Post-Secondary Education Development in South East Asia: A Model for Curriculum Development in Continuing Education

This article presents a model for continuing education that emanated from the author’s involvement in the Participatory Action Research (PAR) component of Simon Fraser University’s Adult Education for Economic Development (AEED) Project, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The project’s goal was to develop new centers for continuing education at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) in Cambodia and the National University of Laos (NUOL) in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, with assistance and mentorship from the Centre for Continuing Education at Chulalongkorn University (Chula) in Thailand. This article includes a discussion and illustration of continuing education based on four dimensions: lifelong learning, outreach, applied and integrated studies, and informal learning environments. The PAR is discussed in terms of how the partnerships emerged in the project, together with a systemic, ecological analysis of continuing education.Cet article présente un modèle d’éducation permanente qui est ressorti de l’implication de l’auteur dans la composante recherche-action participative du projet Adult Education for Economic Development (l’éducation des adultes pour le développement économique) de l’Université Simon Fraser financé par l’Agence canadienne de développement international. L’objectif du projet était de développer de nouveaux centres d’éducation permanente à l’Université royale de Phnom Penh au Cambodge et à la l’Université nationale du Laos à la République démocratique populaire lao, avec l’appui et le mentorat du centre pour l’éducation permanente à l’Université Chulalongkorn en Thaïlande. Cet article présente une discussion et une illustration de l’éducation permanente reposant sur quatre dimensions : l’apprentissage tout au long de la vie, la conscientisation ou le rapprochement, les études appliquées et intégrées, et les milieux d’apprentissage informels. La recherche-action participative est présentée en fonction de l’émergence des partenariats qui sous-tendent le projet et par le biais d’une analyse systémique et écologique de l’éducation permanente

Path rendering by counting pixel coverage

A frequent task in computer graphics is to render a closed path, e.g., a polygon or other shape. Such shapes are found in typography, vector graphics, design applications, etc. Current path-rendering techniques have certain drawbacks, e.g., paths cannot scale too far during animation, control points within the path must remain static, etc. The ability to render paths efficiently and with fewer constraints allows interfaces and applications with richer and more dynamic content. This disclosure describes techniques for efficient path rendering using a GPU. In particular, it introduces the concept of fractional coverage counting, which ameliorates aliasing at the edges of shapes. These techniques can reduce or eliminate reliance on hardware multisampling to achieve anti-aliasing, and open up the possibility of sophisticated graphics rendering on mobile devices or other platforms with resource constraints

B641: A Comparison of Food Prices in Boston, Massachusetts and Bangor, Maine: December, 1965

The results of this study, using store surveys and advertised price comparisons, showed that the cost of food-at-home items is higher in Bangor than in Boston. In addition to higher average prices in Bangor for many items, the total average expenditure for the group of food items is 4% higher in Bangor. Although it is clear that the cost of food is higher in Bangor, the study made no attempt to determine any of the causes of the cost differentia1. Two possible reasons might be the distance of Bangor from some of the major food suppliers and the difference in existing competition between Bangor and Boston.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1062/thumbnail.jp

A Community of Inquiry-Based Framework for Civic Education at Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia

This study focused on the civic education course at Universitas Terbuka (UT). Its purpose was to design a new approach for the online tutorial for the course by analyzing the literature related to online and distance education and investigating participant feedback on the current offering of the course and tutorial,which is a compulsory course in all programs at UT. The study draws from the community of inquiry framework, which promotes a social constructivist approach as well as teaching about democracy by example. This model is intended to create meaningful learning experiences for students in a reformulated civic education course, in which they would learn to think critically through interacting with classmates, experiencing collaborative learning, and supporting fellow students in learning activities and processes. In this model, learning is seen as occurring within the community through the interaction of social presence,cognitive presence, and teaching presence where, students are able to develop civic competences, namely civic knowledge, civic skills, and civic dispositions, as well as experience a democratic interaction that forms the core of civic interactions in a democratic society

Striving for New Learning Experiences in Indonesia Open University

This session will focus on our collaborations in developing thesis research occurring in the context of a project with the Indonesia Open University or Universitas Terbuka (UT). Allan will speak about the nature of the collaboration and the ‘sensitivities’ involved in development work of this sort,while Yudhi and Isti will speak about their thesis research. Yudhi’s thesis research is about a social constructivist learning approach in the online civic education tutorial at UT. Meanwhile,Isti’s thesis research is about reflective practice curriculum for teacher education at UT. This will be followed by a question and discussion time

A novel causal mechanism for grey squirrel bark stripping: The Calcium Hypothesis

AbstractGrey squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis, damage trees in the UK by stripping bark and eating the underlying phloem; squirrel motivation for damage is, however, unknown. Damage can result in deterioration of timber quality and a significant economic toll on the forestry industry. Prediction of severe damage followed by targeted killing of squirrels is the current recommended management option. However, the use of warfarin (an anticoagulant poison) is now restricted in the UK and other more humane methods of killing are labour-intensive, so an alternative solution is needed. A better understanding of what motivates grey squirrels to strip bark may enable a preventive approach to be developed. Whilst the bark stripping literature has explored predictive factors affecting the likelihood of damage, causal understanding is lacking. The aim of this review is to introduce the Calcium Hypothesis as a possible explanation for bark stripping, with a view to informing the prevention of damage. The Calcium Hypothesis states that grey squirrels damage trees to ameliorate a calcium deficiency. The main predictive factors of bark stripping behaviour each inform and lend support to the Calcium Hypothesis. Calcium is stored in tree phloem, and damage increases with phloem width, providing squirrels with more calcium per unit area ingested. Calcium levels increase in trees as active growth resumes after winter dormancy, this occurs immediately prior to the main bark stripping season of May–July, and trees growing most vigorously are at increased risk of damage. It is likely grey squirrels also have a requirement for calcium during the bark stripping season. Adult females will be under post-parturition pressures such as lactation, and juveniles will be going through their main period of bone growth, both of which likely represent a requirement for calcium – which supports an observed positive correlation between juvenile abundance and bark stripping. A high autumnal seed crop increases juvenile recruitment the following spring, and could also induce a requirement for calcium to a population due to the high phosphorus to calcium ratio of seeds. To further investigate the hypothesis, the extent to which grey squirrels can utilise calcium oxalate, as calcium occurs in bark, should be determined, and also the extent to which grey squirrels undergo seasonal periods of calcium deficiency. Increasing our causal understanding of bark stripping could inform the future development of preventive measures to aid forest management

Using a disciplinary discourse lens to explore how representations afford meaning making in a typical wave physics course

We carried out a case study in a wave physics course at a Swedish university in order to investigate the relations between the representations used in the lessons and the experience of meaning making in interview–discussions. The grounding of these interview–discussions also included obtaining a rich description of the lesson environment in terms of the communicative approaches used and the students’ preferences for modes of representations that best enable meaning making. The background for this grounding was the first two lessons of a 5-week course on wave physics (70 students). The data collection for both the grounding and the principal research questions consisted of video recordings from the first two lessons: a student questionnaire of student preferences for representations (given before and after the course) and video-recorded interview–discussions with students (seven pairs and one on their own). The results characterize the use of communicative approaches, what modes of representation were used in the lectures, and the trend in what representations students’ preferred for meaning making, all in order to illustrate how students engage with these representations with respect to their experienced meaning making. Interesting aspects that emerged from the study are discussed in terms of how representations do not, in themselves, necessarily enable a range of meaning making; that meaning making from representations is critically related to how the representations get situated in the learning environment; and how constellations of modes of disciplinary discourse may be necessary but not always sufficient. Finally, pedagogical comments and further research possibilities are presented.Web of Scienc

Redefining 'media' using a 'media-as-a-constitutional-component' concept:an evaluation of the need for the European Court of Human Rights to alter its understanding of 'media' within a new media landscape

This paper considers the impact of new media on freedom of expression and media freedom within the context of the European Convention on Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence. Through comparative analysis of US jurisprudence and scholarship, this paper deals with the following three issues. First, it explores the traditional purpose of the media, and how media freedom, as opposed to freedom of expression, has been subject to privileged protection, within an ECHR context at least. Secondly, it considers the emergence of new media, and how it can be differentiated from the traditional media. Finally, it analyses the philosophical justifications for freedom of expression, and how they enable a workable definition of the media based upon the concept of the media-as-a-constitutional-component

Activation of NK Cells by an Endocytosed Receptor for Soluble HLA-G

Signaling from endosomes is emerging as a mechanism by which selected receptors provide sustained signals distinct from those generated at the plasma membrane. The activity of natural killer (NK) cells, which are important effectors of innate immunity and regulators of adaptive immunity, is controlled primarily by receptors that are at the cell surface. Here we show that cytokine secretion by resting human NK cells is induced by soluble, but not solid-phase, antibodies to the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) 2DL4, a receptor for human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G. KIR2DL4 was constitutively internalized into Rab5-positive compartments via a dynamin-dependent process. Soluble HLA-G was endocytosed into KIR2DL4–containing compartments in NK cells and in 293T cells transfected with KIR2DL4. Chemokine secretion induced by KIR2DL4 transfection into 293T cells occurred only with recombinant forms of KIR2DL4 that trafficked to endosomes. The profile of genes up-regulated by KIR2DL4 engagement on resting NK cells revealed a proinflammatory/proangiogenic response. Soluble HLA-G induced secretion of a similar set of cytokines and chemokines. This unique stimulation of resting NK cells by soluble HLA-G, which is endocytosed by KIR2DL4, implies that NK cells may provide useful functions at sites of HLA-G expression, such as promotion of vascularization in maternal decidua during early pregnancy