COVID-19 and the Homelessness Support Sector

This exploratory study sought to uncover service provider perspectives on the early response to COVID-19 in a small community in an advanced industrialized country - the homelessness support sector of the Central Okanagan, British Columbia. Following a case study approach, snowball sampling was utilized in May and June 2020 to achieve a sample size of 30 through a mix of one-on-one interviews and open-ended surveys. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to uncover commonalities among interview responses. Common themes are discussed in relation to three areas of questioning including challenges, successes, and mitigations/areas for future support. While the community came together to support the response, there were challenges and concerns regarding safety and personal protective equipment supplies, social distancing and knowledge transmission within the homeless community, access to food and water, and lack of space for isolating positive cases. The findings illustrate possible research, practice, public health policy, and emergency planning considerations within smaller communities.

Deep Else: A Critical Framework for AI Art

From a small community of pioneering artists who experimented with artificial intelligence (AI) in the 1970s, AI art has expanded, gained visibility, and attained socio-cultural relevance since the second half of the 2010s. Its topics, methodologies, presentational formats, and implications are closely related to a range of disciplines engaged in the research and application of AI. In this paper, I present a comprehensive framework for the critical exploration of AI art. It comprises the context of AI art, its prominent poetic features, major issues, and possible directions. I address the poetic, expressive, and ethical layers of AI art practices within the context of contemporary art, AI research, and related disciplines. I focus on the works that exemplify poetic complexity and manifest the epistemic or political ambiguities indicative of a broader milieu of contemporary culture, AI science/technology, economy, and society. By comparing, acknowledging, and contextualizing both their accomplishments and shortcomings, I outline the prospective strategies to advance the field. The aim of this framework is to expand the existing critical discourse of AI art with new perspectives which can be used to examine the creative attributes of emerging practices and to assess their cultural significance and socio-political impact. It contributes to rethinking and redefining the art/science/technology critique in the age when the arts, together with science and technology, are becoming increasingly responsible for changing ecologies, shaping cultural values, and political normalization.

Participatory GIS-Based Approach for the Demarcation of Village Boundaries and Their Utility: A Case Study of the Eastern Boundary of Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka

This study examines spatial knowledge of the local community and the participatory resource mapping (PRM) approach to demarcate land boundaries in the eastern boundary of Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has four types of major administrative boundaries, namely, provinces, districts, divisional secretariat divisions (DSD), and Grama Niladari (GN) divisions. The smallest community segments are clustered inside each GN division. The lack of proper demarcation of these smallest community segments, called ‘villages’, has been identified as a significant issue when implementing community development plans and applications in government and non-government projects. Thus, the deliverables of community-based projects become less effective. The objective of this study was to explore means of demarcating land boundaries, to separately identify small community segments using participatory GIS (PGIS) techniques. The study was conducted covering 12 GN divisions adjoining the eastern border of Wilpattu National Park (WNP). The methods used included PGIS interviews and group discussions with PRM steps. Overall, around 100 selected community members, spread across 12 GN divisions, were chosen to participate in the study. Community society meetings were conducted in each village, and essential topographic information in the area was collected with the knowledge of local society members and GIS tools. Later, this was digitized and verified to improve the presentation and accuracy of the results. As a result, the study could identify villages in each GN division, while generating more precise digital maps. Through this study, it can be confirmed that PGIS has remarkable potential in land use planning applications. The study further shows the potential of the application of PGIS in community-based projects and their deliverables to the community, and in enhancing community education on spatial thinking and planning, while facilitating community empowerment and innovation.

Interrogating Values of Adult Education Practice in Hong Kong

The practice of adult learning and education (ALE) in Hong Kong is lesser known to the wider community of ALE practitioners due to lack of exchanges with international peers. There is a small community of full-time ALE practitioners working mainly in university continuing education schools but a larger body of uncharacterised or alternative practitioners can also be found. Essentially, both types of practitioners are conservative in their outlook and they adopt strategies that align with market needs and priorities set by public funders. Under the backdrop of neoliberalism which has harmonised ALE practice worldwide, a dominant form of individualised learning makes it difficult to promote group learning for societal advancement. ALE practitioners in Hong Kong are no exception to this influence and have been found to profess philosophical orientations favouring the behaviourist/narrowed progressivist notions of learner empowerment for economic and personal gains. Given recent worldwide renewed enthusiasm in making ALE responsive to societal issues, this paper examines the options and learning areas that ALE practitioners in Hong Kong can make their contributions to, such as: health advocacy, climate justice, and media literacy. Through engaging in these aspects of work, practitioners will have to incorporate methods of facilitating group learning in formal and non-formal ALE programmes and courses. An embrace by practitioners of the original notion of progressivist philosophy in adult education may emerge as one of the outcomes to make ALE practice inclusive, relevant and socially responsible. Even with the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, it is deemed even more pressing to pursue a balanced practice approach that can take care of individual's skills transformation for post-COVID economy as well as developing human bonds that would help to make society progressive as a countercheck to neoliberal-inspired individualistic adult learning.

Renwicktown : a study of a rural community considered as a background to problems of education

<div>"With due regard to realism and administration practicability discuss the need for child guidance clinics in New Zealand, and the more important problems involved in organising them."</div><div>This quotation resembles a stone thrown into a pool from which a number of ripples radiate all having the same centre. It raises related questions in every field of education, some of which must be solved before the central question can be answered with any finality. In the mind of a student living in Renwicktown, a small rural community in the Province of Marlborough, it could not fail to raise the questions: "How does this affect the country child? How great is the need for guidance in the small community? And most important: " Would parents and teachers avail themselves of clinical services if they were provided?" Three questions require to be answered by the persons concerned.</div>

Renwicktown : a study of a rural community considered as a background to problems of education

<div>"With due regard to realism and administration practicability discuss the need for child guidance clinics in New Zealand, and the more important problems involved in organising them."</div><div>This quotation resembles a stone thrown into a pool from which a number of ripples radiate all having the same centre. It raises related questions in every field of education, some of which must be solved before the central question can be answered with any finality. In the mind of a student living in Renwicktown, a small rural community in the Province of Marlborough, it could not fail to raise the questions: "How does this affect the country child? How great is the need for guidance in the small community? And most important: " Would parents and teachers avail themselves of clinical services if they were provided?" Three questions require to be answered by the persons concerned.</div>

Modeling of Ferroelectric Oxide Perovskites: From First to Second Principles

Taking a historical perspective, we provide a brief overview of the first-principles modeling of ferroelectric perovskite oxides over the past 30 years. We emphasize how the work done by a relatively small community on the fundamental understanding of ferroelectricity and related phenomena has been at the origin of consecutive theoretical breakthroughs, with an impact going often well beyond the limit of the ferroelectric community. In this context, we first review key theoretical advances such as the modern theory of polarization, the computation of functional properties as energy derivatives, the explicit treatment of finite fields, or the advent of second-principles methods to extend the length and timescale of the simulations. We then discuss how these have revolutionized our understanding of ferroelectricity and related phenomena in this technologically important class of compounds. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Volume 13 is March 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

NQPC-2 Cognitive function of a low-grade glioma patient treated with radiation therapy 28 years ago

While there are many reports that long-term survivors of low-grade glioma patients treated with radiation therapy cannot lead a healthy social life due to cognitive dysfunction, we report a low-grade glioma patient with almost normal cognitive function even after radiation therapy 28 years ago. CASE REPORT. A 64-year-old woman developed with sudden left hemiparesis and was diagnosed as a small infarction in the left corona radiata. After treated by anticoagulant therapy, she was admitted to our hospital for rehabilitation. Twenty-eight years ago, she underwent surgical resection and radiation therapy with 60 Gy for astrocytoma (WHO grade 2) in the right insular cortex. At the time of this admission, she presented with a good MMSE score of 30 points, but she couldn’t walk and her left hand was less maneuverable. After 109 days of intensive rehabilitation in our hospital, she was discharged on a cane walk, and returned to work as a gas station clerk. COGNITIVE FUNCION. We evaluated her cognitive function on TMT-A/B test, CAT (Clinical Assessment for Attention)and WAIS-4. The TMT test was normal with age adjustments. In CAT, the percentage of correct answers for the 7 constituent items was within the standard range, but in the task of evaluating the required time, a slight delay in processing speed was observed. In WAIS-4, the Full scale IQ was 98 points (normal range) including normal 3 of 4 constituent items. But, only the PSI (processing speed) of 75 point was below the standard range. CONCLUSION: We observed a slight delay in processing speed on her high-level cognitive function tests, but determined that she would be well-adapted to a familiar job in a small community. In fact, she was doing well on the job 10 months after her discharge.

R&D Innovation Adoption, Climatic Sensitivity, and Absorptive Ability Contribution for Agriculture TFP Growth in Pakistan

Innovation adoptions in agriculture sustain high total factor productivity (TFP) growth and overcome a potential production gap, which is beneficial for food security. Research and development (R&D) innovation adoption in agriculture sector is dependent on producers’ willingness to adopt, knowledge capital spillovers, and financial capacity. This research aims to investigate the impact of R&D innovation adoption and climate factors on agriculture TFP growth in Pakistan. The annual time series data were collected from different sources for the period of 1972–2020. For measuring the agriculture TFP, this study adopted the Cobb Douglas and Translog production functions. To analyze the impact of R&D innovation adoption and climate change on agricultural productivity, the dynamic autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and two-stage least square (TSLS) approaches were applied for regression analysis. The study outcomes highlight that the agricultural innovation adoption has a significantly positive impact on agriculture TFP growth in Pakistan with weak farmers’ absorptive ability. According to the results, agriculture tractors, innovative seed distribution, and fertilizer consumptions make a significantly positive contribution to agriculture TFP growth. Further, rainfall shows a positive and significant impact on agricultural productivity, where a moderate climate is beneficial for agricultural productivity. The estimation results contain policy suggestions for sustainable R&D adoption and agrarians’ absorptive ability. Based on the obtained results, it has been suggested that producers should focus on R&D innovation adoption to attain higher productivity. The government needs to emphasize innovative technology adoption, specifically to implement the extension services to increase farmers’ education, skills based training, and networking among the farmers to enhance their knowledge capital and absorptive ability. The farmers should also focus on the adoption of climate smart agriculture that can be achieved through the proper utilization of rainwater. For this purpose, the government needs to develop small community dams and large-scale dams for better use of rainwater harvesting.