“I Hope I Make It”: Alternative School Students’ Attendance and the Need for an Expanded Accountability

Few empirical studies describe the interior world of alternative school settings. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 11 alternative school students, discussing factors that contribute to absenteeism as well as the circumstances that led them to enroll in an alternative setting. We find that students’ regular attendance is facilitated by (1) stable housing, (2) a means of transportation to school, (3) feelings of belonging, and (4) flexible supports from staff. Given that two of these pertain to matters beyond the school, we argue for an “expanded accountability,” in which the language of “accountability” is broadened to encompass non-educational policymaking.

Improving the earthquake resistance of a building on flexible supports with foundations for the conditions of the city of Almaty

This article describes the methods of strengthening foundations on flexible supports, such as pendulum, lead cores, damping connection, a design solution with switching connections, a seismic «invisibility cloak», which includes the creation of a cloak of 100 concentric plastic and concrete rings.

A qualitative study of autism services and supports in Singapore: Perspectives of service providers, autistic adults and caregivers

The lifelong and complex nature of autism necessitates an array of services and supports spanning across different sectors and providers at different life stages of an autistic individual. However, research has shown that autistic individuals and their families often experience barriers accessing the autism-related services and supports that they need. This is the first qualitative study to explore the provision and coordination of autism services and supports in Singapore from the perspectives of service providers, autistic adults and caregivers. Semi-structured interviews with 21 participants revealed three main themes: (1) improving access to autism-specific services, (2) creating flexible supports in an inclusive environment and (3) addressing stigma and changing societal attitudes. Our findings suggest that Singapore may have achieved rapid growth in autism services, but broader social structures may be slower to change. To better support autistic individuals in society, autistic voices need to be amplified and a collective effort is needed to achieve a paradigm shift from impairment to capability. Lay abstract Because autism is a lifelong and complex condition, autistic people may need a range of supports cutting across different sectors (e.g. health, education and social care) at different stages of their lives. Studies in some countries have shown that autistic people and their families face difficulties accessing the services they need, but no research has been done on this topic in Singapore. To start addressing this gap, we interviewed 21 service providers, autistic adults and caregivers/parents of autistic children to find out their perceptions and experiences of autism services and supports in Singapore. Our participants told us that beyond improving access to autism-specific services, they also hoped to see more flexible supports in an inclusive environment and a broader change in societal attitudes. This study highlights that autism service provision should be informed by autistic voices and not only focus on impairment but also recognise the strengths of autistic people alongside their very real needs. The whole of society – including policymakers, professionals, employers, educators, families and autistic people themselves – needs to work together to fight autism stigma and discrimination.

Dynamic Characteristics of a Misaligned Rigid Rotor System with Flexible Supports

A misaligned rigid rotor system with flexible supports differing from the traditional flexible rotor system, which refers to its practical rotating center line determined by supports offset from the theoretical one, often suffers support structure damage risk. In the present work, the dynamic characteristics of a misaligned rigid rotor system with flexible squirrel cage supports are focused, and the vibrations and the stress of its support structures under different misaligned offsets are investigated with experimental and simulated analysis. The finite element model for a rigid rotor system with flexible supports in a scaled test rig is established, and its strain energy distribution is analyzed to find that the first two modes of the system are referred to rigid-body modes and the strain energy is mainly distributed on the squirrel cage supports. Based on the analysis results, a rigid-flexible coupling dynamic model is proposed through a data exchange between ADAMS and ANSYS and validated by measurements. The misaligned conditions are focused on, and the influences of misalignment on the vibrations of the rigid rotor system and the reaction force and stress of its support structures are investigated analytically and experimentally. The results from simulation agree very well with the measurements and reveal that the static stress of squirrel cage increases just about proportionally with misalignment levels, but the vibration displacement amplitudes and stress amplitudes show very little change. The more serious the misaligned condition, the higher the static stress of the squirrel cage. Because misalignment will bring out the additional reaction forces in the misaligned direction, it will further result in higher stress and even more serious damage risk for the flexible supports than other parts in the rigid rotor system.