President’s Address: The NCHC’s Inclusive Mission

NCHC president describes and demonstrates the organization’s mission “to support and enhance the community of educational institutions, professionals, and students who participate in collegiate honors education around the world.” Organizational inclusivity, volunteer service, and collaborative achievement are acknowledged and encouraged

Networking: the Human Factor in Knowledge Exchange

Evidence-influenced policy has become the 'gold standard' which compels a wide variety of researchers, research funders and policy makers, from very different organisational contexts, to share or exchange knowledge. Opportunities to facilitate interaction; better understand each other's professional cultures and goals and also build collaborations are important to promote the use of research to inform and influence policy and practice. It is important to find ways in which such interactions between people can be facilitated, particularly as many stakeholders are not trained in the practice of knowledge exchange. Conferences are powerful, albeit temporary, clusters of contextualised knowledge exchange which facilitate low risk initial contacts and the ongoing development of collaborations

Art and Neighbourhood Change Beyond the City Centre

In critical urban research, artists are typically seen as drivers of central city gentrifi cation and public arts asdepoliticized tools of the creative city agenda. This paper takes Toronto’s Main Square as a case study, first,to delineate the multiple ways that community arts can influence social change beyond gentrifi cation, andsecond, to identify suburban space as an important site of cultural and creative policy articulation. We claimthat the unique non-central location of Main Square appears as a significant factor shaping the trajectory oftransformation and delimiting the political potential of arts in engendering public values and in addressingspatial injustice. We claim that rather than following the script of neoliberal creative city policies, communitybased public art can work within and against a market-driven logic of cultural programming to pose newopportunities for public space and public life.Dans la recherche urbaine critique, les artistes sont généralement considérés comme moteur de l’embourgeoisementde centre-ville et les arts publics sont perçus comme des outils dépolitisés du programme des villes créatives.Dans cet article, nous analysons les transformations de Main Square à Toronto pour illustrer les multiples façonsdont l`art communautaire peut infl uencer des changements sociaux au-delà de l’embourgeoisement. De plus,nous identifi ons l’espace de banlieue comme un lieu important pour la formulation de politiques culturelles etcréatives. Nous affi rmons que l’emplacement unique et non-central de Main Square apparaît comme un facteurdéterminant de la production de l’espace public et qui délimite le potentiel politique des arts pour lutter contrel’injustice spatiale. Nous affi rmons que l’art public communautaire n’est pas simplement un outil commercialisé,mail ce dernier peut créer de nouvelles opportunités pour l’espace public et la vie publique

A Knowledge Exchange Organisation: the Primary Health Care Research & Information Service (PHCRIS)

How has a knowledge exchange organisation assisted policy, practice, research and consumer stakeholders to cross borders in PHC. Knowledge exchange bases its practice on exchanging information and knowledge in the most appropriate format with the right people at the most suitable time. The resources and services outlined in this poster, cover people and information resources, information synthesis and capacity building

Knowledge Exchange for Rural Health

Knowledge exchange includes information management, linkage, capacity development, and support. Knowledge exchange bases its practice on exchanging information in the most appropriate format with the right people at the most suitable time

Fact Sheet: Maximising the influence of your research on policy

Researchers and policy makers contribute different skills, knowledge and perspectives to the policy making process. Sustained, constructive communication between these groups supports the development of evidence informed public policy

Knowledge Exchange (KE) to Underpin Implementation

An implementation agenda is best supported by a widespread culture of knowledge exchange (KE). A KE culture: - Views research as a resource rather than a product - Values real world knowledge as well as research knowledge - Understands co-construction of knowledge - Acknowledges complexity and politics of the cross-system landscape - Generates essential face-to-face and network opportunities - Fosters trust and collaborations beyond academic circles. KE requires a different mindset and skill set beyond research competencies. KE is not a specific learning objective frequently offered by higher degree institutions. This study aimed to examine KE strategies in primary health care research

Early Verb Learning: How Do Children Learn How to Compare Events?

An important problem verb learners must solve is how to extend verbs. Children could use cross-situational information to guide their extensions, however comparing events is difficult. Two studies test whether children benefit from initially seeing a pair of similar events (‘progressive alignment’) while learning new verbs, and whether this influence changes with age. In Study 1, 2 ½- and 3 ½-year-old children participated in an interactive task. Children who saw a pair of similar events and then varied events were able to extend verbs at test, differing from a control group; children who saw two pairs of varied events did not differ from the control group. In Study 2, events were presented on a monitor. Following the initial pair of events that varied by condition, a Tobii x120 eye tracker recorded 2 ½-, 3 ½- and 4 ½-year-olds’ fixations to specific elements of events (AOIs) during the second pair of events, which were the same across conditions. After seeing the pair of events that were highly similar, 2 ½-year-olds showed significantly longer fixation durations to agents and to affected objects as compared to the all varied condition. At test, 3 ½-year-olds were able to extend the verb, but only in the progressive alignment condition. These results are important because they show children\u27s visual attention to relevant elements in dynamic events is influenced by their prior comparison experience, and they show that young children benefit from seeing similar events as they learn to compare events to each other

Fostering a culture of knowledge exchange

PHCRIS Research Fellow, Dr Christina Hagger presented at the 2nd Annual NHMRC Research Translation Faculty Symposium on 2 Oct 2013. This presentation titled Fostering a culture of knowledge exchange reports on the partners in the health care system, the role of knowledge exchange (KE), and how PHCRIS promotes an open culture of KE through a combined strategy of 'the People and the Portal'

Mechanisms underpinning adaptations in placental calcium transport in normal mice and those with fetal growth restriction

Fetal delivery of calcium, via the placenta, is crucial for appropriate skeletal mineralization. We have previously demonstrated that maternofetal calcium transport, per gram placenta, is increased in the placental specific insulin-like growth factor 2 knockout mouse (P0) model of fetal growth restriction (FGR) compared to wild type littermates (WTL). This effect was mirrored in wild-type (WT) mice comparing lightest vs. heaviest (LvH) placentas in a litter. In both models increased placental calcium transport was associated with normalization of fetal calcium content. Despite this adaptation being observed in small normal (WT), and small dysfunctional (P0) placentas, mechanisms underpinning these changes remain unknown. Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), elevated in cord blood in FGR and known to stimulate plasma membrane calcium ATPase, might be important. We hypothesized that PTHrP expression would be increased in LvH WT placentas, and in P0 vs. WTL. We used calcium pathway-focused PCR arrays to assess whether mechanisms underpinning these adaptations in LvH WT placentas, and in P0 vs. WTL, were similar. PTHrP protein expression was not different between LvH WT placentas at E18.5 but trended toward increased expression (139%; P = 0.06) in P0 vs. WTL. PCR arrays demonstrated that four genes were differentially expressed in LvH WT placentas including increased expression of the calcium-binding protein calmodulin 1 (1.6-fold; P < 0.05). Twenty-four genes were differentially expressed in placentas of P0 vs. WTL; significant reductions were observed in expression of S100 calcium binding protein G (2-fold; P < 0.01), parathyroid hormone 1 receptor (1.7-fold; P < 0.01) and PTHrP (2-fold; P < 0.05), whilst serum/glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1), a regulator of nutrient transporters, was increased (1.4 fold; P < 0.05). Tartrate resistant acid phosphatase 5 (TRAP5 encoded by Acp5) was reduced in placentas of both LvH WT and P0 vs. WTL (1.6- and 1.7-fold, respectively; P < 0.05). Signaling events underpinning adaptations in calcium transport are distinct between LvH placentas of WT mice and those in P0 vs. WTL. Calcium binding proteins appear important in functional adaptations in the former whilst PTHrP and SGK1 are also implicated in the latter. These data facilitate understanding of mechanisms underpinning placental calcium transport adaptation in normal and growth restricted fetuses