7,835 research outputs found

    Digital Promotion of Suicide: A Platform-Level Ethical Analysis

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    This article utilizes Aristotelian and Kantian philosophies to probe the social responsibilities of internet intermediaries that in one way or another assist and promote suicide. Striking a balance between freedom of expression and social responsibility, it is argued that several actors should be involved in restricting or eliminating live-streaming suicide, sites that encourage and facilitate suicide, and insult forums that drive people, especially adolescents, to take their own lives. The remediating actors are: commercial social media/website owners through their moderators; voluntary, non-profit, NGO “public defenders”; internet platform providers; regulatory agencies based on legislative authority, and advertisers. Practical remedies are suggested for each of these actors, noting as well important exceptions and caveats regarding the respective solutions

    Exploring the Identities of Acehnese EFL Teachers at Secondary Schools

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    A framework towards improved instruction of probability to grade seven students : a case of South African schools in Mpumalanga province

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    This empirical phenomenological study explored teachers’ conceptual understanding of probability to gain insights into how this understanding enhanced their instructional classroom practice. The study was motivated by the fact that many teachers did not receive training on this topic during their pre-service training, and their students often demonstrate below average performance in this topic. Studies have found that primary school mathematics teachers require specific training to enhance students’ understanding of probability. Scholars advocate the implementation of intervention programmes to ensure effective practices in probability and mathematics education in general. In this study the researcher used purposive sampling to select nine participants. These individuals included five qualified teachers; the snowballing method was then used to select another teacher, two subject advisors and one mathematics coordinator. Participants’ experience in the field of mathematics teaching ranged from 10 to 25 years. Open-ended questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, lesson observations and focus group discussions were used to collect data. An initial needs analysis phase was conducted to determine what intervention strategies could be used to empower primary mathematics teachers and subject advisors. These intervention strategies were implemented following a lesson study model first used in Japan. The data collection instruments were developed from the conceptual tools of Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell’s (2001) model. The items in the open-ended questionnaire were adapted from school textbooks and national and international assessments. The findings from the first phase of the study revealed that teachers had limited conceptual understanding of probability. The analysis of the data collected during the second phase of the study (the intervention) revealed the following: • There was an improvement in participants’ understanding of probability in relation to teaching, and how teachers’ classroom instructional practices could be enhanced. • Teachers and subject advisors acknowledged that readily available common lesson plans provided by the Department of Education would not have a significant impact on their classroom practices unless they were modified. • Greater collaboration between teachers and higher education institutions was required to enhance teachers’ professional development. • A platform for subject advisors and teachers to share their experiences and provide support should be created. • The use of a lesson study process as an accelerant promotes collaborative learning and enhances teachers’ instructional practices. In this study, teachers were encouraged to share their practices with others and to implement what they had learnt at school level (Lipscombe, Buckley-Walker & McNamara, 2020). The study found that the absence of policy on the support and mentoring of teachers has resulted in a lack of confidence when teaching the concept of probability. The unsystematic way in which issues of mentoring and teacher support are dealt with does not serve teachers well. This seems to suggest that mentorship and teacher support programmes require regulation by policy. Likewise, subject advisors need training if they are to provide proper support to mathematics teachers. These recommendations were translated into specifications to empower teachers and subject advisors. These specifications form the basis of the RIRAD (Review, Identify, Reconsider, Adapt and Develop) framework conceptualised in this study. The framework was conceptualised within the conceptual tools of Kilpatrick et al.’s (2001) model and strengthened by the findings that emerged from data. This framework has a dual integrated purpose, aimed at enriching teachers’ conceptual understanding of probability and empowering them to enhance their classroom instructional practices. Secondly, the framework empowers subject advisors to offer appropriate support to teachers. Based on findings from the literature review and empirical inquiry, more recommendations for the improvement of practice were made.Mathematics EducationPh. D. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education

    Empowering Healthcare Workers through Transformational Leadership

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    The Veterans Health Administration cares for a unique population of patients--Veterans. When it comes to job dissatisfaction, the administration ranked 18th among 19 other Federal agencies. Transformational leaders are instrumental in motivating and encouraging healthcare employees. The specific leadership problem in this research study was the failure of healthcare leaders to empower employees within Federal government healthcare facilities in the United States resulting in job dissatisfaction, lack of organizational commitment, and negative changes in behavior (increased absenteeism, increased turnover, burnout, and poor performance). The significant issue was addressed by interviewing 13 Vet Center Directors and two Nurse Managers to learn what type of leadership they use to curtail job dissatisfaction. No physicians participated. Overall, five themes was revealed and allowed the researcher to provide potential implementation strategies for leaders to adopt. The over-arching theme discussed in section two builds a foundation for current and new leaders to see that using transformational and servant leadership styles is a best practice in Federal healthcare organizations. Addressing such leadership problems may require leaders to introduce new and innovative strategies to accomplish goals while also creating an environment that is conducive the employee’s well-being. Accordingly, the organization\u27s success relies heavily on the leader\u27s ability to transform ideas into acheivements, make unbiased decisions, communicate effectively, and take risks for the greater good of the organization and employees, thus, the most effective manner to do this is by building alliances through transformation and serving according to moral values. Leaders who personally and professionally know their followers (biblically known as disciples) are more gratified, hence, using their abilities to upbuild the kingdom of God

    Statistical Modelling

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    The book collects the proceedings of the 19th International Workshop on Statistical Modelling held in Florence on July 2004. Statistical modelling is an important cornerstone in many scientific disciplines, and the workshop has provided a rich environment for cross-fertilization of ideas from different disciplines. It consists in four invited lectures, 48 contributed papers and 47 posters. The contributions are arranged in sessions: Statistical Modelling; Statistical Modelling in Genomics; Semi-parametric Regression Models; Generalized Linear Mixed Models; Correlated Data Modelling; Missing Data, Measurement of Error and Survival Analysis; Spatial Data Modelling and Time Series and Econometrics

    The Disinformation Age

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    Understanding the post-fact era requires going beyond foreign influence or the rise of social media. This examination of the origins and workings of the US disinformation system shows how political strategies and communication practices have undermined authoritative democratic institutions. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core

    Impacts of Granite Quarrying: The Case of Subsistence Farmers in the SĂŁo Pedro River Valley

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    Granite quarrying constitutes an occupational hazard that compromises workers’ health, destroys the environment and negatively affects nearby communities (Azevedo et al., 2020; Ibrahim et al., 2019; Oktriani, Darmajanti, & Soesilo, 2017; Shaik et al., 2015). But the demand for granite and other decorative stones continues to grow (Gupta, 2018). Despite a decrease in imports/exports due to Covid-19 (Alves et al., 2020), today Brazil remains the number 1 granite exporter to the United States (US Geological Survey, 2021). In the last 30 years, the extraction of granite in Brazil has been continuous, particularly in the states of Espírito Santo (ES) and Minas Gerais (MG). In the Northeast of MG, granite extraction comes from an impoverished rural area heavily affected by drought. The São Pedro River Valley is part of this rural area known as Sertão. Environmentally, over the last decades, studies revealed factors that have severely altered and compromised this unique and fragile biome called Caatinga (Quintão et al., 2017). Despite patent land destruction, water contamination and scarcity, coupled with rural communities’ distress, the effects of granite extraction in the São Pedro River Valley remain scientifically unknown. This case study addressed this research gap. Qualitative data originated from rural communities’ testimonies. Participants were subsistence farmers whose livelihoods directly depended on local natural resources. The data emanated from content-based unstructured focus groups comprising 25 individuals. Data analysis consisted of Freire’s pedagogical approach and In Vivo coding. Qualitative data was cross-referenced with a geological report consisting of a soil analysis and interpretation. This study also gathered insights from a local Research Associate (RA), recent images and video recordings of the area. To preserve the authenticity and integrity of participants’ unique environment and circumvent limitations set by the current worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, the data collection was conducted remotely. This case study provided an in-depth understanding of an economic activity that compromises the sustainability and equitability of the human-environmental balance in the São Pedro River Valley

    Capital's Utopia

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    In the 1890s the Apollo Iron and Steel Company ended a bitterly contested labor dispute by hiring replacement workers from the surrounding countryside. To avoid future unrest, however, the company sought to gain tighter control over its workers not only at the factory but also in their homes. Drawing upon a philosophy of reform movements in Europe and the United States, the firm decided that providing workers with good housing and a good urban environment would make them more loyal and productive. In 1895, Apollo Iron and Steel built a new, integrated, non-unionized steelworks and hired the nation's preeminent landscape architectural firm (Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot) to design the model industrial town: Vandergrift.In Capital's Utopia: Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, 1855-1916, Anne E. Mosher offers the first comprehensive geographical overview of the industrial restructuring of an American steelworks and its workforce in the late nineteenth–century. In addition, by offering a thorough analysis of the Olmsted plan, Mosher integrates historical geography and labor history with landscape architectural history and urban studies. As a result, this book is far more than a case study. It is a window into an important period of industrial development and its consequences on communities and environments in the world-famous steel country of southwestern Pennsylvania

    The mobilisation of the tribal Kurds under the PKK : how the Kurds of Turkey were revitalised

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    This study attempts to analyse the internal dynamics of the most recent Kurdish resistance movement in Turkey. The main focus of analysis is the PKK's organisational existence - its ideational and material structure. As the leading entity of the Kurdish movement, the research focuses on the PKK's recent growth - asking how it became capable of revitalising the "buried" body of Kurdishness in Anatolia that has been incorporated (in both demographic and geographical terms) into the Turkicized Republic. Within the framework of the case study method, much of the research is devoted to answering an indirect question: why wasn't it the other Kurdish "national" configurations that came to prominence? To this end, the study tries to appraise the extent of national and non-national ingredients in the make-up of the movement - the leadership, the grassroots and the masses that give their support. The conclusion reached is that the successes and failures of the PKK in bringing about Kurdish opposition in Turkey are fundamentally related to its philosophy of recruitment and organisational diligence, rather than to its scrupulous use of arms or other contextual factors. The form, content and intensity of educational activities give the organisation its strength. This "education war" - concomitant with the contextual tension of Turkey's Kurdish question - produced a "sparking" Apo charisma. In its originating period, the "pure form" of this charisma contributed much to the PKK's ability to mobilise the Kurds. The later "routinised" form of the very charisma has become one of the principal determinants in what is known as the movement's "shrinkage process". It was also found that the substance of the party education - mainly involving Ă–calan's talks - embodies a philosophy of human nature (rather than a strictly nationalistic content) in search of the re-appropriation of "human naturalness". In the party leadership's view, this human naturalness has to be extricated from the plague of civilisation's property mechanisms, which apparently have degenerated the humane faculties of man's spiritual structure. However, it ought not to be understood that the intensively worded philosophy depicts the extent of such extrication in the personalities of the cadre body of the Organisation. And the field research indicates that this is the Party's greatest internal contradiction
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