Neocolonialism in education: Cooperative learning, Western pedagogy in an Asian Context

This article is concerned with the influence of western educational approaches in non-western countries and societies. This influence is frequently referred to as educational neocolonialism in the sense that western paradigms tend to shape and influence educational systems and thinking elsewhere through the process of globalisation. Given the perceived pressure to modernise and reform in order to attain high international standards, educational policy makers in non-western countries tend to look to the west. Thus they may 'borrow' policies and practices that were originally developed and operated, and which appeared to be effective, in a very different cultural context to that of their own societies. In effecting such transfer, detailed consideration of particular aspects of the culture and heritage of the originating country is often neglected. To illustrate some of the problems that result from this, the article presents a case study of the application of Cooperative Learning, an educational method developed in the west, within an Asian context. Drawing upon Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner's typology of seven cultural dimensions, our examination of western method and eastern context reveals a complex web of cultural conflicts and mismatches. The paper concludes by suggesting that non-western cultures should seek to reconstruct imported pedagogic practices in accordance with their own world views and in line with their own norms and values

Inleiding Themanummer: De publieke onderwijstaak van het hoger beroepsonderwijs

Een vrije en veerkrachtige samenleving ontstaat niet vanzelf en blijft niet vanzelf bestaan. In dit themanummer verkennen we de publieke onderwijstaak van het hoger beroepsonderwijs om studenten te onderwijzen de gemeenschappelijke wereld én het publieke gesprek over die wereld centraal te stellen. Met dit themanummer willen wij iets tegenover het vigerende marktdenken zetten. We laten ons hierbij inspireren door het gedachtegoed van Hannah Arendt (1906–1975). Ze heeft uitgebreid geschreven over ‘het publieke’. Ze verbindt de inzet van wetenschappelijke kennis en technologie met het politieke vraagstuk: willen we daadwerkelijk leven in de wereld die we aan het scheppen zijn? Arendts gedachtegoed biedt volop handvatten om op verschillende niveaus van het hoger beroepsonderwijs deze taak te doordenken en invulling te geven

Plasma Physics

Contains research objectives and reports on three research projects.U. S. Atomic Energy Commission under Contract AT(30-1)-1842National Science Foundation (Grant G-9330)U.S. Air Force (Electronic Systems Division) under Contract AF19(604)-599

Minimising pain in farm animals: the 3S approach - ‘Suppress, Substitute, Soothe'

Recently, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research appointed an expert committee to review the issue of pain in food-producing farm animals. To minimise pain, the authors developed a ‘3S' approach accounting for ‘Suppress, Substitute and Soothe' by analogy with the ‘3Rs' approach of ‘Reduction, Refinement and Replacement' applied in the context of animal experimentation. Thus, when addressing the matter of pain, the following steps and solutions could be assessed, in the light of their feasibility (technical constraints, logistics and regulations), acceptability (societal and financial aspects) and availability. The first solution is to suppress any source of pain that brings no obvious advantage to the animals or the producers, as well as sources of pain for which potential benefits are largely exceeded by the negative effects. For instance, tail docking of cattle has recently been eliminated. Genetic selection on the basis of resistance criteria (as e.g. for lameness in cattle and poultry) or reduction of undesirable traits (e.g. boar taint in pigs) may also reduce painful conditions or procedures. The second solution is to substitute a technique causing pain by another less-painful method. For example, if dehorning cattle is unavoidable, it is preferable to perform it at a very young age, cauterising the horn bud. Animal management and constraint systems should be designed to reduce the risk for injury and bruising. Lastly, in situations where pain is known to be present, because of animal management procedures such as dehorning or castration, or because of pathology, for example lameness, systemic or local pharmacological treatments should be used to soothe pain. These treatments should take into account the duration of pain, which, in the case of some management procedures or diseases, may persist for longer periods. The administration of pain medication may require the intervention of veterinarians, but exemptions exist where breeders are allowed to use local anaesthesia (e.g. castration and dehorning in Switzerland). Extension of such exemptions, national or European legislation on pain management, or the introduction of animal welfare codes by retailers into their meat products may help further developments. In addition, veterinarians and farmers should be given the necessary tools and information to take into account animal pain in their management decision

Hawaii coastal seawater CO2 network: A statistical evaluation of a decade of observations on tropical coral reefs.

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Terlouw, G. J., Knor, L. A. C. M., De Carlo, E. H., Drupp, P. S., Mackenzie, F. T., Li, Y. H., Sutton, A. J., Plueddemann, A. J., & Sabine, C. L. Hawaii coastal seawater CO2 network: A statistical evaluation of a decade of observations on tropical coral reefs. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019):226, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00226.A statistical evaluation of nearly 10 years of high-resolution surface seawater carbon dioxide partial pressure (pCO2) time-series data collected from coastal moorings around O’ahu, Hawai’i suggest that these coral reef ecosystems were largely a net source of CO2 to the atmosphere between 2008 and 2016. The largest air-sea flux (1.24 ± 0.33 mol m−2 yr−1) and the largest variability in seawater pCO2 (950 μatm overall range or 8x the open ocean range) were observed at the CRIMP-2 site, near a shallow barrier coral reef system in Kaneohe Bay O’ahu. Two south shore sites, Kilo Nalu and Ala Wai, also exhibited about twice the surface water pCO2 variability of the open ocean, but had net fluxes that were much closer to the open ocean than the strongly calcifying system at CRIMP-2. All mooring sites showed the opposite seasonal cycle from the atmosphere, with the highest values in the summer and lower values in the winter. Average coastal diurnal variabilities ranged from a high of 192 μatm/day to a low of 32 μatm/day at the CRIMP-2 and Kilo Nalu sites, respectively, which is one to two orders of magnitude greater than observed at the open ocean site. Here we examine the modes and drivers of variability at the different coastal sites. Although daily to seasonal variations in pCO2 and air-sea CO2 fluxes are strongly affected by localized processes, basin-scale climate oscillations also affect the variability on interannual time scales.We acknowledge with gratitude the financial support of our research provided in part by a grant/cooperative agreement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Project R/IR-27, which is sponsored by the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, SOEST, under Institutional Grant No. NA14OAR4170071 from NOAA Office of Sea Grant, Department of Commerce. Additional support was granted by the NOAA/Ocean Acidification Program (to EDC and AS) and the NOAA/Climate Program Office (AP), and the NOAA Ocean Observing and Monitoring Division, Climate Program Office (FundRef number 100007298) through agreement NA14OAR4320158 of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (AP). The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA or any of its subagencies. This is SOEST contribution number 10684, PMEL contribution number 4845, and Hawai’i Sea Grant contribution UNIHI-SEAGRANT-JC-15-30

Meta-analysis of effects of dietary vitamin E and post slaughter storage conditions on changes of redness (a*) of pork

Abstract. A meta-analysis was carried out to quantify the effects of dietary vitamin E and storage conditions on colour changes of pork from M. longissimus dorsi. After standardisation procedures, redness of pork (CIE colour specification a*), one of the most important objective colour attributes, was used as an indicator for colour changes in this analysis. The analysis was based on results from five experiments, which met selection criteria. Analysis of changes of other objective colour attributes, lightness (L*) and yellowness (b*) was not possible due to lack of published data. The statistical analysis (using mixed models) found significant effects of tissue α-tocopherol concentration in M. longissimus dorsi, simplified supplemented vitamin E levels as well as storage time and storage light on redness of pork and its changes over time. The relationship between redness and α-tocopherol concentration was found to be linear, and between redness and storage time was non-linear (third degree polynomial) in one model. This model suggested that an increase of 1 μg of α-tocopherol in the muscle led to an expected increase a* value of 0.11. Another model identified significant interactions about 0.28 between α-tocopherol concentration and storage time in late storage periods. A third model found a significant difference of −0.48 between predicted a* values at lower (≤50 IU/kg feed) and higher supplemented vitamin E levels (≥100 IU/kg feed). The models predicted an initial increase for 3 days, a stable period for 5 days and then a decrease for a* values over storage time. The a* values were significantly lower by about 1.4 when samples were exposed to light in the models, the effect of light found to be constant over time. Further studies, carried out with standardized methods, are needed to increase the predictive power of the derived models and to validate the models for other muscles. </jats:p

Plasma Dynamics

Contains reports on three research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant G-9330)United States Air Force, Air Force Cambridge Research Center (Contract AF19(604)-5992)United States ArmyUnited States Air Force (Contract AF19(604)-7400)Lincoln Laboratory (Purchase Order B-00306)Flight Accessories Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WADD Contract AF33(616)-7624)United States Air Force, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories (Contract AF19(604)-4551)United States NavyUnited States Atomic Energy Commission (Contract AT(30-1)-1842