Critical Reading, Critical Literacy, and Critical Classrooms

Critical reading and critical literacy are skills that preservice teachers need to cultivate not only in their future students, but also in their own literacy practices. Picturebooks have the unique power to facilitate critical reading and critical literacy with preservice teachers. This chapter analyzes critical reading, critical literacy, and the power of picturebooks and then presents three approaches for using picturebooks to develop critical reading and critical literacy skills with preservice teachers: (1) field-based coursework with multicultural children's literature, (2) analyzing voices and perspectives in read-alouds, and (3) analyzing wordless picturebooks. Through intentional use of picturebooks in educator preparation programs, preservice teachers can gain the expertise necessary to use picturebooks to craft their own critical classrooms.

The Desire to Disappear in Order Not to Disappear

This article tells a story of the aftermath of the ‘failed revolution’ in Egypt through the prism of sound and gendered political prisoner bodies. It created embodied reactions among Cairene men—years after their lived prison experiences—in which depression, sorrow, stress, paranoia, rage, or painful body memories are prevalent. Affect theory shows how sonic vibrations—important stimuli within everyday experience, with a unique power to induce strong affective states—mediate consciousness, including heightened states of attention and anxiety. Sound, or the lack thereof, stimulates, disorients, transforms, and controls. The sound of life is transformed into the sound of death; the desire to disappear in order not to disappear again produces ‘ghost bodies’ alienated from the ‘new Egypt’, but from the family and the self too.

Naga Worship and Nagas in Villibharata

The ancients thought that snakes had a unique power to kill because of their venomous nature. That is why serpents are worshiped as gods. The people who worship are called Nagas. Later they were portrayed as cobra-shaped men. The Aryans captured their place and the war arises. In mythology, epics and religions, the practice of combining snakes is found in many parts of the world. Later this worship is linked to religion. However, in Villibharata, countless Nagas have been destroyed. Over time, Naga worship and Nagas have been changing in various understandings with various religions and changing according to the situation.

IMPORTANCE OF UPYANTRA IN SHALYA CHIKITSA

Ayurveda is considered as one of the best health science of ancient era. There are 8 branches of Ayureveda and Shalya chikitisa is the most important branch of Ayurveda due to its quick action (Ashukrye –Karnat). Shalya Chikitisa includes different surgical and para surgical technique which can be moulded depending upon the Immunity of Patients. Today in modern scenario, where advance Science & technology is going to its highest peak & medical Science is becoming emphasis on knowledge of Upyantra seems quite obsolete. Sometime the situation arise when we don’t have proper medical facility during natural calamities where giving medical faculty to every person in not possible. To combat such disastrous situation the knowledge of accessory medical equipment is very important so, that we can survive. Acharya Sushrut is considered “Father of Surgery” who know how to overcome such situation with his unique power of thinking when situation is opposite for survival. Acharya Dalhan, Acharaya Vagbatta, Achary Sushrut had explained different Yantra and Upyantra which can be used according to the patients immunity. In modern surgery there is no treatment option. They make patient to fit the available treatment but in ancient health science i.e., in Ayurved there are different way of treating patients depending upon their nature of body. Various types of Yantras used in Shalya Chikitsa includes Swastik Yantra, Taal Yantra samdansha Yantra, Shalaka Yantra, Naadia Yantra and Upayantra. These instruments place an at most role in the success of Shalya Chikitisa and without them the practical work of concept of Shalya Chikitisa cannot be made.

Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory: Integrating Structure, Dynamics, Temporal Scale, and Levels of Analysis

Theoretical accounts of psychopathology often emphasize social context as etiologically central to psychological dysfunction, and interpersonal impairments are widely implicated for many legacy diagnostic categories that span domains of psychopathology (e.g., affective, personality, and thought disorders). Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory (CIIT) seeks to explain the emergence, expression, and maintenance of socio-affective functioning and dysfunction across levels and timescales of analysis. We emphasize the importance of cohesively addressing the often-segregated challenges of establishing empirically supported structure, functional accounts of dynamic processes, and how together these facilitate theoretical and methodological consistency across levels of analysis ranging from biology to behavior. We illustrate CIIT’s unique power to serve as an integrative metatheory generating falsifiable hypotheses that support strong inference investigations into the nature of psychological dysfunction across a range of traditional diagnostic constructs and superordinate spectra of psychopathology.

Sacred Speech

This chapter studies Buddhist practices that make use of sound in general and the human voice in particular. These practices are some of the most popular and widespread in the Buddhist world. They often involve saying a short series of syllables over and over. Sometimes these have linguistic meaning, sometimes not. Other practices involve recalling a particular Buddha by saying their name out loud. Though different in many ways, they all rely on the unique power of the human voice. The chapter then considers mantras. A particular mantra is a particular series of syllables that one repeats over and over. They might be repeated mentally but are usually repeated out loud, though sometimes quietly, as a barely audible murmur. Different mantras are supposed to invoke different buddhas, bodhisattvas, or even texts. This means that Buddhists bring them to mind or appeal to them.

Developing a Robust Defensive System against Adversarial Examples Using Generative Adversarial Networks

In this work, we propose a novel defense system against adversarial examples leveraging the unique power of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to generate new adversarial examples for model retraining. To do so, we develop an automated pipeline using combination of pre-trained convolutional neural network and an external GAN, that is, Pix2Pix conditional GAN, to determine the transformations between adversarial examples and clean data, and to automatically synthesize new adversarial examples. These adversarial examples are employed to strengthen the model, attack, and defense in an iterative pipeline. Our simulation results demonstrate the success of the proposed method.

Streamlining the Testing Process of Photonic Chips

The Shastri lab focuses on generating advanced photonic chips for signal processing and computing by combining artificial intelligence (AI) and photonics. These chips are utilized in neuromorphic silicon photonics which has various applications such as improving computational efficiency in AI and neuromorphic computing hardware. One of our advanced chips can be divided into three physical components: receiving a light signal, modulating the signal, and lastly detecting the signal with a photodetector on chip. Prior to utilizing these chips for experiments, it is vital to ensure that all components are functioning correctly. My work focused on streamlining the testing process of the photodetector by improving the signals used within the process. In order to test the photodetector, the light entering must be modulated externally using a Mach-Zehner Modulator (MZM). The MZM takes in a light signal and splits it into two where they experience a phase shift and when the two are recombined create a modulated signal. The signal’s modulation is determined by changing the radio frequency (RF) signal sent from a driver into the modulator. Another aspect of my work was enhancing the control of the RF signal produced by the driver. The driver requires specific positive and negative voltages to generate ideal frequencies which are supplied by a unique power source. The voltage source was designed to ensure that the driver never received a damaging current or voltage and had a user-friendly interface to control the modulation of the signal.

A Unique Power to Punish: An Examination of the Operation, Scrutiny, and Attendant Risks of Licensee Barring Provisions in Victoria, Australia

Across Australia, patron banning measures address alcohol-related behavioral issues in entertainment districts. This article compares the legislative framing of Victoria’s licensee barring order policy with the experiences of recipients. The rationale and operational expectations for licensee barring are examined in relation to key themes which emerged during parliamentary debates of the legislation, and contrasted with the reported experiences of recipients. The findings point to a disconnect between the expected and actual operation of licensee barring, an absence of oversight, and a tangible risk of misuse. Barring orders extend to ordinary citizens a unique police-enforceable power to punish, yet licensees currently act without scrutiny or accountability. A review of barring policy is recommended to ensure a robust process for effective monitoring, meaningful consequences for the misuse of barring powers, and deeper consideration of the attendant risks to due process and procedural justice of the civilianisation of punishment.