Reconfiguring the ‘Male Montessorian’: the mattering of gender through pink towering practices

This paper attempts to open out investigations in ECEC by working beyond anthropocentric accounts of gender. Drawing upon feminist new materialist philosophies we ask whether it might be possible to reconfigure ideas about gender that recognise it as produced through everyday processes and material-affective entanglements. In order to do this, we work with Montessori materials, spaces and practices to grapple with the ways that gender is produced through human-material-semiotic encounters. By focusing on familiar Montessori objects, we follow diffractive lines of enquiry to extend investigations and generate new knowledge about gender in ECEC. This shift in focus allows other accounts about gender to find expression. We argue gender can be encountered as more than an exclusively human matter; and we go on to debate what that might potentiate (i.e. that if gender is fleeting, shifting, and produced within micro-moments there is freedom to break free from narrow framings that fix people, such as ‘the Male Montessorian’, in unhelpful ways). An approach that foregrounds affect and materiality makes a hopeful, generative and expansive contribution to the field

Grappling with the miseducation of Montessori: a feminist posthuman re-reading of ‘child’ in early childhood contexts

This paper demonstrates how feminist posthumanism can reconfigure conceptualisations of, and practices with, ‘child’ in Montessori early childhood contexts. It complicates Montessori’s contemporary reputation as a ‘middle-class phenomenon’ by returning to the earliest Montessori schools as a justice-oriented project for working-class children and families. Grappling with the contradictions and inconsistencies of Montessori thought, this paper both acknowledges the legacy of Montessori's feminism, whilst also situating her project within the wider colonial capitalist context in which it emerged. A critical engagement with Montessori education unsettles modernist conceptualisations of ‘child’ and its civilising agenda on minds and bodies. Specifically, Montessori child observation (as a civilising mission) is disrupted and re-read from a feminist posthumanist orientation to generate more relational, queer and expansive accounts of how child is produced through observation. Working with three ‘encounters’ from fieldwork at a Montessori nursery we attend to the material discursive affective manifestation of social class, gender, sexuality and ‘race’ and what that means for child figurations in Montessori contexts. We conclude by embracing Snaza’s ‘bewildering education’, to reach towards different imaginaries of ‘child’ that are not reliant on dialectics of ‘human’ and ‘nonhuman’, and that allows ‘child’ to be taken seriously, without risking erasure of fleshy, leaky, porous, codified bodies in Montessori spaces

Two-parameter uniformly elliptic Sturm–Liouville problems with eigenparameter-dependent boundary conditions

We consider the two-parameter Sturm–Liouville system –y "1+q1y1=(λr11+μr12)y1 [0,1], with the boundary conditions y'1(0)/y1(0)=cotΑ1 and y'1(1)/y1(1)=a1λ+b1/c1λ+d1 and –y" 2+q2y2=(λr21+μr22)y2 on [0,1] with the boundary conditions y'2(0)/y2(0)=cotΑ2 and y'2(1)/y2(1)=a2μ+b2/c2μ+d2 subject to the uniform-left-definite and uniform-ellipticity conditions; where and qi and rij are continuous real valued functions on [0,1], the angle Αi is in [0, π) and ai, bi, ci, di, and are real numbers with δ i = aidi - bici > 0 and ci ≠0 for i,j = 1,2. Results are given on asymptotics, oscillation of eigenfunctions and location of eigenvalues

Application of Regression and Fuzzy Logic Method for Prediction of Tool Life

AbstractThis paper presents a model for predicting tool life when end milling IS2062 steel using P30 uncoated carbide tipped tool under various cutting conditions. A tool life model is developed from regression model obtained by using results of the experiments conducted based on Taguchi's approach. A second model is developed based on fuzzy logic method for predicting tool life. The results obtained from fuzzy method are compared with regression model. The results of the fuzzy model is found to be more closer to experimental value

Comparative Analysis of Regression Models for Remote Sensing-based Water Quality Assessment

The 80-kilometer-long Vembanad Lake in Kerala, India, is a Ramsar site. Eutrophication is deteriorating its water quality and threatening its biodiversity. In this study, satellite imageries of Sentinel 2A and Landsat 8 OLI were utilized to determine its water quality. Various data sets of the water quality parameters viz. pH, Electrical conductivity, TSS, TDS, BOD, DO, chloride etc. are analyzed and interpreted. Regression models were developed on the parameters taken up for water quality analysis. The empirical R2 values of the developed models evidenced the accuracy of the developed mdoels. The findings show that remote sensing images are reliable for analyzing surface water quality characteristics. The comparative analysis of the model developed illustrated the effectiveness of using the imaging systems mentioned above for water quality index estimation through remote sensing

Assignment of the Human and Mouse Prion Protein Genes to Homologous Chromosomes

Purified preparations of scrapie prions contain one major macromolecule, designated prion protein (PrP). Genes encoding PrP are found in normal animals and humans but not within the infectious particles. The PrP gene was assigned to human chromosome 20 and the corresponding mouse chromosome 2 using somatic cell hybrids. In situ hybridization studies mapped the human PrP gene to band 20p12→pter. Our results should lead to studies of genetic loci syntenic with the PrP gene, which may play a role in the pathogenesis of prion diseases or other degenerative neurologic disorders

Reconstruction of the insulin-like signalling pathway of Haemonchus contortus

Background: In the present study, we reconstructed the insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 signalling (IIS) pathway for Haemonchus contortus, which is one of the most important eukaryotic pathogens of livestock worldwide and is related to the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Methods: We curated full-length open-reading frames from assembled transcripts, defined the complement of genes that encode proteins involved in this pathway and then investigated the transcription profiles of these genes for all key developmental stages of H. contortus. Results: The core components of the IIS pathway are similar to their respective homologs in C. elegans. However, there is considerable variation in the numbers of isoforms between H. contortus and C. elegans and an absence of AKT-2 and DDL-2 homologs from H. contortus. Interestingly, DAF-16 has a single isoform in H. contortus compared with 12 in C. elegans, suggesting novel functional roles in the parasitic nematode. Some IIS proteins, such as DAF-18 and SGK-1, vary in their functional domains, indicating distinct roles from their homologs in C. elegans. Conclusions: This study paves the way for the further characterization of key signalling pathways in other socioeconomically important parasites and should help understand the complex mechanisms involved in developmental processes

Prophylactic combined supplementation of choline and docosahexaenoic acid attenuates vascular cognitive impairment and preserves hippocampal cell viability in rat model of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion ischemic brain injury

Background: Stroke is the second cause of mortality in the world and third leading cause of disability in surviving victims. Cerebral ischemic cascade involves multiple pathways that can result in motor and cognitive deficits. The current treatment strategy focuses mainly on motor recovery, and the management of post-stroke cognitive impairment is largely neglected. Similarly, very few studies have explored the prophylactic combined synergetic treatment strategies that have the potential to target multiple pathways in the ischemic cascade to alleviate vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) in the event of an ischemic stroke. Choline and docosahexaenoic acid (Cho-DHA) are both essential neuronal membrane phospholipid precursors, known to be important in enhancing cognitive functions. The objective of present study was to explore the prophylactic efficacy of combined Cho-DHA supplementation (Cho-DHA suppl.) in attenuating VCI in a rodent model of ischemic brain injury.Methods: An 10-months-old male Wistar rats were subdivided into four groups (n=8/group); normal control (NC), bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) induced ischemic brain injury group, sham BCCAO (S-BCCAO) group, and prophylactic combined Cho-DHA suppl. BCCAO group. Subsequently, all groups of rats were tested for cognition and neuro-morphological changes in the hippocampus.Results: BCCAO rats showed significant learning and memory deficits (p<0.05) and neuronal injury compared to S-BCCAO and NC rats. These cognitive deficits and neuronal injury were significantly (p<0.01) attenuated in Cho-DHA suppl. BCCAO rats.Conclusion: Prophylactic combined Cho-DHA suppl. may be envisaged as an effective preventive strategy to attenuate VCI and neuronal injury in high-risk individuals susceptible for a future event of an ischemic stroke