Preparing Preservice Teachers to Facilitate Courageous Conversations: A Case Study of Social Studies Teacher Educators\u27 Perceptions and Practices

Scholars and associations committed to powerful social studies education have long advocated for students to explore controversial issues so they grow into informed, ethical, and participating citizens. Yet, teachers avoid undertaking this work due to a lack of training, confidence, or experience in facilitating courageous conversations about tough issues. Teachers may fear facing complaints and retribution. They may worry about how to defuse classroom tensions and manage strong emotions. While scholarship on teaching controversy has primarily focused on preservice and in-service teachers’ views and experiences, research examining teacher educators’ perceptions and practices has been limited. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand how twelve secondary social studies teacher educators understood and taught controversy. The study examined how they prepared preservice teachers for the challenges of teaching controversy. Three research questions framed the focus for this study: What are secondary social studies teacher educators’ attitudes toward teaching controversial issues? How do secondary social studies teacher educators approach the teaching of controversial issues in their courses? How do secondary social studies teacher educators prepare preservice teachers to handle the challenges associated with teaching controversial issues? Using case study methodology, I conducted semi-structured video conferencing interviews with participants and collected teacher-provided artifacts. Several key findings emerged. The teacher educators agreed teaching controversy helps to prepare young people to become active citizens and is most effective when taught using an interdisciplinary approach. In their methods courses, the teacher educators modeled how to build a classroom community and handle disclosure. They guided preservice teachers in defining and identifying examples of controversial issues as well as locating and examining reliable sources. They modeled practical strategies for steering civil discourse and exploring multiple perspectives. The teacher educators discussed personal and external obstacles that may discourage preservice teachers from broaching contested issues. To overcome these challenges, they advised preservice teachers to build positive relationships with stakeholders, cultivate an emotionally safe classroom space, and seek ways to grow. The study has implications for leaders and teachers in teacher education and secondary education settings. Recommendations for future research related to the findings reached are presented

Predictable Policing: Measuring the Crime Control Benefits of Hotspots Policing at Bus Stops

$\textit{Objectives}$ A fairly robust body of evidence suggests that hotspots policing is an effective crime prevention strategy. In this paper, we present contradictory evidence of a backfiring effect. $\textit{Methods}$ In a randomized controlled trial, aimed at reducing crime and disorder, London’s ‘hottest’ 102 bus-stops were targeted. Double patrol teams of Metropolitan Police Service uniformed officers visited the stops three times per shift (12:00–20:00), 5-times per week, for a duration of 15 min, over a 6 month period. Crucially, officers arrived and departed the bus stop on a bus, with significantly less time spent outside the bus stop setting. Outcomes were measured in terms of victim-generated crimes reported to the police and bus driver incident reports (DIRs), within targeted and catchment areas. We used adjusted Poisson-regression models to compare differences in pre- and post-treatment measures of outcomes and estimated-marginal-means to illustrate the treatment effect. $\textit{Results}$ DIRs went down significantly by 37 % ($\textit{p}$ = 0.07) in the near vicinity of the bus stops (50 m), by 40 % in the 100 m catchment area ($\textit{p}$ = 0.04) and marginally and non-significantly in the farthest catchment (10 %; $\textit{p}$ = 0.66), compared to control conditions. However, victim-generated crimes—the primary outcome measured in previous experiments—increased by 25 % ($\textit{p}$ = 0.10) in the near vicinity, by 23 % ($\textit{p}$ = 0.08) and 11 % ($\textit{p}$ $\leq$ 0.001) within the 100–150 m catchment areas, respectively. $\textit{Conclusions}$ These findings illustrate the role of bounded-rationality in everyday policing: reductions in crime are predicated on an elevated perceived risk-of-apprehension. Previous studies focused on clusters of addresses or public facilities, with police moving freely and unpredictably within the boundaries of the hotspot, but the patrol areas of officers in this experiment were limited to bus stops so offenders could anticipate their movements. Hotspots policing therefore backfires when offenders can systematically and accurately predict the temporal and spatial pattern of long-term targeting at a single location.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10940-016-9312-

Steady-state activation and modulation of the synaptic-type α1β2γ2L GABAA receptor by combinations of physiological and clinical ligands

The synaptic α1β2γ2 GAB

Penatalaksanaan penyakit pre-diabetes mellitus pada dokter keluarga di Kota Manado

Introduction: Pre-diabetes is a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be called diabetes. Control of DMT2 disease requires a holistic approach to meet the needs of the community through the pre-diabetes group, namely family physicians. Studies have found that general practitioner that have limited knowledge of risk factors for pre-diabetes screening, laboratory diagnostic criteria for pre-diabetes, and management recommendations for patients with pre-diabetes contributing to an inadequate diagnosis of pre-diabetes. Purpose: To find the behavior of family physicians in the management of chronic disease pre-diabetes mellitus in Manado City. Methods: This research is a descriptive study using a cross-sectional design. Result: The results showed that the knowledges level of family physicians in Manado City was in the good category totaling 31 doctors (100%), the attitudes level of family physicians in the good category with 31 doctors (100%), and the practice level of family physicians was in the good category with 31 doctors (100). Conclusion: Based on the results of the study, family physicians in Manado have good knowledge, attitude, and practice about pre-diabetes. Keywords: pre-diabetes, behavior, family physicians &nbsp

Estrategias inclusivas para estudiantes con Capacidades Diferenciales de Aprendizaje a partir del Plan Individual de Ajustes Razonables (PIAR) desde el Modelo Educativo Histórico Ancestral del Centro Educativo Mona To+ de Puerto Leguízamo.

El presente proyecto aplicado, tuvo como objetivo, diseñar estrategias inclusivas para estudiantes con capacidades diferenciales de aprendizaje a partir del Plan Individual de Ajustes Razonables (PIAR) desde el modelo educativo histórico ancestral del Centro Educativo Mona To+ de Puerto Leguízamo, Para su desarrollo se tuvo en cuenta el Modelo Pedagógico Social Comunitario desde un enfoque cualitativo y un tipo de Investigación Acción – IA, donde, en coherencia con el enfoque, se implementan para la recolección de información herramientas cualitativas como la entrevista semiestructurada a familias, estudiantes, docentes y ancestros para argumentar teóricamente el modelo histórico ancestral. Desde sus realidades sociales, se identificaron las necesidades urgentes de abordar las acciones teniendo en cuenta el nivel de escolaridad básico de los padres de familia; rescatar el arraigo hacia los principios culturales; acompañamiento pedagógico pertinente e integral a los niños donde su edad biológica no corresponde a su nivel de escolaridad presentando dificultades que afectan su proceso de aprendizaje como el de la lectura y la escritura, por lo tanto, se implementan los PIAR como estrategia de inclusión en la comunidad educativa con capacidades diferenciales de aprendizaje, y se propone un plan de acción en atención a los estudiantes con dificultades específicas de aprendizaje desde la inclusión educativa.he objective of this applied project was to design inclusive strategies for students with differential learning abilities based on the Individual Plan of Reasonable Adjustments (PIAR) from the historical ancestral educational model of the Mona To+ Educational Center of Puerto Leguízamo, For its development, the Community Social Pedagogical Model was taken into account from a qualitative approach and a type of Action Research - AI, where, in coherence with the approach, qualitative tools such as the semi-structured interview to families, students, teachers and ancestors are implemented for the collection of information in order to argue theoretically the historical ancestral model. From their social realities, urgent needs were identified to address actions taking into account the basic schooling level of parents; rescue the rootedness towards cultural principles; pertinent and integral pedagogical accompaniment to children where their biological age does not correspond to their level of schooling presenting difficulties that affect their learning process such as reading and writing, therefore, PIARs are implemented as a strategy of inclusion in the educational community with differential learning capabilities, and an action plan is proposed in attention to students with specific learning difficulties from the educational inclusion

3D Human Pose Estimation on a Configurable Bed from a Pressure Image

Robots have the potential to assist people in bed, such as in healthcare settings, yet bedding materials like sheets and blankets can make observation of the human body difficult for robots. A pressure-sensing mat on a bed can provide pressure images that are relatively insensitive to bedding materials. However, prior work on estimating human pose from pressure images has been restricted to 2D pose estimates and flat beds. In this work, we present two convolutional neural networks to estimate the 3D joint positions of a person in a configurable bed from a single pressure image. The first network directly outputs 3D joint positions, while the second outputs a kinematic model that includes estimated joint angles and limb lengths. We evaluated our networks on data from 17 human participants with two bed configurations: supine and seated. Our networks achieved a mean joint position error of 77 mm when tested with data from people outside the training set, outperforming several baselines. We also present a simple mechanical model that provides insight into ambiguity associated with limbs raised off of the pressure mat, and demonstrate that Monte Carlo dropout can be used to estimate pose confidence in these situations. Finally, we provide a demonstration in which a mobile manipulator uses our network's estimated kinematic model to reach a location on a person's body in spite of the person being seated in a bed and covered by a blanket.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure

Reconceptualizando la guerra: sobre la impropiedad de usar sistemas formales determinísticos racionales en el fenómeno del conflicto armado

Este texto resume algunas críticas sobre el uso de la modelación matemática y estadística en temas relacionados con el conflicto armado. Para lo cual se presenta la teoría pura de la guerra a partir de Carl Von Clausewitz; la cual se muestra como condición necesaria para los modelos formales. Luego de ello se demarcan los alcances de estos modelos y sus limitaciones

Reconceptualizando la guerra: sobre la impropiedad de usar sistemas formales determinísticos racionales en el fenómeno del conflicto armado

This report summarizes some criticism of the use of mathematical and statistical modeling on issues related to the armed conflict. In this sense, we propose the pure war theory from Car Von Clausewitz, which present as a necessary condition to formal models. After that, we show the limitations of the models, advantage and disadvantage.Este texto resume algunas críticas sobre el uso de la modelación matemática y estadística en temas relacionados con el conflicto armado. Para lo cual se presenta la teoría pura de la guerra a partir de Carl Von Clausewitz; la cual se muestra como condición necesaria para los modelos formales. Luego de ello se demarcan los alcances de estos modelos y sus limitaciones

Knowing when you're wrong: Building fast and reliable approximate query processing systems

Modern data analytics applications typically process massive amounts of data on clusters of tens, hundreds, or thousands of machines to support near-real-time decisions.The quantity of data and limitations of disk and memory bandwidth often make it infeasible to deliver answers at interactive speeds. However, it has been widely observed that many applications can tolerate some degree of inaccuracy. This is especially true for exploratory queries on data, where users are satisfied with "close-enough" answers if they can come quickly. A popular technique for speeding up queries at the cost of accuracy is to execute each query on a sample of data, rather than the whole dataset. To ensure that the returned result is not too inaccurate, past work on approximate query processing has used statistical techniques to estimate "error bars" on returned results. However, existing work in the sampling-based approximate query processing (S-AQP) community has not validated whether these techniques actually generate accurate error bars for real query workloads. In fact, we find that error bar estimation often fails on real world production workloads. Fortunately, it is possible to quickly and accurately diagnose the failure of error estimation for a query. In this paper, we show that it is possible to implement a query approximation pipeline that produces approximate answers and reliable error bars at interactive speeds.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CISE Expeditions Award CCF-1139158)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Award 7076018)United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (XData Award FA8750-12-2-0331)Amazon.com (Firm)Google (Firm)SAP CorporationThomas and Stacey Siebel FoundationApple Computer, Inc.Cisco Systems, Inc.Cloudera, Inc.EMC CorporationEricsson, Inc.Facebook (Firm

Insomnia, depression, and anxiety symptoms interact and individually impact functioning: A network and relative importance analysis in the context of insomnia

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Insomnia, depression, and anxiety show high rates of comorbidity and functional impairment. Transdiagnostic symptom interactions may be implicated in this comorbidity. This network analysis sought to assess how symptoms of insomnia, depression, and anxiety may interact and individually predict impairment across several domains for individuals with insomnia. METHODS: Baseline psychometric data from a randomised controlled trial were analysed (N = 1711). A regularized partial correlation network was estimated from the symptom data. Centrality (symptom connectivity), community structure (symptom clustering), and bridging (inter-community connectivity) were assessed. The replicability of the network model was assessed via confirmatory analyses in a holdout sample. Separately, Shapley values were estimated to determine the relative importance of each symptom in predicting functioning (i.e., psychological wellbeing, psychosocial functioning, and physical health impairment). RESULTS: The most connected nodes were uncontrollable worrying; trouble relaxing; and depressed mood/hopelessness. Five communities were identified with trouble relaxing identified as the bridge symptom between communities. The model showed good fit in the holdout sample. Low energy and depressive affect symptoms (feelings of failure/guilt; depressed mood/hopelessness; anhedonia) were key predictors in the relative importance analysis across multiple domains of impairment. CONCLUSION: Trouble relaxing may be of clinical and transdiagnostic significance in the context of insomnia. In terms of how symptoms relate to functioning, it was clear that, while low energy and feelings of failure/guilt were prominent predictors, a range of symptoms are associated with functional impairment. Consideration of both symptoms and functional impairment across domains may be useful in determining targets for treatment. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: This is a secondary analysis of an original clinical trial. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN60530898. Registry URL: https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN60530898