Population status, seasonal variation in abundance, and long-term population trends of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) at the South Farallon Islands, California

We examined seasonal and annual variation in numbers of Steller (northern) sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) at the South Farallon Islands from counts conducted weekly from 1974 to 1996. Numbers of adult and subadult males peaked during the breeding season (May–July), whereas numbers of adult females and immature individuals peaked during the breeding season and from late fall through early winter (September–December). The seasonal pattern varied significantly among years for all sexes and age classes. From 1977 to 1996, numbers present during the breeding season decreased by 5.9% per year for adult females and increased by 1.9% per year for subadult males. No trend in numbers of adult males was detected. Numbers of immature individuals also declined by 4.5% per year during the breeding season but increased by 5.0% per year from late fall through early winter. Maximum number of pups counted declined significantly through time, although few pups were produced at the South Farallon Islands. The ratio of adult females to adult males averaged 5.2:1 and declined significantly with each year, whereas no trend in the ratio of pups to adult females was discernible. Further studies are needed to determine if reduced numbers of adult females in recent years have resulted from reduced survival of juvenile or adult females or from changes in the geographic distribution of females

Current School District Administrators’ and Math Teachers’ Perspectives of Teacher Buy-In for Problem-Based Learning in Middle School Math

Project-Based Learning (PBL) in middle school math classrooms is a topic that has not been well-researched, even though math scores in the United States have been declining. In a school district in the Southcentral United States, the local problem was that teacher buy-in for PBL in middle school math classes was unknown, as current literature regarding administrator and teacher perspectives on teacher buy-in is limited. The purpose of the study was to explore current school district administrators’ and math teachers’ perspectives of teacher buy-in for PBL in middle school math in a Southcentral U.S. state. Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory contributes to the understanding that student learning is created through social interactions with others and formed the basis for the conceptual framework of this study. Basic qualitative research with semistructured interviews was the design for the study. Purposeful sampling was used to identify 10 participants: five current school district administrators and five middle school math teachers who had some knowledge of a PBL instructional model and had at least three years of teaching experience. Open and a priori coding was used to identify units of meaning. The results of these analyses indicated emerging themes of equipping teachers with autonomy, engaging all students in real-world learning, engaging students to build confidence, equipping teachers to meet external teaching demands, and empowering teachers to adapt and take control. School districts may benefit from the results of this study by embracing teacher perspectives when creating professional development to include leadership and coaching support that results in increased math student outcomes

Integrating Folksonomies into Cultural Heritage Digital Collections: The Challenges and Opportunities of Web 2.0

In this presentation, the author defines Folksonomy and the advantages and disadvantages of Folksonomy. He begins with a background on information retrieval and changing technologies, discusses trends in technologies, and explains the use of tags and Folksonomy

Developing the ICT Infrastructure for Africa: Overview of Barriers to Harnessing the Full Power of the Internet

Article on developing the Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for Africa and an overview of the barriers to harnessing the full power of the internet

Exploration of Adoption of Preservation Metadata in Cultural Heritage Institutions

Paper presented at the 2010 ASIS&T Annual Meeting. This paper discusses preservation metadata and its role in the challenges of long-term access

Ontologies relevant to behaviour change interventions: a method for their development [version 2; peer review: 1 not approved]

Background: Behaviour and behaviour change are integral to many aspects of wellbeing and sustainability. However, reporting behaviour change interventions accurately and synthesising evidence about effective interventions is hindered by lacking a shared, scientific terminology to describe intervention characteristics. Ontologies are knowledge structures that provide controlled vocabularies to help unify and connect scientific fields. To date, there is no published guidance on the specific methods required to develop ontologies relevant to behaviour change. We report the creation and refinement of a method for developing ontologies that make up the Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology (BCIO). / Aims: (1) To describe the development method of the BCIO and explain its rationale; (2) To provide guidance on implementing the activities within the development method. / Method and results: The method for developing ontologies relevant to behaviour change interventions was constructed by considering principles of good practice in ontology development and identifying key activities required to follow those principles. The method’s details were refined through application to developing two ontologies. The resulting ontology development method involved: (1) defining the ontology’s scope; (2) identifying key entities; (3) refining the ontology through an iterative process of literature annotation, discussion and revision; (4) expert stakeholder review; (5) testing inter-rater reliability; (6) specifying relationships between entities, and; (7) disseminating and maintaining the ontology. Guidance is provided for conducting relevant activities for each step. / Conclusions: We have developed a detailed method for creating ontologies relevant to behaviour change interventions, together with practical guidance for each step, reflecting principles of good practice in ontology development. The most novel aspects of the method are the use of formal mechanisms for literature annotation and expert stakeholder review to develop and improve the ontology content. We suggest the mnemonic SELAR3, representing the method’s first six steps as Scope, Entities, Literature Annotation, Review, Reliability, Relationships

Targeted Access for Varied Audiences to Integrated, Heterogeneous Digital Information Resources

Paper accompanying a poster presentation for the 2003 ASIS&T Annual Conference. This paper describes the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries' Portal to Texas History project, which aims to integrate and ensuer long-term access to large quantities of heterogeneous digital resources from many different institutions

The Cybercemetery: Prolonging Usable Afterlife

Paper for the 2004 IS&T Annual Archiving Conference. This paper discusses issues related to digital resource management when capturing and preserving web-based, heterogeneous digital materials produced by a variety of software in various versions

Meeting the Demands of Digital Scholarship: Challenges and Opportunities

Paper accompanying a poster presentation for the 2005 ASIS&T Annual Conference. This paper provides an overall scenario in the areas of aggregating a variety of digital formats, archiving digital content, and innovative uses of digital library technologies

Mind the gap: National and local partnership in the Irish public sector

This article uses case study data from a major Irish city council to investigate and explain public sector worker attitudes towards social partnership at local and national level. It is argued that the more sceptical attitudes to workplace partnership reflect structural differences between local and national arrangements, which have enabled public sector employers to use ‘social partnership’ as a constraint in the implementation process of a pre-determined public sector reform agenda