Closing the Gap Between Rights and Realities for Children and Youth in Urban Brazil: Reflections on a Brazilian Project to Improve Policies for Street Children

Describes the successful use of Children's Rights Councils to promulgate policies to help children who spend their days (and in many cases nights) on the streets. Examines use of data and networks as well as challenges such as securing youth involvement

Globalisation, Technology and Identity: A Feminist Study of Work Cultures in the Localisation Industry

This work is a feminist study that aims to address a gap in knowledge about the working lives and learning of those employed in electronic, globalising industries, such as localisation. While much is known generally about the under-representation of women in SET (Science, Engineering and Technology), there has been less detailed study that explores the gendering of working lives in electronic knowledge industries which are a crucial part of the technological globalising process. Taking the localisation industry as a case, the present work addresses this lack. Localisation involves making an electronic product or website linguistically and culturally appropriate for people to use in another country/region and language. Workers in the industry adapt printed and electronic texts (and products) for distribution in overseas markets. The study is based on interviews with 10 workers and company owners from the UK, continental Europe, Ireland and South America. A critical feminist approach supports the analysis of interview data using CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis), and participant observation at a conference to reveal power relations which are seemingly hidden in the virtual sphere. Remote forms of working, mediated through the use of ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies) predominate in the industry. The findings are presented in three areas of analysis. Firstly, in relation to workers’ identities the study revealed that technology was a discursive resource used symbolically. While technology represented quality, domestication was used antithetically to indicate its lack. In the analysis this constituted a technologisation of identities. Secondly, workers’ learning trajectories revealed tensions in between knowledge work and accreditation. In relation to technology per se, image creation was central to localisation and the separation of the image from work practices concealed workers’ contributions. In this way the emotional labour invested in the production of the localised image was hidden. Thirdly, the study revealed ways in which global structures interacted with industry boundaries and intersected gendered cultures with implications for professional learning

Partners in Excellence : Evaluation Report

This is the final report on the 'Partners in Excellence' initiative, which was funded by the Scottish government, and aimed at increasing motivation for language learning in the upper secondary school, using a variety of stimulants including the use of new technologies. The evaluation draws together the findings from four previous interim reviews, focussing on student and teacher perceptions of the Partners in Excellence initiative

Direct enhancement of nuclear singlet order by dynamic nuclear polarization

Hyperpolarized singlet order is available immediately after dissolution DNP, avoiding need for additional preparation steps. We demonstrate this procedure on a sample of [1,2–13C2]pyruvic aci

Symposium: “Migrations in Professional Knowledge”

Migration has been controversial in society at large, and in adult education it has far-reaching and underexplored implications for adults’ professional learning. In this symposium we draw on an open conceptualisation of migration which encompasses the physical movement of people across regions and regulatory frameworks, and migrations in professional knowledge effected by changes in policy, and changing conditions of work. The migration of knowledge refers both to the way knowledge is carried by individuals and groups to new locations, and the way knowledge itself migrates to different professional and ethical places. We examine migration critically from four different perspectives that are competing as well as complementary. The symposium papers are connected by a concern with the context of globalisation, late capitalism and the capitalist economic crisis: conditions associated with intensification of migration. Different perspectives produce a rich and diverse analysis of our theme, through engagement with empirical data and theoretical critique. While there are creative tensions in the theoretical stances adopted, there are synergies across the four papers in our objects of interest. We are concerned with the impact on professional knowledge of time and space, of how and why certain knowledges are validated; we are also interested in the ambiguity of professional knowledge, and the use of power, care and responsibility

Knowledge, Technology and the Professional Learning of Localisers

A study of the software localisation industry examines learning in digital society by describing localisers’ knowledge practices. The shortcomings of stand- ard models of professional learning that assume shared goals, codified knowledge and workers’ co-location are considered, along with the problem of learning in distributed and technologically mediated work contexts. The paper uses Knorr Cetina’s concept of macro-epistemics to highlight the need for theoretical develop- ment in relation to two questions: i) How do ways of organising localisers' work constitute opportunities and constraints for shared knowledge practices? ii) How does technology disrupt macro-epistemic potential and personal learning trajectories

CASE STUDIES OF ASYMMETRIES IN SWIMMING

An interrelated influence of strength, flexibility, anthropometric and technique asymmetries affects performance in swimming. Underpinning aetiologies include both acquired and inherited factors. The combination of factors varies among swimmers and therefore demands a multi-disciplinary case study approach to identify and correct asymmetries to improve performance and reduce incidence of injuries. The purpose of this presentation is to provide examples of analyses informing individualised interventions to correct asymmetries. Interventions comprise programmes of strength, flexibility, posture, and technique refinement. Analyses included measures of strength on the Biodex, measures of strength, posture, flexibility and anthropometry based on the International Society for the Advancement of Kinesiology (ISAK) conventions, and video-based qualitative and quantitative three-dimensional analysis of technique. Sample data of a breaststroke swimmer and a backstroke swimmer are presented to illustrate the interrelationships among strength, flexibility, posture, technique and performance

Comparative Analysis of 3D Expression Patterns of Transcription Factor Genes and Digit Fate Maps in the Developing Chick Wing

Hoxd13, Tbx2, Tbx3, Sall1 and Sall3 genes are candidates for encoding antero-posterior positional values in the developing chick wing and specifying digit identity. In order to build up a detailed profile of gene expression patterns in cell lineages that give rise to each of the digits over time, we compared 3 dimensional (3D) expression patterns of these genes during wing development and related them to digit fate maps. 3D gene expression data at stages 21, 24 and 27 spanning early bud to digital plate formation, captured from in situ hybridisation whole mounts using Optical Projection Tomography (OPT) were mapped to reference wing bud models. Grafts of wing bud tissue from GFP chicken embryos were used to fate map regions of the wing bud giving rise to each digit; 3D images of the grafts were captured using OPT and mapped on to the same models. Computational analysis of the combined computerised data revealed that Tbx2 and Tbx3 are expressed in digit 3 and 4 progenitors at all stages, consistent with encoding stable antero-posterior positional values established in the early bud; Hoxd13 and Sall1 expression is more dynamic, being associated with posterior digit 3 and 4 progenitors in the early bud but later becoming associated with anterior digit 2 progenitors in the digital plate. Sox9 expression in digit condensations lies within domains of digit progenitors defined by fate mapping; digit 3 condensations express Hoxd13 and Sall1, digit 4 condensations Hoxd13, Tbx3 and to a lesser extent Tbx2. Sall3 is only transiently expressed in digit 3 progenitors at stage 24 together with Sall1 and Hoxd13; then becomes excluded from the digital plate. These dynamic patterns of expression suggest that these genes may play different roles in digit identity either together or in combination at different stages including the digit condensation stage