State-formation, teaching techniques, and globalization as aporia

Eleanor Smith [pseudonym], teacher : I was talking to the kids about MacDonalds*/I forget exactly what the context was*/I said ‘‘ah, the Americans call them French fries, and, you know, MacDonalds is an American chain and they call them French fries because the Americans call them French fries’’, and this little Australian kid in the front row, very Australian child, said to me, ‘‘I call them French fries!’’ . . . Um, a fourth grade boy whom I taught in 1993 at this school, the world basketball championships were on . . . Americans were playing their dream machine and the Boomers were up against them . . . and, ah, this boy was very interested in basketball . . . but it’s not in my blood, not in the way cricket is for example . . . Um, Um, and I said to this fellow, ‘‘um, well’’, I said, ‘‘Australia’s up against Dream Machine tomorrow’’. He [Jason, pseudonym] said, ‘‘Ah, you know, Boomers probably won’t win’’. . . . I said, ‘‘Well that’s sport, mate’’. I said, ‘‘You never know in sport. Australia might win’’. And he looked at me and he said, ‘‘I’m not going for Australia, I’m going for America’’. This is from an Australian boy! And I thought so strong is the hype, so strong is the, is the, power of the media, etc., that this boy is not [pause], I can’t tell you how outraged I was. Here’s me as an Australian and I don’t even support basketball, it’s not even my sport, um, but that he would respond like that because of the power of the American machine that’s converting kids’ minds, the way they think, where they’re putting their loyalties, etc. I was just appalled, but that’s where he was. And when I asked kids for their favourite place, he said Los Angeles.

Destinations: 3 Large Cast Plays for Young People

This book is a collection of three large-cast plays written in response to a very specific problem. My work as a teacher of drama often required me to locate a script that would somehow miraculously work for a cast of unknown number and gender, and most likely uneven skills and enthusiasm, who I hadn’t even met yet. It’s a familiar dilemma for teachers and students of drama in education contexts, at whatever level you’re teaching. I’d first addressed this creative problem with scripts such as Gate 38 (2010). I had tried using scripts that already existed, but found they required such extensive editing to suit the parameters of cast and performance duration that I may as well have been writing them myself. Even in the setting of a closed studio, in altering these plays I felt I was bending the vision of the playwright, and certainly their narrative structure, out of shape. Everyone who’s attempted to stage a performance with a large cast of students in an educational setting knows it takes time to truly connect with a play, its social contexts, themes and characters. It also takes a lot of time to get on top of the practicalities of learning, rehearsing, directing and running a performance with young people. Often the curtain goes up on something unfinished and unstable. I was looking for ways to reduce the complexity of staging a script, while maintaining the potential of this process as a site of rich, enjoyable learning. Two of the plays (Duty Free and Please Be Seated) are comprised of multiple monologues, combined with music-driven ensemble sequences. The monologues enable individuals to develop and polish their own performances, work in small groups, and cut down on the laborious detail of directing naturalistic scenes based in character interaction. The third (Australian Drama) involves a lot of duologues, meaning that its rehearsal process can happily employ that mainstay of the drama classroom: small group work. There’s plenty of room to move in terms of gender-blind casting as well. Please be Seated is mainly young women. The scripts also contain ensemble-based interludes which are non-verbal, music driven, with a choreographic element. They have also springboarded further explorations in form. The ethical and aesthetic complexities of verbatim works; the interaction between music and theatre; and meta-concerns related to the performing of performance: ‘how can the act of acting ‘acted’. The narratives of all three of these plays are deliberately open, enabling the flexible casting and on-the hop editing that large-group, time-poor processes sometimes necessitate. Duty Free is about the overseas ‘adventures’ of young people. Please Be Seated is based in verbatim text about young people falling in and out of love. Australian Drama is about young people in a drama classroom trying to connect with each other and put their own shine on dull fragments of the theatrical canon. The plays were published as a collection in hardcopy and digital editions by Playlab Press in 2015. Please be Seated is a co-write with a large group. These co-author’s names are listed in the publication, and below in ‘additional information’.

Maximal regularity for second order non-autonomous Cauchy problems

We consider some non-autonomous second order Cauchy problems of the form u + B(t)(u) over dot + A(t)u = f (t is an element of [0, T]), u(0) = (u) over dot(0) = 0. We assume that the first order problem (u) over dot + B(t)u = f (t is an element of [0, T]), u(0) = 0, has L-p-maximal regularity. Then we establish L-p-maximal regularity of the second order problem in situations when the domains of B(t(1)) and A(t(2)) always coincide, or when A(t) = kappa B(t).

Codoping Effect of Zn and Pr in YBa2Cu3O7-delta

In this paper we present the resistivity data for Pr and Zn codoped compound Y1-xPrxBa2[Cu1-yZny](3)O7-delta with 0 < y < 0.1 and x = 0.0, 0.1 and 0.2. The data is analysed in terms of the superconducting critical temperature T-c, residual resistivity rho(0) and the resistivity slope d rho/dT corresponding to the linear rho-T region. It is found that for x = 0.1 Pr has a minimal influence on the in-plane processes for Zn impurity alone affecting slightly T-c and rho(0). The slope dp/dT becomes larger for 0.03 < y < 0.06 leading to larger depining effect and hence slower fall of T, as a function of y. For x = 0.2 there is a drastic change, rho(0) becomes abnormally large, d rho/dT becomes negative implying absence of depinning and a totally pinned charge stripes. Superconductivity vanishes at y = 0.03. It is concluded that for x = 0.2 Pr converts the system from overdoped to underdoped region leading to the universal superconductor-insulator transition.

Shooting from the Wild Zone : A Study of the Chicana Art Photographers Laura Aguilar, Celia Álvarez Muñoz, Delilah Montoya, and Kathy Vargas

The dissertation analyzes and elaborates upon the changing map of U.S. ethno-racial formation from the vantage point of North American Studies, multi-disciplinary cultural studies, and the criticism of visual culture. The focus is on four contemporary Mexican American (Chicana) women photographers, whose art production is discussed, on the one hand, in the context of the Euro-American history of photographic genres and, on the other hand, in the context of so-called decolonizing cultural and academic discourses produced by Mexican Americans themselves. The manuscript consists of two parts. Part I outlines the theoretical and methodological domain of the study, positioning it in the interstices of American studies, European postmodern criticism, postcolonial feminist theory, and the theories of visual culture, particularly of art photography. In addition, the main issues and paradigms of Chicano Studies (Mexican American ethnic studies) are introduced. Part II consists of seven essays, each of which discusses rather independently a particular photographic work or a series of photographs, formulating and defending arguments about their meaning, position in the history of photographic genres, and their cultural and socio-political significance. The study closes with a discussion about ethno-racial identity formation and the role of Chicana photography therein - in embodying and reproducing new subjectivities, alternative categories of knowledge, and open ended historical narratives. It is argued that, symbolically, the "Wild Zone" of gendered and race-specific knowledge becomes associated with the body of the mother, a recurrent image in Chicana art works under discussion. Embedded in this image, the construction of an alternative notion of a family thus articulates the parameters of a matrifocal ethno-racial community unified by the proliferation of differences rather than by conformities typical of nationalistic ideologies. While focusing on art photography, the study as a whole simultaneously constructs, from a European vantage point, a "thick" description of Mexican American history, identities, communities, cultural practices, and self-representations about which very little is known in Finland.

Kulttuurierot ja kielimuuri valtanäkökulmasta suomalais-puolalaisessa työyhteisössä

The thesis deals with cultural differences and language barrier in a Finnish-Polish working environment. The object is to find out what kind of language and cultural practices prevail and what are their consequences. This qualitative research focuses on problem solving strategies used to manage language barrier and cultural differences and their effect on power relations within the working environment and in relation to e.g. parent company, business partners or customers. The research data was collected by half-structured individual interviews of 24 Finns and Poles in seven companies in Poland. The research indicates that language practices as well as Polish employees' language skills significantly affect information flows: those Poles, who have good language skills, are less dependent on their Finnish superior and thanks to their contacts with Finnish parent company they gain adequate information. Different time perceptions next to the perceived slowness of Finns are one of the most important factors causing cultural conflicts in the researched working environments. Most often mentioned by Finns were issues of trust. However, the problematic issues brought up most were often things that the respondents could not influence since they did not concern the closest working environment but others. It seems that the contrast that used to be strong between superiors and subordinates in Poland has - partly due to the Finns' informal management style - in these mixed working environments transformed into a contrast between own working environment and the outsiders.

Tiedettä Pohjantähden alla : Pohjoisen tutkimus ja Ruotsin tiedeseurojen suhteet Ranskaan 1700-luvulla

In the eighteenth century, the birth of scientific societies in Europe created a new framework for scientific cooperation. Through a new contextualist study of the contacts between the first scientific societies in Sweden and the most important science academy in Europe at the time, l Académie des Sciences in Paris, this dissertation aims to shed light on the role taken by the Swedish learned men in the new networks. It seeks to show that the academy model was related to a new idea of specialisation in science. In the course of the eighteenth century, it is argued, the study of the northern phenomena and regions offered the Swedes an important field of speciality with regard to their foreign colleagues. Although historical studies have often underlined the economic, practical undertone of eighteenth-century Swedish science, participation in fashionable scientific pursuits had also become an important scene for representation. However, the views prevailing in Europe tied civilisation and learning closely to the sunnier, southern climates, which had lead to the difficulty of portraying Sweden as a learned country. The image of the scientific North, as well as the Swedish strategies to polish the image of the North as a place for science, are analysed as seen from France. While sixteenth-century historians had preferred to put down the effects of the cold and claim a similarity of northern conditions to the others, the scientific exchange between Swedish and French researchers shows a new tendency to underline the difference of the North and its harsh climate. An explanation is sought by analysing how information about northern phenomena was used in France. In the European academies, new empirical methods had lead to a need for direct observations on different phenomena and circumstances. Rather than curiosities or objects for exoticism, the eighteenth-century depictions of the northern periphery tell about an emerging interest in the most extreme, and often most telling, examples of the workings of the invariable laws of nature. Whereas the idea of accumulating knowledge through cooperation was most manifest in joint astronomical projects, the idea of gathering and comparing data from differing places of observation appears also in other fields, from experimental philosophy to natural studies or medicine. The effects of these developments are studied and explained in connection to the Montesquieuan climate theories and the emerging pre-romantic ideas of man and society.

Ranskan rooli ja asema läntisessä liittoutumassa neljännen ja viidennen tasavallan vaihtumakohdassa 1956-1958

The study discusses the position of France as the United States’ ally in NATO in 1956-1958. The concrete position of France and the role that it was envisioned to have are being treated from the point of view of three participants of the Cold War: France, the United States and the Soviet Union. How did these different parties perceive the question and did these views change when the French Fourth Republic turned into the Fifth in 1958? The study is based on published French and American documents of Foreign Affairs. Because of problems with accessibility to the Soviet archival sources, the study uses reports on France-NATO relations of Pravda newspaper, the official organ of the Communist Party of the USSR, to provide information about how the Soviet side saw the question. Due to the nature and use of source material, and the chronological structure of the work, the study belongs methodologically to the research field of History of International Relations. As distinct from political scientists’ field of research, more prone to theorize, the study is characteristically a historical research, a work based on qualitative method and original sources that aims at creating a coherent narrative of the views expressed during the period covered by the study. France’s road to a full membership of NATO is being treated on the basis of research literature, after which discussions about France’s position in the Western Alliance are being chronologically traced for the period of last years of the Fourth Republic and the immediate months of coming back to power of Charles de Gaulle. Right from the spring of 1956 there can be seen aspirations of France, on one hand, to maintain her freedom of action inside the Western Alliance and, on the other, to widen the dialogue between the allies. The decision on France’s own nuclear deterrent was made already during the Fourth Republic, when it was thought to become part of NATO’s common defence. This was to change with de Gaulle. The USA felt that France still fancied herself as a great power and that she could not participate in full in NATO’s common defence because of her colonies. The Soviet Union saw the concrete position of France in the Alliance as in complete dependence on the USA, but her desired role was expressed largely in “Gaullist” terms. The expressions used by the General and the Soviet propaganda were close to each other, but the Soviet Union could not support de Gaulle without endangering the position of the French Communist Party. Between the Fourth and Fifth Republics no great rupture in content took place concerning the views of France’s role and position in the Western Alliance. The questions posed by de Gaulle had been expressed during the whole period of Fourth Republic’s existence. Instead, along with the General the weight and rhetoric of these questions saw a great change. Already in the early phase the Americans saw it possible that with de Gaulle, France would try to change her role. The rupture took place in the form of expression, rather than in its content.

Incompressible boundary layer for longitudinal flow over a cylinder with an applied magnetic field

The flow, heat and mass transfer problem for a steady laminar incompressible boundary layer flow in an electrically conducting fluid over a longitudinal cylinder with an applied magnetic field has been studied. The partial differential equations governing the flow have been solved numerically using an implicit finite-difference scheme. The results are found to be strongly dependent on the magnetic field and dissipation parameter. The effect of the mass transfer is more pronounced on the skin friction than on the heat transfer. The results have been compared with those of the series solution, the asymptotic solution, the Glauert and Lighthill's solution, local similarity, local nonsimilarity and difference-differential methods. Good agreement is found with all of them, except with the results of the local similarity and series solution methods.

The Eligibility Definition Used in the Social Security Administration’s Disability Programs Needs to be Changed

In its October 2003 report on the definition of disability used by the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) disability programs [i.e., Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for people with disabilities], the Social Security Advisory Board raises the issue of whether this definition is at odds with the concept of disability embodied in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and, more importantly, with the aspirations of people with disabilities to be full participants in mainstream social activities and lead fulfilling, productive lives. The Board declares that “the Nation must face up to the contradictions created by the existing definition of disability.” I wholeheartedly agree. Further, I have concluded that we have to make fundamental, conceptual changes to both how we define eligibility for economic security benefits, and how we provide those benefits, if we are ever to fulfill the promise of the ADA. To convince you of that proposition, I will begin by relating a number of facts that paint a very bleak picture – a picture of deterioration in the economic security of the population that the disability programs are intended to serve; a picture of programs that purport to provide economic security, but are themselves financially insecure and subject to cycles of expansion and cuts that undermine their purpose; a picture of programs that are facing their biggest expenditure crisis ever; and a picture of an eligibility determination process that is inefficient and inequitable -- one that rations benefits by imposing high application costs on applicants in an arbitrary fashion. I will then argue that the fundamental reason for this bleak picture is the conceptual definition of eligibility that these programs use – one rooted in a disability paradigm that social scientists, people with disabilities, and, to a substantial extent, the public have rejected as being flawed, most emphatically through the passage of the ADA. Current law requires eligibility rules to be based on the premise that disability is medically determinable. That’s wrong because, as the ADA recognizes, a person’s environment matters. I will further argue that programs relying on this eligibility definition must inevitably: reward people if they do not try to help themselves, but not if they do; push the people they serve out of society’s mainstream, fostering a culture of isolation and dependency; relegate many to a lifetime of poverty; and undermine their promise of economic security because of the periodic “reforms” that are necessary to maintain taxpayer support. I conclude by pointing out that to change the conceptual definition for program eligibility, we also must change our whole approach to providing for the economic security of people with disabilities. We need to replace our current “caretaker” approach with one that emphasizes helping people with disabilities help themselves. I will briefly describe features that such a program might require, and point out the most significant challenges we would face in making the transition.

Universal Access-NY User’s Guide

What is Universal Access-NY? Universal Access-NY is a complete online planning toolkit, www.UniversalAccessNY.org, where a One-Stop Delivery System can assess its practices, and develop work plans to improve physical and programmatic accessibility for all One-Stop customers. This web site and manual was developed by Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute, through the support and guidance of the New York State Department of Labor, with funding from two U.S. Department of Labor Work Incentive Grants (WIG 1 and 2). This web site was designed for use in a collaborative manner, bringing together One-Stop personnel, agency partners, business leaders and customers with disabilities. Universal Access-NY supports continuous improvement, with features that encourage multiple uses and incremental systems change.

Discovering an Untapped Resource: Recruiting, Hiring, and Promoting People with Cognitive Disabilities.

Sections to the Paper include the following: America's Shrinking Labor Force, People with Cognitive Disabilities: an Untapped Labor Source, Focus, Initiative, Understand, Enhance.

Disability in a Technology-Driven Workplace

New Internet and Web-based technology applications have meant significant cost and time efficiencies to many American businesses. However, many employers have not yet fully grasped the impact of these new information and communication technologies on applicants and employees with certain disabilities such as vision impairments, hearing problems or limited dexterity. Although not all applicants and employees who have a disability may experience IT-access problems, to select groups it can pose a needless barrier. The increasing dominance of IT in the workplace presents both a challenge and an opportunity for workers with disabilities and their employers. It will be up to HR professionals to ensure that Web-based HR processes and workplace technologies are accessible to their employees with disabilities. .

Molecular Genetics of Lactase Deficiencies

Congenital lactase deficiency (CLD) (MIM 223000) is a rare autosomal recessive gastrointestinal disorder characterized by watery diarrhea in infants fed with breast milk or other lactose-containing formulas. The CLD locus was previously assigned by linkage and linkage disequilibrium analyses on 2q21 in 19 Finnish families. In this study, the molecular background of this disorder is reported. The CLD locus was refined in 32 CLD patients in 24 families by using microsatellite and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) haplotypes. Mutation analyses were performed by direct sequencing. We identified 5 distinct mutations in the lactase (LCT) gene, encoding the enzyme that hydrolyzes lactose in the intestinal lumen. These findings facilitate genetic testing of CLD in clinical practice and enable genetic counseling. The present data also provide the basis for detailed characterization of the molecular pathogenesis of this disorder. Adult-type hypolactasia (MIM 223100) (lactase non-persistence, lactose intolerance) is an autosomal recessive gastrointestinal condition that is a result of a decline in the activity of lactase in the intestinal lumen after weaning. Adult-type hypolactasia is considered to be a normal phenomenon among mammals and symptoms are remarkably milder than experienced in CLD. Recently, a variant C/T-13910 was shown to associate with the adult-type hypolactasia trait, locating 13.9 kb upstream of the LCT gene. In this study, the functional significance of the C/T-13910 variant was determined by studying the LCT mRNA levels in intestinal biopsy samples in children and adults with different genotypes. RT-PCR followed by solid-phase minisequencing was applied to determine the relative expression levels of the LCT alleles using an informative SNP located in exon 1. In children, the C-13910 allele was observed to be downregulated after five years of age in parallel with lactase enzyme activity. The expression of the LCT mRNA in the intestinal mucosa in individuals with the T-13910 A-22018 alleles was 11.5 times higher than that found in individuals with the C-13910, G-22018 alleles. These findings suggest that the C/T-13910 associated with adult-type hypolactasia is associated with the transcriptional regulation of the LCT gene. The presence of the T-13910 A-22018 allele also showed significant elevation lactase activity. Galactose, the hydrolysing product of the milk sugar lactose, has been hypothesized to be poisonous to ovarian epithelial cells. Hence, consumption of dairy products and lactase persistence has been proposed to be a risk factor for ovarian carcinoma. To investigate whether lactase persistence is related to the risk of ovarian carcinoma the C/T-13910 genotype was determined in a cohort of 782 women with ovarian carcinoma 1331 individuals serving as controls. Lactase persistence did not associate significantly with the risk for ovarian carcinoma in the Finnish, in the Polish or in the Swedish populations. The findings do not support the hypothesis that lactase persistence increases the risk for ovarian carcinoma.

A reanalysis of 409 European-Ancestry and African American schizophrenia pedigrees reveals significant linkage to 8p23.3 with evidence of locus heterogeneity

The detection and replication of schizophrenia risk loci can require substantial sample sizes, which has prompted various collaborative efforts for combining multiple samples. However, pooled samples may comprise sub-samples with substantial population genetic differences, including allele frequency differences. We investigated the impact of population differences via linkage reanalysis of Molecular Genetics of Schizophrenia 1 (MGS1) affected sibling-pair data, comprising two samples of distinct ancestral origin: European (EA: 263 pedigrees) and African-American (AA: 146 pedigrees). To exploit the linkage information contained within these distinct continental samples, we performed separate analyses of the individual samples, allowing for within-sample locus heterogeneity, and the pooled sample, allowing for both within-sample and between-sample heterogeneity. Significance levels, corrected for the multiple tests, were determined empirically. For all suggestive peaks, stronger linkage evidence was obtained in either the EA or AA sample than the combined sample, regardless of how heterogeneity was modeled for the latter. Notably, we report genomewide significant linkage of schizophrenia to 8p23.3 and evidence for a second, independent susceptibility locus, reaching suggestive linkage, 29 cM away on 8p21.3. We also detected suggestive linkage on chromosomes 5p13.3 and 7q36.2. Many regions showed pronounced differences in the extent of linkage between the EA and AA samples. This reanalysis highlights the potential impact of population differences upon linkage evidence in pooled data and demonstrates a useful approach for the analysis of samples drawn from distinct continental groups.