Evolving Inclusive Learning: From Retrofitting Disability to Designing for Variability

The problem of practice (PoP) addressed in this organizational improvement plan (OIP) is that curriculum is not currently interpreted, designed, and delivered to be inclusive of the range of learner variability present in Sursum Corda School Division (SCSD) classrooms. Although all students are physically included in SCSD classrooms, the learning of those who cannot assimilate to current instructional practices is generally supported through alternative, and often disconnected, practices and materials. Researched and experienced concerns with this approach include an increased potential to isolate, limit, or stigmatize targeted students and the inhibition of innovative instructional practices more generally. This OIP aims for a divisional shift toward curriculum and instructional beliefs, practices, structures, and resources that support all students to access, participate, and make learning progress within the general education classroom and curriculum. Current divisional structures and initiatives that aim to support inclusive education will be discussed. This plan was developed through a review of the literature on inclusive education, including the impacts of educator beliefs about learning and learners, and an examination of documents and materials produced and disseminated by the provincial Ministry of Education. A disability studies in education lens is used to understand current practices and beliefs for supporting learner variability and to present a vision of using the universal design for learning framework to inclusively extend quality instructional practices to a broader range of learners. Tools and tactics of adaptive and inclusive leadership are used to present a plan guided by research in the field of implementation science

Dutch Activities in the North and the Arctic during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

The Dutch were engaged in important activities in the north and in the Arctic during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly in the areas of commerce, exploration, whaling, and cod-fishing. Dutch commerce with northern Europe must have begun around the middle of the sixteenth century; their explorations were started in 1584, and they began whaling in 1612. All of these activities expanded during the seventeenth century, at a time when the United Provinces became the greatest commercial power in Europe. ... Accounts of Dutch activities in the north and in the Arctic were popular in Holland from the very beginning. Manuscripts, printed works, and illustrations concerning our Arctic past are numerous. Also, since the mid-1800s, it has been possible to develop an historical research covering the various aspects of Holland's Arctic past, involving several disciplines - history of explorations and of cartography, economic history, and maritime history (Muller, 1874)

Stoichiometry and parasitism: changes in nutrient concentrations in the three-spined Stickleback-Schistocephalus solidus system

Ecological stoichiometry is a rapidly growing field of study that assesses the elemental composition of organisms in ecosystems and the impact that changes in these elemental compositions have on populations. Parasitism is widely studied for its role in altering the physiology and behavior of hosts within a population. However, the interaction between parasitism and the stoichiometry of the host-parasite system has not been well-established. To determine the impact of parasitism on stoichiometry of host, we measured the elemental composition (%C, %N, and %P) and ratios (C:N, C:P, and N:P) of a population of parasitized and unparasitized Gasterosteus aculeatus (three-spined stickleback) and their parasite, Schistocephalus solidus. Infection presence resulted in an overall decrease in some stoichiometric ratios, specifically C:N, with larger infection intensities resulting in a greater decrease of C:N ratios. Body mass was also an important predictor of infection status and stoichiometry of cestode, as larger hosts had a greater chance of infection and contained larger cestodes with lower carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations. These results demonstrate a relationship between stoichiometry and parasitism, but whether variation in elemental composition of host is a cause or a result of parasitism has not yet been determined and requires experimental infections

Review of Alexis Rappas' Cyprus in the 1930s: British Colonial Rule and the Roots of the Cyprus Conflict

Review of Alexis Rappas, Cyprus in the 1930s: British colonial rule and the roots of the Cyprus conflict, London: IB Tauris, 2014. 320 pp

Solving the inverse problem of high numerical aperture focusing using vector Slepian harmonics and vector Slepian multipole fields

A technique using vector Slepian harmonics and multipole fields is presented for a general treatment of the inverse problem of high numerical aperture focusing. A prescribed intensity distribution or electric field distribution in the focal volume is approximated using numerical optimization and the corresponding illuminating field at the entrance pupil is constructed. Three examples from the recent literature have been chosen to illustrate the method