Trajectories in nanotechnology: embracing complexity, seeking analogies

This account comprises personal reflections on the field of nanosystems primarily designed for the delivery of biologically active agents. It emphasises the colloidal nature of nanoparticles obeying the same physical laws that dictate the behaviour of disperse systems. Research reveals not only intrinsic complexities but a variety of possible trajectories in vivo and ex vivo, issues of stability, interactions and behaviour in a range of often constrained environments. Such are the variations in the chemical and physical nature of the nanosystems and the active agents they carry, their putative "targets" and the many biological systems and models in which they are employed, it is not possible to generalise. Stochastic events may exclude precise prediction or extrapolation of outcomes, but embracing and studying complexity lead to new insights, often aided by consideration of analogies in cognate areas. This is part of the process of illumination. Unexpected results provide the true essence and excitement of scientific endeavour. Simplification is perhaps its antithesis

"Grace of character" : the gentleman in Anthony Trollope's Palliser novels

In An Autobiography Trollope writes that the Palliser novels portray "a perfect gentleman": what kind of man he is, how he thinks of himself in relation to others, and what kinds of values determine his conduct. It is generally accepted that the gentleman is important in all of Trollope’s fiction, but little attention has been given to how Trollope uses the term gentleman or what it means in different contexts in the novels. Trollope's idea of the gentleman is derived from a cultural tradition that blends classical influences; the medieval knight's code of chivalry, honor, and loyalty; and the tradition of the courtier. Trollope's literary treatment of the gentleman is influenced by the early Victorian reaction to the dandy and by the novels of Jane Austen and Thackeray. Courtship and marriage is a major theme in the novels because it allows Trollope to explore a character's fundamental values and the extent to which a character balances the claims of self with social and moral duties to others

The effectiveness of teaching selected number concepts to kindergarten children

The objective in this study was to determine the effectiveness of purposive teaching of selected number concepts to kindergarten children. The subjects were the nineteen children enrolled in the Curry School Kindergarten of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for the spring semester, 1966. The number concepts which were used for the six experiments were: (1) Comparison of Sets, (2) Rational Counting, (3) Cardinal Property, (4) Place Value, (5) Ordinal Property, and (6) Conservation of Number. Little research using the test-teach-test method to ascertain the concepts which kindergarten children could be taught was found. Sindwani (1964) and White (1963) reported use of the test-teach-test method with nursery school children; whereas, Smedslund (1961c), Suppes and Ginsberg (1962), and Wohlhill and Lowe (1962) reported somewhat similar methods with kindergarten children. Tests and lesson plans were devised, pre-tested and revised. Prior to the beginning of the study, normal randomization procedures were used to assign the children to experimental groups, to receive teaching and testing, and to control groups, to receive testing only. Testing materials were in all instances parallel, differing only in manipulative media. The purposive teaching period was thirty-five minutes in length and individual testing periods required five minutes per child

Ethical judgments of high school seniors in Piedmont North Carolina

The ethical standards to which people give their allegiance are relatively permanent, even though their application may vary with changes of social organization and custom. The President's Commission on Higher Education lists as its first objective of general education: ‘To develop for the regulation of one's personal and civic life a code of behavior based on ethical principles consistent with democratic ideals."1 The statement continued: General education can foster and quicken respect for ideals and values. Wise men, of course, have never doubted the importance of ethical considerations, but for a generation or two these matters seem to have been out of fashion among sophisticated intellectuals. If anything is clear in these times, it is the urgent need for soundly based ideals to guide personal and social relationships in a world where insecurity is steadily weakening trust between man and man. Interpersonal relations, business relations, labor relations, even international relations, depend, if they are to prosper, on good faith, decent intention, and mutual confidence. Ethical principles that will induce this faith need not be based on any single sanction or be authoritarian in origin, nor need finality be claimed for them. Some persons will find the satisfactory basis for a moral code in the democratic creed itself, some in philosophy, and some in religion. Religion is held to be a major force in creating the system of human values on which democracy is predicated, and many derive from one or another of its varities a deepened sense of human worth and a strengthened concern for others.

The teaching of badminton skills to the adolescent : traditional vs. programmed

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a programmed-instructional tool to teach badminton skills to adolescents of heterogeneous skills backgrounds. A second purpose was to compare the effectiveness of the traditional method of teaching with the programmed method as measured by the Miller Wall Volley post-test and by the subject's final ranking on the Circuit Badminton Tournament. Because of this it became necessary to develop a Circuit Badminton Tournament that was valid and reliable in testing general playing ability. The subjects were one hundred fifty-four sophomore, junior, and senior girls who attended the New Trier West High School in Northfield, Illinois. Each of four intact classes was pre-tested with the Miller Wall Volley Test and then systematically divided into two groups. The author and another instructor each taught two programmed classes and two traditional classes. Half of each class was taught by Teacher 1 using the traditional method while the other half of the class was taught by Teacher 2 using the experimental method

Parenting styles and values : mechanisms of intergenerational continuity and discontinuity

Do parenting styles continue from generation to generation? It is counter-intuitive to think that parenting styles do not continue from generation to generation, yet many researchers have found this to be true (Campbell & Gilmore, 2007; Covell, Grusec, & King, 1995; Staples & Warden Smith, 1954; Woods, Glavin, & Kettle, 1960). When we look at the major events of the 20th century, such as the Great Depression, World War II, and the rise of divorce rates, we can also see changes in social behavior and family structure, either as a direct or indirect result of these major events (e.g. Elder, 1974, 1994). Americans seem to be more individualistic today than they were 75 years ago, perhaps as one of the indirect results of these major events (Stearns, 2003). Many researchers have found strong correlations between parenting styles and cultural variables, such as collectivism and individualism (Baumrind, 1991). Research on intergenerational transmissions and continuity of parenting styles, behaviors, and values within families in the past 75 years provides strong evidence that parenting styles change over time, even from generation to generation within families. Therefore the present study asks the questions, have individualistic values increased with time over the past 75 years? And, have parenting style trends gone toward emphasizing higher warmth and lower control from generation to generation? Triads of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters were used, each generation representing a different cohort (the Children of the Great Depression, Baby Boomers, and women who grew up in the 1990s). Maternal warmth and control were measured by the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI, Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979). Individualistic values, as measured by a rank-order scale (Bengston, 1975), rose significantly from generation to generation, as did parental warmth. There was no significant difference in the use of parental control from generation to generation within these families. The present study also found that although number of hours worked per week while raising their daughters did not increase significantly from grandmothers to mothers, there did exist a significant decrease (from the grandmother generation to the mother generation) in number of nights per week families ate dinner altogether while raising their daughters. These findings support much of the research which suggests that changing views of society may play a key role in the discontinuity of parenting practices from generation to generation

Enrichissement du profil utilisateur à partir de son réseau social dans un contexte dynamique : application d'une méthode de pondération temporelle

International audienceLe profil de l’utilisateur est un élément central dans les systèmes d’adaptation de l’information. Les réseaux sociaux numériques représentent une source d'informations très riche sur l’utilisateur. Nous nous intéressons au processus d’enrichissement du profil utilisateur à partir de son réseau social. Ce processus extrait les intérêts de l’utilisateur à partir des individus dans son réseau égocentrique afin de construire la dimension sociale du profil de l'utilisateur. Afin de prendre en compte le caractère dynamique des réseaux sociaux, nous proposons, dans ce travail, de construire cette dimension sociale en intégrant un critère temporel afin de pondérer les intérêts de l’utilisateur. Ce poids "temporel", qui reflète la pertinence d’un intérêt, est calculé, d’une part, à partir de la pertinence des individus du réseau égocentrique de l’utilisateur en prenant en compte la fraicheur de leurs liens avec l’utilisateur et, d’autre part, à partir de la pertinence des informations qu’ils partagent en prenant en compte la fraicheur de ces informations. Les expérimentations sur les réseaux de publicationsscientifiques DBLP et Mendeley ont permis de montrer montrer que notre proposition fournit des résultats plus satisfaisants que ceux du processus existant

Time-aware Egocentric network-based User Profiling

International audienceImproving the egocentric network-based user's profile building process by taking into account the dynamic characteristics of social networks can be relevant in many applications. To achieve this aim, we propose to apply a time-aware method into an existing egocentric-based user profiling process, based on previous contributions of our team. The aim of this strategy is to weight user's interests according to their relevance and freshness. The time awareness weight of an interest is computed by combining the relevance of individuals in the user's egocentric network (computed by taking into account the freshness of their ties) with the information relevance (computed by taking into account its freshness). The experiments on scientific publications networks (DBLP/Mendeley) allow us to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposition compared to the existing time-agnostic egocentric network-based user profiling process

Blackboard as the learning management system of a computer literacy course

This study reports the evaluation results of using a learning management system (LMS) in a computer literacy course. The goal of the present study was to explore the usefulness of content delivery and how it helped students in learning computing skills. Using Blackboard as the LMS, 145 undergraduate college students enrolled in a computer literacy course in a large southwestern university responded to an online survey and seven instructors who taught the course were surveyed over email to determine value and usefulness of the features in the environment. Overall, assignments, course documents and gradebook were reported as the most useful features. Immediate feedback on quizzes, accessing the materials at all times, and getting comfortable in use of technology were rated as most helpful areas. Both students and instructors responded positively to the LMS experience and provided evidence that numerous learning outcomes can be enhanced by the presence of such a system