The Use of Analogies in Science Communication: Effectiveness of an Activity in Initial Primary Science Teacher Education

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - This article presents a study focused on analysing the effectiveness of an activity about the use of analogies in science communication....     

Insect-Infested Wood Remediation by Microwave Heating and Its Effects on Wood Dehydration: A Case Study of Hylotrupes bajulus Larva

Wood artefacts are subject to damage by biologic infestations due to bacteria, insects, and fungal species. One of the worst feared attacks is due to the xylophagous insects whose larvae feed on wood by boring galleries, at the expense of building timbers and worked woods. These beetles are responsible for daily destruction of the world’s wooden cultural heritage, and their elimination has been always a big problem for conservation of wood. The need to avoid the use of chemical methods in conservation for pest control has led to the development of various non-chemical, non-toxic treatments. Among these, heating with microwaves (MW) seems to be one of the most promising, since it has already shown its high efficacy in destroying pests. Insect-infested wood remediation by MW heating in conservation is based on the larger thermal increment induced in larvae than in wood, due to their different dielectric permittivity in the GHz frequency range. However, the side effects that may occur due to MW heating of wood, such as dehydration, have never been discussed so far. Here we study the possible application of microwave heating as a remediation method for wood samples infested by the larvae of the insect Hylotrupes bajulus. We show that it is possible to set up exposure conditions able to achieve 100% of larvae death and that are sufficiently mild not to induce significant dehydration of the exposed wood from which shrinkage effects may derive. Indeed, under these conditions, MW-induced wood dehydration on cubic and parallelepiped sweetgum samples can be kept under control and to percentages as low as 0.4% (w/w).     

Video over IP using standard-compatible multiple description coding: an IETF proposal

INTRODUCTION Communication networks are growing quickly. Throughput, delays and losses become unpredictable because of heterogeneity and congestion. This results in lack of quality of service. Today’s solution is based on standard video codecs (as MPEG-2) that do not allow scalability and yield low quality at low bit-rates, complex forward error correction (FEC) codes that are not easily used with time-varying channels and must be set to face the worst case, and automatic repeat re- q…     

The multiple roles of chosen familia: exploring the interconnections of queer Latino men’s community cultural wealth

This study contributes to the literature on college students with multiple marginalized identities by investigating the experiences of queer Latino men as they created familial relationships during their time in college. Data from The National Study on Latino Male Achievement in Higher Education was used to elucidate how queer Latino men’s chosen family members fostered the community cultural wealth that helps them succeed at selective institutions. In addition to providing emotional and social support, chosen familia bolstered queer Latino college men’s navigational, aspirational, and resistant capital. By centering the stories of these participants using a narrative inquiry approach, this study offers important implications for staff and faculty at selective institutions as they seek to increase queer Latino men’s success in college.     

Core stability training on lower limb balance strength

This study aimed to assess the effects of core stability training on lower limbs’ muscular asymmetries and imbalances in team sport. Twenty footballers were divided into two groups, either core stability or control group. Before each daily practice, core stability group (n = 10) performed a core stability training programme, while control group (n = 10) did a standard warm-up. The effects of the core stability training programme were assessed by performing isokinetic tests and single-leg countermovement jumps. Significant improvement was found for knee extensors peak torque at 3.14 rad · s^?1 (14%; P < 0.05), knee flexors peak torque at 1.05 and 3.14 rad · s^?1 (19% and 22% with P < 0.01 and P < 0.01, respectively) and peak torque flexors/extensors ratios at 1.05 and 3.14 rad · s^?1 (7.7% and 8.5% with P < 0.05 and P < 0.05, respectively) only in the core stability group. The jump tests showed a significant reduction in the strength asymmetries in core stability group (?71.4%; P = 0.02) while a concurrent increase was seen in the control group (33.3%; P < 0.05). This study provides practical evidence in combining core exercises for optimal lower limbs strength balance development in young soccer players.     

Between Transaction and Transformation: The Role of School Principals as Education Leaders in Spain

Spain is, together with Portugal, the only OECD country where school principals are democratically elected from the teaching staff of each primary and secondary school by a School Council, where all members of the school community are represented. While this unique feature of the Spanish system entails many promises in terms of deep democracy and, equally important, the potential legitimacy of change promoted by school leaders, the reality seems to be somewhat less romantic. This paper explores the limitations and constraints faced by school principals in Spain to actually perform their role as school leaders in primary and secondary schools. Based on a major study that we carried out for the National Institute for Quality and Evaluation (INCE) in 2002, involving more than 20,000 questionnaires and 30 Focus Groups (with teachers, principals, school inspectors, administrators, education experts and parents), the paper deals with the impact of leadership on school improvement and change, especially as far as teaching and learning processes are concerned. Despite their democratic legitimacy, or perhaps precisely because of its unexpected effects, the elected principal in Spain faces constraints which de facto position himself or herself between a practice of permanent transaction with colleagues and the mounting pressure of transformation and accountability coming from outside the school. Results from this research suggest that such constraints are determining that the practice of school leadership in Spain is management and maintenance-oriented rather than change-oriented, thus casting doubts about the very model of school leadership.     

Comprehensive pertinence in the quality assessment of higher education / La pertinencia integral en la evaluación de la calidad de la educación superior

This paper is based on the current debate concerning the criteria for quality assessment of higher education in a knowledge society, focusing attention on its pertinence. It is approached from dualities in the university task of producing and transmitting knowledge that intervenes in the analysis of the pertinence criteria for evaluating quality: knowledge use value versus exchange value, or market rules versus other social agents’ demands. The need for a comprehensive pertinence defined by two dimensions, internal and external, is justified.     

From soul to matter: the new Spanish Francoist pedagogy’s plunge into experimental pedagogy and the influence of Raymond Buyse

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the approach to experimental pedagogy adopted by the new Spanish pedagogy which arose after Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War. To this end, it first outlines the spiritualist and anti-scientific approaches which prevailed in the new pedagogy of the postwar era, before charting the survival, lying beneath this anti-modernist rhetoric, of an experimental tradition linked to certain clergymen. It then shows how the leading pedagogue of Franco’s Spain, Víctor García Hoz, ended up endorsing this school of thought, and analyses the influence in this evolution of the neo-scholasticism of the University of Louvain and the experimental pedagogy developed by Raymond Buyse, who maintained close ties with Spain throughout the 1940s. The paper also focuses on the key role played by Spanish pedagogy in the construction of an international network of Catholic pedagogues. Finally, a number of explanatory hypotheses are presented to explain the paradox posed by this endorsement of the more scientific version of pedagogy by a vehemently Catholic group of academics.