Community Voices, Perspectives and Priorities: An Inclusive Cities Canada-Edmonton Report

This report provides an overview of the results of a full year of consultations and dialogues on the extent to which Edmonton is an inclusive city. Part of the Inclusive Cities Canada project, one of the key findings of the report is that economic and social barriers continue to prevent many Edmonton residents from being able to participate meaningfully in day-to-day life

Connective Heating Improvement for Emergency Fire Shelters (CHIEFS): Composition and Performance of Fire Shelter Concepts at Close-Out

Summary of highlights of the Convective Heating Improvement for Emergency Fire Shelters (CHIEFS) taskunder NASA. CHIEFS was tasked with providing the US Forest Service with an emergency fire shelter forimproved resistance to flame contact. Emphasis is on the final shelter designs at task close-out (end of FY17)

Solving Games with Functional Regret Estimation

We propose a novel online learning method for minimizing regret in large extensive-form games. The approach learns a function approximator online to estimate the regret for choosing a particular action. A no-regret algorithm uses these estimates in place of the true regrets to define a sequence of policies. We prove the approach sound by providing a bound relating the quality of the function approximation and regret of the algorithm. A corollary being that the method is guaranteed to converge to a Nash equilibrium in self-play so long as the regrets are ultimately realizable by the function approximator. Our technique can be understood as a principled generalization of existing work on abstraction in large games; in our work, both the abstraction as well as the equilibrium are learned during self-play. We demonstrate empirically the method achieves higher quality strategies than state-of-the-art abstraction techniques given the same resources.Comment: AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence 201

Collectivism and the Costs of High Leverage

Prior literature shows that high leverage is associated with losses in market share due to unfavorable actions by customers and competitors. Building on this literature, we investigate the effect of collectivism on the product market performance of highly leveraged firms. Using a sample of 46 countries over the 1989–2016 period, we find significantly lower costs of high leverage for countries with higher collectivism scores. Moreover, we find that the impact of collectivism on high leverage costs is more pronounced for firms with high product specialization and with financially healthy rivals. In additional analysis, we find that collectivism helps highly leveraged firms retain employees and obtain trade credit from suppliers. Our findings thus suggest that a country’s culture affects corporate financial outcomes by influencing the actions of firm stakeholders

Inferences of Diplodocoid (Sauropoda: Dinosauria) Feeding Behavior from Snout Shape and Microwear Analyses

As gigantic herbivores, sauropod dinosaurs were among the most important members of Mesozoic communities. Understanding their ecology is fundamental to developing a complete picture of Jurassic and Cretaceous food webs. One group of sauropods in particular, Diplodocoidea, has long been a source of debate with regard to what and how they ate. Because of their long lineage duration (Late Jurassic-Late Cretaceous) and cosmopolitan distribution, diplodocoids formed important parts of multiple ecosystems. Additionally, fortuitous preservation of a large proportion of cranial elements makes them an ideal clade in which to examine feeding behavior.Hypotheses of various browsing behaviors (selective and nonselective browsing at ground-height, mid-height, or in the upper canopy) were examined using snout shape (square vs. round) and dental microwear. The square snouts, large proportion of pits, and fine subparallel scratches in Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Nigersaurus, and Rebbachisaurus suggest ground-height nonselective browsing; the narrow snouts of Dicraeosaurus, Suuwassea, and Tornieria and the coarse scratches and gouges on the teeth of Dicraeosaurus suggest mid-height selective browsing in those taxa. Comparison with outgroups (Camarasaurus and Brachiosaurus) reinforces the inferences of ground- and mid-height browsing and the existence of both non-selective and selective browsing behaviors in diplodocoids.These results reaffirm previous work suggesting the presence of diverse feeding strategies in sauropods and provide solid evidence for two different feeding behaviors in Diplodocoidea. These feeding behaviors can subsequently be tied to paleoecology, such that non-selective, ground-height behaviors are restricted to open, savanna-type environments. Selective browsing behaviors are known from multiple sauropod clades and were practiced in multiple environments

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS AND BEHAVIOURS FOR FEMALE DEPARTMENT CHAIRS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN SAUDI ARABIA

The academic department is a fundamental unit for transforming the university's visions and goals into reality. In contrast, higher education undervalues administrative positions in general and department chairs in particular, believing that an administrative role is a temporary task. Little investigation has been conducted into effective leadership approaches in departmental leadership in higher education in general and in higher education in Saudi Arabia in particular. Therefore, the overarching purpose of this study was to identify effective leadership practices, characteristics and behaviors that contribute to the effectiveness of female academic department chairs and the challenges that they face. A qualitative approach informed with grounded theory techniques was used in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with former department chairs, current department chairs and faculty members. Vignettes were the basis of the faculty members' interviews to avoid any ethical concerns and to allay any fears of repercussion from their department chairs. The findings of the study indicate that effective chairs are distinguished by a combination of skills, knowledge, behaviors and attitudes. Although leadership in Saudi Arabia is based on a centralized system, the findings demonstrate the tendency toward more collaborative leadership that promotes collegiality and collective interest. Specific recommendations were made to better prepare department chairs for this crucial position in institutions of higher education. The study came at a time when the country is taking significant reforms in women’s issues.  Article visualizations