Special Issue on “Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality & Semantic 3D Reconstruction”

Augmented Reality is a key technology that will facilitate a major paradigm shift in the way users interact with data and has only just recently been recognized as a viable solution for solving many critical needs [...]

CO2 Utilization: why, why now, and how?

This introduction to the Faraday discussions on carbon dioxide utilization (CDU) provides a framework to lay out the need for CDU, the opportunities, boundary conditions, potential pitfalls, and critical needs...

Inclusion or Exclusion? Critical Needs of Hearing Impaired Learners during an English Reading Comprehension Lesson

Drawing on the social inclusion theoretical model, this study examines critical needs of hearing impaired learners during an English reading comprehension lesson. Some of the challenges that hearing impaired learners experience arise due to their exclusion from activities, participation and access. The study utilised qualitative approaches through semi-structured interviews. A total of twenty-six participants from three secondary schools located in the northern region of Malawi participated in this study as follows: seven regular teachers, two specialist teachers, two resource persons and fifteen hearing impaired learners. The results reveal that most hearing impaired learners do not manage to attain all reading comprehension objectives. Although teachers use a combination of strategies during a reading comprehension lesson, they do not utilise strategies that promote higher-order cognitive thinking skills. Finally, the results reveal that hearing impaired learners encounter several challenges some of which may be avoided if teachers embrace inclusive practices. The results have implications for stakeholders, teachers and researchers as follows: there is a need to improve the inclusive system of education by providing in-service training for teachers and employing competent specialist teachers and resource persons to facilitate the learning of hearing impaired learners. There is also a need to improve the learning and teaching facilities for inclusive schools as teachers and learners bemoan lack of teaching and learning materials suitable for hearing impaired learners. Teachers would be able to overcome some of the barriers to participation and learning which arise due to inadequate teaching and learning resources. Further research

Lessons from Microbes: What Can We Learn about Equity from Unculturable Bacteria?

ABSTRACT Many microbiologists exhibit a fascination with unculturable bacteria. This intrigue can be expressed through curiosity about nutrient needs, as well as about parameters such as optimal temperature, oxygen levels, minimum and optimal light, or other such environmental factors. Microbiologists study organisms’ genetic language, as well as their environment of origin, for clues about essential factors or organisms’ need for coculture to support growth and thriving. We can learn many lessons about equity and stewardship-based engagement from the ways that microbiologists seek to understand how to cultivate unculturable bacteria, including the importance of understanding an organism’s language and community, replicating aspects of the environment of origin, an organism’s occasional need to transform aspects of its environment to persist, and the critical needs to provide a range of culture conditions to support diverse organisms. These lessons from the bacterial world provide guidance applicable to addressing human inequity in scientific communities, and beyond.