576 research outputs found
Repositioning the graphic designer as researcher
No full textIn academic terms, the discipline of graphic design is relatively young. Consequently the position of the discipline within academic territory, and the role of the designer, continue to be debated. In part, these debates have been a product of attempts to define and defend the discipline’s borders from within, in order to establish a sense of the role of graphic design and the graphic designer as commensurate with other disciplines both within and beyond art and design. In recent years graphic designers have variously been defined as ‘authors’, ‘producers’ and ‘readers’, yet none of these definitions seem to have provided any kind of productive or lasting impact within the academy. This paper suggests that rather than continue to seek territorial definitions and positions from within, it could be more productive to look beyond the confines of the discipline. Gaining a broader, interdisciplinary perspective on, and understanding of, qualitative research methods from other disciplines may enable the graphic designer to more fully position his or her practice within the wider academy. Such a perspective could help facilitate the repositioning and redefinition of the graphic designer as ‘researcher’ - a move that would be productive in relation to the future development of postgraduate research within the discipline
Maximizing the effectiveness of grassland management for a grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) metapopulation
No full textGrassland bird population declines have been attributed to habitat loss and fragmentation and the intensification of agricultural practices. Hayfields are being cut earlier and more frequently during the breeding season resulting in low reproductive success. Grassland bird conservation efforts generally focus on enrolling farmland into landowner incentive programs that require mowing to be delayed until after July 15. Delayed mowing improves grassland bird reproductive success by enabling breeding pairs to fledge at least one brood during the breeding season. This dissertation examines the effect of hayfield management on population viability of a grasshopper sparrow metapopulation in a fragmented landscape in New Jersey and uses statistical power analysis to assess the cost-effectiveness of grasshopper sparrow metapopulation monitoring programs.
I built a spatially-explicit, stage-structured, stochastic model of a grasshopper sparrow metapopulation to determine how probability of extinction (POE) is affected by: (1) total hayfield area enrolled, (2) size of enrolled hayfields, (3) number of hayfield patches enrolled, and (4) isolation of enrolled hayfields. I found that POE decreased quickly with increasing amounts of enrolled hayfield area. After 31 to 48% of hayfield area in the landscape was enrolled, POE decreased minimally with further enrollment. The number of grassland parcels enrolled was also negatively related to POE. When I incorporated a patch size effect (fecundity was directly related to hayfield size) into the model, POE increased within each enrollment category but still decreased with increasing amounts of enrolled grassland (Chapter 2). POE was directly related to the degree of isolation of enrolled hayfields.
Of the monitoring programs we evaluated, the most cost-effective program to detect a 7% population decline included 18 hayfields surveyed six times annually over five years. Additional survey effort would be necessary to detect a smaller population decline and to overcome observer variability in density estimates due to sampling error.
Hayfield management for grassland birds will be most effective when there is not only a focus on the amount of managed habitat, but also on local and landscape scale variables such as patch size and configuration. Cost-effective population monitoring is critical to evaluating the success of management decisions.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Alison B. Seige
Do UK based weight management programmes cause weight loss maintenance in adults? A systematic review
No full textThe aim of this dissertation was to examine whether UK based weight management programmes promote weight loss maintenance (follow up of 12 months to assess effectiveness of intervention in weight loss) in adults through the process of a systematic review. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described obesity as a "global epidemic". Weight management comprises two phases; weight loss and weight loss maintenance. The latter phase is the true goal for obesity and the most difficult element of weight management to achieve. However much less is know about this as compared with the weight loss phase. There is little purpose in committing time and money to reducing obesity if the weight is regained. This is counter-productive and weight loss maintenance is essential to combat the obesity epidemic. Searches were made for relevant information from a variety of scientific online databases and journals,. Seven articles met the inclusion criteria and were analysed in the review. All studies incorporated a multi-component (diet, exercise, behaviur modification) intervention approach. All control and internvetion groups reported weight loss at 12 months when compared with baseline. All groups recieved an intervention. One study reported a significant difference (P<0.05) between groups. Four studies reported on at least one component (diet, physical activity, behaviour modification) however there was not enough information to conclude whether they complied with national guidelines (NICE CG43 and SIGN 115). High attrition rates and loss to follow up are problematic for each study except one. Analysis on an intention to treat basis was common however this is problematic and there are alternative methods which may be more suitable for dealing with missing data
A latent semantic analysis of gender stereotype-consistency and narrowness in American English
No full textIdeational Praxis and Playfulness in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder
No full textAbstract
Date Presented 4/1/2017
This study examined ideational skills and playfulness in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD had poorer ideational skills than typical peers. No relation was found between ideation and playfulness. Results inform an understanding of ideational skills in children with autism.
Primary Author and Speaker: Teresa A. May-Benson
Additional Authors and Speakers: Caitlin B. Lauchlan, Monica Nicole Salazar, Hannah Polshuk, Christina Rogers, Sarah Sherman
Contributing Authors: Alison Teasdale</jats:p
Evolutionary plasticity in the Pleiotropic regulation of sexually dimorphic traits in gekkotan lizards
No full textSexually dimorphic traits evolve due to selection for reproductive advantage, and their expression is often functionally correlated by the pleiotropic effects of gonadal steroids (e.g., testosterone, T, in males). When T mediates the correlated expression of traits, then how can changes in individual traits evolve? The main objective of this dissertation was to investigate whether circulating T or androgen receptors in the brain underlie sex- and species-differences in sexually dimorphic trait expression in a comparative study of three species of gekkotan lizards (Goniurosaurus lichtenfelderi, Coleonyx elegans, and Paroedura picta). I hypothesized sex differences in trait expression are due to differences in circulating T, and that the absence of various traits in C. elegans and P. picta are due to a specific alteration in the androgen signaling system rather than a reduction in T. I conducted surgical manipulations to alter levels of T in adult males and females of each species. Testosterone-sensitive traits included courtship, copulatory mounting, and aggressive behaviors, secretions from precloacal pores, enlargement of the hemipenes and head width. Elevated T in males was almost always the primary mediator of sex differences in trait expression within species. Some, but not all, of the male-typical traits were induced in adult females, suggesting the neural or physiological substrates underlying certain traits are permanently differentiated between the sexes prior to adulthood. Traits absent from the phenotype of a species, such as courtship in C. elegans and P. picta, cannot be induced by exogenous T. I hypothesized differences in behavioral sensitivity to T would be due to differences in androgen receptors in brain regions associated with control of reproductive behaviors. Immunohistochemistry revealed P. picta had increased abundance of androgen receptor immunoreactivity (AR-ir) in the preoptic area and ventromedial hypothalamus relative to G. lichtenfelderi. Thus, the abundance of AR-ir does not reflect the expression of courtship and aggressive behaviors in these species. Although circulating T or AR-ir do not explain interspecific differences in trait expression, results indicate correlated traits mediated by the pleiotropic effects of T are not constrained but targeted changes in sensitivity to T allows evolutionary plasticity in trait expression.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Alison Golinski Goldber
A meta-analysis on the malleability of automatic gender stereotypes
No full textThis meta-analytic review examined the efficacy of interventions aimed at reducing automatic gender stereotypes. Such interventions included attentional distraction, salience of within-category heterogeneity, and stereotype suppression. A small but significant main effect (g?=?.32) suggests that these interventions are successful but that their scope is limited. The intervention main effect was moderated by publication status, sample nationality, and intervention type. The meta-analytic findings suggest several issues worthy of further investigation, such as whether (a) other categories of intervention not yet identified or tested could be more effective, (b) suppression necessarily produces ironic effects in automatic stereotyping, (c) various indirect measures are differentially sensitive to stereotype change, and (d) automatic stereotypes about men differ in their malleability from those about women.<br/
Illustrated Medieval Alexander-Books in French Verse
No full textInternational audienceThe core of this book on the French verse Alexander in France and Italy was written by eminent Alexander specialist David J.A. Ross, who left an incomplete typescript at his death. The baton was taken up by an international team of specialists in medieval literature and art history, Maud Pèrez-Simon, author of Les manuscrits du Roman d’Alexandre en prose, and Alison Stones, author of Manuscripts Illuminated in France: Gothic Manuscripts 1260–1320. In its emphasis on illustration, this book complements the volumes of the Alexander Redivivus series and offers new perspectives on the reception of one of the most popular medieval heroes of history and legend. It forms a sequel to Ross’s collected essays and his Illustrated Medieval Alexander-Books in Germany and the Netherlands, to the work of the editors in the field of medieval manuscripts, and to the first volume in the Manuscripta Illuminata series, on the illustrations of Valerius Maximus in French.639 p., 260 colour ill., 10 b/w tables, 216 x 280 m
Observation of H -> b(b)over-bar decays and V H production with the ATLAS detector
No full textA search for the decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson into a b (b) over bar pair when produced in association with a W or Z boson is performed with the ATLAS detector. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 79.8 fb(-1) were collected in proton-proton collisions during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. For a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV, an excess of events over the expected background from other Standard Model processes is found with an observed (expected) significance of 4.9 (4.3) standard deviations. A combination with the results from other searches in Run 1 and in Run 2 for the Higgs boson in the bb decay mode is performed, which yields an observed (expected) significance of 5.4 (5.5) standard deviations, thus providing direct observation of the Higgs boson decay into b-quarks. The ratio of the measured event yield for a Higgs boson decaying into b (b) over bar to the Standard Model expectation is 1.01 +/- 0.12(stat.) (-0.15) (+0.16)(syst.). Additionally, a combination of Run 2 results searching for the Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson yields an observed (expected) significance of 5.3 (4.8) standard deviations. (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V
The Isolation, Culture, and Propagation of Murine Intestinal Enteroids for the Study of Dietary Lipid Metabolism
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