ANCIL in action: progress updates on A New Curriculum for Information Literacy

Secker & Coonan’s 2011 research on A New Curriculum for Information Literacy (ANCIL) positions information literacy as a vital, holistic and institution-wide element in academic teaching and learning. Rather than taking a competency-based approach in which abilities and performance levels are delineated prescriptively, ANCIL is founded on a perception of information literacy as a continuum of skills, competences, behaviours and values around information, centred in an individual learner engaged in a specific task or moving towards a particular goal. ANCIL offers both micro- and macro-level approaches to reviewing the information literacy support offered in an institution. With its emphasis on active, reflective and transferable elements in learning, ANCIL lends itself well to practical course design and lesson planning. By reviewing the structure and content of individual sessions through the ANCIL lens, it is possible to enhance information literacy teaching significantly even where provision is restricted to one-shot or front-loaded training sessions. In addition, ANCIL’s holistic mapping of information literacy, together with the interprofessional and collaborative approach this entails, allows departments or whole institutions to audit where, how and when provision is offered to and encountered by the student in the course of his or her learning career.The original ANCIL project research was supported by the Arcadia Programme at Cambridge University Library

Commercial bank lending practices in the development of urban projects : underwriting criteria in a changing environment

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1990.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-83).by Alison J. Waltch and Lauri A. Webster.M.S

Pronounced genetic structure and low genetic diversity in European red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) populations

Conservation Genetics August 2015, Volume 16, Issue 4, pp 1011–1012 Erratum to: Pronounced genetic structure and low genetic diversity in European red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) populations Erratum to: Conserv Genet (2012) 13:1213–1230 DOI 10.1007/s10592-012-0366-6 In the original publication, Tables 3 and 6 were published with incorrect estimates of population heterozygosities. All other diversity statistics were correct as originally presented. Updated versions of Tables 3 and 6 with corrected heterozygosity estimates confirmed using Arlequin 3.5 (Excoffier and Lischer 2010) as in Dávila et al. (2014) are provided in this erratum. Discrepancies were minor for populations on the British Isles. The correct estimates for Spain are slightly larger than those reported for La Palma by Dávila et al. (2014), but this does not necessarily affect their interpretation that choughs on La Palma may have originated from multiple migration events. The original conclusion that chough populations on the British Isles have low genetic diversity compared to continental European populations remains and is now, in fact, strengthened.Peer reviewedPostprin

The Men’s Safer Sex Trial: a feasibility randomised controlled trial of an interactive digital intervention to increase condom use in men

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine the feasibility of an online randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the Men’s Safer Sex website, measuring condom use and sexually transmitted infection (STI). METHODS: For this study 159 men aged ≥16 with female sexual partners and recent condomless sex or suspected STI were recruited from three UK sexual health clinics. Participants were randomised to the intervention website plus usual clinic care (n = 84), or usual clinic care only (n = 75). Online outcome data were solicited at 3, 6, and 12 months. RESULTS: Men were enrolled via tablet computers in clinic waiting rooms. Software errors and clinic Wi-Fi access presented significant challenges, and online questionnaire response rates were poor (36% at 3 months with a £10 voucher; 50% at 12 months with £30). Clinical records (for STI diagnoses) were located for 94% of participants. Some 37% of the intervention group did not see the intervention website (n = 31/84), and (as expected) there was no detectable difference in condomless sex with female partners (IRR = 1.01, 95% CI 0.52 to 1.96). New acute STI diagnoses were recorded for 8.8% (7/80) of the intervention group, and 13.0% (9/69) of the control group over 12 months (IRR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.29 to 1.90). CONCLUSIONS: It is likely to be feasible to conduct a future large-scale RCT to assess the impact of an online intervention using clinic STI diagnoses as a primary outcome. However, practical and technical challenges need to be addressed before the potential of digital media interventions can be realised in sexual health settings

The Men's Safer Sex (MenSS) trial: protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial of an interactive digital intervention to increase condom use in men

Introduction: Sexually transmitted infections (STI) are a major public health problem. Condoms provide effective protection but there are many barriers to use. Face-to-face health promotion interventions are resource-intensive and show mixed results. Interactive digital interventions may provide a suitable alternative, allowing private access to personally tailored behaviour change support. We have developed an interactive digital intervention (the Men's Safer Sex (MenSS) website) which aims to increase condom use in men. We describe the protocol for a pilot trial to assess the feasibility of a full-scale randomised controlled trial of the MenSS website in addition to usual sexual health clinical care.Methods and analysis: Participants: Men aged 16 or over who report female sexual partners and recent unprotected sex or suspected acute STI. Participants (N=166) will be enrolled using a tablet computer in clinic waiting rooms. All trial procedures will be online, that is, eligibility checks; study consent; trial registration; automated random allocation; and data submission. At baseline and at 3, 6 and 12 months, an online questionnaire will assess condom use, self-reported STI diagnoses, and mediators of condom use (eg, knowledge, intention). Reminders will be by email and mobile phone. The primary outcome is condom use, measured at 3 months. STI rates will be recorded from sexual health clinic medical records at 12 months. The feasibility of a cost-effectiveness analysis will be assessed, to calculate incremental cost per STI prevented (Chlamydia or Gonorrhoea), from the NHS perspective.Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval: City and East NHS Research Ethics Committee (reference number 13 LO 1801). Findings will be made available through publication in peer-reviewed journals, and to participants and members of the public via Twitter and from the University College London eHealth Unit website. Raw data will be made available on request

Translating Research Into Practice: Speeding the Adoption of Innovative Health Care Programs

Looks at case studies of four innovative clinical programs to determine key factors influencing the diffusion and adoption of innovations in health care

A Distant Diaspora: Thinking Comparatively about Origins, Migrations and Roman Slavery

It is estimated that more than 100 million people were enslaved in the millennium during which the Roman Empire rose and fell (Scheidel 2007: 26), yet the archaeology of Classical slavery is still in its infancy, with many Roman archaeologists still believing that slaves remain ‘invisible ’ to archaeological view (see Webster 2005 for an overview). In the last few years however, a small group of scholars have begun to explore the potentials of a comparative archaeology of Classical slavery: one drawing explicitly on the work carried out by archaeologists of early modern slavery in North America and the Caribbean (see for example Morris 1998; Webster 2005; Dal Lago and Katsari 2008a and 2008b; Webster 2008). Much of this work has of course been written by and for Romanists. There is as yet little sign of a dialogue opening up between archaeologists of ancient and modern slavery, and we seem to remain largely ignorant of developments in each other’s ‘worlds.’ The aim of this article is to make a small step towards an improved dialogue, by highlighting points of similarity and difference concerning the nature – and study – of forced migrations in the Classical and Atlantic worlds. I begin by exploring shared central research questions: where did an individual’s journey into slavery begin? Can we recognise dominan

Transcending Alterity: The Proverbial Strange Woman Meets the Johannine Samaritan Woman

In the Gospel of John (4:1-42), a story is told ofa Samaritan woman who goes to a well to draw water. While she is there, she encounters Jesus. They converse about living water and true worship. This encounter so impresses the woman that she returns to the Samaritan city of Sychar and tells the people about him. In response, the Samaritans come to meet Jesus, invite him to stay, and, after two days, declare him to be the "savior of the world." Legitimated by a comparison between Wisdom motifs and the Johannine presentation of Jesus, this narrative is interpreted against the background of the Wisdom tradition of early Judaism. The Samaritan Woman follows the paradigm of the Strange Woman found in Proverbs 2:16-19, 5:1-23, 6:23-35 and 7:5-27. Like the Strange Woman, the Samaritan Woman is depicted as an adulteress, as a foreign woman and as a foolish woman. Moreover, the Strange Woman is constructed as the polar opposite of Lady Wisdom and the Samaritan Woman is constructed as the opposite of Jesus: she is female, he is male~ she is a Samaritan, he is a Jew; she does not know, he does know. In this way, both the Strange Woman and the Samaritan Woman symbolize alterity. The narrative genre of the gospels, however, allows development of character to take place - a movement which is not possible within the didactic genre of Proverbs. Within the symbolic layer of the Johannine community, she is no longer an adulteress, but she finds her "legitimate husband" in Jesus. No longer a foreign woman, she is given the possibility of rebirth "from above." No longer ignorant, she brings others to belief through her word. The symbols of alterity are thus reconfigured in the new community. The emphasis on the symbolic representation of this character undermines the recent historical-critical arguments which claim that the Samaritan Woman narrative is based on the story of a historical person.Master of Arts (MA