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The article presents abstracts of geographical research papers. In the research paper "A Geographical Study of Nova Scotia," researcher R.H. Whitebeek discusses the geographic conditions of Nova Scotia. Lying nearer Europe and possessing many excellent harbors and peopled by immigrants from the best European stocks, the province of Nova Scotia in Canada has now, after 300 years, fewer people than the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Its total manufacturing output is less than that of single companies in New England, and the province has shared but slightly in Canada's economic growth.

The internationalization of universities and the aging of the global population are two current issues that converge and challenge undergraduate gerontology curriculum development in Canada. One response to this challenge is to envision an intercultural gerontology curriculum. What might this curriculum encompass? How might it be taught? An exploratory study was undertaken to address these two questions. This paper presents findings from this study based primarily on interviews with university-based stakeholders from Canada, the United States, and Europe. Thematic analysis of the interviews resulted in five themes: multiple perspectives on cultural diversity; the dynamic nature of cultural diversity and aging; flow of an intercultural curriculum; institutional culture and intercultural curricula; and principles and practice for intercultural gerontology. Framed by principles of gerontology theory and educational approaches, this paper focuses on the principles and practice suggested by study participants. Scaffolding learning, active learning strategies, experiential learning opportunities, teacher modelling, and internet-based learning are discussed as key to intercultural learning. An appendix includes a list of resources that may be useful to developing an intercultural gerontology curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a core element in Richard Florida's popular theory on growth to be able to attract the creative class to a geographical area. But Florida is not very specific on which kind of amenities are important for attracting and keeping the creative class. The purpose of this paper is to analyse which kind of cultural activities the creative class is actually using. Which kind of cultural activities does the creative class use more intensively than other groups in society? This paper presents new empirical results on preferences for leisure and culture. Richard Florida's theory can be, and has been, criticised - especially on the issue of causality. The analyses presented in this paper show that being part of the creative class has an independent and significant role in explaining preferences for leisure and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market fragmentation is one of the policy issues which is being continuously discussed among the regulators in the securities market arena in the United States, Canada and Europe. This paper is an extant literature review paper and endeavours to explain the different forms of alternate trading systems which have caused the securities market to fragment. This paper discusses the rationale behind market fragmentation and facilitators for this kind of change in the securities market microstructure. Through the literature review on the subject, this paper aims at unveiling how some significant aspects related to securities market microstructure such as market quality, liquidity, price discovery, execution costs, fairness and investor confidence are impacted through market fragmentation. The paper further discusses how the exchanges and the regulators have responded to the challenges emerging from market fragmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a review of policy papers and cultural statistics from Canada and Europe, among others, this paper confirms a widespread belief in creative economy policies as panacea for revitalizing economies, while noting a general failure to acknowledge the role and the needs of creative workers. Existing policy instruments are mostly uncoordinated but can be divided into four categories entitled ‘education and training’, ‘awards and contests’, ‘business support’ and ‘social security policies’, with the greatest emphasis on the first three. Escaping the precarity trap – precarity meaning existence without security – typical of much cultural work requires a rehabilitated notion of ‘flexicurity’ that includes exceptionalist, sub-sectoral, sectoral and generalist strategies to support cultural workers. The authors argue for a more holistic policy framework that uses a rights-based perspective and emphasizes social security measures. This approach, which we term ‘creative ecology’, is based on the intersection of social, labour and cultural policy. This paper thereby begins the response to calls to academics, practitioners and policy analysts to provide a route map out of the demoralized terrain of neo-liberalism with respect to cultural work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

International student mobility amongst and between countries has become increasingly common and forms a central feature of the global higher education system. This paper examines the key learning experiences relating to the student mobility component of the Canadian-European Initiative for Health Promotion Advanced Learning (CEIHPAL) project. CEIHPAL was a unique and innovative project that fostered advanced intercontinental education and learning in health promotion from 2005–2008. With co-funding from the European Commission and the Canadian Government, the project facilitated institutional, student and faculty cooperation, by developing a high level of international communication. In particular, this paper focuses on the student mobility component and experiences of the CEIHPAL programme, a central part of the project activities. Feedback from both Canadian and European students themselves is used to document their participation in the programme, including the benefits derived from taking part as well as the problems and difficulties they encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since McCallum's (1995) finding of surprisingly high border effects on trade between the US and Canada, there have been a number of studies on other parts of the world, and improvements made to the gravity model to measure this effect accurately. This paper suggests some other modifications to the model, and applies it to a region of the world that presents a distinctly interesting case. Changes in border effects of formerly socialist countries in Central and East Europe, and countries in the former Soviet Union are analyzed during 1976-2002 at country and sectoral levels, and also with respect to blocs of countries. A discussion on cross-country variations in border effects follows the computations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents perspectives and controversies surrounding the use of milestones to assess competency in outcomes-based medical education. Global perspectives (Canada, Europe, and the United States) and developments supporting their rationales are discussed. In Canada, there is a significant movement away from conceptualizing competency based on time, and a move toward demonstration of specific competencies. The success of this movement may require complex (rather than reductionist) milestones that reflect students' progression through complexity and context and a method to narrate their journey. European countries (United Kingdom, France, and Germany) have stressed the complexity associated with time and milestones for medical students to truly achieve competence. To meet the changing demands of medicine, they view time as actually providing students with knowledge and exposure to achieve various milestones. In the United States, milestones are based on sampling throughout professional development to initiate lifelong learning. However, the use of milestones may not imply overall competence (reductionism). Milestones must be developed alongside outcomes-based curriculum with use of faculty and competency committees. The perspectives outlined in this paper underscore emerging challenges for implementing outcomes-based medical education and call for new conceptualizations of competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The recognition of medical professionalism as a complex social construct makes context, geographical location and culture important considerations in any discussion of professional behaviour. Medical students, medical educators and practitioners are now much more on the move globally, exposing them to cultural and social attitudes, values and beliefs that may differ from their own traditional perceptions of professionalism. Aims and Methods: This paper uses the model of the intercultural development continuum and the concept of 'cultural fit' to discuss what might transpire when a student, teacher or doctor is faced with a new cultural environment. Using our own experiences as medical educators working abroad and supported by evidence in the literature, we have developed four anecdotal scenarios to highlight some of the challenges that different cultural contexts bring to our current (Western) understanding of professionalism. Results and Conclusions: The scenarios highlight some of the potentially different regional and/or cultural perspectives and nuances of professional behaviours, attitudes or values that many of us either take for granted or find difficult, depending on our training and socio-cultural upbringing. With this paper, we hope to start a long overdue conversation about global professionalism amongst medical educators, identify potential areas for research and highlight a need for medical schools to embrace a 'global' approach to how professionalism is embedded in their curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a survey-based study of perceptions of ethical business practices in 13 countries of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Responses from more than 23,000 managers and employees were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and post-hoc comparisons, aimed at identifying homogenous sets of countries. Anglo countries (US, UK, Australia, and Canada) clustered together, and were joined by India in most cases. Japan and Italy formed a homogenous subset significantly different from all other countries. Countries of continental Europe, China, Mexico, and Brazil formed various mid-range groupings. The paper discusses some salient differences between groups of countries and presents implications for human resource management (HRD) practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a large literature that addresses the gendered structure of forestry occupations in Europe and the USA, relatively little attention has been paid to these issues in Canada. In this paper, it is argued that policy makers and academics have used outdated statistics about forestry employment to shape policies and programs of government and industry. Use of these data has been to the general disadvantage of women working in the forest industry and in forestry communities. This paper draws mainly on three studies, spanning the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. Each study relied on secondary sources such as Census data, government and industry documents, as well as primary sources such as interviews or questionnaires. On Vancouver Island, British Columbia, analysis of land reallocation policies and transition strategies for displaced workers in the 1990s did not consider women as forestry workers or consider how job losses and opportunities for retraining might vary between men and women. Consequently, gender-neutral transition strategies were more accessible for men than for women. A study of female forestry workers in Saskatchewan revealed there was very little knowledge about employment conditions for women in forestry. Women reported that they missed out on training and advancement opportunities because they lacked networks, childcare support or other benefits that might encourage them to improve their circumstances. Finally, a survey of forest sector advisory committees across the country revealed a very low rate of participation by women, even though those who did participate had some significantly different viewpoints about forestry than their male counterparts. In combination, these efforts suggest that improvements in the understanding of forestry employment would benefit forestry workers, both male and female, and ensure that all workers made lasting contributions to the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the second European Management Control Symposium with the general theme "Organizations and Control: Theory and Practice," held from July 9-11, 1992 at the HEC School of Management in Versailles, France. The participants for the forum numbered around 100, with representatives from European countries, USA, Canada and Australia. The conference started with a plenary keynote address delivered by Michel Fiol of the HEC School of Management. This was followed by parallel sessions.

This paper evaluates the performance of national higher education systems in 48 countries as measured with 20 variables grouped under the four headings of Resources, Environment, Connectivity and Output. Rankings within each module are then combined into an overall ranking that is topped by the United States followed by Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark. Relationships between different attributes are explored. Countries ranked highest on output tend to be ranked highly on resources. Research output is correlated with government funding, especially expenditure on research and development (R&D). The impact of the policy and regulatory environment is also examined. The weakest national systems are those with low government funding but high government control. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ‘burqa’ bans that have recently been put into effect in several Euro-Atlantic countries are a testament to how public space has been rendered into a terrain of increasing securitization and legal control. The new laws are complex in that they are entangled with entrenched historical attitudes, present-day geopolitics, political expediency, and the politics of race, immigration and national identity. However, they provoke a questioning of what it means when states legislate vision and visuality and of why the visual rather than another domain has become the privileged stage to both communicate the alleged conflict between the ‘West’ and ‘Islam’ and enact the former's disciplining of the latter. In this paper, I examine the trope of the burqa from the perspective of the cultural history of vision, arguing that situating the garment as a visual text in contesting regimes of art and representation, shaped by their respective pre-modern religious narratives, will provide a critical, yet unacknowledged, perspective on facial veiling which, moreover, offers up the possibility of learning to read the sign across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One question often raised when ozone professionals gather is “How much ozone capacity is installed?” Although the use of ozone for industrial purposes is growing, the largest use for ozone resides in the use of treatment of municipal drinking and wastewater. It is very difficult to summarize ozone capacity for industrial applications as much data are kept confidential. A number of reports have been published over the years on installed ozone capacity. Ozone capacity estimation is a moving target as plants are built and others removed from service for a number of reasons. This paper summarizes, using data available, ozone capacity for drinking water and wastewater. Focus is on the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. IOA members and member companies are encouraged to submit additional data to enable this summary to be as accurate and relevant as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper documents efforts in Canada, France, Finland, Germany, Hispanoamerica, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, and Taiwan to disseminate the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO). We aim to characterize the challenges involved, the strategies used, and the impact of these efforts in diverse cultural and social conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a brief review of the need for cost–benefit analysis (CBA) and the available policy instruments for air pollution. To prioritize different possible actions, one needs to know which source of pollution causes how much damage. This requires an impact pathway analysis, that is, an analysis of the chain emission → dispersion → dose-response function → monetary valuation. The methodology for this is described and illustrated with the results of the ExternE (External Costs of Energy) project series of the European Commission. Two examples of an application to CBA are shown: one where a proposed reduction of emission limits is justified, and one where it is not. It is advisable to subject any proposed regulation to a CBA, including an analysis of the uncertainties. Even if the uncertainties are large and a policy decision may have to take other considerations into account, a well-documented CBA clarifies the issues and provides a basis for rational discussion. One of the main sources of uncertainty lies in the monetary valuation of premature mortality, the dominant contribution to the damage cost of air pollution. As an alternative, an innovative policy tool is described, the Life Quality Index (LQI), a compound indicator comprising societal wealth and life expectancy. It is applied to the Canada-wide standards for particulate matter and ozone. Regardless of monetary valuation, a 50% reduction of PM10 concentrations in Europe and North America has been shown to yield a population-average life expectancy increase on the order of 4 to 5 mo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of regional alliances among sub-national governments has become a common feature of Europe in the past decade and a half. However, examples of such alliances spanning the Triad, Europe, North America and Japan, are far less common. In a brief outward-oriented phase in the late 1980s, the Four Motors for Europe expanded abroad and Ontario signed a formal agreement with them, establishing a number of exchanges, as well as a series of more targeted research projects with two of the Motors. The relationship between Ontario and the Four Motors was somewhat unique in terms of its transcontinental reach. This paper analyses the factors which led to the establishment of the alliance and assesses some of the benefits achieved and problems encountered in developing it. It concludes that transatlantic alliances must surmount additional barriers of space and cultural differences to survive and require a strong degree of policy and institutional continuity to ensure they have sufficient time to mature and develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child sexual abuse (CSA) impacts individuals and communities in numerous ways, including their faith. This study's aim was to learn from individuals who have an interest and/or expertise in spirituality and CSA about how various groups can support those impacted by CSA. The participants (n = 76) took part in a symposium focused on this topic and responded to an online survey with open-ended questions. Three themes emerged: negative impacts, direct response, and institutional changes. Using these responses, a model for Spiritually Informed Care is described, and implications for practice for those who work with those who have been impacted by CSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the development of international networking by Slavic and East European librarians and information specialists, beginning with the 1974 First International Conference on Soviet and East European Studies (Banff, Canada). At first limited to librarians and information specialists from North America and Western Europe, with the collapse of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the level of international cooperation among librarians and information specialists dealing with Slavic and Eastern European materials greatly increased. The Tallinn conference of librarians and information specialists was the fifth such quinquennial meeting held since 1980. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article highlights developments in the field of comparative education as of October 1975. Two professionals were awarded personal chairs at the University of London, England namely, Dr. Brian Holmes and Dr. Edmund King for their contributions in comparative education research. Several conferences in the field are announced, including the "Comparative Education Society in Europe 1975 Conference", "Comparative and International Education in Society in Canada 1975 Conference" and the "Comparative Education Society in Europe (British Section) 1975 Conference."

This qualitative project is focused on the challenges that newcomer athletes revealed when they considered their earliest encounters with a receiving culture during general daily life. Conversational interviews with 24 national and international amateur newcomer athletes were subjected to interpretive thematic analysis and developed into a composite vignette. This vignette unearths three themes revealing hope (theme: opportunities abound); uncertainty and fear (theme: weighing the risks for the journey ahead); and anger, humiliation, and hardening (theme: public stonings). Understanding the fluidities within the vignette will permit practitioners to explore the uncertainties of acculturation and find entry points to support athlete acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past two decades, Western immigrant-receiving countries have been confronted with honour killings and other forms of honour-related violence. This article analyses the uses of culture in public, policy, and legal approaches to honour killing. By reifying culture, debates regarding honour killing and honour-related violence racialize immigrant communities within which this form of violence occurs. Yet, culture is an important element in expressions of (and responses to) violence and by approaching culture as a meaning-making process, I argue for an understanding of honour killing and honour-related violence as forms of the gendered violence that affects all societies. From this vantage point, I outline the social patterns associated with honour killing and analyse policy efforts in countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and Britain that aim at prevention and protection, bringing those to bear on a Canadian context largely devoid of systematic policy approaches. The article ends with a brief account of the legal processes attending this violence in both immigrant-sending and immigrant-receiving states, turning to two case studies to illustrate the culturally nuanced approach to analysing honour killing this article proposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussing new or recently reformed citizenship tests in the USA, Australia, and Canada, this article asks whether they amount to a restrictive turn of new world citizenship, similar to recent developments in Europe. I argue that elements of a restrictive turn are noticeable in Australia and Canada, but only at the level of political rhetoric, not of law and policy, which remain liberal and inclusive. Much like in Europe, the restrictive turn is tantamount to Muslims and Islam moving to the center of the integration debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes which role the Atlantic Alliance plays in the Arctic and whether it can contribute to the security and territorial integrity of its members in the region. In a dramatic change from the cold war era, the Arctic is no longer at the center of a conflict between two hostile superpowers. But what can a basically military organization such as NATO – though with proven political functions – contribute to stabilizing the Arctic region if its major challenges are non-military? With regional challenges resulting mostly from globalization and climate change, it is open to question whether a military alliance such as NATO has the will and the capability to cope with them. We might thus need to look also at individual members’ interests and abilities besides searching for joint alliance action. If we find NATO not up to the challenges, which alternative institutions offer themselves for coping with the political conflicts and controversies in the Polar region? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The notion of a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) was conceived in Canada and the United States in the early 1990s, and has since then traveled to Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In this article, the concept of SDI is understood as a myth, a mobilizing and at the same time seductive tale that inspires actors to enact reality. This article first shows what myths underlie the notion of SDI in the American discourse, and then examines how the notion of SDI was reinterpreted and domesticated in the African SDI discourse. Thereafter it reflects on domestication of SDI in Africa using Rottenburg's theory of iterating processes of consensus and knowledge differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Defence and Aid Letters, now in the Mayibuye Archives at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, contain the responses of many South Africans, mainly women, who during the apartheid period and immediately afterwards received funds from the International Defence and Aid Fund via a large number of intermediaries in Europe and Canada. The letters were written to these intermediaries as receipts for funds sent to them. Partly for security reasons and partly because the recipients were often lonely as well as poor, they tended to send news of themselves and their families as well as thanks for the money which they needed. The letters now function as pieces of history of the private and domestic sufferings of families whose breadwinners were imprisoned or exiled, and who had been forced to leave wives and children without support. They are unique in that the writers would not under any other circumstances have written to describe their plight, and there is no other collection of letters which offers such an authentic picture of domestic heroism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: During the last few years, clinical, epidemiological, and pathological evidence has suggested that inherited alpha- 1 antitrypsin [AAT] deficiency might play a role in the development of the fibromyalgia syndrome [FMS], probably because of the loss of AAT anti-inflammatory efficacy. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence and number of FMS patients, and their AAT phenotypic distribution worldwide. Methods: A critical review selecting reliable studies on the subject. Results: Studies on AAT gene frequencies and FMS prevalence were retrieved for ten countries worldwide, namely Canada, the United States of America [USA], Denmark, Finland, Germany; Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Pakistan. The severe deficiency Z allele was found in all these countries, with very high frequencies in Denmark and Sweden [23 and 27 per 1,000, respectively], high frequencies in Italy and Spain [16 and 17], intermediate frequencies in Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and the USA [10 to 14], and a low frequency in Pakistan [nine per 1,000]. The calculated prevalence of AAT deficiency and the number of FMS patients with AAT deficiency were 1/10 and 25,408 in Canada, 1/11 and 478,681 in the US, 1/9 and 3,124 in Denmark, 1/ 36 and 726 in Finland, 1/16 and 48,523 in Germany, 1/13 and 84,876 in Italy, 1/15 and 9,639 in the Netherlands, 1/4 and 114,359 in Spain, 1/11 and 9,065 in Sweden, and 1/25 and 85,965 in Pakistan. Our calculations predict that AAT deficiency would remain undetected in around nine percent of FMS patients, with about eight percent of them carrying moderate deficiency phenotypes [MS, SS, and MZ], and less than one percent with severe deficiency phenotypes [SZ and ZZ]. Conclusions: Therefore, AAT phenotype characterization should be recommended in FMS patients and the possible efficacy of AAT replacement therapy in severe deficiency FMS patients should warrant further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The winter activity of spiders and pseudoscorpions, recorded during ten years (1994–2003) in the Dolomites and the Venetian Pre-Alps, is reported. The family Linyphiidae s.l. showed the highest number of active species, 69% of the total, and 88% of all the collected specimens. The spider Lepthyphantes cristatus was the most abundant species, including 42% of the individuals. Data on the families' abundance and phenology are compared with previous observations from Canada and Northern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the process of cultural policy change that has occurred within Europe, particularly in Great Britain, since 1995. According to the author, these changes have involved a shift from an established arts-based policy model to what has been termed a creative industries model. The analysis will also reference cultural policy prescriptions being developed by the Council of Europe and in other European nations, notably Germany. The article will present comparisons of the development of new policy frameworks in Canada and New Zealand, and the territorial nature of policy will be discussed.

The article focuses on the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It evaluates the prospects of NATO after the fall of communism in Europe. It presents an analysis of the changing nature of the interests of Canada and the United States in Europe and discusses the West European integration dynamics in the forefront of new security challenges as well as the new security risks in Europe. It is argued that the most vital contribution that the United States can make to guarantee a healthy and long term security compact with Western Europe is by supporting the latter's moves in the establishment of their own defense entity.