25,943 research outputs found

    Scholarly collaboration across time zones

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    The barriers to global collaboration of yesteryear were, for example, country boundaries and time zones. Today however, in a world where communication is thriving on new technologies, these barriers have been overcome, not only by the technology itself, but also by the collaborators in a desire (and need) to extend knowledge, seize opportunities and build partnerships. This chapter reports on one such collaboration: a case study where the focus is the writing of a scholarly article between authors from Australia, England and South Africa. The challenges of different time zones, academic calendars, and managing the collaboration are outlined in this chapter. Findings from the case study suggests that the key elements of success are related to the individuals and project management techniques, and not the technology per se. The constructivist learning theory as well as the e-Moderation model are supported by this work and thus extend their application to the academic writing process

    Information technology team projects in higher education: an international viewpoint

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    It is common to find final or near final year undergraduate Information Technology students undertaking a substantial development project; a project where the students have the opportunity to be fully involved in the analysis, design, and development of an information technology service or product. This involvement has been catalyzed and prepared for during their previous studies where the students have been told and shown how to develop similar systems. It is the belief that only through this ‘real’ project do they get the chance to experience something similar to what is expected of them when they embark on their chosen profession; that is, as an information technology professional. The high value of ‘near real life’ educational experience is recognized by many universities across the globe. The aim of this paper is to present examples from three countries - Australia, United Kingdom and South Africa, of the delivery of these team, capstone or industrial experience projects; their curricula and management processes. Academics from institutions in each of the countries share experiences, challenges and pitfalls encountered during the delivery of these information technology projects within their institutions. An overview of each institution’s strategies is provided and highlights specific issues such as the selection of projects, allocation of teams to projects, legal requirements, assessment methods, challenges and benefits. The pedagogies presented here are not exhaustive; however, the three institutions do have in common the implementation of a combination of constructivism with a community of practice approach in delivering the project unit. The three universities recognize the need for industrial experience and learning of applied skills, and therefore make these projects a compulsory part of the curriculum. The projects tend to be real life business problems which are solved over a period of two semesters, and in the case of Cape Town it could be two consecutive years of two semesters each. These projects tend to involve practical development (for example databases and web sites). The process of project-to-team allocation is generally similar in all cases. Despite their differences, team work related problems are quite similar in all three cases presented, and seem to appear as a result of team work complexity, and the number of stakeholders involved. The intention of this paper is not to propose solutions to these problems (as these would be context dependent), but to draw the attention to the main problem categories for similar schemes, these are; • project selection, • management of students, • management of academic staff, • student team motivation, • equality and diversity, • passengers, and • assessment. Furthermore, it is not the intention of the authors to portray one approach as better than another, however, the approaches are representative of how team projects are being delivered across the globe, and in particular, in the contributing institutions. It is hoped that the assimilation and dissemination of information regarding the various approaches presented will nurture further discussion, and open communication across the globe with the view to enhancing the teaching and learning experience of such projects

    Language and Occupational Status: Linguistic Elitism in the Irish Labour Market

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    This paper, using data from the 2006 Irish Census, provides evidence of the structural advantage of Irish speaking, relative to non-speaking workers in Ireland’s labour market with advantage and disadvantage being defined in terms of occupational outcomes. To the best of our knowledge there has been no systematic investigation of any advantage enjoyed by Irish speakers in Ireland and allegations of the comfortable middle class ambience of the Gaelscoileanna have remained at the level of anecdote. Since linguistic elitism is a feature of many societies and since Irish enjoys the constitutional status of the national and first official language of Ireland, such an investigation was, arguably, overdue. This is then compared to the structural advantage of Irish speaking workers in Northern Ireland and of Welsh speaking workers in Wales. Our conclusion is that after controlling for as many relevant factors as the data permitted, a considerable part of the difference between Irish speakers and non-speakers in Ireland, in their proportionate presence in the upper reaches of occupational class, was due to structural advantage. The major contribution of this paper is to lift the debate about the economic position of Irish speakers in Ireland above the level of hearsay: dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi.

    Notes on the First Rearing and Introduction of Esox masquinongy in Iowa Waters

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    The Iowa State Conservation Commission purchased 1,535 muskellunge (3/4 to 1-inch fry) in 1960, from Kenu, a Land-O-Lakes, Wisconsin commercial fish hatchery. Siewers Spring State Fish Hatchery and rearing pond facilities were used for the experimental rearing project. Eighty-five fish survived the June 7 to September 30 rearing period. Forty fish were stocked in each of the following Iowa lakes: West Okoboji, Dickinson County and Clear Lake, Cerro Gordo County. Two specimens have subsequently been recovered and identified from each lake

    Setting priorities to inform assessment of care homes’ readiness to participate in healthcare innovation: a systematic mapping review and consensus process

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    Š 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedOrganisational context is known to impact on the successful implementation of healthcare initiatives in care homes. We undertook a systematic mapping review to examine whether researchers have considered organisational context when planning, conducting, and reporting the implementation of healthcare innovations in care homes. Review data were mapped against the Alberta Context Tool, which was designed to assess organizational context in care homes. The review included 56 papers. No studies involved a systematic assessment of organisational context prior to implementation, but many provided post hoc explanations of how organisational context affected the success or otherwise of the innovation. Factors identified to explain a lack of success included poor senior staff engagement, non-alignment with care home culture, limited staff capacity to engage, and low levels of participation from health professionals such as general practitioners (GPs). Thirty-five stakeholders participated in workshops to discuss findings and develop questions for assessing care home readiness to participate in innovations. Ten questions were developed to initiate conversations between innovators and care home staff to support research and implementation. This framework can help researchers initiate discussions about health-related innovation. This will begin to address the gap between implementation theory and practice.Peer reviewe

    Noninvasive Monitoring of Elevated Intramuscular Pressure in a Model Compartment Syndrome via Quantitative Fascial Motion

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    Compartment syndromes, conditions of elevated intramuscular pressure (IMP) resulting from trauma or chronic overuse, frequently require invasive IMP monitoring for accurate diagnosis. Our objective was to test a noninvasive ultrasound technique For estimating IMP based on fascial displacement waveforms from arterial blood pressure pulses. IMP was increased in the legs of 23 healthy adult subjects LIP to 80 mmHg Using two blood pressure cuffs covering the region from the knee to the ankle. Receiver operator characteristic curves and recursive partitioning were used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of diagnosing elevated IMP using fascial displacement, For one curve. in which several ultrasonic measurement parameters were used along with subject body mass index and blood pressure, the sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing normal IMP (below 30 mmHg) from elevated IMP (30 mm Hg and up) was 0.61 and 0.94, respectively. Recursive partitioning, in which IMP was divided into three ranges (normal \u3c30 \u3emmHg, midrange of 30-40 mmHg, and elevated \u3e= 50 mmHg), resulted in improved diagnostic sensitivity (0.77) with almost no change in specificity (0.93). (C) 2008 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 27:489-494 200

    Simultaneous release of a hydroxy-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitor and a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa antagonist from a thermoresponsive NiPAAm/NtBAAm copolymer system.

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    While deployment of intracoronary stents has been shown to reduce restenosis, stenting can also damage the endothelial was eluted during this period. Xemilofiban release was measured in terms of its ability to inhibit platelet adhesion, using a microfluidic system. To investigate the influence of location and hydrophobicity on elution of bioactivity, three separate systems were employed. While elution of anti-adhesive activity from the system containing xemilofiban-loaded matrices was more dramatic in the short term, a more sustained level of inhibition was achieved when xemilofiban had been incorporated into microgels. All samples investigated for anti-adhesive activity also decreased human coronary artery smooth muscle cell proliferation. Therefore xemilofiban has potential as an agent for preventing in-stent thrombosis. Our study has demonstrated the feasibility of using this novel matrix/microgel system to regulate simultaneous release of both agents in bioactive concentratio

    Alumnae Bulletin - Number 3

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    Greetings to Alumnae Members and Graduates Alumnae Officers Membership Financial Statement as of 3-1-37 Sick Committee Are You? Alumnae Days Were You at the Bazaar? History of the Nurses\u27 Relief Fund Forget-Me-Not In Memoriam Here and There Marriages Reported During 1936-1937 A Resume Student Nurse Activity Jefferson Nurses Choral Club The Bulletin - Publicity Committee Do You Know? Bazaar Accoun
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