The wicked and complex in education: developing a transdisciplinary perspective for policy formulation, implementation and professional practice

The concept of 'wicked issues', originally developed in the field of urban planning, has been taken up by design educators, architects and public health academics where the means for handling 'wicked issues' has been developed through 'reflective practice'. In the education of teachers, whilst reflective practice has been a significant feature of professional education, the problems to which this has been applied are principally 'tame' ones. In this paper, the authors argue that there has been a lack of crossover between two parallel literatures. The literature on 'wicked issues' does not fully recognise the difficulties with reflective practice and that in education which extols reflective practice, is not aware of the 'wicked' nature of the problems which confront teachers and schools. The paper argues for a fresh understanding of the underlying nature of problems in education so that more appropriate approaches can be devised for their resolution. This is particularly important at a time when the government in England is planning to make teaching a masters level profession, briefly defined by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) benchmark statement as 'Decision-making in complex and unpredictable situations'. The paper begins by locating the argument and analysis of 'wicked problems' within the nature of social complexity and chaos. The second part of the paper explores implications for those involved in policy formation, implementation and service provision. Given the range of stakeholders in education, the paper argues for a trans-disciplinary approach recognising the multiple perspectives and methodologies leading to the acquisition of reticulist skills and knowledge necessary to boundary cross. © 2009 Taylor & Francis

Farmer’s Perceptions on the Farmland Management Practices, Perceived Challenges and Prospects: The Case of Mareka District, Dawuro Zone, Southern Ethiopia

The present study was undertaken in Mareka District, Dawuro Zone, Southern Ethiopia to assess major types, perceived challenges and prospects of farmland management problems in the study area. Mixed research design was used, and both primary and secondary data were collected. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, and percentage were used to describe the background information, types and prospects of major farmland management problems of sample households in the study area. The result of this study revealed that educational status, types of crops cultivated, population pressure, deforestation, culture, over grazing, lack of awareness, topography and poverty are among the challenges that affect farmland management practices in the study area. According to the perception of sample households, there are prospects like favorable government policies and strategies, availability of extension services and scaling up of best practices and establishment of farmer training centers. Thus, to secure sustainable farmland management practices proper monitoring and evaluation, conservation oriented crop combination land management, afforestation, agro-forestry, adequate training in farmer training centers, access to information and proper planning of the population growth are highly recommended for the study area. Keywords: Challenges, Prospects, Farmland Management Practices, Mareka District. DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/9-17-05 Publication date:September 30th 201

Unfavorable environmental conditions: Consequences for microbial metabolism and C stabilization in soil

Bodenbiogeochemische Stoffkreisläufe werden primär durch Bodenmikroorganismen angetrieben, was diese zu einem wichtigen Bindeglied zwischen der Pedo- und der Atmosphäre macht. Bodenmikroben kontrollieren den Kohlenstoff (C)-transfer von terrestrischen Ökosystemen zur Atmosphäre durch die Zersetzung von organischer Bodensubstanz (OBS). Daher haben Bodenmikroben die Macht, das Klima durch die Mineralisierung von C- und Stickstoff (N)-verbindungen zu Treibhausgasen zu „geoingeeren“. Allerdings sind Bodenmikroorganismen häuftig widrigen Bedingungen ausgesetzt, welche entweder natürlich vorkommen oder vom Menschen verursacht werden. Für jeden widrige Bedingung gibt es widerrum Mikroorganismen, welche diese nicht nur tolerieren, sondern sie sogar benötigen um ihre Funktionen auszuführen. Um die Änderungen von Nährstoff- und C-Kreisläufen unter globalem Wandel vorherzusagen ist es daher essenziell, Adaptionsmechanismen, welche es Mikroorganismen erlauben unter widrigen Bedingungen zu überleben und funktionieren, zu verstehen. Positionsspezifische 13C und 14C Markierung und substanzspezifische Analysen wurden als Hauptmethoden angewandt, um mikrobielle Anpassungen an widrigen Bedingungen, sowie die zugrunde liegenden C-Stabilisierungsmechanismen im Boden zu erfassen. Die widrigen Bedingungen waren: 1) Temperaturen unter 0 °C, 2) Respirationsinhibierung durch Giftstoffe, und 3) Nährstofflimitierung durch Sorption an Bodenpartikel. Einbau von 13C oder 14C in CO2, Gesamtboden, mikrobielle Biomasse und Phospholipid-Fettsäuren wurde quantifiziert um mit Hilfe von „metabolic Tracing“ die Adaptionsmechanismen aufzudecken. Temperaturen unter 0 °C induzierten einen Wechsel vom Pentose-Phosphat-Weg (PPP) zu Glycolyse. 13C-Einbau in mikrobielle Biomasse war bei -5 °C 3-fach höher als bei +5 °C, was auf die Synthese interzellulärer Bestandteile wie Glycerol oder Ethanol als Reaktion auf Frost hindeutet. Sogar bei -20 °C wurde nach einem Tag weniger als 0,4% des 13C im gelösten organischen C (DOC) gefunden. Dies demonstriert die komplette Aufnahme von Glukose durch Mikroorganismen. Den 5-fach höheren Gehalt an extra- im Vergleich zum intrazellulären 13C führten wir daher auf ausgeschiedene Frostschutzsubstanzen zurück. Dies legt den Schluss nahe, dass mit sinkender Temperatur interzellulärer von extrazellulärem Frostschutz unterstützt wird um Zellschäden durch kristallisierendes Wasser zu vermeiden. Ein starker Anstieg des Gehalts von einfach ungesättigten Fettsäuren und damit verbundener höherer Einbau von 13C bei -5 °C wurde durch 1) Desaturierung von existierenden Fettsäureketten und 2) Neubildung von PLFA erklärt. Im Gegensatz dazu überwog bei -20 °C der Einbau von 13C in kurzkettige, verzweigte Fettsäuren. Dies zeigt einen Adaptionsmechanismus der mikrobiellen Membranen an Temperaturen unter 0 °C auf. Respirationsinhibierung durch Natriumazid (NaN3) verhinderte den Einbau von 13C in PLFA und verminderte den gesamten CO2-Ausstoß. Der Gehalt von 13C in CO2 war jedoch im Vergleich mit den Kontrollböden um 12% erhöht, da die aufgenommene Glukose verstärkt zur Energieerzeugung benutzt wurde. Die 5-fach höhere 13C-Wiederfindung im Boden im Vergleich zur mikrobiellen Biomasse legt nahe, dass glukosebürtiger C zur Produktion von extrazellulären Substanzen genutzt wurde. Die Produktion von redoxaktiven Substanzen zur extrazellulären Beseitigung von Elektronen würde es den Zellen erlauben, die inhibierten Elektronentransportketten zu umgehen. Der Gehalt an PLFA verdoppelte sich zehn Tage nach der Inhibierung, was eine Erholung der mikrobiellen Gemeinschaft demonstriert. Der beobachtete Wachstum basierte dabei zum Großteil auf dem Recycling von metabolisch teuren Biomassekomponenten, z.B. Alkylketten, von mikrobieller Nekromasse. Das Umgehen von interzellulären Giftstoffen durch den Transport von Elektronen außerhalb der Zellen erlaubt eine schnelle Erhohlung der mikrobiellen Gemeinschaft. Sorption von Alanin verminderte das initiale Mineralisierungsmaximum um ≈80% im Vergleich zu freiem Alanin. Der Einbau von sorbiertem Alanin in die mikrobielle Biomasse war vier Mal höher als von freiem Alanin. Zusätzlich dazu waren C-2 und C-3 von sorbiertem Alanin an Tag 3 noch gleichermaßen im Boden vorhanden, wärend C-2 von freiem Alanin schon deutlich weniger eingebaut war als C-3. Noch deulicher wird der Unterschied zwischen freiem und sorbiertem C-2, wenn mikrobielle Biomasse betrachtet wird. Dies deckt einen verringerten Fluss durch den Zitronensäurezyklus auf. Daher verändert die Nutzung von sorbiertem Substrat die metabolen Wege hin zu einem verstärkeren anabolen Einsatz, womit eine höhere Kohlenstoffnutzungseffizienz (CUE) einher geht. Zusätzlich zu den Änderungen der mikrobiellen Stoffwechselaktivität findet unter widrigen Bedingungen eine Anpassung der mikrobiellen Gemeinschaft statt, um den Verlust von sensitiveren Populationen zu kompensieren. Das Verhätnis von pilzlichen zu bakteriellen PLFA zeigte, dass durch niedrigere Temperaturen und respirationsinhibierende Giftstoffe eine stärkere bakteriell geprägte Gemeinschaft entsteht. Die Nachteile für die pilzlichen Mikroorganismen, welche durch Giftstoffe ausgelöst wurden waren allerdings von kürzerer Dauer als diejenigen der niedrigen Temperaturen. Gegenüber von Giftstoffen scheinen Pilze also eine größere Wiederstandskraft zu besitzen als gegenüber Frost. Änderungen des mikrobiellen Stoffwechsels und der Struktur der mikrobiellen Gemeinschaft als Reaktion auf sich ändernde Umweltbedingungen haben auch einen Einfluss auf C-, Energie- und Nährstoffflüsse auf der Ökosystemebene, besonders in Anbetracht der Tatsache, dass gezeigt wurde, dass C aus labilen Quellen wie Zuckern im Boden länger erhalten bleiben kann als Substanzen mit hoher Rekalzitranz wie Lignin. Die Verfolgung von glukose- und ribosebürtigem C unter Langzeitfeldbedingungen zeigte dabei, dass der Persistenz verschiedene Mechanismen zu Grunde liegen können. Die Persistenz von glukosebürtigem C konnte zum Großteil durch Recycling erklärt werden. Im Gegensatz dazu charakterisierte die Stabilisierung in nicht-lebender OBS die Persistenz von ribosebürtigem C. Sogar innerhalb einer Stoffklasse labiler organischer Stoffe – den Monosacchariden – unterscheiden sich also Stabilisierungsmechanismen. Daher wird deutlich, dass die Stabilisierung von C im Boden zum Großteil von metabolen Transformationen abhängt, welche nicht nur von der Substanzklasse und ihren Stoffwechselwegen bedingt wird, sondern auch von den Umweltbedingungen an welche die Mikroorganismen ihren Metabolismus angepasst haben. Für jede untersuchte Bedingung haben Mikroorganismen Toleranz gezeigt, was darauf hindeutet, dass die Grenzen für Leben auf der Erde alles andere als gut definiert sind. Die Kombination von positionsspezifischer Markierung mit substanzspezifischen Analysen deckte die Mechanismen auf, welche es Mikroben erlauben unter widrigen Bedingungen zu überleben und funktionieren. Mikroorganismen verwenden eine Reihe von metabolen und physiologischen Anpassungen, aber auch Änderungen in der Zusammensetzung der mikrobiellen Gemeinschaft, als Antwort auf widrige Bedingungen. Die Anpassungen der mikrobiellen Stoffwechselaktivität beeinflust die C-Stabilisierung im Boden. Daher ist das Wissen über diese Anpassungsstrategien und ihre Auswirkungen auf C-Flüsse entscheidend für die Vorhersage von Änderungen der C-Kreisläufe, welche durch verschiedene Ausprägungen des globalen Wandels induziert werden.Soil microorganisms are primary drivers of biogeochemical cycles, making them an important link between pedosphere and atmosphere. Soil microbes control the carbon (C) transfer from terrestrial ecosystem to the atmosphere via the decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM). Thus, soil microbes have the power to geo-engineer the climate through mineralization of C and nitrogen (N) compounds into greenhouse gases. However, soil microorganisms are frequently exposed to unfavorable conditions either naturally or anthropogenically. For every unfavorable condition, some microorganisms have been found to not only tolerate the conditions, but also often require the conditions to perform their functions. Therefore, understanding adaptation mechanisms enabling microorganisms to survive and function under the unfavorable conditions is essential predicting the response of nutrients and C cycle to diverse expressions of global change. Position-specific 13C and 14C labeling and compound-specific analysis were applied as the main methodological approach to study microbial adaptations to unfavorable conditions and mechanisms underlying C stabilization in soil. The unfavorable conditions were: 1) subzero temperatures, 2) respiration inhibition by toxicants, and 3) nutrient limitation induced by sorption in soil. Incorporation of 13C or 14C into CO2, bulk soil, microbial biomass and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) was quantified to identify adaptation mechanisms with the aid of metabolic tracing. Subzero temperatures induced a switch from pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) to glycolysis. 13C incorporated into microbial biomass was 3-fold higher at 5 than +5 °C, which points to a synthesis of intracellular compounds such as glycerol and ethanol in response to freezing. Even at 20 °C, less than 0.4% of 13C was recovered in dissolved organic C (DOC) after one day, demonstrating complete glucose uptake by microorganisms. Consequently, we attributed the 5-fold higher extra- than intracellular 13C to secreted antifreeze compounds. This suggests that with decreasing temperature, intracellular antifreeze protection is complemented by extracellular mechanisms to avoid cellular damage by crystallizing water. These mechanisms reflect the general response of microbial groups in soil. To understand the effect of freezing on individual microbial group in soil phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis was performed. Based on these results, a strong increase of mono-unsaturated fatty acids and corresponding 13C incorporation at -5 °C was attributed to 1) desaturation within existing fatty acid chains, and 2) de novo synthesis of PLFA. On contrary, 13C incorporation into short-chain branched fatty acids was dominant at -20 °C. This reflects adaptation of microbial membranes to subzero temperatures. A part from freezing, microbial activity can be hampared by toxicant exposure due to human activities. Despite exposure, CO2 is persistently released from soils. To determine the origin and understand the mechanism underlying such persistent CO2 release, soil microorganisms were exposed to sodium azide (NaN3) as model toxicant inhibiting respiration. Respiration inhibition prevented 13C incorporation into PLFA and decreased total CO2 release. However, 13C in CO2 increased by 12% compared to control soils due to an increased use of glucose for energy production. The allocation of glucose-derived carbon towards extracellular compounds, demonstrated by a 5-fold higher 13C recovery in bulk soil than in microbial biomass, suggests the synthesis of redox active substances for extracellular disposal of electrons to bypass inhibited electron transport chains within the cells. PLFA content doubled within 10 days of inhibition, demonstrating recovery of the microbial community. This growth was largely based on recycling of metabolically expensive biomass compounds, e.g., alkyl chains, from microbial necromass. The bypass of intracellular toxicity by extracellular electron transport permits the fast recovery of the microbial community. Toxicants are not the only limitation in soils. Soil is full of C; however, this C is not always avilabe because 70-100% is found in close association with organic and mineral fractions in soil. This means that soil microorganism suffer starvation induced by nutrient sorption in soil. To identify metabolic adaptations of soil microbes to nutrient limitation induced by sorption, we tracked transformation of sorbed alanine. Sorption of alanine decreased the initial mineralization peak by ≈80% compared to free alanine. Consequently, a 4-fold incorporation of 14C into microbial biomass was induced by sorption. Additionally, C-2 and C-3 of sorbed alanine remained in equal proportion in soil until day 3 contrary to free alanine in which significantly lower C-2 was incorporated than C-3. Even more vivid, an increased incorporation of C-2 into microbial biomass under sorption reveals a decrease of C flux through the citric acid cycle. Therefore, use of sorbed substrate shifts microbial metabolism towards a higher C use in anabolism, resulting in increased carbon use efficiency (CUE). In addition to changes in microbial metabolic activity, shift in microbial community structure to compensate for the loss of more sensitive populations also occurs under unfavorable conditions. The fungal/bacterial PLFA ratio revealed a shift towards bacteria at subzero temperatures and in presence of respiration inhibiting toxicants. However, susceptibility of fungal populations to toxicant was short-lived compared to subzero temperatures. This suggests that fungi are more resilient to toxicants than perturbations imposed by freezing. Changes in microbial metabolic activity and community structure due to changes in environmental conditions also influence ecosystem-level C, energy and nutrient flows, especially considering that C derived from labile compounds such as sugars have been shown to persist longer in soil than those from compounds of high recalcitrance such as lignin. Tracking glucose and ribose-derived C under long-term field conditions revealed that different mechanisms underlie their persistence. The persistence of glucose-derived C was mainly dominated by recycling. On contrary, stabilization in non-living SOM characterized the persistence of ribose-derived C. Therefore, even with the same class of labile compounds – the monosaccharides, the mechanisms responsible for C stabilization differ. Thus, stabilization of C in soil is largely influenced by metabolic transformation of the compound – affected not only by the compound class and its metabolic pathway, but also by the environmental conditions to which the microorganism is adapting its metabolism. Thus, for every condition investigated, some microorganisms have shown tolerance, implying that the limit of life on Earth is far from being well defined. Combining positions-specific labelling with compound-specific analysis revealed such mechanisms allowing microbes to survive and function under unfavorable conditions. Microorganisms induce a suite of not only metabolic and physiological changes, but also shifts in microbial community structure in response to unfavorable conditions. The changes in microbial metabolic activity influences C stabilization in soil. Knowledge on these adaptation strategies and their implications for C fluxes in crucial in predicting changes in C cycles induced by various phenomena of global change

Internal Displacement, Place attachment and post-conflict trauma in Sucre, Colombia.

This essay gives and insight into the situation of IDPs in Sucre, Colombia. The aim of the study is to try to draw on the concepts of internal displacement, place attachment and post-conflict trauma to see how IDPs view themselves in respects to these concepts. Colombia has the second largest number of IDPs in the world making the situation for IDPs a highly relevant case to study. When one talks about IDPs in Sucre it is important to remember that most times the moving is not voluntary. In many cases in Sucre the time and type of displacement is closely linked to the economic capacity of the IDP. Also the option to go back home after the displacement is highly related to economic means. This is something that needs to have a greater part in the discussion regarding IDPs situation in Sucre. In addition, it is significant to let the IDPs talk about their situation in a qualitative study to shed some more light on how they view their situation. There is a change in how IDPs view themselves and their rights within the Colombian society. With the recognition of victims of the conflict the label IDPs has started to change into something desirable

A modified weighted log-rank test for confirmatory trials with a high proportion of treatment switching

In confirmatory cancer clinical trials, overall survival (OS) is normally a primary endpoint in the intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis under regulatory standards. After the tumor progresses, it is common that patients allocated to the control group switch to the experimental treatment, or another drug in the same class. Such treatment switching may dilute the relative efficacy of the new drug compared to the control group, leading to lower statistical power. It would be possible to decrease the estimation bias by shortening the follow-up period but this may lead to a loss of information and power. Instead we propose a modified weighted log-rank test (mWLR) that aims at balancing these factors by down-weighting events occurring when many patients have switched treatment. As the weighting should be pre-specified and the impact of treatment switching is unknown, we predict the hazard ratio function and use it to compute the weights of the mWLR. The method may incorporate information from previous trials regarding the potential hazard ratio function over time. We are motivated by the RECORD-1 trial of everolimus against placebo in patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma where almost 80\% of the patients in the placebo group received everolimus after disease progression. Extensive simulations show that the new test gives considerably higher efficiency than the standard log-rank test in realistic scenarios

Henrik Ibsen: critical studies

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Capturing Detailed Hand Motion Using the Kinect Sensor and Max-Sum Belief Propagation

Recent research indicates that several neurological diseases that affect motor functions could be diagnosed using analysis of detailed arm and hand motion. This analysis has earlier been carried out manually by looking for certain mo- tion patterns in patients and animals performing a skilled reaching task. In this thesis we investigate the possibility of performing these tests in a more auto- mated fashion by implementing image analysis methods for capturing arm and hand motion data from RGBD recordings. We have used the Microsoft Kinect sensor to capture motion both on a precise level, describing movements around individual joints of the hand, and on a coarser level, finding directions and po- sitions of the lower and upper arm. Our methods take advantage of both the RGB photos, detecting skin colour and finding arm/hand pixels, and the depth images, constructing 3D point clouds that we try to match to a simple geometrical model of the hand. Our approach is to model each phalanx of the hand individually, draw hypotheses for each of these around their pose from the previous frame and then optimize to find the most likely hand configuration using a Belief Propagation based algorithm. We present results from running our algorithms on a few test sequences. The algorithm works well under favourable circumstances but has problems giving the correct pose for example when fingers occlude each other. Possible additions to the framework that might help to overcome these issues are also discussed