Catching up to Yesterday: An argument for a practical application of creativity for inspiring change from a content-based course delivery to a 21st-century skills-based delivery

This project is a creative vision for how college-level courses could be changed to deliver the most important skills students need in the 21st century—moving toward an essential employability skills-based delivery process while training vocational (content) skills. Technology is outpacing humans\u27 ability to adapt and adopt to it, making it increasingly difficult to keep pace with technological change. This has wide-ranging effects on each of us – productively, emotionally, and perhaps physically. Colleges are at the forefront of educating citizens about the working world to improve their productivity, incomes and their sense of intrinsic motivation. However, these same colleges are finding decreasing levels of self-motivation, increasing recidivism and attrition rates, and higher levels of anxiety, both with students and other stakeholders. While we cannot change the rate of technological change, we can change the rate at which we adapt and adopt to it, and this is the foundation of this project—to suggest a relatively simple adjustment within the classroom: We become more focused on employability skills and use content as the medium to teach these skills. I hope this project may inspire current and future faculty to reconsider their approach to teaching within the classroom and perhaps motivate some institutions to consider the process worthy of a deeper investigation into innovative course delivery

Healthy Food Access in Missouri Food Pantries Through Evidence-Based Intervention

As food insecurity rates have seen a marked increase over the past ten years, a growing number of individuals rely on public and private food programs to meet household food needs. Despite the growing use of food pantries as a consistent food source and the disproportionate occurrence of negative health outcomes among food pantry users, few evidence-based initiatives have been implemented to improve users’ access to healthy foods. Consequently, empirical knowledge about the feasibility and effectiveness of programming as a means for improving healthy food access and well-being amongst pantry users remains limited. In response to this gap, the current study used a strengths-based approach to explore the successes, benefits, and sustainability of an evidence-based healthy food initiative launched in two food pantries. Results from this study indicated that healthy food initiatives can successfully increase access to healthy food options and be sustained post-program involvement. The identification and expansion of community support in program development and implementation are key components to program success. Healthy food initiatives at food pantries should focus on capacity-building efforts to promote community support, program success, and sustainability

'We only do food' : social assumptions of poverty and the implementation of emergency food services

Food pantries are a critical social safety net for food insecure households, yet the growth of food pantry services in the United States has not been accompanied by an equal increase in research related to their organizational structuring. A state-wide survey of Missouri food pantries in the Feeding America network was conducted to investigate a) how food pantries are structured, b) the social assumptions of poverty that food pantry directors hold, and c) how these assumptions inform the structuring of services. Latent profile analysis of food pantry structuring identified a clear grouping of pantry service models, with results showing support for emerging food justice strategies to emergency food structuring. While past research has identified links between social beliefs and actions, food pantry director assumptions of poverty were not a strong predictor for food pantry structuring. Additionally, many key demographic indicators that have been previously associated with assumptions of poverty were not strong predictors for food pantry structuring. Results from this study highlight the complexity of how and why food pantries are structured in the ways that they are. While pantry directors identified a number of activities as 'important' to ideal pantry operations, the engagement with these activities at their pantries was often limited, with many not even providing referrals to community support organizations. Future research should focus on better understanding the complexity of what guides directors' organization of pantry services. Research should also extend to understanding the social assumptions that guide emergency food strategies at regional and state levels.Includes bibliographical reference

Missouri Hunger Atlas 2016

AtlasThis atlas assesses the extent of food insecurity in the state of Missouri. It also gauges how well public programs are doing in meeting the needs of those of our fellow citizens who have difficulty acquiring sufficient amounts and qualities of food. The concept of food security, as the Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program within the United States Department of Agriculture defines it, refers to “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food insecurity in this country is normally due to insufficient resources for food purchases, and the majority of food insecure households avoid hunger by relying on a more narrow range of foods or acquiring food through private and public assistance programs

Do Wi-Fi and mobile phones really cause cancer? Experts respond

On 16th February, Catalyst aired an episode on the ABC titled Wi-Fried , hosted by Dr Maryanne Demasi, claiming that radiation from mobile phones and Wi-Fi may constitute a brain cancer risk. We invited experts who have conducted research into this area to respond to the claims made in the programme

Association patterns and foraging behaviour in natural and artificial guppy shoals

Animal groups are often nonrandom assemblages of individuals that tend to be assorted by factors such as sex, body size, relatedness and familiarity. Laboratory studies using fish have shown that familiarity among shoal members confers a number of benefits to individuals, such as increased foraging success. However, it is unclear whether fish in natural shoals obtain these benefits through association with familiars. We investigated whether naturally occurring shoals of guppies, Poecilia reticulata, are more adept at learning a novel foraging task than artificial (in which we selected shoal members randomly) shoals. We used social network analysis to compare the structures of natural and artificial shoals and examined whether shoal organization predicts patterns of foraging behaviour. Fish in natural shoals benefited from increased success in the novel foraging task compared with fish in artificial shoals. Individuals in natural shoals showed a reduced latency to approach the novel feeder, followed more and formed smaller subgroups compared to artificial shoals. Our findings show that fish in natural shoals do gain foraging benefits and that this may be facilitated by a reduced perception of risk among familiarized individuals and/or enhanced social learning mediated by following other individuals and small group sizes. Although the structure of shoals was stable over time, we found no direct relationship between shoal social structure and patterns of foraging behaviour

Factors affecting access to daily oral and dental care among adults with intellectual disabilities

Purpose: Accessing oral health care can be more difficult for adults with intellectual disabilities with reports of poorer levels of oral health. This investigation identifies factors influencing engagement in day-to-day oral and dental healthcare for adults with intellectual disabilities. Method: A survey, containing questions about facilitators and barriers to maintaining oral health and hygiene, was completed with adults with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers (N=372). Results: Data were analysed using thematic network analysis. Two global themes were identified; ‘Personal and lifestyle influences’, mentioned more often as barriers to oral care, included physical, sensory, cognitive, behavioural and affective factors and ‘Social and environmental factors’, mentioned more as facilitators, included caregiver support, equipment and adaptations used and oral hygiene routine. Conclusions: Numerous individual, social and environmental factors influence oral care. A coordinated organisational response is advocated involving collaboration between dental and ID services and training for caregivers and people with intellectual disabilities.Manchester Metropolitan University / Manchester Learning Disability Partnership / Manchester Primary Care Trust dental servic

Multi-agent stochastic simulation of occupants for building simulation

This paper introduces a new general platform for the simulation of occupants' presence and behaviours. Called No-MASS (Nottingham Multi-Agent Stochastic Simulation platform) the platform takes a selection of well validated stochastic models to generate a synthetic population of agents, predicts their presence and, in the case of residences also their activities and inferred locations, as well as their use of windows, lights and blinds. A social interaction framework is used to emulate negotiations amongst the members of diverse populations. Furthermore, machine learning techniques allow the agents to learn dynamic behaviours that maximise energy and/ or comfort rewards. This is complemented by a belief-desire-intent framework for the representation of less sophisticated behaviours for which data is scarce. Using the Functional Mockup Interface (FMI) co-simulation standard No-MASS is coupled with EnergyPlus: EnergyPlus parses environmental parameters to No-MASS which in turns parses back the energetic consequences of agents behaviours. Simulations demonstrating the range of results that No-MASS can produce are undertaken and presented

Saltmarshes on peat substrate on the southwest coast of Ireland: edaphic parameters and plant species distribution

Abstract. Saltmarshes on peat substrate are common along the western Atlantic coast of Ireland. The peat which underlies these marshes was formed under freshwater conditions in post glacial times, after which these systems were subjected to a marine transgression. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between edaphic factors, substrate type and saltmarsh vegetation, specifically investigating the role of edaphic factors in determining the distribution of saltmarsh species Atriplex portulacoides in Ireland. Edaphic parameters measured for each substrate included pH, moisture content, ammonium and nitrate. The peat was found to differ markedly from other substrates. Using canonical correspondence analysis it was found that pH and ammonium were the major drivers in influencing saltmarsh vegetation on peat substrate. Under both in situ and ex situ conditions Atriplex portulacoides showed an affinity for drier substrate and its absence from fringe marshes in Ireland is likely due to a combination of both biotic and abiotic factors, including intolerance to high soil moisture levels

Hydrostatic low-range pressure applications of the Paris–Edinburgh cell utilizing polymer gaskets for diffuse X-ray scattering measurements

The use of a polymeric (Torlon or polyamide–imide) gasket material in a Paris–Edinburgh pressure cell for in situ high-pressure X-ray scattering measurements is demonstrated. The quality of the data obtained in this way is suitable for Bragg and pair distribution function analysis