Swimming Between: An examination of the Inherent Complexity within Social Justice

Classrooms tend to be absolute spaces, places where fluidity is rejected and nearly everything—from people, to ideas, to practices and policies—is viewed and organized through binary logic. Because binary logic is implicitly accepted as the natural order in schools and the structures resulting from it are highly unmalleable, individuals who differ from the norm are expected to assimilate and adapt so as not to disrupt the structure. Those who are too different from the norm to fit in or who refuse to accept the binary structure are viewed as problems and are often ostracized or blamed for disturbing the system. Even when evidence to dispute the binary logic emerges, such evidence is often ignored or rejected in favor of maintaining the status quo. As such, the need for educators with a social justice orientation is needed. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the process one teacher used to create inclusive spaces for students who identify with differences in order to develop a more critical understanding of the work of social justice teachers. The findings suggest the teacher enacted behaviors and maintained beliefs that contradicted her espoused social justice orientation and her classroom was at once both inclusive and exclusive. The findings illustrate the complexities inherent within the work of equity-oriented educators. Implications for educator preparation is discussed.     

Creating a common grammar for European higher education governance

This paper addresses the interaction between European Union policies and national higher education sectors in the countries involved in the TRUE project (England, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland) making the case for European governance. Relevant for this matter is the role of political processes that evolve at European level shaping political discourses and practices, thus creating a common grammar for European higher education governance. By empirically focusing on evaluation and funding policies the paper argues that European governance reflects in how this common grammar is being created and reconfiguring the environment within which European higher education systems and institutions are developing.     

Identification of a fungal community on gilded wood carved heritage

During restoration activities, a fungal reddish area was noted on a gilded wood carved ceiling decoration from a sacristy of a church in Aveiro, Portugal. The protocols used to identify the fungal community present in this wooden material included the classical culturing methods and a molecular biology protocol based on the ability of denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) to separate fungal DNA from several species. This last method complemented the results obtained with the traditional culturing method approach and the overall study revealed three fungal species: Serpula lacrymans (Wulfen) P. Karsten, Paecilomyces lilacinus (Thom) Samson and Penicillium chrysogenum Thom. This is, to the author's knowledge, the first documented case of S. lacrymans in Portuguese built cultural heritage. Despite the antifungal solution applied and the dryer environment recommended, the water activity (Aw) levels recorded on location are still dangerously high and may allow fungal regrowth. Periodic inspections were advised.     

Sport selection in under-17 male roller hockey

Abstract

Characteristics of 32 international and 41 local under-17 (U-17) (14.5–16.5 years) roller hockey players were considered in the context of discrimination by competitive level using training history, anthropometry, skeletal maturation, and several laboratory and field performance tests. More international (42%) than local (22%) players were advanced in maturity status. International players had slightly less hockey experience (years), but had more practice sessions and match time (minutes) during the season. Local players were shorter and attained better performance in the 25-m dash, while international players performed better in sit-ups, ball throw and 20-m shuttle run. The fatigue index derived from the Wingate anaerobic test was higher among local players, while peak torques of knee extension and flexion were greater in international players. Stepwise discriminant function correctly classified 85% of players by competitive level based on grip strength, ratio of eccentric and concentric knee extension, number of training sessions, playing time and fatigue index. The results suggested an interaction among strength, anaerobic fitness and training plus game time as factors in discriminating international from local level players and by inference in the selection and development of youth roller hockey players.     

Mechanical properties of the triceps surae: Differences between football and non-football players

Abstract

We investigated the mechanical properties of the triceps surae between professional, junior, and non-football players. Fifty-nine men participated in this study. The mechanical properties of the right legs’ triceps surae were measured in vivo using a free oscillation technique; no significant differences existed between the groups. The mean results for musculo-articular stiffness, damping coefficient, and damping ratio were as follows: professional football players (21523 N· m^?1, 330.8 N · s · m^?1, and 0.201); junior football players (21063 N · m^?1, 274.4 N · s · m^?1, and 0.173); and non-players (19457 N · m^?1, 281.5 N · s · m^?1, and 0.184). When analysed according to position, the results were as follows: defender (21447 N · m^?1, 308.6 N · s · m^?1, and 0.189); midfielder (20762 N · m^?1, 250.7 N · s · m^?1, and 0.157); winger (21322 N · m^?1, 335.1 N · s · m^?1, and 0.212); forward (22085 N · m^?1, 416.2 N · s · m^?1, and 0.254); and non-players (19457 N · m^?1, 281.5 N · s · m^?1, and 0.184).

Thus, football training, football games, and the position played had no effect on triceps surae mechanical properties. These results may be attributed to opposing adaptations between different types of training that are usually implemented in football. Alternatively, the minimum strain amplitude and/or frequency threshold of the triceps surae required to trigger adaptations of mechanical properties might not be achieved by football players with football training and matches.     

Automatically structuring domain knowledge from text: An overview of current research

This paper presents an overview of automatic methods for building domain knowledge structures (domain models) from text collections. Applications of domain models have a long history within knowledge engineering and artificial intelligence. In the last couple of decades they have surfaced noticeably as a useful tool within natural language processing, information retrieval and semantic web technology. Inspired by the ubiquitous propagation of domain model structures that are emerging in several research disciplines, we give an overview of the current research landscape and some techniques and approaches. We will also discuss trade-offs between different approaches and point to some recent trends.     

Effects of replica running shoes upon external forces and muscle activity during running

Twelve participants ran (9 km · h(-1)) to test two types of running shoes: replica and original shoes. Ground reaction force, plantar pressure and electromyographic activity were recorded. The shoes were tested randomly and on different days. Comparisons between the two experimental conditions were made by analysis of variance (ANOVA) test (P ≤ 0.05). The time to first peak, loading rate of the first peak and impulse of the first 75 ms of stance were significantly different between the shoes (P ≤ 0.05), revealing an increase of impact forces for the replica shoes. The peak plantar pressure values were significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) when wearing replica shoes. During running, the contact area was significantly smaller (P ≤ 0.05) for the replica shoe. The electromyographic activity of the analysed muscles did not show changes between the two shoes in running. These findings suggest that the use of replica running shoes can increase the external load applied to the human body, but may not change the muscle activity pattern during locomotion. This new mechanical situation may increase the risk of injuries in these movements.     

Digital preservation of Brazilian indigenous artworks: Generating high quality textures for 3D models

Three-dimensional (3D) digital preservation aims at generating 3D models of objects that have cultural or scientific value. It allows realistic visualization of objects through virtual museums or scientific applications, and the restoration of the preserved object in case of natural wear or accidents. This work contributes to this research area by presenting a method to improve color texture quality of 3D models obtained from color and depth images of a laser scanner. Although this device offers precise depth information, the resulting color information is still poor and limits the generation of realistic textures. Our approach is to capture photographs of the object with a high-resolution digital camera and use them to generate a new color texture for the 3D model. Our work proposes a practical technique, easy to replicate, to generate high quality textures for 3D models from photographs. The method is composed by three main steps: (1) calibration of the image acquisition devices; (2) data acquisition; and (3) texture generation. In this paper, we detail our color texture generation method and apply it on the digital preservation of many artworks made by native Brazilians (indians) from the Wauja and Karaja communities. These indigenous communities are acknowledged as great ceramic artists, each bearing their own main themes, using a very rich symbolism in their paintings. Their artworks represent important aspects of the native South American culture and their digital preservation is motivated by three main reasons: (1) their fragility; (2) the paintings loose their original appearance with time; and (3) the possibility of extinction of these communities. We present several results of preserved artworks with enhanced quality realistic texture maps. Also, we present a methodology to analyze the quality and accuracy of texture maps. The resulting 3D models can be visualized through a tool we developed to support the virtual exhibit of 3D preserved heritage.