Education and training system post Covid-19: results from a probability model to measure students’ learning performance

The Covid-19 affected people regardless of nationality, level of education, income or gender. However, students from privileged backgrounds, supported by their parents could find their way past closed school doors to alternative learning opportunities. This crisis has exposed the many inadequacies and inequalities in our education systems. This article presents the GPU System as a tool for collecting, managing and monitoring. The PON 2014/2020 For the School has been conceived for achieving an intelligent, equal, sustainable, and inclusive growth. In order to measure the learnings performance of students, a probability model was implemented to measure performance improvement. The data refer to the grades attributed to students before and after the delivery of the educational activities. Results show that the probability of registering a training success triggered by the training course is greater for the foreign languages area, generating inclusion and social integration mechanisms, as well as mediation and intercultural understanding. Il sistema di istruzione e di formazione dopo il Covid-19: risultati da un modello per misurare gli apprendimenti degli studenti. Il Covid-19 ha colpito tutti gli individui indipendentemente dalla nazionalità, dal livello di istruzione, dal reddito o dal genere. Tuttavia, gli studenti provenienti da ambienti privilegiati, supportati dai loro genitori hanno potuto intravedere più agevolmente la loro strada oltre le porte chiuse della scuola verso opportunità di apprendimento alternative. Questa crisi ha messo in luce le molte inadeguatezze e disuguaglianze nei nostri sistemi educativi. In questo studio si presenta il Sistema GPU come strumento di raccolta, gestione e monitoraggio. In tale contesto si inserisce il PON 2014/2020 Per la Scuola, concepito per realizzare una crescita intelligente, equa, sostenibile e inclusiva. Al fine di misurare le performance degli apprendimenti degli studenti è stato implementato un modello di probabilità finalizzato a misurare il successo formativo. I dati si riferiscono alle votazioni attribuite agli studenti prima e dopo l’azione formativa. I risultati mostrano come la probabilità di registrare un successo formativo generato dal percorso formativo intrapreso sia maggiore per l’area relativa alle lingue straniere, generando meccanismi di inclusione ed integrazione sociale, nonché la mediazione e la comprensione interculturale.

Return Migration from the Gulf Region to India Amidst COVID-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has directly affected the millions of migrant workers in Gulf countries, mostly employed as temporary labour in construction and allied sectors. The Gulf region historically has been the most favoured destination for such jobs. However, the pandemic crisis has halted construction projects in these countries as the drastic fall in oil prices has affected Gulf oil and non-oil economies severely. This has had an adverse effect on Indian migrant workers as they face the threat of unemployment, leading to their voluntary or forced return to India. For example, at the end of 2020, half a million Kerala emigrants, most of them in the Gulf, had lost their jobs abroad due to the pandemic, making their return inevitable given their temporary status in these countries. This chapter examines how India is prepared to handle the changing trends in Indo-Gulf migration corridor and the subsequent return emigration from the Gulf. The chapter highlights major sending-state perspectives, such as that of Kerala and others, and their responses towards Gulf returnees. Moreover, it provides insights by revisiting the existing economic and social security measures for returning migrants and their families within the framework of state welfare schemes, thereby examining rehabilitation and re-integration mechanisms for return migrants at the central and state levels in India.

Neural correlates of acoustic dissonance in music: The role of musicianship, schematic and veridical expectations

In western music, harmonic expectations can be fulfilled or broken by unexpected chords. Musical irregularities in the absence of auditory deviance elicit well-studied neural responses (e.g. ERAN, P3, N5). These responses are sensitive to schematic expectations (induced by syntactic rules of chord succession) and veridical expectations about predictability (induced by experimental regularities). However, the cognitive and sensory contributions to these responses and their plasticity as a result of musical training remains under debate. In the present study, we explored whether the neural processing of pure acoustic violations is affected by schematic and veridical expectations. Moreover, we investigated whether these two factors interact with long-term musical training. In Experiment 1, we registered the ERPs elicited by dissonant clusters placed either at the middle or the ending position of chord cadences. In Experiment 2, we presented to the listeners with a high proportion of cadences ending in a dissonant chord. In both experiments, we compared the ERPs of musicians and non-musicians. Dissonant clusters elicited distinctive neural responses (an early negativity, the P3 and the N5). While the EN was not affected by syntactic rules, the P3a and P3b were larger for dissonant closures than for middle dissonant chords. Interestingly, these components were larger in musicians than in non-musicians, while the N5 was the opposite. Finally, the predictability of dissonant closures in our experiment did not modulate any of the ERPs. Our study suggests that, at early time windows, dissonance is processed based on acoustic deviance independently of syntactic rules. However, at longer latencies, listeners may be able to engage integration mechanisms and further processes of attentional and structural analysis dependent on musical hierarchies, which are enhanced in musicians.

Humans can track but fail to predict accelerating objects

Objects in our visual environment often move unpredictably and can suddenly speed up or slow down. The ability to account for acceleration when interacting with moving objects can be critical for survival. Here, we investigate how human observers track an accelerating target with their eyes and predict its time of reappearance after a temporal occlusion by making an interceptive hand movement. Before occlusion, the target was initially visible and accelerated for a brief period. We tested how observers integrated target motion information by comparing three alternative models that predicted time-to-contact (TTC) based on the (1) final target velocity sample before occlusion, (2) average target velocity before occlusion, or (3) target acceleration. We show that visually-guided smooth pursuit eye movements reliably reflect target acceleration prior to occlusion. However, systematic saccade and manual interception timing errors reveal an inability to consider acceleration when predicting TTC. Interception timing is best described by the final velocity model that relies on extrapolating the last available velocity sample before occlusion. These findings provide compelling evidence for differential acceleration integration mechanisms in vision-guided eye movements and prediction-guided interception and a mechanistic explanation for the function and failure of interactions with accelerating objects.

Imaging sensory transmission and neuronal plasticity in primary sensory neurons with a positively tuned voltage indicator

Detection of somatosensory inputs requires conversion of external stimuli into electrical signals by activation of primary sensory neurons. The mechanisms by which heterogeneous primary sensory neurons encode different somatosensory inputs remains unclear. In vivo dorsal root ganglia (DRG) imaging using genetically-encoded Ca2+ indicators (GECIs) is currently the best technique for this purpose mapping neuronal function in DRG circuits by providing an unprecedented spatial and populational resolution. It permits the simultaneous imaging of >1800 neurons/DRG in live mice. However, this approach is not ideal given that Ca2+ is a second messenger and has inherently slow response kinetics. In contrast, genetically-encoded voltage indicators (GEVIs) have the potential to track voltage changes in multiple neurons in real time but often lack the brightness and dynamic range required for in vivo use. Here, we used soma-targeted ASAP4.4-Kv, a novel positively tuned GEVI, to dissect the temporal dynamics of noxious and non-noxious neuronal signals during mechanical, thermal, or chemical stimulation in DRG neurons of live mice. ASAP4.4-Kv is sufficiently bright and fast enough to optically characterize individual neuron coding dynamics. Notably, using ASAP4.4-Kv, we uncovered cell-to-cell electrical synchronization between adjacent DRG neurons and robust dynamic transformations in sensory coding following tissue injury. Finally, we found that a combination of GEVI and GECI imaging empowered in vivo optical studies of sensory signal processing and integration mechanisms with optimal spatiotemporal analysis.

Integration Mechanisms of Universities and Real Economy Sector

In the modern world, the role of universities is changing dramatically and a new model of their participation in the economy is being formed. The essence of the new model is an immeasurably closer integration of universities with enterprises and organizations of the real sector of the economy. Universities that reject this model will no longer be able to be full participants in the higher education market. In this regard, many Russian universities are forced to look for new mechanisms of interaction with economic entities of the regional economy. The article summarizes and systematizes the most successful practices of Russian universities on the creation and use of integration mechanisms with companies, enterprises and departments of the regions. For this purpose, examples of such promising institutions are considered, such as research and educational centers and infrastructure initiatives; supporting universities and network initiatives; targeted training and practice-oriented programs; integration of production and education on the site of universities (training centers); partial integration of production and education on the site of enterprises (basic departments); full integration of production and education at the enterprise site (outsourcing); entrepreneurial universities and a model of global academic partnership; the institute of unique scientific collaborations and Collective Use Centers. The analysis of this experience allowed us to draw the general contours of a new model of a practice-oriented university.

The Neodevelopmentalist Front and Mercosur under the PT Governments: The Rise and Fall of Multidimensional Regionalism

An analysis of the relationship between classes and class fractions and Mercosur under the PT (Workers’ Party) governments suggests that the transition from the open regionalism of the 1990s to the multidimensional regionalism of the 2000s and the crisis of the latter were linked to the overlap between the regional integration mechanisms Unasur and Mercosur and the social base of the neodevelopmentalist front. Multidimensional regionalism went into crisis after 2012, when the country began to suffer the impact of the 2008 financial crisis and changes in international politics and when the political process that culminated in the 2016 coup began. Uma análise da relação entre as classes e frações de classe e o Mercosul dos governos PT sugere que a transição do regionalismo aberto dos anos 1990 para o regionalismo multidimensional dos anos 2000 e a crise deste últimoestão ligados à imbricação entre os processos de integração regional, Unasur e Mercosur, e a base social da frente neodesenvolvimentista. O regionalismo multidimensional entrou em crise a partir de 2012 quando o país começou a sofrer mais o impacto da crise financeira de 2008 e das transformações na política internacional e iniciou-se o processo político que culminou no golpe de 2016.

Brief Review of Minimum or No-Till Seeders in China

Minimum or no-till seeding technology is the core of conservation tillage, which can effectively reduce soil degradation by water and wind erosion. It is an essential part of agricultural modernization. The anti-blocking technology is the key to realize minimum or no-till seeding technology. According to the principle, it can be divided into three types: straw-flowing type, gravity-cutting stubble type, and power-driven type. Emphasis is placed on the anti-blocking principle, technical characteristics, and development trends of minimum or no till seeders based on three different anti-blocking principles. In view of analyzing and summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of three technologies and typical machines, the future development trends of minimum or no-till seeders were prospected as follows: (1) strengthening research on basic theories and integration mechanisms; (2) building a big data-sharing platform for seeding operations; (3) establishing and improving specific systems of minimum and no-till seeders with China character.

UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE INTEGRATING MECHANISMS AND IMPORTANCE OF STEM EDUCATION

This study aimed to recognize upper-secondary school science teachers’ perceptions of the meaning, importance, and integrating mechanisms of science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) education, taking in to account the differences between the science teachers’ perceptions according to their specialties, years of experience, and degrees. A closed-ended questionnaire was distributed among 700 science teachers (biology, physics, and chemistry) in Riyadh, and 255 teachers responded. The results showed a strong alignment in the upper-secondary school science teachers’ perceptions of the meaning and the importance of STEM education, although there was less of a consensus regarding the integrating mechanisms. There were statistically significant differences in the physics teachers’ perceptions of STEM meaning, although there were otherwise no significant differences by specialty in the science teachers’ perceptions of the importance of STEM education and its integration mechanisms. Furthermore, the teachers showed no statistically significant differences in STEM’s meaning, importance, or integrating mechanisms according to their years of experience. Based on the results, recommendations included intensifying professional development programs on utilizing technology, engineering, and mathematics in learning science concepts and application. Keywords: integration mechanisms, science teachers, STEM education, teachers’ perceptions, upper secondary school