Learning from the Germans? History and Memory in German and European Discourses of Integration

History and memory appear to be increasingly important to discussions of European values and identity, as exemplified by references to ‘bitter experiences’ and ‘divided pasts’ in the draft EU constitution. The article takes recent suggestions that Europe could learn from German experiences of confronting multiple difficult pasts as its starting point, and considers critically what lessons those German experiences might in fact hold for ‘Europe’. It explores similarities and differences in the two integration contexts and their dominant approaches to, and assumptions about history and public memory. Specifically, it considers debates about the east-west division of the Cold War and about the place of communism and nazism in public memory. Contrary to common assumptions, the article argues that German experiences are not necessarily worth of European emulation

Social Insect Antimicrobial Secretions: Prevention Rather Than Cure

Trabalho final de mestrado integrado em Medicina (Geriatria), apresentado á Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de CoimbraO envelhecimento demográfico é um fenómeno global que despertou a atenção das diferentes áreas científicas ao realçar problemas de saúde pública, como é o caso dos maustratos contra a pessoa idosa. De facto, nas sociedades modernas, observa-se uma enorme diferenciação intergeracional que faz com que os idosos sejam confrontados com estereótipos negativos sobre o processo de envelhecimento e com atitudes idadistas, projetando-se, assim, sobre eles uma representação social gerontofóbica. É neste contexto, que surge esta revisão da literatura sobre o tema dos maus-tratos ao idoso. Nela, aborda-se a falta de consenso quanto à definição do conceito, a tipologia, os modelos explicativos, a prevalência e os diferentes fatores de risco, bem como as estratégias de avaliação dos maus-tratos e as potenciais medidas interventivas. A legislação em vigor, em Portugal, referente aos maus-tratos sobre a população idosa também constituiu objeto de análise. Os maus-tratos em idosos são considerados um fenómeno universal. As estimativas de prevalência nas taxas globais variam entre 1% a 5% e de 3,2% a 27,5%. Na Europa estima-se que pelo menos 4 milhões de pessoas idosas experienciem uma situação de maus-tratos no período de um ano. Um estudo realizado em Portugal revelou que, entre os anos de 2011 e 2014, cerca de 12,3% da população idosa foi vítima de, pelo menos, uma conduta de maustratos. Os maus-tratos mais frequentes foram: o abuso financeiro (6,3%) e o abuso psicológico (6,3%), o abuso físico (2,3%), a negligência (0,4%) e o abuso sexual (0,2%). No entanto, a ideia de que os maus-tratos são um fenómeno iceberg goza de consenso. Assume-se que, por cada caso reportado cinco ficam no esquecimento, o que torna difícil conhecer a real prevalência deste fenómeno. Este problema atravessa todos os setores da sociedade, independentemente da classe socioeconómica, da raça ou etnia, do nível educacional ou da religião. As razões explicativas, 4 referenciadas nos diversos estudos, apontam para o facto de, a par de um envelhecimento populacional, não existir um sistema de saúde e de proteção social devidamente preparado para responder eficazmente aos problemas e necessidades das pessoas idosas e das suas famílias. Salientam, ainda, as consequências devastadoras para as pessoas idosas, nomeadamente a nível físico, psicológico e financeiro, constituindo os maus-tratos uma violação dos direitos humanos que conduz a uma diminuição da qualidade de vida. A nível social acarretam grandes custos económicos na área da saúde e em outros serviços sociais e legais, drenando recursos e requerendo investimento por parte das sociedades. Este complexo problema de natureza multifatorial assume-se como um desafio para os diversos profissionais que têm de considerar variáveis como a interdependência entre os determinantes individuais, relacionais e culturais. A abordagem e intervenção, nestes casos, deve ser preventiva, realizada por uma equipa multidisciplinar, devendo focar-se nas potenciais vítimas, perpetradores dos maus-tratos e respetivos familiares, de modo a se colmatarem as suas necessidades, erradicando-se eventuais fatores de riscoDemographic aging is a global phenomenon that attracted the attention of different scientific areas when it enhanced public health problems, including the mistreatment of the elderly. In fact, in modern societies there is an enormous intergenerational differentiation phase that causes older people to be confronted with negative stereotypes about the aging process and with ageism attitudes, projecting thus on them a geriatric phobic social representation. It is in this context that this literature review on the subject of elderly mistreatment appears. It addresses the lack of consensus on the definition of the concept, the typology, the explanatory models, the prevalence and different risk factors as well as the abuse assessment strategies and potential interventional measures. The present legislation in Portugal, regarding the mistreatment of the elderly population, has also been object of analysis. Elderly mistreatment is considered a universal phenomenon. The estimates for its global prevalence rates range from 1% to 5% and from 3.2% to 27.5%. It’s estimated that, in Europe, at least 4 million elderly experience one abuse situation per year. A study in Portugal showed that, between the years 2011 and 2014, about 12.3% of the elderly population has been victim of, at least, one conduit of abuse. The most common types of abuse were: financial abuse (6.3%), psychological abuse (6.3%), physical abuse (2.3%), neglect (0.4%) and sexual abuse (0.2%). However, there is a certain consensus in stating that abuse is an iceberg phenomenon, as it’s assumed that for every reported case of elderly abuse, there are five unreported cases, making it difficult to know the real prevalence of this phenomenon. This problem exists in all sectors of society, regardless of socioeconomic class, race or ethnicity, educational level or religion. Several studies state that it can be explained by the fact that, along with an aging population, there isn’t a health and social protection system properly prepared to respond effectively to the problems and needs of older people and their 6 families. It also highlights that mistreatment leads to devastating consequences for older people at several levels, including physical, psychological and financial, constituting a violation of human rights and leading to a decreased quality of life. At the social level, it also causes large economic costs in health care and other social and legal services, draining resources and requiring investment by societies. This multifactor and complex issue is a challenge for the several professionals, who must consider many variables, as the interdependence between individual, relational and cultural determinatives. The approach and intervention in these cases should be preventive and performed by a multidisciplinary team, focusing on the potential victims, their families and abuse perpetrators, in order to fulfill their needs and eradicate possible risk facto

Scenario-based evaluation of an ethical framework for the use of digital media in learning and teaching

nterest in educational podcasting, audio feedback and media-enhanced learning, in its various forms, has grown due to the increased access academic staff and students have to new technologies. The benefits have been widely reported in the educational development and disciplinary literature on learning technology, mobile learning, digital age learning, and assessment and feedback. However, such literature focuses more on what can be done, rather than if it should be done. Hargreaves (2008) signals the need to balance ethical risk in the creative curriculum with actions that maximise beneficence, especially within the context of a sector that espouses to develop critical skills in learners. In a world of constantly developing technology, it is not always easy to appraise the implications of a pedagogic innovation. As practitioners concerned with academic development, our aim is to facilitate academics to reflect on their practice from a variety of perspectives, and we felt that an easy–to-use ethical framework could assist academics to identify potential ethical problems. The Media-Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (MELSIG) is a UK network of academics, developers and learning technologists. They identified the need to consider the ethical risk associated with using digital media in response to examples described in recent literature, and ideas generated by its community. It was as a result of discussions at MELSIG that this collaborative work began. The three members of MELSIG were joined by a colleague with an interest in ethics but who was relatively inexperienced with new technologies. When this work began we looked primarily at digital media, but it is considered that such a framework can be used to appraise the use of other new technologies in learning and teaching. This paper will begin by giving a brief explanation of ethics, as a discipline, and the approach to ethics which underpins this framework. We will then discuss the results from a scenario-based evaluation of the framework, undertaken by the four authors. Following this evaluation, the framework is now being evaluated by a wider community of practitioners, on real examples, and continues to develop as it is exposed to wider use. However, it is considered that the initial scenario-based evaluation raised some interim findings that will be of interest to a wider audience

Between histories and memories: Torgau’s Memorial Museum for Germany’s short twentieth century

Germany offers numerous examples of memorial museums, although beyond Berlin they are poorly represented in recent studies of the phenomenon. In studying the development of the Torgau Documentation and Information Centre in provincial Saxony, the article seeks to promote a more complex understanding of institutionalized remembrance in contemporary Germany. It argues for a closer look at the agency of East and West Germans and at the relationship between the Nazi and communist pasts. In particular, it considers dilemmas posed by depicting the history of Soviet internment camps in postwar eastern Germany, where former Nazi officials and bystanders and opponents of communist rule all became victims of Soviet mistreatment. The article raises key issues for the practice and study of memorial museums. It considers the difficulties of addressing multiple, interconnected histories within a single institution and the near impossibility of satisfying diverse and divided communities of memory. It also explores problems associated with the combination of historical documentation and morally grounded commemoration of victims that constitutes memorial museums’ defining characteristic. It suggests that curators, administrators and scholars need to reflect upon, and weigh up the competing demands of moral certainty and historical complexity

I Get by With a Little Help From My Bots: Implications of Machine Agents in the Context of Social Support

In this manuscript we discuss the increasing use of machine agents as potential sources of support for humans. Continued examination of the use of machine agents, particularly chatbots (or “bots”) for support is crucial as more supportive interactions occur with these technologies. Building off extant research on supportive communication, this manuscript reviews research that has implications for bots as support providers. At the culmination of the literature review, several propositions regarding how factors of technological efficacy, problem severity, perceived stigma, and humanness affect the process of support are proposed. By reviewing relevant studies, we integrate research on human-machine and supportive communication to organize, extend, and provide a foundation for the growing body of work on machine agents for support