Variations on romance themes in the 'Historia Meriadoci'

The little known Latin Arthurian narrative Historia Meriadoci presents many challenges. Was it written in the twelfth century, in which case it is an early example of Arthurian romance, or is it later, in which case it reflects already developed motifs? It uses numerous romance themes – separated family, dispossessed heir, young knight arriving at Arthur’s court – but the protagonist leaves the Arthurian milieu quite early on, and pursues a military career more characteristic of epic on the continent. Arthur is presented in a rather disparaging light, as an unjust ruler (there is considerable emphasis on legal issues). This may reflect Welsh traditions in which he is not always an idealized king. But the story is written in Latin: who was the author, and what was the target audience? Does the fact that it was written in Latin, presumably for a largely clerical audience, explain the lack of interest in love, and in detailed accounts of courtly life, which one might expect to find in a vernacular romance? The author seems to draw on historical accounts of European wars as well as more legendary material. The mixture of romance and epic in this text may be compared with the Latin verse narrative Ruodlieb, produced in Germany in the late eleventh century. The Ruodlieb is much more elaborate in style and in plot, but also draws on a wide range of sources to produce a hybrid narrative which might be aimed at a similar audience, well-educated but ready to enjoy a range of heroic adventures, aware of Arthur but not averse to criticism of him

Out of Silos into Interdisciplinary Collaborations: One School's Path

This session will focus on the UW-Madison School of Education Grand Challenges initiative, which has supported 21 new research partnerships and just completed its third round of grant funding. The UW-Madison School of Education is home to 10 departments ranging from education policy to kinesiology to art. One of the main goals of the Grand Challenges program is to move faculty out of academic silos and into promising, new, interdisciplinary collaborations. Presenters will share the story of the SOE Grand Challenges with an emphasis on this process. Attendees will hear how our team facilitated interdisciplinary faculty collaborations that have the potential to magnify both external funds coming into our institution and social impact. In addition, presenters will focus on how the program at UW-Madison is distinct from other university-led Grand Challenges, including allowing faculty to articulate their own challenge, soliciting lots of feedback from faculty, offering grants of various sizes, having MFA students create posters to visually communicate faculty ideas, and providing multiple networking opportunities for faculty, staff, and students. The session will include time for a short Q&A session followed by a strategic brainstorming of what our next iteration of Grand Challenges could look like

Neurocognitive, genetic and environmental risk factors of learning disorders in children

Our research has already uncovered a range of behavioural and neural factors that can differentiate between children whose development is impaired and those whose development is progressing typically. Intriguingly, our recent findings have also suggested that multiple learning disorders are often present in children with general cognitive difficulties like autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. However, a common feature of research in this area is that of a ‘distinct syndrome’ approach, only studying childhood disabilities separately.https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/brainscanprojectsummaries/1013/thumbnail.jp

Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making

Conservation decisions increasingly involve multiple environmental and social objectives, which result in complex decision contexts with high potential for trade-offs. Improving social equity is one such objective that is often considered an enabler of successful outcomes and a virtuous ideal in itself. Despite its idealized importance in conservation policy, social equity is often highly simplified or ill-defined and is applied uncritically. What constitutes equitable outcomes and processes is highly normative and subject to ethical deliberation. Different ethical frameworks may lead to different conceptions of equity through alternative perspectives of what is good or right. This can lead to different and potentially conflicting equity objectives in practice. We promote a more transparent, nuanced, and pluralistic conceptualization of equity in conservation decision making that particularly recognizes where multidimensional equity objectives may conflict. To help identify and mitigate ethical conflicts and avoid cases of good intentions producing bad outcomes, we encourage a more analytical incorporation of equity into conservation decision making particularly during mechanistic integration of equity objectives. We recommend that in conservation planning motivations and objectives for equity be made explicit within the problem context, methods used to incorporate equity objectives be applied with respect to stated objectives, and, should objectives dictate, evaluation of equity outcomes and adaptation of strategies be employed during policy implementation

Parks Canada’s adaptation framework and workshop approach: Lessons learned across a diverse series of adaptation workshops

In 2017, the Canadian Parks Council Climate Change Working Group, a team of federal, provincial, and territorial representatives, developed a Climate Change Adaptation Framework for Parks and Protected Areas, guiding practitioners through a simple, effective five-step adaptation process. This framework was adapted by Parks Canada into a two-day adaptation workshop approach, with 11 workshops subsequently held from September 2017 to May 2019 at Parks Canada sites in the Yukon, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Newfoundland, and Ontario. Lessons learned from each workshop have been integrated into the approach, with the development of tools and guidance for each phase of the process, and a shareable, visual “placemat” that describes each step of the framework, acting as a map for those navigating the process

1600 RN

Due to a changing employment arena, healthcare organizations are hiring more new graduate RNs into acute care units. MMC’s usual process is to put new hires into night shift. Historically, night shifts have less resource availability. These combined factors left staff feeling unsupported; patient care could be compromised when less support is available to those in the beginning of their careers

Resting-state functional connectivity and reading subskills in children

Individual differences in reading ability have been linked to characteristics of functional connectivity in the brain in both children and adults. However, many previous studies have used single or composite measures of reading, leading to difficulty characterizing the role of functional connectivity in discrete subskills of reading. The present study addresses this issue using resting-state fMRI to examine how resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) related to individual differences in children\u27s reading subskills, including decoding, sight word reading, reading comprehension, and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Findings showed both positive and negative RSFC-behaviour relationships that diverged across different reading subskills. Positive relationships included increasing RSFC among left dorsal and anterior regions with increasing decoding proficiency, and increasing RSFC between the left thalamus and right fusiform gyrus with increasing sight word reading, RAN, and reading comprehension abilities. In contrast, negative relationships suggested greater functional segregation of attentional and reading networks with improved performance on RAN, decoding, and reading comprehension tasks. Importantly, the results suggest that although reading subskills rely to some extent on shared functional networks, there are also distinct functional connections supporting different components of reading ability in children