THE BIG PICTURE - SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS IN RANGELAND ASSESSMENT AND CROP INSURANCE

Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Influential Article Review - Using Organizational Design in Improving Structure and Coordination

This paper examines organizational design. We present insights from a highly influential paper. Here are the highlights from this paper: Organization design is a major factor determining an organization’s performance and how the people work together in these organizations. In the paper, we argue that designing organizations should be scientific-based and forward-looking. This raises challenges in designing organizations in contexts and situations that are new and have not been seen before. Experimentation of what is and what might be is the basis for exploring and examining what makes a good science for organizational design. Experimentation permits us to examine what might be for organization designs, which are not well understood or may not exist yet. Collaborative communities, new ventures, agile organizations, and temporary organizations are examples; experimentation permits us explore and examine what is and what might be and to examine the organizational design problem and perform experiments to understand the relationship between structure and coordination mechanisms of information, communications, decisions, trust, and incentives—the basis for the multi-contingency theory of organizational design. An organizational design must specify the fit between the structure of division of tasks in the organization with its coordination, or how to make these tasks work in concert. These tasks can be interdependent and uncertain. To design good organizations, we need empirical evidence about what is and exploration about what might be; we need a good theoretical basis for being able to generalize our knowledge. To illustrate our point, we examine two experiments on the classic M-form hypothesis—a computer simulation that examines coordination, organization structure, and interdependency and a laboratory experiment that examines the effect of incentives on opportunism and performance. Together, we find that the M-form is a robust organizational design, but with contingent conditions. Finally, we discuss how observation and experimentation together is the foundation for the development of scientific-based theory of organizational design. For our overseas readers, we then present the insights from this paper in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German

pH driven colloidal transformation of MS2 virus particles for water purification

Viral infection due to contaminated drinking water is the main cause of infantile death by diarrheal disease [1]. Viruses are difficult to remove by common gravity driven filters due to their nanometer scale size. With the global goal of improving virus removal in drinking water treatments, the colloidal structure of a virus model, MS2 bacteriophage, has been investigated; the effects of pH and Suwannee River natural organic matter in water have been studied [2]. Dynamic light scattering, small angle X-ray scattering and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the colloidal structure of MS2 in water. The results show that the bacteriophage MS2 is a spherical particle with a core-shell type structure and a total diameter of 27nm. The RNA core has a radius of about 8nm and the protein shell forming the virus capsid is about 6nm thick. The water pH was discovered to have a major influence on the colloidal structure of the virus: at pH above 5, interparticle repulsions stabilize the virus solution. A decrease in pH to 3 led to diminishing of the repulsion forces and micrometer sized virus aggregates. This aggregation process was reversible upon circulating the water pH. In addition, the presence of Suwannee River natural organic matter that simulates the organic components in surface water was found to sterically stabilize the virus particles, reducing aggregates size and promoting disaggregation with pH increase. These findings will allow a better understanding of virus interactions and can guide the design of advanced water filtration processes for virus removal. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Recruiting pregnant smokers for a placebo-randomised controlled trial of nicotine replacement therapy

BACKGROUND: Smoking in pregnancy is a public health problem and effective methods for reducing this are required. Although nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is effective for smoking cessation in non-pregnant people, there is no direct evidence concerning its effectiveness in pregnancy. Despite this, clinical guidelines recommend the cautious use of NRT during pregnancy. Randomised controlled trials are needed to determine the safety and efficacy of NRT when used by pregnant women for smoking cessation, but the feasibility of recruiting women to such trials is unknown. Consequently, in this study we aimed to determine i) the feasibility of recruiting women to a RCT of NRT in pregnancy as they attend hospital antenatal ultrasound examinations, ii) the proportion of such women who are eligible for and interested in trial enrolment and iii) research staff perceptions of how one method of trial recruitment could be improved. METHODS: During a one month period, all women attending for antenatal ultrasound examination in an English teaching hospital were asked to complete a questionnaire which determined their eligibility to enrol in a proposed placebo controlled randomised trial investigating the effectiveness of NRT in pregnancy. Women who were eligible to participate were asked whether they would do so and those who accepted enrolment were offered an appointment with a smoking cessation advisor. RESULTS: Over 99% (851/858) of women agreed to complete a questionnaire about smoking habits whilst waiting for ultrasound examinations. 10.3% (88/851) of women attending for antenatal ultrasound fitted eligibility criteria for a proposed RCT of NRT in pregnancy, but only 3.6% [(31/851), 95% CI, 2.4 to 4.9%] indicated on the questionnaire that they would like to take part in a study involving randomisation to placebo or active patches. Researchers offered trial enrolment to 26 of these 31 women and 96% (25) accepted. Staff recruiting women believed that trial recruitment would be maximised if women attending the ultrasound department knew about trial recruitment before attending and greater staff resources were made available for this. It was also perceived that women generally under-reported the amount they smoked on questionnaires completed whilst waiting in ultrasound department areas. CONCLUSIONS: It is feasible to recruit women for a trial of NRT in pregnancy as they wait for antenatal ultrasound examinations. Using similar recruitment methods, researchers can expect to recruit between 24 and 49 women per 1000 approached

National Assessment Program: ICT Literacy 2022: Public report

This public report documents the findings of the sixth National Assessment Program ICT Literacy (NAP–ICT Literacy) assessment cycle. In reporting national key performance measures (KPMs) of Australian students’ ICT literacy, the NAP–ICT Literacy assessment provides a way to monitor progress towards the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Goals for Young Australians. Goal 2 of the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration is that “all young Australians become confident and creative individuals, successful lifelong learners, and active and informed members of the community” (Education Council 2019, p. 6). The elaboration of this goal highlights the importance of young Australians’ digital and ICT literacy in a rapidly evolving technological landscape and establishes the context and rationale for reporting on student achievement and progress in this area. For NAP–ICT Literacy 2022, ICT literacy is defined as “the ability to use ICT appropriately and safely to access, manage and evaluate information; develop new understandings; apply computational, design and systems thinking to create solutions; communicate and collaborate with others; and engage productively with emerging and future technologies” (ACARA 2020, p. 13). The NAP–ICT Literacy assessment instrument requires students to apply their ICT knowledge within real-world contexts that represent the 4 strands and integrated aspects outlined in the NAP–ICT Literacy Assessment Framework. These are: understanding ICT and digital systems, investigating and planning solutions with ICT, implementing and evaluating digital solutions, and applying safe and ethical protocols and practices when using ICT

Giving a Presentation

This video, designed to introduce students to fundamental information literacy concepts, was created by Kimbel Library in 2011.https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/kimbel-library-instructional-videos/1005/thumbnail.jp

How to Locate Scholarly Articles

This video, designed to introduce students to fundamental information literacy concepts, was created by Kimbel Library in 2011.https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/kimbel-library-instructional-videos/1007/thumbnail.jp

What is a Scholarly Article?

This video, designed to introduce students to fundamental information literacy concepts, was created by Kimbel Library in 2011.https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/kimbel-library-instructional-videos/1008/thumbnail.jp

The Information Cycle

This video was created by Kimbel Library in cooperation with the CCU First Year Experience Program, and was designed to introduce first-year students to fundamental information literacy concepts. Librarians Joshua Vossler and John Watts received the 2012 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Instruction Section (IS) Innovation Award for their work on the Kimbel Library First Year Experience Instructional Videos.https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/kimbel-library-instructional-videos/1000/thumbnail.jp