EGYMI intézményfejlődés a szegregált gyógypedagógiai iskolától a modellértékű tudásbázisig

A világszerte terjedő esélyegyenlőségi mozgalmak és a velük együtt járó integrációs törekvések nyomán az 1980-as években hazánkban is elkezdődött az a folyamat, amely az addig zárt gyógypedagógiai intézményrendszer és a kisegítő iskolák működését megváltoztatta. Az oktatásról szóló 1985. évi I. törvény általános iskolává nyilvánította a gyógypedagógiai iskolákat. A gyógypedagógiai tudás folyamatos gyarapodása, valamint az e tevékenységgel kapcsolatos új szemlélet segítette a változást. Az Európai Unióban 1990-ben miniszteri határozatba foglalták, hogy az integráció az oktatás elsődleges formája és a speciális területeken felhalmozott, gyógypedagógiai tudást a ’mainstreaming’ (főáramlat) részévé kell tenni (Gerebenné, 1996). 2003-tól hazánkban is lehetővé vált, hogy feladatkörüket bővítve a gyógypedagógiai intézmények pedagógiai-szakmai szolgáltatásokat nyújtsanak, s részt vegyenek a pedagógiai szakszolgálati tevékenységekben. A korábbi gyógypedagógiai iskolák közül mind több alakult át Egységes Gyógypedagógiai Módszertani Intézménnyé, és a 2003–2013 közötti évtizedben példaértékű innovációt hajtottak végre

Az észt információs társadalom és oktatási rendszere

Észtország a rendszerváltást követően a fejlesztések számos területén olyan sikereket ért el, melyek vizsgálata támpontokat adhat hazánkban is a változásokat menedzselő szakemberek számára. A tanulmány elsősorban szakértőkkel készített interjúk alapján készült. Röviden bemutatja Észtország múltját, jelenét és oktatási rendszerét. Kiemelten foglalkozik a napjainkban rendkívüli jelentőségű együttműködés és az egész életen át tartó tanulás témakörével és rávilágít arra, mi rejlik az „észt csoda” mögött

High energy ionizing radiation induced degradation of ß-blockers in aqueous solutions

Degradation reactions of two beta-blockers, atenolol and propranolol were studied using high energy ionizing irradiation interpreting the outcome of the ongoing radical reactions on the degradation efficiency, oxidation and mineralization processes and toxicity. Under appropriate conditions both hydroxyl radical (•OH) and hydrated electron (eaq ) take part in degradation reactions. Propranolol showed higher reactivity under both oxidative end reductive conditions than atenolol. Thus it is not surprising that the oxidation and mineralization reactions take place more rapidly due to its condensed ring having higher electron density on the aromatic ring in propranolol. During removal of propranolol toxic products, hydroxylated naphthalene derivatives form. Using appropriate doses the starting molecules can be degraded and the toxic character of the end-products can be eliminated

Developmental Assessment of Visual Communication Skills in Primary Education

In this paper, we describe subskills of visual communication based on the skill structure outlined in the Common European Framework of Visual Literacy. We have developed this Framework further through assessing the development of subskills related to visual communication in the “produce” and “respond” domains of CEFR-VC in primary school grades. We developed and validated online digital assessment tools to facilitate the introduction of authentic assessment as a standard practice in curriculum development. The results of this study include the definition of its components, development of innovative tools for their assessment, and description of the development of its subskills in the “produce” and “respond” domains. Our tests for the “respond” domain of the visual literacy framework were administered in the eDia interactive diagnostic testing environment in Grades 4–6 (ages 10–12 years) of the Hungarian primary school system. The tools for the second experiment about the “create” domain of visual communication were developed in the GeoGebra free educational software environment and tested major components of the “produce” domain of visual communication in primary Grades 5–8 (ages 11–14 years). Results show increasing attainment in subskills through the age groups in the “produce” domain and less significant or no development in the “respond” domain, which is underrepresented in Hungarian art education curricula. Development is unrelated to school achievement in non-art disciplines, showing the distinctiveness of the visual domain, and is weakly related to gender and digital literacy. Using our subskill descriptions and the assessment tools, teachers may select those subskills that they find most important to develop during the limited teaching time for visual arts. The paper ends with suggestions to enhance visual communication as a cross-curricular competency that develops visual-spatial intelligence

Activation of Astroglial Calcium Signaling by Endogenous Metabolites Succinate and Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate in the Nucleus Accumbens

Accumulating evidence suggests that different energy metabolites play a role not only in neuronal but also in glial signaling. Recently, astroglial Ca2+ transients evoked by the major citric acid cycle metabolite succinate (SUC) and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) that enters the citric acid cycle via SUC have been described in the brain reward area, the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Cells responding to SUC by Ca2+ transient constitute a subset of ATP-responsive astrocytes that are activated in a neuron-independent way. In this study we show that GHB-evoked Ca2+ transients were also found to constitute a subset of ATP-responsive astrocytes in the NAc. Repetitive Ca2+ dynamics evoked by GHB suggested that Ca2+ was released from internal stores. Similarly to SUC, the GHB response was also characterized by an effective concentration of 50 μM. We observed that the number of ATP-responsive cells decreased with increasing concentration of either SUC or GHB. Moreover, the concentration dependence of the number of ATP-responsive cells were highly identical as a function of both [SUC] and [GHB], suggesting a mutual receptor for SUC and GHB, therefore implying the existence of a distinct GHB-recognizing astroglial SUC receptor in the brain. The SUC-evoked Ca2+ signal remained in mice lacking GABAB receptor type 1 subunit in the presence and absence of the N-Methyl-d-Aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist (2R)-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (APV), indicating action mechanisms independent of the GABAB or NMDA receptor subtypes. By molecular docking calculations we found that residues R99, H103, R252, and R281 of the binding crevice of the kidney SUC-responsive membrane receptor SUCNR1 (GPCR91) also predict interaction with GHB, further implying similar GHB and SUC action mechanisms. We conclude that the astroglial action of SUC and GHB may represent a link between brain energy states and Ca2+ signaling in astrocytic networks

Toxicology Aspects of the Decomposition of Diuron by Advanced Oxidation Processes

Diuron is a phenylurea-based residual herbicide with toxic and endocrine disrupting effects. The aims of the present work were the comparison of the efficiency of various advanced oxidation processes, such as direct ultraviolet photolysis, ozonation, their combination, and heterogeneous photocatalysis from the point of view of the transformation rate of diuron, rate of mineralisation and dehalogenation, formation of aromatic intermediates, and ecotoxicological effects of the formed multicomponent solutions during the treatments. The initial rates of transformation of diuron are in the order of ozonation < heterogeneous photocatalysis < UV photolysis < combination of UV photolysis and ozonation. Each method provided similar tendencies in the decrease of the concentration of organically bound chlorines (AOX) since, until the diuron was completely degraded, the concentration of AOX decreased almost to zero in each case. However, only heterogeneous photocatalysis was found to be effective in terms of mineralisation. Ecotoxicological results showed that in each case, except for ozonation, the toxicity of the treated solutions changed through a maximum during the transformation of diuron. The maximum value was found to be lower in the case of heterogeneous photocatalysis. Thus, the formation and decomposition of by-products of relatively higher toxicity than diuron can be supposed. Our results confirmed that the amount of the formed (aromatic) intermediates, their quality and specific toxicity strongly depend on the applied processes