Winter home range sizes of female woodland caribou in the boreal forest of Northwestern Ontario

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou Gmelin) are listed as “threatened” under the Canadian Species at Risk Act. Fourteen ranges occur within the continuous distribution of caribou in Ontario and have been studied using Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking technology. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resource and Forestry (OMNRF) employs the use of Argos GPS collars to track caribou movements throughout the province. The purpose of this study was to examine the winter home range sizes of caribou in both a managed and unmanaged forest in northwestern Ontario and to relate winter home range sizes the level of disturbance in the area. Home range sizes were estimated from GPS collaring data using a 95% minimum convex polygon computed using the adehabitatHR package in R statistical programming. Home range sizes were evaluated using simple linear regressions with disturbance as the dependant variable. Home range sizes were most strongly negatively correlated with natural and anthropogenic disturbance in the entire study area (R2 = 0.239). In the unmanaged forest, the level of disturbance was low (20%) home range sizes were large (1580 km2 ± 1374 km2). Conversely, where disturbance was high (42%), especially at the species’ southern range limit, home ranges were low (408 km2 ± 311 km2). In the boreal forest, female caribou may restrict their ranges amid anthropogenic disturbances. Forest harvesting creates small habitat patches that may serve as ecological traps for caribou and increase the risk of predator detection. Therefore, smaller home ranges may serve as an indicator of habitat loss for caribou

'Ready to hit the ground running': alumni and employer accounts of a unique part-time distance learning pre-registration nurse education programme

Background This study explored the impact of The Open University’s (OU) pre-registration nursing programme on students’ employability, career progression and its contribution to developing the nursing workforce across the United Kingdom. Designed for healthcare support workers who are sponsored by their employers, the programme is the only part-time supported open/distance learning programme in the UK leading to registration as a nurse. The international literature reveals that relatively little is known about the impact of previous experience as a healthcare support worker on the experience of transition, employability skills and career progression. Objectives To identify alumni and employer views of the perceived impact of the programme on employability, career progression and workforce development. Design/Method A qualitative design using telephone interviews which were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim prior to content analysis to identify recurrent themes. Settings Three geographical areas across the UK. Participants Alumni (n=17) and employers (n=7). Inclusion criterion for alumni was a minimum of two years post-qualifying experience. Inclusion criteria for employers were those that had responsibility for sponsoring students on the programme and employing them as newly qualified nurses. Results Four overarching themes were identified: Transition, Expectations, Learning for and in practice, and Flexibility. Conclusions Alumni and employers were of the view that the programme equipped them well to meet the competencies and expectations of being a newly qualified nurse. It provided employers with a flexible route to growing their own workforce and alumni the opportunity to achieve their ambition of becoming a qualified nurse when other more conventional routes would not have been open to them. Some of them had already demonstrated career progression. Generalising results requires caution due to the small, self-selecting sample but findings suggest that a widening participation model of pre-registration nurse education for employed healthcare support workers more than adequately prepares them for the realities of professional practice

Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams

Data analysis workflows in many scientific domains have become increasingly complex and flexible. To assess the impact of this flexibility on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results, the same dataset was independently analyzed by 70 teams, testing nine ex-ante hypotheses. The flexibility of analytic approaches is exemplified by the fact that no two teams chose identical workflows to analyze the data. This flexibility resulted in sizeable variation in hypothesis test results, even for teams whose statistical maps were highly correlated at intermediate stages of their analysis pipeline. Variation in reported results was related to several aspects of analysis methodology. Importantly, meta-analytic approaches that aggregated information across teams yielded significant consensus in activated regions across teams. Furthermore, prediction markets of researchers in the field revealed an overestimation of the likelihood of significant findings, even by researchers with direct knowledge of the dataset. Our findings show that analytic flexibility can have substantial effects on scientific conclusions, and demonstrate factors related to variability in fMRI. The results emphasize the importance of validating and sharing complex analysis workflows, and demonstrate the need for multiple analyses of the same data. Potential approaches to mitigate issues related to analytical variability are discussed

Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams

Data analysis workflows in many scientific domains have become increasingly complex and flexible. To assess the impact of this flexibility on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results, the same dataset was independently analyzed by 70 teams, testing nine ex-ante hypotheses. The flexibility of analytic approaches is exemplified by the fact that no two teams chose identical workflows to analyze the data. This flexibility resulted in sizeable variation in hypothesis test results, even for teams whose statistical maps were highly correlated at intermediate stages of their analysis pipeline. Variation in reported results was related to several aspects of analysis methodology. Importantly, meta-analytic approaches that aggregated information across teams yielded significant consensus in activated regions across teams. Furthermore, prediction markets of researchers in the field revealed an overestimation of the likelihood of significant findings, even by researchers with direct knowledge of the dataset. Our findings show that analytic flexibility can have substantial effects on scientific conclusions, and demonstrate factors related to variability in fMRI. The results emphasize the importance of validating and sharing complex analysis workflows, and demonstrate the need for multiple analyses of the same data. Potential approaches to mitigate issues related to analytical variability are discussed

16-channel bar graph video display

Describes a circuit that permits display of 16 bar graphs with a 0.4% resolution on a TV video monitor (50 Hz). The circuit shows 2 counter sections, the horizontal counter and the vertical counter. (0 refs)

Stop AAPI Hate & Black Lives Matter: A General Understanding and Impact

Presentation slidesThis session will provide a general understanding of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate (StopAAPI Hate/#stopaapihate), what that means in our personal and/or professional lives, and its impact on libraries

The Ainos of Yezo, Japan.

Overdruk uit: Report of the National museum for 189