Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this study is to identify how upper secondary school French students (grade 10 to 12) interpret chemical transformation with regards to the changes within molecules and atoms and in terms of intramolecular and/or intermolecular bond breaking. In order to identify and describe the students' assimilated knowledge, four questions were asked to 930 students using a written questionnaire submitted a long time after the related teaching took place. There is much research into student learning in the concept areas discussed here (atoms and molecules, chemical change, chemical bonding) as reviewed in the paper. The present study presents data from an educational system where limited work has been reported in the international literature. The French system has its own unique curriculum, and is taught in the national language (where much of the existing research has concerned learning in Anglophile systems). The research reported here found that French secondary students experienced many similar difficulties in understanding these key scientific concepts to those that have been reported elsewhere, showing the cross-cultural nature of the key educational issues. However, it is also suggested that some of the specific characteristics identified here are linked to the ordering and language used in the French curriculum, and such cultural idiosyncrasies may offer useful insights into both problematic and valuable aspects of science pedagogy.

Objectives. To explore the continuing consequences of segregation for students in elite colleges and test whether male and female students experience the effects of segregation in different ways.Methods. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF, 1999–2003) are used to predict the odds of elite‐college graduation separately by gender. Theories on childhood gender socialization are addressed using OLS and logistic regression models to test for gendered pathways through which childhood segregation affects the likelihood of college graduation.Results. Males are exposed to higher levels of violence and disorder than females throughout childhood, and the gender gap in exposure grows as levels of segregation increase. The effect of segregation and its sequella on academic performance, however, appears to operate through different channels for males and females. Females experience significant negative effects of ongoing family stress, whereas males at elite colleges do not. Academic preparation, operating through college GPA, remains the single biggest factor affecting the likelihood of college graduation, although the strength of association is greater for males.Conclusions. Growing up in racially segregated environments affects long‐term educational outcomes in ways that are not gender neutral. Despite having reached the "ivory tower," females and males continue to experience the effects of segregation, although in different ways and degrees.

The purpose of the project is to find out possible implications for fuller Capital Account Convertibility (CAC) in the Indian context. Fuller CAC implies selling and buying financial assets overseas in market determined exchange rate, which indicates abundant inflow and outflow of FII, FDI in the capital market. Any change in this flow can affect the economy either directly or in an indirect manner. Therefore it is important for any economy to keep a balance between the inward and outward flows of capital across the country. Currently India is experiencing a high momentum cash inflow and withdrawal by Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) and in the backdrop of recent East Asian economic crisis, this calls for special attention. This paper tests the randomness and stationarity of the Indian Stock market (through NIFTY) and then analyzes the long term influence of FII and Mutual Fund on NIFTY performance. Finally it tests for any significant decline in GDP growth in a few East Asian countries before and after fuller CAC implementation. This paper concludes that fuller CAC does not ring an immediate alarm on the performance of the stock market, however GDP growth has been affected post-implementation in other developing countries. India needs to guard itself so that fuller CAC does not make it dependent on foreign investments, rather should give an impetus for robust industrial development.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report on experiences and reflect on challenges in transdisciplinary technology foresight as exemplified by cognition and robotics research.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted as a broad transdisciplinary process involving users and producers of robot technology solutions as well as scientists and other experts in cognition and robotics. Transdisciplinarity is understood as the transcendence of disciplinary modes together with the involvement and participation of non‐scientists in problem formulation and knowledge provision. The study focuses on the possibilities for innovation at the crossroads where robotics and cognition meet.FindingsThe paper reflects on the following methodological issues: medium‐ and long‐term research and innovation possibilities and barriers in a transdisciplinary context; the classification and framing of transdisciplinary fields; the facilitation of technology foresight processes; and the trustworthiness of the foresight process and its recommendations.Practical implicationsThe results have been disseminated among relevant advisory and grant‐awarding bodies within research and innovation, relevant knowledge institutions and universities, and companies on both the development and user sides of the technologies.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to European experiences on national‐level foresight exercises. The conceptual findings of the case study are of value to science and innovation policy makers, foresight practitioners and scholars within the field.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically identify a coherent set of effectiveness measures, which attempts to accommodate the interests and expectations of the most influential constituent groups directly participating in the operation of the Greek national sports organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe multiple constituency approach to effectiveness provides the theoretical basis for developing the multi‐dimensional measure of effectiveness. A survey design was employed to collect data from 423 respondents from the 20 largest Greek national sports organizations.FindingsThe analysis of the results revealed an interpretable set of effectiveness measures consisting of five dimensions, namely calibre of the board and external liaisons, interest in athletes, internal procedures, long‐term planning and sports science support. The results clearly illuminate the effectiveness‐related expectations of the five constituent groups of the particular context and appear consistent with relevant literature deriving from different sectors.Originality/valueThis study broadens both the meaning and the determinants of organizational effectiveness in an under‐researched organizational context, that of the non‐profit Greek national sports organizations. The findings reported extend understanding about how effectiveness can be conceptualized in the particular context based on the multiple‐constituency approach. Evidence is also provided that the particular set of measures has the potential to provide meaningful insights into the content of the interest groups' expectations, in the particular context.

Abstract This article analyses the patterns of reform in care policies in Bismarckian welfare systems since the early 1980s. Based on a comparison of France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, the article shows that these reforms share similar logics and trajectories, which can be explained by the shared conservative and corporatist traits of Bismarckian labour markets and welfare state institutions and their impact on labour market adjustment possibilities and preferences. Indeed, we argue that care policy reforms have been very closely linked to specific employment strategies, and the politics of welfare without work and subsequent attempts to shift away from such a labour‐shedding strategy go a long way in explaining both the nature and the timing of child‐ and elder‐care policy reforms in Bismarckian welfare systems. The article also shows how a focus on promoting 'free choice' in all four countries has justified the introduction of measures that have simultaneously reinforced social stratification in terms of access to the labour market – meaning that some women have much more 'free choice' than others – and weakened certain labour market rigidities. To conclude, we argue that care policy reforms have provided a backdoor for the introduction of labour‐cheapening measures and for increasing employment flexibility in otherwise very rigid labour markets.

This article analyses the problems inherent in the long-term oil production contracts proposed by Iraq's draft oil law. The article examines means by which oil companies attempt to avoid risk: price risk, security risk and political risk. Meanwhile, the same companies insist on securing
the corresponding upside: the chance of ever-higher profits. As these risks are externalized to the host state, respectively they impact on revenues, the human rights of the state's citizens and the state's sovereignty to manage its natural resources, or even to pass legislation. The article
examines the use of such contracts in a number of countries, focusing especially on the Middle East, and on the contracts signed by former Soviet republics in the 1990s during their own period of rapid change. The article proposes some contractual mechanisms with precedents which might limit
these problems. However, the current draft oil law is a permissive one, which empowers the executive branch of government to sign away as much as it chooses, with few restrictions to protect the public interest, nor any requirement for further parliamentary approval. The conclusion is that
the prospects for contracts signed in the current circumstances in particular, the occupation, the security situation and political fragmentation do not look good.

Background This exploratory study investigated the relationships between illness beliefs and treatment acceptability among parents of children with a developmental disability living at home who had sleep onset or maintenance problems.Materials and Methods A within‐subject correlational design was employed. The parents of 58 children each completed questionnaires assessing their beliefs and attributions towards the sleep problem and the acceptability of two common treatments (behavioural and melatonin).Results Parents believed sleep problems to be chronic, to have negative consequences, yet to be potentially curable/controllable. They rated behavioural treatment and melatonin similarly in terms of acceptability. Behavioural treatment acceptability was related to how long parents believed the sleep problem would last and to a number of causal attributions. The acceptability of melatonin was related to how severe the consequences of the sleep problem were believed to be and to a specific causal attribution. Parents who preferred melatonin to behavioural treatment believed that their child's sleep problem had more negative consequences on their child's life.Conclusions Specific beliefs held by parents about their child's sleep problems might influence treatment acceptability and treatment choice. Parents are split between those who would prefer behavioural treatment and those who would prefer melatonin. However, as the sleep problem becomes more severe, it seems more likely that parents would choose the pharmacological treatment.

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the extent to which corporate organizations in Germany and in New Zealand have included sustainability practices as part of their strategic planning process.Design/methodology/approachCurrent literature is reviewed to make a case for sustainability to be a driver behind corporate decision making and long‐term performance. The results of surveys of several hundred firms in both Germany and New Zealand, countries with a publicly stated commitment to sustainability, are reviewed to compare the adoption rates of sustainability practices.FindingsThere is a significant difference between what firms do and what their managers think is important. Managers largely consider sustainability practices an important factor for their future careers, while firms to a large extent do not include sustainability as part of their strategic or operational planning process.Research limitations/implicationsThe International Sustainability Acceptance Measurement (ISAM) collects data in several countries through local‐language versions of the same online survey tool (www.worldreply.com). The findings in this report are specific only to New Zealand and Germany.Practical implicationsThe paper points academics, corporate executives and sustainability fanatics to an alarming inconsistency between what is publicly reported as commitment to sustainability and what is practically achieved.Originality/valueThis paper adds value to the discussion of how sustainability practices have migrated into the operation of firms.

PurposeArguably the most distinguishing characteristic of the current rise of foresight for dealing with the long term is the explicit mention and involvement of actors and actor networks, i.e. participation. In general, this participation dimension is considered a valuable contribution to better anticipation and anticipatory behavior. However, participation should not be seen as the solution for the conceptual and practical difficulties of anticipation. This paper seeks to argue that, although participation is a necessary requirement for foresight, it contributes a number of new problems, which one prefers to see as dilemmas (since there is no solution to these "problems"). Understanding these "ten insolvable dilemmas of participation" is the main objective of this contribution.Design/methodology/approachThis article employs theories and practice dealing with participatory approaches.FindingsAlthough an important dimension of foresight, participation is often trivialized. However, using participation means also having to address new challenges for which no default design answer is possible.Practical implicationsFutures practitioners will be aware of the consequences of incorporating a participatory dimension into a foresight exercise.Originality/valueAlthough participation has become a key feature of many contemporary foresight activities, generic design questions are either ignored or dealt with on a case‐to‐case basis. This paper is an attempt to employ the body of theories on participation and participatory approaches in order to frame the participatory dimension in foresight.

PurposeMany experts consider that the technological convergence of previously separated sciences like nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication technologies and cognitive sciences, will – in the long term – impact deeply our society and economy. Key actors in society need to become aware of the challenges linked to converging applications (CA) and take some decision related to processes to develop these. It is hoped that analyzing CA‐related opportunities and risks at a very early stage will contribute to reduce possible adverse effects in the future. This paper seeks to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is based upon a literature review, complemented with ten expert interviews carried out over the telephone. The interviewees were natural and social scientists familiar with the topic of converging technologies/applications.FindingsSetting priorities for discussion on research and strategy within and between the various fields of CA benefits from the early involvement of key stakeholders from the very beginning. Formulating and structuring relevant open questions on opportunities and possible risks of CA helps to contribute to a balanced discussion on opportunities and risks and further work on this topic.Originality/valueThe opportunity and risk analysis is exemplified for four promising areas at the intersection of cognitive science and ICT, namely human brain interfaces; speech recognition technologies; artificial neural networks; and robotics.

Although Robert and Helen Lynd later identified the color line as the deepest division separating Middletown's people, data on the city's black population were purposely excluded from their analysis, and therefore blacks are not represented in the 1920s baseline which Middletown provides for subsequent community studies. Indeed, the reader must simply take the Lynds' word for the importance of the racial divide, for their decision to restrict their analysis to white citizens means that its dimensions remain unspecified save for a few illustrative examples. Yet the erasure is neither total nor final. Many characteristics of the city's black population in the early decades of the century are retrievable, some via census and other statistical data and others through historical sources and retrospective interviews. This paper draws upon census data to estimate the dimensions of Middletown's racial divide over the years. For the period 1977–1999, the census data are supplemented by survey data from high school students, and trends in racial differentiation in selected student attitudes are examined. Findings are mixed and only partially support the model of convergence, or a trend of declining racial differentiation in Middletown. For many indicators, including several with long–term or intergenerational effects, continued racial disparity is apparent. Substantial vestiges of the "great divide" remain, and there seems little prospect of their pending resolution.

AbstractEtiological factors for stability and change in symptoms of anxiety and depression, including sex differences, are largely unexplored in young adults. Using biometric modeling and two-wave longitudinal data from 4393 Norwegian twins aged 18 to 31 we explored (i) heritabilities of symptoms of anxiety and depression, (ii) effects of genetic and environmental factors on the stability and change of such symptoms, and (iii) sex-specific effects. The phenotypic cross-time correlations for symptoms of anxiety and depression were estimated to .54 and .49 for males and females, respectively. The best fitting longitudinal model specified additive genetic and individual environmental influences and emerging effects from the shared environment for females only. For both males and females, long-term stability was mainly attributable to stable additive genetic factors, whereas change was essentially related to environmental influences. Minor time-specific genetic effects were indicated, and some stable variance was due to the individual environment. Additive genetic risk factors explained 87% and 68% of the phenotypic cross-time correlation for males and females, with the unique environment accounting for the remaining covariance. The results provide strong evidence for the temporal stability of genetic risk factors for symptoms of anxiety and depression in young adults, and substantial sex-specific influences on heritability, stability and change.

Our communities, particularly the poor and minority, are experiencing the destructive effects of neoliberal policies. Such policies dismantle social safety nets, locate causes of poverty and criminality in individual bodies and neighborhoods, and foster the privatized "free" market as the solution to our society's problems. Although government, at all levels, abandons the social welfare agenda, individual residents and neighborhoods are forced to assume further responsibility for managing and improving immiserated conditions. Dedicated residents, student volunteers, and service agency workers provide the only stop‐gap between "making ends meet" and destitution (Edin and Lein 1997). This paper is an account of a summer youth program developed by two anthropology students, as a result of their long‐term, politically engaged ethnographic work among community residents, and children and staff at a recreation center located in an ethnically diverse but minority and low‐income concentrated neighborhood. Incorporating the aspects of experiential education, service‐learning, community development and applied anthropology, we endeavored to demonstrate that a politicized anthropology was capable of doing more than just documenting the effects of structural violence, the dif.culties experienced by marginalized populations, and the effectiveness of personal agency. Through engaged ethnography and collaboration we helped create new knowledge and applications that have been useful and valued by the community and other researchers at the University of South Florida.

ABSTRACTThis case report describes the periodontal management, therapeutic approach, and 14‐year follow‐up of a patient diagnosed with Papillon‐Lefèvre syndrome (PLS).A female child, diagnosed with PLS‐associated periodontitis at the age of 9 years and 11 months, presented with hyperkeratosis of the palms and soles, as well as generalized aggressive periodontitis. The dental treatment comprised standard periodontal debridement, scaling and root planing, instructions on oral hygiene, restorations, extraction of hopelessly affected teeth and a therapeutic use of antibiotics.The concomitant supportive periodontal therapy and antibiotic coverage could not stop the loss of periodontal attachment and destruction of the alveolar bone. Four years after treatment was initiated, the last remaining teeth were extracted and complete dentures were constructed. The dentures have been periodically replaced and the patient continues to return for follow‐up once a year.The combination of intensive periodontal treatment and antibiotic regimen only temporarily delayed periodontal disease progression and did not prevent loss of both primary and permanent teeth. The outcome of this long‐term follow‐up case report shows that management of PLS‐associated periodontitis is further complicated when the patient is first seen in the mixed dentition stage or later. In these situations, the chances of controlling the progression of periodontal breakdown and minimizing tooth loss are greatly reduced.