Do we really make a difference? A case study on the value of taught environmental sustainability postgraduate programmes within geography

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to discover the impacts of taught environmental sustainability-focused geography postgraduate programmes on student attitudes, behaviours and practices in relation to environmental awareness within two research-intensive universities in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: A case study involved online surveys to measure environmental attitudes, behaviours and practices at the start and end of four taught geography postgraduate programmes. Findings: There was widespread attitudinal change and an increasing prioritisation of environmental issues reported among participants after they had completed their programme. However, behavioural change was limited, and there was little evidence of greater awareness being translated into changed practices. The learning benefits included a greater focus on interdisciplinarity, holistic thinking and critical self-reflection. Practical implications: The findings demonstrate that postgraduate taught (PGT) programmes in sustainability improve student awareness and concern about environmental issues but do not necessarily lead to widespread behavioural change. This raises questions for programme convenors about how education for sustainability can be truly transformational and avoid leading students to develop eco-anxieties over the scale of change required. Originality/value: There is a lack of research engaging with students on PGT programmes, especially in understanding their impacts on environmental attitudes, behaviours and practices. The research provides an evidence base for understanding the effects of PGT programmes in challenging student values, attitudes and practices and by implication knowledge transfer post-graduation, with the potential to help protect the environment and identify ways of living better with the ever-changing planet.</p

New Audiences for the Arts: The New Audiences Programme Report

This 269 page report gives a detailed overview of a £20 million funding programme ‘New Audiences’, designed to foster new practice in audience development by arts organisations in England. It was the culmination of a five-year scheme which supported 1200 audience development initiatives across the country. Glinkowski was one of a team of seven researchers who compiled the report: ACE Research Officers, Clare Fenn, Adrienne Skelton and Alan Joy compiled the statistical information for the report appendices; the main body of the report, from Executive Summary to Conclusions, was written by a team of three consultant researchers, Glinkowski, Pam Pfrommer and Sue Stewart, working under the supervision of the ACE Head of New Audiences, Gill Johnson. The report was a summary, compilation and interpretation of key themes emerging from the material contained within around 1150 evaluations of projects funded by the £20 million ‘New Audiences’ programme during the 5-year period from 1998-2003. The interpretative work and writing up was undertaken collaboratively by the consultant researchers and Glinkowski’s particular input was to the Executive Summary; Introduction; General Audiences; Disability; Social Inclusion; Rural; Older People; General Findings; and Conclusion sections of the report. He was also the principal author (although in keeping with ACE practice on advocacy material, not formally credited) of the ‘New Audiences Advocacy Document’ (ISBN 0728710331), produced in conjunction with the main report with introduction by Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State, Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Peter Hewitt, Chief Executive of Arts Council England. The full report is published online, with a companion volume summarising all projects undertaken within the ‘New Audiences’ programme. Additionally, Glinkowski was commissioned to contribute case studies to the ‘New Audiences’ website (http://www.newaudiences.org.uk/index.php), including 'Open Studios/Artists Presentation Research' (http://www.newaudiences.org.uk/project.php?id=680)

New dates on dingo bones from Madura Cave provide oldest firm evidence for arrival of the species in Australia

The dingo is the only placental land mammal aside from murids and bats to have made the water crossings to reach Australia prior to European arrival. It is thought that they arrived as a commensal animal with people, some time in the mid Holocene. However, the timing of their arrival is still a subject of major debate with published age estimates varying widely. This is largely because the age estimates for dingo arrival are based on archaeological deposit dates and genetic divergence estimates, rather than on the dingo bones themselves. Currently, estimates vary from between 5000-4000 years ago, for finds from archaeological contexts, and as much as 18,000 based on DNA age estimates. The timing of dingo arrival is important as post arrival they transformed Indigenous societies across mainland Australia and have been implicated in the extinction of a number of animals including the Tasmanian tiger. Here we present the results of direct dating of dingo bones from their oldest known archaeological context, Madura Cave on the Nullarbor Plain. These dates demonstrate that dingoes were in southern Australia by between 3348 and 3081 years ago. We suggest that following their introduction the dingo may have spread extremely rapidly throughout mainland Australia.Some of this work was undertaken as part of Linkage Grant LP100200415 funded by the ARC with contributions from the Kimberley Foundation Australia and the Department of Sustainability, Water, Populations and Communities

Parallel analysis of ribonucleotide-dependent deletions produced by yeast Top1 in vitro and in vivo

Ribonucleotides are the most abundant non-canonical component of yeast genomic DNA and their persistence is associated with a distinctive mutation signature characterized by deletion of a single repeat unit from a short tandem repeat. These deletion events are dependent on DNA topoisomerase I (Top1) and are initiated by Top1 incision at the relevant ribonucleotide 3′-phosphodiester. A requirement for the re-ligation activity of Top1 led us to propose a sequential cleavage model for Top1-dependent mutagenesis at ribonucleotides. Here, we test key features of this model via parallel in vitro and in vivo analyses. We find that the distance between two Top1 cleavage sites determines the deletion size and that this distance is inversely related to the deletion frequency. Following the creation of a gap by two Top1 cleavage events, the tandem repeat provides complementarity that promotes realignment to a nick and subsequent Top1-mediated ligation. Complementarity downstream of the gap promotes deletion formation more effectively than does complementarity upstream of the gap, consistent with constraints to realignment of the strand to which Top1 is covalently bound. Our data fortify sequential Top1 cleavage as the mechanism for ribonucleotide-dependent deletions and provide new insight into the component steps of this process

The Status of Women at the University of Dayton: 2020-2021 Report Card

In this third iteration, the Status of Women at the University of Dayton: 2020-2021 Report Card\u27\u27 continues the effort of the inaugural report card in measuring the representation of women across the university’s workforce and in leadership roles, with a focus on highlighting changes from year to year. Our goal in generating this report card is to annually evaluate progress toward increasing institutional diversity and promoting equity for women-identified staff and faculty. In doing so, the report identifies areas where progress is being made and areas where more work is needed. The report card is also a space to share progress on gender equity initiatives led by the Women\u27s Center and other units across campus. Data presented in this report card was provided by the university’s Institutional Research Office and represents data collected in Fall 2020; all gender and racial categories are self-reported. As with the previous iteration of the report card, we disaggregated the data to more clearly show the differences between and among women (and men) by examining both gender and race. This year\u27s report card has some changes from the previous academic year, including: revised definitions of \u27Senior Academic Leadership\u27 and \u27Senior Administrators\u27; and revised categories among exempt and non-exempt staff due, in part, to changes at the federal level. We believe our reporting categories continue to add to our understanding of the gendered division of labor within the institution and its connection to pay, job security, and advancement

The clinical effectiveness of different parenting programmes for children with conduct problems : a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Background Conduct problems are common, disabling and costly. The prognosis for children with conduct problems is poor, with outcomes in adulthood including criminal behaviour, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, child abuse and a range of psychiatric disorders. There has been a rapid expansion of group based parent-training programmes for the treatment of children with conduct problems in a number of countries over the past 10 years. Existing reviews of parent training have methodological limitations such as inclusion of non-randomised studies, the absence of investigation for heterogeneity prior to meta-analysis or failure to report confidence intervals. The objective of the current study was to systematically review randomised controlled trials of parenting programmes for the treatment of children with conduct problems. Methods Standard systematic review methods were followed including duplicate inclusion decisions, data extraction and quality assessment. Twenty electronic databases from the fields of medicine, psychology, social science and education were comprehensively searched for RCTs and systematic reviews to February 2006. Inclusion criteria were: randomised controlled trial; of structured, repeatable parenting programmes; for parents/carers of children up to the age of 18 with a conduct problem; and at least one measure of child behaviour. Meta-analysis and qualitative synthesis were used to summarise included studies. Results 57 RCTs were included. Studies were small with an average group size of 21. Meta-analyses using both parent (SMD -0.67; 95% CI: -0.91, -0.42) and independent (SMD -0.44; 95% CI: -0.66, -0.23) reports of outcome showed significant differences favouring the intervention group. There was insufficient evidence to determine the relative effectiveness of different approaches to delivering parenting programmes. Conclusion Parenting programmes are an effective treatment for children with conduct problems. The relative effectiveness of different parenting programmes requires further research

Peran Orangtua terhadap Pendidikan Agama Anak di Desa Sawah Kecamatan Kampar Utara Kabupaten Kampar

The research purpose to determine the role of parents and religious behavior of children with analyze correlation between the role of parents and religious behavior of children. Role is pattern of behavior or action should be taken by parents in educating children religion. This research conducted at the northern Kampar district Sawah subdistrict Kampar. Population of this research is all heads of families residing in the village Sawah field north of Kampar districts and have children aged adolescent age range 13-15 years who attend school or junior high school equivalent listed in the records of population. There are some elements in this research, the first provides religious education which includes about doing prayers, fasting in Ramadan, reciting Al-Quran, gave infak and respect for older people. The second control the implementation of the child worship, control activities carried out by taking action if children do not practice their religion. Third, encourage children to worship that parents set an example and encourage children worship together. Fourth, be patient that parents are expected to be patient in educating religious behavior of children. This research technique is descriptive quantitative, to describe the results of research in the field with numbers, then described by words or narration. Based on the research in the field found that role of parents in Sawah village is considered to be good for 91,48%, the education of children in the Sawah village also rated as good by 95%, there is a strong correlation between the role of parents to religious education of children with result is 0,9 and a significant correlation of 0,01, means there is significant correlation between the role of parents to religious education of children

Measuring Quality, Cost, and Value of IT Services

Longer version published at 2001 55th Annual Quality Congress, American Society for Quality, Charlotte, NC.Support for all users of computer hardware, software, and networks is crucial for full realization of the value that these digital intelligence amplifiers can offer a scholarly community. Bloated applications, opaque user manuals, infelicitous interactions among peripherals and the computers and networks to which they are attached, and short mean time-to-failure for some pieces of hardware provide challenges for even the most experienced users. Thus even in the beginning of the 21st Century, when it is asserted the technology has “matured,” the value that can be derived from use of IT services is directly proportional to the level of effective IT support that can be provided for the customers of these services. The focus of this narrative is how one maintains and continually improves the quality of that support

Intravenous meloxicam for the treatment of moderate to severe acute pain: a pooled analysis of safety and opioid-reducing effects.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the safety and tolerability of intravenous meloxicam compared with placebo across all phase II/III clinical trials. METHODS: Safety data and opioid use from subjects with moderate to severe postoperative pain who received ≥1 dose of intravenous meloxicam (5-60 mg) or placebo in 1 of 7 studies (4 phase II; 3 phase III) were pooled. Data from intravenous meloxicam 5 mg, 7.5 mg and 15 mg groups were combined (low-dose subset). RESULTS: A total of 1426 adults (86.6% white; mean age: 45.8 years) received ≥1 dose of meloxicam IV; 517 (77.6% white; mean age: 46.7 years) received placebo. The incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) in intravenous meloxicam and placebo-treated subjects was 47% and 57%, respectively. The most commonly reported TEAEs across treatment groups (intravenous meloxicam 5-15 mg, 30 mg, 60 mg and placebo, respectively) were nausea (4.3%, 20.8%, 5.8% and 25.3%), headache (1.5%, 5.6%, 1.6% and 10.4%), vomiting (2.8%, 4.6%, 1.6% and 7.4%) and dizziness (0%, 3.5%, 1.1% and 4.8%). TEAE incidence was generally similar in subjects aged \u3e65 years with impaired renal function and the general population. Similar rates of cardiovascular events were reported between treatment groups. One death was reported (placebo group; unrelated to study drug). There were 35 serious adverse events (SAEs); intravenous meloxicam 15 mg (n=5), intravenous meloxicam 30 mg (n=15) and placebo (n=15). The SAEs in meloxicam-treated subjects were determined to be unrelated to study medication. Six subjects withdrew due to TEAEs, including three treated with intravenous meloxicam (rash, localized edema and postprocedural pulmonary embolism). In trials where opioid use was monitored, meloxicam reduced postoperative rescue opioid use. CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous meloxicam was generally well tolerated in subjects with moderate to severe postoperative pain. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERS: NCT01436032, NCT00945763, NCT01084161, NCT02540265, NCT02678286, NCT02675907 and NCT02720692

Pre-bomb marine reservoir variability in the Kimberley region, Western Australia

New ΔR values are presented for 10 known-age shells from the Kimberley region of northwest Australia. Previous estimates of ΔR for the Kimberley region are based on only 6 individual shell specimens with dates of live collection known only to within 50 yr (Bowman 1985a). Here, we describe the results of our recent attempts to constrain ΔR variability for this region by dating a suite of known-age pre-AD 1950 shell samples from the Australian Museum and Museum Victoria. A regional ΔR of 58 ± 17 14C yr for open waters between Broome and Cape Leveque is recommended based on 7 of these specimens. The criteria used to select shells for dating and inclusion in the regional mean are discussed.Copyright Information: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0033-8222