Long-Run Inequality and Annual Instability of Men's and Women's Earnings in Canada

earnings inequality, earnings instability, long-run inequality

Flipped Learning for Scalable InfoLit Instruction in FYC

The presenter will discuss how the Flipped Learning Model can provide focused and consistent information literacy instruction over multiple offerings of FYC at a public Research I university. This model is a result of a multi-year project on information literacy instruction in FYC and examining the scalability of offering instruction program-wide

Culture, Curriculum, Cognition: Contrastive Rhetorics Today

Contrastive rhetoric is often seen as an obstacle in negotiating meaning. Past studies have focused on one of three discourse features: language, cognition, or discipline. This study examines the combination of discourse features creating a complex rhetoric to help students negotiate meaning. Attendees will gain a better understanding of contrastive rhetorics, why they clash, and how to manage, not necessarily modify, those clashes

Following the Man of Sorrows: A Theology of Suffering for Spiritual Formation

Suffering. Salvation’s conduit. People are often reluctant to talk about suffering, unable to find words. This reluctance usually lasts until, in the midst of crisis, the only way ahead is through suffering. In these crises, people typically reach out to caregivers— pastors and priests, counselors and social workers. But what if the same reluctance affects these caregivers? What if they, too, are often unable to find adequate words? Jesus—Man of Sorrows—makes plain the imperative of taking up our cross. How is this accomplished? This dissertation offers an answer, a theology of suffering focused on spiritual formation—formation into the image of a suffering God. Emerging from lived experiences in valleys of adversity, this formational theology offers conceptual and practical ways to narrate biographies of adversity, then help others give sorrow words and grow, thus taking up our cross. Chapter one introduces the challenges of approaching suffering in theological and formational language, and deciding what is both relevant and necessary. Chapter two provides a brief survey of suffering as formative in the biblical narratives, where it emerges as a formative theme and a prerequisite to glory. A five-type taxonomy in chapter three facilitates an examination of various views of suffering in Christian faith as relational postures to Jesus—Man of Sorrows. These perspectives offer a kaleidoscope of multiple postures, each insufficient by itself to give a full picture of suffering’s role in formation. Chapter four utilizes trauma psychology as a paradigm for constructs of growth through suffering. xiii Chapter five considers language, culture, and the arts—universal lenses mediating the perception of suffering and caregiving. Finally, chapter six offers a new survey tool to assess relational postures, a graphic illustration of posttraumatic growth, a story arc approach to suffering, and a list of biblical parallels suggesting formative metaphors

How Will Tobacco Farmers Respond to the Quota Buyout? Findings from a Survey of North Carolina Tobacco Farmers

The tobacco quota buyout is expected to have significant impacts on U.S. tobacco markets, farmers, tobacco-dependent communities, and public health. Using data from four surveys of a panel of North Carolina tobacco farmers conducted between 1997 and 2004, we investigate changing farmer attitudes towards and intentions following a quota buyout.Crop Production/Industries,

Crop Monitoring in Australia Using Digital Analysis of Landsat Data

This paper describes on-going co-operative research by the New South Wales (N.S.W.) Department of Agriculture and IBM Australia Limited. The aims of the project are to investigate if Landsat digital data can be used to map and monitor agricultural resources, particularly crop acreages and production, over large areas. From the outset, multi-temporal whole scene computation has been a feature of the technical approach. Software modifications for large data volumes were carried out allowing supervised maximum likelihood classification to be used throughout the work. Considerable amounts of agronomic ground truth have been collected over wide latitudes for use in training the computer system as well as for accuracy assessment of classification results. A number of Landsat scenes have been studied, with three to five acquisitions being registered for each. Preliminary analyses were conducted on historical data of Tamworth (N.S.W.) and Narrabri (N.S.W.) scenes. More intensive studies were undertaken for the 1980-81 wheat season in the Narrabri scene and are currently being undertaken in the Horsham (Victoria) scene. The techniques used and results from these analyses are discussed in this paper. Classification accuracy has been very encouraging showing excellent potential for use in crop area and production estimates. Various problems emerged which required special attention and these are discussed. They included loss of data because of cloud cover, registration accuracy, training techniques, best combinations of bands and dates for classification, confusion classes, computation of very large volumes of data and classification accuracy assessment. This work is demonstrating valuable applications of Landsat data in Australia. Technology transfer to other users is under way and it is anticipated that further technological development will lead to large scale adoption of remote sensing techniques for monitoring agricultural resources in Australia

An Application of Large Scale Computing Facilities to the Processing of LANDSAT Digital Data in Australia

An early issue in the Australian Wide Scale Wheat Monitoring Project, started in November, 1978, was whether to use area sampling, as in the LACIE, or to be innovative and attempt whole scene processing. The availability of a large computing system and acknowledgment of the trends in price and performance of computers influenced a decision towards whole scene processing. The computing facilities used in this project are described. An interactive facility supported by software called ER-MAN II is installed on an IBM 3033 which simultaneously supports several hundred other interactive users. The pros and cons of using such a shared facility for this type of work are explored. The use of multi-temporal data has been the essence of the approach in this project. Reasons for its use, and its performance implications are discussed from the computing view point. Results to date indicate that shared use of a large facility is feasible and effective. In addition, some calculations may not be possible on small CPU\u27s. While the interactive processing of the combination of multi-temporal LANDSAT data and large areas is not common in Australia now, it is probable that its use will increase as the cost of computing equipment decreases