HERIe: A Web-Based Decision-Supporting Tool for Assessing Risk of Physical Damage Using Various Failure Criteria

ABSTRACT

HERIe is a web-based decision-supporting software tool to facilitate the management of collection environments by precise assessment of climate-induced risk of physical damage to vulnerable objects. The software translates the relative humidity and temperature data recorded in the environment of the analysed object into a strain history experienced by it, and estimates the risk of physical damage using selected failure criteria. As all information is pre-calculated for the user, no engagement in complex and time-consuming numerical simulations is required. HERIe is available for testing at herie.mnk.pl. Detailed information on the methodologies used by the software is available at the above website which also contains tutorial climates. The current work aims at refining HERIe by selecting the damage criteria not only from laboratory studies but also from direct monitoring damage accumulation in objects, especially using the acoustic emission method. The software has been expanded to include moisture-induced response of parchment to support managing environments in libraries and archives.     

Educational reform and the public: Two case studies of Poland and Saskatchewan (Canada)

The involvement of the public in educational reform processes in modern democratic societies primarily serves the purpose of politically legitimizing the reform agenda. This study examines the rationales implicitly or explicitly submitted to the public to explain why educational reforms in the two countries should be endorsed. Although differences in the political culture caution against a hasty comparison of the two case studies, a number of politico-economic similarities allow for a valid juxtaposition. In Poland the context of socio-political and economic renewal prompted the reformers to emphasize the human-capital model which heightened public awareness and participation in the debate surrounding the reform. Public involvement in Saskatchewan was negatively affected for mainly two reasons. First, the government evidently manipulated public input by various means and thereby appears to have predetermined the outcome. Second, the rationale for the reform, based on a free-market model, tightened the linkage between the needs of the labour market and the mandate of the schools. As a result, public interest and participation was greatly diminished.

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Zusammenfassung Die Beteiligung der Öffentlichkeit an Reformen auf dem Gebiet der Erziehung in den modernen demokratischen Gesellschaften dient hauptsächlich der politischen Legitimierung der Reformpläne. In dieser Studie werden die der Bevölkerung offen oder unterschwellig vermittelten Gründe untersucht, warum den erzieherischen Reformen in beiden Ländern zugestimmt werden sollte. Obwohl die Unterschiede in der politischen Kultur Anlaß zur Vorsicht vor einem voreiligen Vergleich der beiden Fallstudien geben, so sprechen einige wirtschaftspolitische Ähnlichkeiten für eine sinnvolle Nebeneinanderstellung. In Polen führte der Zusammenhang sozialpolitischer und wirtschaftlicher Erneuerung dazu, daß die Reformer das Modell des menschlichen Kapitals, das das öffentliche Bewußtsein und die Teilnahme an der Debatte über die Reformen verstärkte, besonders betonten. Die öffentliche Beteiligung in Saskatchewan bekam aus zwei Gründen einen negativen Beigeschmack. Erstens manipulierte die Regierung offensichtlich in verschiedener Hinsicht die Beiträge der Öffentlichkeit, und sie scheint damit das Ergebnis vorbestimmt zu haben. Zweitens stärkten die Gründe für die auf ein Modell der freien Marktwirtschaft gegründeten Reformen die Verbindungen zwischen dem Bedarf des Arbeitsmarktes und dem Mandat der Schulen. Als Folge davon reduzierte sich das öffentliche Interesse und die Beteiligung erheblich.

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Résumé La participation du public aux processus de réforme éducative dans les sociétés démocratiques modernes sert essentiellement à légitimation politique du calendrier de réforme. Cette étude examine la raison d'être soumise implicitement ou explicitement au public et analyse pourquoi les réformes éducatives doivent être adoptées dans les deux pays. Bien que les divergences de cultures politiques mettent en garde contre une comparaison hâtive des deux études de cas, certaines correspondances politico-économiques permettent une juxtaposition valide. En Pologne, le contexte de la rénovation socio-politique et économique a pressé les réformateurs à mettre en valeur le modèle de capital humain qui a rehaussé l'information et la participation du public dans le débat autour de la réforme. La participation du public dans le Saskatchewan a été entravée pour deux raisons. Premièrement, il semblerait que le gouvernement ait manipulé les investissements publics de différentes manières et qu'il ait par cela prédéterminé le résultat obtenu. Deuxièmement, la légitimité de la réforme, orientée vers un modèle de marché libre, a renforcé les liens entre les besoins du marché de l'emploi et le mandat des écoles. Par conséquent, l'intérêt et la participation du public ont été considérablement affaiblis.

     

Eye-tracking verification of the strategy used to analyse algorithms expressed in a flowchart and pseudocode

The results of qualitative and quantitative investigations conducted with individuals who learned algorithms in school are presented in this article. In these investigations, eye-tracking technology was used to follow the process of solving algorithmic problems. The algorithmic problems were presented in two comparable variants: in a pseudocode and flowchart. The eye-tracking data resulted in both qualitative (films registering the gaze paths) and quantitative measures, which allowed the detection and interpretation of the differences in the task-solving strategies between those who found the correct answer and those that did not. The results confirmed a hypothesis that use of the formal notation characteristic of a programming language for presenting algorithms is often a practical difficulty in the process of solving even simple tasks. This study opens a new direction of research; they show that eye-tracking technology can be used to optimise the educational process of learning programming.     

The Role of Universities in Stimulating Regional Development and Educating Global E´lites

At the start of the Twenty-First Century, European universities must play a number of roles in terms of social and economic development. In particular, they must increasingly serve as engines for local and regional development, thus filling a niche that only seems logical for them. At the same time, universities will form e´lites, particularly local e´lites; however, those universities that are world-class institutions will and should educate global e´lites. In performing the latter role, European universities in the Twenty-First Century will reassume a role, seized by American universities in the Twentieth Century, which they had successfully played in the Nineteenth Century.     

The development of analogical reasoning in deaf children and their parents' communication mode

The purpose of this article is to analyze the results of a study of the development of analogical reasoning in deaf children coming from two different linguistic environments (deaf children of deaf parents--sign language, deaf children of hearing parents--spoken language) and in hearing children, as well as to compare two groups of deaf children to a group of hearing children. In order to estimate the development of children's analogical reasoning, especially the development of their understanding of different logical relations, two age groups were singled out in each population of children: younger (9- and 10-year-olds) and older (12- and 13-year-olds). In this way it is possible to assess the influence of early and consistent sign-language communication on the development of the conceptual system in deaf children and to establish whether early and consistent sign-language communication with deaf children affects their mental development to the same extent as early and consistent spoken-language communication with hearing children. The children were given three series of analogy tasks based on different logical relations: (a) a series of verbal analogy tasks (the relations of opposite, part-whole, and causality); (b) a series of numerical analogy tasks (the relations of class membership, opposite, and part-whole); and (c) a series of figural-geometric analogy tasks (the relations of opposite and part-whole). It was found that early and consistent sign-language communication with deaf children plays an almost equivalent role in the development of verbal, numerical, and spatial reasoning by analogy as early and consistent spoken-language communication with hearing children.     

Modeling parameters that characterize pacing of elite female 800-m freestyle swimmers

Pacing offers a potential avenue for enhancement of endurance performance. We report here a novel method for characterizing pacing in 800-m freestyle swimming. Websites provided 50-m lap and race times for 192 swims of 20 elite female swimmers between 2000 and 2013. Pacing for each swim was characterized with five parameters derived from a linear model: linear and quadratic coefficients for effect of lap number, reductions from predicted time for first and last laps, and lap-time variability (standard error of the estimate). Race-to-race consistency of the parameters was expressed as intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). The average swim was a shallow negative quadratic with slowest time in the eleventh lap. First and last laps were faster by 6.4% and 3.6%, and lap-time variability was ±0.64%. Consistency between swimmers ranged from low-moderate for the linear and quadratic parameters (ICC = 0.29 and 0.36) to high for the last-lap parameter (ICC = 0.62), while consistency for race time was very high (ICC = 0.80). Only ~15% of swimmers had enough swims (~15 or more) to provide reasonable evidence of optimum parameter values in plots of race time vs. each parameter. The modest consistency of most of the pacing parameters and lack of relationships between parameters and performance suggest that swimmers usually compensated for changes in one parameter with changes in another. In conclusion, pacing in 800-m elite female swimmers can be characterized with five parameters, but identifying an optimal pacing profile is generally impractical.     

Multimedia and interactivity in distance learning of resuscitation guidelines: a randomised controlled trial

The aim of the study was to conduct a comparative analysis of three forms of knowledge transfer online, taking into account the long-term knowledge growth rate and the satisfaction of students surveyed in respect to distance learning. The cohort of participants for this survey were students of the first degree, studying in the Emergency Medical Services. The authors created three e-learning courses in basic and advanced resuscitation procedures. The level of course participants’ satisfaction was analysed, as well as the knowledge growth rate measured three times: 7, 30 and 90 days, respectively, after finishing the course. The level of satisfaction in all the groups surveyed was comparable. The growth rate for knowledge was the highest in group C in the second and third survey, respectively (30 and 90 days after the end of the course), and a significant difference in favour of course C was demonstrated one month after finishing classes.     

Language Attitudes and Community Engagement: Diwan–The Breton Immersion High School Through the Eyes of Its Pupils

This article is based on long-term participant observation and interviews with pupils and graduates of the Diwan immersion high school in Brittany, France. With reference to the theory of communities of practice, this article shows how the education in the Breton immersion school can influence a knowledge of the minority language and the young peoples’ engagement with the protection of the Breton language. This article presents the social and cultural capital received through the learning of the Breton language; the distinction between Diwan pupils and people from outside the community; and the gradual formation of a collective new Breton-speakers identity. The sociolinguistic prognostic shows that in a few dozen years the only Breton speakers will be Breton learners. The use of Breton depends thus on having knowledge of it and on finding a community in which this language acts as the benchmark for the creation of a Breton identity.     

Digital competences of residents in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in the light of the polish training project “E-active”

Education and Information Technologies - The purpose of the article is to describe the trainings implemented as part of the project “E-Active Residents of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian and...