A Novel Computer-Supported Collaborative Coaching System with Novel Algorithm for Forming Groups

Several researchers studied the impact of collaboration between the learners, but few studies have been carried out on the impact of collaboration between teachers. In the previous work, the authors have studied the impact of the collaboration among the learners with a specific collaborative CEHL(K. Boussaha et al.,2015). In this work, the authors focused on the impact of collaboration on both teachers and learners. This paper aims to present a Computer-Supported Collaborative Coaching System called C.S. C.C.S. This system aims to create a virtual space based on the exchange of information and experiences between pre-experienced teachers to help new recruits or those who have difficulties and try to encourage, motivate, and provide them with needed experiences to help them escape isolation and use their solid information to guide their learners. To achieve the main task of our theme which is collaboration, we adopted the concept of groups. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed system an experiment was conducted. The results were highly satisfying and very encouraging.

Civil War Regiments

The regiment was the essential “building block” of Civil War armies. Assigned by states, most volunteer regiments were organized based on soldiers’ home residence and reflective of those local communities. Each branch of the army—infantry, artillery, and cavalry—formed into regiments with varying numbers of companies and overall strength. There were regular army regiments and units specially designated for African American troops. As the war dragged on, regimental strengths diminished dramatically. The Confederate Army tried to refill older units with conscripts and new recruits, while the Union created new regiments to replace depleted ones and later consolidated smaller ones. Neither side was entirely successful in restoring regiments to full authorized strength. Nonetheless, the regiment was more than a mode of organization—it was the prime source of identity and pride for volunteers and later veterans. While armies, divisions, and brigades were crucial to winning battles, and companies forged tight bonds of loyalty, it was the regiment to which most soldiers claimed a personal allegiance. Famed regiments like the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment, the 1st Texas Infantry Regiment, and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment cited their battle honors and high casualty numbers as proof of their fighting prowess. After the war ended, veterans produced hundreds of regimental histories, recounting their battle service and seeking to claim a place in history. Although many historians dismiss these accounts as worthless for serious scholarly research, regimental histories offer rich firsthand accounts of the conflict. They also offer a vehicle for narrating the war in a form well familiar to the soldiers who experienced it.

Each Day is Different: Prison Officers and Their Work

<p>In 1991 the New Zealand prison service underwent the most significant organisational changes. Instead of homogeneity and unity within the service, with rewards being given for length of time in the job, the emphasis was now on efficiency and competition for what few promotional rewards there were to be in the new career structure. At the same time, there was to be a bigger role for women and ethnic minority officers in the prison service. This thesis examines the way in which these superimposed changes affected the working routines and the day-to-day experiences of prison officers in their aftermath. It argues that, rather than leading to a new dynamic prison service envisaged by the reformers, the prison service instead became more divided and fractious, neither management nor the prison officer body being able to keep control of some of its members, while other officers became merely perfunctory in their work and others developed strategies that undermined the 'each day is different' philosophy now projected by the prison authorities. These resistances to, and subversion of the changes were because prison officer culture, seen by the prison authorities as a barrier to reform, was not destroyed by restructuring but underwent a metamorphosis. It was reformulated and reconfigured to take account of the structural and demographic changes. This then meant that a new prison officer culture emerged, modelled around difference and uncertainty rather than cohesion, antagonism rather than unity. It could lead to deviance and corruption (which the old style prison officer culture had largely prevented) rather than dynamism and efficiency. To undertake the research, the method involved use of questionnaires covering the prison officer body of one typical New Zealand prison, in-depth interviews with 39 prison officers and nine months observation period of the everyday life of the prison officers at this institution. This aspect of the research was stronglyinfluenced by Erving Goffman's dramaturgical perspective. The thesis sets out the theoretical parameters of the research as these relate to prison officer culture, and also provides an account of the methodology and the historical and contemporaneous background to the restructuring. It then provides an empirical analysis that demonstrates the effects of these changes on the everyday work of prison officers. These relate to the way in which the acculturation of the new recruits to the service became problematic because of the confusion brought about by the structural changes and the lack of experienced officers to mentor them. It then demonstrates how 'handling your lag' began to be experienced differently across the officer body, according to their length of service, ethnicity and gender. The old style unity and identity of the prison service was breaking down. This fragmentation was then exemplified by the shift to unit management. This was where power in the prison was now concentrated but, with the prison officer body too weak to regulate its use and with management increasingly distant from day-to-day prison life, this led to unpredictability and corruption. Finally, the thesis shows how many officers tried to adapt to the idea that 'each day in prison was going to be different', as promoted by the prison authorities, by trying to ensure at the same time that each day remained the same: excitement and dynamism could be tolerated only in so far as prison work remained at the same time extraordinarily mundane and routine.</p>

Each Day is Different: Prison Officers and Their Work

<p>In 1991 the New Zealand prison service underwent the most significant organisational changes. Instead of homogeneity and unity within the service, with rewards being given for length of time in the job, the emphasis was now on efficiency and competition for what few promotional rewards there were to be in the new career structure. At the same time, there was to be a bigger role for women and ethnic minority officers in the prison service. This thesis examines the way in which these superimposed changes affected the working routines and the day-to-day experiences of prison officers in their aftermath. It argues that, rather than leading to a new dynamic prison service envisaged by the reformers, the prison service instead became more divided and fractious, neither management nor the prison officer body being able to keep control of some of its members, while other officers became merely perfunctory in their work and others developed strategies that undermined the 'each day is different' philosophy now projected by the prison authorities. These resistances to, and subversion of the changes were because prison officer culture, seen by the prison authorities as a barrier to reform, was not destroyed by restructuring but underwent a metamorphosis. It was reformulated and reconfigured to take account of the structural and demographic changes. This then meant that a new prison officer culture emerged, modelled around difference and uncertainty rather than cohesion, antagonism rather than unity. It could lead to deviance and corruption (which the old style prison officer culture had largely prevented) rather than dynamism and efficiency. To undertake the research, the method involved use of questionnaires covering the prison officer body of one typical New Zealand prison, in-depth interviews with 39 prison officers and nine months observation period of the everyday life of the prison officers at this institution. This aspect of the research was stronglyinfluenced by Erving Goffman's dramaturgical perspective. The thesis sets out the theoretical parameters of the research as these relate to prison officer culture, and also provides an account of the methodology and the historical and contemporaneous background to the restructuring. It then provides an empirical analysis that demonstrates the effects of these changes on the everyday work of prison officers. These relate to the way in which the acculturation of the new recruits to the service became problematic because of the confusion brought about by the structural changes and the lack of experienced officers to mentor them. It then demonstrates how 'handling your lag' began to be experienced differently across the officer body, according to their length of service, ethnicity and gender. The old style unity and identity of the prison service was breaking down. This fragmentation was then exemplified by the shift to unit management. This was where power in the prison was now concentrated but, with the prison officer body too weak to regulate its use and with management increasingly distant from day-to-day prison life, this led to unpredictability and corruption. Finally, the thesis shows how many officers tried to adapt to the idea that 'each day in prison was going to be different', as promoted by the prison authorities, by trying to ensure at the same time that each day remained the same: excitement and dynamism could be tolerated only in so far as prison work remained at the same time extraordinarily mundane and routine.</p>

Decapitation strategies and the significance of Abubakar Shekau's death in Nigeria's Boko Haram crisis

Decapitation strategies have often been linked to counterterrorism. The existing literature suggests the results of these strategies are mixed. Previous studies suggest that the death of a prominent leader may not necessarily end the crisis; it all depends on the group's infrastructure, ideology, leadership traditions, and extent of its penetration in society. This article takes a critical look at the impact of a recent leadership decapitation in Nigeria. Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram movement in the Lake Chad Basin countries, was killed on 19 May 2021 by a faction of the movement known as the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP). This article argues that Shekau's case has paradoxically helped to strengthen ISWAP's position, giving it new recruits and other resources and perhaps most importantly reinforced its position with local communities. This has implications for the Nigerian state, its neighbours and, because of Boko Haram's links to ISIS, the wider war on terrorism.

Serological and RT-PCR surveillance for COVID-19 in an asymptomatic U.S. Army trainee population

Background Significant variability exists in the application of infection control policy throughout the United States (U.S.) Army initial entry training environment. To generate actionable information for the prevention of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)/coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission among new recruits, active enhanced surveillance was conducted for evidence of and exposure to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Methods We serially tested recruits with a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) COVID-19 and/or total antibody to SARS-CoV-2 tests at day 0, 14, and week 10 upon arrival for basic combat training at a location in the southern U.S. Results Among 1,403 recruits who were enrolled over a 6 week period from August 25 through October 11, 2020, 84 recruits tested positive by RT-PCR with more than half (55%, 46/84) testing positive at arrival and almost two-thirds (63%, 53/84) also testing seropositive at arrival. Similarly, among an overall 146 recruits who tested seropositive for SARS-CoV-2 during the period of observation, a majority (86%) of tested seropositive at arrival; no hospitalizations were observed among seropositive recruits and antibody response increased at week 10. Conclusions These findings suggest serological testing may complement current test-based measures and provide another tool to incorporate in COVID-19 mitigation measures among trainees in the U.S. Army.

A degree of recognition across policing: embedding a degree apprenticeship encompassing work-based research

PurposeAs the police service across England and Wales moves towards degree-level study for new recruits as a component of recognising the profession of policing, this paper describes and discusses the introduction of the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA) and the core skills of evidence-based policing (EBP) as an educational theme for solving work-based problems.Design/methodology/approachAuthored by both policing practitioners and researchers, this paper refers to key literature whilst exploring the implementation of the PCDA as a component of a Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF). It highlights some of the challenges faced with its implementation along with the benefits of the adopting this degree-level education and work-based programme where EBP is embedded in to both study and professional practice.FindingsThere are significant benefits to the police service of adopting the PCDA as one of the entry routes for new police constables and embracing the educational development and professional application of EBP. However, this does not come without a number of challenges for the service and the professional body for policing.Originality/valueThis paper, co-authored by both policing practitioners and researchers, provides a contemporary view on the introduction of the PCDA as an initial entry route for new police constables and the embedding of EBP within both their learning and professional practice. As the first graduates complete their studies, the paper discusses the opportunities the adoption presents and the challenges it faces both locally and nationally.

The Exploitation of Religious Narratives: The Study of “Jihad Nikah” Narratives in ISIS Al-Qur’an Perspective

ISIS uses the term “marriage jihad” narrative to attract new recruits, especially among women. Although ISIS was declared defeated in 2016, the seeds of the “jihadi brides” narrative can still be found in some acts of terrorism around the world even today. Hence, the study of “marriage jihad” is seen very relevant and urgent to be conducted. “Marriage jihad” narrative, according to them, emphasizes the importance of expecting mothers who will deliver warriors and soldiers who involved in their holy war. On the other hand, this narrative is also used to legitimize biological motives of ISIS combatants. Based on human rights perspective, this narrative is the kind of women slavery who are perceived as sexual objects. This is often wrapped in religious terminology, such “for the sake of Islam”. The “marriage jihad”phrase which has never been found in the history of Islamic discourse is analyzed through the perspectives of the Qur’an based on Ma’na Cum Maghza approach. According to the Qur’anic perspectives, both jihad and marriage have the same goal, that is to build a vision of peace and compassion. So the narrative of the “marriage jihad” initiated by ISIS is certainly at odd with the Islamic principles. ISIS menggunakan narasi “jihad nikah” untuk menarik calon anggota baru, khususnya perempuan. Meskipun ISIS sudah dinyatakan kalah pada 2016, benih-benih narasi “jihadi brides” masih bisa ditemui dalam aksi-aksi terorisme di seluruh dunia bahkan hingga saat ini. Hal ini yang membuat kajian tentang narasai “jihad nikah” menjadi relevan dan urgen. Artikel ini membahas tentang eksploitasi terminologi agama dalam agenda propaganda ISIS yaitu “jihad nikah”. Narasi ini, menurut mereka, menekankan pentingnya perempuan untuk dihamili agar kelak anak-anak yang lahir menjadi pejuang dan prajurit yang memperjuangkan mereka. Di sisi lain, narasi ini juga digunakan sebagai legitimasi kebutuhan syahwat para kombatan ISIS yang sedang berada di medan perang. Frase jihad nikah tidak pernah ditemukan dalam sejarah diskursus Islam. Tulisan ini mengupas narasi jihad nikah dalam perspektif al-Qur’an dengan pendekatan Ma’na Cum Maghza. Menurut sudut pandang tafsir al-Qur’an, jihad dan nikah mempunyai tujuan yang serupa yaitu membangun visi perdamaian dalam kasih sayang. Maka narasi jihad nikah yang diprakarsai oleh ISIS tersebut tentu bertolak belakang dengan prinsip-prinsip Islam.