Literacy: Buzz Word on the Back Burner

This paper is reviews 12 published articles written on the importance of literacy in mathematics and the best practices to utilize inside the math classroom. The paper focuses on the definition of literacy of Orr, Kukner, and Timmons (2014), a definition that adapts literacy from reading and writing to the inclusion of problem solving, critical thinking, and the interaction with materials. The study conducted beyond the review of the literature was aimed at identifying the need for literacy across all content areas. The results of the findings show that as an educational community we show awareness of the deficit, but have not identified ways in which we may improve upon those deficits

The Lantern

Stor

Living On Light

Poetr

Representations of History in Popular Cinema : Schindler\u27s List and JFK as Postmodern History Texts

The concept of this dissertation is to research specific filmic representations of historical situations, and to discuss arguments presented in Spielberg\u27s Holocaust by critics such as Bartov, Hansen and Zelizer (1997), that popular films such as Schindler\u27s List are unable to represent history to the same extent as traditional historical texts. I will also attempt to locate specific interest groups who reaffirm the truth claims of traditional historical narrative, the gatekeepers of \u27historical truth\u27, and to examine the nature of \u27popular history\u27, and how it is negotiated in the modern cultural sphere. I will analyse the concept of the \u27unrepresentable\u27 as it applies to Schindler\u27s List and determine the socio-cultural impact of popular filmic history. I will discuss the\u27 possibilities of alternative history such as those presented in JFK, locating the significance of popular negotiated forms of history and attempting to define the progressive elements in popular film representations. Finally, I will discuss the constructs of history and historiography as they relate to theories of postmodernity and metanarratives

Transforming mesoscale granular plasticity through particle shape

When an amorphous material is strained beyond the point of yielding it enters a state of continual reconfiguration via dissipative, avalanche-like slip events that relieve built-up local stress. However, how the statistics of such events depend on local interactions among the constituent units remains debated. To address this we perform experiments on granular material in which we use particle shape to vary the interactions systematically. Granular material, confined under constant pressure boundary conditions, is uniaxially compressed while stress is measured and internal rearrangements are imaged with x-rays. We introduce volatility, a quantity from economic theory, as a powerful new tool to quantify the magnitude of stress fluctuations, finding systematic, shape-dependent trends. For all 22 investigated shapes the magnitude $s$ of relaxation events is well-fit by a truncated power law distribution $P(s)\sim {s}^{-\tau} exp(-s/s^*)$, as has been proposed within the context of plasticity models. The power law exponent $\tau$ for all shapes tested clusters around $\tau=$ 1.5, within experimental uncertainty covering the range 1.3 - 1.7. The shape independence of $\tau$ and its compatibility with mean field models indicate that the granularity of the system, but not particle shape, modifies the stress redistribution after a slip event away from that of continuum elasticity. Meanwhile, the characteristic maximum event size $s^*$ changes by two orders of magnitude and tracks the shape dependence of volatility. Particle shape in granular materials is therefore a powerful new factor influencing the distance at which an amorphous system operates from scale-free criticality. These experimental results are not captured by current models and suggest a need to reexamine the mechanisms driving mesoscale plastic deformation in amorphous systems.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. v3 adds a new appendix and figure about event rates and changes several parts the tex

Currency Trading Using the Fractal Market Hypothesis

We report on a research and development programme in financial modelling and economic security undertaken in the Information and Communications Security Research Group (ICSRG, 2011) which has led to the launch of a new company - Currency Traders Ireland Limited - funded by Enterprise Ireland. Currency Traders Ireland Limited (CTI, 2011) has a fifty year exclusive license to develop a new set of indicators for analysing currency exchange rates (Forex trading). We consider the background to the approach taken and present examples of the results obtained to date

The Problem of Masculinity for Male Health

Men’s health has historically received little attention in terms of consultation, planning, strategy development or project implementation, but in recent years there has been an increased focus on gender in the context of men’s health. Whilst in the past the focus on gender and health in Ireland has tended to be synonymous with women’s health, the significance of gendered health practices (particularly gendered patterns of help-seeking) have more recently come to the forefront in the context of men. Men’s reluctance to seek help and use health services is a concern across most Western cultures. Some commentary has suggested that men are victims of their own behaviour and the concept of masculinity. When forming a male-specific policy, health service providers and policy makers need to take men’s self-monitoring behaviour into account, when attempting to engage men within the health system. This paper forms part of a wider study into men’s health and focuses on masculinity as a potential problem in the socialisation of men