564 research outputs found
Richard Dawkins in conversation with Robyn Williams
No full textDawkins and Williams discuss the intricacies, the fascinating patterns and the anomalies produced by the process of evolution on earth.
At the Melbourne Town Hall, presented by the Melbourne Writers Festival, outspoken and influential author and scientist Richard Dawkins speaks to Robyn Williams (ABC RN) about the ideas underpinning his new book, The Greatest Show on Earth. They discuss the intricacies, the fascinating patterns and the anomalies produced by the process of evolution on earth. Dawkins then takes further questions from the audience about the theory of evolution, genetic determinism, the climate change denial movement and the place of religion in the world of science. Melbourne, March 2010.
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Farm to Fork Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment for Norovirus on Frozen Strawberries
No full textFoodborne illness outbreaks have been increasingly linked to the consumption of fresh and frozen berries that were contaminated with pathogenic viruses, such as human norovirus (NoV). Contamination of berries is assumed to take place at harvest by the use of contaminated water for pesticide dilution, irrigation water source or by shedding berry pickers in the field. A quantitative microbial risk assessment simulation model was built to replicate the largest known NoV outbreak which sickened about 11,000 people over a 3-week period. The outbreak occurred in Germany in 2012 when contaminated frozen strawberries were served at nearly 400 schools and daycare centers. The risk model explicitly assumed that all contamination would arise from NoV contamination of surface water used for pesticide dilution. Input data was collected from the published literature, observational studies and assumptions. The model starts with contamination of the berries in the field, and proceeds through transportation to processing facility, washing, sanitizing, freezing, frozen transport to cargo ship, transport view of cargo ship, transport to distribution center, frozen storage at the distribution center, transport to the catering facility, food service preparation and consumption, dose response, and predicted illnesses. A total of 21 scenarios were chosen to evaluate the impact of model parameters on the number of illness associated with NoV contamination of berries. Scenarios evaluated include the initial level of NoV in surface water, the effect of seasonality on the prevalence of NoV in surface water, the strength of the pesticide used, the volume of water used to dilute the pesticide, temperature during transportation to processing facility, washing and sanitizing conditions at processing facility and preparation (heat-treatment) of berries prior to consumption. Scenarios were compared via the Factor Sensitivity technique where the logarithm of the ratio of mean illnesses was used to compare different assumptions. The input that had the greatest effect on increasing in the number of illnesses was a high NoV concentration in the water (8 log Genome Copies/L) when compared to the baseline scenario with resulting mean illnesses of 7,964 illnesses and ~2 illnesses, respectively. This assumption about the concentration of virus in the pesticide makeup water was the only variable capable of producing an outbreak similar to that observed in Germany in 2012. Heat-treatment of the berries, use of a pesticide with strong antiviral effect, and assumption about the virus concentration in the pesticide make-up water had the largest impact on decreasing illnesses.Peer reviewe
"Exploring Our Sexualities" - Noted Author and Activist Robyn Ochs to Present Workshop and Interactive Presentation at U of M Crookston on Wednesday, April 22, 2009
No full textTollefson, Elizabeth. (2009). "Exploring Our Sexualities" - Noted Author and Activist Robyn Ochs to Present Workshop and Interactive Presentation at U of M Crookston on Wednesday, April 22, 2009. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/222053
A case study of the design, implementation, and formative evaluation of a team development program for a women's swimming and diving team in a NCAA division I university setting
No full textThis dissertation reflects a case study of the process of the design, implementation and formative evaluation of a team development program conducted with a swimming and diving team consisting of twenty-three women at a NCAA Division I university during the 2008-2009 academic year. The dissertation was undertaken to contribute to the knowledge base about how team development programs can be designed and implemented in athletic settings. As a foundation for the dissertation, the participant observer role was used in conjunction with Maher's (2000) Program Planning and Evaluation (PP&E) Framework and Maher's (2004) Student-Athlete Pyramid of Development. Relying on these approaches as procedural and technical guidance, a framework of knowledge, skills and abilities was formulated and then put into an evaluable programmatic form to assist the student-athletes on the team with interpersonal communication, within the team context. This dissertation explores how the PP&E Framework can be coupled with some of the levels of the Student-Athlete Pyramid of Development along with knowledge about team development from business, military, and sport to assist an athletic team in learning to communicate constructively. Formative evaluation data is provided from participating team members and the coaching staff about the actual and potential value of this kind of program. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are offered for the possible design and implementation of similar team development programs in athletic, business, and other contexts.Psy.DIncludes bibliographical references (p. 119-126)by Robyn L. OdegaardIncludes abstrac
The Homeobox Transcription Factor Barx2 Regulates Plasticity of Young Primary Myofibers
No full textCopyright: © 2010 Meech et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Adult mammalian muscle retains incredible plasticity. Muscle growth and repair involves the activation of undifferentiated myogenic precursors called satellite cells. In some circumstances, it has been proposed that existing myofibers may also cleave and produce a pool of proliferative cells that can re-differentiate into new fibers. Such myofiber dedifferentiation has been observed in the salamander blastema where it may occur in parallel with satellite cell activation. Moreover, ectopic expression of the homeodomain transcription factor Msx1 in differentiated C2C12 myotubes has been shown to induce their dedifferentiation. While it remains unclear whether dedifferentiation and redifferentiaton occurs endogenously in mammalian muscle, there is considerable interest in induced dedifferentiation as a possible regenerative tool
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Woman as Object
No full textThis paper discusses the creation process of thirteen works by the author addressing women's issues using mannequins of actual women as a metaphor. Robyn Beirman Jamison discusses interviewing and photographing the women, creating the works, and the imagery of objectification of women by society
Musical score, "Haste Love," for voice and piano. Words by Minnie Gilmore, music by Alfred G. Robyn. Balmer and Weber Music House Company, c. 1892
No full textPatrick Gilmore's daughter, Minnie L. Gilmore, was an author in her own right. Her published works include "Songs from the Wings," "Pipes from the Prairieland," "A Son of Esau," and "The Woman Who Stood Between." One of her verses, from "Songs from the Wings," is entitled "To my father--Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore": "Though he is dead, I still may do/ Him honor, by a life akin/ To that pure life my childhood knew,/ His fatherheart within./ And for the true musician's place,/ You claimed a throne beside the priest;/ Since both, you said, redeemed the base,/ And blessed both great and least." In this song, her verse was set to music by Alfred George Robyn (1860-1935) a composer of light opera and founder of the Marion English Opera Company in New York. Balmer and Weber Music House Company, [c.] 1892
Combining Scholarship, Teaching, and Learning: A Qualitative Study
No full textAbstract
Date Presented 3/31/2017
This session will reveal results of student participation in the Centralized Service Learning Model (CSLM), a course design framework that facilitates creative and active learning opportunities in the community through service. Results support the effectiveness of the CSLM as a viable teaching model to influence student learning.
Primary Author and Speaker: Lauren Milton
Additional Authors and Speakers: Robyn Otty</jats:p
Identification of residues that confer sugar selectivity to UDP-glycosyltransferase 3A (UGT3A) enzymes
No full textRecent studies in this laboratory characterized the UGT3A family enzymes, UGT3A1 and UGT3A2, and showed that neither uses the traditional UGT co-substrate UDP-glucuronic acid. Rather, UGT3A1 uses N-acetylglucosamine as preferred sugar donor and UGT3A2 uses UDP-glucose. The enzymatic characterization of UGT3A mutants, structural modelling, and multispecies gene analysis have now been employed to identify a residue within the active site of these enzymes that confer their unique sugar preferences. An asparagine (N391) residue in the UGT signature sequence of UGT3A1 is necessary for utilization of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine. Conversely, a phenylalanine (F391) residue in UGT3A2 favors UDP-glucose use. Mutation of N391 to F in UGT3A1 enhances its ability to utilize UDP-glucose and completely inhibits its ability to use UDP-N-acetylglucosamine. An analysis of homology models docked with UDP-sugar donors indicates that N391 in UGT3A1 is able to accommodate the N-acetyl group on C2 of UDP N-acetylglucosamine so that the anomeric carbon atom (C1) is optimally situated for catalysis involving H35. Replacement of N by F at 391 disrupts this catalytically-productive orientation of UDP N-acetylglucosamine but allows a more optimal alignment of UDP-glucose for sugar donation. Multispecies sequence analysis reveals that only primates possess UGT3A sequences containing the N391 residue, suggesting that other mammals may not have the capacity to N-acetylglucosaminidate small molecules. In support of this hypothesis, N391-containing UGT3A forms from two non-human primates were found to use UDP-N-acetylglucosamine, while UGT3A isoforms from non-primates could not use this sugar donor. This work gives new insight into the residues that confer sugar specificity to UGT family members and suggests a primate-specific innovation in glycosidation of small molecule
Promoting reasoning, problem-solving and argumentation during small group discussions
No full textCooperative learning is widely accepted as a pedagogical practice that can be employed in classrooms to promote students engagement and learning. When children cooperate, they learn to attend to what others have to say, provide and receive assistance, affirm and disconfirm conceptions, and, in so doing, they develop mutual understandings of the topic at hand. From a Vygotskian perspective, the group context enables members to engage in dialogic exchanges and think about issues in ways they may have never previously considered. In so doing, information and ideas are exchanged, transformed and appropriated so they become new ways of thinking or knowledge building. Moreover, when children engage in reciprocal interactions with each other, they learn to use language differently to explain experiences and realities and, in so doing, they find new functions for language in expressing their thoughts and feelings. In fact, talk is so important that it now recognised as more than a means of sharing thoughts; it is also a social mode of thinking and a tool for the joint construction of knowledge and new learning. However, although it is well acknowledged that students benefit from interacting with others, it is only recently that research has begun to examine the role that teachers play in promoting student dialogue in the classroom. This is a concern because there is no doubt that teachers play a key role in inducting children into ways of thinking and learning by making explicit how to express ideas, seek help, contest opposing positions, and reason cogently. In short, teachers play a key role in helping students to acquire the linguistic tools needed to promote thinking, problem-solving, and reasoning. This chapter reports on two studies undertaken by the author that illustrate how teachers' discourse affects students' discourse, problem-solving and reasoning (Study 1) and how teachers can challenge students' cognitive and metacognitive thinking to promote reasoned argumentation and learning (Study 2). The studies highlight the importance of systematically constructing experiences in classrooms to teach these skills to students
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