Nation University

Arts-based research (ABR) includes research approaches that utilize creative arts, such as photo-taking and film, during various phases of the research process. The dominant paradigm informing ABR draws from features of participatory action research, supporting participants to become active in the research process, engaging critically with research questions. While dominant knowledge systems informing social research paradigms offer a foundation for ABR, they have not historically considered the value of Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). IKS hold some of the oldest approaches to participatory education, though their benefit and merit has been undervalued and subjected to ongoing erasure. When researchers draw from the philosophical assumptions of IKS, they can expand the boundaries of ABR by incorporating the rigor, strength, and spiritual power of IKS. This integration ensures alignment of ABR with Indigenous worldviews and practices, including relationships that extend beyond humans to include animals, plants, and other beings. This article aims to challenge and demonstrate congruency with the dominant knowledge systems informing ABR, through the lens of an IKS.

one year after the Voice referendum, a group of 10 Indigenous researchers gathered on Kabi Kabi Country at Marcoola, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, for a research writing workshop where they responded to a series of objects focused on the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Australian Voice referendum; the objects were curated within the writing space.This offered the focus for their thoughts, feelings, discussions, and collaboration on a written research output.They collectively wrote a poem

A passive air monitoring network was established in the Canadian Arctic and Great Lakes Basin (GLB) in 2015 as a pilot study to assess the spatial distribution of contaminants. At each site, a XAD-based passive air sampler (PAS) and a polyurethane form-based PAS were deployed. Results from 2015 to 2022 showed that hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD), a highly volatile organic chemical (HVOC), is the most abundant and widespread chemical in air. Other frequently detected chemicals were hexachlorobenzene (HCB), di- and tri-bromoanisoles (BAs), and 1,2,4,5-tetrachloro-3,6-dimethoxybenzene (DAME). Air concentrations of HCB, BAs, DAME, pentachlorobenzene, and α-hexachlorocyclohexane in the Arctic and GLB air were similar. These chemicals are highly volatile and thus easily disperse in air. On the contrary, semi-VOCs such as polychlorinated biphenyls, chlordanes, and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene showed higher atmospheric concentrations in the Great Lakes Basin than the Arctic. Urban air showed elevated levels in organophosphate esters and neutral per- and polyfluorinated substances in comparison with Arctic air. These chemicals are mostly related to industrial activities and consumer products. Their atmospheric levels are positively related to urbanization. At all the sites, there were no consistent temporal trends among the chemicals. Our pilot study has established the protocols for sampling and analytical methods for a long-term monitoring network at difficult-to-access remote environments providing spatially resolved contaminant levels and temporal trends.

Economic theory and empirical research link economic growth with education, a key component of human capital. Yet high levels of education do not guarantee economic growth if a weak institutional environment hinders the productive use of knowledge and skills. By studying the nexus between institutions and education in different countries, we conclude that weak institutions are usually paired with low levels of education. Some post-socialist countries, as well as a number of other countries with relatively high levels of education that have experienced institutional deterioration after major crises are among exceptions. The argument about the unproductive use of human capital due to institutional problems is most applicable to such countries. Using system GMM on a panel of 134 countries over the period 1970—2015, we obtain significant positive estimates of the impact of both institutions and education on economic growth. Our results indicate that weak institutions markedly constrain economic growth even in countries with educated population.

This paper develops an automated approach for conjunctival hyperemia grading from slit-lamp images using semisupervised learning. We conducted a retrospective study including slit-lamp images from two study sites. Two independent graders assessed the severity of hyperemia according to the Efron Grading Scales. Segmentation of the conjunctiva and its vessels was performed using semisupervised segmentation with limited labeled data. Conjunctival vessel densities were estimated from the model outputs and compared against the manual clinical Efron gradings. Three hundred and seventeen slit-lamp images from the primary site and 164 from an external site were included. The semisupervised models with unlabeled data demonstrated significantly improved segmentation compared to a baseline fully supervised model using only the labeled data (p < 0.001). Calculated conjunctival vessel densities showed correlations of 0.86 [0.76, 0.93] with ground truth vessel densities. Comparisons of vessel densities against mean manual clinical Efron gradings showed correlations of 0.83 and 0.80 for the test and external datasets, which were comparable to the inter-rater agreements of 0.82 [0.68, 0.90] and 0.75 [0.67, 0.81] in the datasets, respectively. Conjunctival vessel densities obtained with semisupervised learning showed good agreement with clinical grading of conjunctival hyperemia. This approach may be applied toward an automatic, objective assessment of the conjunctiva.

Northern and Indigenous rural communities in the Yukon face unique food security challenges as a result of higher costs of living, fewer services, loss of traditional practices and remoteness. Food in Place will discuss some of these challenges drawing on a recent paper published by Dr. Sara McPhee-Knowles and David Gattensby as well as anecdotal evidence collected through community engagement sessions. The vulnerability of these communities also presents an opportunity for innovative food programming and community driven food systems change. This is demonstrated by the success of the Yukon First Nation Education Directorate’s Rural Nutrition Program in addressing food security while creating a culture around food and wellness. Other potential community-driven initiatives are explored such as the building of community wild meat processing facilities in rural communities that would reduce barriers to using wild meat in community food programs. We will also explore opportunities to increase innovation through targeted funding streams that will allow rural communities to step into their full potential as leaders in food systems change.

The growing global population and increase in demand for water, energy and food resources in the face of climate change-induced scarcity, presents the occurrence of interlinked food shortages, water scarcity, and insufficient energy resources as increasingly probable in the future. New ways of thinking and flexible forms of resource governance are urgently required to address these challenges. In particular, a greater understanding and consideration of interdependencies and interlinkages across water, energy and food policy domains is required. The contemporary approach of constructing water, energy, and food as a nexus has been strongly promoted as a global research agenda and emerging development paradigm. At the core of nexus thinking is the recognition that water, energy and food resources are interlinked in a web of complex interactions in which use and availability are interdependent. The way of thinking encouraged by the nexus reinvigorates the call for the adaptation of existing governance frameworks to better reflect and respond to intersectoral interdependencies such that trade-offs may be managed and synergies exploited. The assumption is that this will lead to better management of these resources, mitigating the negative impacts of water, energy and food insecurity. Increased scholarly and policy attention notwithstanding, the water, energy and food nexus is not a clearly defined construct, nor a tested and accepted framework. It remains an emerging agenda that encounters significant conceptual and practical challenges. This book investigates existing conceptualisations of the water, energy and food nexus, particularly in relation to its application to water, energy, and food policy domains, to identify its underlying utility. Based on a construction of the water, energy and food nexus as a lens through which intersectoral interdependencies can be considered and prioritised in decision-making, the investigation in this book advances to consider the implication of nexus thinking for law. In particular, this book investigates the factors requiring reflection within the law to enable vertical and horizontal coordination across the water, energy and food nexus. This entails positioning law within the broader institutional context shaping political decision-making across water, energy and food policy domains to understand what role the law plays in enabling and constraining coordination. Through organisational, doctrinal and empirical analyses of existing coordination processes in the case study site of Cape Town, South Africa, lessons are drawn from the successes and failures such that an understanding is constructed of the nature and content of an enabling regulatory environment. Recommendations are then made for those factors requiring reflection within the regulatory design to better support coordination across the water, energy and food nexus.

Sweetgrass (Anthoxanthum nitens) is a culturally and environmentally significant perennial grass to many Indigenous Peoples; however, little is known about the potential of Sweetgrass as a contributor to soil health, biodiversity, and climate adaptation. Here, a team of transdisciplinary experts from academia, a non-governmental organization, and a First Nation community collaborated to investigate the structural composition of the rhizomes, stems, and leaves of greenhouse-grown Sweetgrass in comparison to other Poaceae grass members found in a nearby field. The data shows that the monosaccharide composition of A. nitens was evenly distributed throughout the three tissues, and that cellulose was the predominant polysaccharide followed by glucuronoararbinoxylans. There were lesser amounts of xyloglucans, mixed-linkage glucans, homogalacturonans, and rhamnogalacturonans as the hemicellulosic and pectic polysaccharides, respectively. The carbohydrate composition seen in A. nitens was consistent with the other Poaceae grasses evaluated in this study, with the exception of Setaria chondrachne, which contained elevated pectin levels in its stems and leaves. Additionally, the analysis of the carbohydrate content within the soil samples revealed a higher abundance of carbohydrates within greenhouse soil when compared to field soil samples, with significantly more mannose, galactose, and galacturonic acid. Further, there were structural differences in the microbial communities across sampling sites, including a significant increase in the abundance of Bacillus spp. in the greenhouse soil. Overall, this study provides the glycome and associated soil microbial community baseline for greenhouse-grown Sweetgrass.

Islamic Religious Education plays a significant role in shaping students' character with good morals, both in terms of spiritual piety and social character. The interactive and contextual PAI learning model serves as an alternative for character building among students. This article employs a qualitative approach with a type of library research. Through library research, this article aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of various relevant literatures, such as books, scholarly journal articles, and other documents related to the researched topic. There are two types of data sources in this article: primary and secondary. Primary data is derived from books and journal articles that specifically discuss interactive and contextual PAI learning models as well as strategies for strengthening students' character. Secondary data includes scientific works, proceedings, research reports, and other supporting documents that enrich the understanding of the discussed topic. This article presents findings on interactive and contextual PAI learning models for building students' character, which include: the understanding model through experience, the understanding model through habituation, the understanding model through exemplary, and the contextual learning model.