Adapting to Diversity: Where Cultures Collide — Educational Issues in Northern Alberta

In this article, we report a case study of educational issues in northern Alberta. Using interviews and observations, we provide the different perspectives held by educators, students, parents, and community members about the goals and purposes of schools, the curriculum, and the language of instruction. Practices in the schools tended to maintain the status quo: a southern approach to education, with an emphasis on a provincial curriculum and English as the language of instruction. These schools did not reflect the realities of northern communities, such as a concern for Aboriginal languages, in spite of policies that provided for local control. Keywords: school leadership and culture, northern education, Aboriginal education, Alberta education, First Nations education Dans cet article, nous présentons une étude de cas axée sur des enjeux pédagogiques propres au nord de l’Alberta. À l’aide d’entrevues et d’observations, nous avons exploré différents points de vue exprimés par des enseignants, des élèves, des parents et des membres la communauté au sujet des buts de l’école, des programmes et de la langue d’enseignement. Les pratiques décrites au sein des diverses écoles participant à cette recherche avaient tendance à maintenir le statu quo : une approche de l’enseignement provenant du Sud avec une place de choix accordée au programme provincial et à l’anglais comme langue d’enseignement. Ces écoles ne reflétaient pas les réalités des communautés du Nord, tel le souci des langues autochtones, en dépit des politiques qui prévoient un contrôle local. Mots clés : leadership et culture de l’école, éducation en régions nordiques, éducation aux autochtone, éducation en Alberta, enseignement aux Premières nations.

Effect of moisture content on thermal and water absorption properties of microfibrillar cellulose with polymeric additives

The aim of this study was 1) to investigate the influence of polymeric additives such as carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC) and locust bean gum (LBG) added before and after homogenisation on the moisture uptake of microfibrillar cellulose (MFC) in the dry and semi-wet state; and 2) to further understand the thermally induced structural transitions of low moisture MFC in the presence of the polymeric additives. A higher moisture content in the highly dense MFC network maintains the fibrillated network structure, which is lost during the drying process resulting in MFC aggregates. The addition of polymeric additives results in the regaining of the structure upon redispersion of the dry material with CMC being more effective than LBG). Results also indicated that CMC has a high level of compatibility with MFC, whereas LBG appears to have limited distribution in the MFC dense microfibrillar network and probably exists as a separate phase when added after homogenisation, however co-processing of LBG and cellulose significantly changed this behaviour. The presence of low-temperature transitions in MFC/additives/water mixtures indicates the involvement of these semi-flexible polymeric additives in the formation of liquid crystals when added to MFC in low moisture environments (2% and 20% w/w). An insight is offered into the theory of surface interactions between MFC and polymeric additives, which prevents the agglomeration of microfibrils present in the highly fibrillated suspension upon drying

A comprehensive investigation of gluten free bread dough rheology, proving and baking performance and bread qualities by response surface design and principal component analysis

Contribution of methylcellulose (MC), psyllium seed husk powder (PSY), and water addition level to gluten free bread quality and correlations between dough rheological properties and bread qualities were investigated by response surface design and principal component analysis. The generalised Maxwell model was applied to estimate the relaxation frequency of gluten free doughs. The addition of PSY has a complex influence on pasting viscosity at high temperature and an additional peak was observed. MC significantly influenced dough extensibility and work of adhesion, which are good predictors of bread volume and textural properties. Other rheological responses are less significantly correlated to specific volume, but they are sensitive to formulation variations, reflect dough structures and stability, related to proving behaviours, and correlated to loaf concavity. An inappropriate combination of water and hydrocolloids might lead to problems such as low stability of doughs, overexpansion, and weak crumb structure at high water addition levels, or, in contrast, high rigidity of dough, a trap of excessive air during mixing, and restrained gas cell expansion with high hydrocolloid addition and low water addition

Web-Based Training for Native American Tribes

The authors describe a project undertaken at the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at Northern Arizona University in which the internet is used to present Native American tribes in Arizona with customer service training. It discusses why the project was instigated looks at its development and funding, and highlights the educational and technological challenges that had to be overcome. This is the second in a series of articles on the uses of the internet in educating non-university student constituencies interested in hospitality management.\u2

Cellulose fibrillation and interaction with psyllium seed husk heteroxylan

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Fibrillated cellulose (FC) and its mixture with psyllium seed husk powder (PSY) were investigated to broaden the applications of these two materials by a novel combination. Purified cellulose was processed by a colloid mill and relatively stable suspensions were obtained. An FC suspension shows localised concentrations appearing as flocculates, which can be promoted by heating or centrifugation. The structures of unheated mixtures of FC and PSY appear to be binary phase dispersions while, after heat treatment, FC fibres were incorporated into PSY gels and form composites. Fibrillation on the FC surface does not influence the structure and rheological property of the composite mixtures while fibre disintegration contributes to a denser structure and higher moduli. Fluorescent images show the attachment of PSY heteroxylan aggregates on cellulose and fibrillated cellulose fibres. The interaction is weak and time-dependent because G’ during cooling was higher than that during heating, and declined back to the same value as the start of heating during an isothermal test at 20 °C. PSY was fractionated according to temperature and only F60 (fraction at 60 °C) clearly associates with the unfibrillated cellulose fibres, possibly via long arabinan sidechains (similar to hairy pectin) or/and backbone (via interaction with helical domains or/and conformational compatibility). The interaction was promoted by fibrillation, potentially trapping PSY heteroxylan aggregates within the cellulose dispersion. With further fibrillation, smaller FC fibres were generated and form interpenetrating particles with whole PSY or PSY fractions. Highly fibrillated cellulose has a higher surface area and smaller fibrils, which significantly increased the interaction resulting in a clumped structure

Starch replacement in gluten free bread by cellulose and fibrillated cellulose

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd This study investigated starch reduction and replacement by purified cellulose (FC0) and fibrillated cellulose (FC60) which included a comprehensive investigation on dough properties, proofing behaviours, cooking performance, and bread qualities. Replacing flour with FC0 and FC60 was found to strength the doughs without, however, altering the extension of the structural network according to the weak gel model. The relaxation time calculated by the generalised Maxwell model was found to be shorter than the deformation rate during proofing which suggests that the doughs behave like fluids during proofing. The relaxation time was less influenced by the additions of FC0 and FC60. Although the initial stage of proofing was less influenced, the later stage was significantly affected by the additions of FC0 and FC60 which increased dough rigidity and restrained the volume growth. The pasting properties were significantly influenced by the competition for water and volume between FC0/FC60 and flour. The bread qualities were characterised in terms of loaf volume and crumb properties. Loaves containing FC0 and FC60 had smaller specific volume and harder crumb. However, the addition of FC0 and FC60 is beneficial to the generation of a finer crumb structure. Fibrillation process is detrimental to maximise the addition of fibres. However, a small amount of fibrillated cellulose is beneficial to workability and crumb structure

New insights into xanthan synergistic interactions with konjacglucomannan: a novel interaction mechanism proposal

The interactions of xanthans containing precise acetate and pyruvate concentration with Konjac gluco-mannan (KGM) were studied at different sodium chloride and polymer concentrations. A new unifiedmodel of the interaction is proposed, taking into account previous models in the literature. This study sug-gests that the interactions occur by two distinct mechanisms dependent on xanthan conformation. These interactions are not mutually exclusive and may co-exist and hence produce complicated traces. Consequently two types of gel which melt at different temperature ranges can be formed. Depending on the xanthan helix coil transition temperature, one or both of the synergistic states may exist in the hydrocolloid blend. The proposed model has been tested rheologically and using differential scanning calorimetry by varying salt concentration and using samples containing different functional group concentrations