500 research outputs found
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The Mass Incarceration of Undocumented Latinos/as in the Prison-Immigration Industrial Complex: The Collateral Consequences
No full textIn this chapter, the authors discuss the current mass incarceration of Latinos/as in the United States. While Latinos/as have always been overrepresented in the criminal justice system, especially in relation to their population size, the number of Latinos/as, especially those who are undocumented, is now increasing at epidemic proportions in prison. Paralleling the Black experience about mass incarceration, which has its historical roots in slavery, the authors discuss impact of mass incarceration on the Latino/a community, and how mass incarceration places the Latino/a population at-risk for destruction of its community, most notably the family. The authors, who are primarily mental health professionals, share their concerns about how mass incarceration is tearing at the foundation of this community as it has in the African American community and is likely to have negative long-term, and perhaps permanent, effects that are yet to be known. While it is beyond of the scope of the chapter to discuss the specific assessment and treatment of Latino/a persons affected by mass incarceration, the authors do focus on problems that are arising in this community as a result of persons, especially parents, being incarceration because of undocumented status in the United States
Makerspaces: Materializing, Digitizing, and Transforming Learning
No full textThe emergence of the makerspace movement offers tremendous potential to transform learning. Learning by making, while ancient in practice, has evolved due to the development and confluence of developments in computing, communications technologies, pedagogy, and library science. In particular, online networking has enabled learners to share and engage with ideas and materials in a uniquely 21st century fashion. The makerspace activity process (MAP) framework illustrates how makerspace activities—curating, relating, and creating—are intertwined through networking practices. Makerspaces are highly contingent and transformative; both the nature of the makerspace and the participants transform each other through interaction. For those educators who find it difficult to integrate within formal curricula and assessment practices, the MAP framework provides a guide for facilitating and assessing learner activity in educational makerspaces. The framework is useful for educators at all levels from kindergarten to post-secondary
Weathering the Storm: Disaster Preparedness and the Florida Health Information Exchange
No full textThe Florida Health Information Exchange has grown over the years since its inception in 2004. Harris Corporation was contracted to provide some basic services to the health care industry in 2011 and this relationship has continued to the present time. As services have expanded, challenges have arisen. With disaster preparedness and business continuity an important part of continuity of care and health information technology initiatives, this paper will consider how a “network of networks” can be of assistance when natural disasters strike
Investigating UI Displacements in an Adaptive Mobile Homescreen
No full textThe authors present a system that adapts application shortcuts (apps) on the homescreen of an Android smartphone, and investigate the effect of UI displacements that are caused by the choice of adaptive model and the order of apps in the homescreen layout. They define UI displacements to be the distance that items move between adaptations, and they use this as a measure of stability. An experiment with 12 participants is performed to evaluate the impact of UI displacements on the homescreen. To make the distribution of apps in the experiment task less contrived, naturally generated data from a pilot study is used. The authors’ results show that selection time is correlated to the magnitude of the previous UI displacement. Additionally, selection time and subjective rating improve significantly when the model is easy to understand and an alphabetical order is used, conditions that increase stability. However, rank order is preferred when the model updates frequently and is less easy to understand. The authors present their approach to adapting apps on the homescreen, and initial insights into UI displacements
A Participatory Design and Formal Study Investigation into Mobile Text Entry for Older Adults
No full textText entry remains key to many tasks on touchscreen smartphones and is an important factor in the usability of such devices. The known problems of text entry can be particularly acute for older adults due to physical and cognitive issues associated with ageing. In a study of mobile text entry the authors employed a variety of participatory design and formal comparative study techniques in order to explore the requirements of this group of users and to discover the key differences in texting activity between them and younger users of mobile devices. They report on the findings of a lab study of texting behaviour of older adults. The authors' findings indicate differences in attitudes to texting styles and tasks between older and younger adults. They also identify some differences in typing behaviour and reflect on methods
Unit-Selection Speech Synthesis Method Using Words as Search Units
No full textUnit-selection speech-synthesis systems have been proposed. In most of the unit-selection speech-synthesis systems, search units are rather short such as syllables, phonemes and diphones. However, when applied to large speech databases, shorter units produce more voice-waveform candidates and a larger speech database cannot be used without narrow pruning for practical use. Narrow pruning impairs the quality of the synthesized speech. Here the author examined the possibility of using words as search units. Subjective evaluations indicated that 70% of the speech synthesized by the proposed method sounded more natural than that synthesized by a conventional method. The five-point mean opinion score of the synthesized speech was 3.5, and 21% was judged to sound as natural as human speech. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of unit-selection speech synthesis using words as search units
Bridging Local and Global Experiences: A Faculty-Led Study Abroad Program for Teachers
No full textTo internationalize the K-12 curriculum and instructional practices, there is an increasing need to provide study-abroad opportunities for practicing teachers. In this chapter, the authors describe the design of a recent Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) program that offer practicing teachers from different grade levels and content areas the opportunity to bridge their local and global experiences. The intentional design of program activities at the pre-departure, in-country, and re-entry phases is detailed based on research regarding teachers' communities of practice, teacher change, and the cultural transition framework. In addition to program activities, the challenges faculty directors and participants experienced and the strategies employed to leverage these challenges into learning opportunities are discussed. Recommendations for similar study-abroad programs involving practicing teachers are also provided
Ontological Modeling of Certification and Inspection Process to Support Smart Disclosure of Product Information
No full textThe increasing number of certification schemes diminishes the utility of certifications as private regulation and creates several policy challenges. The undergoing efforts to help consumers verify the accuracy of information created by private regulation mechanisms such as certification are currently confronted with the complexities of certification and labeling systems and the difficulties in linking data points across various certification schemes. This paper presents the development of certification and inspection ontology to support smart disclosure of product information. This study proposes that the resulting ontology enables information integration and standardization thus supporting knowledge discovery and sharing by synthesizing information across disparate data sources that is valuable for informing data-driven policy formulation. The ontology also supports standardization of an agreed set of terms and semantics for currently fragmented certification and inspection schemes to support comparability across different certification schemes. The accuracy and consistency of the proposed ontology are verified by using current reasoning tools to run queries based on a set of predefined competency questions
Fiscal Responsibility and Multi-Level Governance: Bridging the Gap between Policy and Management
No full textPublic-policy assumptions regarding sub-national governments' financial behavior are based on economic rationality. Therefore, to achieve fiscal stability at the macro level, central governments use fiscal rules both to constrain the behavior of local policymakers and to resolve deficit/debt biases. Using the Italian fiscal governance system as an illustrative example, this chapter considers both the tensions derived from achieving fiscal responsibility at the national level in a decentralized environment and the difficulties of maintaining adequate performance at the local government level. It is argued that the public management perspective can be helpful not only at the micro level but also at the macro level in developing public policies to promote fiscal stability. It is suggested that public policy should adopt a more holistic approach toward fiscal responsibility in multi-level governance environments. Such an approach requires a deep understanding of the determinants of financial viability of public sector organizations
Introspections on In-Service Teachers' Intercultural Responsiveness Skills for English Language Learners
No full textThis chapter discusses the successes, concerns and challenges faced by in-service teachers in the instruction of English Learners (ELs). The constructs of intercultural responsiveness (IR), cultural competence (CC), linguistic competence (LC) and professional development (PD) are used as conceptual frameworks. The researchers are drawing on data gathered at a statewide conference focused on dual language (DL) education from five focus group interviews and informal conversations with twenty-seven in-service teachers and administrators at all levels of education, and the researchers' field notes .Vignettes of the participants' voices highlight their perspectives and experiences working with ELs. The authors hope that these stories of celebrations and struggles will engage other teachers and administrators to take a deeper look into their personal practices and pedagogies of working with ELs