The role of stories in informed learning

Current practices in the information profession need to better address individuals as whole persons. Individuals are imbued with an historical past, a current situation, future aspirations, their own beliefs, values, and the stories that have shaped them. Our profession needs to recognise that individuals are unique, living in and amongst other processes in the world. The 'cookie cutter' approach often deployed in teaching our users has limited the great capacity libraries have to stimulate learners' innate creativity in enabling their lives to flourish. Lacking a holistic perspective of individuals as complex evolving beings, has limited our approach to teaching information literacy (IL) to a mere process of finding information, rather than encouraging learners to reflect on their information experiences as it applies to their own unique situations. Individuals are agents of their own becoming through time. Through reflection and examination we develop a greater awareness of agendas important to us as individuals, and we can enact that knowledge through ethical and wise decisions. Current practices do not fully nurture the development of reflective and sound use of information, which is crucial for the individual's own growth and development. This paper aims to provide an alternative way of understanding the learning process by reframing Christine Bruce's(2008) seven faces of Informed learning as relational to the creative process of narrative construction which Paul Ricoeur (1984, 1986, 1988) identifies as essential to human life. Stories have a vital role in IL as a process of human self-creation affecting all people across their entire lives. Narrative is the process through which learners make sense of themselves and the world by processing information to construct a story as an intelligent whole. Ricoeur refers to the process as a mimesis. It is important to acknowledge narrative as the process by which humans make meaning, as this empowers us to author our own lives as creative agents. Awareness of narrative as the structure by which people learn, opens up a new perspective of our understanding of Informed learning. Thinking of learners as story makers, and as a character in an unfolding story will inform libraries how to best support and encourage learners to re-author their narratives. The mimesis of narrative highlights the holistic nature of narrative structure as a creative process of becoming. A pedagogical approach such as Problem-based learning (PBL) offers a suitable method for the effective integration of narrative and learning. PBL encourages the forms of self-reflection that enables awareness of the narratives relevant to the individual learner. Libraries can adjust the delivery of their learning programs to include the use of PBL to teach informed learning – a process of using information to solve problems guided by reasoning. The PBL technique replicates the mimetic process. Drawing from Narrative and Informed learning allows learners to use information to assess the problem as a whole, enabling the practice and exercise of wise solutions

Confidence bounds of petrophysical predictions from conventional neural networks

Neural networks are powerful tools for solving the complex regression problems which abound in geosciences. Estimation of prediction confidence from neural networks is an important area. Many procedures are available to date, but it is often tedious for practitioners to implement such procedures without significant modification of the existing learning algorithms. In many cases, the procedures are also computationally intensive. This paper presents a practical solution using conventional backpropagation networks with simple data pre-processing and post-processing algorithms. The methodology involves conversions of the target outputs into linguistic variables (classes) prior to learning. When the classification network converges, minimum and maximum predictions are derived from the output activations using a simple averaging algorithm. Two examples from petroleum reservoirs are used to demonstrate the proposed methodology. The results show that the confidence bounds of the petrophysical predictions are realistic in both cases. The proposed methodology is generally useful, and can be implemented in simple spreadsheets without altering any existing neural network code

Inequality in Australia: Who is affected and why?

This report expands the information in Inequality in Australia 2020: Overview, to look deeply at the groups of people most affected by income and wealth inequality and the main contributing factors. It provides a base-line of data against which to assess the impacts wrought by the COVID19 pandemic and policy responses to it

Conceptual adequacy of the neuropathic pain symptom inventory in six countries

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neuropathic pain results from a nerve lesion or nerve damage. Because it is a subjective experience, patient-reported outcomes may measure both the symptoms and impact on the patient's life. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory (NPSI) adequately assesses neuropathic pain symptoms in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and sciatica across multiple cultures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From data collected from 132 subjects in 6 countries, qualitative research methods identified their most important symptoms (and verbal descriptions) associated with neuropathic pain. A core set of commonly described symptoms spanning multiple cultures was also described. Moderators using a semi-structured discussion guide conducted focus groups consisting of patients in the U.S., Brazil, Japan, China, Finland, and Spain to elicit concepts that were most important and relevant (concept elicitation phase). Study subjects ranked the importance of each neuropathic pain symptom, completed the NPSI, and commented on its ability to capture key symptoms (face and content validation phase).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Descriptive terms for sensations of neuropathic pain were similar in all countries; burning, electric shocks, and pins and needles were among the most-common sensations. Individuals with neuropathic pain experienced all sensations that were included in the NPSI. They also tended to describe pins and needles and numbness interchangeably, perhaps reflecting the relative number of DPN subjects on study.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Based on data from these focus groups, the NPSI is an acceptable instrument for assessing neuropathic pain.</p

Telling stories: extending informed learning with narrative theory

Introduction. Learning design in the information profession may open new opportunities by addressing learners as whole persons with a historical past, a current situation, and future aspiration, with their own beliefs and values. These are, according to Paul Ricoeur, stories. Method. This conceptual paper explores the ideas of Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology of narrative (a theoretical description), and Bruce's phenomenography of informed learning (a model of information literacy experience) as perspectives of meaning making. It suggests the use of narrative awareness as an enabler of informed learning. Analysis. This paper provides insights into the information learning experience by considering Bruce's seven faces of informed learning as aspects of the creative process of narrative that Ricoeur refers to as a mimesis. The paper highlights the holistic and creative process of narrative structure in enabling learners to orient themselves as information users. Conclusions. Understanding informed learning as a narrative construct offers an account of learners' experiences as a process of meaning making and narrative making in the formation of an unfolding identity through time. With this understanding, information professionals may be encouraged to incorporate narrative as a strategy for supporting learners navigate information spaces

TOX3 mutations in breast cancer

TOX3 maps to 16q12, a region commonly lost in breast cancers and recently implicated in the risk of developing breast cancer. However, not much is known of the role of TOX3 itself in breast cancer biology. This is the first study to determine the importance of TOX3 mutations in breast cancers. We screened TOX3 for mutations in 133 breast tumours and identified four mutations (three missense, one in-frame deletion of 30 base pairs) in six primary tumours, corresponding to an overall mutation frequency of 4.5%. One potentially deleterious missense mutation in exon 3 (Leu129Phe) was identified in one tumour (genomic DNA and cDNA). Whilst copy number changes of 16q12 are common in breast cancer, our data show that mutations of TOX3 are present at low frequency in tumours. Our results support that TOX3 should be further investigated to elucidate its role in breast cancer biology.Breast Cancer Research Foundation grant; University of Cambridge; Cancer Research UK; Hutchison Whampoa Limited; NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre; Marie Curie Career Integration Grant; Cancer Research UK [16942]; National Institute for Health Research [NF-SI-0611-10154

Lingual Kinematics in Dysarthric and Nondysarthric Speakers with Parkinson's Disease

Articulatory dysfunction is recognised as a major contributor to the speech disturbances seen in Parkinson's disease (PD). The present study aimed to compare lingual kinematics during consonant production within a sentence in eight dysarthric (DPD) and seven nondysarthric (NDPD) speakers with PD with those of eleven nonneurologically impaired normal participants. The tongue tip and tongue back movements of the participants during sentence production were recorded using electromagnetic articulography (EMA). Results showed that both the DPD and NDPD had deviant articulatory movement during consonant production that resulted in longer duration of consonant production. When compared with the NDPD group, the DPD group primarily exhibited increased range of lingual movement and compatible duration of production with an accompanying increase in maximum velocity, maximum acceleration, and maximum deceleration. These findings are contrary to proposed theories that suggest articulatory imprecision in dysarthric speakers with PD is the outcome of reduced range of articulatory movement

Statistical Analyses of Satellite Cloud Object Data From CERES

Three boundary-layer cloud object types, stratus, stratocumulus and cumulus, that occurred over the Pacific Ocean during January-August 1998, are identified from the CERES (Clouds and the Earth s Radiant Energy System) single scanner footprint (SSF) data from the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite. This study emphasizes the differences and similarities in the characteristics of each cloud-object type between the tropical and subtropical regions and among different size categories and among small geographic areas. Both the frequencies of occurrence and statistical distributions of cloud physical properties are analyzed. In terms of frequencies of occurrence, stratocumulus clouds dominate the entire boundary layer cloud population in all regions and among all size categories. Stratus clouds are more prevalent in the subtropics and near the coastal regions, while cumulus clouds are relatively prevalent over open ocean and the equatorial regions, particularly, within the small size categories. The largest size category of stratus cloud objects occurs more frequently in the subtropics than in the tropics and has much larger average size than its cumulus and stratocumulus counterparts. Each of the three cloud object types exhibits small differences in statistical distributions of cloud optical depth, liquid water path, TOA albedo and perhaps cloud-top height, but large differences in those of cloud-top temperature and OLR between the tropics and subtropics. Differences in the sea surface temperature (SST) distributions between the tropics and subtropics influence some of the cloud macrophysical properties, but cloud microphysical properties and albedo for each cloud object type are likely determined by (local) boundary-layer dynamics and structures. Systematic variations of cloud optical depth, TOA albedo, cloud-top height, OLR and SST with cloud object sizes are pronounced for the stratocumulus and stratus types, which are related to systematic variations of the strength of inversion with cloud object sizes, produced by large-scale subsidence. The differences in cloud macrophysical properties over small regions are significantly larger than those of cloud microphysical properties and TOA albedo, suggesting a greater control of (local) large-scale dynamics and other factors on cloud object properties. When the three cloud object types are combined, the relative population among the three types is the most important factor for determining the cloud object properties in a Pacific transect where the transition of boundary-layer cloud types takes place

Modeling and Optimization for Transportation Systems Planning and Operations

In this paper, we focus on a number of applications of network optimization techniques to transportation systems analysis. In particular, network analysis problems, network design problems, and network management problems are discussed in some detail. The intent is to survey important application areas.*To be presented at the International Symposium on Large Engineering Systems, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, August 9-12, 197