82 research outputs found
Introduction. The final Foucault and Education
The emphasis of this collection of papers is on using Foucault for thinking differently about education. A distinctive feature of the contributions is to mobilise a foucauldian attitude towards the historicisation and denaturalisation of what it means to be educated, and the privileging of a critical ontology of the self as part of wider projects for the critical reconstruction of both education as a practice of government and our modes of being as educational subjects. In relation to that, it is possible to identify four distinctive issues around which the papers of this collection coalesce: a) the formulation of a distinctive foucauldian ethical standpoint for a post neoliberal education; b) the mobilisation of the foucauldian concept of self formation to outline a different ethics of education; c) the sketching of a politics of the care of the self as a tool to remake the school as heterotopy; d) the use of the foucauldian analysis of parrhesia to rethink professional practice in education as a practice of self
Educational reform and modernisation in Europe: The role of national contexts in mediating the new public management
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordThis article examines the spread of new public management (NPM) across European education systems as it has traversed national boundaries. While recognising the transnational dimensions of the spread of NPM, the authors offer new insights into the importance of national contexts in mediating this development in educational settings by focusing upon NPM within three European countries (England, Italy and Norway). We reveal its recontextualisation in these sites and the interplay between NPM, and local and national conditions. This analysis is underpinned by a theoretical framework that seeks to capture the relationship between education and the state and to reveal tensions produced by NPM both as a shaping force and an entity shaped by local conditions in these contexts. The article concludes by focusing upon the complexities and specificities of NPM recontextualisation in the three countries as a basis for a reflection upon possible future policy trajectories
SUFU haploinsufficiency causes a recognisable neurodevelopmental phenotype at the mild end of the Joubert syndrome spectrum.
Joubert syndrome (JS) is a recessively inherited ciliopathy characterised by congenital ocular motor apraxia (COMA), developmental delay (DD), intellectual disability, ataxia, multiorgan involvement, and a unique cerebellar and brainstem malformation. Over 40 JS-associated genes are known with a diagnostic yield of 60%-75%.In 2018, we reported homozygous hypomorphic missense variants of the SUFU gene in two families with mild JS. Recently, heterozygous truncating SUFU variants were identified in families with dominantly inherited COMA, occasionally associated with mild DD and subtle cerebellar anomalies.
We reanalysed next generation sequencing (NGS) data in two cohorts comprising 1097 probands referred for genetic testing of JS genes.
Heterozygous truncating and splice-site SUFU variants were detected in 22 patients from 17 families (1.5%) with strong male prevalence (86%), and in 8 asymptomatic parents. Patients presented with COMA, hypotonia, ataxia and mild DD, and only a third manifested intellectual disability of variable severity. Brain MRI showed consistent findings characterised by vermis hypoplasia, superior cerebellar dysplasia and subtle-to-mild abnormalities of the superior cerebellar peduncles. The same pattern was observed in two out of three tested asymptomatic parents.
Heterozygous truncating or splice-site SUFU variants cause a novel neurodevelopmental syndrome encompassing COMA and mild JS, which likely represent overlapping entities. Variants can arise de novo or be inherited from a healthy parent, representing the first cause of JS with dominant inheritance and reduced penetrance. Awareness of this condition will increase the diagnostic yield of JS genetic testing, and allow appropriate counselling about prognosis, medical monitoring and recurrence risk
the effects of climate change on the multifunctional role of basilicata s forests the effects induced on yield and co2 absorption
The first studies on the possible impact of climate change on European forests and the development of adaptation and mitigation strategies began in the 1990s and resulted in the identification of risk assessment models and forest management tools. The prediction of climate change impacts on forests has been based using the evidence theory or Dempster-Shafer (DS)'s theory, appropriately spatialised. The implemented evidence lines refer to the concepts of vulnerability and resilience. The results of the DS model, applied to the Basilicata region, were utilised to assess the loss in biomass production capacity and CO2 absorption ability of different forest-derived biomasses. The loss in stumpage value and in the estimated CO2 absorption shows a reduction over time of forest system's economic value that is basically higher in 2050 than in 2100. The applied methodological approach has shown that the high degree of spatial and information detail may be helpful to produce good predictions to envisage environmental policy strategies for the monitoring and mitigation of the damages caused by the climate change, with a view to ensuring the ecosystems' capacity to produce positive externalities, including air carbon sequestration capacity
Cross-Flow Instability: Flow diagnostics and control of swept wing boundary layers
The research presented in this booklet focusses on the cross-flow instability. Applying traditional and advanced flow diagnostics, the boundary layer evolution is studied in detail. The topology and evolution of both primary and secondary instability mechanisms is revealed with unprecedented detail for experimental research paving the way for new advanced-diagnostics investigations. Important confirmations of the outcomes of past experimental, numerical and theoretical studies are achieved together with the description of a newly-reported flow phenomenon. The latter consists of a low frequency motion of the "stationary" primary vortices. While this phenomenon is considered not relevant for the transition evolution, it is deemed important for experimental investigations as it encompasses very high levels of turbulent kinetic energy.Advanced flow control experiments based on alternating current dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators are also performed following different instability control approaches. The primary instability is conditioned by the external forcing either in the wavenumber spectrum (by inducing selected spanwise modes) or in intensity (by weakening or enhancing the cross-flow velocity). The secondary instability modes are conditioned in the frequency spectrum and phase.These efforts achieved the intended scopes. Although, when selected stationary modes were forced, the boundary layer fluctuations were enhanced. These fluctuations can directly cause the turbulent breakdown vanishing the beneficial effect of the performed instability control. The cross-flow forcing, making use of newer actuators reaching higher frequencies, resulted successful yielding transition promotion or delay depending on the forcing direction.Aerodynamic
Sensitivity of crossflow surfacetransitionroughnessto free-stream conditions and
The present work is an experimental investigation of stationary crossflow (CF) instability-induced transition of the boundary layer over a 45°swept wing, under varying free-stream turbulence, surface roughness, angle of attack and Reynolds number. Key topological features of the transition front, such as the mean transition location and the jaggedness of the front, are retrieved via IR thermography. Linear Stability Theory (LST) is used to extract the N-factor of the most amplified stationary crossflow mode at the transition location, identified experimentally. Results show clear causality between free-stream turbulence, surface roughness, Reynolds number, angle of attack and transition. Large losses of laminarity and a consistent decrease in the transition N-factor are observed with rising turbulence and roughness. Remarkably, N-factor sensitivity to free-stream turbulence is found to vary significantly and non-linearly with angle of attack for the modest levels of turbulence explored in this campaign, whereas the N-factors scale linearly with the log of the surface roughness level, which is consistent with a receptivity mechanism, which is independent of the angle of attack.Aerodynamic
Time-resolved PIV investigation of the secondary instability of cross-flow vortices
Time-resolved PIV measurements of the secondary instability modes of cross-flow vortices are presented. Measurements are performed on a large scale 45o swept wing at chord Reynolds number of 2.17 million in a low turbulence wind-tunnel facility. Using acquisition frequencies of 20 kHz, the present study is the first experimental demonstration of spatio-temporally resolved measurements of these structures. Statistical and spectral analysis reveals a fluctuating velocity field, strongly conditioned in space by the primary stationary cross-flow vortex. The flow structures related to the type-I high-frequency instability and type-III are captured by Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of the instantaneous flow-fields. Their temporal evolution is analysed showing good agreement with previous studies thus confirming that POD is correctly representing the flow structures of the relevant instability modes. The low frequency meandering oscillation of the stationary vortices, first reported by Serpieri &Kotsonis (2016b), is observed and characterised
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