THE STATUS OF TUPAIA SPLENDIDULA GRAY (PRIMATES TUPAIIDAE)

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Rekindling Embers of the Past with Technologies of Today: Increasing LMS Adoption at an Ontario Secondary School

The motivation behind this organization improvement plan is to reap the benefits of online learning, enhance teaching and learning, and consequentially increase student achievement. This organizational improvement plan addresses a problem of practice in an Indigenous ministry inspected secondary school in Central, Canada. Indigenous people are achieving fewer and lower levels of educational attainment compared to non-Indigenious counterparts and Indigenious students in the community this OIP is situated are likewise at-risk of widening this gap (Statistics Canada, 2011; Deloitte, 2018). To narrow this gap, this school is centered on using technology to pay tribute to the past. Online learning offers organizations a variety of teaching and learning benefits. In pursuit of enhanced outcomes, more and more K-12 organizations are attempting to adopt a Learning Management System; however, instead of experiencing the promised potential of online learning, organizations are receiving frustrations and lackluster results. The leadership approach selected to drive forward change in this endeavour is the adaptive leadership approach complimented with characteristics of situational leadership. The change path model is selected as the framework for leading the process of organizational change. Additionally, the plan, do, study, act model serves as the model for change. Collectively the change path model in tandem with the plan, do, study, act model and former leadership approaches all work together to implement, evaluate, and communicate the change

Beyond Response Rates: The Effect of Prepaid Incentives on Measurement Error

As response rates continue to decline, survey researchers increasingly offer incentives as a way to motivate sample members to take part in their surveys. Extensive prior research demonstrates that prepaid incentives are an effective tool for doing so. If prepaid incentives influence behavior at the stage of deciding whether or not to participate, they also may alter the way that respondents behave while completing surveys. Nevertheless, most research has focused narrowly on the effect that incentives have on response rates. Survey researchers should have a better empirical basis for assessing the potential tradeoffs associated with the higher responses rates yielded by prepaid incentives. This dissertation describes the results of three studies aimed at expanding our understanding of the impact of prepaid incentives on measurement error. The first study explored the effect that a $5 prepaid cash incentive had on twelve indicators of respondent effort in a national telephone survey. The incentive led to significant reductions in item nonresponse and interview length. However, it had little effect on the other indicators, such as response order effects and responses to open-ended items. The second study evaluated the effect that a$5 prepaid cash incentive had on responses to sensitive questions in a mail survey of registered voters. The incentive resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of highly undesirable attitudes and behaviors to which respondents admitted and had no effect on responses to less sensitive items. While the incentive led to a general pattern of reduced nonresponse bias and increased measurement bias for the three voting items where administrative data was available for the full sample, these effects generally were not significant. The third study tested for measurement invariance in incentive and control group responses to four multi-item scales from three recent surveys that included prepaid incentive experiments. There was no evidence of differential item functioning; however, full metric invariance could not be established for one of the scales. Generally, these results suggest that prepaid incentives had minimal impact on measurement error. Thus, these findings should be reassuring for survey researchers considering the use of prepaid incentives to increase response rates

The Rhetoric of an Architectural Presentation to a Client

In a small observational study in two Canadian architectural firms, the authors tracked the interactions (person-to-person, person with non-human sources such as documents) that took place during specific parts of the design process. This pilot study helped us to secure a grant which is currently allowing us to investigate the relationship between designing (in schools of architecture and architectural practice) and semiotic activity (processes of representation and communication). In one firm the development of a preliminary elevation design for a proposed corporate laboratory facility was followed over three continuous days to the point at which it was ready to be presented at an internal team meeting. Some months later, a senior designer, in frequent interaction with other members of the firm, spent a day preparing a Powerpoint presentation in which the elevation would be presented and justified to a committee of the client organisation. We recorded the day's transactions–the main subject of our paper--with fieldnotes, audio recording and the collection of documents. In making the transition from being a concept that circulated amongst the designers to one for external presentation, the design remained unchanged. However–and this is the point of the paper–the invisible ‘semiotic envelope' within which it had its meaning and was readable in a certain way had to undergo radical and arduous reconstruction. The design process had been as much a matter of the collaborative building of an ‘envelope' of relevance criteria, intentions, values and associations as of the conceptual configuration of materials in space. It was in reference to this envelope that the design had a clear logic and meaning for the designers. But, unlike the drawings, sketches and models, the semiotic envelope could not be directly transmitted to the client participants, who would bring their own envelope of expectations and meanings to the meeting. Specific rhetorical strategies had to be devised, therefore, to ensure that the design would be ‘read' correctly. This involved, for instance, a sort of fictional retrospective reconstruction of the design process in terms of choices between alternatives most of which were never actually entertained, and the conjuring up of ‘bad', ‘rejected' solutions for the sake of presenting the design as a desirable solution. It also involved the post-hoc identification of passages from the client's brief which could be cited as if they had directly governed the design process: ‘Look, we're simply following your requirements here.' The construction of a new justificatory envelope was partly informed by knowledge of the values, assumptions and perspectives (Aristotle's pathos) that framed the client committee's perceptions, as revealed at a previous meeting. In the paper we will briefly summarise our findings about the ‘semiotic envelope' that evolved during the earlier design stage, and then deal more fully with the preparation of the presentation, particularly as it addressed issues of glazing and massing. We will draw on transcripts of our audio-recordings and on the slides and other artefacts produced during the day

The genetics of Alzheimer's disease: putting flesh on the bones

For two decades the search for genes involved in Alzheimer's disease brought little reward; it was not until the advent of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that genetic associations started to be revealed. Since 2009 increasingly large GWAS have revealed 20 loci, which in itself is a substantial increase in our understanding, but perhaps the more important feature is that these studies have highlighted novel pathways that are potentially involved in the disease process. This commentary assembles our latest knowledge while acknowledging that the casual functional variants, and undoubtedly, other genes are still yet to be discovered. This is the challenge that remains and the promise of next-generation sequencing is anticipated as there are a number of large initiatives which themselves should start to yield information before long

Experiential sponsorship activation at a sports mega-event: The case of Cisco at London 2012

Purpose: The application of event design principles in the creation and execution of effective experiential sponsorship activations (ESAs) by B2B brands is explored. Challenges posed by the sponsorship context to sponsors seeking to create ESAs are examined, with potential solutions proposed. Design/methodology/approach: A case study of Cisco’s ESA activities as part of its London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsorship activation is developed, drawing on interviews with key Cisco employees and secondary sources of data, both internal and external to Cisco. Findings:Blending the event design principles typically associated with B2B events with those more commonly found in corporate hospitality or B2C events, enables sponsors to address the cognitive needs of attendees as business representatives while also satisfying their needs as individuals seeking more sensorial experiences. Effective use of event design principles, creative marketing and promotion, and collaboration with other sponsors allows brands to overcome constraints placed on them by the unpredictable nature of sponsorship, sponsorship rights agreements and the increased clutter in the sponsorship environment. Research limitations/implications: Existing knowledge on sponsorship activation is extended, drawing on principles of event design to offer a sponsor-focused perspective on the creation and execution of effective ESAs for B2B brands. Existing thinking around B2B event design is challenged and augmented when considering its application to ESA design. Practical implications: Inter-sponsor collaboration and the blending of cognitive and sensorial elements of event design are important for sponsors seeking to create and deliver effective ESAs. Social implications: Originality/value: The paper draws on event design literature to appraise the execution of ESA by B2B brands within the context of event sponsorship