Professional and personal paths for Europe’s qualified youth A survey of French, Italian and English ex-Erasmus students’ trajectories

Behind the image of a globalised, mobile elite there is a wide range of social realities. In Europe today, there are many types of international migrants. This paper focuses on the field of qualified, professional migration, a type that falls between the two extremities on the social spectrum: the elite corporation, top executives in the world of globalisation, and poor migrants or asylum-seekers, with little capital. Our starting point is the theory that today in Europe, certain young people from the "middle class” of the south of the continent and/or massified higher education establishments use geographical mobility as a means to social mobility (move out in order to move up). We also hypothesise that this often has consequences on both their lives and their original geographical region. We have chosen to show the "human side” (Smith; Favell, 2006) of globalisation, instead of the more common viewpoint of theory and rhetoric, by asking former Erasmus students about their careers and experiences, both professional and non-professional. We analyse to what extent their careers correspond to new injunctions and how these non-linear, reversible paths have an impact on the entry into adult life for young people from average social and professional categories. On the basis of an in-depth content analysis of around fifty semi-directive interviews with young Italian, French and English people, we show how student mobility corresponds to expectations of the economic and social world, which go beyond the expectations of the participants themselves. The question of a possible reinforcement of existing social and economic inequalities within the European Union is thus raised through the relative "freedom” of the students when confronted with exchanges.

The myth of the Digital Earth between fragmentation and wholeness

Daring predictions of the proximate future can establish shared discursive frameworks, mobilize capital, and steer complex processes. Among the prophetic visions that encouraged and accompanied the development of new communication technologies was the “Digital Earth,” described in a 1998 speech by Al Gore as a high-resolution representation of the planet to share and analyze detailed information about its state. This article traces a genealogy of the Digital Earth as a techno-scientific myth, locating it in a constellation of media futures, arguing that a common subtext of these envisionments consists of a dream of wholeness, an afflatus to overcome perceived fragmentation among humans, and between humans and the Earth

COVID-19\u27s Impact on School Principals\u27 Self-Efficacy as Managerial Leaders

This dissertation in practice (DiP) employs qualitative research and educational theories to examine the impact of COVID-19 on school principals\u27 self-efficacy in one South Carolina school district. Its theoretical framework is based on Bandura\u27s (1977, 1986, 1997) social cognitive theory. The dissertation begins by outlining the specific problem at hand, relevant general concerns, and a purpose statement. This problem serves as the foundation for the research questions: How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted principals\u27 self-efficacy as their schools\u27 managerial leaders? How do these principals\u27 experiences vary in degree of impact by school level (i.e., early childhood, primary, elementary, intermediate, middle, and high)? How do they vary in degree of impact by principals\u27 years of experience? The design of this qualitative research study is framed by Creswell and Poth\u27s (2016) Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design

Imagining the thinking machine: Technological myths and the rise of artificial intelligence

This article discusses the role of technological myths in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies from 1950s to the early 1970s. It shows how the rise of AI was accompanied by the construction of a powerful cultural myth: the creation of a thinking machine, which would be able to perfectly simulate the cognitive faculties of the human mind. Based on a content analysis of articles on Artificial Intelligence published in two magazines, the Scientific American and the New Scientist, which were aimed at a broad readership of scientists, engineers, and technologists, three dominant patterns in the construction of the AI myth are identified: (1) the recurrence of analogies and discursive shifts, by which ideas and concepts from other fields were employed to describe the functioning of AI technologies; (2) a rhetorical use of the future, imagining that present shortcomings and limitations will shortly be overcome; (3) the relevance of controversies around the claims of AI, which we argue should be considered as an integral part of the discourse surrounding the AI myth

Region-specific dendritic simplification induced by Aβ, mediated by tau via dysregulation of microtubule dynamics: a mechanistic distinct event from other neurodegenerative processes.

BackgroundDendritic simplification, a key feature of the neurodegenerative triad of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in addition to spine changes and neuron loss, occurs in a region-specific manner. However, it is unknown how changes in dendritic complexity are mediated and how they relate to spine changes and neuron loss.ResultsTo investigate the mechanisms of dendritic simplification in an authentic CNS environment we employed an ex vivo model, based on targeted expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-tagged constructs in organotypic hippocampal slices of mice. Algorithm-based 3D reconstruction of whole neuron morphology in different hippocampal regions was performed on slices from APPSDL-transgenic and control animals. We demonstrate that induction of dendritic simplification requires the combined action of amyloid beta (Aβ) and human tau. Simplification is restricted to principal neurons of the CA1 region, recapitulating the region specificity in AD patients, and occurs at sites of Schaffer collateral input. We report that γ-secretase inhibition and treatment with the NMDA-receptor antagonist, CPP, counteract dendritic simplification. The microtubule-stabilizing drug epothilone D (EpoD) induces simplification in control cultures per se. Similar morphological changes were induced by a phosphoblocking tau construct, which also increases microtubule stability. In fact, low nanomolar concentrations of naturally secreted Aβ decreased phosphorylation at S262 in a cellular model, a site which is known to directly modulate tau-microtubule interactions.ConclusionsThe data provide evidence that dendritic simplification is mechanistically distinct from other neurodegenerative events and involves microtubule stabilization by dendritic tau, which becomes dephosphorylated at certain sites. They imply that treatments leading to an overall decrease of tau phosphorylation might have a negative impact on neuronal connectivity

The web will kill them all: new media, digital utopia, and political struggle in the Italian 5-Star Movement

This article examines the role of discourses about new media technology and the web in the rise of the 5-Star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle, or M5S) in Italy. Founded by comedian and activist Beppe Grillo and web entrepreneur Gianroberto Casaleggio in 2009, this movement succeeded in becoming the second largest party at the 2013 national elections in Italy. This article aims to discuss how elements of digital utopia and web-centric discourses have been inserted into the movement’s political message, and how the construction of the web as a myth has shaped the movement’s discourse and political practice. The 5-Star Movement is compared and contrasted with other social and political movements in western countries which have displayed a similar emphasis on new media, such as the Occupy movement, the Indignados movement, and the Pirate Parties in Sweden and Germany. By adopting and mutating cyber-utopian discourses from the so-called Californian ideology, the movement symbolically identifies itself with the web. The traditional political establishment is associated with “old” media (television, radio, and the printed press), and represented as a “walking dead,” doomed to be superseded and buried by a web-based direct democracy

Where the streets have known names

Street names provide important insights into the local culture, history, and politics of places. Linked open data provide a wealth of knowledge that can be associated with street names, enabling novel ways to explore cultural geographies. This paper presents a three-fold contribution. We present (1) a technique to establish a correspondence between street names and the entities that they refer to. The method is based on Wikidata, a knowledge base derived from Wikipedia. The accuracy of this mapping is evaluated on a sample of streets in Rome. As this approach reaches limited coverage, we propose to tap local knowledge with (2) a simple web platform. Users can select the best correspondence from the calculated ones or add another entity not discovered by the automated process. As a result, we design (3) an enriched OpenStreetMap web map where each street name can be explored in terms of the properties of its associated entity. Through several filters, this tool is a first step towards the interactive exploration of toponymy, showing how open data can reveal facets of the cultural texture that pervades places

The relation between storytelling, spatial ability and its gender gap: a literature review

Spatial ability is a good predictor of STEMM career, but how can it be developed in early childhood? The role of storytelling in early education has been found to be a good example of thorough integrated learning, also in relation to spatial thinking. The aim of this literature review is to identify the impact that this methodology has on spatial thinking development in relation to mathematics content. First, the spatial ability characteristics are defined, and the emerging sex differences identified. Then the narrative approach is introduced both in general terms and in an early education context by considering in particular geometry storybooks. Finally, concurrent development of literacy skills through storytelling are also discussed

On the estimates of the ring current injection and decay

In the context of the space weather predictions, forecasting ring current strength (and of the Dst index) based on the solar wind upstream conditions is of specific interest for predicting the occurrence of geomagnetic storms. In the present paper, we have studied separately its two components: the Dst injection and decay. In particular, we have verified the validity of the Burton's equation for estimating the ring current energy balance using the equatorial electric merging field instead of the original parameter V Bs (V is the solar wind speed and Bs is the southward component of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field, IMF). Then, based on this equation, we have used the phasespace method to determine the best-fit approximations for the ring current injection and decay as functions of the equatorial merging electric field (Em). Results indicate that the interplanetary injection is statistically higher than in previous estimations using V Bs . Specifically, weak but not-null ring current injection can be observed even during northward IMF, when previous studies considered it to be always zero. Moreover, results about the ring current decay indicate that the rate of Dst decay is faster than its predictions derived by using V Bs . In addition, smaller quiet time ring current and solar wind pressure corrections are contributing to Dst estimates obtained by Em instead of V Bs . These effects are compensated, so that the statistical Dst predictions using the equatorial electric merging field or using V Bs are about equivalent