An Indicator of the Impact of Climate Change on North American Bird Populations

The value of biodiversity for human welfare is becoming clearer, and for this reason there is increasing interest in monitoring the state of biodiversity and the pressures upon it. A recent study produced a biodiversity indicator showing that the pressure of climate change on bird populations in Europe has increased over the last 20 years (Gregory et al., 2009). In North America, climate change effects on distributions and phenology have been documented for various taxa, especially the Aves. However, evidence of population declines resulting from climate change is comparatively limited. Here, I produce species distribution models based on climate for 380 bird species, all with information available on their population trends across the USA. Following Gregory et al., I make predictions using these models based on past and future climate in the same region. From these I produce two metrics indicating how I expect these species to be affected by climate change. By comparing population indices for those species expected to be positively vs. those expected to be negatively affected by climate change, I derive Climatic Impact Indicators (CIIs) for North American birds. These summarize how the population level impacts of climate change, both positive and negative, have varied over the past 40 years. Much like the indicator for European birds, these indicators show an overall increase in climatic impacts on populations during a period of climatic warming. Furthermore, when indicators are downscaled to the state level around 80% of states exhibit an upwards trend in climatic impacts. I highlight that further work is needed to optimize the method used to produce a CII, and to determine what influences the slope of a CII. Nevertheless, the results presented here are strikingly similar to those seen across Europe, indicating that climatic impacts on populations may have increased across the Northern Hemisphere

Black and Blue: Exploring Racial Bias and Law Enforcement in the Killings of Unarmed Black Male Civilians

In late 2014, a series of highly publicized police killings of unarmed Black male civilians in the United States prompted large-scale social turmoil. In the current review, we dissect the psychological antecedents of the se killings and explain how the nature of police work may attract officers with distinct characteristics that may make them especially well-primed for negative interactions with Black male civilians. We use media reports to contextualize the precipitating events of the social unrest as we ground our explanations in theory and empirical research from social psychology and industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology. To isolate some of the key mechanisms at play, we disentangle racial bias (e.g., stereotyping processes) from common characteristics of law enforcement agents (e.g., social dominance orientation), while also addressing the interaction between racial bias and policing. By separating the moving parts of the phenomenon, we provide a more fine-grained analysis of the factors that may have contributed to the killings. In doing so, we endeavor to more effectively identify and develop solutions to eradicate excessive use of force during interactions between "Black" (unarmed Black male civilians) and "Blue" (law enforcement)

Topic Maps and Entity Authority Records: an Effective Cyber Infrastructure for Digital Humanities

The implicit connections and cross-references between and within texts, which occur in all print collections, can be made explicit in a collection of electronic texts. Correctly encoded and exposed they create a framework to support resource discovery and navigation by following links between topics. This framework provides opportunities to visualise dense points of interconnection and, deployed across otherwise separate collections, can reveal unforeseen networks and associations. Thus approached, the creation and online delivery of digital texts moves from a digital library model with its goal as the provision of access, to a digital humanities model directed towards the innovative use of information technologies to derive new knowledge from our cultural inheritance. Using this approach the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC) has developed a delivery system for its collection of over 2500 New Zealand and Pacifc Island texts using TEI XML, the ISO Topic Map technology and innovative entity authority management

Female Veterans and Homelessness: A Resource Guide for Occupational Therapists

Female veterans are the fastest growing subpopulation among the homeless population in the United States (U.S.) (Boothe, 2017). Female veterans report lack of access to gender-specific programs and therapy groups within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to meet specific needs post-deployment (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2015b). Difficulty with reintegration post-deployment has been linked with homelessness among female veterans. There is evidence to support female veterans\u27 over-representation in the homeless population is due to a higher prevalence of risk factors for homelessness as compared to male veterans and females within the general population (Byrne, Montgomery, & Dichter, 2013). There is a lack of literature related to the role occupational therapists working with female veterans; however, there is current literature to support occupational therapy’s role in addressing mental health and reintegration risk factors post-deployment (Cogan, 2014). A literature review was conducted on topics related to gender differences among veterans, experiences of female veterans, mental illness, homelessness, and occupational therapy services. In the absence of randomized control studies in occupational therapy literature on homelessness among female veterans, this project draws from evidence of the occupational therapy role in mental health, veteran population, and homeless persons. Based on the results of the literature, Female Veterans and Homelessness: A Resource Guide for Occupational Therapists was created for occupational therapists working in community-based settings. The Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and Engagement and Canadian Practice Process Framework were utilized to guide the development of the resource guide. Recommendations for the occupational therapy process include assessment, interventions, re-evaluation, and discharge planning. The purpose of this scholarly project and the resulting resource guide is to increase occupational therapists’ awareness for the need of gender-specific care for female veterans receiving services in community-based settings. Occupational therapists are qualified to address and treat risk factors for homelessness among female veterans. The resource guide is a positive contribution to providing client-centered care for female veterans reintegrating into civilian life. Female Veterans and Homelessness: A Resource Guide for Occupational Therapists is a tool that occupational therapists can utilize to implement gender-specific care and address the risk factors for homelessness among female veterans

Feedback for future learning: delivering enhancements and evidencing impacts on the student learning experience

Enhancing the student learning experience through the provision of improved student feedback is both challenging and complex. ‘Feedback for Future Learning’ was a Glasgow Caledonian University(GCU)-wide project intended to enhance feedback practices from both the student and staff perspectives; to ensure greater awareness of, and reflection upon, feedback by students; and to encourage greater use of feedback to inform future student learning. The design, implementation and evaluation of approaches to ‘Feedback for Future Learning’ are described with an emphasis on STEM disciplines. The conceptualisation, design and implementation of a range of student feedback tools and approaches aimed to develop understanding of learning processes, reinforce learning and improve performance. This was achieved through collaboration with the GCU Students’ Association and the establishment of the University Feedback Enhancement Group. A series of generic and bespoke seminars, workshops, individual programme interventions and competitions were used to enhance comprehension of the perception, experience and use of formative and summative assessment feedback by students.   Providing opportunities for reflection and evaluation together with qualitative and quantitative metrics have demonstrated 93% satisfaction with student feedback enhancement workshops, a trebling of engagement with memorable feedback survey initiatives and a 9% increase in National Student Survey assessment and feedback satisfaction. A 16% rise in student satisfaction with the promptness of feedback, a 14% improvement in satisfaction with the detailed comments received and an 8% increase in satisfaction with the helpfulness of comments received were achieved. The lessons learned inform the continuing and sustainable enhancement of the student learning experience for STEM students and the wider University community. Keywords: Feedback, future learning, dialogue, engagement, reflection, enhancemen

Ambient Findability and Structured Serendipity: Enhanced Resource Discovery for Full Text Collections

University Libraries manage increasingly large collections of full text digital resources. These might be repositories of born digital research outputs, e-reserves collections or online libraries of material digitised to provide open access to significant texts. Whatever the content of the material, the structured data of full text resources can be exploited to enhance research discovery. The implicit connections and cross-references between books and papers, which occur in all print collections, can be made explicit in a collection of electronic texts. Correctly encoded and exposed they create a framework to support resource discovery and navigation both within and between texts by following links between topics. Using this approach the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC) at Victoria University of Wellington has developed a delivery system for its growing online digital library using the ISO Topic Map technology. Like a simple back-of-book index or a library classification system, a topic map aggregates information to provide binding points from which everything that is known about a given subject can be reached. Topics in the NZETC digital library represent authors and publishers, texts, and images, as well as people and places mentioned or depicted in those texts and images. Importantly, the Topic Map extends beyond the NZETC collection to incorporate relevant external resources which expose structured metadata about their collection. Innovative entity authority records management enables, for example, the topic page for William Colenso to automatically provide access not only to the full text of his works in the NZETC collection but out to another book-length work in the Auckland University’s “Early NZ Books Collection” and to several essays in the National Library’s archive of the Royal Society Journals. It also enables links to externally provided services providing information on Library holdings of print copies of the text. The NZETC system is based on international standards for the representation and interchange of knowledge including TEI XML, XTM, XSL and the CIDOC CRM. The NZETC collection currently includes over 2500 texts covering 110,000 topics

Constructing Sexuality and Fetishizing Women in American History: Debunking Myths in Popular Culture from Pocahontas to the Cold War

This paper features recent teaching and scholarship produced in U.S. Women’s History and Women’s History coursework at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. We discuss using visual culture analysis and intersectionality in the U.S. History and Women’s History classroom to produce scholarship that interrogates the intersection of race, class, gender and sexuality at a particular historical moment and examines visual primary sources. We give examples of scholarship produced in coursework using these methods, from studying the Lavender Scare and popular culture’s constructions of Democracy that equated communism with homosexuality to the ways in which middle class social reformers used their class status and white privilege to help prostitutes while also harming them in the early 20th century. We also look at contemporary popular culture constructions of Pocahontas and the ways in which her depictions reinforce white supremacy and distort narratives of Native-America history. The paper engages readers with images and discussion questions about a visual construction of what is considered civilized womanhood. We also examine and question what it means to be American and American ideologies on the right way of being a sexual being

Actinomyces odontolyticus infection 3 months post-robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy

Actinomyces odontolyticus infection is a rare bacterial infection with only 46 cases reported from its discovery in 1958. This case highlights an immunocompetent patient who presented with an infected lymphocele and bacteraemia following a robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy and extended pelvic lymph node dissection 3 months previously. He was treated for a fever of unclear origin initially using amoxicillin, gentamicin and metronidazole. Subsequently, he was found to have an infected lymphocele, which required surgical drainage. He was discharged 19 days after admission with three times daily oral amoxicillin which is to be continued for 6–12 months. This case highlights the need for effective communication between the laboratory and medical teams, and the importance of prompt source control