Ideological Indoctrination and Teacher Education

Philosophers who have been concerned with the problem of indoctrination have focused attention chiefly on teaching, textbooks, and the curriculum in elementary and secondary schools where the age of the students and the fact that they have yet to fully develop their own critical judgment suggests a certain vulnerability and susceptibility to non-rational persuasion. On the one hand, teachers may abuse their power and authority and seek to impose certain beliefs and values, actively discouraging their students from raising problems or objections; on the other hand, certain views may simply escape scrutiny and pass unchallenged in education because they have become part of what Karl Popper (1975) labels uncritical common sense. In either case, the real danger is that young students will become incapable of assessing such views for themselves. Indoctrination results when students lose the ability to assess the merits of the ideas they are studying or coming to acquire and find themselves locked into certain beliefs and assumptions in such a way that they cannot seriously consider alternative views because their minds have been closed

Skeletal maturation in the dog : a roentgenographic and skeletal study of the appearance of the ossification centres and union of the epiphyses in the bones of the limbs and bodies of the vertebrae

This study was undertaken with two objectives in mind: one objective was to obtain more definite information than had previously been available about the postnatal ages at which the ossification centres appear; the other was to establish when epiphyseal union takes place, since the findings of earlier investigators did not correspond and were inconclusive for one reason or another. Lesbre (1897) had carried out the first comprehensive study of the ossification process in the dog. His work had been accepted by veterinary anatomists in general, although his findings for those epiphyses that unite after the age of seven months had not been substantiated by the findings of later investigators. Lesbre's findings were approximate and, therefore, inconclusive because they had been based on dogs whose ages had been estimated by the teeth, while those of the later investigations were inconclusive either because of the material or because of the methods of study used.The appearance of the ossification centres was studied by X-raying dogs from four breeds fit regular intervals from birth. Epiphyseal union was studied by X-raying dogs from two breeds at regular intervals, and by examining the bones in seventy skeletons, seventy-one pectoral limbs, and one pelvis from dogs of known age. These dogs came from a variety of breeds, & number of which were achondroplastic. In addition, one hundred and twenty-six skulls from dogs of known ages were examined to study the dental changes that take place between the age of three and nineteen months, since it appeared to be important to assess the value of the teeth as a guide to the estimation of age In the dog.Age periods have been established for the appearance of each of the centres that ossify after birth, and for the union of the epiphyses with their respective diephyses. For both the appearance of the centres and the union of the epiphyses, it has been noted that the chronological order of events remains constant, but that there are age variations between individuals from the same litter or breed, and to a greater extent between individuals from different breeds. Neither sex nor the single dominant character for achondroplasia appears to influence the rate of skeletal maturation.The study of epiphyseal union has provided definite evidence that after the age of seven months epiphyseal union takes place, on sn average, five to seven months earlier than stated by LesbreThe dental study has indicated that the criteria by which Lesbre probably estimated the age of the dogs that he studied were innaccurate, because the amount of wear that he expected to find on the incisor teeth at a particular age is frequently seen about six months earlier.The conclusion is that the probable explanation for the error in Lesbre's findings is that he had misestimated the age of the dogs that he studied

The visually evoked cortical potential and the cortical alpha rhythm: Their physiological basis and some behavioral considerations

Physiological models for the generation of the Visually Evoked Cortical Potential (VECP) and the Alpha Rhythm are discussed. Certain stimulus and response variables are considered with respect to their effects on the VECP and the Alpha Rhythm. Consideration is also given to the possible physiological significance of these gross surface cortical potentials relative to the scheme of information processing. A model for an internal attentional mechanism is developed

Inconsistencies when applying novel metrics for emissions accounting to the Paris agreement

Addressing emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gases (GHGs) is an integral part of efficient climate change mitigation and therefore an essential part of climate policy. Metrics are used to aggregate and compare emissions of short- and long-lived GHGs and need to account for the difference in both magnitude and persistence of their climatic effects. Different metrics describe different approaches and perspectives, and hence yield different numerical estimates for aggregated GHG emissions. When interpreting GHG emission reduction targets, being mindful of the underlying metrical choices thus proves to be essential. Here we present the impact a recently proposed GHG metric related to the concept of CO2 forcing-equivalent emissions (called GWP*) would have on the internal consistency and environmental integrity of the Paris Agreement. We show that interpreting the Paris Agreement goals in a metric like GWP* that is significantly different from the standard metric used in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report can lead to profound inconsistencies in the mitigation architecture of the Agreement. It could even undermine the integrity of the Agreement's mitigation target altogether by failing to deliver net-zero CO2 emissions and therewith failing to ensure warming is halted. Our results indicate that great care needs to be taken when applying new concepts that appear scientifically favourable to a pre-existing climate policy context

Structural, item, and test generalizability of the psychopathology checklist - revised to offenders with intellectual disabilities

The Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R) is the most widely used measure of psychopathy in forensic clinical practice, but the generalizability of the measure to offenders with intellectual disabilities (ID) has not been clearly established. This study examined the structural equivalence and scalar equivalence of the PCL-R in a sample of 185 male offenders with ID in forensic mental health settings, as compared with a sample of 1,212 male prisoners without ID. Three models of the PCL-R’s factor structure were evaluated with confirmatory factor analysis. The 3-factor hierarchical model of psychopathy was found to be a good fit to the ID PCL-R data, whereas neither the 4-factor model nor the traditional 2-factor model fitted. There were no cross-group differences in the factor structure, providing evidence of structural equivalence. However, item response theory analyses indicated metric differences in the ratings of psychopathy symptoms between the ID group and the comparison prisoner group. This finding has potential implications for the interpretation of PCL-R scores obtained with people with ID in forensic psychiatric settings