Coeovolutionary Threshold Dynamics

We present a generic threshold model for the co-evolution of the structure of a network and the state of its nodes. We focus on regular directed networks and derive equations for the evolution of the system toward its absorbing state. It is shown that the system displays a transition from a connected phase to a fragmented phase that depends on its initial configuration. Computer simulations are performed and confirm the theoretical predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Teaching from a Critical Perspective / Enseñando de Una Perspectiva Crítica: Conceptualization, Reflection, and Application of Chicana/o Pedagogy

This paper addresses the relationship between critical pedagogy and Chicana/o pedagogy to show the need for the use of the latter in academe. The authors present the idea of a “plática” (Spanish for intellectual conversation) as a way to dialogue through literature on Chicana/o pedagogy, and show its defining characteristics. With a biographical placing of the authors/participants and their students in a racially/ethnically hostile academy, plática is used to illustrate examples of Chicana/o pedagogy in practice, and how this is resisted by students on ideological ground. A discussion concludes the paper

Paradoxical images of the student in Spanish educational reforms (1990-2002)

After the Franco dictatorship was over, Spanish education entered into an era of educational reforms that culminated in 1990 with the establishment of a new legal regulation of the system that has a distinctly social democratic nature. This situation has encouraged the proliferation of discourses about education, and especially about its principle actors who identities and functions continue to be discussed. In this paper we study the contradictory images about the student (and about childhood in general) that appear in discourses concerning educational reform. We draw upon data taken from interviews with diverse actors in the politics of Spanish education that were conducted as part of a research project supported by the European Commission. This analysis finally extends to the foreseeable and drastic reorientation of these reforms that is being proposed at present by the new conservative government with the Law of Educational Quality.peer-reviewe

Mass Media and the Ideology of Appropriation in Peru: The Rationalizations and Justifications Used in Peru for the Invasion and Appropriation of the Lands Used by the Mascho Piro Tribe

In Peru today uncontacted tribes are facing racist and culturally engrained biased perceptions that view and present these communities as being primitive and violent beings. These discriminatory, prejudiced and ethno-centric attitudes serve as a normative violence and the backbone of pro-colonization arguments used by governments and agencies to not only establish contact where convenient, but to substantiate the annexing of their lands and resources. Responsible media coverage of these groups is particularly important, in order for human rights, territorial rights, and right to no contact of Amazonian indigenous tribes be recognized and respected both locally and by the international community (Watson, 2013). Recent studies have shown that globally, indigenous people today have poorer indices of health and well-being than most other population groups in the same countries (Stephens et al, 2006). Isolated peoples are particularly vulnerable with extremely high rates of morbidity and mortality related to the introduction of new diseases (Napolitano 2007, Hurtado et al 2001). The impact of contact and of allowing extraction of resources within the lands of Amazonian indigenous tribes has been described by anthropologists and missionaries as genocide (e.g. Shepard 1999, SLOPA 1980-1989). Virgin soil epidemics – epidemics of ‘novel’ diseases introduced by outsiders – have accounted for the deaths of millions of indigenous Americans over the last five hundred years (Dobyns 1993, Myers 1988). First ‘face-to-face’ contacts are estimated to lead to the death of between a third and half of the population within the first five years, and sometimes more (Hill and Hurtado, 1996). The aggressive and rapid “expansion of mega-development and construction projects (oil and gas extraction, mining, hydro-electric dams, railroads and highways), logging and agro-industries (cattle, soya and ethanol)” leaves uncontacted peoples vulnerable to disease and exploitation and the disappearance of their peoples all at the will of large private economic and political interests (Watson, 2013). This research paper will focus on the societal and economic factors leading to forced contact of the isolated Mascho Piro tribe in the Madre de Dios region of Peru and attempts to contribute to this body of work by analyzing media coverage of recent sightings and established contact. This paper presents an in depth review of indigenous human rights through a content analysis of Peruvian newspaper headline coverage during 2007 and 2015 involving the Mascho Piro tribe and surrounding communities through a study of themes, issue attributes, tone, and actors

Didactic strategies for comprehension and learning of structural concepts

p. 926-937In previous papers we have established the convenience of formulating educational strategies at the university level for both disciplines: Civil Engineering and Architecture, which involves academic topics of mutual interest by means of shared practices. As a particular matter of this approach, the application of physical experimental models is considered of special usefulness, in order to understand in better ways the performance of materials and structural systems. Several strategies of selection and development of such physical models will be discussed in this work, considering as a first step, the establishment of its correspondence with the different levels of structural complexity studied in curriculum plan: statics, strength of materials and structural design, among others. This task constitutes a part of the work program of the Laboratory of Structural Models, which is an academic project that develops and applies different didactic prototypes to structure courses in the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, campus Azcapotzalco, in Mexico City, project we have already presented in recent forums. Two different modes of application are implemented in classroom sessions and in structures workshop: the devices for functional demonstration of typical cases of structural work as well as the experimentation with student's own designs of destructible models where certain typologies are tested up to its failure limit. The first one allows teachers to explain adequately the theoretical principles and formulas (that usually are expressed on the blackboard) by means of didactic models identified in accordance to specific cases of the curriculum on variable level of complexity. This kind of practice allows the students of architecture and civil engineering to realize in better ways the possibilities of use and application of the different structural typologies. Such experimental models are part of more than fifty devices of the Laboratory's catalog. In the same sense, the possibility of observation of structural work of their own architectural designs, allows future professionals to achieve a better conception of the structural solutions that affect positively their designs. Based on specific predefined guides, the students develop their own architectural-structural projects and subject them to diverse loads, observing their behavior under the influence of variable stresses leading up the experiment to its last resistance. From both experiences a significant learning is obtained for the student's formation and training, who will be capable in his future professional work to use better tools of comprehension of the structural concepts applied to architecture as well as of increasing his conscience of the benefits and convenience of multidisciplinary work.Moreno, C.; Abad, A.; Gerdingh, JG.; Garcia M., C.; Gonzalez C., O. (2010). Didactic strategies for comprehension and learning of structural concepts. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/695

Construction Partnering: Can These Protocols Build a Stronger Labor-Management Community?

In an expansive marketplace where large organizations in the construction, manufacturing, service and union industries are facing increased global competition, collaborative labor relations are essential to maximizing efficiency and productivity. It is for this reason that developing collaboration between labor and management is highly researched and consulted by academics and professionals throughout the world. Although various models of collaboration have been developed, none have been found to clearly overcome that insidious conflict and paradigm of Labor vs. Management. The purpose of this paper is to provide academics and consultants (mediators/facilitators) an additional perspective for designing, developing and implementing the best possible collaborative labor-management relationship model. This paper will provide a model by which the roles in the construction industry parallel and match the roles of management and labor in the manufacturing/service industry. Then five specific protocols in construction partnering will be reviewed and considered for their applicability and potential benefit to the labor-management community. Throughout, the effect upon the role of the mediator/facilitator will be discussed

Optical design of inhomogeneous media to perfectly focus scalar wave fields

A method to design isotropic inhomogeneous refractive index distribution is presented, in which the scalar wave field solutions propagate exactly on an eikonal function (i.e., remaining constant on the Geometrical Optics wavefronts). This method is applied to the design of ¿dipole lenses¿, which perfectly focus a scalar wave field emitted from a point source onto a point absorber, in both two and three dimensions. Also, the Maxwell fish-eye lens in two and three dimensions analyzed