A capability approach to language education in the Gaza Strip: “To plant hope in a land of despair”

This article proposes a shift away from competence models (Byram 1997) toward a more holistic approach in language education. Drawing on original critical participatory action research with English teachers in the Gaza Strip (Palestine), Imperiale argues that the capability approach (Sen 1985; Nussbaum 2000) offers a potential framework for understanding and co-constructing language education in precarious circumstances such as those in Gaza. The participants in this study are followed through their process of nourishing what Nussbaum (2006) considers the three capabilities in education: affiliation, narrative imagination and critical examination. Their work also nurtured the further capability of voice and agency, which, in the specific context of Gaza, intersects with acts of aesthetic, cultural and linguistic resistance

Review essay

THE GAZE OF THE WEST AND FRAMINGS OF THE EAST, SHANTA NAIR-VENUGOPAL (ED.) (2012) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, XV + 264 pp. ISBN: 978-0-230-30292-1, h/bk, £66.0

The capabilities approach: fostering contexts for enhancing mental health and wellbeing across the globe

Concerted efforts have been made in recent years to achieve equity and equality in mental health for all people across the globe. This has led to the emergence of Global Mental Health as an area of study and practice. The momentum that this has created has contributed to the development, implementation and evaluation of services for priority mental disorders in many low- and middle-income countries. This paper discusses two related issues that may be serving to limit the success of mental health initiatives across the globe, and proposes potential solutions to these issues. First, there has been a lack of sophistication in determining what constitutes a ‘good outcome’ for people experiencing mental health difficulties. Even though health is defined and understood as a state of ‘wellbeing’ and not merely an absence of illness, mental health interventions tend to narrowly focus on reducing symptoms of mental illness. The need to also focus more broadly on enhancing subjective wellbeing is highlighted. The second limitation relates to the lack of an overarching theoretical framework guiding efforts to reduce inequalities and inequities in mental health across the globe. This paper discusses the potential impact that the Capabilities Approach (CA) could have for addressing both of these issues. As a framework for human development, the CA places emphasis on promoting wellbeing through enabling people to realise their capabilities and engage in behaviours that they subjectively value. The utilization of the CA to guide the development and implementation of mental health interventions can help Global Mental Health initiatives to identify sources of social inequality and structural violence that may impede freedom and individuals’ opportunities to realise their capabilities

System Theories: Science, War, Construction

This paper will examine the confluence of information and systems theory and the production of architectural building systems. The two are interrelated around the adaptation of pre-WWII techniques and knowledge that became transformed during the years leading up to, during, and in the immediate postwar period. Much of the progress regarding the evolution of computation is attributed to the large scale deployment of highly acute mathematical minds to the problem of interpreting the encrypted messages sent from Axis command centers to the troops on land, on the sea and in the air. Known as the 'code breakers' these individuals were crucial in the advancement of computation, cybernetics and systems theory. After laying out the theoretical implications of systems theory, this paper analyzes two case studies of wartime building systems. In one case, a wartime factory was retooled for peacetime housing production, and in the other pipe factories were retooled to produce bomb casings. Case 1: Packaged House System. At the end of 1941, Konrad Wachsmann and Walter Gropius, German emigres to the U.S. began to collaborate on a project for industrialized modular housing, which became known as the 'PACKAGED HOUSE'. Wachsmann designed a 'universal Joint' that would give great structural stability to the joining of prefabricated panels. The JOINTING SYSTEM was based on 2-, 3-, and 4-way connections between panels. All surfaces were conceived to be used from the same panels: exterior walls, interior partitions, floors, ceilings and the roof. In February of 1942, the National Housing Agency allocated $153 million for the housing of displaced defense workers. By May 1945 with the end of WWII, the house was still not in production, despite enthusiasm for the project. But the house could have a second chance, in the enormous postwar demand for returning GI's and their families. The General Panel Corporation raised funds to be able to take over the former Lockheed Factory in Burbank, California, which had been built to build wartime aircraft for government contracts. And it was a classic example of using factories that made armaments could be retooled to make houses. Case 2: Tubi Innocenti: scaffolding system. Ferdinando Innocenti, born 1891, experimented with iron pipe and tubes and started producing tube scaffolding in 1933, with a rapid system of mounting and dismantling a combination of tubes and a mechanical fastener. During the war years the Innocenti plants supplied bodies for 150 and 250 kg airplane bombs, for which cut down tubes were used, and also produced 15% of all bullets produced in Italy. After the war, Innocenti continued to make scaffolding and all other types of pipe and tubes for industry and then developed a scooter: the Lambretta. The idea came from vehicles dropped in Rome by the British paratroopers.Conference co-organized by the Institute of Fine Arts; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; and Princeton University's School of Architecture

Meta-análise: diagnóstico de tuberculose resistente por técnicas não comerciais de amplificação

La emergencia de tuberculosis (TB) multidrogo y extensivamente-resistente reactivó la necesidad de contar con métodos rápidos para detectar resistencia a isoniacida (INH) y rifampicina (RIF). Por tal motivo, los objetivos de este trabajo fueron evaluar, mediante meta-análisis, la exactitud global y la posible utilidad de métodos caseros basados en PCR para la detección rápida de resistencia a INH y RIF en aislamientos clínicos de Mycobacterium tuberculosis. La búsqueda bibliográfica incluyó Medline/PubMed, BioMedLib. Para estimar la variabilidad entre los resultados de los estudios y el grado de exactitud diagnóstica de los métodos utilizados se realizaron gráficos ?forest plot? y curvas SROC (summary receiver operating characteristic) mediante el software Meta-DiSc. Fueron seleccionados 15 estudios, conteniendo 1311 aislamientos resistentes a INH y 953 a RIF. Para la detección de resistencia a INH la sensibilidad y especificidad globales fueron: 84,0% y 96,0% respectivamente, mientras que para la detección de resistencia a RIF esos valores fueron 92,0% y 97,0%. Además, estos métodos mostraron alta exactitud diagnóstica, con áreas bajo la curva SROC>0,9. La alta sensibilidad y especificidad obtenidas con métodos moleculares caseros sugieren que algunos de ellos podrían ser aplicados para el diagnóstico rápido de resistencia a partir del aislamiento de M. tuberculosis.Due to the emergency of multidrug and extensively-drug resistant tuberculosis, molecular methods for a rapid detection of isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RIF) resistance are urgently needed. For that reason, the objectivesof this study were to asses through a meta-analysis the global accuracy and the utility of the home-made molecular methods based in PCR for INH and RIF resistance rapid detection from Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates. The articles were searched using Medline/PubMed, BioMedLib. The variability among different studies results and the diagnostic accuracy of the used methods were estimated by forest plot and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves performed with software Meta-DiSc. Fifteen studies were chosed: 1311 containing INH resistant and 953 RIF resistant isolates. The pooled sensitivity and specificity for INH resistance detection was 84.0% and 96.0% respectively, while 92.0% and 97.0% were the pooled values for RIF resistance detection. Besides, these methods showed a high diagnostic accuracy, with the area under the SROC curve >0.9. Due to the high sensitivity and specificity obtained with the home-made molecular methods, some of these tests could be applied for a rapid detection of M. tuberculosis drug resistance in clinical practice.A emergência de tuberculose (TB) multidrogas e extensivamente-resistente reativou a necessidade de contar com métodos rápidos para detectar resistência à isoniazida (INH) e rifampicina (RIF). Por isso, o objetivo deste trabalho foi a avaliação através da meta-análise, da exatidão global e da possível utilidade de métodos caseiros baseados em PCR para detectar rapidamente a resistência a INH e RIF em isolamentos clínicos de Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A pesquisa bibliográfica incluiu Medline/PubMed, Bio MedLib. Para estimar a variabilidade entre os resultados dos estudos e o grau de exatidão diagnóstica dos métodos utilizados, foram realizados gráficos "forest plot" e curvas SROC (summary receiver operating characteristic) com o software Meta-Disc. Foram selecionados 15 estudos, contendo 1311 isolamentos resistentes a INH e 953 a RIF. Para a detecção de resistência a INH, a sensibilidade e especificidade globais foram 84,0% e 96,0% respectivamente, enquanto que para a detecção de resistência a RIF esses valores foram de 92,0% e 97,0%. Alem disso, os mesmos métodos mostraram elevada exatidão diagnóstica, com áreas inferiores à curva SROC>0,9. A elevada sensibilidade e especificidade obtida através de métodos moleculares caseiros sugere que alguns deles poderiam ser aplicados para o diagnóstico rápido de resistência a partir do isolamento de M. tuberculosis.Fil: Imperiale, Belén Rocío. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital "dr.antonio A. Cetrangolo". Laboratorio de Referencia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

The role of local communities in a global risk landscape:Using Social Impact Assessment to understand, recognise, engage and empower community resilience in vulnerable regions

In the last three decades, disasters, especially climate-related disasters, have dramatically increased. This made understanding what is resilience and how to enhance it in society more crucial than ever. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reaffirmed the urgent need to enhance disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience in planned interventions to achieve the sustainable development goals. This study investigates the role Social Impact Assessment (SIA) has in understanding and empowering community resilience in vulnerable regions. Part 1 describes how community resilience came into action after the 6 April 2009 L’Aquila earthquake. It defines resilience in social terms and introduces the SIA Framework for Action, which was developed and applied to strengthen the resilience of communities in the L’Aquila mountain region. Part 2 focuses on interventions carried out by national and local civil protection authorities and on the failures to enhance resilience before and after the earthquake. Part 3 reflects on what must be learned and transformed in disaster management, development and impact assessment thinking and practice.Drawing from the L’Aquila case, this study conceptualises the mechanism enacted by states through which disaster capitalism flourishes creating second disasters. To enhance DRR and build resilience the mechanism must be abolished. A shift in disaster management and development from civil protection systems to decentralised, socially-sustainable community empowerment systems is needed. These systems must co-produce transformative knowledge to reduce risks, impacts and the local root causes of disaster and turn affected landscapes into landscapes of affect, rather than carcasses to exploit

Mode space approach for tight-binding transport simulations in graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistors including phonon scattering

In this paper, we present a mode space method for atomistic non-equilibrium Green's function simulations of armchair graphene nanoribbon FETs that includes electron-phonon scattering. With reference to both conventional and tunnel FET structures, we show that, in the ideal case of a smooth electrostatic potential, the modes can be decoupled in different groups without any loss of accuracy. Thus, inter-subband scattering due to electron-phonon interactions is properly accounted for, while the overall simulation time considerably improves with respect to real-space, with a speed-up factor of 40 for a 1.5-nm-wide device. Such factor increases with the square of the device width. We also discuss the accuracy of two commonly used approximations of the scattering self-energies: the neglect of the off-diagonal entries in the mode-space expressions and the neglect of the Hermitian part of the retarded self-energy. While the latter is an acceptable approximation in most bias conditions, the former is somewhat inaccurate when the device is in the off-state and optical phonon scattering is essential in determining the current via band-to-band tunneling. Finally, we show that, in the presence of a disordered potential, a coupled mode space approach is necessary, but the results are still accurate compared to the real-space solution.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures. Copyright (2013) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physic

Barriers to Enhancing Disaster Risk Reduction and Community Resilience:Evidence from the L’Aquila Disaster

Building sustainable and resilient societies is a multidimensional challenge that affects achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In crises and disasters, civil protection authorities typically use emergency powers and a command-and-control approach to manage resources and to design and implement disaster management interventions. They centralise knowledge, technologies and responsibilities for prevention, mitigation and monitoring, while stifling the capacities of local communities to reduce disaster risks and impacts. The mechanism they enact leads to a poor understanding of the capacities of local people to learn and transform, and of how community wellbeing, vulnerabilities, and resilience influence disaster risks. The mechanism does not strengthen the role of local communities in disaster risk reduction. Instead, it facilitates disaster capitalism at all levels of society. Drawing on the disaster risk reduction and resilience paradigm and on our analysis of the disaster management interventions conducted before and after the 6 April 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy, we discuss the main constraints to implementing the four Priority Areas in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: (1) Understanding risk in its multiple dimensions; (2) strengthening disaster risk governance; (3) investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and (4) enhancing preparedness and build back better in response, recovery and reconstruction. We discuss how top-down, emergency-centred civil protection approaches create second disasters, and fail in all four priorities. We suggest that shifts in paradigm and investment are required in disaster management and development practice from centralised civil protection systems to decentralised, socially sustainable community empowerment systems

Ultrasound Guidance in Paravertebral Injections of Oxygen-Ozone: Treatment of Low Back Pain

Background: Paravertebral injection of ozone is an established clinical practice for the treatment of Low Back Pain (LBP). The role of Ultrasound Guidance (USG) in mini invasive procedures has become important in many clinical practice thanks to the greater precision this technique can add. As matter of fact, a large volume of ozone in a single administration may have some adverse or side effects. In this study we wanted to verify if the use of USG in Oxygen/ Ozone (O2/O3) infiltrations could allow the administration of a smaller volume of gas mixture, increasing the safety and the comfort of the procedure itself, obtaining however similar or better results in pain decrease. Methods: We compared two groups of 25 patients affected by LBP, undergoing 10 infiltrations of O2/O3, by using USG (group U) or only anatomical landmarks (group AL). Pain intensity, by calculating Visual Analogical Scale (VAS) difference before and after the treatment, and the discomfort were evaluated in both groups. Results: The mean of the VAS before the treatment was 6.44 in group U and 6.48 in group AL. The mean of the VAS after the treatment was 2.22 in group U and 3.04 in group AL. The mean of discomfort rate was 2.84 in group U and 5.44 in group AL. The number of patients with unbearable discomfort was 0 in group U and 7 in group AL. Conclusions: As many other treatment, also paravertebral injections of O2/O3 benefits of the advantages of the US device which makes this treatment safer and more accurate

Enhancing disaster risk reduction and community resilience for sustainable development

Call for pape