ALIA LIS research environmental scan report

Executive summary: An environmental scan of Australian Library and Information Studies (LIS) research was undertaken focusing on the period 2005–2013. This was in response to a brief from ALIA that sought such an analysis to inform its decisions in relation to content of a future research agenda, support, advocacy, and future funding. The investigation was expected to include research priorities of other library and information organisations, topics of research undertaken in Australia, types of research, persons/organisations undertaking research, and how research activities are funded, communicated and applied. The report took into account: research priorities of LIS professional associations both within and outside Australia production of higher degree theses over the period publication by practitioners and academics in both Australian and international publications and grant or other support for research or investigatory projects. METHODOLOGY AND LIMITATIONS: Methodologies employed included: Website analysis for research priorities of LIS organisations Database searching using Trove for higher degree theses Database searching using multiple databases for publications In the case of research in progress and resourcing via grants, methods employed were database searching, consultation and by survey methods The limitations in these approaches are explained in each related Section or Appendix. However, the major limitations were: Poor response to the online survey despite its wide dissemination through ALIA and other associations Inconsistent responses to individual surveys directed specifically at academic departments Coverage of publications by databases, particularly of material outside periodicals Difficulties in categorising document

Reward-based contextual learning supported by anterior cingulate cortex

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is commonly associated with cognitive control and decision making, but its specific function is highly debated. To explore a recent theory that the ACC learns the reward values of task contexts (Holroyd & McClure in Psychological Review, 122, 54-83, 2015; Holroyd & Yeung in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 122-128, 2012), we recorded the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) from participants as they played a novel gambling task. The participants were first required to select from among three games in one "virtual casino," and subsequently they were required to select from among three different games in a different virtual casino; unbeknownst to them, the payoffs for the games were higher in one casino than in the other. Analysis of the reward positivity, an ERP component believed to reflect reward-related signals carried to the ACC by the midbrain dopamine system, revealed that the ACC is sensitive to differences in the reward values associated with both the casinos and the games inside the casinos, indicating that participants learned the values of the contexts in which rewards were delivered. These results highlight the importance of the ACC in learning the reward values of task contexts in order to guide action selection

from Burn Tissue Cycle

J. MICHAEL YATES is the author of Nothing Speaks for the Blue Moraines (reviewed in this issue), Man in the Glass Octopus (fiction, The Sono Nis Press, 1968), The Abstract Beast (fiction and drama, Sono Nis, 1971), and many other volumes; his work has appeared virtually everywhere — in Poetry, The Tamarack Review, The Southern Review, The Malahat Review, The Canadian Forum, such anthologies as Contemporary Poetry of British Columbia, and elsewhere. He has taught most recently at the University of British Columbia and is now a full-time writer and publisher

A Study in the Use of Psychological Tests in Determining Effectiveness and Ineffectiveness Among Practicing School Administrators

Introduction: In 1952 the Department of Educational Administration and Supervision of the University of Tennessee undertook a cooperative research project with the Southern States Cooperative Program in Educational Administration (since 1952 the name of the organization has been changed to Associated Programs in Educational Administration). Generally speaking, the central aim of the project was, and is, the improvement of educational leadership in the Southern States Region. To be more specific, the aims of the project at the University of Tennessee are probably best stated in terms of its original purposes