Project Coast: eugenics in apartheid South Africa

It is a decade since the exposure of Project Coast, apartheid South Africa's covert chemical and biological warfare program. In that time, attention has been focused on several aspects of the program, particularly the production of narcotics and poisons for use against anti-apartheid activists and the proliferation of both chemical and biological weapons. The eugenic dimension of Project Coast has, by contrast, received scant attention. It is time to revisit the testimony that brought the suggestion of eugenic motives to light, reflect on some of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's findings and search for lessons that can be taken from this troubled chapter in South Africa's history.     

Using time-series analysis to predict disease counts with structural trend changes

This paper aims at time-series prediction of disease counts when the trend changes unexpectedly. There is a body of literature in time-series analysis that focuses on improving the prediction when a change in the trend is observed. Following this line of literature, a method was recently proposed that outperforms the previous proposals. To utilize this method for prediction of disease counts, the present study employs a commonly used method called local estimators for estimation near boundaries. This provides two advantages for disease count prediction. First, the prior method is limited to only smooth trend changes. However, the current study using local estimators also encounters abrupt changes. Taking both smooth and abrupt changes into account is important in predicting disease counts, because, for variety of different reasons, such as vaccination programs, the disease counts may encounter abrupt changes. Second, the current study, despite the previous approach, can also model uncertainty. The parameter uncertainty plays a significant role when predicting disease counts. Compared to current literature, the proposed method outperformed to predict counts for 12 diseases in Nevada. The paper demonstrates that the proposed methods improved the prediction Q-Score in comparison to both outbreak and structural change methods available in literature. Although this method has been specifically demonstrated for prediction of disease counts, it can be generalized for different applications. With the recent utilization of analytics techniques and the increased use of time-series analysis in information systems, the suggested method provides implications for the literature of information systems when predicting with structural trend changes in data.     

Charity and public libraries: Does government funding crowd out donations?

This paper analyzes the determinants of donations to public libraries testing the following hypothesis: Is there a crowd out effect from government funding of public libraries? I look at novel data, the Public Library Survey, and use an unbalanced panel of public libraries across the USA from 2000 to 2013. The results suggest a crowd in effect with an inverted U shape in all levels of government. Local government is associated with 4–6 cents increase in donations, state government with 20–23 cents increase, and federal government with 75 cents to 1 dollar and 33 cents.     

The Spectrum of Dynamic Inquiry Teaching Practices

The Israeli high school biology curriculum comprises the Biomind program, in which students are engaged in an open inquiry learning process. The dynamic features of open inquiry often pose challenges to teachers in implementing the Biomind program. The current qualitative research shows that facilitating students in a dynamic open inquiry process is multidimensional. Teaching practices cover a wide range of methods, from structured inquiry through guided inquiry to open inquiry. An individual teacher’s profile can be elucidated on the basis of this spectrum. In addition, we realised that teachers often encounter several difficulties in implementing open dynamic inquiry: A dearth of teachers’ scientific knowledge, students’ lack of scientific knowledge and skills, and a restrictive time-frame. This study suggests several areas which should be considered while implementing an on going professional development support for teachers who are engaged in open inquiry teaching.     

Development of a Virtual Three-Dimensional Assessment Scenario for Anatomical Education

In anatomical education three-dimensional (3D) visualization technology allows for active and stereoscopic exploration of anatomy and can easily be adopted into medical curricula along with traditional 3D teaching methods. However, most often knowledge is still assessed with two-dimensional (2D) paper-and-pencil tests. To address the growing misalignment between learning and assessment, this viewpoint commentary highlights the development of a virtual 3D assessment scenario and perspectives from students and teachers on the use of this assessment tool: a 10-minute session of anatomical knowledge assessment with real-time interaction between assessor and examinee, both wearing a HoloLens and sharing the same stereoscopic 3D augmented reality model. Additionally, recommendations for future directions, including implementation, validation, logistic challenges, and cost-effectiveness, are provided. Continued collaboration between developers, researchers, teachers, and students is critical to advancing these processes.     

High school preparation for college biology in Israel

The study reports the results of a questionnaire on the opinions of biology, medical and agricultural students regarding the nature of the contribution of high school biology to their study of biology in the university. It was found that most students value the contribution of high school biology to their learning, understanding and retention of new material. Students who specialized in high school biology and who studied an inquiry-oriented program in high school had definite advantages over the others. High school experiences were found to influence achievement in college biology to the extent to which the university courses were based upon prior knowledge.     

Investigating the potential of using acoustic frequency on the degradation of linear alkylbenzen sulfonates from aqueous solution

The effectiveness of using acoustical (sonochemical) reactor for degradation of linear alkylbenzen sulfonate (LAS) from aqueous solution was investigated. LASs are anionic surfactants,found in relatively high amounts in domestic and industrial wastewaters. In this study,experiments on LAS solution were performed using methylene blue active substances (MBAS) method. The effectiveness of acoustical processor reactor for LAS degradation is evaluated with emphasis on the effect of treatment time and initial LAS concentration. Experiments were performed at initial concentrations of 0.2,0.5,0.8 and 1.0 mg/L,acoustic fre-quency of 130 kHz,applied power of 500 W and temperature of 18 °C～20 °C. At the conditions involved,LAS degradation was found to increase with increasing sonochemical time. In addition,as the concentration increased,the LAS degradation rate de-creased in the acoustical processor reactor.     

High school students’ difficulties in understanding osmosis

Preconceptions and misconceptions of 500 secondary students in years 9‐12 regarding osmosis were studied through the use of five different kinds of instruments: prior learning inventory, self‐report knowledge inventory, true/false test, definitions and clinical interviews. Some of the major findings were: (1) The most frequent explanation offered to osmosis is ‘a desire or drive towards equalizing concentrations’. (2) Hardly any student uses the concept ‘water concentration’. (3) Most students fail to realize that in dynamic equilibrium water molecules keep moving. (4) Students have special difficulty in understanding osmotic relations in plants. (5) Many students have difficulty in grasping solute‐solvent and concentration‐quantity relations. (6) Students often perform laboratory experiments without really understanding the underlying principles. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Situational and personal influence on attitude change following ethnic contact

The study undertook to examine the validity in Israel of several conclusions reached by investigators in the United States on the effect of intergroup contact on change in ethnic attitudes, as well as to extend contact research to topics which heretofore have received only scant attention. There were 100 subjects: 12-year-old Israeli girls of different ethnic background, participating in a summer camp. Results indicated that (1) as a result of contact, a positive change in attitude of the high status towards the low-status group occurred with regard to people and activities both related and not related to the contact situation, (2) only subjects without previous ethnic contact showed changes, (3) enjoyment of the contact situation was related to attitude change, while (4) authoritarianism was not related to attitude change.     

Threshold of Withdrawal from Schoolwork among Children of Divorced Parents

Abstract The principal aim of the present study was to examine whether there is a difference of withdrawal threshold between children of divorced parents and children from intact families as regards schoolwork. Three different school‐type tests, designed to be long and frustrating, were administered to two groups of children. One group consisted of 31 children of divorced parents (15 boys and 16 girls); the second consisted of children from intact families and was of equal size and had a matching number of children of both sexes. There were three dependent variables: level of achievement, level of determination and the time spent on the test. The main results show that children of divorced parents have lower levels of achievement and lower withdrawal thresholds than do children from intact families. These findings are presented in the context of a consideration both of the children's experience and interpretation of their parents’ divorce and of the generalisability of the concept of withdrawal threshold.