Training Graduate Engineering Students in Ethics

The Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas embarked on providing ethics instruction to incoming graduate students in the form of a mandatory workshop. The College has a diverse graduate student population, including a sizable international component, who are enrolled in several M.S. and Ph.D. degree programs within four departments. Faculty felt that training in ethics was needed to better prepare incoming students for successful graduate studies and working professionally after graduation. Therefore, a standalone workshop was developed that covered four major topics: Research Ethics, Computer Coding Ethics, Publishing Ethics, and Intellectual Property. The last topic covered copyright law, patent law, and trade secrets. To develop this ethics workshop, some ethics instruction programs at U.S. engineering colleges were investigated

Exploring Participatory Design Methods to Engage with Arab Communities

ArabHCI is an initiative inaugurated in CHI17 SIG Meeting that brought together 45+ HCI Arab and non-Arab researchers/practitioners who are conducting/interested in HCI within Arab communities. The goal of this workshop is to start dialogs that leverage our "insider" understanding of HCI research in the Arab context and assert our culture identity in design in order to explore challenges and opportunities for future research. In this workshop, we focus on one of the themes that derived our community discussions in most of the held events. We explore the extent to which participatory approaches in the Arab context are culturally and methodologically challenged. Our goal is to bring researchers/practitioners with success and failure stories while designing with Arab communities to discuss methods, share experiences and learned lessons. We plan to share the results of our discussions and research agenda with the wider CHI community through different social and scholarly channels

Old enough to know : consulting children about sex and AIDS education in Africa

This compelling study, comprising of a sample of eight schools in three countries in sub-Saharan Africa – Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania – examines the sources, contents and processes of children´s community-based sexual knowledges and asks how these knowledges interact with AIDS education programmes in school. Old enough to know showcases the possibilities of consulting pupils using engaging, interactive and visual methods including digital still photography, mini-video documentaries, as well as interviews and observations. These innovative methods allow children to speak freely and openly in contexts where talking about sex to adults is a cultural tabo

Mobility and Energy Impacts of Shared Automated Vehicles: a Review of Recent Literature

The purpose of this review is to present findings from recent research on Shared automated vehicles (SAV) impacts on mobility and energy.While the literature on potential SAV impacts on travel behavior and the environment is still developing, researchers have suggested that SAVs could reduce transportation costs and incur minimal increases in total trip time due to efficient routing to support pooling. Researchers also speculate that SAVs would result in a 55% reduction in energy use and ~ 90% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.SAV impacts on mobility and energy are uncertain. Researchers should carefully track SAV technology developments and adjust previous model assumptions based on real-world data to produce better impact estimates. SAVs could prove to be a next technological advancement that reshapes the transportation system by providing a safer, efficient, and less costly travel alternative

Deceptive cultural practices that sabotage HIV/AIDS education in Tanzania and Kenya

In spite of numerous HIV/AIDS‐prevention education efforts, the HIV infection rates in Sub‐Saharan Africa remain high. Exploring and understanding the reasons behind these infection rates is imperative in a bid to offer life skills and moral education that address the root causes of the pandemic. In a recent study concerning effective HIV/AIDS‐prevention education, conducted in Tanzania and Kenya among teacher trainees and their tutors, the notion of mila potofu (defined by educators as ‘deceptive’ cultural practices) emerged as a key reason for educators’ difficulties in teaching HIV/AIDS prevention education in schools and for high HIV infection rates. Since these cultural practices cause harm, and in many cases lead to death, they are of moral concern. This paper outlines some of these cultural practices identified by educators, including ‘wife inheritance’, ‘sexual cleansing’ and the taboo against certain foods, and discusses how these practices contribute towards HIV/AIDS vulnerability. It then offers recommendations for classroom‐based life skills and moral education following Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in understanding how ‘assimilation’, ‘accommodation’ and ‘adaptation’ can help people discard mila potofuin a culturally sensitive manner

Effects of Cannabinoids on Ligand-gated Ion Channels

Phytocannabinoids such as Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol, endocannabinoids such as N-arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol, and synthetic cannabinoids such as CP47,497 and JWH-018 constitute major groups of structurally diverse cannabinoids. Along with these cannabinoids, CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors and enzymes involved in synthesis and degradation of endocannabinoids comprise the major components of the cannabinoid system. Although, cannabinoid receptors are known to be involved in anti-convulsant, anti-nociceptive, anti-psychotic, anti-emetic, and anti-oxidant effects of cannabinoids, in recent years, an increasing number of studies suggest that, at pharmacologically relevant concentrations, these compounds interact with several molecular targets including G-protein coupled receptors, ion channels, and enzymes in a cannabinoid-receptor independent manner. In this report, the direct actions of endo-, phyto-, and synthetic cannabinoids on the functional properties of ligand-gated ion channels and the plausible mechanisms mediating these effects were reviewed and discussed

Identification of the intended and unintended outcomes of offering the international baccalaureate diploma program at an International School in Egypt

University of Minnesota Ed.D. dissertation. February, 2015. Major: Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 190 pages, appendices A-C.The purpose of this study is to identify the intended and unintended outcomes of offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) at the Cairo American College (CAC) in Egypt, both for the students and the school.This mixed methods study involves a qualitative case study including document analysis, interviews, a focus group, and a quantitative tracer study. The document analysis was performed using literature from within and external to the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). At CAC, interviews were conducted with four school administrators, eight students, and ten alumni, while the focus group was conducted with six teachers. Matriculation data for all students graduating from CAC in 2012 and 2013, including those who did not participate in the IBDP, was obtained as part of the tracer study component. The findings of this study show that the outcomes of offering the IBDP at CAC depend on the style of implementation of the IBDP, teacher interpretation of the curriculum, and choices students make during the program. The administrators, teachers, students, and alumni shared intended outcomes which included university preparedness, enhanced writing skills, and perceived advantage for university admissions. The results of the study indicate that offering the IBDP broadened most students' worldviews. It helped students by exposing them to a range of subjects and by developing their research skills. In addition, offering the IBDP helped to attract students to the school. The most frequently stated unintended outcomes of participating in the IBDP were students earning college credit, as well as developing time management and organizational skills. Other unintended outcomes indicated were the stressful and elite nature of the program. Engagement with the diverse local community was not one of the perceived main outcomes of offering the IBDP at CAC and is found to not be unique to participating in the IBDP. The diversity of the CAC student body was perceived as an integral factor for helping students develop a wider worldview. The tracer study results show that three times as many IBDP graduates were enrolled in the top 50 universities worldwide as compared to non-IBDP graduates.The most relevant theoretical frameworks for this study, due to CAC's diverse student body and the mission statement of the IBDP, are Allport's social contact theory and Mezirows' transformative learning theory. These frameworks help understand the IBDP and its impact.The findings of this study inform educators, educational leaders, and the IBO about the intended and unintended outcomes of offering the IBDP at the CAC, including the factors that impact engagement with the diverse local community and international mindedness in the context of the IBDP. There are implications for educational leaders such as the need for a diverse student body in order to help develop wider worldview in students, as indicated by the findings of this study. The findings also reveal several implications for the IBO with respect to the perceived stressful and elitist nature of the IBDP. The IBO should consider the intense workload both for the students and the teachers, as well as the exclusive nature of the IBDP mostly due to the cost. There are also implications for the IBO in that the outcomes of the IBDP are dependent on the school, teacher, and student. This results in variable outcomes for each participating individual student. For example, the outcomes of creativity, action, and service (CAS) are dependent on students' choices of project. In addition, there are implications for educators as they embark on their journey of teaching course content while trying to implement the ideological aims of the IBO