Patterns of Science: Developing Knowledge for a World Community at Unesco

In the aftermath of World War II, many internationalists diagnosed the fundamental cause of international conflict as humanity’s failure to realize the ideals of a world community grounded in global political institutions and common values. To prevent an apocalyptic third world war, internationalists affiliated with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) identified two ways science could engineer a peaceful and prosperous world community: “technologically, by changing the material conditions of life, work and production; and intellectually, by changing the way in which men think.” Grounded in archival research in four countries, “Patterns of Science” explores both strategies through studies of Unesco’s environmental and social sciences programs. Environmental scientists emphasized the need to balance nature’s books by adapting the pattern of natural resources exploitation to the requirements of global population growth. They conceived of scientifically guided development as a moral equivalent of war that could unite an international army for the conquest of nature. Social scientists stressed the importance of reforming parochial cultural patterns to construct “the defences of peace in the minds of men.” By facilitating intercultural understanding, social scientists would help nations realize the ideal of “unity in diversity.” The goal of both strategies was to produce objective global knowledge that would make the world scale real—“in the minds of men” as well as for politicians and planners. “Patterns of Science” reveals how internationalist scientists attempted to navigate the politics of the cold war, decolonization, and bureaucratic rivalries through case studies that demonstrate the interaction of international, national, and local scales. These cases range from the Los Angeles School District’s implementation of a “Unesco program” during the height of McCarthyism to the establishment of a university chair of race relations in Southern Rhodesia, and from an arid lands research program that pitted “men against the desert” to the production of a Soil Map of the World. Although often mired in controversy or dismissed as naïve, Unesco’s work produced an international community of experts and global social and environmental knowledge that proved crucial to the emerging imperative for sustainable development in the early 1970s

Fabricating unity: the FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World

As a contribution to the United Nation’s “Development Decade” of the 1960s, the UN FAO and UNESCO collaborated to produce a Soil Map of the World. Because of soil’s privileged place in mid-twentieth century conservationist thought and its material characteristics, which were extraordinarily resistant to standardized classification, analysis of this project reveals with particular clarity how scientists made knowledge about the global environment in the international community. Producing credible global environmental knowledge required a worldwide network of disciplined observers, but soil scientists understood the Soil Map of the World as a means to produce this transnational community of experts. At a scale of 1:5 million, the units of the map applied to no place in particular; it was a heuristic device. The legend, which presented a new international classification system, was the critical accomplishment because it promised to unify diverse national soil science communities in a single discipline. The rigorously empirical descriptions of soil categories reveal the interplay of the cosmopolitan values of scientific internationalism with the nationalist tensions of the Cold War and decolonization

Curriculum For The Community: Creating A Community-Based English Learner Curriculum Framework

Many schools and districts are experiencing a high influx of English Language Learners (ELLs), and a good number are experiencing difficulties with helping these students achieve at high levels, while at the same time fostering a sense of community in their schools. As a result of the author’s research and personal experience teaching English Language Development (ELD) in urban schools, the following research questions were posed. How well are Minneapolis ELLs meeting rigorous educational standards currently? How have personalized and community-based learning been approached in Minneapolis historically? What pre-existing, place-specific, and successful curricular frameworks exist which might provide a model for educating ELLs? An examination of research demonstrated a large achievement gap for ELLs, and suggested a variety of explanations for such a gap, one of which was a lack of rigorous, community-based curriculum. A community-based curriculum framework was created, along with one sample unit to go with the framework. The framework and its samples are presented in a website to make them easily accessible for teachers wishing to adapt the materials for use with their students

Learning to Love: Gendered Romance and Representation in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction

Young Adult (YA) fiction is a remarkably ubiquitous genre that has flooded the literary market in the last several decades. This genre may have a particularly potent effect on the conceptualization of personal identity for developing adolescent readers, and it may also influence general cultural norms surrounding constructs such as gender. If gender can be considered as performance, and if gender performance acts in real life enforce a gender binary via repetition and exposure, then performance acts in literature do the same as models of what society is or should/should not be. Romance, which functions as a cornerstone for YA literature, is one of the places in which gendered behaviors are most explicitly demonstrated—and within romantic situations, readers find either healthy models or harmful stories. Without multiple stories to choose from and imitate in performance, readers may find themselves enacting deeply problematic gender roles in their real lives and relationships. This study includes analyses of three novels: Twilight, The Hunger Games, Looking for Alaska. The analyses serve as a starting point for assessing what kinds of social discourses about gender and romance are being presented in highly-popular contemporary YA literature. The study uses the tools of literary theory, pedagogical and psychological research, close-reading analysis, and a newly-proposed method of gathering descriptive summary statistics in books

A survey of owners' perceptions of fear of fireworks in a sample of dogs and cats in New Zealand

AIMS: To establish reliable information regarding the behavioural responses of dogs and cats to fireworks in New Zealand; record interventions used by owners, and their perceived efficacies; and establish the prevalence of firework-related injury, and quantify owners' attitudes towards fireworks. METHODS: A questionnaire targeting dog and cat owners was distributed via the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Animals Voice magazine and 25 veterinary clinics. The questionnaire covered demographics of animals, fear of fireworks, severity of the fear, and behaviours exhibited. Also included were treatments tried, source and perceived efficacy, prevalence of injury, and owners' attitudes towards the sale of fireworks for private use. RESULTS: From a total of 8,966 questionnaires distributed, 1,007 valid questionnaires were returned, representing 3,527 animals. Of these 1,635 (46%) animals displayed a level of fear of fireworks recognisable to their owners. Owners of dogs identified a significantly higher fear response than owners of cats but the duration of these fear responses did not differ between species. Fear of fireworks frequently resulted in dogs exhibiting active fear behaviours, whereas cats were more likely to exhibit hiding and cowering behaviours. A significantly increased severity and duration of fear response over time in dogs and cats was associated with owners who comforted them when they displayed a fearful response. Only 141/890 (15.8%) of owners sought professional treatment from a veterinarian, animal behaviourist or animal trainer for their animals, with variable efficacy. Six percent (51/923) of animals had received physical injuries from fireworks. The majority (837/1,007; 83%) of respondents, regardless of whether they owned a fearful animal or not, supported a ban on the sale of fireworks for private use. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide valuable information that is, as yet, unsubstantiated in New Zealand, although potential biases exist due to the non-random selection of respondents. Differences between dogs and cats were likely due to differing responses to fear-provoking stimuli between the species. Owner-reported increase in fearful response over time for comforted animals may indicate a negative impact on the longer-term psychological welfare of their animal. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The greater the awareness of effective treatment plans for animals that suffer from a fear of fireworks, the greater the possibility that this fear can be reduced. Wider dissemination of effective owner behaviour and treatment programmes for firework fears is needed to improve levels of professional treatment for dogs and cats

Estrogen and progesterone receptor levels in nonneoplastic breast epithelium of breast cancer cases versus benign breast biopsy controls

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Previous studies and biological mechanisms of carcinogenesis suggest that the steroid receptor content of benign breast epithelium may be related to breast cancer risk. The objective in this study was to compare the levels of estrogen receptor-α (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in nonneoplastic breast epithelium between breast cancer cases and biopsy controls.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between 1995 and 1997 at two sites (Women's College Hospital in Toronto and Kingston General Hospital), 667 women who were scheduled for diagnostic excisional breast biopsies completed a questionnaire providing personal information and agreed to allow analysis of routinely resected tissue. Histological slides with nonneoplastic epithelium were available for 101 cancer cases and 200 biopsy controls in Toronto and for 105 cancer cases and 119 controls in Kingston. Nonneoplastic epithelium was examined with immunohistochemical assays to determine the percent of epithelial cells staining for ER and PR. Unconditional logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (OR) stratified by study site.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The ER content of nonneoplastic tissue was higher in cases than biopsy controls in unadjusted analyses; after adjustment for age, however, a weak association remained in only one of the study sites. After adjustment for age, the PR content of nonneoplastic tissue was slightly lower in breast cancer cases than controls in one study site. Furthermore, this inverse association was confined to women with PR negative breast cancer in comparison to the controls. No interaction between ER and PR content of nonneoplastic tissue was observed in relation to the odds of having breast cancer.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of this study are consistent with only a slight indication of increased ER levels in nonneoplastic tissue in breast cancer cases relative to controls. This study contributes to the understanding of breast cancer by examining both ER and PR in nonneoplastic tissue. Limitations remain, however, such as the necessity of using as controls women with benign breast changes, difficulties in selecting the appropriate tissue for analysis, and tissue sampling concurrent to diagnosis.</p