From Rhetoric To Reality: Are The Outcomes From A MODSS Approach To Decision-Making Living Up To The Claims?

Multiple Objective Decision Support System (MODSS), or Multiple Criteria Analysis (MCA), has been put forward as an approach to decision-making that identifies a management option or options that best 'satisfices' the interests of affected stakeholders when the problem to be addressed is complex and the outcomes difficult to quantify. The approach, which facilitates the incorporation of information from multiple disciplines, is recommended as appropriate to address complex natural resource management problems. It is variously claimed that the MODSS approach is effective in improving communication between stakeholder groups that might otherwise have been in conflict. An improved understanding of the natural resource problem being addressed and the options to address the problem, is argued to result in a greater acceptance and therefore compliance to the final choice of action. This report presents the initial findings from a project to assess the effectiveness of a MODSS that was implemented to assist the evaluation and implementation of a number of options to manage an emerging groundwater problem in a catchment area in Far North Queensland

Post-Traumatic Growth: a Treatment Approach for Teen Survivors of Childhood Trauma

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Using Games To Increase Active Learning

This paper will identify and describe two learning games that have been effectively used to spark interest and enthusiasm and to increase active learning in undergraduate business courses. Many current undergraduate college students have grown up with TV game shows, interactive video games, and the Internet as forms of entertainment and education. In comparison to these fast-paced, interactive mediums, a traditional lecture class can seem dull. The use of in-class games is one way to increase student engagement with the class and relevant material

Marketing Study Strategy for a Career Technical Center

Adult education programs offer opportunities for high school graduates who want to learn new disciplines. They may have lost their job, want to upskill to a new career or are recent past students wanting to develop new employable skills. A career technical school in southern Ohio partnered with students in Shawnee State University’s Marketing degree program, allowing students to serve as a marketing agency. The students interviewed vocational school representatives and developed a plan for the school to better understand their market. The plan included four instruments presented with dummy data to show how results are tracked. The instruments included quantitative and qualitative results related to program awareness and identifying how current students view the school’s efforts. The school received the proposed plan with ready-to-use instruments. In return, the Marketing students gained valuable field experience through the collaborative project

Attempted DNA extraction from a Rancho La Brea Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi): prospects for ancient DNA from asphalt deposits.

Fossil-bearing asphalt deposits are an understudied and potentially significant source of ancient DNA. Previous attempts to extract DNA from skeletons preserved at the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, have proven unsuccessful, but it is unclear whether this is due to a lack of endogenous DNA, or if the problem is caused by asphalt-mediated inhibition. In an attempt to test these hypotheses, a recently recovered Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) skeleton with an unusual pattern of asphalt impregnation was studied. Ultimately, none of the bone samples tested successfully amplified M. columbi DNA. Our work suggests that reagents typically used to remove asphalt from ancient samples also inhibit DNA extraction. Ultimately, we conclude that the probability of recovering ancient DNA from fossils in asphalt deposits is strongly (perhaps fatally) hindered by the organic compounds that permeate the bones and that at the Rancho La Brea tar pits, environmental conditions might not have been ideal for the general preservation of genetic material

Participatory research with adults with Asperger's syndrome: using spatial analysis to explore how they make sense of their experience.

This thesis explores participatory research involving the author and a small group of adults with Asperger’s syndrome, as co-researchers. The research was based on the assumption that people with Asperger’s syndrome think differently from neuro-typical people (people who do not have Asperger’s syndrome or autism). It is not denied that people with Asperger’s syndrome have difficulties, but the thesis argues that these are caused by living in a world which is dominated by neuro-typical people who do not understand or allow for the differences that people with Asperger’s syndrome have. The research is based on the assumption that adults with Asperger’s syndrome are able to be co-researchers and that part of the task of the researcher and the co-researchers was to find a way of working together that was enabling to all involved in the research. The original aim of the research was to ascertain what kind of service provision adults with Asperger’s syndrome wanted and this formed the research question: ‘What support do adults with Asperger’s syndrome want?’ The findings of the research challenge traditional notions of support as the emphasis is taken away from support to consider forms of understanding. It has resulted in the proposal of a new way of understanding Asperger’s syndrome. It proposes models for understanding how people with Asperger’s syndrome and neuro-typical people relate to each other. These models challenge a currently prevailing deficit-based understanding of Asperger’s syndrome. The author and the co-researchers worked collaboratively to design research tools, collect and analyse data and disseminate findings. The data was collected from other adults with Asperger’s syndrome who took part in questionnaires and then different adults with Asperger’s syndrome who took part in a focus group and individual interviews. The work was informed by the literature on spatial understandings of how society is ordered. The thesis uses this spatial understanding as a way of analysing how people with Asperger’s syndrome are regarded in a society which is dominated by people who are neuro-typical. Insights from a spatial understanding are also used to consider the process of the research, including an application of the social model of disability to participatory research involving adults with Asperger’s syndrome. My original contribution to knowledge is that I have demonstrated that people with Asperger’s syndrome have the potential to work in group situations on a complex piece of research. I have shown that people with Asperger’s syndrome are able to make a significant contribution to the understanding of how people with Asperger’s syndrome and neuro-typical people relate to each other. I have also demonstrated how a non-disabled researcher and co-researchers with Asperger’s syndrome can work together and devise working methods which are enabling. In the words of the thesis, I have demonstrated how an ‘autistic research space’ can be created. This thesis discusses the role of the neuro-typical researcher in the creation of this research space. The research is regarded as having been co-produced and the meaning of this is explored. The thesis discusses the nature of participatory research using a spatial understanding. Emancipatory research is said to be based on the social model of disability, where non-disabled researchers are not involved. I have shown that participatory research can also be based on the insights from the social model of disability and achieve the outcomes required for emancipatory research. I have proposed a framework for planning and analysing participatory research. Perhaps the most significant contribution to knowledge is the new way of understanding Asperger’s syndrome proposed by the research which challenges the more traditionally accepted deficit based model

Whole-genome sequence analysis shows that two endemic species of North American wolf are admixtures of the coyote and gray wolf.

Protection of populations comprising admixed genomes is a challenge under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which is regarded as the most powerful species protection legislation ever passed in the United States but lacks specific provisions for hybrids. The eastern wolf is a newly recognized wolf-like species that is highly admixed and inhabits the Great Lakes and eastern United States, a region previously thought to be included in the geographic range of only the gray wolf. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has argued that the presence of the eastern wolf, rather than the gray wolf, in this area is grounds for removing ESA protection (delisting) from the gray wolf across its geographic range. In contrast, the red wolf from the southeastern United States was one of the first species protected under the ESA and was protected despite admixture with coyotes. We use whole-genome sequence data to demonstrate a lack of unique ancestry in eastern and red wolves that would not be expected if they represented long divergent North American lineages. These results suggest that arguments for delisting the gray wolf are not valid. Our findings demonstrate how a strict designation of a species under the ESA that does not consider admixture can threaten the protection of endangered entities. We argue for a more balanced approach that focuses on the ecological context of admixture and allows for evolutionary processes to potentially restore historical patterns of genetic variation