Pond Secrets: Reflections for Thought and Virtue

Pond secrets is an original play designed to create a context for motivating children to learn and practice critical thinking in its strongest sense through reflective dialogue and improvisational drama. The story\u27s design, content, and suggested methodology are theoretically consistent with Brain-based learning theory, which asserts that memorable learning occurs when children can integrate concepts, emotions, and values in a meaningful context and environment. Using a mythical setting and features of classical literature, Pond secrets invites children to join the animals of Pond as they gather to examine their thinking and affirm the meaning of friendship, citizenship, and justice. Not settling on any one definition of critical thinking, Pond secrets reflects a synthesis of expert descriptions that advances the following modified definition: Critical thinking is used to make decisions, form beliefs, solve problems, and learn new concepts. It is a dialogical questioning process that uses reasonable and imaginative reflection. Additionally, it is a purposive and disciplined process that relies on criteria, is self-correcting, and is sensitive to context. In its strongest sense, critical thinking is fair-minded and caring. Moreover, Pond secrets targets the following critical thinking skills for development : making a reliable observation, evaluating a source of information forming a reliable framework for perspectives, and examining cause and effect relationships. The target skills are infused and interwoven in the story to enable children to develop skill using them individually and together as a process transferable through subject domain. Pond secrets models a community of inquiry that provokes integrative learning while promoting the application of critical and creative thinking to the moral domain of reasoning. As a framework for deliberation and dialogue, Pond secrets develops a model of justice that balances the principles of equal treatment and beneficence; Pond secrets replaces beneficence with the ethic of caring as a more accurate description of the orientation of empathic underscoring the promotion of goodness. Pond secrets is accompanied by a theoretical guide that discusses the main ideas relevant to its implementation. The guide reviews cognitive development, issues of indoctrination, the psychological and philosophical underpinning of the justice model, and critical and creative thinking as relevant to Pond secret\u27s content and methodology. Pond secrets offers the educator free imaginative reign to design lesson plans that suit the needs of the learning environment, provided that the criteria of critical thinking and the justice model are adhered to in methodology that is neutral and accordance with Brain based learning theory

Could Aeromonas spp. be considered a vector of resistance genes from the environment to human intestinal flora?

Work carried out at the Laboratory of Applied Microbiology, Bellinzona, CHopenAntibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes cause increasing problems in clinical setting and are considered emerging environmental contaminants. In the environment, antibiotic resistant bacteria may be inactivated but their resistance determinants may become part of the environmental gene pool and may move back to human and animal intestinal flora via food and drinking water. In order to assess the role of Aeromonas spp. in the flow of resistant determinants, we analyzed by resistance profiles, plasmidic and integrons content and characterization, 231 Aeromonas spp. and 250 Fecal Coliforms isolated from different aquatic environments. Resistance patterns could be related to both the presence of multiple plasmids and to the origin of the strains. The 31.7% of the plasmids carried by the Aeromonas strains were mobilizable as assess by dot-blot of MOB-subfamily covering the BHR (Broad Host Range) incompatibility groups. The majority (75%) of the Class 1 integrons were chromosomally locate and were found in the 27.7% of the Aeromonas spp. tested. The number and type of resistance genes identified so far on Aeromonas spp. Support the hypothesis of considering these bacteria as a "reservoir" of resistance genes. The capability of some Aeromonas strains to transfer their resistance to Fecal Coliform has been demonstrated, thus allowing to assert its role as a “vector” of resistance genes to members of the human intestinal flora.openAnalisi, Protezione e Gestione delle BiodiversitàCarnelli, AlessandroCarnelli, Alessandr

ADMINISTRATIVE DUE PROCESS—WOUNDED WARRIORS AND DUE PROCESS: THE CUSHMAN V. SHINSEKI ANALOGY

Military service members and veterans receive various benefits arising from their military service. The Department of Veterans Affairs acts as the trustee for distribution of these benefits upon veterans’ transition to civilian society. Among these benefits is disability compensation for medical conditions incurred or aggravated by the veteran in the course of their military service. This compensation makes the veteran whole for each condition that can be traced back to the veteran’s service. In many cases, this compensation is the veteran’s sole source of subsistence when they return to civilian life. Until 2009, these benefits were not considered property interests under the Due Process Clause. But the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit changed that in Cushman v. Shinseki, which stands for a rather simple proposition: veterans’ benefits are constitutionally protected property interests. The author takes the proposition presented in Cushman and seeks to expand it to another scheme that provides disability benefits to service members still in the military. The Department of Defense may separate with severance pay or medically retire a member who suffers from a medical condition which renders him or her unfit for further military duty. The military disability benefits available to members under this scheme lack any judicially recognized constitutional protection—despite many shared characteristics with disability compensation provided to veterans. The unspoken doctrine of judicial non-interference with national defense and military matters—the military deference doctrine— has stymied opinions like Cushman from appearing in the military disability benefits context. The author argues this doctrine does not apply where the military is acting as an administrator of benefits instead of providing for the national defense. Classifying military disability benefits as property interests does not imply national security issues. Rather, it recognizes that the government cannot arbitrarily deprive service members of disability benefits. The end sought by the Cushman analogy is as simple as the proposition the case stands for: disabled service members ought to be guaranteed a fundamentally fair adjudication—no matter the circumstances

Evolutionary neurocontrol: A novel method for low-thrust gravity-assist trajectory optimization

This article discusses evolutionary neurocontrol, a novel method for low-thrust gravity-assist trajectory optimization

Application of spherical nanoindentation to determine the pressure of cavitation impacts from pitting tests

This article focuses on the use of spherical nanoindentation measurements to estimate the pressure of cavitation impacts and its statistical distribution. Indeed, nanoindentation techniques are supposed to represent an effective tool in this field due to the similarities between substrate deformation under liquid impact and indentation testing. First, nanoindentation experiments were used to extract the mechanical parameters of a Nickel-Aluminum-Bronze alloy; second, pitting tests were performed at different operating pressures, and the geometrical characteristics of the pits were measured; and finally, the spectra of impact pressure and loads responsible for material erosion were obtained by coupling the findings of indentation tests with the analysis of pitting tests. Results assessed the capability of the proposed methodology to quantify the hydrodynamic aggressiveness of the cavitating flow. This procedure, which assumes the material itself as a sensor that is able to detect the impact loads, could represent an alternative solution to pressure transducers in estimating the cavitation intensit

The Performance and Likability of the Federal Council of Switzerland Is Assessed More Positively than That of its Members on Average

The Federal Council of Switzerland is often perceived as a single entity. The aim of this paper is to compare an evaluation of the performance and likability of the Federal Council as a group with a mean evaluation of the individual members of this body. There are theories that predict different outcomes: An equal-weight averaging model predicts that the Federal Council will be evaluated equally to the mean evaluation of the members. Some unequal-weight averaging models predict that the Federal Council will be evaluated more negatively than the mean of the members because, for example, negative members could be given more weight. Other unequal-weight averaging models predict that the Federal Council will be evaluated more positively than the mean of the members as individuals. One reason is that in the domain of ability, positive information is more diagnostic than negative. Therefore, members with high abilities could be given greater weight. In two studies, the present paper provides evidence for a more positive evaluation of the Federal Council of Switzerland than the mean evaluation of its members. These studies extend the validity of previous work on individual impression formation to group evaluations

The SIROCO Asteroid Deflection Demonstrator

There is evidence of past Near-Earth-Objects (NEOs) impacts on Earth and several studies indicating that even relatively small objects are capable of causing large local damage, either directly or in combination with other phenomena, e.g. tsunamis. This paper describes a space mission concept to demonstrate some of the key technologies to rendezvous with an asteroid and accurately measure its trajectory during and after a deflection maneuver. The mission, called SIROCO, makes use of the recently proposed ion beam shepherd (IBS) concept where a stream of accelerated plasma ions is directed against the surface of a small NEO resulting in a net transmitted deflection force. We show that by carefully selecting the target NEO a measurable deflection can be obtained in a few weeks of continuous thrust with a small spacecraft and state of the art electric propulsion hardware

Deep Adaptation - The Spatial Dimension

The future, which we thought we had maybe another decade to prepare for, is now suddenly here. In all likelihood, we can expect further crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic or of similar severity, especially in the context of climate change. They will render the 21st century radically different from the 20th: conventions, techniques, and social practices we are familiar with will disappear. Our responsibilities and roles as architects and urban planners will also change fundamentally in this process. We will work in increasingly volatile and vulnerable contexts and constellations. Until now, many actors in politics, but also in academia and research, have played down or denied the vulnerability of our urban structures to the risks that are the direct effects of our current way of life. In the search for alternative and, in a sense, more realistic perspectives, Jem Bendell’s concept of “Deep Adaptation”, which has been widely and controversially discussed since its first publication in 2018, calls for a shift: he urges us to prepare for the collapse of certain systems that currently govern our lives – and to see this as an opportunity for positive change. This change and the resulting challenges we are facing are primarily not technological, but above all social, economic, and organisational in nature. Moreover, they are highly interdependent and all-encompassing; they require systemic change, profound transformations, and adaptations of action. It is therefore not a question of developing technical solutions in isolation, but rather of fundamentally rethinking the way we live, operate, work, travel, and interact. This issue of SPOOL seeks to explore the spatial dimension of the Deep Adaptation concept and how it can be put to use in the spatial disciplines such as urban planning, landscape planning, urban design, and architecture

Distintas formas de inclusión de la historia de la matemática en la enseñanza. Algunas ideas usando logaritmo

Una pregunta de interés para quien enseña matemática en el nivel secundario es: ¿cómo incluir la historia de la matemática en las propuestas de enseñanza? En este capítulo avanzaremos sobre algunos aspectos de este asunto. Veremos primero qué lugar tiene la historia de la matemática en la formación docente inicial; luego, daremos un vistazo a la producción académica acerca de posibles formas de incluirla en la enseñanza y, por último, daremos algunas ideas para su efectiva implementación en las aulas