Discourses and practices in teaching methods and assessment: Insights from an early career academic

© The Author(s) 2015. Translating the purposes of education into practice is particularly challenging for those who are new or have recently entered academia. By reflecting on my first years of teaching in higher education, I discuss two key aspects of my teaching practice: shifts in choice of teaching methods and a critique of different forms of assessment. Through the discussion, I argue that a teacher needs to be reflective on both these aspects and that such reflection needs to be carried out so that the student develops into a “self-directing,” “self-monitoring,” and “self-correcting” individual. At the end of the discussion, the relevance of a “project-based learning” approach starts to become significant in taking my pedagogical practice forward

Biological Assessment of the Advanced Turbine Design at Wanapum Dam, 2005

This report summarizes the results of studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to evaluate the biological performance (likelihood of injury to fish) from an advanced design turbine installed at Unit 8 of Wanapum Dam on the Columbia River in Washington State in 2005. PNNL studies included a novel dye technique to measure injury to juvenile fish in the field, an evaluation of blade-strike using both deterministic and stochastic models, and extended analysis of the response of the Sensor Fish Device to strike, pressure, and turbulence within the turbine system. Fluorescein dye was used to evaluate injuries to live fish passed through the advanced turbine and an existing turbine at two spill discharges (15 and 17 kcfs). Under most treatments the results were not significantly different for the two turbines, however, eye injury occurred in nearly 30% of fish passing through Unit 9 but in less than 10% of those passing through Unit 8 at 15 kcfs. Both deterministic and stochastic blade-strike models were applied for the original and new AHTS turbines. The modeled probabilities were compared to the Sensor Fish results (Carlson et al. 2006) and the biological studies using juvenile fish (Normandeau et al. 2005) under the same operational parameters. The new AHTS turbine had slightly higher modeled injury rates than the original turbine, but no statistical evidence to suggest that there is significant difference in blade-strike injury probabilities between the two turbines, which is consistent with the experiment results using Sensor Fish and juvenile fish. PNNL also conducted Sensor Fish studies at Wanapum Dam in 2005 concurrent with live fish studies. The probablility of severe collision events was similar for both turbine. The advanced turbine had a slightly lower probability of severe shear events but a slightly higher probability of slight shear

Laboratory Studies on the Effects of Shear on Fish

The overall objective of our studies was to specify an index describing the hydraulic force that fish experience when subjected to a shear environment. Fluid shear is a phenomenon that is important to fish. However, elevated levels of shear may result in strain rates that injure or kill fish. At hydroelectric generating facilities, concerns have been expressed that strain rates associated with passage through turbines, spillways, and fish bypass systems may adversely affect migrating fish. Development of fish friendly hydroelectric turbines requires knowledge of the physical forces (injury mechanisms) that impact entrained fish and the fish's tolerance to these forces. It requires up-front, pre-design specifications for the environmental conditions that occur within the turbine system, in other words, determining or assuming that those conditions known to injure fish will provide the descriptions of conditions that engineers must consider in the design of a turbine system. These biological specifications must be carefully and thoroughly documented throughout the design of a fish friendly turbine. To address the development of biological specifications, we designed and built a test facility where juvenile fish could be subjected to a range of shear environments and quantified their biological response

Prevalence and determinants of unintended pregnancies amongst women attending antenatal clinics in Pakistan

Background: Unintended pregnancies are a global public health concern and contribute significantly to adverse maternal and neonatal health, social and economic outcomes and increase the risks of maternal deaths and neonatal mortality. In countries like Pakistan where data for the unintended pregnancies is scarce, studies are required to estimate its accurate prevalence and predictors using more specific tools such as the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancies (LMUP). Methods: We conducted a hospital based cross sectional survey in two tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan. We used a pre tested structured questionnaire to collect the data on socio-demographic characteristics, reproductive history, awareness and past experience with contraceptives and unintended pregnancies using six item the LMUP. We used Univariate and multivariate analysis to explore the association between unintended pregnancies and predictor variables and presented the association as adjusted odds ratios. We also evaluated the psychometric properties of the Urdu version of the LMUP. Results: Amongst 3010 pregnant women, 1150 (38.2%) pregnancies were reported as unintended. In the multivariate analysis age \u3c 20 years (AOR 3.5 1.1-6.5), being illiterate (AOR 1.9 1.1-3.4), living in a rural setting (1.7 1.2-2.3), having a pregnancy interval of = \u3c 12 months (AOR 1.7 1.4-2.2), having a parity of \u3e2 (AOR 1.4 1.2-1.8), having no knowledge about contraceptive methods (AOR 3.0 1.7-5.4) and never use of contraceptive methods (AOR 2.3 1.4-5.1) remained significantly associated with unintended pregnancy. The Urdu version of the LMUP scale was found to be acceptable, valid and reliable with the Cronbach\u27s alpha of 0.85. Conclusions: This study explores a high prevalence of unintended pregnancies and important factors especially those related to family planning. Integrated national family program that provides contraceptive services especially the modern methods to women during pre-conception and post-partum would be beneficial in averting unintended pregnancies and their related adverse outcomes in Pakistan