Networked Living: a new approach to teaching introductory ICT

The course T175 Networked Living is a 300 hour, multiple media, distance learning course offered by the UK Open University. The first presentation of the course, in 2005, attracted over 1600 students. T175 introduces students to general concepts of information and communication technology in a range of contexts, including: communication and identity; entertainment and information; and health, transport and government. It is an introductory (level 1) course for a variety of bachelors’ degrees, including the BSc programmes in: Information and Communication Technology; IT and Computing; and Technology; as well as the BEng engineering programme. The course was designed with a focus on retention of students and preparing them for further study. Student workload and pacing was carefully planned and there is a significant study skills component. The course uses a range of media, including: text, audio, computer animation and other software, and a website. Active learning is encouraged by means of activities, online quizzes, animations, spreadsheets and a learning journal. Continuous assessment is carried out via a mix of multiple-choice assignments (to test factual and numerical skills) and written assignments (which include elementary research into new topics). The course culminates with a written end-of-course assessment. This includes a major reflective component, as well as more traditional questions designed to test knowledge and understanding

Evolution of the Sequence Ontology terms and relationships

The Sequence Ontology is undergoing reform to meet the standards of the OBO Foundry. Here we report some of the incremental changes and improvements made to SO. We also propose new relationships to better define the mereological, spatial and temporal aspects of biological sequence

Facework in a pair-programming session

Improved communication is part of the agile solution to the problems we have in developing software. It has been shown that some development practices restricted feedback within teams because empirical studies suggest that a significant portion of the software maintainer's time is required to understand the functionality of the software to be maintained. Muller and Padberg demonstrated that when developers work together as tightly knit pairs this changes as their productivity and feelgood increase. In this paper we report on observations of developers programming as a pair. We see that the management of face is an important factor in attempts to reciver the meaning of code

Welfare State Regimes and Mothers' Poverty

In this paper I assess the extent to which welfare states reduce poverty among single mothers and all mothers. I focus on two different typologies of welfare states. One identifies the gendered assumptions underlying social policies, while the other focuses on how welfare states and labor markets affect class inequality. Using data from the Luxembourg Income Study, I show how tax and transfer systems and employment supports in nine Western nations affect the poverty rates of single mothers and all mothers vis-à-vis other groups. I find that particularly in the Scandinavian nations, and to a lesser extent in France, the Netherlands and U.K., the tax and transfer system, employment supports, or a combination of the two allow most single mothers to form autonomous households that escape poverty. I conclude by discussing how my findings speak to the different typologies of welfare state regimes

Single Motherhood, Employment, or Social Assistance: Why are U.S. Women Poorer than Women in Other Affluent Nations?

U.S. women have higher poverty rates than women in other affluent nations. In this paper I attempt to explain this disparity by examining the effect of single motherhood, employment, and social assistance on women's poverty. With cross-national comparisons of quantitative data, I find that the relatively high rate of single motherhood among U.S. women is not a main cause of their high poverty rates. Compared to their counterparts in other Western nations, U.S. women, mothers and single mothers are among the most likely to earn poverty wages. In addition, U.S. social assistance programs are the least effective in reducing poverty. I conclude with the policy implications of my findings, focusing on strategies to ameliorate the high poverty rates of U.S. women and mothers

Caregiving, Welfare States and Mothers' Poverty

I begin with a review of the literature that considers the gendered assumptions upon which many welfare states base their social policies. Next I present my research questions, discuss data and methods, and present analyses of how welfare states affect the poverty rates of mothers, single mothers, and other citizens in nine Western nations (Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, UK, and US). The analyses show the extent to which social assistance programs reduce mothers' and single mothers' poverty rates-in an absolute sense, and also how welfare states reduce their poverty rates relative to the poverty rates of other groups (such as female non-mothers or non-single mothers). I find that the welfare states most representative of the 'male breadwinner' model (Germany and the Netherlands) are problematic not only with their gendered assumptions about women's carework; compared to other countries, they also do less to reduce mothers' poverty rates relative to those of female non-mothers and men. In other words, in Germany and the Netherlands, many social policies assume that mothers are primary caregivers, but their social assistance programs fail to lower mothers' poverty rates relative to those of other citizens. I conclude with the implications of these findings for mothers' economic dependence on male partners. First, I present a brief discussion of the theoretical literature on the gendered nature of welfare states

Welfare Recipients Attending College: The Interplay of Oppression and Resistance

This qualitative study uses Patricia Hill Collins\u27 both/and conceptual framework to explore experiences of both oppression and resistance among welfare recipients attending college. It examines how children, social networks, integration into campus life, and interactions with caseworkers affect welfare recipients\u27 college attendance and college persistence. As is well established in the sociological literature, having children complicates college attendance and persistence. But this research shows that children also provide the predominant incentive for poor mothers to attain higher education. Moreover, this study reveals complexities in welfare recipients\u27 experiences with their social networks, work-study jobs, and caseworkers that are often overlooked by current research on higher education and welfare reform

Helping Mothers Escape Poverty: As European Policy Shows, Better Wages and Generous Social Supports are a Better Cure than Promoting Marriage

The belief that single motherhood is the pre-eminent cause of poverty in America has become a bipartisan cliché. The welfare reform enacted in 1996 was designed, among other things, to discourage single parenthood and to promote marriage. Yet a look at the experiences and policies of other nations suggests a more complex story of the causes and cure of poverty. Evidence from Europe shows that the remedy is increasing the economic resources available to low-income families-through better paying jobs that relieve poverty directly and social supports that reconcile paid employment with reliable parenting

A Climatology of Tropospheric Zonal-Mean Water Vapor Fields and Fluxes in Isentropic Coordinates

Based on reanalysis data for the years 1980–2001 from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ERA-40 data), a climatology of tropospheric zonal-mean water vapor fields and fluxes in isentropic coordinates is presented. In the extratropical free troposphere, eddy fluxes dominate the meridional flux of specific humidity along isentropes. At all levels, isentropic eddy fluxes transport water vapor from the deep Tropics through the subtropics into the extratropics. Isentropic eddy fluxes of specific humidity diverge near the surface and in the tropical and subtropical free troposphere; they converge in the extratropical free troposphere. Isentropic mean advective fluxes of specific humidity play a secondary role in the meridional water vapor transport in the free troposphere; however, they dominate the meridional flux of specific humidity near the surface, where they transport water vapor equatorward and, in the solstice seasons, across the equator. Cross-isentropic mean advective fluxes of specific humidity are especially important in the Hadley circulation, in whose ascending branches they moisten and in whose descending branches they dry the free troposphere. Near the minima of zonal-mean relative humidity in the subtropical free troposphere, the divergence of the cross-isentropic mean advective flux of specific humidity in the descending branches of the Hadley circulation is the dominant divergence in the mean specific humidity balance; it is primarily balanced by convergence of cross-isentropic turbulent fluxes that transport water vapor from the surface upward. Although there are significant isentropic eddy fluxes of specific humidity through the region of the subtropical relative humidity minima, their divergence near the minima is generally small compared with the divergence of cross-isentropic mean advective fluxes, implying that moistening by eddy transport from the Tropics into the region of the minima approximately balances drying by eddy transport into the extratropics. That drying by cross-isentropic mean subsidence near the subtropical relative humidity minima is primarily balanced by moistening by upward turbulent fluxes of specific humidity, likely in convective clouds, suggests cloud dynamics may play a central role in controlling the relative humidity of the subtropical free troposphere