bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of pretreatments on quality of minimally processed cooking banana variety alukesel(Musa acuminata × Musa balbisiana, ABB group)
Authors: Siriwardana H , Abeywickrama K , Kannangara S
Published: February 2015

Cooking banana is a vegetable which can be stored for longer periods in intact form but undergoes browning soon after slicing. A study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of selected pretreatments in maintaining quality of minimally processed cooking banana variety Alukesel. Minimally processed Alukesel was subjected to pretreatments of ascorbic acid (3%), citric acid (3%), ascorbic acid (2%), citric acid (2%), citric acid + ascorbic acid (1.5% each), sodium metabisulphite (2%) and distilled water (control), packed in polystyrene packages and stored at 5-7°C for a week. The effects of pretreatments on sensory and physicochemical properties (percentage weight loss, changes in firmness, pH, Total Soluble Solids (TSS) and Titratable Acidity (TA)) were evaluated on day 0 and day 7, while browning was assessed using a spectrophotometric method. Pretreatments had a significant effect on physicochemical and sensory attributes of minimally processed cooking banana compared to control. Ascorbic acid (3%), citric acid (3%) and citric acid + ascorbic acid (1.5% each) pretreated cooking banana obtained higher ranking values for sensory properties (appearance, colour, odour, flavour, taste and overall acceptability) while the same three pretreatments and sodium metabisulphite (2%) pretreatment effectively controlled enzymatic browning. This research revealed that pretreatments of ascorbic acid (3%), citric acid (3%) and citric acid + ascorbic acid (1.5% each) were more successful in retaining quality of minimally processed cooking banana for one week in cold storage. It could be concluded that Alukesel treated as above can be considered as a potential value added sale item at local supermarkets where cold storage facility is available. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/jas.v10i1.8042 The Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 2015, vol.10, no: p.11-20
Interaction effect of heat shock and seed priming on storability of Agropyron elongatum
Authors: Bahreh M Akbarpour , Zadeh F Sharif
Published: February 2015

Priming improves germination rate and seed vigor but reduces longevity of seeds. We examined the possibilities of obatining primed seeds with maintaining high germination quality but with longevity much the same that seeds are not treated. In this study were used different priming treatments for Agropyron elongatum. Then primed seeds were placed at different levels of heat shock. And then all treatments and unprimed seeds were evaluated in standard germination and accelerated ageing test. We found that the desired longevity could be obtained by keeping the seeds under heat shock for four hours at 40°C, after a priming treatment. Decreasing germination and seedling vigour in hydro and hormonal priming did not happaen again due to such a treatment. In addition, following priming, heat shock affects the initial quality of primed seeds in some treatments. Optimal temperature was strongly duration dependent. The method was applied to obtain primed seeds without loss of storability is very similar to those used to induce desiccation tolerance in germinated seeds and acquired thermotolerance in plant vegetative tissues. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/jas.v10i1.8045 The Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 2015, vol.10, no1: p.29-40
Reprogramming of Monocytes by GM-CSF Contributes to Regulatory Immune Functions during Intestinal Inflammation
Authors: Däbritz Jan , Weinhage Toni , Varga Georg , Wirth Timo , Walscheid Karoline , Brockhausen Anne , Schwarzmaier David , Brückner Markus , Ross Matthias , Bettenworth Dominik , Roth Johannes , Ehrchen Jan M. , Foell Dirk
Published: February 2015

Human and murine studies showed that GM-CSF exerts beneficial effects in intestinal inflammation. To explore whether GM-CSF mediates its effects via monocytes, we analyzed effects of GM-CSF on monocytes in vitro and assessed the immunomodulatory potential of GM-CSF–activated monocytes (GMaMs) in vivo. We used microarray technology and functional assays to characterize GMaMs in vitro and used a mouse model of colitis to study GMaM functions in vivo. GM-CSF activates monocytes to increase adherence, migration, chemotaxis, and oxidative burst in vitro, and primes monocyte response to secondary microbial stimuli. In addition, GMaMs accelerate epithelial healing in vitro. Most important, in a mouse model of experimental T cell–induced colitis, GMaMs show therapeutic activity and protect mice from colitis. This is accompanied by increased production of IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13, and decreased production of IFN-γ in lamina propria mononuclear cells in vivo. Confirming this finding, GMaMs attract T cells and shape their differentiation toward Th2 by upregulating IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13 in T cells in vitro. Beneficial effects of GM-CSF in Crohn’s disease may possibly be mediated through reprogramming of monocytes to simultaneously improved bacterial clearance and induction of wound healing, as well as regulation of adaptive immunity to limit excessive inflammation.
A typical case of myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers (MERRF) and the lessons learned
Authors: Chandra SR , Issac TG , Gayathri N , Gupta N , Abbas MM
Published: February 2015

Mitochondrial diseases have a special predilection to involve the brain in view of its high metabolic demand and the tendency for the formation of excitatory neurotransmitters when there is deficiency of intracellular ATP. These diseases have a great phenotypic variation and need a high degree of suspicion. However, some specific syndromes are well defined, both genotypically and phenotypically. Some of the drugs are potentially fatal mitochondrial poisons and an insight into that may be lifesaving as well as prevent serious morbidities. We report a typical case of myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers (MERRF) with classical phenotype and genotype. There was rapid multiaxial deterioration with the introduction of sodium valproate which partly reversed on introducing mitochondrial cocktail and withdrawal of the offending drug. Sodium valproate, phenobarbitone, chloramphenicol and many anti-viral agents are mitochondrial poisons that increase the morbidity and mortality in patients with mitochondrial disease. More harm to the patient can be avoided with insight into this information.
Stacks of group representations
Authors: Balmer Paul
Published: February 2015

We start with a small paradigm shift about group representations, namely the observation that restriction to a subgroup can be understood as an extension-of-scalars. We deduce that, given a group

G

, the derived and the stable categories of representations of a subgroup

H

can be constructed out of the corresponding category for

G

by a purely triangulated-categorical construction, analogous to étale extension in algebraic geometry.

In the case of finite groups, we then use descent methods to investigate when modular representations of the subgroup

H

can be extended to

G

. We show that the presheaves of plain, derived and stable representations all form stacks on the category of finite

G

-sets (or the orbit category of

G

), with respect to a suitable Grothendieck topology that we call the
sipp topology
.

When

H

contains a Sylow subgroup of

G

, we use sipp Čech cohomology to describe the kernel and the image of the homomorphism

T(G)\to T(H)

, where

T(-)

denotes the group of endotrivial representations.
Transmission Electron Microscopy Analysis of Skin Lesions from Sporotrichosis Epidemic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Authors: Ferreira Cassio Porto , Oliveira de Almeida Ana Cristina , Corte-Real Suzana
Published: February 2015

Transmission electron microscopy can yield useful information in a range of scientific fields; it is capable of imaging at a significantly higher resolution than light microscopes and has been a very useful tool in the identification of morphological changes of the dermis as well as assessment of changes in the extracellular matrix. Our aim is to characterize by electron microscopy the cellular profile of lesions caused by Sporothrix schenckii from the sporotrichosis epidemic in its zoonotic form that occurs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
International exhaustion of trade marks and parallel imports in the US and the EU: how to achieve symmetry?
Authors: Zappalaglio Andrea
Published: February 2015

The differences in the management of the exhaustion of trade mark rights and, consequently, of parallel importations in the US and the EU cause some asymmetries in the international trade between these two subjects, especially concerning the exchange of grey goods. The article conducts a critical analysis of the origins of this problem and suggests that, given that a general reform of the EU policy is highly unlikely, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership could be the right instrument for establishing a bilateral sui generis system of parallel importations between the US and the EU. In this system, Europe should apply some American concepts such as the common control doctrine, thus making its internal market more open and competitive.
Hair Mercury Levels in Periodontal Patients in Comparison with Healthy Individuals
Authors: Khafri Soraya , Roushan Hamidreza Hasanjani , Parsian Hadi , Alijannia Ramin , Mosapour Abbas
Published: February 2015

Introduction

The clinical manifestation of periodontal diseases (such as gingivitis and chronic periodontitis) results from a complex interplay between the etiologic agents such as bacteria that present in the dental plaque, genetic factors, systemic diseases, smoking and exposure of some heavy metals, such as mercury. In this study, we aimed to evaluate hair mercury levels in healthy subjects in comparison with periodontal patients.

Materials and methods

One hundred twenty subjects were enrolled in this study. The included persons were divided into 3 groups: healthy subjects (n = 40), gingivitis (n = 40) and chronic periodontitis patients (n = 40). Hair samples were collected from occipital area of head. Total mercury levels were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

Results

The difference between mercury levels in three groups were statistically significant (p-value < 0.001). Mercury level in periodontitis patients was greater than the gingivitis group (p-value < 0.001). In addition the differences between mercury levels in periodontitis patients vs healthy individuals was significant (p-value = 0.048). The gingivitis patients had lower levels of mercury than the control group, but the difference was not significant (p-value = 0.170).

Conclusion

The results showed that the levels of mercury are to some extent differed in periodontal diseases in comparison with the healthy individuals. A study with larger sample size is needed for clarification of this issue.

How to cite this article

Roushan HH, Parsian H, Alijannia R, Mosapour A, Khafri S. Hair Mercury Levels in Periodontal Patients in Comparison with Healthy Individuals. World J Dent 2014;5(3):166-169.
Recent Graduates’ Perspective of Bachelors of Dental Surgery Program at KKU, College of Dentistry, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Report
Authors: Togoo Rafi Ahmad , Al-Shahrani Ibrahim , Syed Sadatullah
Published: February 2015

This questionnaire survey of recent graduates was carried to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the undergraduate training program for dentists at the King Khalid University College of Dentistry (KKU/COD), Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire focussed on seven key areas of interest to a pioneer dental school, in a region where many patients are visiting the dentist for the first time. Almost all the graduates surveyed returned completed questionnaires (99% response rate). Study was conducted at the end of the internship year.

Respondents were generally satisfied with the quality of their training, skills acquired, the adequacy of tools of training (clinical and laboratory equipment). Training was also adjudged relevant and adequate for future practice as General Dental Practitioners. Most of the respondents planned to undergo postgraduate training in a dental specialty after the internship year. Two areas of weakness were cited by survey participants—inadequate patients and patient referral system, clinical support staff-related issues. Much more was expected of faculty and support staff than the program provided during their training.

It is hoped that findings of this survey will be considered along with other on-going evaluations of the KKU/COD program in the continuous improvement of the BDS training.

How to cite this article

Al-Shahrani I, Togoo RA, Syed S. Recent Graduates’ Perspective of Bachelors of Dental Surgery Program at KKU, College of Dentistry, Saudi Arabia: A Report. World J Dent 2014;5(3):174-179.
Osteosarcoma of Mandible: A Rare Report with Literature Review
Authors: Paul George , Sekar B , Augustine Dominic , Ramesh Maya , Murali S
Published: February 2015

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a commonly encountered bone malignancy. It is an aggressive lesion which usually follows a fatal course. Osteosarcoma of jaw bones are rare, representing only 4 to 8% of all osteosarcomas which makes this case interesting to report. A case of OS affecting the mandible of a 35-year-old male which is rare is presented here along with literature review.

How to cite this article

Augustine D, Ramesh M, Murali S, Sekar B, Paul G. Osteosarcoma of Mandible: A Rare Report with Literature Review. World J Dent 2014;5(3):190-192.
Results of a School-Based Evidence-Based Practice Initiative
Authors: Cahill Susan M. , Egan Brad E. , Wallingford Minetta , Huber-Lee Cheryl , Dess-McGuire Margret
Published: February 2015

OBJECTIVE. To investigate the effects of a 17-mo initiative designed to increase practitioners’ knowledge and skills related to evidence-based practice (EBP) in the schools.

METHOD. We evaluated participants’ EBP knowledge and skills at pretest and posttest using the Adapted Fresno Test (AFT) and collected their perceptions through a survey.

RESULTS. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in their EBP knowledge and skills after participating in this initiative as measured by changes in AFT scores. A significant difference was noted in scores between pretest (μ = 43.9, SD = 32.67) and posttest (μ = 74.66, SD = 33.99), t(28) = −5.645, p < .001.

CONCLUSION. This initiative was influential in increasing school-based practitioners’ EBP knowledge and skills.
Patients With Brain Tumors: Who Receives Postacute Occupational Therapy Services?
Authors: Chan Vincy , Xiong Chen , Colantonio Angela
Published: February 2015

Data on the utilization of occupational therapy among patients with brain tumors have been limited to those with malignant tumors and small samples of patients outside North America in specialized palliative care settings. We built on this research by examining the characteristics of patients with brain tumors who received postacute occupational therapy services in Ontario, Canada, using health care administrative data. Between fiscal years 2004–2005 and 2008–2009, 3,199 patients with brain tumors received occupational therapy services in the home care setting after hospital discharge; 12.4% had benign brain tumors, 78.2% had malignant brain tumors, and 9.4% had unspecified brain tumors. However, patients with benign brain tumors were older (mean age = 63.3 yr), and a higher percentage were female (65.2%). More than 90% of patients received in-home occupational therapy services. Additional research is needed to examine the significance of these differences and to identify factors that influence access to occupational therapy services in the home care setting.
University-Community Engagement: A grid-group analysis
Authors: Low David
Published: February 2015

University-community engagement involves complex issues, entangling multiple and interacting points of view, all of which operate in a wider dynamic evolving social environment. For this reason, there is often disagreement about why engagement is necessary or desirable, and whether there is one optimal method to practice it. To address this issue, I argue that university-community engagement can be examined as a form of enquiry. In this view, engagement is viewed as a system that arises through the recognition of the dissent it embodies. As such, enquiry functions to process disagreements into diverse methods of communication.

Most of the disagreements utilised by universities are derived from external sources, thus university-based enquiry must necessarily involve a dialogue with a broader community or environment. In this sense, university-community engagement can be viewed most generally as a method that processes disagreements into shared understandings through enquiry.

To demonstrate how university-community engagement functions from an enquiry point of view, I use Mary Douglas’ grid-group diagramming method to develop a critical typology for classifying university-community engagement. My modified grid-group diagram provides a structured typological space within which four distinct methods of university-community engagement can be identified and discussed – both in relation to their internal communicational characteristics, and in relation to each other.

The university-engagement grid-group diagram is constructed by locating each of Douglas’ four quadrants within Charles Peirce’s four methods of enquiry. Peirce’s work is introduced because each of his four methods of enquiry deals specifically with how disagreements are processed and resolved. When Peirce’s methods for fixing belief are located in Douglas’ grid-group diagram, they create a sense-making framework for university-community engagement. It is argued that the model offers a heuristic structure through which to view the diversity of university-community engagement and create shared understandings of the appropriateness of a wide range of possible engagement methods.
University-Community Engagement: What does it mean?
Authors: Onyx Jenny
Published: February 2015

This article reflects on the nature of Community-University engagement from a research focus. This entails several steps. In this I start with ‘engagement’ and what that might mean in the context of a University-based research centre. I then reflect on the nature of ‘community’ and the significance of the third sector globally and in Australia. The Centre for Australian Community Organisations and Management (CACOM) was the first research centre in Australia, and one of the first in the world designed explicitly to study the Community Sector and its impact. The article outlines one significant research program that emerged from the work of CACOM, namely the story of social capital research. This research was initiated by a request from community partners, and was carried out in collaboration with them. The research program led to several significant research projects which have had a major impact on theory and public policy. It challenges the nature of the University as ‘expert’ and illustrates the co-production of knowledge. The article concludes by discussing the various roles that the University can play within the co-production of research knowledge with the community, as collaborator in the research process itself, as mediator in the development of linking social capital between community and more powerful players, and as the potential site for independent and critical analysis.
Toward an Ideal Relational Ethic: Rethinking university-community engagement
Authors: Garlick Steve , Palmer Victoria J.
Published: February 2015

This paper explores how an ideal relational ethic based on Zygmunt Bauman’s (1995) notion of forms of togetherness is needed to underpin university-community engagement processes and practices. We focus on the notion of being-for, and suggest that it can be used as an ‘engagement bridge’ between higher education institutions, the creation of human capital and communities, and can be a means to achieve ethical outcomes to local concerns. Much of Bauman’s (1995; 2001; 2007) theoretical development has focussed on the liquidity of modernity, to give the impression that community - in the spatially, physically located and fixed sense of the term - no longer exists. This paper proposes that spatial dimensions, particularly in the context of developing relational ethics, are important. This is particularly so for paying adequate attention to context-specific values, principles and issues in communities, for developing enterprising human capital via engagement, and for addressing matters of socio-political importance such as the environment. Contemporary neo-liberal times require ethical and moral leadership from universities. This paper suggests that such leadership can be developed from focussing attention on the forms of togetherness fostered by university-community engagement.
Community-University Partnerships: Achieving continuity in the face of change
Authors: Silka Linda , Forrant Robert , Bond Brenda , Coffey Patricia , Toof Robin , Toomey Dan , Turcotte David , West Cheryl
Published: February 2015

A challenge that community-university partnerships everywhere will face is how to maintain continuity in the face of change. The problems besetting communities continually shift and the goals of the university partners often fluctuate. This article describes a decade-long strategy one university has successfully used to address this problem. Over the past ten years, a community-university partnership at the University of Massachusetts Lowell has used summer content funding to respond creativity to shifting priorities. Each summer a research-action project is developed that targets a different content issue that has emerged with unexpected urgency. Teams of graduate students and high school students are charged with investigating this issue under the auspices of the partnership. These highly varied topics have included immigrant businesses, youth asset mapping, women owned businesses, the housing crisis, social program cutbacks, sustainability, and economic development and the arts. Despite their obvious differences, these topics share underlying features that further partnership commitment and continuity. Each has an urgency: the information is needed quickly, often because some immediate policy change is under consideration. Each topic has the advantage of drawing on multiple domains: the topics are inherently interdisciplinary and because they do not “belong” to any single field, they lend themselves to disciplines pooling their efforts to achieve greater understanding. Each also has high visibility: their salience has meant that people were often willing to devote scarce resources to the issues and also that media attention could easily be gained to highlight the advantages of students, partners, and the university working together. And the topics themselves are generative: they have the potential to contribute in many different ways to teaching, research, and outreach. This paper ends with a broader consideration of how partnerships can implement this model for establishing continuity in the face of rapidly shifting priorities and needs.
Gateways: Expanding knowledge through broader participation
Authors: Nyden Phil , Ashton Paul , Davis Julie , Krogh Marilyn , Miller Reuben , O'Loughlin Pauline , Van Zytveld David
Published: February 2015

This new journal, Gateways: International Journal of Community

Research and Engagement, responds to a growing global movement

of university-collaborative research initiatives. It also strives to fill a

gap created by the sparse number of journals which publish

outcomes of community-engaged research and work concerning

community engagement. We seek articles based on research that is

the result of actively engaged research-practitioner collaborative

projects, has the potential of informing community-based activities or

develops understanding of community engagement. Combining

different knowledge bases that have traditionally been separated into

academic and non-academic worlds can dramatically increase

information flowing to scholars, community leaders and activists

seeking to improve the quality of life in local communities around the

world. We also wish to encourage work that contributes to the

scholarship of engagement.
Health and Human Rights: New challenges for social responsiveness
Authors: London Leslie , Heap Marion , Baldwin-Ragaven Laurel
Published: February 2015

South Africa’s struggle against apartheid discrimination, including struggles in the health sector, laid the basis for a vibrant engagement of staff and students in human rights research, teaching and outreach in the Health Sciences Faculty at the University of Cape Town (UCT). This article provides a brief overview of this background context, then shows how this engagement has continued with new challenges emerging in the post-apartheid democratic period. Teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels has been complemented by a programme of ‘Training the Trainers’ in health and human rights. The programme targets teachers of health professionals at institutions in South and Southern Africa, resulting in national adoption of human rights competencies as an essential component of health professionals’ skills base. Research has also extended lessons learnt from the apartheid period into work with vulnerable groups, such as rural farm workers and the deaf, and seeks to build the capacity of marginal populations to change the conditions of their vulnerability in order to realize their rights. Partnerships with civil society organisations have been a strong thread, creating new knowledge and new ways of joint work towards realizing the right to health, including advocacy engagement in civil society movements and regional networks. Further, a focus on health professionals’ practice, in terms of dealing with potential dual loyalty conflicts and their role as gatekeepers in the health services on matters of patients’ rights, has shaped the research agenda. This article illustrates how knowledge production for the public good extends beyond notions of enhancing economic productivity for national development and provides a base for transdisciplinary and transinstitutional engagement. Additionally, non-traditional forms of knowledge networking and transfer have also been explored, including engagement with policy-makers and health managers. Finally, it is shown how the portfolio of social responsiveness activities in the health and human rights envelope has offered significant and novel mutual benefits to the University and the community.
The Cell-Life Project: Converging technologies in the context of HIV/AIDS
Authors: Rivett Ulrike , Tapson Jonathan
Published: February 2015

This article presents the development of a technology initiative called Cell-Life which addresses the need for information management in the HIV/AIDS sector. Cell-Life started in 2001 as a research collaboration between staff of the Engineering Faculties at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Based on the need to support the primary health care sector in providing sustainable treatment options for HIV+ people in under-resourced and rural areas, converging technologies were identified as a possible solution for creating a ‘virtual infrastructure’ between the patient and the medical staff.

In 2003 the Government of South Africa clarified in its operational plan for HIV/AIDS that anti-retroviral treatment (ART) increased life expectancy of people living with AIDS. It also highlighted that provision of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) required the regular assessment of the compliance rate to the treatment plan in order to avoid side effects and multiple resistant strains. For under-resourced primary health care centres in disadvantaged areas, HIV/AIDS treatment, and particularly the requirement to monitor patients regularly, became a near impossible task.

Cell-Life investigated the use of readily available information and communication technologies to support the provision and distribution of medication, continuous patient monitoring, and communication of relevant data. By combining open source software, cellular technologies and a new approach to software design, a variety of solutions were developed that would take cognisance of the context of HIV/AIDS support and treatment across the country.

In 2006 Cell-Life became a not-for-profit organisation and was spun out of the University of Cape Town. The organization currently implements Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems that (as of late 2009) manage the dispensation of ARVs to approximately 70 000 patients, representing one-sixth of South Africans on state- or donor-sponsored ART. This article reflects on the development of Cell-Life as a case study for one of the first socially responsible research projects in the Engineering field at UCT and highlights some of the challenges, enablers and barriers experienced.
Transformative education: Pathways to identity, independence and hope
Authors: Howard Peter , Butcher Jude , Egan Luke
Published: February 2015

In 2008–2010, the Australian Government’s social inclusion agenda and the Bradley Review of Higher Education profiled the importance of education for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. This education needs to be transformative in both its nature and its outcomes. The Clemente Australia program is presented here as a means of providing such transformative education for people who are disadvantaged or socially isolated. This case study of Clemente Australia shows how the program is built upon a psychology of hope and provides pathways not only to new hope but also to a new sense of identity and independence.

Clemente Australia (CA) is an example of community embedded, socially supported university education (CESS). Essential elements of CA are respecting people for who they are and for where they are within their individual life journeys; building student capacity to be more proactive in reflecting upon and engaging with the world; learning with and relating to others; and promoting educative justice through the recognition of the students’ human rights to participate in tertiary education in a way that meets their personal and academic learning needs.

For the students, the university (Australian Catholic University) and other partners in CA, it is evident that there has been an ongoing shift from dependence upon the provision of materials and services to empowerment and enhanced capabilities in identifying the supports and processes required to meet the personal and professional needs of students, staff and community agencies. This shift has occurred through the scaffolding processes provided, the establishment of innovative partnerships and purposeful reflection. It has involved listening to one another, welcoming people into new worlds and challenging one another in the provision of transformative education to realise the fulfilment of hope for many Australians experiencing disadvantage.

key words: transformation; education; community; hope; homelessness; disadvantage
Rediscovering community: Interethnic relationships and community gardening
Authors: Hoffman August John , Wallach Julie , Sanchez Eduardo
Published: February 2015

Community service work, volunteerism and mentoring have recently become popular topics of research as effective methods in improving self-esteem and civic responsibility. In the current study we explored the relationship between participation in a community service gardening program and ethnocentrism. We hypothesised that an inverse correlation would emerge where students who participated in a community service-gardening program would increase their perceptions of the importance of community service work and decrease their scores in ethnocentrism. Results of the paired samples t-test strongly support the hypothesis that community service gardening work significantly reduces reports of ethnocentrism: t(10) = -2.52, (p < .03) for community college students. The ramifications of the study and ramifications for future research are offered.
It’s the Basement Stories, not the Belt: Lessons from a community-university knowledge mobilisation collaboration
Authors: Phipps David , Zanotti Daniele
Published: February 2015

Since 2006, United Way of York Region and York University have been collaborating to support community-university knowledge mobilisation and research collaborations that serve the human service needs of citizens in York Region. Ours is a sustained and sustainable community-university collaboration. What makes us sustainable? Certainly there is no single sustainability panacea (‘do this and you to will have a sustainable community-university collaboration’) but, in general, if you pay attention to the little details, the big things (like sustainability) will take care of themselves. Looking back we realise that the journey (our evolving collaboration) is more important than the destination (sustainability). We share our journey by interpreting a story about a family trip one of us (Daniele) made to see relatives. What happened when Daniele visited his relatives is an allegory for our community-university knowledge mobilisation story and is instructive for those forging community-university collaborations. We illustrate each of the lessons with examples from our experience.

Keywords

Community-university collaboration, knowledge mobilisation, shared history, evolution of partnership, sustainability
Sustaining Community-University Collaborations: The Durham University Model
Authors: Russell Andrew , Cattermole Andy , Hudson Ray , Banks Sarah , Armstrong Andrea , Robinson Fred , Pain Rachel , Gollan Sharon , Brown Greg
Published: February 2015

Durham University has initiated a community outreach and engagement program based on an evolving multifaceted model. This article analyses the components of the model and looks at how our work at Durham has become increasingly embedded in the structures and processes of the university as it has developed. The strengths and weaknesses in what has been achieved are highlighted, as is the future vision for the further development of this innovative community-university program.

Keywords

Public engagement; community partnerships; employer supported volunteering; corporate social responsibility
Building Castles Together: A sustainable collaboration as a perpetual work-in-progress
Authors: Vazquez Jacobus Michelle , Baskett Robert , Bechstein Christina
Published: February 2015

The Building Castles Together project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between the University of Southern Maine at Lewiston-Auburn College and Sandcastle Clinical and Educational Services that aims to build solidarity and resilience in vulnerable young children, their families and their community. This article explores how the partnership exemplifies five key areas impacting the sustainability of community-university collaborations. 1) Mutuality and reciprocity are foundational elements in establishing trust and ensuring project relevance to both organisations. 2) Interdisciplinarity and diversity are constructs related to the core mission of both the University and Sandcastle. The multiple perspectives offer a range of holistic strategies for addressing complex social problems, but also create the potential for misunderstandings between disciplines and organisations. 3) Community integration at multiple levels is critical to the partnership’s sustainability as well as to achievement of its ideals. 4) Dynamic interaction is an evolutionary process, both internal and external to both organisations, that impacts their relative contributions and necessitates flexibility in planning and outcomes. 5) Asset enhancement describes the potential to increase capacity, but also the concern for overextension and resource exhaustion. We conclude that sustainability in university-community partnerships is not a goal in itself, but an ongoing process, and an attribute of a partnership based on common principles, continuous input and constant change.

Keywords

Community-university partnership, sustainability, diversity, vulnerable youth
Engaging creative communities in an industrial city setting: A question of enclosure
Authors: Gibson Chris , Gallan Ben , Warren Andrew
Published: February 2015

This article discusses the politics and practicalities of research process in a major government-funded, academic/community collaborative research project on cultural assets in Wollongong, a regional industrial city 85 km south of Sydney, Australia. It does so through the theoretical concept of ‘enclosure’, which helps illuminate how policy discourses are framed, and reveals capacities to challenge and reframe policy imaginations through research. The setting is pivotal: Wollongong has a legacy of steel and coal industries that dominates contemporary discourses about the city’s future prosperity. Cultural industries such as music, film, art, circus and theatre have at various times been either marginalised as insignificant to economic futures or, when they have been noticed, have been worked into city planning in very particular ways – as cultural pastimes, as prospects for economic diversification or as means to renew socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Such visions have rested on notions of what constitutes ‘culture’ and ‘creativity’, with a focus on the performing arts, while other forms of vernacular creativity have remained largely unnoticed. Our research project has sought to respond to this, identifying and engaging with people involved in forms of vernacular creativity outside the arts orthodoxy among Wollongong’s blue-collar and youth populations (including surfboard shapers, Aboriginal rappers, custom car designers and alternative music subcultures). Our hope is that such engagement can better inform future planning for cultural industries in Wollongong. However, engaging with such creative communities is complicated, and in different times and places research strategies confronted apathy, suspicion, absence of representative organisation and ‘consultation fatigue’. We discuss our efforts at engagement with creative communities beyond the arts orthodoxy, and appraise some of the prospects and difficulties of the research methodologies adopted.

Keywords: Cultural industries, engagement, enclosure, community, vernacular creativity, Wollongong, Australia
'Dialogue, review and reflect': A spiral of co-learning and co-research to surface knowledge on the right to health
Authors: Stuttaford Maria , Glattstein-Young Gabriela , London Leslie
Published: February 2015

This article explores how participants of a Learning Network, comprising members of six civil society organisations and academics from four universities, understand and participate in a dialogical process of co-learning and knowledge generation about the right to health. First, we describe a co-research process that facilitates the surfacing of previously suppressed or undocumented knowledge on the right to health. Second, we explore how co-research captures and disseminates knowledge related to collective action undertaken by civil society organisations working towards translating the right to health into practice. While undertaking this exploration, we maintain an interest in an African appreciation of ‘collective’ knowledge. Through the dialogical process and spiral of reflection, power between the research partners has been shared and spaces for co-learning and co-research created. Subaltern knowledge on the right to health has been placed within a constellation of plural knowledges, rather than at the periphery. Surfacing ‘other’ knowledge on the right to health reflects the lived realities of people and assists in understanding how the right to health can be achieved in practice.

Keywords: Health and human rights, participatory action research, co-learning, co-research, knowledge, South Africa
Successes, challenges and lessons learned: Community-engaged research with South Carolina's Gullah population
Authors: Spruill Ida J. , Leite Renata Serricchio , Fernandes Jyotika K. , Kamen Diane L. , Ford Marvella E. , Jenkins Carolyn , Hunt Kelly J. , Andrews Jeannette O.
Published: February 2015

Engaging communities is highly recommended in the conduct of health research among vulnerable populations. The strength of community-engaged research is well documented and is recognised as a useful approach for eliminating health disparities and improving health equity. In this article, five interdisciplinary teams from the Medical University of South Carolina present their involvement with community-engaged research with a unique population of Gullah African Americans residing in rural South Carolina. Their work has been integrated with the nine established principles of community-engaged research: establishing clear goals, becoming knowledgeable about the community, establishing relationships, developing community self-determination, partnering with the community, maintaining respect, mobilising community assets, releasing control, and maintaining community collaboration.

In partnership with a Citizen Advisory Committee, developed at the inception of the first community-engaged research project, the academic researchers have been able to build on relationships and trust with this population to sustain partnerships and to meet major research objectives over a 20-year period. Challenges observed include structural inequality, organisational and cultural issues, and lack of resources for building sustainable research infrastructure. Lessons learned during this process include the necessity for clearly articulated and shared goals, knowledge about the community culture, and embedding the cultural context within research approaches.

Keywords: Engaged health research, vulnerable populations, longterm collaboration, South Carolina 'Gullah' communities
In Light of Visual Arts – A knowledge transfer partnership project as experiential learning
Authors: Lai Ming-hoi
Published: February 2015

Knowledge transfer between universities and the commercial sector is becoming more prevalent, and different processes have been adopted to facilitate the transfer of knowledge. The ‘In Light of Visual Arts’ project aimed to facilitate knowledge exchange in relation to an innovative concept, the ‘eco-philosophy of light’, between the lighting industry and the arts and cultural sector through an Informal Learning approach. Young visual artists, light designers and lighting technicians were encouraged to explore and exchange experiences in the areas of visual communication, art appreciation and art archiving to create practical lighting solutions. This project offers a feasible framework for the enhancement of artistic training through knowledge sharing, for the benefit of the participants themselves and, in turn, academia, industry and the community.

Keywords: informal learning, experiential learning, knowledge transfer, art education, interdisciplinary study
Community-based research decision-making: Experiences and factors affecting participation
Authors: Runnels Vivien , Andrew Caroline
Published: February 2015

From the post World War II period through to the present, scientific research and policy has increasingly reflected acceptance and implementation of a view that public interests are better served through public participation. Built on principles of democratic participation, community-based research (CBR) can produce new knowledge through the integration of knowledge of community members’ lived experience with the scientific and technical knowledge of academics. Although community-based research has experienced considerable recent attention as an approach to knowledge production, a specific focus on the participation of community members in decision-making or governance of CBR is sparse. To assist in understanding governance of CBR in Canada and the nature and extent of public participation, we conducted an interview-based qualitative study with 54 respondents. Arnstein’s (1969) theory of participation was used as the theoretical orientation. Respondents’ experiences showed their participation in governance was generally organised through four groups of factors that modified participation: pre-existing conditions, arrangements of governance, actions of academic actors, and actions of community actors. Although community members’ participation in governance was largely contingent on the arrangements, structures and actions controlled or formulated by academics, and despite their relatively limited access to and engagement with real decision-making power, in general community members’ participation was satisfactory to them. However, the highest level of participation that Arnstein envisaged was rarely attained. Awareness of theory and practice of participation in research decision-making can help research decision-makers put in place the conditions and means for realising democratic goals and knowledge co-production.

Keywords: governance, decision-making, community-based research, public participation, Arnstein
University and community partnerships in South Sulawesi, Indonesia: Enhancing community capacity and promoting democratic governance
Authors: Mastuti Sri , Masse Ambo , Tasruddin Ramsiah
Published: February 2015

South Sulawesi is a province in Indonesia where the majority of the population is Muslim, with many variant interpretations of Islam. Alauddin State Islamic University is not just a place for teaching and study but also plays a role in helping to unify the differences among these different Islamic groups. Its changing of status from institute to university in 2005, and later the support of the Canadian-assisted SILE Project beginning in 2010, have made this university an example of reform in the way it implements its functions. Since 2011, Alauddin State Islamic University has been developing a new approach in university-community outreach/engagement. What was formerly separated between teaching, research and community service is now linked under one institutional umbrella. The new university-community outreach approach has also adopted some new tools like Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and Results Based Management (RBM). It seeks to promote democratic governance, gender equality and a sustainable environment. The university also works in partnership with civil society organisations (CSOs) in South Sulawesi, including Islamic-based organizsations, secular organisations and women’s organisations. The model for the partnership is a working group (abbreviated to pokja in Indonesian), which comprises lecturers from a faculty in the university and members of a CSO. We discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by these working groups. Opportunities include increased advantages from pooling their organisational capacities and experience in working with communities. Sharing their networks and resources makes them stronger and makes their work more sustainable. The challenge lies in changing the mindset from a needs-based, project-oriented approach to an asset-based facilitative approach, comprehending the tools, managing time to work together and building effective teamwork. Keywords: university-community outreach, democratic governance, asset-based community development, opportunities and challenges