Issues of Caribou Management in Northeastern British Columbia

Woodland caribou inhabit most of Northeastern British Columbia. They live across a variety of climatic and geographic gradients and in areas with as many as seven other ungulate species and seven predatory species. This apparent variability in habitat use may suggest that caribou in the Northeast are wide ranging and ecologically plastic. Conversely, caribou in Northeastern B.C. may live in discrete groups that have adapted to local conditions. There are few published data of woodland caribou in Northeastern B.C. Information is lacking on the number of caribou, their seasonal movements, their habitat requirements, and their interactions with other species. Logging, seismic activity, pipeline construction, oil and natural gas drilling, hydro-electric dams, and prescribed burning have all impacted habitat in previously undeveloped areas. The manner and rate at which these activities are changing habitats far exceeds our growth in knowledge of caribou ecology. Given this combination of few data and rapid habitat alteration, resource managers cannot know the impact of these habitat changes. We believe that this jeopardises the conservation of viable caribou populations

A Critical Race Analysis of the Hiring Process for Head Coaches in NCAA College Football

In this article, we respond to Singer’s (2005) challenge to sport management scholars to consider race-based epistemologies in conducting certain kinds of research in the field, as we use critical race theory (CRT) as a framework to analyze the Black Coaches & Administrators (BCA) Hiring Report Card (HRC) (Harrison & Yee, 2009). The BCA HRC was created as a result of the access discrimination that has historically taken place in college sport (Brooks & Althouse, 2000; Cunningham & Sagas, 2005), which has consequently contributed to the under-representation of racial minorities in the head coach position in college football. The HRC places the hiring process of predominantly white institutions of higher education (PWIHE) under public scrutiny, with the ultimate goal of changing the decision-making process when these institutions hire head football coaches. This article utilizes CRT to support and justify the conception of the HRC, and also applies CRT principles to the five grading criteria of the HRC as a way to better understand what has been occurring in the hiring process for head football coaches at PWIHE. Implications for research and practice related to the head coach hiring process in college football are discussed

Community Emergency Management During the 2005 Ambae Eruption, Vanuatu, SW Pacific.

No abstract availabl

Achieving Acetylcholine Receptor Clustering in Tissue-Engineered Skeletal Muscle Constructs In vitro through a Materials-Directed Agrin Delivery Approach

Volumetric muscle loss (VML) can result from trauma, infection, congenital anomalies, or surgery, and produce permanent functional and cosmetic deficits. There are no effective treatment options for VML injuries, and recent advances toward development of muscle constructs lack the ability to achieve innervation necessary for long-term function. We sought to develop a proof-of-concept biomaterial construct that could achieve acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clustering on muscle-derived cells (MDCs) in vitro. The approach consisted of the presentation of neural (Z+) agrin from the surface of microspheres embedded with a fibrin hydrogel to muscle cells (C2C12 cell line or primary rat MDCs). AChR clustering was spatially restricted to areas of cell (C2C12)-microsphere contact when the microspheres were delivered in suspension or when they were incorporated into a thin (2D) fibrin hydrogel. AChR clusters were observed from 16 to 72 h after treatment when Z+ agrin was adsorbed to the microspheres, and for greater than 120 h when agrin was covalently coupled to the microspheres. Little to no AChR clustering was observed when agrin-coated microspheres were delivered from specially designed 3D fibrin constructs. However, cyclic stretch in combination with agrin-presenting microspheres led to dramatic enhancement of AChR clustering in cells cultured on these 3D fibrin constructs, suggesting a synergistic effect between mechanical strain and agrin stimulation of AChR clustering in vitro. These studies highlight a strategy for maintaining a physiological phenotype characterized by motor endplates of muscle cells used in tissue engineering strategies for muscle regeneration. As such, these observations may provide an important first step toward improving function of tissue-engineered constructs for treatment of VML injuries

Serial team teaching and the evolving scholarship of learning: Students’ perspective

Faculty and students at the University of Toronto were surveyed and interviewed to form a case study of serial team teaching, in which multiple instructors take turns teaching a segment of the same course in sequence. Student opinions ranged from slightly opposed to slightly in favour of team teaching overall. When asked about specific aspects of team teaching, students who liked it overall tended to like all aspects of it, and did not identify those disadvantages in student experience anticipated by the faculty. In general, students in upper years were less supportive of team teaching than were students in their first and second years

A qualitative exploration of the barriers and facilitators of community pharmacy PrEP delivery for pharmacists and community members

BACKGROUNDOral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is only available free of charge in the United Kingdom from sexual health clinics. Expanding PrEP delivery to community pharmacies could be an effective way of improving access to PrEP and aligns well with the UK government goals for England to eliminate new cases of HIV by 2030. Using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) Model, the aim of this research was to explore the barriers and facilitators of community pharmacy PrEP delivery, perceived by pharmacists and community members underserved through current delivery models.METHODCommunity members at risk of acquiring HIV but not currently accessing PrEP and community pharmacists were recruited to participate in semi-structured open-ended interviews. Interviews were online, via phone or in person, were audio recorded, fully transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis, informed by COM-B. RESULTSA total of 17 interviews with pharmacists (pharmacy owners n=7; employed pharmacists n=6; locums n=4) and 24 with community members (Black African women n=6; other women n=2; young adults aged 18- 25-years n=6; trans people n=6; street sex workers n=4) were conducted. Thematic analysis showed barriers include sub-optimal awareness and knowledge of PrEP, perceptions of pharmacist roles in delivering public health services (capability), lack of staff capacity, pharmacy facilities and privacy (opportunity), concern about being seen accessing PrEP from a pharmacy, a preference to access PrEP from a General Practitioner (GP) and a belief that pharmacy PrEP delivery could increase STIs (motivation). Facilitators included improving PrEP education and awareness (capability), the accessibility of pharmacies, being able to deliver PrEP via a patient group directive (PGD) (opportunity), a general preference for pharmacy PrEP and a belief that this model of delivery would be discrete, help decrease stigma and improve access to PrEP, particularly for those who felt uncomfortable accessing PrEP from sexual health clinics (motivation). CONCLUSIONPharmacy PrEP delivery is acceptable to pharmacists and community members but for it to be feasible, results point to the need for a behaviour change intervention incorporating education, training and awareness raising, for both pharmacists and community members to improve access, stimulate patient activation and de-stigmatise HIV and PrEP. <br/

The XMM Cluster Survey: Evidence for energy injection at high redshift from evolution of the X-ray luminosity-temperature relation

We measure the evolution of the X-ray luminosity-temperature (L_X-T) relation since z~1.5 using a sample of 211 serendipitously detected galaxy clusters with spectroscopic redshifts drawn from the XMM Cluster Survey first data release (XCS-DR1). This is the first study spanning this redshift range using a single, large, homogeneous cluster sample. Using an orthogonal regression technique, we find no evidence for evolution in the slope or intrinsic scatter of the relation since z~1.5, finding both to be consistent with previous measurements at z~0.1. However, the normalisation is seen to evolve negatively with respect to the self-similar expectation: we find E(z)^{-1} L_X = 10^{44.67 +/- 0.09} (T/5)^{3.04 +/- 0.16} (1+z)^{-1.5 +/- 0.5}, which is within 2 sigma of the zero evolution case. We see milder, but still negative, evolution with respect to self-similar when using a bisector regression technique. We compare our results to numerical simulations, where we fit simulated cluster samples using the same methods used on the XCS data. Our data favour models in which the majority of the excess entropy required to explain the slope of the L_X-T relation is injected at high redshift. Simulations in which AGN feedback is implemented using prescriptions from current semi-analytic galaxy formation models predict positive evolution of the normalisation, and differ from our data at more than 5 sigma. This suggests that more efficient feedback at high redshift may be needed in these models.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 12 pages, 6 figures; added references to match published versio