Receipt from J.D. Hibbard for brick and stone work

Receipt from J.D. Hibbard for brick and stone work, Dec. 14, 1876.

Dancing double binds : feminine virtue and women’s work in Kinshasa

Les femmes de Kinshasa, en République Démocratique du Congo, ont toujours été actives dans le commerce local. L’élévation de leur niveau d’études, ainsi que des circonstances économiques difficiles nécessitant deux salaires par famille, les poussent aujourd’hui vers de nouveaux métiers. Alors qu’elles deviennent plus visibles dans les sphères politiques et économiques, elles sont sujettes à de nouvelles formes de méfiance et d’accusation morale. C'est dans ce contexte que les notions de féminité et de vertu féminine sont définies aujourd'hui. Lorsque les femmes congolaises émigraient vers la ville de Léopoldville à l’ère coloniale, elles étaient confrontées à de nouvelles attentes sociales. Il était attendu qu’elles se « modernisent » et se « civilisent » tout en gardant leur rôle « traditionnel » au foyer et auprès de leur famille. Je voudrais démontrer que ce paradoxe continue d’influencer les représentations de la vertu féminine à Kinshasa aujourd'hui, notamment en établissant une distinction entre la femme « vertueuse » et « non vertueuse ». Cette thèse explore les façons dont les femmes participent et négocient leur nouveau statut et rôle à la lumière de ce paradoxe. Plutôt que de réifier la dichotomie locale entre la femme « vertueuse » et « non vertueuse », j’explore les causes sous-jacentes et les résultats inattendus de ces catégorisations. Je porte une réflexion sur la vertu féminine comme étant construite et influencée par ce qu'on pourrait nommer le « triple patriarcat » alimenté par des valeurs « traditionnelles », par des initiatives coloniales et postcoloniales menées par l'état, ainsi que par des discours pentecôtistes. J’examine d’autre part comment ces facteurs ont engendré une double contrainte, un dilemme en la forme d’injonctions contradictoires, encourageant les femmes à jouer simultanément des rôles opposés, et à devoir soigneusement gérer leur image en public. Je montre enfin que cette double posture des femmes alimente la méfiance entre les deux sexes, impactant sur la perception des femmes au travail et dans la société de manière générale, de même que les projections qu’en fait la culture populaire. Car c'est une des professions les plus visibles pour les femmes de Kinshasa, le rôle de danseuse de concert est très utile pour illuminer les défis auxquels ces femmes sont confrontées. Cette thèse fournit donc un portrait ethnographique des danseuses, et se penche sur leur statut d’objets publics de désir afin de révéler la façon dont leur visibilité met en évidence les conceptions locales de la liberté, du pouvoir et de la féminité.

How to assess, plan and teach word and sentence work : key stage one, primary 1-3 : word and sentence work 1.

Está dividido en cuatro secciones, a lo largo de las cuales se proporciona orientación para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de palabras y oraciones, se destaca la importancia de estos elementos para el aprendizaje por los niños de la lectura y la escritura, se hace un esbozo del proceso de alfabetización infantil desde los dos primeros cursos de ingreso en la escuela,y asimismo, se describe este proceso de desarrollo continuo de la alfabetización.

How to assess, plan and teach word and sentence work : key stage two, primary 4-7 : word and sentence work 2.

Está dividido en cuatro secciones, a lo largo de las cuales se proporciona orientación para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de palabras y oraciones, se destaca la importancia de estos elementos para el aprendizaje por los niños de la lectura y la escritura, se hace un esbozo del proceso de alfabetización infantil desde el tercer hasta el sexto año de ingreso en la escuela, asimismo, se describe este proceso de desarrollo continuo de la alfabetización de los niños.

How to assess, plan and teach word and sentence work 1 : key stage one, primary 1-3 : word and sentence work 1.

Está dividido en cuatro secciones, a lo largo de las cuales se proporciona orientación para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de palabras y oraciones, se destaca la importancia de estos elementos para el aprendizaje por los niños de la lectura y la escritura, se hace un esbozo del proceso de alfabetización infantil desde los dos primeros cursos de ingreso en la escuela,y asimismo, se describe este proceso de desarrollo continuo de la alfabetización.

Poverty, migration and sex work: youth transitions in Ethiopia

Despite an emerging body of work on youth transitions, research has yet to explore the often unconventional routes to adulthood for young people marginalised through poverty. By drawing on interviews with 60 young commercial sex workers in Ethiopia, this paper explores the connections between poverty, migration and sex work and demonstrates that sex work provides a risky alternative, but often successful, path to independence for some rural-urban migrants. The paper concludes by offering recommendations for policies that seek to support young sex workers by enabling them to maintain their independence while seeking different employment.

Poverty, migration and sex work: youth transitions in Ethiopia

Despite an emerging body of work on youth transitions, research has yet to explore the often unconventional routes to adulthood for young people marginalised through poverty. By drawing on interviews with 60 young commercial sex workers in Ethiopia, this paper explores the connections between poverty, migration and sex work and demonstrates that sex work provides a risky alternative, but often successful, path to independence for some rural-urban migrants. The paper concludes by offering recommendations for policies that seek to support young sex workers by enabling them to maintain their independence while seeking different employment.

Eye gaze in virtual environments: evaluating the need and initial work on implementation

For efficient collaboration between participants, eye gaze is seen as being critical for interaction. Video conferencing either does not attempt to support eye gaze (e.g. AcessGrid) or only approximates it in round table conditions (e.g. life size telepresence). Immersive collaborative virtual environments represent remote participants through avatars that follow their tracked movements. By additionally tracking people's eyes and representing their movement on their avatars, the line of gaze can be faithfully reproduced, as opposed to approximated. This paper presents the results of initial work that tested if the focus of gaze could be more accurately gauged if tracked eye movement was added to that of the head of an avatar observed in an immersive VE. An experiment was conducted to assess the difference between user's abilities to judge what objects an avatar is looking at with only head movements being displayed, while the eyes remained static, and with eye gaze and head movement information being displayed. The results from the experiment show that eye gaze is of vital importance to the subjects correctly identifying what a person is looking at in an immersive virtual environment. This is followed by a description of the work that is now being undertaken following the positive results from the experiment. We discuss the integration of an eye tracker more suitable for immersive mobile use and the software and techniques that were developed to integrate the user's real-world eye movements into calibrated eye gaze in an immersive virtual world. This is to be used in the creation of an immersive collaborative virtual environment supporting eye gaze and its ongoing experiments. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Measuring the value of “all play and no work”: can rigorous assessment of simulation games drive innovative teaching in construction?

The construction field is dynamic and dominated by complex, ill-defined problems for which myriad possible solutions exist. Teaching students to solve construction-related problems requires an understanding of the nature of these complex problems as well as the implementation of effective instructional strategies to address them. Traditional approaches to teaching construction planning and management have long been criticized for presenting students primarily with well-defined problems - an approach inconsistent with the challenges encountered in the industry. However, growing evidence suggests that employing innovative teaching approaches, such as interactive simulation games, offers more active, hands-on and problem-based learning opportunities for students to synthesize and test acquired knowledge more closely aligned with real-life construction scenarios. Simulation games have demonstrated educational value in increasing student problem solving skills and motivation through critical attributes such as interaction and feedback-supported active learning. Nevertheless, broad acceptance of simulation games in construction engineering education remains limited. While recognizing benefits, research focused on the role of simulation games in educational settings lacks a unified approach to developing, implementing and evaluating these games. To address this gap, this paper provides an overview of the challenges associated with evaluating the effectiveness of simulation games in construction education that still impede their wide adoption. An overview of the current status, as well as the results from recently implemented Virtual Construction Simulator (VCS) game at Penn State provide lessons learned, and are intended to guide future efforts in developing interactive simulation games to reach their full potential.

Infection Control in design and construction work

Objective: To clarify how infection control requirements are represented, communicated, and understood in work interactions through the medical facility construction project life cycle. To assist project participants with effective infection control management by highlighting the nature of such requirements and presenting recommendations to aid practice. Background: A 4-year study regarding client requirement representation and use on National Health Service construction projects in the United Kingdom provided empirical evidence of infection control requirement communication and understanding through design and construction work interactions. Methods: An analysis of construction project resources (e.g., infection control regulations and room data sheets) was combined with semi-structured interviews with hospital client employees and design and construction professionals to provide valuable insights into the management of infection control issues. Results: Infection control requirements are representationally indistinct but also omnipresent through all phases of the construction project life cycle: Failure to recognize their nature, relevance, and significance can result in delays, stoppages, and redesign work. Construction project resources (e.g., regulatory guidance and room data sheets) can mask or obscure the meaning of infection control issues. Conclusions: A preemptive identification of issues combined with knowledge sharing activities among project stakeholders can enable infection control requirements to be properly understood and addressed. Such initiatives should also reference existing infection control regulatory guidance and advice.