A participatory approach for digital documentation of Egyptian Bedouins intangible cultural heritage

The Bedouins of Egypt hold a unique intangible cultural heritage (ICH), with distinct cultural values and social practices that are rapidly changing as a consequence of having settled after having been nomadic for centuries. We present our attempt to develop a bottom-up approach to document Bedouin ICH. Grounded in participatory design practices, the project purpose was two-fold: engaging Egyptian Engineering undergraduates with culturally-distant technology users and introducing digital self-documentation of ICH to the Bedouin community. We report the design of a didactic model that deployed the students as research partners to co-design four prototypes of ICH documentation mobile applications with the community. The prototypes reflected an advanced understanding for the values to the Bedouins brought by digital documentation practices. Drawing from our experience, three recommendations were elicited for similar ICH projects. Namely, focusing on the community benefits; promoting motivation ownership, and authenticity; and pursuing a shared identity between designers and community members. These guidelines hold a strong value as they have been tested against local challenges that could have been detrimental to the project

Altruistic Responses of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks: Some Evidence from Dictator Games

This paper uses economic experiments to compare altruistic behavior before and immediately after the terrorist attacks. Before September 11 the authors had conducted dictator games in which students were given the option of donating their earnings from the experiment to the American Red Cross. The authors repeated the experiment in late September after the attacks. This paper compares giving before and after the terrorist attacks and evaluates the extent to which altruistic responses before and after the attack differ by gender, major. religious practice and income level. The authors find significant differences in altruistic behavior of women and men. Women donated more than men both before and after the terrorist attacks. In addition, far more women acted as perfect altruists, giving all the money in the experiment to the Red Cross, while far more men acted perfectly selfishly by keeping all the money. Both genders increased giving significantly after the terrorist attacks.

An Investigation Into the Nature and Quality of Children's Experiences of Group Composing in the Secondary Classroom Based on the Concept of Flow

In music lessons in UK schools pupils are encouraged to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in activities that are designed to integrate three broad areas; performance, composing and listening. Lessons are structured to include group work which has become the norm in many secondary classrooms. Collaborative musical participation generally involves pupils working together unsupervised for extended periods and gives them a high level of responsibility and autonomy to achieve the set objectives. Although many pupils have developed the musical skills, they are not always given enough guidance in how to apply them in collaborative contexts. At the same time, very little empirical research investigates the effectiveness of group work. This thesis investigates pupils’ experiences of group composing applying the concept of flow. Flow, also termed optimal experience, is ‘a subjective state that people report when they are completely involved in something to the point of losing track of time and of being unaware of everything else but the activity itself (Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde and Whalen, 1997, pg 14). Investigating flow provides insights into the quality of experience. In the music classroom, investigating flow can provide insights into the situated nature of pupils’ experiences of collaborative work. The empirical context for the research is two secondary schools in the North-West of England. A mixed-methods research design provided insights into self-reports of flow experience using the Experience Sampling Method and also involved qualitative analysis of group talk. The findings reveal how more pupils experienced flow when the main activity was group composing and that those in flow influenced the quality of talk in the group. Overall, this study contributes to increased understandings of how pupils experience music lessons and in particular, how the quality of their experience in group work can be improved by recognising and understanding the importance of ‘speaking though music’

The Impact of Industrial Agriculture on Social-Ecological Resilience: A Case Study of the Fairfield Bench, Montana

Agricultural systems can be understood as social-ecological systems, in which humans and the natural world interact with and influence each other. The concept of resilience within social-ecological systems has gained considerable attention in recent years. Resilience is generally defined as the system’s ability to absorb and adapt to stressors while still maintaining a similar functioning state. With the major challenges created by the overarching system of industrial agriculture, such as weed resistance to herbicides, water pollution, market consolidation, and declining numbers of farmers, resilience in agricultural systems is a critical concept to explore and understand. However, despite the popularity of social-ecological resilience research, there are major criticisms of resilience theory, including its limited study of the role of agency and power in social systems. Additionally, there are relatively few studies that attempt to understand resilience within a particular context. This project fills this gap by providing a descriptive case study of social-ecological resilience in a rural agricultural community in Montana. Data was collected through document review and in-depth interviews with 12 malt barley farmers. The analysis reveals multiple challenges facing the community, including weed pressures, frustrations with major brewing companies, and a changing community structure. Farmers also identified capacities for resilience, including knowledge and learning, access to water, and place attachment and identity. These challenges and capacities, however, have been influenced by the larger industrial agriculture system, which has limited the farmers’ individual decision-making power. Social-ecological resilience theories largely fail to account for the relationship and tension between individual agency and structural constraints. Future research in which the social dimensions of agency, choice, and power are included within resilience frameworks is needed

Managing Mobility After Stroke: Education Of Physiotherapists, Physiotherapy Students And Patients

Stroke is a major cause of disability worldwide. The inability to walk and low levels of physical activity after stroke lead to poor participation in the community, reduced quality of life and increased risk of recurrent stroke. The aim of this thesis, therefore, was to enhance mobility after stroke by increasing knowledge of physiotherapists about walking outcome after stroke; increasing physiotherapy student skills in training walking after stroke; and finally by increasing physical activity in stroke survivors via self-management. Study 1, a systematic review, found that 60% of non-ambulatory stroke survivors in rehabilitation regained independent walking at 3 months which increased to 65% by 6 months after stroke. In an acute unit only 39% of non-ambulatory stroke survivors regained independent walking at 3-months and this increased to 69% at 6 months. Study 2 examined the effect of e-learning in teaching physiotherapy students the practical skills related to training walking after stroke compared with usual teaching. The results indicated e-learning improved physiotherapy students’ ability to effectively implement and provide a rationale for the practical skills. Students perceived the e-learning resource to be very useful. Study 3, a feasibility study, found that a 3-month self-management program was feasible for increasing physical activity, self-efficacy for exercise, walking ability, participation and quality of life. Cardiovascular risks were unchanged. Physiotherapists should utilise the increased knowledge regarding prognosis of walking after stroke to provide accurate education and goal setting for patients, and to effectively allocate resources during rehabilitation. Physiotherapists working in higher education should consider the use of e-learning to enhance learning of practical skills in physiotherapy students. Finally, educating and empowering stroke survivors via self-management, may be a promising strategy for increasing physical activity