‘DIY’ Research Data Management Training Kit for Librarians

Abstract – This paper discusses extended professional development training in research data management for librarians piloted at the University of Edinburgh. This is framed by the evolving research data management Roadmap at the University, national and international initiatives in managing research data by bodies such as Jisc and LIBER, and the subsequent need to ‘up skill ’ information professionals in the emerging area of academic research data management. This knowledge-transfer exercise includes independent study based on the research data MANTRA course and reflective writing, face to face sessions with different speakers giving short presentations followed by discussion, and group exercises. The resultant training ‘kit ’ was released in Spring 2013 with an open licence for other institutions, particularly those without local research data management expertise, to utilise for ‘DIY ’ RDM training

Strengthening the Campus Leadership Team through Effective Principal and Counselor Relationships: Implications for Training

Campuses with successful leadership teams have a better opportunity to meet the ever-increasing and complex needs of the students they serve (Crowther, Kaagan, Ferguson, & Hann, 2002). These successful campuses are strengthened when they include strong principals and counseling teams with shared mutual trust and understanding that permeates the school climate (DeVoss & Andrews, 2006). A review of the literature revealed a paucity of studies examining the nature of successful principal-counselor relations and the impact of this relationship on student success, effective campus leadership teams, and an effective school climate that promotes learning. Meaningful dialogue and discussion of this critical professional relationship also were found lacking in the major counseling and educational leadership professional journals

Guano morphology has the potential to inform conservation strategies in British bats

Bats are primary consumers of nocturnal insects, disperse nutrients across landscapes, and are excellent bioindicators of an ecosystem’s health, however four of the seventeen Great British species are listed as declining. In this study we aim to investigate the link between bat guano morphology and diet, specifically looking at the ability to predict 1) species, 2) dietary guild, and 3) bat size, using guano morphology alone. Guano from 16 bat species sampled from across Great Britain were analysed to determine various morphological metrics. These data were coupled with diet data obtained by an extensive literature review. It was found that guano morphology overlapped too much to make predictions on the species of bat which deposited the guano, however, in some cases, it could be used to indicate the dietary guild to which the bat belonged. In general, guano morphology seems more correlated to diet than species. This enables the identification of the most important prey taxa within a local environment; a crucial step for informing conservation strategies

Thermodynamics of polymer mixtures

Research into the thermodynamic behaviour of copolymer blends has been stimulated by the increasing number of applications in which these materials can be used. In this work, it was intended to characterise the thermodynamics of mixtures of two industrial copolymers and to review the experimental techniques and theoretical analyses currently used in this field. The copolymers used were poly(ethylene - co-vinyl acetate), with Mn = 3290, and poly(tetradecyl fumarate - co - vinyl acetate), with Mn = 10400. The thermodynamics of these mixtures was studied using Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Inverse Phase Gas Chromatography. Solvent Vapour Sorption, Heats of Mixing Calorimetry and Phase Contrast Optical Microscopy. The results of these experiments were interpreted using Flory-Huggins Lattice fluid theory and Flory-Prigogine equation of state theory. Additionally, the results of the calorimetry and chromatography experiments were used to predict the theoretical phase boundary with the intention of comparing the phase boundaries determined experimentally with those predicted theoretically. Unfortunately this comparison could not be made because none of the techniques listed above located a miscibility limit between 303 and 393K. Although some of the experimental results are in conflict, it has been concluded that these materials are immiscible in all proportions in this temperature range. The theoretically simulated spinodal condition occurs between 5 and 50K and is of little practical use in the absence of its experimental equivalent and its extreme temperature. The free energy change which occurs on mixing these copolymers is dominated by the entropic contribution and the equation of state was concluded to be inadequate to interpret this type of behaviour. It is believed that this is the first work which uses experimental data and a partition function to calculate directly a phase boundary without the inclusion of a fixing parameter

Adaptive photonic meta-surfaces exploiting interfacial phase change in elemental gallium

Surface-driven metallization in a nanoscale layer of elemental gallium forming the backplane of a photonic metamaterial absorber provides a mechanism for reversible all-optical and thermo-optical tuning of resonant response

Inhabiting New France: Bodies, Environment and the Sacred, c.1632-c.1700

The historiography of colonial and ‘religious’ encounters in New France has tended to focus on encounters between human beings, between ‘colonisers’ and ‘colonised’ or ‘natives’ and ‘newcomers’. This thesis will focus on encounters between people and environment. Drawing on recent anthropology, notably the work of Tim Ingold, it will argue that whilst bodies shaped environment, environment also could shape bodies – and their associated religious practices. Through the examination of a broad variety of source materials – in particular, the Jesuit Relations – this thesis will explore the myriad ways in which the sacred was created and experienced between c.1632 and c.1700. Beginning with the ocean crossing to New France – an area largely unexplored in the historiographical literature – it will argue that right from the outset of a missionary’s journey, his or her practices were shaped by encounters with both humans and non-humans, by weather or the stormy Ocean Sea. Reciprocally, it will argue, missionary bodies and practices could shape these environments. Moving next to the mission terrain, it will analyse a variety spaces – both environmental and imaginary – tracing the slow build up of belief through habitual practices. Finally, it will chart the movement of missionaries and missionary correspondence from New France back to France. It was not only missionaries, it will argue, who could experience and shape the colony, but their correspondents and readers in France

Something to Believe In

When interpreted as a whole, Emily Dickinson\u27s manuscript booklets of writing, or fascicles, offer insight into individual poems. As many scholars have speculated, Dickinson expresses religious ideas with experimental instability. The collection of poems on fascicle five, sheet three, demonstrate an anticipation of life exalted after death. For example, As Watchers hang upon the East - changes from a hopeful poem about the afterlife, to a questioning one that encourages the reader to remain critical of religion. In this poem, there is mention of a beggar who, while pondering death, looks forward to the prospect of a heavenly \u27feast\u27 promised to those who follow God. The narrator of this poem insinuates that heaven may not exist in the way that society claims it does; they leave the poem on a very open ended note with the line, [h]eaven to us, if true which reinforces the idea – so common in Emily Dickinson\u27s religious poetry – that she writes with unsurety concerning her beliefs. Dickinson\u27s arrangement of these poems on the sheet explains that belief is a personal journey based on life experience. This is not to say that she did not believe in said afterlife, it merely implies that naivety and blind faith leads to disappointment and one should watch for personal confirmations of religious ideas. In a way, Dickinson acts as a spiritual advisor to readers. Neither confirming nor denying how one should live their life, but rather emphasizing individual spirituality.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/fsrs2020/1044/thumbnail.jp