A change management,systems thinking,or organizational development approach to the No Child Left Behind act

Problems with implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be assessed in light of change management theory. Viewing stakeholders collectively as a corporate entity supports employing change management strategies to make the NCLB work. Examining ways that organizational controls and change management can work together points to possible reasons for the problems NCLB has encountered. Finally, strategies are suggested that may facilitate education reform and also have broad application for human performance technology practice.     

Research on epistemological models of older adult education: the need of a contradictory discussion

Since the 1950s in the USA and a bit later in Europe, researchers have started publishing results of systematic research on the learning of older adults. Some have also contributed to constructing theoretical definitions within this theme of research. The perception of older adults as potential learners is a widely shared paradigm. However, there is much variation in disciplinary approaches and suggested outcomes for practice. A qualitative analysis of nine models of older adult education allows us to identify the nature of these differences and highlight what this means for research in Education Sciences. The analysisd authors are from seven different countries and three continents (North-America, Europe and Australia). This article should be regarded as a preliminary synoptic summary, leading to point the need of a contradictory epistemological reflexion for going further. In fact, this comparative analysis makes it obvious that research in this emerging field, by crossing “education” (learning) and “older adults”, is in its pre-paradigm stage of development. This means that even rudimentary points like the definition of the public are not yet fixed and largely accepted. The absence of shared paradigms makes it impossible to compare or transfer results from research works. The systematic construction of a common topic needs a solid base of academic knowledge.     

Archival representations of immigration and ethnicity in North American history: from the ethnicization of archives to the archivization of ethnicity

This article traces the representations of ethnicity and immigration in mainstream American and Canadian archives since the 1950s. It identifies three main periods of evolution of these ethnic archives: the era prior to the civil rights movement, the 1960–1980s and the 1990s and beyond. Relying on an understanding of archival collections as social constructions anchored in specific historical contexts, the article considers the various political, economic, social and technological factors that affected ethnic archives over time, especially as they relate to changing scholarly and popular conceptions of ethnicity in North America. It pays particular attention to the impact of historical scholarship in fields related to immigration and ethnicity and of postmodernist archival theories that challenge the traditional view of archives as evidence of the past. It suggests that the relationship between ethnic archives and their historical context is dialectical: not only are they affected by the context in which they are developed and managed, but they also have an impact on that context as they favor certain conceptions of ethnicity and types of ethnic groups at the expense of others. Both curators and users of archival materials should therefore pay closer attention to the history of the processes that went into the construction of these archives to avoid falling victims to the illusion of ethnic authenticity.     

Trajectory-based real-time control of an electrical circuit against unknown faults

This paper presents a trajectory-based online control reconfiguration mechanism against unknown fault occurring in an electric circuit. First, we demonstrate the modeling of an electric circuit by taking the time-trajectory viewpoint, where no a priori input–output partition has been made. The uniqueness of this viewpoint lies in the fact that it deals only with variables that describe the system without any dedicated (external or internal -type) representation. Subsequently, we illustrate a novel real-time fault-tolerant control (FTC) strategy based on this trajectory standpoint, which does not require an explicit model-based fault diagnosis unit. Instead, the controller is reconfigured directly based on the trajectories generated by the system in real-time, and the given control specifications. In this way, we efficiently excrete the shortcomings that are often seen in model-based fault-tolerant systems. The proposed FTC method is effectively demonstrated on an RLC circuit.     

Knowledge transfer in alliances: the moderating role of the alliance type

We analyse how the impact of determinants of inter-firm knowledge transfers in alliances can be moderated by the proximity of the resources pooled by partners. Six factors are examined: relative absorptive capacity (RAC), inter-partner trust, cultural distance between allies, knowledge ambiguity, knowledge protection, and the partners’ learning intent. We distinguish alliances mobilizing similar resources by partners (called ‘endogamies’ as allies build on their similarities) from alliances pooling different resources (called ‘exogamies’ as allies build on their differences). We propose that: (a) the impact of RAC on knowledge transfers is reinforced in exogamies, but reduced in endogamies; (b) the knowledge ambiguity and cultural distance effect is less in endogamies than in exogamies; (c) the trust and knowledge protection impact is stronger in exogamies than in endogamies; (d) the learning intent impact on knowledge transfers is similar in endogamies and exogamies.     

Non-invasive characterisation of binding media on painted glass magic lantern plates using mid-infrared fibre-optic reflectance spectroscopy

Painted glass magic lantern plates from the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino (Italy), were studied using mid-infrared (mid-IR) fibre-optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), a non-invasive technique, to test its potential for the identification of the types of binding media used in the paints. Gum, oil and resin media were identified on the plates and the amounts of these media varied from place to place; the discovery of these media correlate well with the literature on magic lantern plate preparation and painting. The spectra collected are reported uncorrected and also with the fingerprint region corrected with the Kramers–Kronig correction, which corrects distorted peaks caused by specular reflections.     

Patent systems for encouraging innovation: Lessons from economic analysis

Economic theory views patents as policy instruments aimed at fostering innovation and diffusion. Three major implications are drawn regarding current policy debates. First, patents may not be the most effective means of protection for inventors to recover R&D investments when imitation is costly and first mover advantages are important. Second, patentability requirements, such as novelty or non-obviousness, should be sufficiently stringent to avoid the grant of patents for inventions with low social value that increase the social cost of the patent system. Third, the trade-off between the patent policy instruments of length and breadth could be used to provide sufficient incentives to develop inventions with high social value. Beyond these three implications, economic theory also pleads for a mechanism design approach: an optimal patent system could be based on a menu of different degrees of patent protection where stronger protection would involve higher fees, allowing self-selection by inventors.