Water Use Trends in the United States

Since 1950, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has collected and released data on national water use every five years for each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In November 2014, the USGS released water-use estimates for 2010. These data are collected from a variety of sources, including from national data sets, state agencies, questionnaires, and local contacts (Maupin et al. 2014). They include estimates of withdrawals of freshwater and saline water from groundwater and surface-water sources and water use by sector. Using these data and historic data from several other sources, this paper reviews national water-use trends, going as far back as 1900 in some cases. For this analysis, we use the term "water use" to refer to the amount of water withdrawn from the ground or diverted from a surface-water source for use. Our analysis finds that we have made considerable progress in managing the nation's water, with total water use less than it was in 1970, despite continued population and economic growth. Indeed, every sector, from agriculture to thermoelectric power generation, shows reductions in water use. National water use, however, remains high, and many freshwater systems are under stress from overuse. Moreover, climate change will exacerbate existing water resource challenges, affecting the supply, demand, and quality of the nation's water resources. In order to address these challenges, we must continue and even expand efforts to improve water-use efficiency in our homes, businesses, industries, and on our nation's farms

Becoming an ESL Teacher: An Autoethnography

In this thesis I studied the teacher identity development journey I underwent while completing my first term of teaching adult ESL learners at a post-secondary institute in Ontario. I addressed three questions. Firstly, I examined how my relationships with administration and colleagues impacted my second language (L2) teacher identity development. Secondly, I examined how sustained teaching experience influenced my L2 teacher identity development and pedagogical content knowledge. Thirdly, I examined the extent to which my L2 teacher identity was formed after my first teaching term. Autoethnography was the qualitative research method I used to answer my questions. In autoethnography, the experiences of the author undergo careful analysis with the aim of better apprehending cultural experiences (Ellis, 2004). This was the most suitable methodology to employ as it let me creatively examine my L2 teacher identity development from the perspective of both an outsider analyst and insider member (Reed- Danahay, 1997). The process of systematic sociological introspection (SSI) made the creation of the autoethnography possible. SSI (Ellis, 2008) involved four steps: (1) compiling relevant data (i.e., journal, communication records); (2) reading the data to determine pivotal events related to my L2 teacher identity development; (3) using the data and my memory to produce an narrative recreating these events; and, (4) revising the narrative until an aesthetically pleasing and logically plotted final draft was made. After the final draft of the autoethnography was completed, an analysis of my L2 teacher identity development was conducted using Bullough’s (2005) theoretical framework. Through the analysis, I concluded that my professional relationships had a very strong impact on my L2 teacher identity development. I found that even though supportive colleagues and supervisors within my community of practice freely offered me membership, I had a difficult time determining if I deserved or wanted it. In addition, the analysis showed me that sustained teaching time had overwhelmingly positive ramifications for my L2 teacher identity. With time, I gained more confidence and felt more legitimate in the classroom. As a result of this growth in confidence and legitimacy, I was able to transition from playing the role of an ESL teacher to actually being feeling like one. Further, sustained teaching time also had positive ramifications for my pedagogical content knowledge, as I acquired a greater understanding of classroom management strategies, ESL subject matter, and pedagogical strategies. Finally, the analysis revealed that while I had an initial teacher identity after the completion of four months in the classroom, I still had key issues I needed to address in order to become the teacher I truly wanted to be. I recognized that I had to tackle my monolingualism, as well as learn more about pedagogical content knowledge, inter-cultural mediation, and colleague collaboration

Establishing the Importance of Interaction and Presence to Student Learning in Online Environments

With the growing trends in favor of online course offerings in higher education, it is important that researchers continue to focus on investigating the components vital to effectiveness. Using a survey design, the elements of interaction and presence, and their relationship and influence on student learning in an online course is examined in the current study. The findings of the study suggest that students perceive instructor-learner and learner-content interaction to be more important to their learning as compared to learner-learner interaction. In addition, teaching presence plays a more important role in student learning followed by cognitive presence and then social presence. Again, when it comes to the combination of the factors of interaction and presence, the factors that students perceive to have the most influence on their learning are teaching presence and learner-instructor interaction with the least important factor being learner-learner interaction. Overall, the results of this empirical study have implications for online course design and delivery to ensure student learning in online environments

Knowledge Translation Activities in Occupational Therapy Organizations: The Canadian Landscape

Despite acknowledging the importance of knowledge translation (KT), the occupational therapy profession has demonstrated only emerging KT activity. Organizations are seen as playing an important role in supporting KT. To date, there have been no known attempts to explore KT activities conducted by occupational therapy organizations in Canada. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe KT activities occurring in Canadian occupational therapy organizations. An environmental scan was used to identify KT activities. The websites of occupational therapy national and provincial associations and/or regulatory bodies and the educational programs were searched. A Knowledge Mobilization Matrix (KMM) website was applied to each organizational website. The total KMM scores were highest for universities and lowest for regulatory organizations. The type and nature of the KT activities varied according to the type of organization. Canadian occupational therapy leadership organizations play an important role in supporting KT

Reliability of Peak Treadmill Exercise Tests in Mild Alzheimer Disease

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Neuroscience on August 2011, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.3109/00207454.2011.574762.The prevalence of Alzheimer disease (AD) doubles every 5 years after the age of 65, reaching nearly 50% after age 85 (Evans et al., 1989). This, along with an unprecedented growth in the elderly population, is leading to dramatic increases in the incidence of AD. Thus, effective strategies for promoting healthy brain aging and preventing AD are increasingly important. One strategy that appears promising in promoting healthy brain aging is exercise and physical activity. Evidence is accumulating that endurance exercise is beneficial to brain health (Laurin, Verreault, Lindsay, MacPherson, & Rockwood, 2001), and increased cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with increased brain volume in subjects with very mild to mild AD (Burns et al., 2008). While enhancing cardiorespiratory fitness may be a strategy for preventing cognitive decline in AD, there is limited information available on the validity and reliability of cardiorespiratory fitness measures in this population. The gold standard measure of cardiorespiratory fitness is maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) (Frankin, 2001), the highest rate of oxygen uptake attainable during maximal or exhaustive exercise (American College of Sports Medicine, 2005). If the subject becomes exhausted and ends the test prior to reaching the physiologic VO2max, the end of the test is called peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak). It is unknown if advanced age and cognitive difficulties in people with AD would limit their ability to fully participate in a standard graded exercise test to reliably assess VO2max or VO2peak. Treadmill exercise testing has been found to be reliable in subjects with traumatic brain injury and mental retardation, although these subjects were very young (Fernhall, Millar, Tymeson, & Burkett, 1990; Mossberg & Greene, 2005). Traumatic brain injury and mental retardation are different disease processes than AD and would be expected to result in static rather than progressive cognitive symptoms. With AD, memory is impaired as is the ability to follow commands, however patients in the earliest stages of AD would be expected to respond to prompting and reminders to follow testing procedures. To our knowledge, no studies have assessed the reliability of peak treadmill exercise testing in subjects with AD. In our previous research on patients with very mild to mild AD (Burns, et al., 2008), we have found them to be capable of ambulating on a treadmill and completing peak treadmill exercise testing with 3 participants out of 74 (126 total peak exercise tests) identified as having EKG changes during testing. All 3 participants had negative follow-up testing in cardiology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability of a graded peak treadmill exercise test in elderly people with early AD

Who Publishes in “Predatory” Journals?

Many open access journals have a reputation for being of low quality and being dishonest with regard to peer review and publishing costs. Such journals are labeled “predatory” journals. This study examines author profiles for some of these “predatory” journals as well as for groups of more well-recognized open access journals. We collect and analyze the publication record, citation count, and geographic location of authors from the various groups of journals. Statistical analyses verify that each group of journals has a distinct author population. Those who publish in “predatory” journals are, for the most part, young and inexperienced researchers from developing countries. We believe that economic and sociocultural conditions in these developing countries have contributed to the differences found in authorship between “predatory” and “nonpredatory” journals

Cardiorespiratory fitness and preserved medial temporal lobe volume in Alzheimer's Disease

This is not the final published version.Exercise and cardiorespiratory (CR) fitness may moderate age-related regional brain changes in nondemented older adults (ND). The relationship of fitness to Alzheimer's disease (AD) related brain change is understudied, particularly in the hippocampus which is disproportionately affected in early AD. The role of apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4) genotype in modulating this relationship is also unknown. Nondemented (n=56) and early-stage AD subjects (n=61) over age 65 had MRI and CR fitness assessments. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) techniques were utilized to identify AD-related atrophy. We analyzed the relationship of CR fitness with white and gray matter within groups, assessed fitness-related brain volume change in areas most affected by AD-related atrophy, and then analyzed differential fitness-brain relationships between apoE4 carriers. Atrophy was present in the medial temporal, temporal, and parietal cortices in subjects with mild AD. There was a significant positive correlation of CR fitness with parietal and medial temporal volume in AD subjects. ND subjects did not have a significant relationship between brain volume and CR fitness in the global or SVC analyses. There was not a significant interaction for fitness × apoE4 genotype in either group. In early-stage AD, cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with regional brain volumes in the medial temporal and parietal cortices suggesting that maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness may modify AD-related brain atrophy

Developmental Evaluation of the CHOICE+ Champion Training Program

Context: Mealtimes in residential care homes are important for social engagement and can encourage resident relationships. Yet, training programs to improve mealtime care practices in residential care settings remain limited in learning approaches and scope. Objectives: To determine whether a one-day Champion Training session would improve participants’ knowledge, skills, and confidence to implement a relationship-centred mealtime program (CHOICE+) in their homes. Methods: The study employed a pre-/post-test design to evaluate a train-the-trainer model using paper-based questionnaires. Thirty-four participants attended the training session; 25 participants completed pre/post training questionnaires based on Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model. Training included: 1) program implementation manual, 2) best-practices document, 3) educational resources and evaluation tools, 4) presentation on theory-based implementation strategies and behaviour change techniques, and 5) group discussion on applying strategies and techniques, problem-solving for implementation facilitators and barriers. Findings: More than half of attendees worked as Food Service Managers or Registered Dietitians. Participants identified several organizational factors that could impact their home’s readiness to implement CHOICE+, though they felt training to be acceptable and feasible for their homes. Participants reported increase in knowledge (8.4 ± 1.1), confidence (8.3 ± 1.4), and commitment (8.8 ± 1.4) to implement the relationship-centred mealtime program. There was no association with pre-training readiness, leadership, or home characteristics. Limitations: Generalizability is limited due to small sample size. Follow-up interviews on results of training could not be conducted due COVID-19 pandemic research restrictions. Implications: Champion Leader training is an effective and feasible learning approach to up-skill staff on change management and relationship-centred mealtime practices in residential care

Britain and Europe: A new settlement? EPC Challenge Europe 23, May 2016

Britain's European problem, Stephen Wall; Britain's contribution to the EU: an insider's view, David Hannay; 'Foreign judges' and the law of the European Union, David Edward; The United Kingdom and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, Peter Goldsmith; European foreign policy: five and a half stories, Robert Cooper; External relations and the transformative power of enlargement, Heather Grabbe; Recalibrating British European policy in foreign affairs, Fraser Cameron; The European Union and the wider Europe, Graham Avery; From Common Market to Single Market: an unremarked success, Malcolm Harbour; Lost in translation: Britain, Germany and the euro, Quentin Peel; After Cameron's EU deal, Kirsty Hughes; Re-imagining the European Union, Caroline Lucas; Britain and European federalism, Brendan Donnelly; Europe's British problem, Andrew Duff