Technology and The North American Forest

Cet propose une revue de la littérature concernant l’adoption en Amérique du nord, au cours des 19e et 20e siècle, de technologies forestières européennes. On discutera surtout du traitement des billes de bois, des technologies touchant les moulin à scie et les pâtes et papier, et ce en relation avec trois thèmes importants en histoire des technologies : 1) la nature des changements techniques, 2) l’environnement et les impacts sociaux des technologies et 3) le rôle des valeurs sociales dans le choix des technologies. Adoptant une perspective comparative, on signalera également les différences entre le cas américain et le cas canadien.This paper is a critical review of recent historical literature relating to nineteenth and twentieth-century European-based technology in the North American forest. My discussion is limited to the industrial technologies of logging, sawmilling, pulp and paper milling, and forestry. These technologies will be discussed with reference to three issues in the history of technology: first, the nature of technological change; second, the environmental and social impacts of technology; and finally, the role of social values in determining choices of technology. Throughout, there will be an attempt to compare Canadian and American perspectives, when these diverge

Examining Cultural Equity: Boston’s Arts & Culture Sector

There is a cultural equity gap within the United States’ arts and culture landscape, constituting unequal representation of various identities in the arts, including, race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. These inequities reproduce within arts management, academia, artist sales, and donor and foundation demographics and priorities. With the objective of working toward creative justice in Boston’s arts and culture sector, this multiphase study employs transdisciplinary research using inductive, mixed-methods to learn: 1) current influencers’ understanding of the cultural equity gap; 2) current influencers’ motivations to eradicate the cultural equity gap; 3) how arts leaders with various marginalized identities conceptualize and operationalize leadership development for themselves; and 4) how arts leaders with various marginalized identities perceive barriers to access for positions of leadership in the arts and culture sector. These nuanced investigations support the foundational question: What are the social, emotional, economic, and cultural assets within Boston that can lead to creative justice and what reformation is still needed to achieve creative justice? Findings include attitudes and beliefs surrounding cultural equity, examination of historical and present-day oppressive structures, pipeline talent issues and opportunities, levers for change in building equity, and a call for culture shift

CHOICES: A Family-based Childhood Obesity Intervention for Low Income Minority Children

The objective of this presentation is to discuss the effectiveness of a 6-week summer childhood obesity intervention for low-income minority children ages 10-12. Topics will include strategies and best practices for effective summer programming for youth. The target audience includes practitioners, educators, and researchers interested in childhood obesity interventions involving families and communities

Multi-heme Cytochromes in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1:Structures, functions and opportunities

Multi-heme cytochromes are employed by a range of microorganisms to transport electrons over distances of up to tens of nanometers. Perhaps the most spectacular utilization of these proteins is in the reduction of extracellular solid substrates, including electrodes and insoluble mineral oxides of Fe(III) and Mn(III/IV), by species of Shewanella and Geobacter. However, multi-heme cytochromes are found in numerous and phylogenetically diverse prokaryotes where they participate in electron transfer and redox catalysis that contributes to biogeochemical cycling of N, S and Fe on the global scale. These properties of multi-heme cytochromes have attracted much interest and contributed to advances in bioenergy applications and bioremediation of contaminated soils. Looking forward there are opportunities to engage multi-heme cytochromes for biological photovoltaic cells, microbial electrosynthesis and developing bespoke molecular devices. As a consequence it is timely to review our present understanding of these proteins and we do this here with a focus on the multitude of functionally diverse multi-heme cytochromes in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. We draw on findings from experimental and computational approaches which ideally complement each other in the study of these systems: computational methods can interpret experimentally determined properties in terms of molecular structure to cast light on the relation between structure and function. We show how this synergy has contributed to our understanding of multi-heme cytochromes and can be expected to continue to do so for greater insight into natural processes and their informed exploitation in biotechnologies

Exploring learning through energy dialogues in an informal learning centre

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment of the partial requirement of the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2012Campaigns to educate people on how to use and manage energy responsibly are on the agenda of energy producers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and the government of South Africa. Until recently, publications on energy conservation programmes to inform these groups on best practice have been non-existent. This paper reports on an energy conservation programme, “Energy Dialogues” primarily aimed at offering information as well as influencing pro-environmental attitudes and consequently the behaviour of grade 11 learners in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The Energy Dialogues was conducted in a non-formal learning environment. Learners on the programme were challenged to propose various forms of ‘action taking’ to promote Energy Dialogues amongst their peers, in their school, at home, and in their community. Seven out of twenty schools met the challenge. The research project captured the social interaction among learners during the “Energy Dialogues” programme. A survey confirmed that learners still possess alternative ideas with regards to energy use and management after classroom instruction. While learners have significant knowledge of the causes and consequences of poor energy usage, this does not translate into change in behaviour. Creating an environment of group learning may influence the learners’ lifestyle choices. Learners are more inclined to align themselves with the values of a group. An active learning framework of the Energy Dialogues gave learners an opportunity to take personal responsibility for the environment. They redefined their culture, physically engaged in activity and spoke the language of the educator. While the learners’ visit to DEC was a one-time occurrence, and the findings cannot be generalised, this study may inform future longitudinal research which would offer information of the causal relationships of the components influencing sustainable practices

Computational Modeling of Meteor-Generated Ground Pressure Signatures

We present a thorough validation of a computational approach to predict infrasonic signatures of centimeter-sized meteoroids. We assume that the energy deposition along the meteor trail is dominated by atmospheric drag and simulate the steady, inviscid flow of air in thermochemical equilibrium to compute the meteoroid's near-body pressure signature. This signature is then propagated through a stratified and windy atmosphere to the ground using a methodology adapted from aircraft sonic-boom analysis. An assessment of the numerical accuracy of the near field and the far field solver is presented. The results show that when the source of the signature is the cylindrical Mach-cone, the simulations closely match the observations. The prediction of the shock rise-time, the zero-peak amplitude of the waveform, and the duration of the positive pressure phase are consistently within 10% of the measurements. Uncertainty in the shape of the meteoroid results in a poorer prediction of the trailing part of the waveform. Overall, our results independently verify energy deposition estimates deduced from optical observations

The Cronin Effect, Quantum Evolution and the Color Glass Condensate

We show that the numerical solution of the classical SU(3) Yang-Mills equations of motion in the McLerran-Venugopalan model for gluon production in central heavy ion collisions leads to a suppresion at low $p_t$ and an enhancement at the intermediate $p_t$ region as compared to peripheral heavy ion and pp collisions at the same energy. Our results are compared to previous, Color Glass Condensate inspired calculations of gluon production in heavy ion collisions. We revisit the predictions of the Color Glass Condensate model for $pA$ ($dA$) collisions in Leading Order and show that quantum evolution--in particular the phenomenon of geometric scaling and change of anomalous dimensions--preserves the Cronin enhancement of $pA$ cross section (when normalized to the leading twist term) in the Leading Order approximation even though the $p_t$ spectrum can change. We comment on the case when gluon radiation is included.Comment: 6pages, 4figures, revised versio

A multinational online survey of the goal setting practice of rehabilitation staff with stroke survivors with aphasia

Purpose: Goal setting is an essential rehabilitation activity. However, multidisciplinary rehabilitation staff goal-setting practice with stroke survivors with aphasia and associated training needs are not well understood. Methods: We designed, piloted, and conducted a survey of stroke rehabilitation staff in the UK, Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, Ireland. Analysis included descriptive statistics, chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests, and qualitative content analysis. Results: We received 251 responses from 118 SLTs and 133 non-SLTs. Most reported setting goals with most or all people with aphasia (78%, 197/251); 57% (138/244) rarely or never provided an accessible copy of goals. All disciplines reported significantly less confidence setting goals with people with aphasia than without aphasia (p = 0.012, n = 119). Barriers to goal setting included the communication impairment (especially severe aphasia) and poor insight. Staff described feeling ill-equipped to support people with aphasia in goal setting; only 27% (67/251) had accessed training to do so. Conclusions: Rehabilitation staff described involving stroke survivors with aphasia in goal setting but lacked confidence doing so and receive inadequate training and support. Training should target multidisciplinary staff confidence and communication support strategies and resources so that people with aphasia and families are supported as goal-setting partners