Implications of the Information Technology Revolution for People with Disabilities

The paper focuses on opportunities for the integration of persons with different types of disabilities in the information technology (IT) labour market. Recent IT developments are identified and examined for their potentially harmful or beneficial effects on access to the IT labour market for persons with disabilities. The opportunities created by new job creation, new forms of training, teleworking, and the role of assistive technologies in facilitating workplace accommodations are briefly described. The focus is on new options for the design and implementation of computer-related assistive technologies in the workplace, and the impact of teleworking and the World Wide Web on employability and work-related training of persons with disabilities. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the roles that government agencies, business firms, labour unions, non-governmental organisations and education can play to help people with disabilities join the IT revolution and share its benefits

Comparison of Employment Disability Discrimination Claims with Other Statutes Across U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission and Fair Employment Practice Agencies Nationally

Although 15 years have passed since the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) became effective, significant employment disparities for persons with disabilities persist. It is important to assess how employer policies and practices may contribute to this disparity. Analyses of employment-related discrimination claims and subsequent legal outcomes are an important source of information about where and how disability employment discrimination is perceived to be happening. Examining the disability employment discrimination charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Fair Employment Practice Agencies (FEPAs) within states can inform an understanding of where specific issues continue. This research uses the EEOC\u27s Charge Data System (CDS) (later called the Integrated Mission System, IMS) to explore difference between the filing of discrimination claims at EEOC offices and state FEPA offices. To date, most analyses of these charges have occurred on the EEOC charge data only. Yet of the 328,001 disability employment discrimination charges filed across both agencies during 1993 – 2003, almost half (46 percent) of these charges have been filed in FEPA offices. Analyzing both sets of data provides a fuller picture of disability employment discrimination claims nationally and subsequently further informs our understanding of where problems may be occurring in the implementation of the ADA Title I provisions. For more information, Contact Susanne Bruyère: [email protected]

Los textos de enseñanza de las ciencias experimentales como promotores de competencias de pensamiento científico (cpc) en una nueva cultura docente

En este trabajo se presentan los aspectos epistemológicos y praxiológicos de un proyecto editorial para la enseñanza de la química, la física y la biología, estructurados y orientados sobre las directrices de la ciencia escolar basada en el modelo cognitivo de ciencia. Interesa especialmente, que el profesor de ciencias naturales, disponga de nuevos elementos teóricos y prácticos para fundamentar una posición epistemológica frente al conocimiento que se elabora en la escuela y que es transmitido en los libros de texto de ciencia. Su finalidad principal es posicionar en el estudiantado y en los docentes el interés por la noción de ciencia, ciudadanía y valores, promoviendo la idea de competencias de pensamiento científico y problematizando la retórica de los libros de texto

Strictly correlated uniform electron droplets

We study the energetic properties of finite but internally homogeneous D-dimensional electron droplets in the strict-correlation limit. The indirect Coulomb interaction is found to increase as a function of the electron number, approaching the tighter forms of the Lieb-Oxford bound recently proposed by Rasanen et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 206406 (2009)]. The bound is satisfied in three-, two-, and one-dimensional droplets, and in the latter case it is reached exactly - regardless of the type of interaction considered. Our results provide useful reference data for delocalized strongly correlated systems, and they can be used in the development and testing of exchange-correlation density functionals in the framework of density-functional theory

Scaling relation for determining the critical threshold for continuum percolation of overlapping discs of two sizes

We study continuum percolation of overlapping circular discs of two sizes. We propose a phenomenological scaling equation for the increase in the effective size of the larger discs due to the presence of the smaller discs. The critical percolation threshold as a function of the ratio of sizes of discs, for different values of the relative areal densities of two discs, can be described in terms of a scaling function of only one variable. The recent accurate Monte Carlo estimates of critical threshold by Quintanilla and Ziff [Phys. Rev. E, 76 051115 (2007)] are in very good agreement with the proposed scaling relation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Jane Marcet. Un modelo didáctico de la electroquímica en el S. XIX

En la siguiente comunicación se describe un estudio histórico didáctico sobre el libro Conversations on Chemistry de Jane Marcet en la Inglaterra del S XIX. Este libro de divulgación científica tuvo gran importancia en el ámbito educativo en particular para la audiencia femenina. Los resultados del análisis realizado, permiten concluir que el libro se caracteriza por poseer un modelo de ciencia problemática, la narrativa es de duda retórica; el modelo de lector es aprendiz activo y el modelo de aula es constructivista. A pesar de existir gran controversia por el uso de las diferentes ediciones, según el público destinatario

Concepciones de los profesores de química sobre naturaleza de la ciencia e historia de la ciencia

En la siguiente comunicación se describen las concepciones acerca de la Naturaleza de la Ciencia e Historia de la Ciencia, encontradas en el profesorado de química participante en un estudio del Proyecto FONDECYT 1070795. Los resultados permiten concluir que los profesores de la región metropolitana de Santiago de Chile, destacan los aportes que pueden hacer la Naturaleza de la Ciencia a la comprensión conceptual y la Historia de la Ciencia a la comprensión contextual del conocimiento científico. Sin embargo, también señalan como alguna deficiencias la formación débil en estas áreas científicas, los programas curriculares y las temáticas químicas