Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

In the name of democracy : the work of women teachers in Toronto and Vancouver, 1945-1960

In the Name of Democracy: The Work of Women Teachers in Toronto and Vancouver, 1945-1960, examines the limits of educational ’democracy’ for women educators. Educational administrators across the political spectrum assumed separate spheres to be intrinsic to the social contract for ’good’ citizenship: the school as a public institution was dedicated to the rational, autonomous, politically engaged subject. ’Woman’ was not that subject. This thesis demonstrates that women were quasi-citizens in the public school, yet leaders in the delivery of democratic hope for the age. On the one hand, women teachers were encouraged to participate in the increasingly ’democratized’ institution of the public secondary school and were embraced as necessary participants in the labour market of the education system. In the years after the Second Great War, the reconstitution of the social order depended upon their performance. On the other hand, the maintenance of traditional gender roles, disrupted by the trauma of war, was still heralded as women’s primary contribution to the nation’s stability. While women teachers acted within public institutions, their role remained defined by their private sphere ’capabilities’ and a gendered model of citizenship that promised security through the performance of educational ’democracy.’ This thesis employs a feminist analysis that centers on women teachers’ oral histories to illuminate both the normative democratic order of the period and the ways that women negotiated its boundaries. In particular, it combines modernist concerns for social structure and common oppression with poststructuralism’s concern for hierarchies of identification and difference. Both the common and discrete experiences of women teachers reveal that educational ’democracy’ was far from gender-blind in post-war Canada.Education, Faculty ofEducational Studies (EDST), Department ofGraduat

A New Approach to Virtual Reality in History Education: The Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation Project (DOHR)

In this chapter we propose a new approach for designing virtual environments (VEs) that has the potential to make important contributions to teaching and learning history. We briefly outline the history of VR and define key terms and concepts. We describe three types of history-focused VEs, digital historical games, 3D historical reconstructions, and interactive storytelling, and discuss the opportunities and challenges they offer for history teaching and learning in terms of learning, accessibility, historical thinking, and historical empathy. In the final section, we describe the Digital Oral History for Reconciliation (DOHR) curriculum and virtual learning environment (VLE) that was created to promote relationality and historical empathy. We describe a new approach to designing curriculum-specific VLEs that offers several potential benefits for teaching and learning history and the design of interactive storytelling VLEs

A New Approach to Virtual Reality in History Education: The Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation Project (DOHR)

In this chapter we propose a new approach for designing virtual environments (VEs) that has the potential to make important contributions to teaching and learning history. We briefly outline the history of VR and define key terms and concepts. We describe three types of history-focused VEs, digital historical games, 3D historical reconstructions, and interactive storytelling, and discuss the opportunities and challenges they offer for history teaching and learning in terms of learning, accessibility, historical thinking, and historical empathy. In the final section, we describe the Digital Oral History for Reconciliation (DOHR) curriculum and virtual learning environment (VLE) that was created to promote relationality and historical empathy. We describe a new approach to designing curriculum-specific VLEs that offers several potential benefits for teaching and learning history and the design of interactive storytelling VLEs

\u27Relational Presence\u27: Designing VR-Based Virtual Learning Environments for Oral History-Based Restorative Pedagogy

Relational presence is the core principle of a new approach to designing virtual learning environments (VLEs), which has been developed by the Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation (DOHR) project (dohr.ca). Presence, normally understood as the sense of being in a virtual environment to the extent that one forgets the environment is virtual, is thought to have significant pedagogical benefits in K–12 experiential learning projects aiming to develop spatial and social competencies that learners can translate into actual-world contexts. DOHR, by contrast, aims to build the understanding needed for learners to address systemic racism in Nova Scotia, through an oral history and restorative justice–based curriculum. To serve this alternative learning goal, relational presence replaces presence. The usual emphasis in VLE design on simulation, interactivity, identity construction, agency, and satisfaction is replaced with new values of impression, witnessing, self-awareness and awareness of difference, interpretation and inquiry, and affective dissonance. This paper introduces relational presence in order to help establish, in the field of VLE design, a productive discourse around issues of justice, representation of marginalized communities, and pedagogy-led design

\u27Relational Presence\u27: Designing VR-Based Virtual Learning Environments for Oral History-Based Restorative Pedagogy

Relational presence is the core principle of a new approach to designing virtual learning environments (VLEs), which has been developed by the Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation (DOHR) project (dohr.ca). Presence, normally understood as the sense of being in a virtual environment to the extent that one forgets the environment is virtual, is thought to have significant pedagogical benefits in K–12 experiential learning projects aiming to develop spatial and social competencies that learners can translate into actual-world contexts. DOHR, by contrast, aims to build the understanding needed for learners to address systemic racism in Nova Scotia, through an oral history and restorative justice–based curriculum. To serve this alternative learning goal, relational presence replaces presence. The usual emphasis in VLE design on simulation, interactivity, identity construction, agency, and satisfaction is replaced with new values of impression, witnessing, self-awareness and awareness of difference, interpretation and inquiry, and affective dissonance. This paper introduces relational presence in order to help establish, in the field of VLE design, a productive discourse around issues of justice, representation of marginalized communities, and pedagogy-led design