Pedagogical potential of narrative and life history research in education

This paper aims to explore and reflect on the pedagogical potential of the narrative and biographical research methodology in education to illuminate and address issues related with immigration, inclusion and social justice. Our research practice is an approach to understanding the Other, thus our paper reports on a two research projects: 1) the Life History of Shila, young Moroccan boy who, whilst still under-age, was arrested in Spain for drug trafficking. Before completing his two-year rehabilitation process, he began working in a care home for protected minors, initially as a monitor and then as an “educator. 2) the Life History of Mei Ling, a young Spanish girl from a Chinese background and the way in which she interpreted and experienced her the lived experiences, problems and challenges in various social, local and transnational contexts: school, family, community and society in general.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Automated precision passing system

Athletes are always seeking ways to improve their performance. Down time and a lack of capable throwers prevent athletic receivers from practicing their skills. We hope to aid athletes in receiving drills within their respective sports and increase practice efficiency. In order to achieve this, the machine has one major axis of rotation driven by a motor. This enables it to adjust where the ball is being thrown. Using an Arduino Uno coupled with a Roboteq AX1500 motor driver, the Automated Precision Passing System is able to throw a ball to a specified point in space by adjusting both the azimuth and ball-throwing motor speed. Our testing shows that our prototype has the ability to position itself in three different orientations as well as adjust the launch motor speed, but we were unable to launch the ball the original distance that we desired. From this project, we gained valuable knowledge in the areas of machine design, control systems, and project management. In order to continue the project and create a functional consumer product there are several improvements that need to be made to the system. The Automated Precision Passing System needs to be more rigid, have more power, and include more throwing positions

A Photonic Implementation for the Topological Cluster State Quantum Computer

A new implementation of the topological cluster state quantum computer is suggested, in which the basic elements are linear optics, measurements, and a two-dimensional array of quantum dots. This overcomes the need for non-linear devices to create a lattice of entangled photons. We give estimates of the minimum efficiencies needed for the detectors, fusion gates and quantum dots, from a numerical simulation

The Role of Risk: Mentoring Experiences and Outcomes for Youth with Varying Risk Profiles

This report presents results from the nation's first large-scale study to examine how youth's levels and sources of risk may influence their mentoring relationships and the benefits they derive from participating in mentoring programs. More and more, mentoring programs are being asked to serve young people who are considered "higher risk." And while mentoring has a strong research base generally, until now relatively little has been known about programs' capacities to serve and produce benefits for these youth.Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the study involved more than 1,300 youth, drawn from seven programs serving young people in Washington State. Oversight and support for the project were provided by Washington State Mentors. The study looked closely at the backgrounds of participating youth and their mentors, the mentoring relationships that formed, the program supports that were offered, and the benefits youth received -- and examined how these varied for youth with differing profiles (i.e., levels and types) of risk."The Role of Risk" describes the study's methods and findings and considers their implications for practitioners and funders. Overall, the study's results suggest that mentoring programs can benefit youth with a broad range of backgrounds and characteristics. The findings also highlight the importance of youth risk in shaping match experiences, and suggest that programs should do more to tailor training and support based on the specific risks youth face

Labor Market Transitions in Peru

Traditional labor market analysis based solely on the net unemployment rate fails to explain the apparent paradox between a relatively moderate unemployment rate in Peru (around 10%, with a weak sensibility to wide macroeconomic fluctuations), and the fact that unemployment is one of the major issues in Peru. One possible explanation is that this static indicator of cross section net unemployment balance is compatible with high flows in and out of employment states. To address these issues we needed to conduct a dynamic analysis using panel data. Using the Peruvian national household survey (ENAHO), we constructed a panel of working age individuals at the national level for the period 1997-1999. Like previous work in developing countries, we found that there is an important degree of job mobility in Peru. We also found that most of the transitions occur between employment and inactivity instead of between employment and unemployment. We also showed that the rate of permanent unemployment is very low so that unemployment would be essentially a frictional phenomenon. Further, considering the different transition states, we elaborated an unconditional transition profile, including individual and household characteristics, like gender, age and education levels for example, associated with each transition status. Finally, after examining these labor market transitions and the possible sample selection bias, we estimated a multinomial logit model. This model allowed us to appreciate the (conditional) incidence of individual and household characteristics as well as the effects of different shocks on the labor transition states.

Scalable Ellipsoidal Classification for Bipartite Quantum States

The Separability Problem is approached from the perspective of Ellipsoidal Classification. A Density Operator of dimension N can be represented as a vector in a real vector space of dimension $N^{2}- 1$, whose components are the projections of the matrix onto some selected basis. We suggest a method to test separability, based on successive optimization programs. First, we find the Minimum Volume Covering Ellipsoid that encloses a particular set of properly vectorized bipartite separable states, and then we compute the Euclidean distance of an arbitrary vectorized bipartite Density Operator to this ellipsoid. If the vectorized Density Operator falls inside the ellipsoid, it is regarded as separable, otherwise it will be taken as entangled. Our method is scalable and can be implemented straightforwardly in any desired dimension. Moreover, we show that it allows for detection of Bound Entangled StatesComment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables. Revised version, to appear in Physical Review

The Role of Risk: Mentoring Experiences and Outcomes for Youth with Varying Risk Profiles (Executive Summary)

This summary highlights key findings and implications from the nation's first large-scale study to examine how youth's levels and sources of risk may influence their mentoring relationships and the benefits they derive from participating in mentoring programs. More and more, mentoring programs are being asked to serve young people who are considered "higher risk." And while mentoring has a strong research base generally, until now relatively little has been known about programs' capacities to serve and produce benefits for these youth.Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the study involved more than 1,300 youth, drawn from seven programs serving young people in Washington State. Oversight and support for the project were provided by Washington State Mentors. The study looked closely at the backgrounds of participating youth and their mentors, the mentoring relationships that formed, the program supports that were offered, and the benefits youth received -- and examined how these varied for youth with differing profiles (i.e., levels and types) of risk."The Role of Risk" executive summary describes the study's methods and findings and considers their implications for practitioners and funders. Overall, the study's results suggest that mentoring programs can benefit youth with a broad range of backgrounds and characteristics. The findings also highlight the importance of youth risk in shaping match experiences, and suggest that programs should do more to tailor training and support based on the specific risks youth face

The role of snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere winter to summer transition

This paper examines the role of North Hemisphere snow cover in the linkage between the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the summer Northern Annular Mode (NAM). This transition is partially supported by the persistence of the NAO-induced snow cover anomalies and the asymmetric thermal distribution induced by summer snow cover. We define an index of subpolar temperature difference which links winter NAO with the subsequent summer NAM. The index is also significant in the linkage between summer and winter climates and can be used as an useful predictor of the upcoming winter NAO