Language switching in a digital library; does it make a difference if the default language is set to Maori?

In this paper we investigate the effect of default interface language on usage patterns of the Niupepa digital library (a collection of historic Māori language newspapers), by switching the default interface language between Māori and English in alternate weeks. Transaction analysis of the Niupepa collection logs indicates that changing default language affects the length of user sessions and the number of actions within sessions, and that the English language interface was used most frequently

Nurturing Joy and Belonging: Practices for Rehumanizing Professional Learning

In this article the authors describe a professional learning initiative focused on joyful teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the techniques that were used to foster a culture of belonging. The authors utilize an integrative framework for understanding, cultivating, and assessing belongingness to suggest implications for school-university partnerships. Finally, the authors pose questions for school-university partnerships to reflect upon to build an intersectional approach to professional learning in a post-pandemic educational landscape

Blogging to Develop Honors Students’ Writing

After an exciting class discussion, you might want students to write conventional papers directed at you and focused ultimately on a grade, or you might prefer that they bring their further insights to their classmates, continuing and enriching the ongoing class collaboration. Blogging is an excellent way to implement the second option, continuing an exchange of ideas and providing students with another tool to improve their writing skills. Student class blogging offers many benefits—for student and instructor alike—compared to assigning conventional papers directed only at the instructor. The collaborative writing and peer editing inherent in blogging offer challenges as well as benefits, so guidance in facilitating a meaningful exchange as well as navigating the nuts-and-bolts technicalities may be useful to honors faculty who are establishing a class blog. Ideas for class exercises, assignments, and evaluative expectations co-designed by an instructor and a team of honors students may also help bring out maximum creativity and collegiality in the honors blog

ASSESSMENT OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE OF THE COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SYSTEM

Women face unique barriers that their male counterparts do not experience in male-dominated disciplines and careers, such as agriculture. The purpose of a recent study was to provide insight into the organizational culture (and viability) of the Cooperative Extension System by examining the leadership dynamics, power relationships, and cultural impacts experienced by women County Extension Directors/Coordinators (CEDs/CECs) across the United States. Using a critical feminist collaborative autoethnographical approach and utilizing methodologies of interviews, dialogue, and prolonged engagement, the findings of this study have given voice to those individuals in these unique positions, allowing all individuals to better understand the challenges and barriers to equality in this context. Resulting conclusions (valuing sexism, resisting change, etc.) were posed to address misogyny in all forms (i.e., exclusion, promotion practices, etc.) that currently exist. By enacting these strategies, Cooperative Extension can create meaningful change that is so direly needed

A Maximum Eigenvalue Approximation for Crack-Sizing Using Ultrasonic Arrays

Ultrasonic phased array systems are becoming increasingly popular as tools for the inspection of safety-critical structures with in the non-destructive testing industry. The datasets captured by these arrays can be used to image the internal microstructure of individual components, all owing the location and nature of any defects to be deduced. Unfortunately, many of the current imaging algorithms require an arbitrary threshold at which the defect measurements can be taken and this aspect of subjectivity can lead to varying characterisations of a flaw between different operators. This paper puts forward an objective approach based on the Kirchoff scattering model and the approximation of the resulting scattering matrices by Toeplitz matrices. A mathematical expression relating the crack size to the maximum eigenvalue of the associated scattering matrix is thus derived. The formula is analysed numerically to assess its sensitivity to the system parameters and it is shown that the method is most effective for sizing defects that are commensurate with the wavelength of the ultrasonic wave (or just smaller than. The method is applied to simulated FMC data arising from finite element calculations where the crack length to wavelength ratios range between 0.6 and 1.8. The recovered objective crack size exhibits an error of 12%

People's experiences of cancer within the first year following diagnosis. Final Report

The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of people affected by cancer in the first year following diagnosis with breast, lung, colorectal, prostate or gynaecological cancer. This was a descriptive qualitative study conducted over a period of 18 months during which three serial, longitudinal semi-structured interviews with 66 people, their nominated partner/carer1 (n=43) and healthcare professional (n=20) were conducted. The study included 18 people with colorectal cancer, 12 women with breast cancer, 9 women with gynaecological cancer, 17 people with lung cancer and 10 men with prostate cancer. The sampling strategy was not designed to derive a representative sample but to enable the researchers to understand experience of cancer and cancer care from men and women with a different cancer diagnosis and who had different socio-economic backgrounds and lived either in a rural or urban area. A conscious effort was made to include people from different ethnic minority groups but this was unsuccessful because no or very small numbers of people from these groups were diagnosed with cancer during the period of recruitment in the cancer centres where healthcare professionals were recruiting for the study

The detection of flaws in austenitic welds using the decomposition of the time reversal operator

The non-destructive testing of austenitic welds using ultrasound plays an important role in the assessment of the structural integrity of safety critical structures. The internal microstructure of these welds is highly scattering and can lead to the obscuration of defects when investigated by traditional imaging algorithms. This paper proposes an alternative objective method for the detection of flaws embedded in austenitic welds based on the singular value decomposition of the time-frequency domain response matrices. The distribution of the singular values is examined in the cases where a flaw exists and where there is no flaw present. A lower threshold on the singular values, specific to austenitic welds, is derived which, when exceeded, indicates the presence of a flaw. The detection criterion is successfully implemented on both synthetic and experimental data. The datasets arising from welds containing a flaw, are further interrogated using the decomposition of the time reversal operator (DORT) method and the total focussing method (TFM) and it is shown that images constructed via the DORT algorithm typically exhibit a higher signal to noise ratio than those constructed by the TFM algorithm