OPUS: Open Ulethbridge Scholarship
Open ULeth Scholarship (OPUS) is the University of Lethbridge's open access research repository. It contains a collection of materials related to research and teaching produced by the academic community.
Self-archiving your research in OPUS is one way to meet Open Access policies of granting agencies. It is important to retain your final, post-peer-reviewed drafts for submission to OPUS, as this is often the only version publishers will allow to be archived. Click here for information on the U of L Open Access Policy.
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Now showing 1 - 5 of 35
Recent Submissions
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SEE-IQ chart handout
(2025) Craig, Romany
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Quality control impacts on total precipitation gauge records for montane valley and ridge sites in SW Alberta, Canada
(MDPI, 2022) Barnes, Celeste; Hopkinson, Christopher
his paper presents adjustment routines for Geonor totalizing precipitation gauge data collected from the headwaters of the Oldman River, within the southwestern Alberta Canadian Rockies. The gauges are situated at mountain valley and alpine ridge locations with varying degrees of canopy cover. These data are prone to sensor noise and environment-induced measurement errors requiring an ordered set of quality control (QC) corrections using nearby weather station data. Sensor noise at valley sites with single-vibrating wire gauges accounted for the removal of 5% to 8% (49–76 mm) of annual precipitation. This was compensated for by an increase of 6% to 8% (50–76 mm) from under-catch. A three-wire ridge gauge did not experience significant sensor noise; however, the under-catch of snow resulted in 42% to 52% (784–1342 mm) increased precipitation. When all QC corrections were applied, the annual cumulative precipitation at the ridge demonstrated increases of 39% to 49% (731–1269 mm), while the valley gauge adjustments were −4% to 1% (−39 mm to 13 mm). Public sector totalizing precipitation gauge records often undergo minimal QC. Care must be exercised to check the corrections applied to such records when used to estimate watershed water balance or precipitation orographic enhancement. Systematic errors at open high-elevation sites may exceed nearby valley or forest sites.
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Making the cut...ethically: how barbers and hairdressers can safely respond to customer mental health crises
(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 2025) Fraser, Lee; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education; McBride, Dawn L.
This project explores the ethical implications of barbers and hairdressers encountering their customers’ personal disclosures and mental health challenges. Customers may view their barbers and hairdressers as supportive spaces for discussing mental health, which can place these professionals in situations where they may lack the necessary ethical and mental health training to protect the well-being of themselves and their customers. While limited mental health discussion education exists for hairdressers and barbers, a review contained within this project indicates that it often fails to address ethical concerns that are germane to managing disclosures and discussions of personal mental health issues.
To explore the potential ethical considerations surrounding these interactions, a fictional case study was created to raise awareness among professionals in this field and promote education on these important topics. The project further examines the potential ethical implications of mental health discussions and offers recommendations based on existing literature on ethics in psychological services. It is hoped that the insights and recommendations derived from this project will inform future training programs for barbers and hairdressers, equipping them to engage with mental health concerns and their clientele in a more ethical and informed manner. A manuscript accompanies this project, included as an appendix, intended for publication in a barbering and hairdressing trade publication.
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Montane seasonal and elevational precipitation gradients in the southern Rockies of Alberta, Canada
(Wiley, 2025) Barnes, Celeste; MacDonald, Ryan J.; Hopkinson, Chris
Modelling precipitation inputs in mountainous terrain is challenging for water resource managers given sparse monitoring sites and complex physical hydroclimatic processes. Government of Alberta weather station uncorrected and bias-corrected precipitation datasets were used to examine elevational precipitation gradients (EPGs) and seasonality of EPGs for six South-Saskatchewan River headwater sites (alpine, sub-alpine, valley). January EPG from valley to alpine sites (730 m elevation difference) using uncorrected precipitation was 19 mm/100 m. Corrected EPG was approximately three times greater (61 mm/100 m). The valley received more precipitation than the alpine (inverse EPG) in late spring and summer. A seasonal signal was present whereby all sites demonstrated 50%–70% lower summertime precipitation relative to winter months, with the greatest seasonal variance at the alpine site. Winter watershed-level spatialized precipitation volume was compared to modelled snow water equivalent (SWE) associated with two late-winter airborne lidar surveys. Uncorrected volumes (2020: 64.0 × 106m3, 2021: 63.2 × 106m3) were slightly higher than modelled mean SWE (2020: 51.6 × 106m3, 2021: 44.2 × 106m3) whereas bias-corrected (2020: 120.5 × 106m3, 2021: 119.7 × 106m3) almost doubled the estimate. Corrected precipitation is assumed closer to the true value. Cumulative sublimation, evaporation and snowmelt losses result in ground-level snowpack yield that deviates from total atmospheric precipitation in an increasingly negative manner. The 2020/2021 simulations suggest wintertime atmospheric precipitation exceeds late-winter snowpack accumulation by up to 57% and 63%, respectively. A loss of 16 × 106m3 (7%) watershed SWE from the alpine zone was partially attributed to redistribution downslope to the treeline-ecotone. Physical snowpack losses from sublimation and melt, or modelling uncertainty due to precipitation correction and alpine snow-density uncertainties can also contribute to observed discrepancies between in situ SWE and cumulative precipitation. Ignoring bias-correction in headwater precipitation estimates can greatly impact headwater precipitation volume estimates and ignoring EPG seasonality is likely to result in under-estimated winter and over-estimated summer yields.
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Atomic mutagenesis of stop codon nucleotides reveals the chemical prerequisites for release factor-mediated peptide release
(National Academy of Sciences, 2018) Hoernes, Thomas Philipp; Clementi, Nina; Juen, Michael Andreas; Shi, Xinying; Faserl, Klaus; Willi, Jessica; Gasser, Catherina; Kreutz, Christoph; Joseph, Simpson; Lindner, Herbert; Hüttenhofer, Alexander; Erlacher, Matthias D.
Termination of protein synthesis is triggered by the recognition of a stop codon at the ribosomal A site and is mediated by class I release factors (RFs). Whereas in bacteria, RF1 and RF2 promote termination at UAA/UAG and UAA/UGA stop codons, respectively, eukaryotes only depend on one RF (eRF1) to initiate peptide release at all three stop codons. Based on several structural as well as biochemical studies, interactions between mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA have been proposed to be required for stop codon recognition. In this study, the influence of these interactions was investigated by using chemically modified stop codons. Single functional groups within stop codon nucleotides were substituted to weaken or completely eliminate specific interactions between the respective mRNA and RFs. Our findings provide detailed insight into the recognition mode of bacterial and eukaryotic RFs, thereby revealing the chemical groups of nucleotides that define the identity of stop codons and provide the means to discriminate against noncognate stop codons or UGG sense codons.