Suchergebnisse

In 1967 government officials planned an ambitious program of events to mark the historic occasion of Canada's one hundredth anniversary of Confederation. Existing accounts of Centennial, however, primarily personal reflections, are largely anecdotal in tone, and, to date, there has been no comprehensive scholarly consideration of the 1967 celebration. In contrast, this study, a critical analysis of Centennial, explores how organizers designed events and programs that advanced the official objectives of the Centennial to bolster national pride and reinforce political unity. Adopting a cultural studies approach, the thesis examines "non-traditional" texts such as official reports, speeches, minutes, pamphlets, commemorative programs and public events. Also, employing a comparative model of analysis, the thesis considers contemporary films and documentaries, exploring how officials advanced the Centennial message in an attempt to generate public interest, and persuade Canadians to participate. From an organizational perspective at least, Centennial was a remarkable achievement, with public participation far exceeding official expectations. Key to this success was the fact that Canadians, encouraged to celebrate in their own personal way, were not forced to express one vision of Canada or Canadian identity. In the end, Centennial functioned as a catalyst that engendered in many Canadians a new belief in themselves and the nation, launching them into what they believed was a bright future, full of promise.

Front cover -- Title page -- Imprint -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of figures -- List of tables -- List of acronyms -- Foreword -- Chapter 1: Introduction: co-producing knowledge on climate change and urban development -- The structure of the book -- References -- Chapter 2: Climate change challenges in African cities: four perspectives on progress and opportunities -- Responding to climate change at city and national scales -- Responding to climate change at the local level -- The challenges of integrating physical climate information into city‑level decision‑making -- Understanding governance of urban climate adaptation -- The importance of linking the climate change and development agendas in urban Africa -- References -- Chapter 3: An overview of climate change and urban development in Cape Town -- The development context of Cape Town -- The climate context of Cape Town -- Intersections between Cape Town's climate and development -- Governing climate and development in Cape Town -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 4: Responding to climate change and urban development through the co‑production of knowledge -- The concepts of co‑production and third space -- The history of co‑production -- Evaluating the third space -- Bringing values to the surface through co‑writing -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 5: Building energy efficiency in City of Cape Town operations: the role of the energy intermediary -- Understanding energy use and governance in CCT operations -- Innovation in bureaucratised institutions: the role of an intermediary -- An overview of energy efficiency initiatives and their results to date -- The role of the ERMD as energy intermediary -- Challenges and issues going forward -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 6: Water demand management in Cape Town: managing water security in a changing climate.

BACKGROUND: Common mental disorders are the leading cause of workplace absences. While the reasons for this are multifarious, there is little doubt that stigma related to common mental disorder plays a large role in sickness absence and in poor help-seeking. Frequently both managers and staff are unsure of how to approach and intervene with mental health related problems. We have therefore devised a mental health intervention programme (Prevail) that aims to reduce stigma and to educate staff about evidence-based low intensity psychological interventions. These can be used by the individual, as well as in collaboration with managers via co-production of problem-focussed solutions, with the aim of improving mental health, reducing sickness absence, and increasing workplace productivity. METHODS: This two-armed cluster randomised control trial (RCT) will evaluate the effectiveness of Prevail. Eighty managers at a large UK government institution (the DVLA) and their teams (approximately 960 employees) will be randomised into the active intervention group or control (employment as usual) arms of the study. All participants will be invited to complete a series of questionnaires related to mental health stigma, their current and past mental health, and their recent workplace productivity (absenteeism and presenteeism). All employees in the active arm will receive the Prevail Staff intervention, which covers stigma reduction and includes psychoeducation about evidence-based low intensity psychological interventions for common mental disorder. The managers in the active arm will also receive the Prevail Managers programme which covers communication skills, problem formulation, and problem-solving skills. The questionnaire battery will then be given to both groups again 4 weeks post training, and 12 months post-training. Official records of absenteeism from Human Resources will also be gathered from both active and control groups at 12 months post-training. DISCUSSION: The treatment trial aims to evaluate if Prevail ...

ABSTRACTObjectiveTo examine the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for people with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods193 People with AS were invited to take part in an MBSR 8 week course. The data linkage component of this study examined number of visits to the general practitioner before and after the course in participants and non-participants of the course (500 people taking part in a cohort study but not invited to the course). ResultsOf 193 people invited, 43 (22%) consented and took part in the course, GP records were available for 41 (95%) of MBSR participants and 457 (91%) of the 500 comparison group. There was a mean of 7.6 (median 3) visits to the GP in the 12 month period before the course for those undertaking MBSR and 4.6 (median 0) visits in the 12 month period after the course. This compared with 5.5 (median 0) visits (12 months before a random date) and 4.1 (median 0) visits (12 months after a random date) in the comparison group. Using Wilcoxon rank-sum (Mann-Whitney) test showed a significant reduction in GP visits in the MBSR group after the course compared to the comparison group. ConclusionsThose who chose to attend an MBSR course had a higher number of visits to the GP before attending the course, than the comparison group. However, after attending the stress reduction course the number of visits to the GP reduced to levels equivalent to the comparison group. This study suggests that mindfulness based stress reduction could be effective in reducing the number of visits to the GP for people with arthritis who regularly see their GP. The findings from this study suggest a full RCT and cost effectiveness analysis is warranted.

Urbanisation and a changing climate are leading to more frequent and severe flood, heat and air pollution episodes in Britain's cities. Interest in nature-based solutions to these urban problems is growing, with urban forests potentially able to provide a range of regulating ecosystem services such as stormwater attenuation, heat amelioration and air purification. The extent to which these benefits are realized is largely dependent on urban forest management objectives, the availability of funding, and the understanding of ecosystem service concepts within local governments, the primary delivery agents of urban forests. This study aims to establish the extent to which British local authorities actively manage their urban forests for regulating ecosystem services, and identify which resources local authorities most need in order to enhance provision of ecosystem services by Britain's urban forests. Interviews were carried out with staff responsible for tree management decisions in fifteen major local authorities from across Britain, selected on the basis of their urban nature and high population density. Local authorities have a reactive approach to urban forest management, driven by human health and safety concerns and complaints about tree disservices. There is relatively little focus on ensuring provision of regulating ecosystem services, despite awareness by tree officers of the key role that urban forests can play in alleviating chronic air pollution, flood risk and urban heat anomalies. However, this is expected to become a greater focus in future provided that existing constraints ? lack of understanding of ecosystem services amongst key stakeholders, limited political support, funding constraints ? can be overcome. Our findings suggest that the adoption of a proactive urban forest strategy, underpinned by quantified and valued urban forest-based ecosystem services provision data, and innovative private sector funding mechanisms, can facilitate a change to a proactive, ecosystem services approach to urban forest management.

Urbanisation and a changing climate are leading to more frequent and severe flood, heat and air pollution episodes in Britain's cities. Interest in nature-based solutions to these urban problems is growing, with urban forests potentially able to provide a range of regulating ecosystem services such as stormwater attenuation, heat amelioration and air purification. The extent to which these benefits are realized is largely dependent on urban forest management objectives, the availability of funding, and the understanding of ecosystem service concepts within local governments, the primary delivery agents of urban forests. This study aims to establish the extent to which British local authorities actively manage their urban forests for regulating ecosystem services, and identify which resources local authorities most need in order to enhance provision of ecosystem services by Britain's urban forests. Interviews were carried out with staff responsible for tree management decisions in fifteen major local authorities from across Britain, selected on the basis of their urban nature and high population density. Local authorities have a reactive approach to urban forest management, driven by human health and safety concerns and complaints about tree disservices. There is relatively little focus on ensuring provision of regulating ecosystem services, despite awareness by tree officers of the key role that urban forests can play in alleviating chronic air pollution, flood risk and urban heat anomalies. However, this is expected to become a greater focus in future provided that existing constraints – lack of understanding of ecosystem services amongst key stakeholders, limited political support, funding constraints – can be overcome. Our findings suggest that the adoption of a proactive urban forest strategy, underpinned by quantified and valued urban forest-based ecosystem services provision data, and innovative private sector funding mechanisms, can facilitate a change to a proactive, ecosystem services approach to urban forest management.

Diffuse pollution from agriculture is often responsible for observed concentrations of agricultural compounds being in excess of the upper limits prescribed by the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) in some river catchments and reductions in these concentrations will require widespread changes in farm practice. One of the aims of the UK RELU Catchment Hydrology, Resources, Economics and Management (ChREAM) study is to assess likely impacts of WFD implementation on agricultural land use and consequent implications for water quality and farm incomes. An element of this work involves updating an existing diffuse pollution model to reflect present-day land use profiles. Combining agricultural land use data with hydrological spatial units can involve a number of problems arising from the integration of a variety of data formats at a range of spatial and temporal resolutions and the aggregation of source data over different spatial extents. This paper assesses uncertainty arising from areal interpolation of agricultural census data to hydrological units. The work is illustrated through a case study of the River Derwent catchment in north-east England. The study identifies the range of spatial resolutions at which robust estimations of agricultural land use can be made and examines the implications for diffuse pollution modelling.