Semantics in the time of coronavirus: “Virus”, “bacteria”, “germs”, “disease” and related concepts

This study proposes Natural Semantic Metalanguage semantic explications for the English words virus (in two senses), bacteria, germs, and for the related words sick, ill, and disease. We concentrate on their nave or folk meanings (Apresjan 1992) in everyday English, as opposed to scientific or semi-scientific meanings. In this way, the paper makes a start on uncovering the folk epidemiology embedded in the English lexicon. The semantics of words like virus, bacteria and germs is not, however, a purely academic matter. It is also a matter of effective health education and health communication. To reach people at a time of an epidemic, explanations need to connect with ordinary peoples ways of thinking and speaking. This paper argues that the simple and cross-translatable words of NSM, and minimal languages based on it, can be effective tools not only for linguistic semantics but also for education and communication everywhere - at the local school and in the world at large.

Are Politicians More Responsive Towards Men’s or Women’s Service Delivery Requests? A Survey Experiment with Ugandan Politicians

This study examines whether politicians exhibit gender bias in responsiveness to constituents’ requests for public service delivery improvements in Uganda. We leverage an in-person survey experiment conducted with 333 subnational politicians, of which one-third are elected to women’s reserved seats. Politicians hear two constituents request improvements in staff absenteeism in their local school and health clinic and must decide how to allocate a fixed (hypothetical) budget between the two improvements. The voices of the citizens are randomly assigned to be (1) male-school, female-health or (2) female-school, male-health. We find no evidence of gender bias toward men versus women, or toward same-gender constituents. This study expands on the mixed results of prior studies examining gender bias in politician responsiveness (typically over email) by adding a critical new case: a low-income context with women’s reserved seats.

The PLAYground: An Online Summer Camp for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

The PLAYground summer camp was developed by the Playful Learning Lab (PLL) at the University of St. Thomas, an undergraduate research group with a focus on learning through play. Through a partnership with a local school serving deaf and hard of hearing students, the PLAYground was designed to provide content to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Over the course of 8 weeks, 84 students were provided with materials that correspond with activities on the website. Each activity is accompanied with a lesson plan and video, both of which are available in English, American Sign Language, Spanish, and Arabic. Students participating in the PLAYground also had the option to meet with camp counselors via Zoom weekly to build community and create together.

US Virginia governor race will be closely watched

Significance Taking place in a genuinely competitive two-party state, this race offers a rare guide to voter attitudes ahead of the midterm congressional elections in November 2022 as the candidates address issues that are playing out in national as well as state-level politics. Impacts The Republicans hope that a business executive turned novice politician who promises to create jobs can still win votes. The Democrats are betting that a post-pandemic faith in government to provide solutions will prevail over calls for lower taxes. Two other issues with local intensity but national resonance are the funding of local school systems and approaches to policing.

Challenges in Procurement, Design and Construction of the Erasmusrand Pedestrian Bridge

<p>The new Erasmusrand Pedestrian bridge replaced the previously severely damaged pedestrian bridge spanning across the National Route N1 highway in Pretoria, South Africa, for the South African National Roads Agency SOC Ltd (SANRAL). The structure consists of a steel arch supporting a composite steel/concrete deck with inclined square hollow steel struts. The bridge spans 73m across a 10-lane dual carriageway freeway providing access to a local school from the suburbs. Several challenges were presented in the project with procurement, design and construction.</p>

Empowering TGE Students with Inclusive Policies

This chapter begins with the idea of safe people creating safe spaces beyond the classroom and into environments in which co-curricular activities take place. Creating policies through a process of consideration and careful planning can impact student learning. Policies, then, can serve as tools for teacher to advocate on behalf of TGE youth. Readers move through a step-by-step guide for evaluating existing policies and generating new policies to honor and affirm TGE persons in school music settings. Examples of federal policy impact on state and local school policies frame considerations of access equity for TGE students. A discussion of inclusive and gender-neutral school music uniform policy concludes this chapter.

The Necessity of Community Collaborations in Supporting Newcomer Student Learning: Lessons Learned from the covid-19 Pandemic

This article captures the results of a study illustrating the challenges experienced by newcomer youth to Canada in adapting to online learning between March and June 2020. A collaborative research team consisting of a local immigrant-serving agency, local school board and educators, and a group of interdisciplinary university researchers conducted a qualitative study to explore educational challenges from the perspectives of high school-aged youth and parents of elementary school students. We found that the covid-19 crisis exposed the fissures in the education system whereby those most in need of the supposed support offered by the education system were not intentionally included in organizational policies and procedures, thus further exacerbating educational inequities and compounding the pre-Covid challenges students experienced. This study also models collaborative and community-centred research on how educators and school boards could work with community supporting agencies to provide support for newcomer youth during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.