Preschool as a Wellspring for Democracy: Endorsing Traits of Reasonableness in Early Childhood Education

Traits of reasonableness are necessary characteristics of successfully engaged citizens within pluralistic liberal democratic societies. Given the evident unlikelihood of the spontaneous development of these critical characteristics, pedagogical effort ought to be exerted towards ensuring that this goal is realized. In what follows, we argue that preschool presents a unique and compelling opportunity for supporting this worthy pedagogical aim, such that, despite purported prohibitions entailed within arguments for the political neutrality of curricula, it ought to be promoted within this area. In the service of illustrating this point, we provide four examples of promising beginnings for this work

Benchmarking Sugarcane Production and Management Technology for Muscovado Sugar in the Province of Antique, Western Visayas, Philippines

Long-term sustainability of industries such as an agri-food production system is essential in the light of pressures to satisfy diverse customer needs, comply with government regulations, and to maintain core competency as in response to stiffer market competition. This has led to the identification of best management practices for highly critical and important commodities as the case of muscovado sugar. This paper attempts to gauge the performance of sugarcane production and management technology for use in muscovado sugar production in the province of Antique vis-á-vis process-specific levels of sugarcane production technology as categorized by the Sugar Regulatory Administration. A survey was conducted in 7 sugarcane-producing municipalities in the Province of Antique with 79 respondents selected using two-stage random sampling. Results show that the industry is at par when it comes to best management practices along the areas of planting practices, planting material selection, closing in timing, harvesting practices, trash management, shuttle shaving, and variety programming. The industry in the province lags behind along the areas of soil preparation and fertilizer application. It is recommended that all interventions geared towards improving the industry performance be anchored on evidence-based research findings. Moreover, it is further recommended that to improve productivity in sugarcane production, the industry in Antique must capitalize on its strengths while working towards the improvement of critical areas mentioned

MEASURING TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY AMONG DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM (DOT) ACCREDITED RESORTS IN DAVAO REGION: APPLICATION OF DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS (DEA)

One of the most important players in the hospitality and tourism industries is the resort industry. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) allows measuring the variation in efficiency between resorts businesses and in a particular time period. Furthermore, this technique allows the identification of the possible sources of inefficiency. The study developed a methodology utilizing the capabilities of Data Envelopment Analysis that provides a reasonably accurate means of evaluating the technical efficiency of DOT-accredited resorts in the Davao Region. Results of the study reveal that 18 out of 23 DMUs classified as fully efficient comprising 82.61% while the other 5 DMUs are under-efficient constituting 17.39% in total. Moreover, demographic characteristic significantly contributes to the efficient performance of DOT-accredited resorts in the Davao Region. These demographic characteristics, such as provincial category, type of resorts, and accessibility, provide policymakers, industry stakeholders, and tourism associations with information regarding the state of the tourism industry in various provinces, the type of resorts, and the means of reaching the resorts (accessibility). These results enable more focused assistance and coordinated efforts to improve the region's competitiveness and sustainability.  Article visualizations

Eagle Mountain To Big Fossil Creek Diversion Tarrant, County, Texas

The City of Fort Worth is proposing to construct the Eagle Mountain to Big Fossil Diversion Pipeline in northern Tarrant County. Alan Plummer Associates, Inc. is handling the environmental permitting for the construction of the pipeline. AR Consultants, Inc. was contracted to conduct a cultural resource survey, which included archival research, to determine the presence of prehistoric and historic archaeological sites along the route and make recommendations about eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and State Antiquities Landmark (SAL) designation. Four survey areas were identified, totaling approximately 3.1 kilometers of the approximately 9-km-long route. The westernmost survey area of the pipeline crosses Dosier Creek on the northside of Boat Club Road. The central segment out of the four survey areas is parallel to Park Drive and was investigated due to the presence of structures shown on historic maps within the 100-foot survey corridor. The longest segment in the east is parallel an intermittent tributary flowing northeast into Big Fossil Creek, while the final survey area approaches Big Fossil Creek in its floodplain. Survey of the approximately 25 acres was conducted on January 09, 2018. One site, 41TR309, was recorded and represents the remains of a historic farmstead. The site is not recommended eligible for NRHP or SAL. No other cultural resources were identified on or below the surface during the survey. Based on the results of the survey, ARC concludes that further cultural resource investigations for this project are unwarranted, and requests that the Texas Historical Commission (THC) concur with this recommendation. However, if buried cultural materials are discovered during construction, the Archeology Division of the THC should be notified. The records will be curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies at Texas State University in San Marcos

Archeological Survey Of The Proposed Sanger Outfall Pipeline Denton County, Texas

The City of Sanger is proposing to construct the 3.06-kilometer-long Sanger Outfall Pipeline in Denton County, Texas. Alan Plummer Associates, Inc. contracted with AR Consultants, Inc. to survey a 100-foot-wide corridor along the proposed route. AR Consultants, Inc. hypothesized that there would be low potential for both prehistoric and historic cultural resources. These hypotheses were based on the location of the pipeline route in the narrow Ranger Branch floodplain and lack of mapped historic structures remaining in the project area. Fieldwork was conducted on May 31, 2018 under Texas Antiquities permit 8338, during which 19 shovel tests were excavated and a total of 11 acres were surveyed. No historic or prehistoric cultural resources were noted within the survey corridor. As such, AR Consultants, Inc. recommends that no further cultural resource investigations are necessary for this project, and requests that the Texas Historical Commission concur with this recommendation. Project documents will be curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University, San Marcos

Using parent metaphors for learning about the neonatal care experience: an interpretive perspective

© 2019 The Author(s). The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Journal of Child Health Care by Sage Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. It is available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367493519875853.This study focuses on how metaphors are used by parents who have had a premature baby to describe their neonatal care experience and how these can contribute to empathic learning of health professionals. In health, metaphors are commonly used to communicate and explain difficult topics. When patients tell their story, metaphor can be a means of expression from which we can learn about their experience of illness or hospitalisation. Limited research exits on how metaphor can improve our understanding of parent’s emotional experience in neonatal care and subsequently inform education in this field. Employing narrative inquiry within an interpretive, constructivist paradigm, 20 narrative interviews with 23 parents of premature babies were analysed using a process of metaphor identification. Findings revealed common metaphors used to describe experience. Metaphor clusters used by parents in order of frequency were journeying, altered reality, darkness, breaking, connections, fighting, salvation and being on the edge. Parents widely used compelling and emotive metaphors to describe and express both difficult and challenging times as well as progression forward. Metaphors serve as a powerful way for health professionals to learn about the emotional experiences of parents and potentially enhance their empathic understanding.Peer reviewe

Saccades to a remembered location elicit spatially specific activation in human retinotopic visual cortex

The possible impact upon human visual cortex from saccades to remembered target locations was investigated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A specific location in the upper-right or upper-left visual quadrant served as the saccadic target. After a delay of 2,400 msec, an auditory signal indicated whether to execute a saccade to that location (go trial) or to cancel the saccade and remain centrally fixated (no-go). Group fMRI analysis revealed activation specific to the remembered target location for executed saccades, in the contralateral lingual gyrus. No-go trials produced similar, albeit significantly reduced, effects. Individual retinotopic mapping confirmed that on go trials, quadrant-specific activations arose in those parts of ventral V1, V2, and V3 that coded the target location for the saccade, whereas on no-go trials, only the corresponding parts of V2 and V3 were significantly activated. These results indicate that a spatial-motor saccadic task (i.e., making an eye movement to a remembered location) is sufficient to activate retinotopic visual cortex spatially corresponding to the target location, and that this activation is also present (though reduced) when no saccade is executed. We discuss the implications of finding that saccades to remembered locations can affect early visual cortex, not just those structures conventionally associated with eye movements, in relation to recent ideas about attention, spatial working memory, and the notion that recently activated representations can be "refreshed" when needed

Direct detection of electron backscatter diffraction patterns.

We report the first use of direct detection for recording electron backscatter diffraction patterns. We demonstrate the following advantages of direct detection: the resolution in the patterns is such that higher order features are visible; patterns can be recorded at beam energies below those at which conventional detectors usefully operate; high precision in cross-correlation based pattern shift measurements needed for high resolution electron backscatter diffraction strain mapping can be obtained. We also show that the physics underlying direct detection is sufficiently well understood at low primary electron energies such that simulated patterns can be generated to verify our experimental data