347 research outputs found
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On wide sense stationary processes over finite non-abelian groups
No full textLet X be a real-valued wide sense stationary process over a finite non-abelian group G. We provide results on optimal orthogonal decomposition of X into real-valued mutually orthogonal components and using this decomposition we develop a test for correlation of X over the group G. Applications of these results to the analysis of variance of the carry-over effects in the cross-over designs in clinical studies are given. Our focus will be on groups S[subscript 3], S[subscript 4], and A[subscript 4]
Validation of a maximal incremental skating test performed on a slide board: comparison with treadmill skating
No full textPurpose: the aim of this study was to investigate the criterion validity of a maximal incremental skating test performed on a slide board (SB). Methods: Twelve sub-elite speed skaters performed a maximal skating test on a treadmill and on a SB. Gas exchange threshold (GET), respiratory compensation point (RCP) and maximal variables were determined. Results: oxygen uptake (V̇O2) (31.0 ± 3.2 and 31.4 ± 4.1 mL∙min-1∙kg-1), percentage of maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max) (66.3 ± 4 and 67.7 ± 7.1%), HR (153 ± 14 and 150 ± 12 bpm), and ventilation (59.8 ± 11.8 and 57.0 ± 10.7 L∙min-1) at GET, and V̇O2 (42.5 ± 4.4 and 42.9 ± 4.8 mL∙min-1∙kg-1), percentage of V̇O2max (91.1 ± 3.3 and 92.4 ± 2.1%), heart rate (HR) (178 ± 9 and 178 ± 6 bpm), and ventilation (96.5 ± 19.2 and 92.1 ± 12.7 L∙min-1) at RCP were not different between skating on a treadmill and on a SB. V̇O2max (46.7 ± 4.4 vs 46.4 ± 6.1 mL∙min-1∙kg-1) and maximal HR (195 ± 6 vs 196 ± 10 bpm) were not significantly different and correlated (r = 0.80 and r = 0.87, respectively; p 0.8) with athletes’ best time on 1500 m. Conclusions: the incremental skating test on a SB was capable to distinguish maximal (V̇O2 and HR) and submaximal (V̇O2, % V̇O2max, HR and ventilation) parameters known to determine endurance performance. Therefore, the SB test can be considered as a specific and practical alternative to evaluate speed skaters
Motor unit firing frequency of lower limb muscles during an incremental slide board skating test
No full textThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Sports Biomechanics on 02 October 2017 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14763141.2016.1246600This study investigated how the combination of workload and fatigue affected the frequency components of muscle activation and possible recruitment priority of motor units during skating to exhaustion. Ten male competitive speed skaters performed an incremental maximal test on a slide board. Activation of six muscles from the right leg was recorded throughout the test. A time-frequency analysis was performed to compute overall, high, and low frequency bands from the whole signal at 10, 40, 70, and 90% of total test time. Overall activation increased for all muscles throughout the test (p 0.80). There was an increase in low frequency (90% vs 10%, p = 0.035, ES = 1.06) and a decrease in high frequency (90% vs 10%, p = 0.009, ES = 1.38, and 90% vs 40%, p = 0.025, ES = 1.12) components of gluteus maximus. Strong correlations were found between the maximal cadence and vastus lateralis, gluteus maximus and gluteus medius activation at the end of the test. In conclusion, the incremental skating test lead to an increase in activation of lower limb muscles, but only gluteus maximus was sensitive to changes in frequency components, probably caused by a pronounced fatigue.
Word count: 199
Open Enough? Choices and Consequences When Transitioning From Closed to Open Resources and Courses
No full textPoster PresentationThis paper examines the continuum from "closed" to "open" for both open educational resources (OER) and open courses. The primary focus is to evaluate what instructional choices are needed to increase the openness of courses and how such openness impacts the student experience. The majority of OER literature is concerned with cost savings to students and are presented as institutional case studies. This conceptual paper provides an analysis of the critical academic literature and summarizes the common obstacles instructors face when working on their own OER projects - namely instructional design, technical support, and institutional tenure. Through this analysis, the authors propose a six step scale for conceptualizing openness - outlining the work and support required as one moves from a closed to open course design model. The preliminary findings reveal that creating open courses requires considerably more work on the part of the instructor. In addition to being a content expert, truly open courses require a greater percentage of open access readings, design for a variety of audiences, knowledge of open licensing and copyright, knowledge of dissemination platforms and venues for open educational resources, and an understanding of usability and accessibility. Significantly, the scale also illustrates that each successive step towards openness requires ever greater time and expertise on the part of the instructor. For instructors to develop fully open courses knowledge of pedagogy and design principles may supercede the required content expertise. While fully open courses have inherent value to the public, there can be pedagogical consequences such as self-assessment limitations and a lack of foundational literature and sophistication. Without sufficient incentives and institutional support it is unreasonable to assume that instructors will transition traditional closed resources and classes to open variants. The authors conclude by offering recommendations to instructors for striking the right balance between content and access as well as identifying key means through which institutions can support instructors to facilitate the development of open courses and resources
Breastfeeding the late preterm infant: Experiences of mothers and perceptions of public health nurses
No full textBackground: The promotion and maintenance of breastfeeding with late preterm infants (LPIs) remain under examined topics of study. This dearth of research knowledge, especially for this population at-risk for various health complications, requires scientific investigation. In this study, we explore the experiences of mothers and the perceptions of public health nurses (PHNs) about breastfeeding late preterm infants in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Methods: We used an exploratory mixed methods design with a convenience sample of 122 mothers to gather quantitative data about breastfeeding. We collected qualitative data by means of individual face-to-face interviews with 11 mothers and 10 public health nurses. Data were collected from April 2013 to June 2014. We then employed an interpretive thematic analysis to identify central themes and relationships across narratives.
Results: We collected 74 complete data sets about breastfeeding. During the first 6–8 weeks postpartum, 61 mothers breastfed their infants. Of these, 51 partially breastfed and 10 exclusively breastfed. For qualitative purposes, the researchers interviewed 11 mothers with late preterm babies and three themes emerged: significant difficulty with breastfeeding, failing to recognize the infant’s feeding distress and disorganized behavior, and the parental stress caused by the multiple feeding issues. The public health nurses’ comments reinforced and expanded on what the mothers reported. The themes for the nurses included: challenges with initiating breastfeeding, challenges during breastfeeding, and the need for stimulation during breastfeeding.
Conclusion: Mothers face challenges when breastfeeding their late preterm infants and public health nurses can guide them through this experience. Families with a late preterm infant need to be informed about the challenges associated with breastfeeding a late preterm infant. It is necessary for all health care professionals to receive proper training on safe and effective breastfeeding of late preterm infants. It is essential for public health nurses to communicate effectively with families of late preterm infants to provide anticipatory guidance about potential challenges and strategies to resolve any breastfeeding problems
Overview of Decoding Across the Disciplines
No full textIn this chapter we describe the “Decoding the Disciplines” Faculty Learning Community at Mount Royal University, and how Decoding has been used in new and multidisciplinary ways in the various teaching, curriculum and research projects which are presented in detail in subsequent chapters
Open, Get Ready! Public and Academic Libraries' Support for Open Education in Canada
No full textThis presentation provides an overview of the open education movement and open education resources (OER) policy directions in Western Canada. In addition, it discusses way libraries can support the open education movement and provides examples of provincial OER initiatives. This presentation was given at the 2017 Alberta Library Conference in Jasper, Alberta
Decoding the Disciplines as a Hermeneutic Practice
No full textThis chapter argues that expert practice is an inquiry which surfaces a hermeneutic relationship between theory, practice, and the world, with implications for new lines of questioning in the Decoding interview
Cattle and carnivore coexistence in Alberta: The role of compensation programs
No full textIn Alberta, Canada beef producers share the landscape with large carnivores where interactions can lead to negative outcomes. We had 672 Alberta beef producers complete an online survey in spring 2014 to access the occurrence and outcomes of cattle-carnivore interactions.•We found that a majority (64%) reported losses from carnivore depredation. The average rate of calf depredation was reported at 2%, but the rate was highly variable between producers (ranging from 0 to 25% calf loss annually). The direct annual economic loss to depredation for survey respondents was 22 million.• Alberta's Wildlife Predator Compensation Program (WPCP) paid out an average of $220,584 annually from 2011-2013. The WPCP was under-utilized,64% of producers did not report to the program,and did not adequately address financial burden experienced by producers from 2011 2013.•Producers identified a series of challenges with the WPCP including the excessive burden of proof and the effort to value ratio being too low.•We provide recommendations to improve the WPCP based on a literature review and our survey findings
Open Access Complements Interlibrary Loan Services, but Additional User Education is Needed [Evidence Summary]
No full textA Review of:
Baich, T. (2015). Open access: Help or hindrance to resource sharing? Interlending & Document Supply, 43(2), 68-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ILDS-01-2015-0003
Abstract
Objective – To examine interlibrary loan (ILL) request rates for open access (OA) materials and determine how OA may affect resource sharing. This research updates the author’s previous study.
Design – Quantitative analysis.
Setting – A large, urban, public research university library system in the United States of America.
Subjects – 1,557 open access ILL material requests among 23,531 total ILL requests submitted during the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years (July 2011-June 2013).
Methods – The library has tracked and recorded OA requests that appear among ILL material requests since 2009. Using OCLC’s ILLiad software to manage ILL requests, they have implemented two custom routines. One routine is for open access searching on standard items, and uses software plugins to search across various open resources. All materials published prior to 1923 are treated as being in the public domain, so requests for these materials are automatically routed to this queue. The second custom routine is used for searching for OA electronic theses and dissertations, and is employed when the requested resource is not found in the library’s subscription resources. Other article requests are routed to the RapidILL service for open access availability.
Main Results – The research presented reveals that ILL requests for OA materials exhibited a steady increase year over year, while overall ILL requests decreased slightly. This finding is true both for the fiscal years reported in this study and also the years since the author’s original study in 2011 (Baich, 2012). Of the 1,557 OA requests examined, 72% (n=1,135) were for journal articles, 8% (n=125) were for books or book chapters, 9% (n=140) were for theses or dissertations, 3% (n=54) were for conference papers, and 7% (n=105) were for reports.
Library staff typically fill these article requests using gold OA or green OA sources. The researcher notes the difficulty in refining by source, though confirmed that 15% of articles requested (n=170) were filled using a gold OA source, and that another 30 article requests (~2.6%) were filled with materials available in the public domain. This leads to the conclusion that the majority of article requests are filled using green OA sources. As the library also includes OA collections within its electronic resources, staff filled 13% of ILL article requests (n=152) using journals and repositories from these sources. Another 16% of article requests were filled using a combination of various online open repositories, including subject repositories (n=83), institutional repositories (n=84), or national or consortial repositories (n=16).
The author includes a similar breakdown of fulfillment rates and sources for the other main categories explored – books and book chapters, theses and dissertations, conference papers, and reports – representing a combined 27% of all OA ILL requests. Regarding this content, it is noteworthy that overall open access requests for these material categories has dropped across each category when compared to the author’s previous study, with the exception of report requests, which more than doubled compared to that previous study.
The study includes a brief overview of the user status for users making the various open access requests, with undergraduate students (n=283) and graduate students (n=807) combined making 70% of all requests. Subject areas are also briefly examined, with ILL requests coming from 63 different schools or departments across the library system. The top 15 are reported, with Psychology being the top requester (n=198), followed closely by Engineering & Technology (n=182). The author notes that 7 of the top 15 are STEM or health science disciplines.
Conclusion – The rate of ILL requests for OA materials shows that library users continue to struggle with information retrieval. The researcher concludes that in many cases, making an ILL request is easier for the user than completing a thorough search. Since staff resources are being redirected to fill user requests for materials that are readily available through open access, this use of staff time may have impacts on resource sharing and the library’s ability to fill ILL requests. The author identifies benefits of using OA resources, including an increased ability of staff to fulfill ILL requests, especially when providing grey literature, theses and dissertations, and conference papers and reports. Another identified benefit was the decreased turnaround time for securing materials, with immediate availability via OA saving 1.15 days to deliver materials to the user. Finally, the library estimates cost savings of over $27,000 (USD), based on estimated traditional per unit ILL costs