or expanded EI coverage, without any necessary link to training expenditures, and perhaps consideration of alternative policies, such as Wage Insurance. Since evidence on training programs for displaced workers gives only limited promise, it is important to search for other creative ways to ensure that the costs of economic restructuring do not fall disproportionately on a narrow group
"She is my teacher and if it was not for her I would be dead" : exploration of rural South African Community Health Worker's informational and mediating roles in the home
No full textThis thesis seeks to fill the gap in the literature by exploring CHW IEC roles through: a protocol for the Health Information in the Home (HIH) study of the quality of IEC services by Community Care Workers; a structured literature review of the current state of the evidence and a journal manuscript based on the HIH study findings
Vulnerability, social justice and inclusive education: working the intersections
No full textOur starting point was the idea that social justice and inclusive education approach key socio-economic factors like poverty, equality, and disadvantage as they affect children and young people very differently. After examining briefly how social justice and inclusive education address these factors, we propose a third perspective, vulnerability, as a way of highlighting and potentially reconciling some of the tensions created by social justice and inclusive education policy and practice. This theoretical discussion is followed by a narrative vignette distilled from one of 13 narratives created in a participatory research study, which aimed to understand the experiences of a number of families and young people living in Birmingham in the UK and regarded as ‘vulnerable’. The approach developed in-depth narratives of their experiences, drawing on interviews, drawings, photographs, and journal entries. The focus of the narratives was determined by the participants and each was co-produced with a researcher. The vignette is followed by a discussion of three key issues it raises in relation to vulnerability, social justice and inclusive education and concludes by suggesting that an intersectional vulnerability perspective might help us to access and understand more effectively the experiences of children and young people, particularly, who experience disadvantage or extreme vulnerability
What Does Network Theory Contribute to Theorization of Mathematics Teaching?
No full textA Response to Elizabeth Mowat & Brent Davi
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