Welfare practice in response of child neglect: reconstruction and analysis of the discourses on family, childrearing, and motherhood

Child neglect is an ongoing social problem, estimated to affect 5 - 10 per cent of children. The term neglect describes a behavior that deviates from an ideal norm. However, both the form of this ideal norm and the definition of deviation depend on contemporary discourses and scientific positions. Historically, it has been more frequently poor families and single mothers who have been disciplined for child neglect by the state, whilst their economic situation was marginalized. Parallel current findings raise questions regarding how these discourses form, how they influence decision-making processes, and whether a continuity can be ascertained in measures of social disciplining. Our ongoing research project on welfare practice in response of child neglect aims to reconstruct and analyze current discourses on family, childrearing, and motherhood in the context of child neglect. Taking a multi-perspectival approach, it will analyze and compare the expert discourse, the political/public discourse, and the perspective of affected mothers across two different time periods in five selected Swiss cantons. Preliminary findings indicate that gender categories, especially motherhood, continue to be of great importance. On the basis of a first analysis of casefiles, one could speak of a “motherism”: in case processing and in the course of the case, responsibility is attributed to the mother, and social and pedagogical contexts are neglected, even the financial situation seems to be given less importance. Instead, the willingness to cooperate often seems to be a key factor in deciding on further interventions. Furthermore, there are indications that in decision-making processes with far-reaching consequences, legal arguments are preferred while childrearing aspects are neglected. It can also be noted that normative and sometimes stigmatizing statements do not seem to belong to the past. In this article, we will give insight into the research design and first findings and discuss the necessity of reflecting on the images of family, childrearing, and motherhood in light of the rapid social changes in the spheres of family, motherhood, and fatherhood

Using custom-built intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) to bring relevance to and improve engagement and participation of learners in introductory accounting

This study outlines the development and initial implementation of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) designed specifically for introductory accounting. The ITS is a computer-based problem-solving environment for capital investment decision-making (CID), in which a student solves a problem and receives individualised feedback and support from the system, similar to working with a human tutor in a one-on-one situation. The system tracks the student's performance, and generates a model of the student's knowledge, which is used to adapt the instructional session to the needs and abilities of each student. The system has been designed to provide students with an enhanced problem-solving tool to be able to apply theoretical material in a ‘real-life’ simulated environment. The paper provides a description of ASPIRE the authoring and deployment computer environment for the ITS, the process of creating the Capital Investment Tutor is then discussed with a preliminary evaluation of results.1 page(s

Faster Confidence Intervals for Item Response Theory via an Approximate Likelihood

Paaßen B, Göpfert C, Pinkwart N. Faster Confidence Intervals for Item Response Theory via an Approximate Likelihood. In: Cristea AI, Brown C, Mitrovic T, Bosch N, eds. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2022). 2022: 555–559.Item response theory models the probability of correct student responses based on two interacting parameters: student ability and item difficulty. Whenever we estimate student ability, students have a legitimate interest in knowing how certain the estimate is. Confidence intervals are a natural measure of uncertainty. Unfortunately, computing confidence intervals can be computationally demanding. In this paper, we show that confidence intervals can be expressed as the solution to a feature relevance optimization problem. We use this insight to develop a novel solver for confidence intervals and thus achieve speedups by 4-50x while retaining near-indistinguishable results to the state-of-the-art approach

Cikade u šargarepi zaraženoj fitoplazmama: sastav vrsta i potencijalni vektori fitoplazmi

The first molecular analysis of samples collected in southern Bačka (Serbia) confirmed the presence of aster yellows (16SrI) and stolbur phytoplasmas (16SrXII) in insects belonging to the family Cicadellidae, as well as in carrot plants where the insects were collected. A correct identification of the phytoplasmas and their vectors is essential to arrange effective control strategies to prevent diseases associated with phytoplasmas from spreading to carrots and other vegetable crops. In order to enhance knowledge about insect vectors of aster yellows and stolbur phytoplasmas in Serbia, Cicadellidae and Cixiidae (Homoptera Auchenorrhyncha), the most common vectors of these phytoplasmas, were monitored in southern Bačka during 2008. Adults leaf- and planthoppers were collected and identified at species level using standard entomological methods, and tested for phytoplasma presence by means of PCR/RFLP. A total of 13 insect species of Cicadellidae were identified, as follows: a) three species of the subfamily Agallinae: Anaceratagallia ribauti (Ossiannilsson), Anaceratagallia venosa (Fourcroy), and Anaceratagallia laevis (Ribaut); b) seven species of the subfamily Deltocephalinae: Psammotettix confinis (Dahlbom), Psammotettix striatus (Linnaues) Psammottettix alienus (Dahlbom), Macrosteles sexnotatus (Fallén), Ophiola decumana (Kontkanen), Errastunus ocellaris Fallén, and Scaphoideus titanus Ball; c) three species of the subfamily Typhlocibinae: Eupteryx atropunctata (Goeze), Eupteryx mellissae Curtis, Zyginidia pullula (Boheman). Female specimens of the genus Euscelis (Deltocephalinae) were also collected, as well as one species of Reptalus quinquecostatus (Dufour) of the family Cixiidae. Stolbur phytoplasmas were detected in A. laevis, A. ribauti, A. venosa, P. striatus, P. confinis and P. alienus. The species: A. laevis, O. decumana, and P. confinis were AY-infected (subgroup 16SrI-A), while subgroup 16SrI-C was found only in one specimen of P. confinis. Since some aster yellows- and stolbur-infected species of the genera Psammotettix and Anaceratagallia (especially P. confinis and A. laevis) were regularly and commonly found in the infected carrot fields during the whole vegetative period, they could play a significant role in transmitting and spreading these pathogens in natural environment.Prva molekularna istraživanja uzoraka iz južne Bačke potvrdila su prisustvo aster yellows (16SrI) i stolbur fitoplazmi (16SrXII) u insektima iz familija Cicadellidae, kao i u biljkama šargarepe među kojima su insekti sakupljani. Tačna identifikacija vrsta fitoplazmi i njihovih vektora su osnov za definisanje mera sprečavanja širenja fitoplazmoza u usevima šargarepe i drugog povrća. U cilju proširenja saznanja o insektima vektorima aster yellows i stolbur fitoplazmi, o kojima u Srbiji ima malo podataka, tokom 2008. godine nastavljeno je sa praćenjem insekata iz fam. Cicadellidae i fam. Cixiidae (kao najčešćih prenosilaca pomenutih vrsta fitoplazmi) u južnoj Bačkoj. Standardnim entomološkim postupcima sakupljana su imaga cikada, identifikovana do nivoa vrste i testirana na prisustvo fitoplazmi PCR/RFLP metodama. Identifikovano je ukupno 13 vrsta insekata iz familije Cicadellidae, od čega a) tri vrste iz subfamilije Agallinae: Anaceratagallia ribauti (Ossiannilsson), A. venosa (Fourcroy) i A. laevis; b) sedam vrsta iz subfamilije Deltocephalinae: Psammotettix confinis (Dahlbom), P. striatus (Linnaues), P. alienus (Dahlbom), Macrosteles sexnotatus (Fallén), Ophiola decumana (Kontkanen), Errastunus ocelaris Fallén i Scaphoideus titanus Ball; c) tri vrste iz subfamilije Typhlocibinae: Eupteryx atropunctata (Goeze), Eupteryx mellissae Curtis, Zyginidia pullula (Boheman). Prikupljen je i određen broj ženki iz roda Euscelis (Deltocephalinae), kao i jedna vrsta iz fam. Cixiidae Reptalus quinquecostatus (Dufour). Prisustvo stolbur fitoplazmi zabeleženo je u A. laevis, A. ribauti, A. venosa, P. striatus, P. confinis i P. alienus. Vrste A. laevis, O. decumana i P. confinis bile su inficirane AY (soj 16SrI-A), dok je soj 16SrI-C detektovan samo u jednoj jedinki P. confinis. S obzirom da su tokom čitavog vegetacionog perioda AY i STOL zaražene vrste iz rodova Psammotettix i Anaceratagallia (pre svega P. confinis i A. laevis) bile redovno i najčešće prisutne u zaraženim poljima šargarepe, one mogu imati značajnu ulogu u prenošenju i širenju ovih patogena u prirodi