Mohenjo-Daro, city of the Indus Valley

The Harappan civilization, the world's fourth great civilization after those of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China flourished in the valley of the Indus three thousand years ago. As yet little is known about it, but one enormous town — Mohenjo-Daro — has survived. This has been only partially excavated and has yielded just a few scraps of information which have provided the basis for some fanciful theories. The author of this article had developed an interesting new approach. Combining a re-examination of the documentation that has accumulated over the past 50 years with an investigation of the actual remains, he has obtained some exciting results which shed new light on the overall planning, architecture, and development of the town over the centuries, thus providing a fresh understanding of the Harappan civilization itself.     

A Bandwidth expanding scheme for communication channels with noiseless feedback in the presence of unknown jamming noise

This paper treats the problem of transmitting a Gaussian discrete-time Markov process over a time-discrete additive white Gaussian channel with noiseless feedback which is subjected to statistically unknown jamming noise (satisfying a given power constraint). The channel is used more than once during the interval between the production of successive source letters, and the jamming noise is either allowed to be correlated with the encoder output, or forced to be totally independent of it. The complete solution obtained in the paper under a minimax criterion indicates that the optimum encoder-decoder structures are linear,and the least favorable jamming noise is a Gaussian process.     

Serum Ischemia-Modified Albumin in Preterm Babies with Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Infants with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) may suffer from severe hypoxia, asphyxia. In this study, we aimed to evaluate serum ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) level as a diagnostic marker for hypoxia in preterm infants with RDS. Thirty-seven premature newborns with RDS were allocated as the study group and 42 healthy preterm neonates were selected as the control group. IMA was measured as absorbance unit (ABSU) in human serum with colorimetric assay method which is based on reduction in albumin cobalt binding. IMA levels were significantly higher in neonates with RDS as compared to the control group (P < 0.001). Cut-off value of IMA (ABSU) was 0.72, the sensitivity level was 91.9 %, the specificity was 78.6 %, positive predictive value was 79.1 % and negative predictive value was 91.7 % at RDS. Area under curve values was 0.93 (P < 0.001; 95 % CI, 0.88–0.98) in the receiver operating characteristic curve. We concluded that elevated blood IMA levels might be accepted as a useful marker for hypoxia in newborn with RDS.     

Représentations et fonctionnements cognitifs dans une recherche de panne d’un système d’allumage en mecanique-auto

Fault finding is a puzzling task, at work and in technical and professional training. Our purpose is to contribute to an analysis of the required competencies and mainly to a characterisation of the evolution steps in knowledge and action organisation from novice to expert. Eight grown-up preparing a professional certificate in engine mecanics were observed and filmed while they were working out the diagnosis of an ignition trouble on a real equipment. The theory of functionning registers (deducted from Piaget’s theory) is considered as a relevant frame for our activity analysis. So, four competencies patterns has been outlined on the basis of errors extension, circuit functionning representations which were infered from schema interpretations, and trouble-shooting strategies denoted by control procedures. Some consequences about training are examined.     

A Framework for Epistemological Discussion on Integrated STEM Education

Science & Education - In primary and secondary schools, the disciplines encompassed in “STEM”—Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics—have usually been studied...     

Higher education policies in Brazil: 1970–90

Under the authoritarian regime, policies on higher education were mostly produced by the Excutive. First of all, an Educational Reform made up for the rapid expansion of a huge private sector where small teaching institutions prevail and which now absorbs over 60% of Brazilian students. The public sector, in turn, was substantially improved: the number of full time faculty increased and teachers in the federal universities were encouraged to apply for a M.A. or a Ph.D. and to get involved with research activities. Meanwhile, a dual funding system (teaching and research) emerged which was responsible both for the creation of graduate programmes all over the country and for the expansion of a research infrastructure. The civilian government (1985 on) brought policy making out of the bureaucracy and into the Congress. The new Constitution granted the university a degree of autonomy it had never enjoyed before which, however, is still to be regulated by further legislation. Policy initiatives driving at institutional differentiation and at performance assessment have systematically failed to become effective due to resistances within the university itself. Meanwhile financial stringency at a time of recession necessarily leads to reductions in funding, notably for research.     

The credibility of online news: an evaluation of the information by university students / La credibilidad de las noticias en Internet: una evaluación de la información por estudiantes universitarios

Abstract

The spread of online disinformation is one of the 10 global risks of the future according to the World Economic Forum, and 51% of experts believe that this situation will not improve in the coming years. By 2022, half of the news will be fake news. In terms of users, young people and adults have problems understanding where the information they find online comes from and what sources to trust or not. In order to ascertain the degree of credibility that young users in Andalucía give to information, this study presents the results of the evaluation of online news by university students pursuing degrees in communication and education (N = 188), using the CRAAP test. The data reveal differences in gender and degree programme in the credibility assigned to the news. The conclusion is that university students have difficulty differentiating the veracity of the sources, in line with previous studies, with fake news earning higher ratings than real news.     

Integrating History of Science in Science Education through Historical Microworlds to Promote Conceptual Change

This paper proposes a new way to integrate history of science in science education to promote conceptual change by introducing the notion of historical microworld, which is a computer-based interactive learning environment respecting historic conceptions. In this definition, “interactive” means that the user can act upon the virtual environment by changing some parameters to see what ensues. “Environment respecting historic conceptions” means that the “world” has been programmed to respect the conceptions of past scientists or philosophers. Three historical microworlds in the field of mechanics are presented in this article: an Aristotelian microworld respecting Aristotle’s conceptions about movement, a Buridanian microworld respecting the theory of impetus and, finally, a Newtonian microworld respecting Galileo’s conceptions and Newton’s laws of movement.     

Environmental education in television narratives: a Brazilian case study

Abstract

This article discusses recent Brazilian research on the relationship between environmental education and cultural studies. Television narratives about the environment and/or sustainability in our everyday lives are used to pose some initial questions about this relation. First, culture is discussed briefly showing how it potentially relates to teaching and informs our role as environmental educators. We argue that culturalist perspectives on research in environmental education politicise teaching practices, even though they are in a context that strays from prerogatives that envisage a future world marked by sustainable development and a green economy. We investigate the impacts of television narratives and images on our everyday lives wherein we are consistently taught particular written and visual messages about how to plan for our future. Examples are draw from the teaching effects of a Brazilian television programme called Repórter Eco, broadcast on a public television network, including the sustainable management of the baru (a typical tree from the Brazilia Cerrado). We argue the educational aspects of television programmes should receive critique, as the relationships established between people and various media artifacts produce particular meanings and ways of seeing the world. This presents a challenge for teachers as examining these subjective ways carefully requires critical examination, not only in terms of education for sustainability or environmental preservation, but also teaching using media.