Voices from immigrant youth: Perceptions of their involvement with the Canadian justice system. A qualitative study

The development of the thesis project “Voices from Immigrant Youth: Perceptions of their Involvement with the Canadian Justice System. A Qualitative Study” satisfies two purposes. First, it fulfills an academic requirement that I have to meet in order to obtain the Masters of Arts in Community Psychology, and, second, it explores an issue that was identifies as a social concern by members of the Latin American community in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The study explores the issues faced by Latin American immigrant youth in their process of adapting to Canadian society, and highlights their experiences and perceptions regarding their involvement with the Canadian justice system as well as their need for support and services. The study also offers recommendations geared to improve the well-being of immigrant youth. Methodologically, a qualitative method of inquiry guided the study. It focused on obtaining in-depth and detailed information about this social phenomenon that concerned some members and parents of the Latin American community in Kitchener-Waterloo. The participatory-action research approach allowed community members to participate in the study through their involvement with the Community Support Group. This group supported the study by guiding and providing feedback to the research, reaching participants, and validating and checking my perceptions regarding the Latin American community. Data, rich in content, were collected from members of the Community Support Group and in-depth individual interviews with the nine Latin American youth, two parents, and two service providers. Theories such as the phenomenological paradigm of inquiry, the ecological paradigm, and the promotion-prevention-protection continuum were used in the interpretation and analysis of the information. The findings show that for the participants, immigration to Canada and the acculturation process was a highly demanding period in their lives. It brought pressures and challenges for them, in a time in which they were also facing the developmental tasks of adolescence. The findings show that participants and their families were experiencing risk factors associated with socio-economic and environmental circumstances such as poverty, lack of social support networks, lack of awareness of service providers of their needs as immigrants, and discrimination and prejudice. In my perception, the socio-economic conditions plus the family and personal issues with which participants were living generated by the stresses and challenges of the migration process more likely created the conditions for their involvement with the Canadian Justice System. Participants voiced their perception of the Canadian Justice System and the impact that their involvement with the system had on their young lives. The perception of being harassed or discriminated against as well as the lack of information on how the legal system works and the need for information in their own language was also mentioned. A review of the needs for support brought forward the need for support at different levels, not only for immigrant families in general, but specifically for youth already in contact with the Canadian Justice System. From my perspective, the study provides background on an issue that was a concern for some members of the Latin American community in Kitchener-Waterloo, but that may also affect other immigrant youth in the same situation. It confirms what has been reported in other studies regarding the migration process. In my view, the study also offers evidence that socio-economic determinants have a strong effect on how a disadvantaged population, immigrants in this case, access services and make choices. It also shows that in the case of the immigrant youth of the study institutional responses to their needs were not present or were insufficient. Based on the participants’ perceptions, a set of recommendations is also presented

Assessment of the Extent of Agreement on the Implementation of Instructional Design Principles Among Corporate Training and Development Experts

A sample of corporate instructional designers and professors of instructional design completed the Corporate Instructional Design Scale. The data yielded information on the extent of agreement that descriptive statements identified conventionally and systematically designed instruction. Descriptive and asymmetric log linear (statistical) analyses were conducted. In the asymmetric log linear analyses, the extent of agreement was used as the dependent variable. The three independent variables with three levels each were Program type (conventionally designed instruction, both conventionally and systematically designed instruction, and systematically designed instruction), Instructional component (instructional intents, instructional strategies, and instructional assessments), and Trainer type (professional trainers in manufacturing, professional trainers in non-manufacturing, and professors of instructional design). The asymmetric log linear analysis using 16 models was a 3x3x3x3 factorial design. The extent of agreement on the indicators of conventional instruction was lower than the extent of agreement on the indicators of systematic instruction. The extent of agreement for instructional assessment indicators was lower than the extent of agreement for instructional intents and strategies. There were only minor differences between the extent of agreement on indicators classified as intents and indicators classified as strategies. the extent of agreement on the indicators which differentiated conventionally and systematically designed instruction was higher for the professors of instructional design than for the trainers in manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. Study results should be carefully considered by professors of instructional design when designing their instructional design courses. The high extent of agreement by professors of instructional design on items that distinguished conventional instruction and systematic instruction suggest that academia is fairly clear about the indicators of instructional design, specially instructional intents and instructional strategies, while the practitioners of instructional design have a substantially lower extent of agreement. These results suggest at least two conclusions. First, the academic world of instructional design is not in tune with the corporate world. Academia has been promoting idealized procedures for instructional design, while practitioners have adjusted their instructional designed to corporate realities of time and cost. Second, corporate instructional designers have found academic world suggestions unrealistic. Corporate instructional designers have made modifications to their instructional designs. Their instructional designs may actually only approximate whatever type of instruction the professional trainers or corporation where they are employed may advocate

Las representaciones de los estudiantes universitarios sobre la pobreza y la intervención socio universitaria

La intervención socio educativa forma parte de las tres funciones sustantivas de las instituciones de educación superior. Uno de sus principales esfuerzos tiene que ver con la implementación de proyectos que pretenden colocar a las universidades como actores involucrados en la promoción de la justicia y la equidad y, al unísono, incidir en la formación de los estudiantes como sujetos críticos y propositivos en el planteamiento e implementación de soluciones a los múltiples problemas sociales. En el combate a la pobreza, esta pretensión hacia los estudiantes suele tomar el nombre de “compromiso social”. Esta doble intención nos invita al análisis de la relación universidad - sociedad y las implicaciones para su estudio; tarea compleja cuyos alcances se constituyen en un tramado de interrelaciones que nos llevan a la discusión en torno a la intervención socio universitaria, la cual se enmarca en un interjuego de tensiones y contradicciones sociales presentes en la realidad.ITESO, A.C

Interannual variability in the distribution of the phytoplankton standing stock across the seasonal sea-ice zone west of the Antarctic Peninsula

The spatial distribution of phytoplankton cell abundance, carbon (C) biomass and chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration was analysed during three summers (1996, 1997 and 1999) in a seasonal sea-ice area, west of the Antarctic Peninsula. The objective of the study was to assess interannual variability in phytoplankton spatial distribution and the mechanisms that regulate phytoplankton accumulation in the water column. Phytoplankton C biomass and Chl a distributions were consistent from year to year, exhibiting a negative on/offshore gradient. The variations in C concentration had a close and non-linear relationship with the upper mixed layer depth, suggesting that the vertical mixing of the water column is the main factor regulating phytoplankton stock. The magnitude of C gradients was 5-fold higher during 1996 than during 1997 and 1999. This was ascribed to interannual variations in the concentration of diatom blooms in the region influenced by sea-ice melting. Vertical distribution of the phytoplankton, as estimated from Chl a profiles, also varied along an on/offshore gradient: Chl a was distributed homogeneously in the upper mixed layer in coastal and mid-shelf stations and concentrated in the deep layer (40-100 m) occupied by the winter waters (WW, remnants of the Antarctic surface waters during summer) in more offshore stations. The region with a deep Chl a maximum layer (DCM layer) was dominated by a phytoplankton assemblage characterized by a relatively high concentration of diatoms. The extent of this region varied from year to year: it was restricted to pelagic waters during 1996, extended to the shelf slope during 1997 and occupied a major portion of the area during 1999. It is hypothesized that iron depletion in near surface waters due to phytoplankton consumption, and a higher concentration in WW, regulated this vertical phytoplankton distribution pattern. Furthermore, we postulate that year-to-year variations in the spatial distribution of the DCM layer were related to interannual variations in the timing of the sea-ice retreat. The similarity between our results and those reported in literature for other areas of the Southern Ocean allows us to suggest that the mechanisms proposed here as regulating phytoplankton stock in our area may be applicable elsewhere.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

A realistic study of 3D composition of carbon nanotubes and carbonaceous nanocompounds from different soils around coal power plant

Information on the effects of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on topsoil around coal power plants (CPPs) is still very limited. In the present work, the influences of MWCNTs on potential hazardous elements (PHEs) and environmental carbonaceous compounds in agrarian topsoil around CPPs of Latin America were investigated. The environmentally elevated proportions of MWCNTs and PHEs can cause damage to developing a fetus. The ecological impacts of industrial energy byproducts generated by MWCNTs were also studied. The surface morphologies of MWCNTs and PHEs detected in topsoil samples were analyzed by advanced electron microscopy in a combination of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The alterations could be originated due to the different geophysical constituents and superficial structure, which in turn disturbed their geoavailability in studied topsoil. It was found that a large amount of MWCNTs and amorphous carbonaceous matters, which are responsible for adsorbing PHEs, existed in soils around CPPs. Hence, these findings could be used to better understand the geochemical properties of PHEs near CPPs

Preventive aspirin treatment of streptozotocin induced diabetes: Blockage of oxidative status and revertion of heme enzymes inhibition

Some late complications of diabetes are associated with alterations in the structure and function of proteins due to glycation and free radicals generation. Aspirin inhibits protein glycation by acetylation of free amino groups. In the diabetic status, it was demonstrated that several enzymes of heme pathway were diminished. The aim of this work has been to investigate the in vivo effect of short and long term treatment with acetylsalicylic acid in streptozotocin induced diabetic mice. In both treatments, the acetylsalicylic acid prevented δ-aminolevulinic dehydratase and porphobilinogen deaminase inactivation in diabetic mice and blocked the accumulation of lipoperoxidative aldehydes. Catalase activity was significantly augmented in diabetic mice and the long term treatment with aspirin partially reverted it. We propose that oxidative stress might play an important role in streptozotocin induced diabetes. Our results suggest that aspirin can prevent some of the late complications of diabetes, lowering glucose concentration and probably inhibiting glycation by acetylation of protein amino groups. Copyright (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.Fil: Caballero, Fabiana Alejandra. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias; ArgentinaFil: Gerez, Esther Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; ArgentinaFil: Batlle, Alcira María del C.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Elba Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; Argentin

Continuidades y rupturas en la educación secundaria : Estudio de un caso en el Gran La Plata

En esta ponencia intentamos dar cuenta de las permanencias y cambios en el formato de la educación secundaria en una institución del Gran La Plata desde el año 1985 hasta el presente. Pretendemos desplegar un análisis socio pedagógico acerca de las potencialidades de las innovaciones, generadas por sujetos de la sociedad civil en diálogo con el Estado nacional y provincial, para producir cambios en el cotidiano escolar.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Number Concentrations And Size Distributions Of Nanoparticles During The Use Of Hand Tools In Refurbishment Activities

Hand tools, such as a sledgehammer, are widely used in refurbishment activities; nonetheless, there is very little knowledge on nanoparticle generation. We measured particle number size distributions (PSDs) and concentrations (PNCs) in the 10–420 nm using a NanoScan scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) during the use of hand tools (i.e., sanding and removal of wall) in a real indoor refurbishment environment. Results indicated that refurbishment activities from removal of wall increased average PNCs by ~ 6 times over the background while it was ~ 1.5 times higher than sanding. The highest total PNC was 1.9 × 105 particles cm−3 that corresponded to removal of wall activities. For sanding activities, PNC was lower as the coat of the plaster was probably slightly wet. Moreover, comparison between the two principal activities showed a similar peak in the accumulation mode (~ 65 nm), with a monomodal pattern. Results suggest that removal of wall activities emitted nanoparticles with a 59% of contribution in the Aitken mode. According to these data, it can be inferred that the application of hand tools in refurbishment activities generates lower total PNC than using electromechanical equipment. This study may contribute to our understanding of nanoparticle generation in refurbishment activities