Randomisation before consent : Avoiding delay to time-critical intervention and ensuring informed consent

Peer reviewed

Patient and physician characteristics as predictors for consent to participate in an electronic medical record study

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

A Viking Age maritime haven: a reassessment of the island settlement at Beginish, Co. Kerry

The results of O'Kelly’s excavations on Beginish Island are reassessed and it is proposed that there was a long-lived settlement there that functioned as a Viking-age maritime way-station. This re-evaluation is conducted in the light of recent scholarship on the nature of Scandinavian and Hiberno-Scandinavian settlement in Ireland and, in part, is based on the finds that have emerged on Beginish since the conclusion of the excavations there. The site is considered in the context of its location on the sea route that joined Hiberno-Scandinavian Cork with Limerick, and it is suggested that other such way-stations await.

Patient and physician characteristics as predictors for consent to participate in an electronic medical record study

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Seawater carbonate chemistry, larval settlement and growth rate during experiments with coral Porites astreoides, 2008

In response to the increases in pCO2 projected in the 21st century, adult coral growth and calcification are expected to decrease significantly. However, no published studies have investigated the effect of elevated pCO2 on earlier life history stages of corals. Porites astreoides larvae were collected from reefs in Key Largo, Florida, USA, settled and reared in controlled saturation state seawater. Three saturation states were obtained, using 1 M HCl additions, corresponding to present (380 ppm) and projected pCO2 scenarios for the years 2065 (560 ppm) and 2100 (720 ppm). The effect of saturation state on settlement and post-settlement growth was evaluated. Saturation state had no significant effect on percent settlement; however, skeletal extension rate was positively correlated with saturation state, with ~50% and 78% reductions in growth at the mid and high pCO2 treatments compared to controls, respectively.

Seawater carbonate chemistry and settlement of a spawning coral on three common species of crustose coralline algae

Concern about the impacts of ocean acidification (OA) on ecosystem function has prompted many studies to focus on larval recruitment, demonstrating declines in settlement and early growth at elevated CO2 concentrations. Since larval settlement is often driven by particular cues governed by crustose coralline algae (CCA), it is important to determine whether OA reduces larval recruitment with specific CCA and the generality of any effects. We tested the effect of elevated CO2 on the survival and settlement of larvae from the common spawning coral Acropora selago with 3 ecologically important species of CCA, Porolithon onkodes, Sporolithon sp., and Titanoderma sp. After 3 d in no-choice laboratory assays at 447, 705, and 1214 µatm pCO2, the rates of coral settlement declined as pCO2 increased with all CCA taxa. The magnitude of the effect was highest with Titanoderma sp., decreasing by 87% from the ambient to highest CO2 treatment. In general, there were high rates of larval mortality, which were greater with the P. onkodes and Sporolithon sp. treatments (~80%) compared to the Titanoderma sp. treatment (65%). There was an increase in larval mortality as pCO2 increased, but this was variable among the CCA species. It appears that OA reduces coral settlement by rapidly altering the chemical cues associated with the CCA thalli and microbial community, and potentially by directly affecting larval viability.

Settlement characteristics of quartz grains on certain sediment surface forms of tidal beaches along the Baltic and Wadden Sea

Sind in einem Sediment, das unter dem Einfluß einer Strömung abgelagert wurde, richtungsanzeigende Indikatoren vorhanden, so werden sie je nach den momentanen Bedingungen, die zur Zeit der Sedimentation herrschten, ein mehr oder weniger gutes Abbild der Strömungsverhältnisse liefern. Zahlreich sind Strömungsanzeiger organischen Ursprungs, wie z. B. Molluskenschalen u. a. Doch auch anorganische Partikel in Psephiten und Psammiten lassen häufig in ihrer Lagerung eine Abhängigkeit von der Strömungsrichtung erkennen: sie sind "geregelt". Die Autoren der verschiedenen Arbeiten, in denen Regelungen in klastischen Sedimenten untersucht wurden, gingen von der Tatsache aus, daß viele Sedimentpartikel statistisch gesehen keine Kugelform, sondern eine längliche Gestalt besitzen. Die langen Achsen dieser länglich geformten Sedimentkörner werden im folgenden als "Langachsen" bezeichnet. In Sanden sind es vor allem Quarzkörner von annähernd zylindrischer oder ellipsoidischer Form ("Langquarze"), die geeignet sind, durch die Lage ihrer Langachsen strömungsbedingte Regelungen anzuzeigen. Mit der Orientierung solcher Langquarze in marinen und fluviatilen Sanden haben sich bisher vorwiegend amerikanische Autoren befaßt. So untersuchten z. B. Dapples & Rominger (1945) die Sandsohle eines künstlichen Gerinnes. Sie stellten fest, daß die Hauptorientierungsrichtung der Langquarze mit der Strömungsrichtung des fließenden Wassers zusammenfiel. Dabei zeigte das spitze Ende tropfenförmiger ("polarer") Quarze stromab und das stumpfe Ende stromauf. Nanz (1955) maß die Langachsenrichtungen von Langquarzen in Sanden des nassen und trockenen Strandes von Texas und Florida und fand, daß sich diese Achsen vorwiegend parallel zur Auf- und Ablaufrichtung der Wellen und damit senkrecht zum Streichen der Strandlinie einregeln. Curray (1956 b) beobachtete die gleiche Regelung. Er wies ferner darauf hin, daß in Strandwällen und Strandhaken die bevorzugte Richtung der Langquarze senkrecht zum Streichen des Sedimentkörpers liegt. Zahlreiche weitere Autoren beschäftigten sich ebenfalls mit den Fragen der Langquarzregelung, so Schwarzacher (1951), Griffith & Rosenfeld (1953), Vollbrecht (1953), Rusnak (1956), Wendler (1956), Sriramadas (1957). Ganz allgemein war das Ergebnis aller dieser Untersuchungen, daß die aus einer Strömung abgelagerten Langquarze eine Regelung parallel zur Strömungsrichtung zeigen. Eigene Untersuchungen und Überlegungen ergaben, daß die bisher veröffentlichten Ergebnisse und die an sie angeschlossenen Vorstellungen z. T. bestätigt werden können, jedoch z. T. auch erheblich modifiziert werden müssen.

An overview of top-down vs. bottom-up models for informal settlement upgrading in South Africa

The paper explores informal settlement upgrading approaches in South Africa and presents a review of top-down vs. bottom-up models, using experience and lessons learned from the Durban metropolitan area. Reflections on past upgrading efforts suggest that top-down policies in South Africa have not been successful to date. By contrast, participatory techniques, such as planning activism, can be used to enhance community empowerment and a sense of local ownership. This paper reveals that although the notion of ‘bottom-up’, participatory methods for community improvement is often discussed in international development discourses, the tools, processes and new knowledge needed to ensure a successful upgrade are under-utilised. Participation and collaboration can mean various things for informal housing upgrading and often the involvement of local communities is limited to providing feedback in already agreed development decisions from local authorities and construction companies. The paper concludes by suggesting directions for ‘co-producing’ knowledge with communities through participatory, action-research methods and integrating these insights into upgrading mechanisms and policies for housing and infrastructure provision. The cumulative impacts emerging from these approaches could aggregate into local, regional, and national environmental, social and economic benefits able to successfully transform urban areas and ensure self-reliance for local populations.

The origins of the foreign language press in Málaga

The settlement of foreign residents in Spain has led since the mid- nineteenth century the creation of a foreign language press in order to inform and serve as a vehicle for social cohesion in these communities. This article studies Málaga because it is one of the provinces with the highest current number of foreign language press in Spain. This research has focused on analyzing two of the first newspapers written in English at the beginning of XX century: British Colony Gazette and the English section of La Union Mercantil, Weekly English News.

Rethinking Care Through Social Reproduction: Articulating Circuits of Migration

Care has come to dominate much feminist research on globalized migrations and the transfer of labor from the South to the North, while the older concept of reproduction had been pushed into the background but is now becoming the subject of debates on the commodification of care in the household and changes in welfare state policies. This article argues that we could achieve a better understanding of the different modalities and trajectories of care in the reproduction of individuals, families, and communities, both of migrant and nonmigrant populations by articulating the diverse circuits of migration, in particular that of labor and the family. In doing this, I go back to the earlier North American writing on racialized minorities and migrants and stratified social reproduction. I also explore insights from current Asian studies of gendered circuits of migration connecting labor and marriage migrations as well as the notion of global householding that highlights the gender politics of social reproduction operating within and beyond households in institutional and welfare architectures. In contrast to Asia, there has relatively been little exploration in European studies of the articulation of labor and family migrations through the lens of social reproduction. However, connecting the different types of migration enables us to achieve a more complex understanding of care trajectories and their contribution to social reproduction.

Late-career international migration and reproductive work. A comparison between Peruvian and Ukrainian women in the Southern Europe

Research on the relationship between reproductive work and women´s life trajectories including the experience of labour migration has mainly focused on the case of relatively young mothers who leave behind, or later re-join, their children. While it is true that most women migrate at a younger age, there are a significant number of cases of men and women who move abroad for labour purposes at a more advanced stage, undertaking a late-career migration. This is still an under-estimated and under-researched sub-field that uncovers a varied range of issues, including the global organization of reproductive work and the employment of migrant women as domestic workers late in their lives. By pooling the findings of two qualitative studies, this article focuses on Peruvian and Ukrainian women who seek employment in Spain and Italy when they are well into their forties, or older. A commonality the two groups of women share is that, independently of their level of education and professional experience, more often than not they end up as domestic and care workers. The article initially discusses the reasons for late-career female migration, taking into consideration the structural and personal determinants that have affected Peruvian and Ukrainian women’s careers in their countries of origin and settlement. After this, the focus is set on the characteristics of domestic employment at later life, on the impact on their current lives, including the transnational family organization, and on future labour and retirement prospects. Apart from an evaluation of objective working and living conditions, we discuss women’s personal impressions of being domestic workers in the context of their occupational experiences and family commitments. In this regard, women report varying levels of personal and professional satisfaction, as well as different patterns of continuity-discontinuity in their work and family lives, and of optimism towards the future. Divergences could be, to some extent, explained by the effect of migrants´ transnational social practices and policies of states.