96 research outputs found

    Treasure hunting and storytelling: The role of picture research in publishing Simon Fraser University’s institutional memory

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    The Simon Fraser University Retirees Association (SFURA) is publishing a website and book providing a retrospective of the Centre for Communications and the Arts (CCA). As the campus arts hub during Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) radical first decade (1965–75), the CCA hosted countless flower-child “happenings” and conceptual art projects in the SFU Theatre. The program evolved into the School for the Contemporary Arts, School of Communication and SFU Galleries. This report describes the picture research methods employed to find historical images for the SFURA’s book and website, including identification, selection and clearance of 50-year-old images from archival sources. The processes, considerations – editorial, archival and legal – and the partnerships at play in curating and publishing these largely forgotten visual materials are discussed. The picture research methods explained in this report provide a practical model for the future publication of retrospective books and websites created at SFU and other organizations

    Influential Article Review - Maximizing Smart Home Energy Management With Geodesic Acceleration and LevMar

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    This paper examines using artificial neural networks to optimize energy management in smart homes. We present insights from a highly influential paper. Here are the highlights from this paper: Home energy optimization is increasing in research interest as smart technologies in appliances and other home devices are increasing in popularity, particularly as manufacturers move to produce appliances and devices which work in conjunction with the Internet. Home energy optimization has the potential to reduce energy consumption through “smart energy management” of appliances. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) help achieve energy savings with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and attaining effective environmental protection in several contexts including electricity generation and distribution. This “smart energy management” is utilized at the residential customer level through “smart homes.” This paper compares two artificial neural networks (ANN) used to support home energy management (HEM) systems based on Bluetooth low energy, called BluHEMS. The purpose of the algorithms is to optimize energy use in a typical residential home. The first ANN uses the LevenbergMarquardt algorithm and the second uses the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm enhanced by a second order correction known as geodesic acceleration. For our overseas readers, we then present the insights from this paper in Spanish, French and German

    Interprofessional Education: A Team Approach in the Classroom

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    Interprofessional education is an increasingly common component of course work for health care professionals. Extant research provides examples of these collaborations across multiple health disciplines, however, there is no research that addresses interprofessional education between the fields of occupational therapy and dietetics. This study was conducted in order to fill the gap of extant research related to unique collaborations between occupational therapy and dietetics. The Interprofessional Attitudes Scale was given to occupational therapy and dietetic students pre/post participation in an interprofessional, active learning, educational case-study. There was one item on the scale that demonstrated a statistically significant change (“shared learning before graduation will help me become a better team worker”), while all other items showed only a slight positive increase. While this study suggests that students value interprofessional education, there is further research needed to determine what types of interprofessional education are most impactful for students at various levels of education

    Beyond the Numbers: Measuring Academic Success Perceptions for OER and Affordable Textbook Initiatives

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    Dataset includes: Table 1: Courses Included in the Study Table 2: Survey Respondents by Course Table 3: Survey Respondents by Number of Semesters of College Completed Table 4: Unable or Unwilling to Purchase a Textbook Due to Cost Table 5: Textbook Spend in a Typical Semester Table 6: Perceived Impact of Lack of a Textbook on Ability to Succeed Table 7: Comparison of Students’ Ease with Accessing Course Materials Table 8: Comparison of Students’ Ease with Reading Course Materials Table 9: Comparison of Students’ Ease with Taking Notes Table 10: Comparison of Students’ Ease Working with Other Students Table 11: Comparison of Overall Learning Table 12: Importance of the University Making Textbooks Affordable Table 13: Comment Distributio

    Digital Repository Concierge @ Your Service

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    Libraries often develop and implement new services for the public. Sometimes they succeed; other times they fail. Expecting community members to understand the benefits of a great new idea on their own may not always work. But, taking a concierge approach to the implementation and maintenance of an innovative service may make all the difference to its success. Using a case study from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) library as a backdrop, this presentation will highlight the effectiveness of taking a concierge approach to implementing a new service in any type of library. In 2013, ERAU launched Scholarly Commons to gather and provide open access to faculty and student research. Library administration was concerned that initial response from the university community might be slow based on the experience of other institutional repositories. Faculty who might be willing to submit their work to an open access repository often did not engage due to concerns about copyright violation, plagiarism, perceived quality of “free” online resources, or simply lack of time and inclination to learn something new. After researching different approaches other academic libraries took to support similar repositories, ERAU decided to offer a concierge approach to developing Scholarly Commons. Librarians would be available to help members of the community through every step of the process from locating copyright permission to submission. In the seven years of its existence, Scholarly Commons has grown to include journals and magazines, conferences, open educational resources, and datasets, all of which are supported by library staff. Members of the library concierge team will highlight their part in implementing and maintaining this very successful innovative service

    Managing for climate resilient fisheries: Applications to the Southern Ocean

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    Climate change is having profound effects on populations of fished species and the ecosystems on which they depend, lending to a growing body of work that advocates for climate resilience to be a priority in fishery management. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the tools needed to manage for climate resiliency. The Antarctic region is among the most vulnerable to climate change, and thus, we then consider climate resilient management tools utilized by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the body responsible for the management of Antarctic marine living resources as part of the Antarctic Treaty System. We note progress, gaps, and opportunities for implementation. Across the literature, ecosystem-based management was cited as an appropriate tool for climate resilience of marine ecosystems, as was the use of climate model outputs (projections and simulations), marine protected areas (MPAs), and dynamic stock assessments. CCAMLR has a unique position where its Convention effectively mandates the principles of an ecosystem-based precautionary approach for managing fisheries, and many of its Member States have been advocating for climate initiatives within this approach. While CCAMLR has made limited overall progress towards ensuring climate resilience, it has advanced in some areas, such as MPA implementation, developing a risk assessment for krill, and including statements on climate change in fishery reports, although there is much work to be done. While climate change remains a worldwide issue that must be addressed on a global scale, CCAMLR holds the responsibility for adaptively managing Southern Ocean marine living resources for climate resilience

    An osteocalcin-deficient mouse strain without endocrine abnormalities

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    Osteocalcin (OCN), the most abundant noncollagenous protein in the bone matrix, is reported to be a bone-derived endocrine hormone with wide-ranging effects on many aspects of physiology, including glucose metabolism and male fertility. Many of these observations were made using an OCN-deficient mouse allele (Osc– ) in which the 2 OCN-encoding genes in mice, Bglap and Bglap2, were deleted in ES cells by homologous recombination. Here we describe mice with a new Bglap and Bglap2 double-knockout (dko) allele (Bglap/2p.Pro25fs17Ter) that was generated by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing. Mice homozygous for this new allele do not express full-length Bglap or Bglap2 mRNA and have no immunodetectable OCN in their serum. FTIR imaging of cortical bone in these homozygous knockout animals finds alterations in the collagen maturity and carbonate to phosphate ratio in the cortical bone, compared with wild-type littermates. However, ÎŒCT and 3-point bending tests do not find differences from wild-type littermates with respect to bone mass and strength. In contrast to the previously reported OCN-deficient mice with the Osc− allele, serum glucose levels and male fertility in the OCN-deficient mice with the Bglap/ 2pPro25fs17Ter allele did not have significant differences from wild-type littermates. We cannot explain the absence of endocrine effects in mice with this new knockout allele. Possible explanations include the effects of each mutated allele on the transcription of neighboring genes, or differences in genetic background and environment. So that our findings can be confirmed and extended by other interested investigators, we are donating this new Bglap and Bglap2 double-knockout strain to the Jackson Laboratories for academic distribution

    Ten facts about land systems for sustainability

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    Land use is central to addressing sustainability issues, including biodiversity conservation, climate change, food security, poverty alleviation, and sustainable energy. In this paper, we synthesize knowledge accumulated in land system science, the integrated study of terrestrial social-ecological systems, into 10 hard truths that have strong, general, empirical support. These facts help to explain the challenges of achieving sustainability in land use and thus also point toward solutions. The 10 facts are as follows: 1) Meanings and values of land are socially constructed and contested; 2) land systems exhibit complex behaviors with abrupt, hard-to-predict changes; 3) irreversible changes and path dependence are common features of land systems; 4) some land uses have a small footprint but very large impacts; 5) drivers and impacts of land-use change are globally interconnected and spill over to distant locations; 6) humanity lives on a used planet where all land provides benefits to societies; 7) land-use change usually entails trade-offs between different benefits—"win–wins" are thus rare; 8) land tenure and land-use claims are often unclear, overlapping, and contested; 9) the benefits and burdens from land are unequally distributed; and 10) land users have multiple, sometimes conflicting, ideas of what social and environmental justice entails. The facts have implications for governance, but do not provide fixed answers. Instead they constitute a set of core principles which can guide scientists, policy makers, and practitioners toward meeting sustainability challenges in land use
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