Top Articles of 2018

Looking for an interesting read? Right here we have the 20 most-viewed articles on Scholars Portal Journals for 2018.

  1. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions
    Richard M. Ryan, Edward L. Deci
    January 2000, Contemporary Educational Psychology 25(1) p.54-67
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/0361476x/v25i0001/54_iaemcdand.xml
    Intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation have been widely studied, and the distinction between them has shed important light on both developmental and educational practices. In this review we revisit the classic definitions of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in light of contemporary research and theory. Intrinsic motivation remains an important construct, reflecting the natural human propensity to learn and assimilate. However, extrinsic motivation is argued to vary considerably in its relative autonomy and thus can either reflect external control or true self-regulation. The relations of both classes of motives to basic human needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are discussed.
  2. A Descriptive Study of Sexual Homicide in Canada: Implications for Police Investigation
    Eric Beauregard, Melissa Martineau
    December 2013, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 57(12) p.1454-1476
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/0306624x/v57i0012/1454_adsoshicifpi.xml
    Few empirical studies have been conducted that examine the phenomenon of sexual homicide, and among these studies, many have been limited by small sample size. Although interesting and informative, these studies may not be representative of the greater phenomenon of sexual murder and may be subject to sampling bias that could have significant effects on results. The current study aims to provide a descriptive analysis of the largest sample of sexual homicide cases across Canada in the past 62 years. In doing so, the study aims to examine offender and victim characteristics, victim targeting and access, and modus operandi. Findings show that cases of sexual homicide and sexual murderers included in the current study differ in many aspects from the portrait of the sexual murderer and his or her crime depicted in previous studies. The authors’ results may prove useful to the police officers responsible for the investigation of these crimes.
  3. Genetic rescue guidelines with examples from Mexican wolves and Florida panthers
    Philip Hedrick, Richard Fredrickson
    April 2010, Conservation Genetics 11(2) p.615-626
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/15660621/v11i0002/615_grgwefmwafp.xml
    In populations or species with low fitness (high genetic load), a new management strategy called genetic rescue has been advocated to help avoid extinction. In this strategy, unrelated individuals from another population are introduced into the population with low fitness in an effort to reduce genetic load. Here we present ten guidelines that can be used to evaluate when genetic rescue is a good management option, the appropriate procedures for genetic rescue planning and management, and the potential negative genetic consequences of genetic rescue. These guidelines are then used to evaluate the genetic rescue aspects of the recovery programs for the Mexican wolf and the Florida panther.
  4. Association of dioxin exposure and reproductive hormone levels in men living near the Bien Hoa airbase, Vietnam
    Hoang Van Luong, Pham The Tai, Muneko Nishijo, Do Minh Trung, Pham Ngoc Thao, Pham Van Son, Nguyen Van Long, Nguyen Tung Linh, Hisao Nishijo
    July 2018, Science of The Total Environment 628(Complete) p.484-489
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/00489697/v628icomplete/484_aodearntbhav.xml
    Dioxins are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and their effects on reproductive functions are well-documented. The aim of the present study was to measure the levels of reproductive hormones in 42 men residing near a dioxin-contaminated area in Vietnam. We measured levels of 17 2,3,7,8-substituted congeners of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and four non-ortho polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in blood. Levels of follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, progesterone, prolactin, estradiol, and total testosterone were measured in serum. Blood dioxin levels were elevated; the levels of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin was 7.3pg/g fat. Seven of the men had testosterone levels below 250ng/dL, and nine men had prolactin levels above 9.7ng/mL. Four PCDD congeners, two PCDF congeners, one PCB congener, and the sum TEQ of PCDDs, PCDDs/Fs, and PCDDs/Fs/PCBs were positively and significantly correlated with prolactin levels. Two PCDD congeners, six PCDF congeners, two PCB congeners, and the TEQs of PCDFs and PCBs were negatively and significantly correlated with testosterone levels. There were no significant correlations between dioxin congeners and follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, or progesterone levels.
  5. Trauma and suicide behaviour histories among a Canadian indigenous population: An empirical exploration of the potential role of Canada’s residential school system
    Brenda Elias, Javier Mignone, Madelyn Hall, Say P. Hong, Lyna Hart, Jitender Sareen
    May 2012, Social Science & Medicine 74(10) p.1560-1569
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/02779536/v74i0010/1560_tasbharocrss.xml
    It has been theorized that suicide behaviours amongst indigenous peoples may be an outcome of mass trauma experienced as a result of colonization. In Canada, qualitative evidence has suggested that the Indian Residential School System set in motion a cycle of trauma, with some survivors reporting subsequent abuse, suicide, and other related behaviours. It has been further postulated that the effects of trauma can also be passed inter-generationally. Today, there are four generations of Canadian First Nations residential school survivors who may have transmitted the trauma they experienced to their own children and grandchildren. No empirical study has ever been undertaken to demonstrate this dynamic. This study is therefore the first to investigate whether a direct or indirect exposure to Canada’s residential school system is associated with trauma and suicide behaviour histories. Data were collected in 2002/2003 from a representative sample of Manitoba, Canada, First Nations adults (N = 2953), including residential (N = 611) and non-residential school attendees (N = 2342). Regression analyses showed that for residential school attendees negative experiences in residential school were associated with a history of abuse, and that this history and being of younger age was associated with a history of suicide thoughts, whereas abuse history only was associated with a history of suicide attempts. For First Nations adults who did not attend a residential school, we found that age 28–44, female sex, not having a partner, and having a parent or grandparent who attended a residential school was associated with a history of abuse. This history, along with age and having had a parent or grandparent who attended residential school was associated with a history of suicide thoughts and attempts. In conclusion, this is the first study to empirically demonstrate, at the population level, the mental health impact of the residential school system on survivors and their children.
  6. Liquid water oceans in ice giants
    S.J. Wiktorowicz, A.P. Ingersoll
    February 2007, Icarus 186(2) p.436-447
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/00191035/v186i0002/436_lwoiig.xml
    Aptly named, ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune contain significant amounts of water. While this water cannot be present near the cloud tops, it must be abundant in the deep interior. We investigate the likelihood of a liquid water ocean existing in the hydrogen-rich region between the cloud tops and deep interior. Starting from an assumed temperature at a given upper tropospheric pressure (the photosphere), we follow a moist adiabat downward. The mixing ratio of water to hydrogen in the gas phase is small in the photosphere and increases with depth. The mixing ratio in the condensed phase is near unity in the photosphere and decreases with depth; this gives two possible outcomes. If at some pressure level the mixing ratio of water in the gas phase is equal to that in the deep interior, then that level is the cloud base. The gas below the cloud base has constant mixing ratio. Alternately, if the mixing ratio of water in the condensed phase reaches that in the deep interior, then the surface of a liquid ocean will occur. Below this ocean surface, the mixing ratio of water will be constant. A cloud base occurs when the photospheric temperature is high. For a family of ice giants with different photospheric temperatures, the cooler ice giants will have warmer cloud bases. For an ice giant with a cool enough photospheric temperature, the cloud base will exist at the critical temperature. For still cooler ice giants, ocean surfaces will result. A high mixing ratio of water in the deep interior favors a liquid ocean. We find that Neptune is both too warm (photospheric temperature too high) and too dry (mixing ratio of water in the deep interior too low) for liquid oceans to exist at present. To have a liquid ocean, Neptune’s deep interior water to gas ratio would have to be higher than current models allow, and the density at 19 kbar would have to be ~0.8 g/cm^3. Such a high density is inconsistent with gravitational data obtained during the Voyager flyby. In our model, Neptune’s water cloud base occurs around 660 K and 11 kbar, and the density there is consistent with Voyager gravitational data. As Neptune cools, the probability of a liquid ocean increases. Extrasolar ”hot Neptunes,” which presumably migrate inward toward their parent stars, cannot harbor liquid water oceans unless they have lost almost all of the hydrogen and helium from their deep interiors.
  7. Intimate partner homicide: a review of the male proprietariness and the self-defense theories
    Geris Serran, Philip Firestone
    January 2004, Aggression and Violent Behavior 9(1) p.1-15
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/13591789/v09i0001/1_ipharompatst.xml
    In recent years, more attention has been focused on domestic violence. The focus of this article is on the most serious aspect of domestic violence, intimate partner homicide. Although both men and women kill their intimate partners, it appears that differences exist in the motivation behind the homicide in both cases. The male proprietariness theory and the self-defense theory are presented as a means of understanding the gender differences in spousal homicide. These theories suggest that dynamics of the relationship play an important role in the increasing violence, which eventually results in homicide in certain instances. The implications of these theories are presented as a means of reducing the number of domestic homicides.
  8. In the aftermath: Listening to people bereaved by homicide
    Lesley Malone
    December 2007, Probation Journal 54(4) p.383-393
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/02645505/v54i0004/383_italtpbbh.xml
    This article presents some of the key findings from a study of bereavement by homicide, based on interviews with bereaved people and personnel from Victim Support, the probation service, the police and voluntary organizations. It outlines some of the emotional and practical aspects of traumatic bereavement and the needs that subsequently arise, with particular regard to bereaved people’s involvement with the criminal justice system. Recommendations for improved probation service, police and Victim Support responses are proposed.
  9. A philosophical framework for thought and practice in human resource development
    Wendy EA Ruona, Susan A Lynham
    June 2004, Human Resource Development International 7(2) p.151-164
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/13678868/v07i0002/151_apfftapihrd.xml
    Philosophy is often thought of as abstract and offering little practical utility. However, it is vitally important for an emerging profession such as HRD. The goal of this paper is to highlight the importance of the act of philosophy by offering a primer for those new to it. A framework that emphasizes a systems perspective of philosophy is proposed and each component is briefly described. Then, the practical contributions of philosophy are demonstrated by examining current issues facing HRD.
  10. Demeter’s legacy: rapid changes to our genome imposed by diet
    E. Patin, L. Quintana-Murci
    February 2008, Trends in Ecology & Evolution 23(2) p.56-59
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/01695347/v23i0002/56_dlrctogibd.xml
    The transition from foraging to farming allowed humans to produce several foods in abundance that were previously scarce. However, early farmers had to adapt to benefit fully from this energy-rich but initially detrimental food supply. Perry et al. recently showed that natural selection has increased the copy number of a gene encoding a starch-digesting enzyme in farming populations. This study illustrates that genetic adaptation to new diets has occurred in humans since the agricultural revolution.
  11. Explaining the Changing Nature of Homicide Clearance in Canada
    Tanya Trussler
    December 2010, International Criminal Justice Review 20(4) p.366-383
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/10575677/v20i0004/366_etcnohcic.xml
    Canadian homicide clearance rates are higher than for any other type of crime, but clearance rates have been decreasing since the late 1960s and they are not uniform across the country. This article examines homicide clearance in Canada using data derived from the Canadian Homicide Survey to determine whether the evident temporal and geographical variations in clearance are explained by either victim characteristics or offense details. There are two competing theories regarding homicide clearance characteristics. On one hand, it is argued that the police use discretion when determining which cases deserving more attention. The alternate theory is that police apportion the same effort to all homicide cases, regardless of the victim’s status owing to the heinous nature of the crime; therefore, only case details impede the process of determining culpability. Using logistic regression analysis, this examination first focuses on the influence of time and geography on clearance probabilities and then compares the effect of victim characteristics and offense characteristics on clearance outcomes. Empirically nested models indicate that victim characteristics are not a robust predictor of clearance; offense characteristics are found to be more influential. However, both temporal and geographical factors remain important predictors of homicide clearance. The impacts of increasing gang- and drug-related homicides are discussed, as are implications for future research.
  12. Unsettling Spaces: Grassroots Responses to Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women During the Harper Government Years
    Samira Saramo
    October 2016, Comparative American Studies An International Journal 14(3-4) p.204-220
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/14775700/v14i3-4/204_usgrtcwdthgy.xml
    In Canada, Indigenous women and girls are 4.5 times more likely to become victims of homicide than other women. Over the last 30 years, more than 1000 women identified as First Nations, Inuit, or Métis were murdered in Canada, and more than 100 are still missing. However, the Canadian government has not acknowledged the economic, social and environmental colonialism that has allowed this violence to become naturalised. Focusing on activism around the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people in Canada during the years of the Conservative Harper Government, this article examines how these grassroots initiatives challenge Canadian politics, reclaim streets and liminal zones, and make space for sacred commemoration. Specifically, Twitter campaigns, memeing, the REDress Project, and Walking With Our Sisters are studied. Engaging with scholarship that analyses spaces of violence, this article, in turn, discusses how activism can disrupt violence by transforming physical, virtual and affective spaces.
  13. Spatial variation of mercury bioaccumulation in bats of Canada linked to atmospheric mercury deposition
    John Chételat and colleagues
    June 2018, Science of The Total Environment 626(Complete) p.668-677
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/00489697/v626icomplete/668_svombicltamd.xml
    Wildlife are exposed to neurotoxic mercury at locations distant from anthropogenic emission sources because of long-range atmospheric transport of this metal. In this study, mercury bioaccumulation in insectivorous bat species (Mammalia: Chiroptera) was investigated on a broad geographic scale in Canada. Fur was analyzed (n=1178) for total mercury from 43 locations spanning 20° latitude and 77° longitude. Total mercury and methylmercury concentrations in fur were positively correlated with concentrations in internal tissues (brain, liver, kidney) for a small subset (n=21) of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) and big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), validating the use of fur to indicate internal mercury exposure. Brain methylmercury concentrations were approximately 10% of total mercury concentrations in fur. Three bat species were mainly collected (little brown bats, big brown bats, and northern long-eared bats [M. septentrionalis]), with little brown bats having lower total mercury concentrations in their fur than the other two species at sites where both species were sampled. On average, juvenile bats had lower total mercury concentrations than adults but no differences were found between males and females of a species. Combining our dataset with previously published data for eastern Canada, median total mercury concentrations in fur of little brown bats ranged from 0.88–12.78μg/g among 11 provinces and territories. Highest concentrations were found in eastern Canada where bats are most endangered from introduced disease. Model estimates of atmospheric mercury deposition indicated that eastern Canada was exposed to greater mercury deposition than central and western sites. Further, mean total mercury concentrations in fur of adult little brown bats were positively correlated with site-specific estimates of atmospheric mercury deposition. This study provides the largest geographic coverage of mercury measurements in bats to date and indicates that atmospheric mercury deposition is important in determining spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a mammalian species.
  14. Characteristics of Canadian Youth-Perpetrated Homicides
    Michael Woodworth, Ava Agar, Richard Coupland
    September 2013, Criminal Justice and Behavior 40(9) p.1009-1026
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/00938548/v40i0009/1009_cocyh.xml
    Youth-perpetrated homicide has considerable impact on our society and justice system. Unfortunately, youth-perpetrated homicide is an understudied crime and even less research has been conducted specific to a Canadian population. Two decades ago, Meloff and Silverman published the most thorough examination of youth-perpetrated homicide in Canada. Since that time, it has been proposed that the motivations and characteristics of youth violence have changed in a number of important ways. The present study expands on previous limited empirical studies and investigation into features of youth homicides using a sample of 105 Canadian youth homicide offenders. A number of important differences were observed. For instance, there were substantially more multiple-perpetrator, stranger, and instrumental homicides. Results are considered in relation to trends observed in Canada and the United States.
  15. The Ebola Crisis and Post‐2015 Development
    Melissa Leach
    August 2015, Journal of International Development 27(6) p.816-834
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/09541748/v27i0006/816_tecapd.xml
    This article argues that the recent Ebola crisis is the result of structural violence, as interlocking institutions have produced interlaced inequalities, unsustainabilities and insecurities. These have underlain the vulnerabilities in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea through which a disease outbreak became a major health, social and economic crisis and the local fears, distrust, rumours and resistance that magnified it further. Articulating this analysis of Ebola with broader perspectives, the case is made for a reframing of post‐2015 development as transformational politics towards equality, sustainability and security, enabling people to realise well‐being and justice in terms that make sense to them.
  16. Waste Management of Discarded Cell Phones and Proposal of Material Recovery Techniques
    Edwin Wansi, Pierre D’Ans, Louise Gonda, Tiriana Segato, Marc Degrez
    January 2018, Procedia CIRP 69(Complete) p.974-979
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/22128271/v69icomplete/974_wmodcpapomrt.xml
    The treatment of end-of-Life products is one of the key steps for progression towards a circular economy. In this context, mobile phone recycling has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to the high metal concentrations in printed circuit assemblies (PCAs). Contrary to precious metals, the recycling technologies for tantalum and rare earths are less well established despite their high importance for future sustainable technologies. In this study, mobile phone samples were manually dismantled into their main constituents and the qualitative distribution of elements in the PCA was determined. Tantalum capacitors can be visually distinguished from other components, whereas neodymium was detected in easily separable non-magnetic components sized between 0.5 and 1.5mm. From tantalum capacitors, a tantalum rich-powder with a grade of 50% was obtained via a leaching process followed by an oxidizing heat treatment, while neodymium-rich fractions (4 to 14%) were obtained by sieving, magnetic and density separations.
  17. “Newsworthy” Victims?
    Kristen Gilchrist
    December 2010, Feminist Media Studies 10(4) p.373-390
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/14680777/v10i0004/373_v.xml
    More than 500 Aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered in Canada since the 1980s yet press attention to this violence is relatively minimal. This paper compares local press coverage of matched cases: three missing/murdered Aboriginal women from Saskatchewan and three missing/murdered White women from Ontario. Quantitative and qualitative content analyses indicate stark disparities in the amount and content of coverage between groups. The Aboriginal women received three and a half times less coverage; their articles were shorter and less likely to appear on the front page. Depictions of the Aboriginal women were also more detached in tone and scant in detail in contrast to the more intimate portraits of the White women. Drawing on feminist media studies and theories of intersectionality, this paper argues that the simultaneous devaluation of Aboriginal womanhood and idealization of middle-class White womanhood contributes to broader systemic inequalities which re/produce racism, sexism, classism, and colonialism. This paper raises concerns about the broader implications of the relative invisibility of missing/murdered Aboriginal women in the press, and their symbolic annihilation from the Canadian social landscape.
  18. Sentencing for Murder: Exploring Public Knowledge and Public Opinion in England and Wales
    Barry Mitchell, Julian V. Roberts
    January 2012, The British Journal of Criminology 52(1) p.141-158
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/00070955/v52i0001/141_sfm.xml
    In 1965, it was thought that nothing less than a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment would be an acceptable replacement for the death penalty for murder in England and Wales. It was assumed that anything else would have led to a significant loss of public confidence in the criminal justice system. The authors have recently conducted what is believed to be the first survey in this country that tests this assumption, as well as the extent of public knowledge and belief of the current system for sentencing convicted murderers. The survey casts doubt over the assumption and highlights the misunderstanding and lack of knowledge on which public opinion is based.
  19. Rethinking cultural competence
    Laurence Kirmayer
    April 2012, Transcultural Psychiatry 49(2) p.149-164
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/13634615/v49i0002/149_rcc.xml
    In recent years, cultural competence has become a popular term for a variety of strategies to address the challenge of cultural diversity in mental health services. This issue of Transcultural Psychiatry presents papers from the McGill AdvancedStudy Institute in Cultural Psychiatry on “Rethinking Cultural Competence from International Perspectives,” which was held in Montreal, April 27 and 28, 2010. Selected papers from the meeting have been supplemented with other contributions to the journal that fit the theme. Taken together, these papers show how conceptual analysis and critique of cultural competence can point toward ways to improve the cultural responsiveness, appropriateness and effectiveness of clinical services, and in doing so contribute to reducing health disparities.
  20. The intergenerational effects of Indian Residential Schools: Implications for the concept of historical trauma
    Amy Bombay, Kimberly Matheson, Hymie Anisman
    June 2014, Transcultural Psychiatry 51(3) p.320-338
    http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/13634615/v51i0003/320_tieoirftcoht.xml
    The current paper reviews research that has explored the intergenerational effects of the Indian Residential School (IRS) system in Canada, in which Aboriginal children were forced to live at schools where various forms of neglect and abuse were common. Intergenerational IRS trauma continues to undermine the well-being of today’s Aboriginal population, and having a familial history of IRS attendance has also been linked with more frequent contemporary stressor experiences and relatively greater effects of stressors on well-being. It is also suggested that familial IRS attendance across several generations within a family appears to have cumulative effects. Together, these findings provide empirical support for the concept of historical trauma, which takes the perspective that the consequences of numerous and sustained attacks against a group may accumulate over generations and interact with proximal stressors to undermine collective well-being. As much as historical trauma might be linked to pathology, it is not possible to go back in time to assess how previous traumas endured by Aboriginal peoples might be related to subsequent responses to IRS trauma. Nonetheless, the currently available research demonstrating the intergenerational effects of IRSs provides support for the enduring negative consequences of these experiences and the role of historical trauma in contributing to present day disparities in well-being.