323 research outputs found

    TRANSFORMING EDUCATION FOR HISTORICALLY MARGINALIZED STUDENTS: THE POWER OF CURRICULAR EQUITY AUDITS IN ADDRESSING PEDAGOGICAL MALPRACTICE AND ADVANCING EQUITABLE EDUCATION

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    Systemic inequities being a consistent and sometimes unacknowledged feature of our educational landscape, is a moral failure. Moreover, it's unconscionable that the individuals who suffer from these systemic and structural inequalities are implicitly held responsible when the measured impacts of unequal opportunities are described as achievement gaps. This attribution of academic underachievement as a failure of effort assumes that predictable performance differences arise due to a lack of academic striving, when in fact, the playing field is profoundly unlevel and the result of an education debt (Ladson-Billings, 2006). Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1977) was utilized to examine the factors related to educational disparities. The literature review findings revealed several factors contributing to disparities in academic achievement and decreased sense of belonging. A conceptual framework was developed based on the extensive literature review, which identified several critical in-school factors contributing to disparities in academic outcomes and a decreased sense of belonging for historically marginalized students. The framework was subsequently used to design the needs assessment conducted in chapter two. The needs assessment findings in chapter two demonstrated the existence of persistent academic disparities for historically marginalized students in the district and stakeholder perception of the impact of lack of representation in the curriculum on the sense of belonging and racial inequality in educational outcomes. The needs assessment results informed the design of a theory of change. The theory of change describes relationships between specific elements of current research and best practices related to culturally responsive and equity curriculum audits, focusing on reducing educational inequities and promoting a sense of belonging. The literature review in chapter three identified specific elements of audit tools that informed the creation of the tool. The comprehensive audit process was designed to ensure that the curriculum affirms all students’ identities, promotes inclusivity, validates multiple perspectives, and increases student engagement. The curriculum audit handbook provides a transformative approach to education that centers on the experiences of historically marginalized students and promotes equitable and inclusive learning environments. By addressing curricular inequity and pedagogical malpractice, this process provides a pathway for advancing equitable education for all students

    Internet Localization of Multi-Party Relay Users: Inherent Friction Between Internet Services and User Privacy

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    Internet privacy is increasingly important on the modern Internet. Users are looking to control the trail of data that they leave behind on the systems that they interact with. Multi-Party Relay (MPR) architectures lower the traditional barriers to adoption of privacy enhancing technologies on the Internet. MPRs are unique from legacy architectures in that they are able to offer privacy guarantees without paying significant performance penalties. Apple's iCloud Private Relay is a recently deployed MPR service, creating the potential for widespread consumer adoption of the architecture. However, many current Internet-scale systems are designed based on assumptions that may no longer hold for users of privacy enhancing systems like Private Relay. There are inherent tensions between systems that rely on data about users -- estimated location of a user based on their IP address, for example -- and the trend towards a more private Internet. This work studies a core function that is widely used to control network and application behavior, IP geolocation, in the context of iCloud Private Relay usage. We study the location accuracy of popular IP geolocation services compared against the published location dataset that Apple publicly releases to explicitly aid in geolocating PR users. We characterize geolocation service performance across a number of dimensions, including different countries, IP version, infrastructure provider, and time. Our findings lead us to conclude that existing approaches to IP geolocation (e.g., frequently updated databases) perform inadequately for users of the MPR architecture. For example, we find median location errors >1,000 miles in some countries for IPv4 addresses using IP2Location. Our findings lead us to conclude that new, privacy-focused, techniques for inferring user location may be required as privacy becomes a default user expectation on the Internet

    A Meeting of Minds: In Recognition of the Contributions of Randall J. Cohrs

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    A Special Issue in memory of Randall J. Cohrs, Ph.D. Topics include original research reports on a variety of viruses as well as reviews and commentaries on Randy’s contributions to many investigations

    The Impact of the COVID-19 Emergency on the Quality of Life of the General Population

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    COVID-19 is a pandemic that has forced many states to declare restrictive measures in order to prevent its wider spread. These measures are necessary to protect the health of adults, children, and people with disabilities. Long quarantine periods could cause an increase in anxiety crises, fear of contagion, and post-traumatic stress disorder (frustration, boredom, isolation, fear, insomnia, difficulty concentrating). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition that can develop in subjects who have been or have witnessed a traumatic, catastrophic, or violent event, or who have become aware of a traumatic experience that happened to a loved one. In fact, from current cases, it emerges that the prevalence of PTSD varies from 1% to 9% in the general population and can reach 50%–60% in subgroups of subjects exposed to traumas considered particularly serious. PTSD develops as a consequence of one or more physical or psychological traumatic events, such as exposure to natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis; wars, torture, death threats; road accidents, robbery, air accidents; diseases with unfavorable prognoses; complicated or traumatic mourning; physical and sexual abuse and abuse during childhood; victimization and discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity. It can also develop following changes in lifestyle habits caused by the COVID-19 epidemic

    Water Quality Engineering and Wastewater Treatment

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    Clean water is one of the most important natural resources on earth. Wastewater, which is spent water, is also a valuable natural resource. However, wastewater may contain many contaminants and cannot be released back into the environment until the contaminants are removed. Untreated wastewater and inadequately treated wastewater may have a detrimental effect on the environment and has a harmful effect on human health. Water quality engineering addresses the sources, transport and treatment of chemical and microbiological contaminants that affect water. Objectives for the treatment of wastewater are that the treated wastewater can meet national effluent standards for the protection of the environment and the protection of public health. This book, which is based on the Special Issue, includes contributions on advanced technologies applied to the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewater and sludge. The book deals with recent advances in municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, and sludge treatment technologies, health effects of municipal wastewater, risk management, energy efficient wastewater treatment, water sustainability, water reuse and resource recovery

    History of Construction Cultures Volume 2

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    Volume 2 of History of Construction Cultures contains papers presented at the 7ICCH – Seventh International Congress on Construction History, held at the Lisbon School of Architecture, Portugal, from 12 to 16 July, 2021. The conference has been organized by the Lisbon School of Architecture (FAUL), NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Portuguese Society for Construction History Studies and the University of the Azores. The contributions cover the wide interdisciplinary spectrum of Construction History and consist on the most recent advances in theory and practical case studies analysis, following themes such as: - epistemological issues; - building actors; - building materials; - building machines, tools and equipment; - construction processes; - building services and techniques ; -structural theory and analysis ; - political, social and economic aspects; - knowledge transfer and cultural translation of construction cultures. Furthermore, papers presented at thematic sessions aim at covering important problematics, historical periods and different regions of the globe, opening new directions for Construction History research. We are what we build and how we build; thus, the study of Construction History is now more than ever at the centre of current debates as to the shape of a sustainable future for humankind. Therefore, History of Construction Cultures is a critical and indispensable work to expand our understanding of the ways in which everyday building activities have been perceived and experienced in different cultures, from ancient times to our century and all over the world

    Learning Disabilities

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    Learning disabilities are a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by failure to acquire, retrieve, and use information competently. These disorders have a multifactorial aetiology and are most common and severe in children, especially when comorbid with other chronic health conditions. This book provides current and comprehensive information about learning disorders, including information on neurobiology, assessment, clinical features, and treatment. Chapters cover such topics as historical research and hypotheses of learning disorders, neuropsychological assessment and counselling, characteristics of specific disorders such as autism and ADHD, evidence-based treatment strategies and assistive technologies, and much more

    Assuming Data Integrity and Empirical Evidence to The Contrary

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    Background: Not all respondents to surveys apply their minds or understand the posed questions, and as such provide answers which lack coherence, and this threatens the integrity of the research. Casual inspection and limited research of the 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), included in the dataset of the World Values Survey (WVS), suggested that random responses may be common. Objective: To specify the percentage of cases in the BRI-10 which include incoherent or contradictory responses and to test the extent to which the removal of these cases will improve the quality of the dataset. Method: The WVS data on the BFI-10, measuring the Big Five Personality (B5P), in South Africa (N=3 531), was used. Incoherent or contradictory responses were removed. Then the cases from the cleaned-up dataset were analysed for their theoretical validity. Results: Only 1 612 (45.7%) cases were identified as not including incoherent or contradictory responses. The cleaned-up data did not mirror the B5P- structure, as was envisaged. The test for common method bias was negative. Conclusion: In most cases the responses were incoherent. Cleaning up the data did not improve the psychometric properties of the BFI-10. This raises concerns about the quality of the WVS data, the BFI-10, and the universality of B5P-theory. Given these results, it would be unwise to use the BFI-10 in South Africa. Researchers are alerted to do a proper assessment of the psychometric properties of instruments before they use it, particularly in a cross-cultural setting

    Exploring Written Artefacts

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    This collection, presented to Michael Friedrich in honour of his academic career at of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, traces key concepts that scholars associated with the Centre have developed and refined for the systematic study of manuscript cultures. At the same time, the contributions showcase the possibilities of expanding the traditional subject of ‘manuscripts’ to the larger perspective of ‘written artefacts’
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