Bravery, accountability, and praxis: decolonizing international education

International education operates in a fundamentally post/colonial paradigm. This study aims to amplify the voices of a diverse group of students, learning at Green School, Bali (an international school environment) around their experiences of education, community, and reflective practices within this colonial landscape. Specifically, it aims to answer the following question, “What is the impact of high school students’ implicit (non-curricular and out-of-school) learning on their engagement with content, community, and their own metacognitive processes at the Green School?” This study was completed using a participative model of Grounded Theory, combined with Critical Action Research in which students were taught about research in education, then participated in group interviews, which were adjusted as needed based on their responses. From there, students worked with the researcher to code and analyze the interview data, and finally to propose guidelines for potential solutions. Their voices are paramount to this research. The results of this study suggest a number of categories in which international schools should ask deeper questions and implement changes in order to both decolonize and build community. Specifically working towards true accountability for all community members, empowering diverse voices and trusting them with this power, providing transparency around decision making and finances, and finally, asking the right questions and implementing a Brave Praxis. The recommendations and conclusions section of this study includes questions and supportive protocols for teachers and administrators to adapt and utilize in group discussions in order to spark change in their communities. It is meant to be both a practical and living document

Physicochemical attack against solid tumors based on the reversal of direction of entropy flow: an attempt to introduce thermodynamics in anticancer therapy

BACKGROUND: There are many differences between healthy tissue and growing tumor tissue, including metabolic, structural and thermodynamic differences. Both structural and thermodynamic differences can be used to follow the entropy differences in cancerous and normal tissue. Entropy production is a bilinear form of the rates of irreversible processes and the corresponding "generalized forces". Entropy production due to various dissipation mechanisms based on temperature differences, chemical potential gradient, chemical affinity, viscous stress and exerted force is a promising tool for calculations relating to potential targets for tumor isolation and demarcation. METHODS: The relative importance of five forms of entropy production was assessed through mathematical estimation. Using our mathematical model we demonstrated that the rate of entropy production by a cancerous cell is always higher than that of a healthy cell apart from the case of the application of external energy. Different rates of entropy production by two kinds of cells influence the direction of entropy flow between the cells. Entropy flow from a cancerous cell to a healthy cell transfers information regarding the cancerous cell and propagates its invasive action to the healthy tissues. To change the direction of entropy flow, in addition to designing certain biochemical pathways to reduce the rate of entropy production by cancerous cells, we suggest supplying external energy to the tumor area, changing the relative rate of entropy production by the two kinds of cells and leading to a higher entropy accumulation in the surrounding normal cells than in the tumorous cells. CONCLUSION: Through the use of mathematical models it was quantitatively demonstrated that when no external force field is applied, the rate of entropy production of cancerous cells is always higher than that of healthy cells. However, when the external energy of square wave electric pulses is applied to tissues, the rate of entropy production of normal cells may exceed that of cancerous cells. Consequently, the application of external energy to the body can reverse the direction of the entropy current. The harmful effect brought about by the entropy flow from cancerous to healthy tissue can be blocked by the reversed direction of entropy current from the irradiated normal tissue around the tumor

Doping a semiconductor to create an unconventional metal

Landau Fermi liquid theory, with its pivotal assertion that electrons in metals can be simply understood as independent particles with effective masses replacing the free electron mass, has been astonishingly successful. This is true despite the Coulomb interactions an electron experiences from the host crystal lattice, its defects, and the other ~1022/cm3 electrons. An important extension to the theory accounts for the behaviour of doped semiconductors1,2. Because little in the vast literature on materials contradicts Fermi liquid theory and its extensions, exceptions have attracted great attention, and they include the high temperature superconductors3, silicon-based field effect transistors which host two-dimensional metals4, and certain rare earth compounds at the threshold of magnetism5-8. The origin of the non-Fermi liquid behaviour in all of these systems remains controversial. Here we report that an entirely different and exceedingly simple class of materials - doped small gap semiconductors near a metal-insulator transition - can also display a non-Fermi liquid state. Remarkably, a modest magnetic field functions as a switch which restores the ordinary disordered Fermi liquid. Our data suggest that we have finally found a physical realization of the only mathematically rigourous route to a non-Fermi liquid, namely the 'undercompensated Kondo effect', where there are too few mobile electrons to compensate for the spins of unpaired electrons localized on impurity atoms9-12.Comment: 17 pages 4 figures supplemental information included with 2 figure

Lung abscess predicts the surgical outcome in patients with pleural empyema

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>Most cases of pleural empyema are caused by pulmonary infections, which are usually combined with pneumonia or lung abscess. The mortality of patients with pleural empyema remains high (up to 20%). It also contributes to higher hospital costs and longer hospital stays. We studied pleural empyema with combined lung abscess to determine if abscess was associated with mortality.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From January 2004 to December 2006, we retrospectively reviewed 259 patients diagnosed with pleural empyema who received thoracscopic decortications of the pleura in a single medical center. We evaluated their clinical data and analyzed their chest computed tomography scans. Outcomes of pleural empyema were compared between groups with and without lung abscess.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty-two pleural empyema patients had lung abscesses. Clinical data showed significantly higher incidences in the lung abscess group of pre-operative leukocytosis, need for an intensive care unit stay and mortality.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Patients with pleural empyema and lung abscess have higher intensive care unit admission rate, higher mortality during 30 days and overall mortality than patients with pleural empyema. The odds ratio of lung abscess is 4.685. Physician shall pay more attention on high risk patient of lung abscess for early detection and management.</p

Systematic screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions: Still debatable

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Assessing people's ability to drive has become a public health concern in most industrialized countries. Although age itself is not a predictive factor of an increased risk for dangerous driving, the prevalence of medical conditions that may impair driving increases with age. Because the implementation of a screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions is a public health issue, its usefulness should be judged using standardised criteria already proposed for screening for chronic disease. The aim of this paper is to propose standardised criteria suitable to assess the scientific validity of screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions, and identify potential issues to be clarified before screening can be implemented and effective.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Using criteria developed for screening for chronic diseases and published studies on driving with medical conditions, we specify six criteria to judge the opportunity of screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions. This adaptation was needed because of the complexity of the natural history of medical conditions and their potential consequences on driving and road safety. We then illustrate that published studies pleading for or against screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions fail to provide the needed documentation. Individual criteria were mentioned in 3 to 72% of 36 papers pleading for or against screening. Quantitative estimates of relevant indicators were provided in at most 42% of papers, and some data, such as the definition of an appropriate unsafe driving period were never provided.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>The standardised framework described in this paper provides a template for assessing the effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) of proposed measures for screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions. Even if most criteria were mentioned in the published literature pleading for or against such a screening, the failure to find quantitative and evidence-based estimates of relevant indicators provides useful insight for further research.</p

Neighborhood Influences on Perceived Social Support Among Parents: Findings from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods

Background: Social support is frequently linked to positive parenting behavior. Similarly, studies increasingly show a link between neighborhood residential environment and positive parenting behavior. However, less is known about how the residential environment influences parental social support. To address this gap, we examine the relationship between neighborhood concentrated disadvantage and collective efficacy and the level and change in parental caregiver perceptions of non-familial social support. Methodology/Principal Findings: The data for this study came from three data sources, the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) Study's Longitudinal Cohort Survey of caregivers and their offspring, a Community Survey of adult residents in these same neighborhoods and the 1990 Census. Social support is measured at Wave 1 and Wave 3 and neighborhood characteristics are measured at Wave 1. Multilevel linear regression models are fit. The results show that neighborhood collective efficacy is a significant ($\beta$ = .04; SE = .02; p = .03), predictor of the positive change in perceived social support over a 7 year period, however, not of the level of social support, adjusting for key compositional variables and neighborhood concentrated disadvantage. In contrast concentrated neighborhood disadvantage is not a significant predictor of either the level or change in social support. Conclusion: Our finding suggests that neighborhood collective efficacy may be important for inducing the perception of support from friends in parental caregivers over time

Compressed representation of a partially defined integer function over multiple arguments

In OLAP (OnLine Analitical Processing) data are analysed in an n-dimensional cube. The cube may be represented as a partially defined function over n arguments. Considering that often the function is not defined everywhere, we ask: is there a known way of representing the function or the points in which it is defined, in a more compact manner than the trivial one

Classification of Types of Stuttering Symptoms Based on Brain Activity

Among the non-fluencies seen in speech, some are more typical (MT) of stuttering speakers, whereas others are less typical (LT) and are common to both stuttering and fluent speakers. No neuroimaging work has evaluated the neural basis for grouping these symptom types. Another long-debated issue is which type (LT, MT) whole-word repetitions (WWR) should be placed in. In this study, a sentence completion task was performed by twenty stuttering patients who were scanned using an event-related design. This task elicited stuttering in these patients. Each stuttered trial from each patient was sorted into the MT or LT types with WWR put aside. Pattern classification was employed to train a patient-specific single trial model to automatically classify each trial as MT or LT using the corresponding fMRI data. This model was then validated by using test data that were independent of the training data. In a subsequent analysis, the classification model, just established, was used to determine which type the WWR should be placed in. The results showed that the LT and the MT could be separated with high accuracy based on their brain activity. The brain regions that made most contribution to the separation of the types were: the left inferior frontal cortex and bilateral precuneus, both of which showed higher activity in the MT than in the LT; and the left putamen and right cerebellum which showed the opposite activity pattern. The results also showed that the brain activity for WWR was more similar to that of the LT and fluent speech than to that of the MT. These findings provide a neurological basis for separating the MT and the LT types, and support the widely-used MT/LT symptom grouping scheme. In addition, WWR play a similar role as the LT, and thus should be placed in the LT type

The Silkworm (Bombyx mori) microRNAs and Their Expressions in Multiple Developmental Stages

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in various physiological processes through post-transcriptional regulation of gene expressions and are involved in development, metabolism, and many other important molecular mechanisms and cellular processes. The Bombyx mori genome sequence provides opportunities for a thorough survey for miRNAs as well as comparative analyses with other sequenced insect species. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We identified 114 non-redundant conserved miRNAs and 148 novel putative miRNAs from the B. mori genome with an elaborate computational protocol. We also sequenced 6,720 clones from 14 developmental stage-specific small RNA libraries in which we identified 35 unique miRNAs containing 21 conserved miRNAs (including 17 predicted miRNAs) and 14 novel miRNAs (including 11 predicted novel miRNAs). Among the 114 conserved miRNAs, we found six pairs of clusters evolutionarily conserved cross insect lineages. Our observations on length heterogeneity at 5' and/or 3' ends of nine miRNAs between cloned and predicted sequences, and three mature forms deriving from the same arm of putative pre-miRNAs suggest a mechanism by which miRNAs gain new functions. Analyzing development-related miRNAs expression at 14 developmental stages based on clone-sampling and stem-loop RT PCR, we discovered an unusual abundance of 33 sequences representing 12 different miRNAs and sharply fluctuated expression of miRNAs at larva-molting stage. The potential functions of several stage-biased miRNAs were also analyzed in combination with predicted target genes and silkworm's phenotypic traits; our results indicated that miRNAs may play key regulatory roles in specific developmental stages in the silkworm, such as ecdysis. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Taking a combined approach, we identified 118 conserved miRNAs and 151 novel miRNA candidates from the B. mori genome sequence. Our expression analyses by sampling miRNAs and real-time PCR over multiple developmental stages allowed us to pinpoint molting stages as hotspots of miRNA expression both in sorts and quantities. Based on the analysis of target genes, we hypothesized that miRNAs regulate development through a particular emphasis on complex stages rather than general regulatory mechanisms