Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C

A technique for computing climatological power spectra based on the concept of utilizing non-integer values in the sine and cosine waveforms (NI technique) is developed and applied to climatological rainfall data. This technique provides a powerful alternative to the more common techniques used in the computation of climatological power spectra. The major advantage of this technique is the greatly improved resolution of wavelengths in the 5–25 year region, often a critical region of interest for climatologists. The technique produces spectral density values which are not necessarily independent; however, methods of specifying and then testing the departure from independence (orthogonality) are given. Furthermore, it is shown that the usual equations for the Fourier coefficients are special cases of the more general condition in which the spectral estimates include some degree of non-independence (i.e., lack of orthogonality). It is anticipated that this technique will have wide applicability in climatology, meteorology, hydrology and the other geophysical sciences.

INTRODUCTION: The optimum method for training military personnel for combat casualty care is unknown. In particular, there is debate regarding the incremental benefit of live animal tissue training (LTT) over inanimate human patient simulators (HPSs). Although both LTT and HPS are currently used for predeployment training, the efficacy of these models has not been established. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Canadian Armed Forces combat medics, deployed to Afghanistan between 2006 and 2011, were surveyed retrospectively regarding their experience with combat casualty care and predeployment training. HPSs were used to prepare these combat medics for early rotations. In later years, personnel received a combination of training modalities including HPS and LTT, using anaesthetized porcine models in accordance with appropriate animal care standards. Among those deployed on multiple rotations, there was a cohort who was prepared for deployment using only HPS training, and who later were prepared using mixed-modality training, which included LTT. We asked these medics to compare their predeployment training using HPS only versus their mixed-modality training in how each training package prepared them for battlefield trauma care. RESULTS: Thirty-eight individuals responded, with 20 respondents deployed on multiple rotations. Respondents performed life-saving skills during 89% of the rotations. Self-perceived competence and preparedness were notably higher after incorporation of LTT than after HPS alone. Of 17 respondents deployed on both early and late rotations, the majority felt the latter training was more worthwhile. In addition, almost all individuals felt that LTT should be added to HPS training. Narrative comments described multiple benefits of adding LTT to other types of training. CONCLUSIONS: Among many experienced Canadian Armed Forces personnel, LTT is considered essential predeployment preparation. Individuals who experienced only HPS training before active duty on their first combat deployment reported feeling more competent on subsequent combat deployments after the addition of live tissue models. IMPACT: There has been a movement away from the use of LTT in preparing combat medics for deployment. This article suggests that we should reconsider any decision to completely exclude Live Tissue Training as part of our training plan for combat medics. RECOMMENDATIONS: Military medical organizations should consider judiciously incorporating LTT with human patient simulation training to prepare combat medics for treating battlefield trauma.

The Leng River basin in BacKan province, northwest Vietnam hosts critical natural resources where lessons learnt from the pilot project of payment for forest environmental services (PFES) in Lam Dong and Son La provinces can be applied. PFES is broadly defined as an economic instrument that facilitates payments of forest environmental service flows to forest dwellers. The passage of a national PFES Decree in Vietnam where the K-factor framework was used to determine the payment level of environmental services created both opportunities and challenges in the design and implementation of PFES schemes.This paper presents how the national PFES policy was adapted, and how lessons in the pilot provinces were considered in developing a local PFES scheme. Important considerations and criteria for determining K-factors to standardize payments for similar environmental services, as well as the proposed PFES scheme for the Leng River Basin are discussed. The paper concludes that national policy framework and local interpretation of K-factors are crucially important in designing a PFES scheme that meets the realistic and pro-poor elements of PES. Finally, a PFES scheme must have detailed implementing guidelines that are developed with local stakeholders.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to measure the effects of above-real-time-training (ARTT) speed and screen resolution on a simulated flight control task. BACKGROUND: ARTT has been shown to improve transfer to the criterion task in some military simulation experiments. We tested training speed and screen resolution in a project, sponsored by Defence Research and Development Canada, to develop components for prototype air mission simulators. METHOD: For this study, 54 participants used a single-screen PC-based flight simulation program to learn to chase and catch an F-18A fighter jet with another F-18A while controlling the chase aircraft with a throttle and side-stick controller. Screen resolution was varied between participants, and training speed was varied factorially across two sessions within participants. Pretest and posttest trials were at high resolution and criterion (900 knots) speed. RESULTS: Posttest performance was best with high screen resolution training and when one ARTT training session was followed by a session of criterion speed training. CONCLUSION: ARTT followed by criterion training improves performance on a visual-motor coordination task. We think that ARTT influences known facilitators of transfer, including similarity to the criterion task and contextual interference. APPLICATION: Use high-screen resolution, start with ARTT, and finish with criterion speed training when preparing a mission simulation.

The decade-long process of negotiation leading to a new regime of Oceans Law is drawing to a close. One of its major achievements to date is the elaboration of an entirely new concept in ocean space, the exclusive economic zone. Canada has played a leading role in bringing about consensus on the main elements of this zonal approach, a bridge linking certain features of the territorial sea regime with a number of safeguards derived from the exercise of high seas rights. Canada 's contribution was based generally on a novel application of the functional approach which has been prevalent in Canada 's treatment of Law of the Sea issues over the past few years. The idea was to apply the principles of delegation of powers to those of functionalism, in order to foster a zonal approach whereby certain functional rights and obligations (pertaining, for instance, to fisheries or to the marine environment) would be carried out by the coastal state on behalf of the international community. In recognition of its exercise of this mandate, and in regard to its geographical proximity to the ocean space it managed, the coastal state would be granted a preferential (and for most purposes an exclusive) access to the resources of the zone. One of the best examples of this approach can be found in Canada 's earliest efforts to deal with the fundamental issue of fishing rights at the Conference. Bringing a multi-disciplinary focus to bear on the need to distinguish between different species of fish in the coastal areas, the Canadian delegation, with the co-sponsorship of a number of like-minded countries, brought forward proposals tailored to the management and exploitation of these species.

Foreign Policy Analysis: Continuity and Change in Its Second Generation By: Laura Neack, Jeanne A. K. Hey and Patrick J. Haney. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice‐Hall, 1995. Defying Conventional Wisdom: Political Movements and Popular Contention against North American Free Trade By: Jeffrey M. Ayres. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998 Behind The Embassy Door: Canada, Clinton and Quebec by James A. Blanchard, McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1998

Please allow me to introduce myself to you: my name is G. William Rubagumya, an attorney in the state of Texas in the USA. I am originally from the country of Rwanda via the refugee camps of Uganda and I have been in the USA for the last 7 years. As you may have guessed, my concern is with the refugees that I left behind both in Ugan- da and other surrounding countries. Myself and other Rwandans in this country have formed a nonprofit organization, The Tutsi Relief Founda- tion Inc., whose main purpose is to aid in any way possible, but with primary emphasis on education and relocation of those who are able to adapt to the changed environment.

Chronique des relations extérieures du Canada et du Québec : i- Les relations extérieures du Canada. Un article de la revue Études internationales (La politique étrangère du Canada dans les années quatre-vingt) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.

We Felt honoured and pleased at the Canadian Embassy to have been asked to participate in this annual meeting of the Modern Language Association. We welcomed this opportunity to register our interest in your important and useful field of work, and thereby to add still another point of contact in the friendly relations between our two countries.