“American Chimera: The Ever-Present Domination of Whiteness,Patriarchy, and Capitalism…A Parable”

In Greek mythology, the Chimera is a fire-breathing monster with three heads: one of a lion, one of a horned goat, and one of a powerful dragon. Of similar construction is the presence of three structures in US society, whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism, which are overwhelmingly represented, valued, and espoused when examining areas of progress, i.e., family income, poverty rates, high school and college graduation rates, and home ownership. This modern American three-headed beast controls, manipulates, and permeates all aspects of US society irrespective of class, culture, or gender. Using critical race theory and critical whiteness studies, this critically interpretive parable draws from the ways in which whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism function in social, cultural, economic, and educational spheres. The parable tells the story of Sue Libertad and analyzes how this metaphorical Chimera, despite its ubiquity, silently permeates all aspects of her life. Not until a tragic outbreak occurs, does the hegemony of this chimera erodes and Sue.     

Technological Training Requirements in Catalonia

The topic of Training Requirements in Industry is relatively new. This article identifies the needs of training and the possible problems that can otherwise occur, with the primary objective being to provide guidelines for the planning of postgraduate courses.     

Humidity as an aversive stimulus in learning inDrosophila melanogaster

The learned suppression of photopositive tendencies was studied at the individual level in young flies of both sexes. In a T-maze, flies had to choose between an arm leading to a lighted vial associated with an aversive stimulus (i.e., a solution of quinine chlorhydrate deposited on a filter paper in the vial) and another arm leading to a darkened vial free of quinine. The present experiments were carried out to determine the roles of quinine and relative humidity in the maze. The flies avoided the lighted vial containing quinine even if they had no tarsal contact with quinine, and this result was not due to any odor of quinine. Subsequent experiments showed that relative humidity in the lighted vial, and probably in the arm leading to it, was an aversive stimulus, which partly explains why the flies avoided the lighted vial. However, in conditions in which the flies had tarsal contact with water or quinine it was confirmed that flies trained with quinine have higher avoidance scores than those trained with water only. Moreover, individual aversion to humidity was not correlated with the individual avoidance score: At similar levels of motivation (i.e., similar levels of aversion to humidity), some flies learn to avoid the lighted vial containing quinine whereas others do not. All these results show that, in addition to quinine, humidity is an unconditioned aversive stimulus in our paradigm and thus needs to be tightly controlled in experiments of conditioned avoidance.     

Bias-Adjusted Three-Step Latent Markov Modeling With Covariates

Latent Markov models with covariates can be estimated via 1-step maximum likelihood. However, this 1-step approach has various disadvantages, such as that the inclusion of covariates in the model might alter the formation of the latent states and that parameter estimation could become infeasible with large numbers of time points, responses, and covariates. This is why researchers typically prefer performing the analysis in a stepwise manner; that is, they first construct the measurement model, then obtain the latent state classifications, and subsequently study the relationship between covariates and latent state memberships. However, such a stepwise approach yields downward-biased estimates of the covariate effects on initial state and transition probabilities. This article, shows how to overcome this problem using a generalization of the bias-corrected 3-step estimation method proposed for latent class analysis (Asparouhov & Muthén, 2014; Bolck, Croon, & Hagenaars, 2004; Vermunt, 2010). We give a formal derivation of the generalization to latent Markov models and discuss how it can be used with many time points by incorporating it into a Baum–Welch type of expectation-maximization algorithm. We evaluate the method through a simulation study and illustrate it using an application on household financial portfolio change. Our study shows that the proposed correction method yields unbiased parameter estimates and accurate standard errors, except for situations with very poorly separated classes and a small sample.     

Expectations of higher education students: a comparison between the perception of student and teachers

Higher education institutions are ever more interested in the development of tools that enable them to evaluate and manage the expectations of their students with the purpose of attracting and keeping them satisfied. This research compares what the faculty believes the students expect from a higher education institution with the expectations of students entering higher education. A quantitative study was performed with students from a higher education institution through the application of a questionnaire covering 32 different expectations. The perceptions of the faculty were also collected through the same questionnaire, suitably adapted. The results of the investigation demonstrated differences in thinking between students and professors, with 19 variables representing student expectations that showed statistically significant mean differences. In 13 variables the students had greater expectations than the faculty believed, while for six variables the faculty indicated higher expectations than the students declared. Identifying the existence of this gap in knowledge will allow the higher education institution to adjust its services to the expectations of students, leading them to greater satisfaction.     

旅游,听力,生活

本文为外教Rober to P. Reyes在离开中国时,写给他学生的一封信,主要目的在于鼓励中国学生学习英语,以及如何培养英语学习的兴趣等各方面的良好建议。     

Epidemiology of tennis injuries: An eight-year review of Davis Cup retirements

Tennis practice, especially at elite levels, may place players at risk for debilitating musculoskeletal injuries. The aim of this study was to analyse the epidemiological pattern of retirements due to medical conditions sustained by tennis players during Davis Cup matches in the 2006–2013 period. All uncompleted matches due to a medical condition (injuries and illnesses) occurred in the above-mentioned competition were collected from the official source, registered and analysed according to published guidelines. The overall incidence of match retirements was 1.66% (12/719). The injury rate was 6.05/1000 playing hours; and 6.64/1000 match exposures. Musculotendinous lesions were the most common type of injury (66.66%). The incidence of lower-limb injuries was higher than upper-limb and trunk lesions. The incidence of retired matches due to medical conditions was higher in hard courts than in clay courts (2.97% and 0.90%, respectively; p = 0.04), while the median value of inactivity of injuries was 32.0 days (range 3–297). In conclusion, the incidence of retirements due to medical conditions in Davis Cup matches was low supporting the assumption that elite tennis is a low-risk sport activity. Findings provided scientific evidences of injury patterns among male professional tennis players and may contribute to conduct better injury prevention strategies.     

Acute modification in plasma lipid levels in ultramarathon runners

We aimed to evaluate the effects of a 24-h ultramarathon, an aerobic test of high physical load, on lipid profile and apolipoproteins B (ApoB) and A1 (ApoA1) levels, minimally modified low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and oxidised LDL. Prospective evaluation of 16 male athletes who participated in an ultramarathon run, where the objective was to run the greatest distance possible in 24 h. Fourteen participants completed the run. The mean distance achieved was 133.1 km (maximum of 169.6 km). There was a trend in reduction of triglycerides and total cholesterol (P = 0.06 and 0.05, respectively), without significant modifications in high-density lipoprotein, LDL and ApoA1 levels (P = 0.16; 0.55 and 0.67). There was a marked reduction in ApoB levels (P < 0.001), correlated directly to the distance covered (Pearson R = 0.68). Accordingly, an increase in the LDL/ApoB ratio was observed. The stress of this physical activity was not associated to an increase in minimally modified LDL or oxidised LDL. Lipid profile levels were not acutely altered by prolonged physical activity. Similarly, there was no evidence of greater oxidation of LDL over a 24-h period of physical activity. The reduction in ApoB was directly proportional to the distance covered, suggesting an acute positive change in phenotype of LDL molecules.     

EDUCATIONAL POLICY AND ECONOMIC POLICY: THE CASE OF SOUTHERN ITALY

The aim of this article is to describe the role of educational policies in state intervention in southern Italy. Its point of departure is recognition of the fact that education policies, particularly those concerned with higher education, have been given increasing importance in the plans for government intervention for development in this area. However, the increased emphasis on higher education, as well as on policies of technological development and innovation, has not resulted in improvements in the effectiveness of intervention. Rather, what has occurred has been the result of inadequate implementation techniques and of a general approach which has caused an overloading of the role and functions of higher education in a situation of general impoverishment and crisis in the basic educational structures (compulsory and secondary education). At the same time, the changing of the educational background of new and old professions due to the contemporary organization of labour seems to coincide, to some extent, with the emphasis on the upgrading of the general level of education, perceived as being needed for long‐term modernization policies in developing areas (or countries).