A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour: Report I (B)

Explains how the concept of forced labor is defined in international law and discusses some parameters for identifying contemporary forced labor situations in practice. Provides the first minimum global estimate of the numbers of people in forced labor by an international organization, broken down by geographical region and by form of forced labor. Gives a global picture of contemporary patterns of forced labor, and of action to eradicate it. Reviews the ILO’s assistance to member States for the eradication of forced labor, in view of the creation of a Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour. Lastly, it makes recommendations for future action

Session: Extra-Library Critlib Interventions

Notes from Session 1 of the Critlib Unconference 2015, held at Portland State University in March 2015, titled Extra-library Critlib Interventions. Discusses challenges and barriers to critical library work, and how these may be me

Race and Home Ownership from the End of the Civil War to the Present

We present new estimates of home ownership for black and white households from 1870 to 2007. Black ownership increased by 46 percentage points, whereas white ownership increased by 20 points. Remarkably, 25 of the 26 point narrowing occurred between 1870 and 1910. Part of this early convergence is accounted for by falling white ownership due to movement out of agriculture, but most is accounted for by post-emancipation gains among blacks. After 1910, white and black households increased ownership, but the racial gap barely changed. We discuss the influence of residential segregation, public policy, and permanent income on the ownership gap.

Session: Guerilla Session 1

Notes from Session1 of the Critlib Unconference 2015, held at Portland State University in March 2015. This was specified as a guerilla session, and was limited to ten participants. Discussion revolved around neutrality and ethics for librarians, as well as various aspects of reference instruction and student learning behaviors

Activities and administration of the TIR Executive Board – Activities of the TIR Executive Board: Report by the Chair of the TIR Executive Board

Item 4 (a) (i) of the provisional agend

Utilizing Mobile Devices in Education: Faculty Experiences

The use of technology in higher education has become the rule rather than the exception; advancing technologies, such as mobile devices, is an inescapable transition for faculty members. This study explored the lived-experiences of eight full time faculty members who adopted a mobile device to support teaching and learning. The study focused on understanding how training was experienced, how mobile devices were adopted, and how the use of mobile devices affected engagement practices

Duality violations and spectral sum rules

We study the issue of duality violations in the VV-AA vacuum polarization function in the chiral limit. This is done with the help of a model with an expansion in inverse powers of the number of colors, Nc, allowing us to consider resonances with a finite width. Due to these duality violations, the Operator Product Expansion (OPE) and the moments of the spectral function (e.g. the Weinberg sum rules) do not match at finite momentum, and we analyze this difference in detail. We also perform a comparative study of many of the different methods proposed in the literature for the extraction of the OPE parameters and find that, when applied to our model, they all fare quite similarly. In fact, the model strongly suggests that a significant improvement in precision can only be expected after duality violations are included. To this end, we propose a method to parameterize these duality violations. The method works quite well for the model, and we hope that it may also be useful in future determinations of OPE parameters in QCD.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures, LateX file. Small changes to match journal versio

Cognitive networks: brains, internet, and civilizations

In this short essay, we discuss some basic features of cognitive activity at several different space-time scales: from neural networks in the brain to civilizations. One motivation for such comparative study is its heuristic value. Attempts to better understand the functioning of "wetware" involved in cognitive activities of central nervous system by comparing it with a computing device have a long tradition. We suggest that comparison with Internet might be more adequate. We briefly touch upon such subjects as encoding, compression, and Saussurean trichotomy langue/langage/parole in various environments.Comment: 16 page

Digital dissection of the model organism Xenopus laevis using contrast-enhanced computed tomography

The African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, is one of the most widely used model organisms in biological research. However, the most recent anatomical description of X. laevis was produced nearly a century ago. Compared with other anurans, pipid frogs – including X. laevis – exhibit numerous unusual morphological features; thus, anatomical descriptions of more ‘typical’ frogs do not detail many aspects of X. laevis skeletal and soft‐tissue morphology. The relatively new method of using iodine‐based agents to stain soft tissues prior to high‐resolution X‐ray imaging has several advantages over gross dissection, such as enabling dissection of very small and fragile specimens, and preserving the three‐dimensional topology of anatomical structures. Here, we use contrast‐enhanced computed tomography to produce a high‐resolution three‐dimensional digital dissection of a post‐metamorphic X. laevis to successfully visualize: skeletal and muscular anatomy; the nervous, respiratory, digestive, excretory and reproductive systems; and the major sense organs. Our digital dissection updates and supplements previous anatomical descriptions of this key model organism, and we present the three‐dimensional data as interactive portable document format (PDF) files that are easily accessible and freely available for research and educational purposes. The data presented here hold enormous potential for applications beyond descriptive purposes, particularly for biological researchers using this taxon as a model organism, comparative anatomy and biomechanical modelling

A Standard of General Motor Ability for Prairie View College Men Based on Braces Test

THE PROBLEM DEFINED MAJOR PROBLEM This study purports to sot up a standard of general motor ability for Prairie View College men for the Brace Test. SUB-PROBLEMS (1) To determine the degree of validity of the test*. (2) To determine the degree of reliability of the test. (3) To determine the degree of objectivity of the test. PURPOSE OF THE PROBLEM (1) To develop a standard which will assist in the instruction of men at Prairie View College. (2) To classify men in a program of Intramural Athletics at Prairie View College. NEED FOR SUCH A STUDY The number of test in Physical Education field that are statistically sound are comparatively few. The number of Valid Test of general motor ability is limited. There have been many experiments set up. There have been many experiments set up without presenting proof that the test met certain scientific criteria.-1 Very little work has been done for the Negroes in the field of tests. Russell discovered that there had been very little work done on Negroes. No test was set up based entirely upon Negroes. Russell in his study of one hundred and four test was unable to find any test that would serve as a criterion as to evaluating Brace Test.-2 LIMITATIONS The subjects used in this study were men of Prairie View College. The groups were composed mostly of Freshmen and Sophomores. The subjects taken from the Juniors, Seniors and N. Y. A. Boy\u27s were few. The age ranged for this group was from sixteen to twenty four. The number of cases obtained for all over twenty years of age was few. The total number of cases obtained was not sufficient to be representative of each age level for men tested. 1 - Bovard, J. F. and Cozens, F. W., Test and Measurements in Physical Education, P. 229. 2 - Russell, T. S., An Evaluation of the Brace Test and Norms for Negroes. Unpublished Masters Thesis, New York University, 1936