Informing Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment Flight Schedule based upon Soil and Vegetation Freeze and Thaw Event Variation along the Alaska Ecological Transect

Established in the 1990s, the Alaska Ecological Transect (ALECTRA) is composed of a series of ground stations extending from the Franklin Bluff on Alaska’s North Slope to the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage. At each station, sets of thermistors are deployed to monitor vegetation tissue temperature, air temperature, and soil profile temperatures. Also sensors are deployed for monitoring sap flow in individual trees. The stations are automated, with data loggers recording this data approximately every two hours. Dates marking the spring thaw and fall freeze transitions in soil and vegetation tissues from sites in Coldfoot, Dietrich Valley, and Bonanza Creek were identified and analyzed to inform the scheduling of the Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) Mission’s spring and fall flights. Set to start in March 2012, the De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft will fly over the above mentioned sites, among others, using remote sensing technology to monitor soil moisture, freeze/thaw state, and surface temperatures as well as total atmospheric columns of carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide

The Photograph as a Site of Writing

This research project considers the photograph as a common space, a space of encounter that unsettles the relations between word and image. It calls for a thinking of the photograph alongside notions of commonality at a time of increasing fragmentation and alienation in terms of what is communicable. The project is driven by different forms of description as a methodology and mode of enquiry. These methods of description constitute a series of experiments in writing and photography. They are presented in the thesis as image and text works and accompanying the thesis as an installation of photographic works and composition of voice recordings. The context of the research engages practices of space and everyday life along side ideas about community and commonality. Methods of description draw out the relationship between word and image, examining different particularities between writing as image and the construction of photographic sequences as a visual syntax in order to question the limits of description in relation to the photographic image and human encounter. The process of research is framed within a series of on-going conversations that embed themselves within thinking about and making photographs. Sitting on park benches and considering the space of The Look and the work Jean-Paul Sartre, converses with a series of photographs and writings that describe a space of human encounter. The description of Charles Bovary’s Hat in the opening sequence of Madame Bovary1 by Gustave Flaubert, informs a descriptive method and thinking about the photograph as a kind of mute or stuttering face. A dialogue with Walker Evan’s Labor Anonymous photographs emerges through experimental forms of writing and cropping. This concludes in a series of 150 sentences and photographic fragments that cover the entirety of the photographs in the Labor Anonymous archive, replacing editing with a process of cropping in order to approach an anonymous space within the photographic image. The thesis ends with photographs of discarded piles of organic matter constructed through a rigorous method of writing drawn out of the phenomenology of Emmanuel Levinas and a reading of Alain Robbe-Grillet and Francis Ponges. Here the photograph is presented as an exhausted site where word and image exist alongside each other, radically passive, together — apart. Making a series of voice recordings enables an exploration of the incommensurability of word and image approaching problems surrounding a thinking of the face, and the face-to-face encounter through the photograph. Throughout the project a problem of pronouns is evoked, an uncomfortable sense of the relations between us all in looking and thinking about the space of the image and how it can be constituted and conveyed. Processes of description developed through the different forms of enquiry call us to the urgent task of considering the photographic image as a site of commonality and a space of community

The SoTL Body: Identifying and Navigating Points of Entry

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) as a field invites researchers to examine their teaching practice with the goal of understanding its impact and effect on student learning (Hutchings & Shulman, 1999). Though inclusive by nature – belonging to no discipline yet informing practice in all – SoTL does have its own discourse, assumptions, and literature that may intimidate disciplinary scholars. This paper uses the human body as a metaphor to explain how researchers from diverse disciplines can use familiar entry points to ease their transition into SoTL. We identify and analyze parts and systems of the human and research body, revealing connections between particular disciplinary research bodies and the SoTL research body – connections that we hope provide disciplinary scholars with the confidence they need to navigate and engage in SoTL

Examining How Dog ‘Acquisition’ Affects Physical Activity and Psychosocial Well-Being: Findings from the BuddyStudy Pilot Trial

Dog owners are more physically active than non-dog owners, but evidence of a causal relationship between dog acquisition and increased physical activity is lacking. Such evidence could inform programs and policies that encourage responsible dog ownership. Randomized controlled trials are the ‘gold standard’ for determining causation, but they are prohibited in this area due to ethical concerns. In the BuddyStudy, we tested the feasibility of using dog fostering as a proxy for dog acquisition, which would allow ethical random assignment. In this single-arm trial, 11 participants fostered a rescue dog for six weeks. Physical activity and psychosocial data were collected at baseline, 6, and 12 weeks. At 6 weeks, mean change in steps/day was 1192.1 ± 2457.8. Mean changes on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and the Perceived Stress Scale were −4.9 ± 8.7 and −0.8 ± 5.5, respectively. More than half of participants (55%) reported meeting someone new in their neighborhood because of their foster dog. Eight participants (73%) adopted their foster dog after the 6-week foster period; some maintained improvements in physical activity and well-being at 12 weeks. Given the demonstrated feasibility and preliminary findings of the BuddyStudy, a randomized trial of immediate versus delayed dog fostering is warranted

Inventory methods for sea asparagus in the Salish Sea: working with indigenous communities to integrate UAV technology and aquatic plant management

On the west coast of British Columbia, licences for the harvesting of sea asparagus are issued annually, requiring information on the baseline distribution and available biomass of the resource. While previous research has documented the biomass of sea asparagus in saltwater marshes of Boundary Bay and Cowichan Bay, this inventory is limited in geographic scope. Traditional ground transect survey methods are expensive and not feasible for expansion of inventory work across the Strait of Georgia. The use of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has gained recognition as a highly effective and accessible approach for mapping coastal vegetation. In this study, we developed and piloted a cost-effective methodology using UAV technology for the inventory of sea asparagus within a high priority area on the east coast of Vancouver Island. We combined field sampling methods with UAV surveys to provide ground-verified image coverage of saltwater marsh habitat. Photo-orthomosaics were used to produce a digital elevation model, from which area-based calculations for sea asparagus were developed. Area estimates were then converted to biomass based on ground-verification data. A key component of our approach was the involvement and participation of K’ómoks First Nation Guardian Watchmen. As stewards of their lands and waters, First Nation communities have a central interest in the management of commercial resources within their traditional territory. Indigenous-led UAV research provides the potential for new technology to benefit both ecosystems and communities

A Pilot Study of the Effects of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae Exposure on Domestic Lamb Growth and Performance

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is a globally distributed pathogen that has been associated with pneumonia in both domestic and wild Caprinae. It is closely related to M. hyopneumoniae, a respiratory pathogen of swine that is associated with decreased growth rates of pigs as well as clinical respiratory disease. In order to assess the effects of M. ovipneumoniae on lamb performance, we generated a cohort of lambs free of M. ovipneumoniae by segregation of test negative ewes after lambing, then compared the growth and carcass quality traits of M. ovipneumoniae-free and -colonized lambs from weaning to harvest. Some signs of respiratory disease were observed during the feeding trial in both lamb groups, but the M. ovipneumoniae-exposed group included more affected lambs and higher average disease scores. At harvest, lungs of lambs in both groups showed few grossly visible lesions, although the M. ovipneumoniae-exposed group did exhibit increased microscopic lung lesions (P\u3c0.05). In addition, M. ovipneumoniae exposed lambs produced lower average daily gains (P\u3c0.05), and lower yield grade carcasses (P\u3c0.05) compared to those of non-exposed lambs. The results demonstrated the feasibility of test and segregation for elimination of M. ovipneumoniae from groups of sheep and suggested that this pathogen may impair lamb growth and productivity even in the absence of overt respiratory disease

Aquatic biosurvey of the Lovell River on UNH land

We assessed the physical, chemical and biological conditions at two sites along the Lovell River on University of New Hampshire (UNH) -owned conservation land. The discharge was 4.4 m3 s-1 at Site 1 and 5.7 m3 s -1 downstream at Site 2. Canopy coverage ranged from 8-25%. Canopy was dominated by Eastern Hemlock (79-84%). Much of the stream was strewn with large boulders and the substrate consisted of rocks of highly variable sizes ( 3-549 cm dia.). Specific conductivity (22.1-23.3 µS), pH (6.4) and temperature (7.9-8.3 °C) varied little between sites. Macro-invertebrate bio-indices indicated either excellent water quality with no apparent organic pollution (3.0/10) or good water quality with possible slight organic pollution (4.4/10)

Study protocol for two pilot randomised controlled trials aimed at increasing physical activity using electrically assisted bicycles to enhance prostate or breast cancer survival

BACKGROUND: In 2020, 1.4 and 2.3 million new cases of prostate cancer and breast cancer respectively were diagnosed globally. In the UK, prostate cancer is the most common male cancer, while breast cancer is the most common female cancer. Engaging in physical activity (PA) is a key component of treatment. However, rates of PA are low in these clinical populations. This paper describes the protocol of CRANK-P and CRANK-B, two pilot randomised controlled trials, involving an e-cycling intervention aimed at increasing PA in individuals with prostate cancer or breast cancer respectively.METHODS: These two trials are single-centre, stratified, parallel-group, two-arm randomised waitlist-controlled pilot trials in which forty individuals with prostate cancer (CRANK-P) and forty individuals with breast cancer (CRANK-B) will be randomly assigned, in a 1:1 allocation ratio, to an e-cycling intervention or waitlist control. The intervention consists of e-bike training with a certified cycle instructor, followed by the provision of an e-bike for 12 weeks. Following the intervention period, participants in the e-bike condition will be directed to community-based initiatives through which they can access an e-bike. Data will be collected at baseline (T0), immediately post intervention (T1) and at 3-month follow-up (T2). In addition, in the intervention group, data will be collected during the intervention and follow-up periods. Quantitative and qualitative methods will be used. The primary objectives are to determine effective recruitment strategies, establish recruitment and consent rates, adherence and retention in the study, and determine the feasibility and acceptability of the study procedures and intervention. The potential impact of the intervention on clinical, physiological and behavioural outcomes will be assessed to examine intervention promise. Data analyses will be descriptive.DISCUSSION: The findings from these trials will provide information on trial feasibility and highlight the potential of e-cycling as a strategy to positively impact the health and behaviour of individuals with prostate cancer and breast cancer. If appropriate, this information can be used to design and deliver a fully powered definitive trial.TRIAL REGISTRATION: CRANK-B: [ISRCTN39112034]. CRANK-P [ISRCTN42852156]. Registered [08/04/2022] https://www.isrctn.com .</p

Assessing Communication Practice during Clinical Trial Recruitment and Consent: The Clinical Trial Communication Inventory (CTCI)

The development and evaluation of training programs with the potential to improve informed consent and accrual to clinical trials depend heavily on the ability to measure outcomes of these trainings. In this chapter, we present the development of an instrument, the clinical trial communication inventory (CTCI). Data were collected from 87 clinical research professionals at three academic medical centers, which were analyzed using factor analytic methods and reliability testing procedures. This testing resulted in eight subscales representing verbal, nonverbal, and privacy protection behaviors. While the final CTCI instrument would benefit from further validity testing, it represents a resource that can be used to evaluate future trainings of research professionals