scholarly journals Inclusive technologies

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Dave L. Edyburn

Education is the investment a society makes in each new generation of children and youth. Given a future that may not look like the past, how do we re-assess the purpose of education? In the words of Aoun (2017), how do we robot-proof our curriculum in order to prepare students for a future where humans and robots will complete for jobs? The purpose of this article is to describe the concept of assistive technology and explore its transformation to technology-enhanced performance as a means of supporting the educational productivity of all learners. Examples are provided to help diverse learners in every classroom as they seek to meet high academic standards relative to executive functioning, reading, writing, and solving mathematical problems.

Author(s):  
John L. Hutchison

Over the past five years or so the development of a new generation of high resolution electron microscopes operating routinely in the 300-400 kilovolt range has produced a dramatic increase in resolution, to around 1.6 Å for “structure resolution” and approaching 1.2 Å for information limits. With a large number of such instruments now in operation it is timely to assess their impact in the various areas of materials science where they are now being used. Are they falling short of the early expectations? Generally, the manufacturers’ claims regarding resolution are being met, but one unexpected factor which has emerged is the extreme sensitivity of these instruments to both floor-borne and acoustic vibrations. Successful measures to counteract these disturbances may require the use of special anti-vibration blocks, or even simple oil-filled dampers together with springs, with heavy curtaining around the microscope room to reduce noise levels. In assessing performance levels, optical diffraction analysis is becoming the accepted method, with rotational averaging useful for obtaining a good measure of information limits. It is worth noting here that microscope alignment becomes very critical for the highest resolution.In attempting an appraisal of the contributions of intermediate voltage HREMs to materials science we will outline a few of the areas where they are most widely used. These include semiconductors, oxides, and small metal particles, in addition to metals and minerals.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lungwani Muungo

The purpose of this review is to evaluate progress inmolecular epidemiology over the past 24 years in canceretiology and prevention to draw lessons for futureresearch incorporating the new generation of biomarkers.Molecular epidemiology was introduced inthe study of cancer in the early 1980s, with theexpectation that it would help overcome some majorlimitations of epidemiology and facilitate cancerprevention. The expectation was that biomarkerswould improve exposure assessment, document earlychanges preceding disease, and identify subgroupsin the population with greater susceptibility to cancer,thereby increasing the ability of epidemiologic studiesto identify causes and elucidate mechanisms incarcinogenesis. The first generation of biomarkers hasindeed contributed to our understanding of riskandsusceptibility related largely to genotoxic carcinogens.Consequently, interventions and policy changes havebeen mounted to reduce riskfrom several importantenvironmental carcinogens. Several new and promisingbiomarkers are now becoming available for epidemiologicstudies, thanks to the development of highthroughputtechnologies and theoretical advances inbiology. These include toxicogenomics, alterations ingene methylation and gene expression, proteomics, andmetabonomics, which allow large-scale studies, includingdiscovery-oriented as well as hypothesis-testinginvestigations. However, most of these newer biomarkershave not been adequately validated, and theirrole in the causal paradigm is not clear. There is a needfor their systematic validation using principles andcriteria established over the past several decades inmolecular cancer epidemiology.


Author(s):  
Ieva Rodiņa

The aim of the research “Historical Memory in the Works of the New Generation of Latvian Theater Artists: The Example of “The Flea Market of the Souls” is to focus on the current but at the same time little discussed topic in Latvian theater – the change of generations and the social processes connected to it, that are expressed on the level of world views, experiences, intergenerational relationships. Most directly, these changes are reflected in the phenomenon of historical memory. The concept of “postmemory” was defined by German professor Marianne Hirsch in 1992, suggesting that future generations are closely related to the personal and collective cultural traumas of previous generations, which are passing on the past experience through historical memory, thus affecting the present. Grotesque, self-irony, and focusing on socio-political, provocative questions and themes are the connecting point of the generation of young Latvian playwrights born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including such personalities as Jānis Balodis, Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce, Matīss Gricmanis, Justīne Kļava, etc. However, unlike Matīss Gricmanis or Janis Balodis who represent the aesthetics of political theater, in Justīne Kļava’s works, sociopolitical processes become the background of a generally humanistic study of the relationships between generations. This theme is represented not only in “The Flea Market of the Souls”, but also in other plays, like “Jubilee ‘98” and “Club “Paradise””. The tendency to investigate the traces left by the Soviet heritage allows to define these works as autobiographical researches of the identity of the post-Soviet generation, analyzing life in today's Latvia in terms of historical memory. Using the semiotic, hermeneutic, phenomenological approach, the play “The Flea Market of the Souls” and its production in Dirty Deal Teatro (2017) are analyzed as one of the most vivid works reflecting the phenomenon of historical memory in recent Latvian original drama.


Author(s):  
Alexander Gillespie

The cumulative environmental challenge of sustainable development in the twenty-first century is larger than anything humanity has ever had to deal with in the past. The good news is that solid progress is being reached in the understanding of issues in scientific terms and understanding what needs to be done. The bad news is twofold. First, although many of the environmental problems of earlier centuries are now being confronted, a new generation of difficulties is eclipsing what were the older difficulties. Secondly, much of the progress is being achieved by the wealthier parts of the planet, rather than the developing world. From population growth to climate change to unprecedented habitat and species loss, whether environmental sustainability can be achieved in the twenty-first century is an open question.


BJHS Themes ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Erika Lorraine Milam

Abstract Charles Darwin's Descent of Man was suffused with questions of courtship, mating and sex. Following in his footsteps, biologists throughout the twentieth century interrogated the sexual behaviour of humans and animals. This paper charts the fate of evolutionary theories of sexuality to argue that – despite legal and social gains of the past century – when biologists used sexual selection as a tool for theorizing the evolution of homosexual behaviour (which happened only rarely), the effect of their theories was to continuously reinscribe normative heterosexuality. If, at the end of the nineteenth century, certain sex theorists viewed homosexuality as a marker of intermediate sex, by the late twentieth a new generation of evolutionary theorists idealized gay men as hyper-masculine biological males whose sexual behaviours were uncompromised by the necessity of accommodating women's sexual preferences. In both cases, normative assumptions about gender were interwoven with those about sexuality. By the twenty-first century, animal exemplars were again mobilized alongside data gathered about human sexual practices in defence of gay rights, but this time by creating the opportunity for naturalization without recourse to biological determinism.


BJHS Themes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 15-37
Author(s):  
Karine Chemla

AbstractThis essay approaches the knowledge required to write up and use instructions with a specific method. It relies on specific procedures taken from the Chinese canon The Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures (九章算術), which, in the author's view, was completed in the first century CE. These procedures enabled readers to do things. To analyse the type of knowledge required to produce these texts of procedures and to use them, the essay puts into play two layers of commentary. The ancient layer was written between the third and the seventh centuries, whereas the later layer was composed between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries. The author shows that these two layers of commentary read the same text of procedure differently, using different approaches and understanding it differently. The author also shows how the two layers of commentary use mathematical problems to approach a procedure, even though problems are used differently in the two contexts. This illustrates how, in different contexts, actors interpreted the same instructional text differently, both with respect to what the text meant and with respect to how one could make sense of it.


Author(s):  
Paul I Palmer

We have been observing the Earth's upper atmosphere from space for several decades, but only over the past decade has the necessary technology begun to match our desire to observe surface air pollutants and climate-relevant trace gases in the lower troposphere, where we live and breathe. A new generation of Earth-observing satellites, capable of probing the lower troposphere, are already orbiting hundreds of kilometres above the Earth's surface with several more ready for launch or in the planning stages. Consequently, this is one of the most exciting times for the Earth system scientists who study the countless current-day physical, chemical and biological interactions between the Earth's land, ocean and atmosphere. First, I briefly review the theory behind measuring the atmosphere from space, and how these data can be used to infer surface sources and sinks of trace gases. I then present some of the science highlights associated with these data and how they can be used to improve fundamental understanding of the Earth's climate system. I conclude the paper by discussing the future role of satellite measurements of tropospheric trace gases in mitigating surface air pollution and carbon trading.


2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-147
Author(s):  
Bosiljka Djordjevic ◽  
Slavica Maksic

The paper reviews approaches to the development of talents and creativity using surveys communicated in the 1975-2005 period at world, European and regional scientific conferences on gifted children and youth. Methods of studying and treating the gifted over the past three decades were analyzed on the basis of data available in records, proceedings of papers and other publications of the mentioned conferences as well as of personal findings of the present paper?s authors who participated in some of those conferences. In addition to identifying the subjects that captured attention of researchers and practitioners in a certain period of time, an attempt was made to describe trends in studying them and those likely ones for future work. The results indicate that the most frequent subjects under study were problems facing conception and definition of giftedness, talents and creativity, instruments for identifying gifted individuals, and manners of providing adequate education for them. Over time there was an increase in the number of studies related to identifying specific personality traits of a gifted individual and his environment, critical for his development and achievement. It is noticeable that interest in gifted children and youth is growing all the time, involving not only researchers and teachers but parents, the gifted themselves and other important social groups and institutions. It is concluded that encouraging talents and creativity in youth is a challenge to contemporary world, which will determine its future.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilo Gómez-Durán

Bullying and violence against transitioning children and youth within the Canadian educational system still continues to be a serious cause of stress for children. This paper supports a short documentary film (29 minutes), which includes interviews with children, parents, and teachers about a weeklong program called Gender Splendour that has been held for the past seven years at The Grove Community School in Toronto. Amid workshops during a week in April, non-binary-conforming and cisgender identifying children have the opportunity to ponder, question, and defy gender stereotypes, which are prevalent in society, culture, and the media. A background of the director of the film informs his trajectory as an activist communicator. In addition, some of his inspirational sources are included. Notions playing in the documentary related to activism, reflexive ethnography, performativity, and participatory dynamics, are explained. Producing a documentary on the subjects of sexuality and children surely poses difficulties related to ethics, consent, and representation, on which the author comments.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Barnard

In the past twenty years, there have been exciting new developments in the field of anthropology. This second edition of Barnard's classic textbook on the history and theory of anthropology has been revised and expanded to include up-to-date coverage on all the most important topics in the field. Its coverage ranges from traditional topics like the beginnings of the subject, evolutionism, functionalism, structuralism, and Marxism, to ideas about globalization, post-colonialism, and notions of 'race' and of being 'indigenous'. There are several new chapters, along with an extensive glossary, index, dates of birth and death, and award-winning diagrams. Although anthropology is often dominated by trends in Europe and North America, this edition makes plain the contributions of trendsetters in the rest of the world too. With its comprehensive yet clear coverage of concepts, this is essential reading for a new generation of anthropology students.


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