Organizing to Win: Introduction

[Excerpt] The American labor movement is at a watershed. For the first time since the early years of industrial unionism sixty years ago, there is near-universal agreement among union leaders that the future of the movement depends on massive new organizing. In October 1995, John Sweeney, Richard Trumka, and Linda Chavez-Thompson were swept into the top offices of the AFL-CIO, following a campaign that promised organizing at an unprecedented pace and scale. Since taking office, the new AFL-CIO leadership team has created a separate organizing department and has committed $20 million to support coordinated large-scale industry-based organizing drives. In addition, in the summer of 1996, the AFL-CIO launched the Union Summer program, which placed more than a thousand college students and young workers in organizing campaigns across the country

The Summit on Creativity and Aging in America

This report looks at how the federal government can leverage the arts to foster healthy aging and inclusive design for this growing population. This white paper features recommendations from the May 2015 Summit on Creativity and Aging in America, a convening of more than 70 experts hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Center for Creative Aging. The paper highlights recommendations on healthy aging, lifelong learning in the arts, and age-friendly community design. The summit was a precursor to the 2015 White House Conference on Aging, which addressed four major issues: retirement security, long-term services and supports, healthy aging, and elder abuse

National Assessment Program: ICT Literacy 2022: Public report

This public report documents the findings of the sixth National Assessment Program ICT Literacy (NAP–ICT Literacy) assessment cycle. In reporting national key performance measures (KPMs) of Australian students’ ICT literacy, the NAP–ICT Literacy assessment provides a way to monitor progress towards the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Goals for Young Australians. Goal 2 of the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration is that “all young Australians become confident and creative individuals, successful lifelong learners, and active and informed members of the community” (Education Council 2019, p. 6). The elaboration of this goal highlights the importance of young Australians’ digital and ICT literacy in a rapidly evolving technological landscape and establishes the context and rationale for reporting on student achievement and progress in this area. For NAP–ICT Literacy 2022, ICT literacy is defined as “the ability to use ICT appropriately and safely to access, manage and evaluate information; develop new understandings; apply computational, design and systems thinking to create solutions; communicate and collaborate with others; and engage productively with emerging and future technologies” (ACARA 2020, p. 13). The NAP–ICT Literacy assessment instrument requires students to apply their ICT knowledge within real-world contexts that represent the 4 strands and integrated aspects outlined in the NAP–ICT Literacy Assessment Framework. These are: understanding ICT and digital systems, investigating and planning solutions with ICT, implementing and evaluating digital solutions, and applying safe and ethical protocols and practices when using ICT

Sedimentological characterization of Antarctic moraines using UAVs and Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry

In glacial environments particle-size analysis of moraines provides insights into clast origin, transport history, depositional mechanism and processes of reworking. Traditional methods for grain-size classification are labour-intensive, physically intrusive and are limited to patch-scale (1m2) observation. We develop emerging, high-resolution ground- and unmanned aerial vehicle-based ‘Structure-from-Motion’ (UAV-SfM) photogrammetry to recover grain-size information across an moraine surface in the Heritage Range, Antarctica. SfM data products were benchmarked against equivalent datasets acquired using terrestrial laser scanning, and were found to be accurate to within 1.7 and 50mm for patch- and site-scale modelling, respectively. Grain-size distributions were obtained through digital grain classification, or ‘photo-sieving’, of patch-scale SfM orthoimagery. Photo-sieved distributions were accurate to <2mm compared to control distributions derived from dry sieving. A relationship between patch-scale median grain size and the standard deviation of local surface elevations was applied to a site-scale UAV-SfM model to facilitate upscaling and the production of a spatially continuous map of the median grain size across a 0.3 km2 area of moraine. This highly automated workflow for site scale sedimentological characterization eliminates much of the subjectivity associated with traditional methods and forms a sound basis for subsequent glaciological process interpretation and analysis

A Long and Twisted Road: The Journey from EAD to ArchivesSpace Implementation at the University of Minnesota

This article will provide an overview of the implementation of EAD by the department of Archives and Special Collections Department of the University of Minnesota Libraries and the decision to implement ArchivesSpace, which necessitated addressing divergent and legacy practices. Some attention will be given to previous efforts to standardize description and accessibility at the University of Minnesota and how those efforts ultimately failed without a centralized content management system

Visioning the (im)possible: Experiences of Librarian-caregivers During the Pandemic and Strategies for the Future of Library Work

What has the pandemic work-life experience been for library workers who have caregiving responsibilities? As reports trickle into popular media about the perilously strained state of working parents, we look to our membership to ask: how are librarian caregivers holding up, moving forward, and making change in the workplace? This panel conversation addresses the current state and future possibilities of remote, hybrid, and flexible work arrangements in art libraries, specifically examining how these arrangements impact art librarians and library workers who are also caregivers. We ask: how has the “how” of our work changed? How can we co-create library workplaces that allow all workers to contribute and thrive? Panelists will share aggregate information gathered from the media, ARLIS/NA members, vignettes of life during the pandemic that illustrate shared but often unspoken experiences, and examples of advocacy and success in grappling with and implementing change toward a more equitable workplace

A robust system for RNA interference in the chicken using a modified microRNA operon

AbstractRNA interference (RNAi) provides an effective method to silence gene expression and investigate gene function. However, RNAi tools for the chicken embryo have largely been adapted from vectors designed for mammalian cells. Here we present plasmid and retroviral RNAi vectors specifically designed for optimal gene silencing in chicken cells. The vectors use a chicken U6 promoter to express RNAs modelled on microRNA30, which are embedded within chicken microRNA operon sequences to ensure optimal Drosha and Dicer processing of transcripts. The chicken U6 promoter works significantly better than promoters of mammalian origin and in combination with a microRNA operon expression cassette (MOEC), achieves up to 90% silencing of target genes. By using a MOEC, we show that it is also possible to simultaneously silence two genes with a single vector. The vectors express either RFP or GFP markers, allowing simple in vivo tracking of vector delivery. Using these plasmids, we demonstrate effective silencing of Pax3, Pax6, Nkx2.1, Nkx2.2, Notch1 and Shh in discrete regions of the chicken embryonic nervous system. The efficiency and ease of use of this RNAi system paves the way for large-scale genetic screens in the chicken embryo

Manual / Issue 7 / Alchemy

Manual, a journal about art and its making. Alchemy. The seventh issue. Manual 7 (Alchemy) prompts the unexpected and emergent to manifest. To engage as an alchemist/artist is to be the perpetual student of the present moment, to synthesize culture, so-called science, and the implications of existential borders into a discipline that is repeatable, a practice. Art and alchemy are not singular, unified pursuits. Their practitioners are trans-disciplinary, disjointed, and solitary in their practice, and their labor and the ordering of their lives become porous, overlaid in the pursuit of other-than or beyond-dominant modes of understanding. Alchemy and art are not about finding resolution, but building the capacity for curiosity, formulating questions that invest fields of knowledge with possibility, prompting the unexpected and emergent to manifest. —Bryan McGovern Wilson, from the introduction to Issue 7: Alchemy Softcover, 76 pages. Published 2016 by the RISD Museum. Manual 7 (Alchemy) contributors include Markus Berger, Rachel Berwick, Stephen S. Bush, CA Conrad, Florence Friedman, Doreen Garner, Michael Grugl, Kate Irvin, Mimi Leveque, Dominic Molon, Douglas R. Nickel, Emily J. Peters, Elizabeth A. Williams, Bryan McGovern Wilson, and Diming Stella Zhong.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_journals/1033/thumbnail.jp

Dr. and Mrs. Robert L. Holley Jr., Mrs. William Faulkner, Mrs. Gayle Beanland, Mrs. Sam Friedman, Mrs. Kate Baker and Bank of Oxford to Ross Barnett, Walter Sillers and Senator Homer S. Samuels, 27 September 1962

Senders urge Barnett to keep the university open, protect its accreditation, and preserve its good name.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/west_union_gov/1042/thumbnail.jp