Letteratura scientifica selezionata sul tema "Canals of England"

Before railroad and lorry traffic became common, many canals were built for transportation purposes. Water quality in canals has become a major concern as maintenance of these historically active canals has declined. A generic canal model has been developed to simulate the hydro-environmental processes specifically relevant to inland navigational canals, namely lockage, weir overflow, boat traffic, and algal growth. Apart from the movement of water, three types of particulate matter are tracked: algae (chlorophyll-a), inorganic non-cohesive sediment, and inorganic cohesive sediment. The newly developed model was applied to the Kennet and Avon Canal in southern England. The method of determining the input parameters for the model was documented herein, including setting up a Hydrological Simulation Program – Fortran model to obtain the landscape flow and sediment runoff to the canal. The model predictions were compared with the observed hydrological, sediment, and chlorophyll-a data at monitoring locations along the canal, and favourable agreements were achieved.

Bituminous geomembranes (BGM) collaborate in the global challenge of improving water resources management by waterproofing hydraulic works. BGMs are multi-layered composite geomembranes with each of the components providing a technical benefit on large canals projects. These technical advantages include: A very low Manning coefficient for efficient water flow, extreme puncture resistance, which allows rapid deployment on rougher subgrades and permits many types of cover directly on top, excellent resistance to wind uplift due to their high surface mass, meaning installation can be done in strong winds up to 40 km/h. BGMs also have a very low coefficient of thermal expansion and do not wrinkle with changes in temperature like other polymeric membranes do. This is particularly useful in high heat projects when geomembrane is left exposed, providing a more secure project in the long run with less risk of wrinkle-induced cracks and failures. To illustrate this, this presentation will describe the composite structure of bituminous geomembranes and will explain its main advantages in the hydraulic field. All these will be presented with the description of test results in different types of large width canals: Canals for irrigation: in France, for the waterproofing of the Canal de Provence; in India, where the Maharashtra state decided to replace original concrete for a geomembrane lining system in Pench Canal. Navigable canals: in France where VNF (French Waterways) chose the BGM for waterproofing the repairs of its canals. A work near Montargis will be presented as well as waterways in England (Lancaster Canal) and Canada (Chambly Canal). Finally, hydroelectric power canals will be also described: at the Sankt Dyonisen power plant in the Alps in Austria and the Cumpeo power plant in the Maule region in Chile.

During field studies of the vegetation in the canal network of the Hydro-System Danube-Tisa-Danube in Serbia, in 2008, 2011 and 2012, populations of Cabomba caroliniana A. Gray 1837 were recorded. Cabomba caroliniana was not previously recorded in the aquatic vegetation in Serbia. It is a popular aquarium plant native to South America (Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina) and, according to some authors, to southeastern United States. It was introduced into the rest of the USA, Canada, Australia, Asia (China, Malaysia, India, Japan), and in many regions of its new range it is considered an invasive and noxious aquatic weed. In Europe, it was found in the United Kingdom (introduced to England), Belgium, the Netherlands, and Hungary. Newly recorded populations in Serbia are restricted to the canals in Backa. Populations are established only on two localities (Mali Stapar and Odzaci).

The middle years of the nineteenth century witnessed the crest of a wave of rapid growth in English towns begun when workers, attracted by the higher wages offered by industry, started to migrate from rural areas to the towns, thereby swelling the populations of the latter at enormous rates.Birmingham was no exception to this growth spurt. During the last forty years of the eighteenth century Birmingham’s population doubled, a phenomenon that owed not a little to its canal system. ‘By the end of the eighteenth century, the canals [crucial to a region farther away from a coast than any other industrial area in England,] had already transformed the Birmingham neighbourhood, and factories and workshops clustered along their banks.’ Then, between 1831 and 1871 its population increased from 144,000 to 344,000.

Soft-bodied taxa comprise an important component of the extant lophophorate fauna, but convincing fossils of soft-bodied lophophorates are extremely rare. A small fossil lophophorate, attached to a brachiopod dorsal valve, is described from the Silurian (Wenlock Series) Herefordshire Lagerstätte of England. This unmineralized organism was bilaterally symmetrical and comprised a subconical body attached basally to the host and partially enclosed by a broad ‘hood’; the body bore a small, coiled lophophore. Where the hood attached laterally, there is a series of transverse ridges and furrows. The affinities of this organism probably lie with Brachiopoda; the hood is interpreted as the homologue of a dorsal valve/mantle lobe, and the attachment as the homologue of the ventral valve and/or pedicle. The ridges are arranged in a manner that suggests constructional serial repetition, indicating that they are unlikely to represent mantle canals. Extant brachiopods are not serially structured, but morphological and molecular evidence suggests that their ancestors were. The new organism may belong to the brachiopod stem group, and might also represent a significant element of the Palaeozoic lophophorate fauna.

ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effect of oregano extract solution (OES) against Enterococcus faecalis within root canals and dentin tubules, and its effect on smear layer. Materials and Methods: A total of 180 human maxillary central incisors was selected. After removal of coronal part of the teeth, root canals were prepared using ProTaper rotary files (Dentsply, Tulsa Endodontics, OK, USA) to #F3 with the crown-down manner. The roots were randomly assigned to 15 groups (n = 12 for each). In the first seven groups, the antimicrobial effects of the test groups were evaluated. Suspensions of E. faecalis cultures were adjusted to 1.0 McFarland (1 × 108 colony-forming unit [CFU]/ml), and sterilized teeth were placed in Eppendorf tubes and kept at 37°C for 4 weeks. Samples were then taken from the root canals before irrigation using three sterile paper points. Dentin samples were taken from root canals with ProTaper #F4 and #F5 series rotary instruments after irrigation. The aliquots of samples were placed into the brain heart infusion and incubated at 37°C for 48 h and then the CFUs were counted. In the other eight groups, the efficacy of the irrigation solutions on removing the smear layer was evaluated using scanning electron microscope (Leo 440, Oxford Microscopy Ltd., Cambridge, England) analysis. Statistical evaluation of the microbiological data was performed using the Kruskall–Wallis and Mann– Witney U-test (P < 0.05). Results: There was a statistically difference between the groups (P < 0.05). Chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX), 5% and 2% OES wasn't found to be statistically significant regarding their antibacterial activities against E. faecalis (P > 0.05). 1% OES and NaOCl showed similar antimicrobial effect (P > 0.05), and 1% OES and NaOCl were better than ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and saline (P < 0.05) but not as successful as CHX. According to the results obtained from dentin, CHX is the most effective solution within dentinal tubules. Different concentrations of OES were not achieved smear layer removal alone but OES in conjunction with 17% EDTA was the final irrigating solution achieved the smear layer removal without dentin erosion. Conclusions: Within the limitations of this study, OES appears to be a possible alternative to NaOCl as a root canal irrigant on the eradication of E. faecalis and removal of smear layer.

As revealed by John Armstrong, coastal shipping was vital to Britain’s Industrial Revolution: it was a system of mass transport for coal, grain, and myriad other goods that long predated railways and canals. Despite this, we know little about how it functioned. This paper examines some fundamental characteristics, namely ship speeds, times spent in port, and trade patterns, to examine its effectiveness long before Britain’s industrialisation. Local customs records provided data covering thousands of recorded departures and arrivals of coasters. These data are analysed using a geographical information system and panel-data analysis. Methods are described and new insights given. While seacoasts boasted opportunities, observed coasting vessels exhibit severe timing irregularities and clearly operated in very challenging seas where delays and troubles were to be expected.

Recounted are some, not all, of the most significant contributions to otology. The history of otology has, for the most part, followed the history of medicine: Little was known of otology by the ancient physicians, but their work must be reviewed to appreciate the progress that has been made. Most of the otology produced during the Middle Ages was limited to those structures that were readily accessible; otologic surgery was confined to trauma and removal of foreign bodies from the external auditory canals. Examination of the ear began after studies of the ear by Italian anatomists during the seventeenth century. It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that magnification was used so that the minute anatomic details could be observed. The clinical specialty of otology started in France (1850s), emerged as a scientific specialty in England, and received explosive progress from the German-speaking countries at the end of the nineteenth century. Otology has a remarkable background.

The first Industrial Revolution began in England in about 1750-1760 that lasted to sometime between 1820 and 1840. It is one of the most distinguished turning points in human history. During this period human and animal labor technology transform into machinery, such as the stream engine, the spinning jenny, and coke something pudding and rolling processes for making iron, etc. Industrial Revolution is renewed for global economic growth, increase in production and consumption of common people. The system of transportation communication through canals, road and rails had improved. Also, banking and other financial systems improved to run the industries and business firms smoothly. Child and infant mortality rate decreased and fertility rate increased. As a result, population growth had dramatically changed. On the other hand, women and child unhygienic condition. Factory workers have to work sixteen hours in the day merely to save the family from starvation. Industrial Revolution created a wide gap between the rich and the poor. An attempt has taken here to describe the various effects of Industrial Revolution.

This thesis draws from data collected over thirteen months of fieldwork working with “Boaters”, a boat-dwelling itinerant group on the waterways of Southern England. In the first of three parts, the thesis focusses on the individual motivations (economic, personal and political) behind becoming a travelling Boater, and on how one acquires the requisite skills and knowledge to become part of a community of practice on the waterways. Boaters on the whole do not have a sense of being an ethnically distinct group and, as such, this thesis interrogates what kind of an identity is being created or reinforced when individuals recognise themselves as Boaters. This part further deals with the specific temporal experience of boating (commonly known as “boat time”) that creates a shared experiential pattern between Boaters, and also examines the informal networks of trade, exchange and barter which enmesh Boaters in a web of reciprocal relationships. In the subsequent part, the focus of the thesis widens to take in the boating “community” as it is imagined. It asks how the concept of community is rhetorically constructed and corporately enacted on the inland waterways and identifies the creation of an emic and local conception of community. In the third part, the focus widens further still in order to interrogate the troubled relationships between Boaters and sedentary populations and between Boaters and agents of the State. By looking at Boaters’ different (essentially nomadic) understandings of locality and political organisation, this thesis attempts to more broadly explain the fraught relationship between state agencies and itinerant populations. The thesis concludes that the community of Boaters is constructed through the shared understandings which emerge due to the Boaters experiencing much of their world as being flexible, fluid and unfixed. Boaters are bound by acts of dwelling together on the waterways, acts that emerge from the specific material conditions of boat life, and further from acts of support where Boaters bind together for the security of the group against antagonistic outsiders and the interventions of agencies of the state.

Canals, society and engineered waterscapes. A comparative study between the Veneto region, Catalonia and South - West England. The reorganization and control of water flows are among the most significant transformations of natural elements caused by human activities. Waterways are not only environmental quality facilities, but also linear paths of high cultural value, where, thanks to the interaction between natural element and human intervention, we can identify types of landscape. Today, many researchers consider landscapes not only as the way in which people perceive their own reality, but also as factor of intellectual and material transformation of nature, through which people represent and contend those realities. Water landscapes are preferential testing systems thanks to their delicate and multi-scalar peculiarities, where the collective values are combined with the individual ones and where the concept of artefact merges with the concept of heritage, to blend into landscape. Thus artificial water canals are opportunities to ensure that the water resource and the hydrographic network are sufficiently considered within territorial programs, urban and landscape planning and, more generally, in any type of intervention connected to environmental, cultural, social and hydraulic aspects. Through a comparative study, this survey seeks both to provide a comparison between different geographical areas and to assess how the artificial hydrographic mesh may constitute an opportunity for social and economic development. Canals are elements of a great cultural heritage able to attract visitors and communicate to a wide public the importance of sustainable development through the promotion of a slow and responsible tourism which aims at the preservation both of a places and artefacts. The theoretical and methodological foundations on which this study is based are mainly three. Considering the historical relevance, the geo-historical approach is appropriate to set the foundation knowledge from which to start operative afterthoughts destined to actual needs for efficient management of those ‘bands of conflict' which can be considered the artificial canals (Ciriacono, Cosgrove, Glick, Hoskins, Meinig, Schama, Swyngedouw, Vallerani). Second, we have considered the literature based on the concepts of heritage and cultural legacy which are related to those of memory and value. This literature consequently produced some considerations regarding the concept of heritage protection (Bonesio, Lowenthal, Nogué, Michell, Norberg-Schulz, Turri). Third, we have focused on the epistemological reflection of the term landscape and in particular on the implications the adoption of the European Landscape Convention could possibly have in the future management of the territorial heritage, including the amphibian one and the birth of the Observatories (Castiglioni, Jones, Mels, Olwig, Varotto). This research explores three different case studies: the first one analyses the irrigation ditches outflowing from river Brenta in the middle Veneto plain; second one discusses the importance of building the acequias (open canals) in the formation of the landscape of the Baix Ter in north-eastern Catalonia; The last part considers the Kennet and Avon Canal in England, which is the canal that connects the cities of Bristol and Reading and links river Avon to the Thames. This research presents each case study through the three methodological approaches in order to give homogeneity: the first part offers a geo-historical analysis; the second part focus on the study of heritage, administrative authorities and actors who play a delicate task in conservation and management; the third part investigates the reception of the European Landscape Convention and the formation of observatories as a possible consequence of its application. The results of the study confirm the crucial importance of the landscapes of water in their respective contexts. The importance of water landscapes particularly emerges in the light of new paradigms of regional development and landscape planning which are considered to be more respectful to the quality life of the inhabitants and economically based on slow and green tourism. Moreover the identity value of these landscapes may play a role in relocating culturally and socially these areas subject to numerous anthropogenic impacts (urbanization, hydrological disasters, economic crisis, building trivialization). Another result of this research regards the valorisation if the artificial canals in England which generate generate widespread prosperity in the local population, as well as become an economical and cultural surplus added to affirm areas outside the usual crowded tourist destinations. Finally, the reading of the European Landscape Convention, and especially the study of local observers have witnessed how the role and participation of the people can no longer be just a good practice in the hands of the most sensitive administrations, but a necessary choice to reaffirm some of the values that are the basis for the active democratic adhesion of citizens, who must return the protagonists of territorial planning management.
Canali artificiali, territorialià idraulica e paesaggio. Uno studio comparativo tra Veneto, Catalogna e sud-ovest dell’Inghilterra. Il riordino e il controllo dei deflussi idrici sono tra gli aspetti più significativi della trasformazione umana della base naturale. Le vie d’acqua non costituiscono solamente una pregiata dotazione ambientale, ma altresì dei tracciati lineari di elevato pregio culturale dove, grazie all’interazione tra supporto naturale e interventi antropici, possiamo individuare eloquenti tipologie paesaggistiche. Oggi in geografia molti studiosi considerano i paesaggi non solo come i modi in cui i gruppi umani vedono le proprie realtà, ma anche come fattori della trasformazione intellettuale e materiale della natura attraverso cui tali gruppi rappresentano e si contendo al loro interno e fra di loro quelle realtà. I paesaggi d’acqua sono dei sistemi di verifica privilegiati perché delicati e multi-scalari, dove i valori collettivi si sposano con quelli individuali e dove il concetto di manufatto confluisce in quello di patrimonio per finire in quello di paesaggio. Le canalizzazioni artificiali divengono quindi un’occasione per far sì che la risorsa acqua e la rete idrografica siano posti al centro dei programmi territoriali, dei piani urbanistici e paesistici e, più in generale, in ogni tipo d’intervento in cui interagiscono aspetti ambientali, culturali, sociali e idraulici. Questa indagine cerca attraverso lo studio comparativo di offrire un confronto tra diverse aree geografiche per valutare come la maglia idrografica artificiale possa costituire un’opportunità di sviluppo sociale ed economico. Le canalizzazioni rappresentano un suggestivo patrimonio per comunicare a un più ampio pubblico l’importanza di uno sviluppo sostenibile, per la promozione di un turismo lento e responsabile in grado di preservare luoghi e manufatti dal punto di vista ambientale e culturale. I fondamenti teorici e metodologici su cui si basa questo studio sono principalmente tre. Trattandosi di territori di antico popolamento, l’approccio geo-storico si presta efficacemente a porre le fondamenta conoscitive da cui avviare ripensamenti operativi da destinare alle odierne esigenze per un’efficiente gestione di quelle ‘fasce di conflittualità’ che possono ritenersi i corsi d’acqua artificiali (Ciriacono, Cosgrove, Hoskins, Meinig, Schama, Swyngedouw, Vallerani). In secondo luogo abbiamo considerato la letteratura relativa ai concetti di patrimonio ed eredità culturale, connessi a quelli di memoria e di valore avviando, di conseguenza, alcune considerazioni sulla loro genesi e tutela (Bonesio, Lowenthal Nogué, Michell, Norberg-Schulz, Turri). Infine ci siamo soffermati sulla riflessione epistemologica del termine paesaggio e in particolare sulle implicazioni che l’emanazione della Convenzione Europea del Paesaggio può avere nella futura gestione del patrimonio territoriale, compreso quello anfibio e la nascita degli Osservatori (Castiglioni, Jones, Mels, Olwig, Varotto). Lo studio, per essere maggiormente efficace, è stato diviso in tre diverse sezioni ognuna relativa ad un caso: nel primo abbiamo analizzato le rogge defluenti dal fiume Brenta nell’area della media pianura veneta, successivamente abbiamo discusso l’importanza dell’escavazione delle acequias (canali artificiali aperti) nella formazione del paesaggio del Baix Ter nella Catalogna nord orientale, infine in Inghilterra abbiamo considerato il Kennet and Avon Canal, cioè il canale artificiale che unisce le città di Bristol e Reading e mette in comunicazione il fiume Avon con il Tamigi. Per ogni caso studio abbiamo strutturato tre sub-sezioni per conferire omogeneità alle comparazioni: una prima parte l’abbiamo dedicata ad un approfondimento geo- storico, nella seconda ci siamo concentrati nello studio del patrimonio ereditato, sugli enti amministrativi e sugli attori che svolgono il delicato compito di conservazione, gestione e valorizzazione, per finire, abbiamo indagato la ricezione della Convenzione Europea del Paesaggio nei tre diversi paesi e la formazione di Osservatori come conseguenza possibile dell’applicazione della suddetta Convenzione. I risultati della ricerca confermano l’importanza cruciale che rivestono i paesaggi d’acqua nei rispettivi contesti. Essi risultano evidenti soprattutto se analizzati alla luce di nuovi paradigmi di sviluppo territoriale e di pianificazione paesaggistica maggiormente rispettosi della qualità di vita degli abitanti, di un’economia basata sul turismo lento e green e infine sul valore identitario che questi paesaggi possono svolgere nel ricollocare culturalmente e socialmente queste aree sottoposte a innumerevoli stress antropici (urbanizzazione, disastri idrologici, crisi economica, banalizzazione edilizia). Inoltre è emerso come in Inghilterra il lavoro di valorizzazione dei canali artificiali può generare un benessere diffuso non solo nella popolazione locale, ma addirittura diventare un valore aggiunto economico-culturale per affermare aree fuori dalle consuete affollate mete turistiche. Infine, la lettura della Convenzione Europea del Paesaggio e soprattutto lo studio degli Osservatori locali hanno testimoniato come il ruolo degli abitanti e della partecipazione non può più essere solamente una buona pratica a uso delle più sensibili amministrazioni, ma una scelta necessaria per riaffermare alcuni valori che stanno alla base dell’adesione democratica attiva dei cittadini, i quali devono tornare protagonisti della gestione del patrimonio territoriale.

There are over 3,000 miles of navigable inland waterways in England and Wales, managed mainly by the Canal and River Trust, which promotes their use for various leisure activities. Canals have undergone a radical transformation in their use and purpose, from being important transport links in the 18th and 19th centuries, to largely being left derelict. During the 20th century, however, the canals have been transformed from an obsolete infrastructure into a modern leisurescape used by various individuals, groups and stakeholders. Concentrating on the canals of Northern England and Northern Wales, this thesis focuses on one of those groups on the canals who have not yet received sufficient academic attention, the holiday and leisure boaters. In order to research tourism, a temporary and mobile phenomenon, with the commitment necessary for an ethnographic research, this study develops a methodology, reflexive mobile ethnography that combines the mobilities approach and European ethnology, utilizing semi-structured interviews, participant observation and auto-ethnography for data collection. As no previous academic study has presented a comprehensive analysis of contemporary canal tourism as a lived and embodied experience, the present study extends our understanding of inland waterways tourism and mobilities. Theoretically, the study suggests studying tourism mobilities from the everyday life perspective – mundane tourism mobilities – and the data analysis shows that these are simultaneously material, embodied, temporal and convivial. A number of materialities have to come together in order to constitute mobile assemblages that make canal travel possible. These assemblages, such as boat-humans, move in the temporal canalscape, characterised by its specific – slow – tempo, but also engaging with the past in embodied ways. Furthermore, the canal temporalities are characterised by mundane socio-natural and socio-bodily rhythms, which are identified in the thesis through the rhythmanalysis of the leisure boating everyday life. The material and temporal practices of boating take place in the context of social interactions and their closer examination helps to redefine the boundaries of a canal boating community. This study therefore presents an analysis of the canal leisurescape where the human and non-human form various co-agencies and assemblages, experienced in embodied ways in the context of mundane tourism mobilities. The latter framework, as developed in this thesis, constitutes a theoretical contribution to mobilites studies by proposing to research tourism from the perspective of everyday life focusing on three key elements: time, place and practice. The work will therefore extend existing understanding of tourism mobilites, particularly in the ways in which they relate to embodied everyday life practices.

This thesis examines the factors that contribute to the bail decision-making process in English and Canadian courts. Despite the fact that bail contributes to rising prison remand populations, influences the lives of legally innocent defendants, and is central to assessments of human rights, very little is known about this process. England and Canada were ideal jurisdictions with which to explore this issue as that their similar bail laws and divergent practices related to pre-trial custody reflected different patterns of bail decision-making. This research took place when Canada’s prison remand rates had been increasing over several decades and England had one of the lowest prison remand rates in the Western world. The objectives of the study were to identify the factors that contribute to bail decision-making, investigate how they converged and diverged between jurisdictions, understand the impact of the decision-making at the local level, and explore how the findings contribute to an understanding of the bail decision- making process in a wider context. It is argued that court culture is central to understanding bail decision-making but that it is shaped by broader views that are specific to the criminal justice processes in England and Canada. These views relate to values that developed in each jurisdiction as a result of the evolution of criminal justice ideology and guiding philosophies over time. The influence of these informal factors on the bail decision-making process were facilitated by the discretion afforded to court actors in their application of formal laws and policies, which enabled them to balance multiple competing principles whilst, in the main, remaining within the prescribed legal framework. This suggests that the factors contributing to bail decision-making are nuanced, varied, and interdependent and, as such, should not be examined individually but rather in terms of their interactive effects.

This thesis examines various aspects of English and Canadian charity law in terms of their relationship with the contested categories of ‘public law’ and ‘private law’. It argues that the law of charities can be regarded as a hybrid legal discipline in both a general or categorical sense, and in the context-specific or functional sense that both the conditions for obtaining charitable status, and the regulation of the conduct of charities and their trustees, are continually being adjusted in such a way as to maintain in a broad sense a functional equilibrium between individual project pursuit and collective project pursuit; that is to say, an equilibrium between the protection of the autonomy of property-owning individuals to control and direct their own wealth, and the furtherance of competing public interests or visions of the good. After sketching out the history and nature of the common law charities tradition and the contemporary English and Canadian regulatory regimes, the thesis pursues its analytical and comparative hypotheses by examining two important features of English and Canadian charity law, the public benefit doctrine and the rules of locus standi that determine who may seek relief for misapplications of charity property. It then addresses the comparatively modern issue of the governmental co-optation of charitable resources, considering to what extent modern pressures associated with the retrenchment of welfare states threaten to destabilize charity law’s hybrid equilibrium in EW and Canada. The thesis then turns to the emerging phenomenon of social enterprise, arguing that shifts to charity law’s functional equilibrium may explain the emergence of this ‘post-charitable’ legal form. The thesis concludes with some observations on the hybrid nature of the law of charities, and on the different functional equilibriums between individual project pursuit and collective project pursuit that have been reached by English and Canadian charity law.

Interannual variability of temperature and cyclone frequencies for Eastern Canada and the New England States have been investigated for the winter seasons 1931-32 to 1984-85. Seasonal analyses have revealed that cyclone frequency has decreased by 21% over the research area; the highest losses occurring over the Maritimes and the New England States (30%) and in the southern Quebec-southwestern Ontario region (31%). The seasonal average temperature has remained fairly stable during the research period. However, the Temperature Variability Index (TVI) suggests that the interannual variability of temperature has been through some changes since 1931-32. The latest shift indicates that, since the early seventies, the temperature variability appears to be increasing during the winter season. Half-month periods were analyzed which revealed some features of the climatic variability during the winter season since 1931-32. Average temperature for the first 15 days of January recorded a significant decrease over the last 54 years. On the other hand, the last half of February presented a general increase in temperature. Parallel to that, the last half of January and the first 15 days of February have recorded substantial decreases in cyclone frequency. Thus, these half-month periods reveal trends which indicate that the overall winter season of the mid-seventies--early eighties differs from the prevailing winter climatic conditions of the thirties and forties.

Thesis advisor: Owen Stanwood
Making Nations: The Northeastern Borderlands in an Age of Revolution, 1760-1820 examines migration within northeastern North America, and the gradual formation of a meaningful border between the District of Maine and the Province of New Brunswick. The American Revolution, though it divided the northeast between New England and British North America, did not fundamentally change attitudes toward the borderland. For decades, the region had been a special sort of frontier – a more connected frontier, offering migrants from southern New England better access to Atlantic trade. The post-revolutionary era rapidly reverted to pre-war patterns, as settlers crossed a largely meaningless border looking for fertile land and economic connectivity. These settlers, I argue, were not late loyalists, choosing British territory, or early republicans, choosing the U.S. This was one migration, to the borderland and the similar opportunities on both sides. So how did migration within a shared borderland become immigration across a meaningful border? Post-revolution, both Congregationalists and Catholics began to build networks in Maine that stopped at the border. A Congregational missionary society, the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America, realized it could secure state funding from Massachusetts by advertising itself as a tool for managing the growing settlements in Maine. State money helped the society grow rapidly, and as similar groups formed they chose to join the pioneer society as partners rather than compete with it. Meanwhile, Congregational women created institutions called “ladies cent societies,” which provided a massive infusion of funding into the system. The resulting Congregational network grew to encompass almost the entire American half of the borderland. At the same time, a Catholic network also grew in Maine, connecting the Catholic Passamaquoddy and Penobscot people to Boston, as well as to Irish Catholics along Maine’s coast. As these networks grew they changed eastern Maine from a place that was attractive because of its connections with British North America, to a place that was attractive because of its connections with New England. These networks made the border meaningful – and immovable. Though politicians on both sides persisted for years in believing they could still adjust the border, they were wrong. It had already taken root
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: History

How has the pandemic shaped play, both as a frame for interaction and as an emergent theme during play activity? Central to the book is the exploration of isolation among children, youth and adults during the phases of quarantine in 2020-2021. The authors are researchers and practitioners in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Scotland, Serbia, Sudan, South Korea, the United States and Wales. Cultures studied include families in different social classes and different speech communities. The chapters are introduced through their sections: Landscapes, Portraits, and Shifting Frames.

Abstract In the opening pages of Headlong Hall (1816), Thomas Love Peacock’s first published novel, the ‘perfectibilian’Mr Foster holds forth ‘with great energy on the subject of roads and railways, canals and tunnels, manufactures and machinery: “In short”, said he, “everything we look on attests the progress of mankind.”‘ His pessimistic opposite Mr Escot does not attempt to deny the existence of these ‘improvements’. But he asserts that, far from evidence of human progress, they constitute ‘so many links in the great chain of corrup¬tion, which will soon fetter the whole human race’, thanks to the ‘factitious wants and unnatural appetites they engender’. The moral and social benefits, or otherwise, of industrialization have continued to be debated down to the present day.

Transport by water was the quickest and cheapest method to move goods in the Middle Ages, and linked together people even in distant parts of England. Trading places could arise in almost any place where boats could be hauled ashore, on either rivers or coastal estuaries. These were all potential places where people on land could come together to trade with those arriving by boat and ship. It is no coincidence that the rise in both inland and coastal transport dates to the tenth century, the period from which England became increasingly commercialized.The discussion of water transport is not limited to indirect evidence. Archaeological work has identified canals dug to allow the movement of boats up rivers and in marshland, and landing places where boats could be brought to the banks of rivers and the shore. The development of water-transport led to the development of a ‘marine culture’, a change in attitudes to the sea and ships.

Abstract In The Early Nineteenth Century, especially after the War of 1812–15, a “market revolution” and “transportation revolution” increasingly transformed American society. Improved roads and especially canals opened up markets and profits that were beyond the previous dreams of many enterprising farmers, skilled artisans, and manufacturers. But the rapid economic growth and urbanization of the 1820s devastated many other Americans who could no longer hold their own against more efficient and productive competitors. The owners of small, rock-strewn New England farms, for example, found it difficult to compete with Midwesterners who had the advantage of rich, loamy soil as well as the new Erie Canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Hudson River. In the eyes of many religious leaders, faced with geographic mobility and the breakup of traditional communities, it appeared that the United States had become increasingly dominated by materialism and greed.

Establishing boarding schools in Canada is a very twofold act, on the one hand – England tried to colonize Canadian lands, and on the other hand, it almost destroyed the culture and language of local tribes. Plans of colonization of the New World turned into a cultural genocide, which was recognized very slowly. This topic is discussed in our article which has both archived data and words of survivors of these events.

This study conducts a complete review of scientific production using the quantitative approach of bibliometric analysis to help us comprehend the existing structure of studies and to indicate future research directions on job performance determinants and job satisfaction. By restricting its study subjects and recognizing specific trends, the article maps the literature. Descriptive and performance studies were carried out on a sample of 2028 papers using the Web of Science database (WoS). The scientific mapping of the conceptual, intellectual, and social structure was performed using the VOSviewer program, which offers academics with a quantifiable and graphic depiction of the job performance determinants and job satisfaction sector. The results indicated that the field's most notable researchers are of American origin, and the most active nations in the subject of job performance determinants and job satisfaction are China, England, Germany, Canada and the Netherlands, with important partnerships worldwide.

Ocean energy developments are appearing around the world including Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Norway, France Portugal, Spain, India, the United States, Canada and others. North America’s first tidal energy demonstration facility is in the Minas Passage of the Bay of Fundy, near Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) is a non-profit institute that owns and operates the facility that offers developers, regulators, scientists and academics the opportunity to study the performance and interaction of instream tidal energy converters (usually referred to as TISECs but called “turbines” in this paper.) with one of the world’s most aggressive tidal regimes. FORCE provides a shared observation facility, submarine cables, grid connection, and environmental monitoring at its pre-approved test site. The site is well suited to testing, with water depths up to 45 meters at low tide, a sediment -free bedrock sea floor, straight flowing currents, and water speeds up to 5 meters per second (approximately 10 knots). FORCE will install 10.896km of double armored, 34.5kV submarine cable — one for each of its four berths. Electricity from the berths will be conditioned at FORCE’s own substation and delivered to the Provincial power grid by a 10 km overhead transmission line. There are four berth holders at present: Alstom Hydro Canada using Clean Current Power Systems Technology (Canada); Minas Basin Pulp and Power Co. Ltd. with technology partner Marine Current Turbines (UK); Nova Scotia Power Inc. with technology partner OpenHydro (Ireland) and Atlantis Resources Corporation, in partnership with Lockheed Martin and Irving Shipbuilding. In November 2009, NSPI with technology partner OpenHydro deployed the first commercial scale turbine at the FORCE site. The 1MW rated turbine was secured by a 400-tonne subsea gravity base fabricated in Nova Scotia. The intent of this paper is to provide an overview of FORCE to the international marine energy community during OMAE 2011 taking place in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

This technical note analyzes international experiences and practices of public technology extension service programs. Technology extension services comprise varied forms of assistance provided directly to enterprises to foster technological modernization and improvement, with a focus on established small and mid-sized enterprises. The note discusses the definitions, rationales, and characteristics of selected technology extension service programs, drawing on examples from Europe, North America, and other regions. It presents four detailed case studies: the U.S. Manufacturing Extension Partnership; the National Research Council-Industrial Research Assistance Program in Canada; England's Manufacturing Advisory Service; and Tecnalia, an applied technology organization in Spain. The case studies address several program elements including the history and evolution of the program, structure, program scale, financing structure, services and clients, governance, personnel, monitoring, and evaluation. The analysis highlights common and distinctive characteristics as well as program strengths, weaknesses, and key practices. The note provides a framework for positioning technology extension services within the broader mix of policies for technology transfer, business upgrading, and innovation, and offers conclusions and insights to support efforts to strengthen technology extension services in Latin America.

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3