Conceptualizing Contemplative Practice as Pedagogy: Approaches to Mindful Inquiry in Higher Education

A compelling argument has been made which claims that institutions of higher education focus disproportionately on transmitting basic skills to their students at the expense of supporting issues of central importance to the development of emerging adults, including clarifying values and identity and defining individual purpose and meaning (Palmer & Zajonc, 2010). As a result, an increasing number of postsecondary teachers are considering how they can refashion education by using contemplative inquiry to deepen student learning and personal growth. This movement to reframe the teaching-learning paradigm has led to the development of teaching methods that seek to cultivate emotional, psychological and intellectual competencies including creativity, self-understanding, awareness and mental flexibility (Lief, 2007). Contemplative pedagogy, which can include mindfulness practices and contemplative or imaginative inquiry, provides such a framework for teaching and learning. Faculties at institutions of higher education across the U.S. are increasingly adapting this educational model for use in their classrooms. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand ways in which faculty members in higher education are developing mindfulness-based contemplative pedagogies and to identify critical variables that have informed how they have conceptualized and implemented this educational model. I employed a collective case study methodology to explore the experiences of faculty members who have embedded contemplative inquiry within the broader context of a traditional liberal arts curriculum. The study focused on why and how these instructors have developed contemplative teaching practices, their experiences integrating these practices into the classroom, and the potential outcomes they identified for themselves and their students. The findings suggest that, for these teachers, contemplative pedagogy provides a mechanism to deepen learning through a process of embodied inquiry in which both student and teacher are actively engaged. Through their teaching practices participants demonstrated a common goal: to foster in students qualities of mind that might help them engage more directly with learning as an experiential process of personal inquiry. This study informs the evolving landscape of contemplative education by exploring how teachers are developing and implementing contemplative models for learning in order to address issues of personal meaning and purpose in higher education

Free Will to Will? A Case for the Recognition of Intestacy Rights for Survivors to a Same-Sex Marriage or Civil Union?

This Note argues that courts should recognize intestacy rights for same sex couples that were validly married or civilly united in a state other than the one in which one of the partners died. Courts may validly recognize the marriage for intestacy purposes, even while refusing to recognize the marriage as against public policy. Part I details the recent provision of benefits in various states to same-sex couples. Part II argues that same-sex couples cannot necessarily rely on wills to effectuate their intent to leave their property to their spouses. Part III argues that when states refuse to recognize the marriages or civil unions of same-sex couples as being against the public policy of the state, they erroneously reject same-sex intestacy rights, creating a gap in the protection afforded to same-sex couples and defeating their likely intent. Part IV provides examples from case law permitting states to recognize intestacy rights--despite a general refusal to recognize the marriage-for surviving spouses of couples whose marriage violated the state\u27s public policy. Part V concludes that courts should limit this recognition of intestacy rights to same-sex couples who are validly married, or participated in a civil union or commitment ceremony, in order to avoid fraud and unnecessary litigation

Free Will to Will? A Case for the Recognition of Intestacy Rights for Survivors to a Same-Sex Marriage or Civil Union?

This Note argues that courts should recognize intestacy rights for same sex couples that were validly married or civilly united in a state other than the one in which one of the partners died. Courts may validly recognize the marriage for intestacy purposes, even while refusing to recognize the marriage as against public policy. Part I details the recent provision of benefits in various states to same-sex couples. Part II argues that same-sex couples cannot necessarily rely on wills to effectuate their intent to leave their property to their spouses. Part III argues that when states refuse to recognize the marriages or civil unions of same-sex couples as being against the public policy of the state, they erroneously reject same-sex intestacy rights, creating a gap in the protection afforded to same-sex couples and defeating their likely intent. Part IV provides examples from case law permitting states to recognize intestacy rights--despite a general refusal to recognize the marriage-for surviving spouses of couples whose marriage violated the state\u27s public policy. Part V concludes that courts should limit this recognition of intestacy rights to same-sex couples who are validly married, or participated in a civil union or commitment ceremony, in order to avoid fraud and unnecessary litigation

Smart Cities: A Review and Analysis of Stakeholders’ Literature

Recent literature on smart cities stresses the role of digitization in tackling urban issues such as environmental degradation and poverty. The wicked nature of these issues gives rise to the need to understand the diverse perspectives of relevant stakeholder groups on smart cities. However, existing research that compares these perspectives tends to exclude the beliefs of those living in smart cities. Integrating these beliefs in smart city discourses is paramount to increase the likelihood that these systems will be accepted. With the view that the literature consumed by an audience will influence that audience’s perspectives, the main aim of this study is to compare and contrast the pertinent topics found in various types of literature on smart cities. Using an innovative approach of literature comparison, based on a semantic entity annotator and keyword analysis, this article extracts and compares topics in news media (for citizens), trade publications (for businesses), academic articles (for research organizations) and government reports (for governments). The findings suggest that citizens tend to be under-represented in discussions on smart cities and highlight those topics considered relevant only by smart city citizens. Increased understanding in this area can help guide discussions and policies that are relevant for all stakeholders

Relevant Research Areas in IT Service Management: An Examination of Academic and Practitioner Literatures

Practitioners and academics alike have highlighted that information systems (IS) research may currently have limited use and value to practitioners. Further, research provides examples of positive links between management practices prevalent in the media and their influence on societal views. We focus on increasing relevance of future academic research to practitioners by identifying sources of misalignment between practitioner and academic literatures on the topic of information technology service management (ITSM) and by developing a possible research agenda to address these misalignments. We employ an entity annotator and keyword analysis to compare the main topics evident in academic and practitioner literatures on ITSM and focus on those salient in practitioner literature. Our results suggest that the topics of framework co-implementation, regulations, ITSM tools, gamification, and cloud computing all present fertile grounds for relevant research in ITSM and IS more broadly. Thus, our paper offers a unique way for academics to understand how they can best assist practitioners while increasing the relevance of academic research

Fractal Image Compression on MIMD Architectures II: Classification Based Speed-up Methods

Since fractal image compression is computationally very expensive, speed-up techniques are required in addition to parallel processing in order to compress large images in reasonable time. In this paper we discuss parallel fractal image compression algorithms suited for MIMD architectures which employ block classification as speed-up method

The 5 EAO Consensus Conference 7-10 February 2018, Pfäffikon, Schwyz, Switzerland

Article, editorial lette

Summertime elemental mercury exchange of temperate grasslands on an ecosystem-scale

In order to estimate the air-surface mercury exchange of grasslands in temperate climate regions, fluxes of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) were measured at two sites in Switzerland and one in Austria during summer 2006. Two classic micrometeorological methods (aerodynamic and modified Bowen ratio) have been applied to estimate net GEM exchange rates and to determine the response of the GEM flux to changes in environmental conditions (e. g. heavy rain, summer ozone) on an ecosystem-scale. Both methods proved to be appropriate to estimate fluxes on time scales of a few hours and longer. Average dry deposition rates up to 4.3 ng m(-2) h(-1) and mean deposition velocities up to 0.10 cm s(-1) were measured, which indicates that during the active vegetation period temperate grasslands are a small net sink for atmospheric mercury. With increasing ozone concentrations depletion of GEM was observed, but could not be quantified from the flux signal. Night-time deposition fluxes of GEM were measured and seem to be the result of mercury co-deposition with condensing water. Effects of grass cuts could also be observed, but were of minor magnitude