Exploring the Status of Transgender Students in Catholic High Schools

This paper reports on a recent survey of principals of Catholic high schools across the country regarding the existence of formal gender identity policies or informal practices with respect to the behavior and treatment of transgender students in their schools. The survey’s findings are discussed in the context of recent developments with respect to the science, clinical interventions, and legal accommodations surrounding gender variance. The paper also describes the political developments with respect to this issue and some of the pushback in communities of faith. It concludes by suggesting the need for receptivity to scientific findings as part of a broad-based discussion of gender identity policies in Catholic secondary education

On the complexity of hierarchical problem solving

Competent Genetic Algorithms can efficiently address problems in which the linkage between variables is limited to a small order k. Problems with higher order dependencies can only be addressed efficiently if further problem properties exist that can be exploited. An important class of problems for which this occurs is that of hierarchical problems. Hierarchical problems can contain dependencies between all variables (k = n) while being solvable in polynomial time. An open question so far is what precise properties a hierarchical problem must possess in order to be solvable efficiently. We study this question by investigating several features of hierarchical problems and determining their effect on computational complexity, both analytically and empirically. The analyses are based on the Hierarchical Genetic Algorithm (HGA), which is developed as part of this work. The HGA is tested on ranges of hierarchical problems, produced by a generator for hierarchical problems

Keuzeprocessen in de ouderenzorg: een verkennend onderzoek

Dit rapport beschrijft de resultaten van een verkennende kwalitatieve studie naar de wijze waarop het keuzeproces voor intramurale zorg verloopt. De aanleiding van dit onderzoek zijn de vele veranderingen die plaatsvinden binnen de ouderenzorg: de zorg verandert van aanbodgericht naar vraaggestuurd, er is een zwaardere indicatie nodig dan voorheen voor intramurale zorg en de vraag naar zwaardere zorg zal toenemen door de vergrijzing. Deze veranderingen hebben gevolgen voor het keuzeproces ten aanzien van intramurale zorg. Dit leidt ertoe dat managers van zorginstellingen op een andere wijze hun marketing- en communicatiebeleid richting stakeholders vorm en inhoud moeten geven. Door middel van semi-gestructureerde interviews onder verschillende stakeholders (n=24) in de provincies Friesland, Groningen en Drenthe is inzicht verkregen in de partijen die betrokken zijn bij dit keuzeproces, de bronnen die worden geraadpleegd voor informatie en de criteria die een rol spelen bij de keuze. Voor deze drie thema’s is er geanalyseerd welke patronen er aanwezig waren in de reacties van alle respondenten. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat bij het besluit of een cliënt al dan niet opgenomen zal worden de volgende partijen betrokken zijn: de cliënt, de eventuele partner in samenspraak met de familie, de familie, de medewerkers van de thuiszorgorganisatie, de huisarts en de casemanager in geval er een casemanager betrokken is bij de cliënt. In de keuze in welke verpleeginstelling de cliënt zal worden opgenomen spelen de drie eerst genoemde partijen een belangrijke rol, waarbij de uiteindelijke keuze veelal wordt gedaan door de familie. Daarnaast blijkt dat internet, en dan met name de website van de verpleeginstelling, een veel geraadpleegde bron voor informatie is. Tevens blijkt dat een beperkte afstand tot het huidige woonadres dan wel tot familie een erg belangrijk criterium voor de keuze is. Daarnaast kunnen positieve ervaringen van anderen en/of eigen bekendheid met de instelling, een huiselijke sfeer en een positieve bejegening belangrijke criteria zijn. Zorginstellingen zouden zich in de marketingcommunicatie moeten richten op de familie, en dan met name op de kinderen van de cliënt. Daarnaast zouden ze positieve ervaringen van cliënten/familie op de website van de betreffende zorginstelling kunnen plaatsen. Tevens zouden zorginstellingen zich zoveel mogelijk bekend moeten maken onder verschillende partijen, waaronder de cliënt/familie en de huisarts en zouden ze zich meer van elkaar moeten onderscheiden

Location-based and contextual mobile learning. A STELLAR Small-Scale Study

This study starts from several inputs that the partners have collected from previous and current running research projects and a workshop organised at the STELLAR Alpine Rendevous 2010. In the study, several steps have been taken, firstly a literature review and analysis of existing systems; secondly, mobile learning experts have been involved in a concept mapping study to identify the main challenges that can be solved via mobile learning; and thirdly, an identification of educational patterns based on these examples has been done. Out of this study the partners aim to develop an educational framework for contextual learning as a unifying approach in the field. Therefore one of our central research questions is: how can we investigate, theorise, model and support contextual learning

Clarifying the Concept of Corporate Sustainability and Providing Convergence for Its Definition

Organizations are under mounting pressure to adapt to and to adopt corporate sustainability (CS) practices. Notwithstanding the increasing research attention given to the subject and the meaningful theoretical contributions, it is claimed that a definition, and a commonly accepted understanding of the concept of corporate sustainability, is still missing. Alignment on the meaning of CS is of critical importance for enabling coherent and effective practices. The lack of a sound theoretical foundation and of conceptual clarity of corporate sustainability has been identified as an important cause of unsatisfactory and fruitless actions by organizations. To address the questions “What is Corporate Sustainability?” and “Is it true there is a lack of convergence and clarity of the concept?”, we perform an ontological analysis of the different and interrelated concepts, and a necessary condition analysis on the key constitutive features of corporate sustainability within the academic literature. We demonstrate that the concept of corporate sustainability is clearer than most authors claim and can be well defined around its environmental, social and economic constitutive pillars with the purpose to provide equal opportunities to future generations.</p

Clarifying the Concept of Corporate Sustainability and Providing Convergence for Its Definition

Organizations are under mounting pressure to adapt to and to adopt corporate sustainability (CS) practices. Notwithstanding the increasing research attention given to the subject and the meaningful theoretical contributions, it is claimed that a definition, and a commonly accepted understanding of the concept of corporate sustainability, is still missing. Alignment on the meaning of CS is of critical importance for enabling coherent and effective practices. The lack of a sound theoretical foundation and of conceptual clarity of corporate sustainability has been identified as an important cause of unsatisfactory and fruitless actions by organizations. To address the questions “What is Corporate Sustainability?” and “Is it true there is a lack of convergence and clarity of the concept?”, we perform an ontological analysis of the different and interrelated concepts, and a necessary condition analysis on the key constitutive features of corporate sustainability within the academic literature. We demonstrate that the concept of corporate sustainability is clearer than most authors claim and can be well defined around its environmental, social and economic constitutive pillars with the purpose to provide equal opportunities to future generations.</p