2,190 research outputs found
Re-appropriating Bourdieu for post-national research on Sino-foreign higher education
No full textIn this chapter we make predictions about developments in empirical worlds of Sino–foreign higher education as the 2020s unfold from beginnings marked by geopolitical and global health crises. Inspired by efforts to review and recraft Bourdieusian sociology for post-national investigations in other fields, we propose problematics for researching higher education which crosses and flows over nation-state borders, with or without student mobility. These problematics are informed by Bourdieu’s methodological autonomisation, that is, his conceptualisation of fields as relatively autonomous spaces of social activity. We consider the concerns of Bourdieusian scholars and higher education researchers with both methodological nationalism and methodological globalism. The former does not account for the global, while the latter does, but it obscures that which occurs on national and sub-national scales and in relation to the global. To enable investigation of the activity of universities in these complexly multi-scalar conditions, we canvass the utility of concepts about universities qua organisational fields and as agencies within fields of organisations, and of institutional, organisational, or university habitus. We also highlight the utility of multiple correspondence analysis for post-national research on higher education. The chapter assumes that crafting sociological tools is a priority given the still intensifying heteronomisation of higher education practice and research
Capital conversion and school change: a Bourdieusian analysis
No full textThis chapter reports on a fragment of a longitudinal study of a principal’s transformational leadership and his school’s organisational change. The chapter examines the conversion of the principal’s personal capital into the school’s organizational capital. Three underlying, inter-nested mechanisms of capital conversion emerged from the interview data: Time, a significant person, and a critical moment are required to achieve school development. The specialised skills for intra-capital-conversion and cross-capital-conversion are internalised in the principal’s transformational leadership required for decoding and reshaping school doxa and promoting school change. To encourage Chinese schools to perceive their culture, gain organisational capital, and respond to change, a high amount of cultural capital should be brought into the criteria of selection and training of new principals
Parental engagement in children's transition to school: A Bourdieusian analysis of a Chinese sample in Beijing
No full textThis chapter investigates the patterns and dynamics of Chinese parents’ engagement practices in transition to school. The chapter uses multiple correspondence analysis to explore survey data collected from 274 parent questionnaires. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory, the study probes the correspondence between parental engagement and parental socioeconomic status measured through family income and parents’ occupation and educational qualification. For the surveyed parents, three different forms of habituses were found to engineer their engagement in children's transition to school. These are selective retreat, self-presence, and indifference. This finding challenges the monolithic notion of ‘parental habitus’ found in the literature that fails to capture the complex engagement patterns hidden behind the correspondence between parents’ positions and their dispositions. The chapter purposefully avoids using ‘class’—a highly contentious notion in the Chinese context. The chapter ends with a reflexive coda that proactively speaks to research on parenting in disrupted and disruptive contexts such as the global pandemic of COVID-19 raging across the globe at the time of writin
RE: Appropriating Bourdieu for a Sociology of Chinese Education
No full textThe concluding notes in this chapter review some of these distinctive issues and differences. The chapter presents a composite of our notes and correspondence drawn from our discussion as we worked through the essays included in this volume, from our continuing dialogue with our contributors and co-authors, and from our diary exchanges during ongoing travels and seminars in China. While our work begins from Bourdieu’s sociology, this is an opportunity for a parallel reconsideration of Bourdieu’s work in the light of reproduction and transformation in Chinese education. Our aim here is a reflexive sociology that weaves between theory and context, the sociological imagination, and the facticity of the social and material realities of the new China.
Here we explore the grounds for expanding, critiquing, and re-appropriating Bourdieu’s ideas as part of the project of a new critical sociology of education in China. With all respect to the field and our Chinese colleagues, this is but a first collective attempt to build new theory and to table new premises, deliberately polemical and speculative, historical and wide-ranging
The synthesis of monodisperse alkanes with long chains
No full textThis thesis discusses reasons for the interest in monodisperse long chain alkanes and describes attempts, past and present, to synthesise such molecules. Chapter 1 discusses why the synthesis of such molecules are important and the objectives of this project. Chapter 2 reviews the methods previous groups have devised to prepare pure samples of long chain alkanes. In particular, work carried out by Whiting et al. at Bristol, whose scheme formed the basis of the early work in Durham. Chapter 3 describes the work in Durham and improvements which were made to Whiting's method, allowing the synthesis of longer chain lengths and greater quantities of materials to be achieved. Chapter 4 provides a summary of the practical work carried out by the author. Chapter 5 gives experimental details of the work described in Chapter 4
Opioid mediated activity and expression of mu and delta opioid receptors in isolated human term non-laboring myometrium
No full textThe existence of opioid receptors in mammalian myometrial tissue is now widely accepted. Previously enkephalin degrading enzymes have been shown to be elevated in pregnant rat uterus and a met-enkephalin analogue has been shown to alter spontaneous contractility of rat myometrium. Here we have undertaken studies to determine the effects of met-enkephalin on in vitro human myometrial contractility and investigate the expression of opioid receptors in pregnant myometrium. Myometrial biopsies were taken from women undergoing elective caesarean delivery at term. Organ bath experiments were used to investigate the effect of the met-enkephalin analogue [d-Ala 2, d-met 5] enkephalin (DAMEA) on spontaneous contractility. A confocal immunofluorescent technique and real time PCR were used to determine the expression of protein and mRNA, respectively for two opioid receptor subtypes, mu and delta. DAMEA had a concentration dependent inhibitory effect on contractile activity (1×10−7 M–1×10−4 M; 54% reduction in contractile activity, P<0.001 at 1×10−4 M concentration). Mu and delta opioid receptor protein sub-types and their respective mRNA were identified in all tissues sampled. This is the first report of opioid receptor expression and of an opioid mediated uterorelaxant action in term human non-labouring myometrium in vitroSB. 21/03/201
Sponge-associated fungi and their bioactive compounds - the Suberites case
No full textSpecimens of Suberites domuncula that had been cultured in aquaria for 4 weeks were analyzed for their associated fungi. A total of 81 fungal strains belonging to 20 different genera was isolated and identified by morphological and molecular methods. The most frequently isolated taxa were Cladosporium spp., Penicillium spp., Petriella sp., Phialophora spp. and Engyodontium album. Based on chromatographic and mass spectrometric analysis of fungal extracts, as well as on bioassay results, Aspergillus ustus, Penicillium sp., Petriella sp. and Scopulariopsis sp. were selected for in-depth analysis of their natural products. A total of 19 different fungal metabolites, including three new natural products, was isolated and structurally identified. A. ustus yielded two sesquiterpenes, a drimane derivative and deoxyuvidin, as well as a sesterterpene ophiobolin H. The drimane derivative had an ED50 value against L5178Y cells of 1.9 mu g ml(-1) in vitro. The crude extract of Petriella sp. was also strongly cytotoxic against the L5178Y cell line. The cyclic tetrapeptide WF-3161 was primarily responsible for the activity; the ED50 value was <0.1 mu g ml(-1). It was identical to the known compound WF-3161 and had been previously isolated from Petriella guttulata. In addition to WF-3161, three further natural products were obtained and unequivocally identified as new derivatives of infectopyrone by one-and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy and by mass spectroscopy. Of the new compounds, only dihydroinfectopyrone was active against L5178Y cells; the ED50 value was 0.2 mu g ml(-1). Penicillium sp. yielded the largest number of metabolites. Viridicatin, viridicatol, cyclopenin and cyclopenol suppressed larval growth of the polyphagous pest insect Spodoptera littoralis when incorporated into an artificial diet at an arbitrarily chosen concentration of 237 ppm. Viridicatol was the most active compound and had an ED50 value of ca. 50 ppm. Scopulariopsis sp. yielded three metabolites, including the known acetylcholinesterase inhibitors quinolactacin A1 and A2
Towards the Theatre: Opasnyi Povorot (Dangerous Corner). The 1939 Production by G.M. Kozintsev at the Leningrad Comedy Theater
No full textThe subject of this research is the first production in a series of theatrical works by G.M. Kozintsev (1905–1973) of the late 1930s — early 1950s, which are fundamentally important both in his creative biography and in the history of Soviet theatre of that era. The author suggests that the entry of the famous film director into theatre was caused by the desire to find a way out of a creative impasse.
The director’s appeal to the play of the modern English novelist and playwright J.B. Priestley and its controversial interpretation were driven by the dramatic atmosphere of the late 1930s. The eccentric grotesque of the play and its pamphlet character, which was insisted on by the director, are considered as a parody of tragedy by the author of the research. This reveals a fundamental connection between the production under consideration and the subsequent successful experiments of G.M. Kozintsev in the field of theatrical Shakespeareana. The article draws attention to the fundamental connection between the style of the production and the general style of the Leningrad State Comedy Theatre developed by its director — the outstanding theatre director and set designer, G.M. Kozintsev and E.L. Schwartz’s friend and associate, N.P. Akimov. The research is based on the performance reviews, testimonies of the participants of the performance, contemporaries close to the director (especially the playwright and screenwriter E.L. Schwartz and the long-term G.M. Kozintsev’s co-author L.Z. Trauberg), as well as the surviving radio version of the play
Particulate matter levels in Telde (Gran Canaria Island)
No full textAt the presente work levels corresponding to TSP and PM10 fractions of atmospheric particulate matter in Telde (Gran Canaria island) in relation with types of pollution sources in the area and comparing with values in different parts of the world, are presented. Experience was carry out between October 2002 and September 2003. A total of 54 samples (4 or 5 samples/month) were collected. TSP concentrations ranged between 22.00 mu g.m(-3) and 225.00 mu g.m(-3) with a mean value of 68.10 mu g.m(-3). PM10 concentrations ranged between 11.47 mu g.m(-3) y 136.18 mu g.m(-3) with a mean value of 32.13 mu g.m(-3). Relationship PM10/TSP as an indication of different class of sources (natural and anthropogenic origins) was established and compared with other of different areas; mean value is 0.52 indicating an relative abundance of coarse particles on the ones forming PM10.6045960,177Q4SCI
Volatilní organické sloučeniny v interiéru motorového vozidla za různých provozních podmínek a jejich vliv na lidské zdraví
No full textThe aim of this paper is to estimate the mass concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene (B), toluene (T), ethylbenzene (E) and m-, p-, o-xylenes (X) inside of the driver-compartment of motor vehicles. The results were compared with the Czech limits for indoor environments and the external concentrations. The experiments were carried out on various routes with different methods of ventilation. The volatile emissions detected inside the vehicle were investigated in the city of Brno, Czech Republic. Cabin air was collected using desorption tubes and the samples were analysed by thermal desorption gas chromatography with a flame ionisation detector coupled with a mass detector. VOC concentrations detected in the cabin of the vehicle ranged from 2.93 mu g.m(-3) to 7.96 mu g.m(-3) for benzene, 1.42 mu s.m(-3) to 4.38 mu g.m(-3). for toluene, 44.06 mu g.m(-3) to 152.00 mu g.m(-3) for ethylbenzene and 63.07 mu g.m(-3) to 479.62 mu g.m(-3) for xylenes. The indoor limit value for benzene, according to the Czech standard, is 7 mu g.m(-3). Levels of toluene were consistently below the Czech hourly standard, whose value according to the Czech standard is 300 mu g.m(-3). According to our findings, various methods of ventilation are an important factor influencing the BTEX pollution levels within the interior of the vehicle. In addition, this paper presents the influence results of benzene on the health of passengers inside the cabin of the vehicle. The results show that all age categories, especially children under the age of two, are exposed to increased health risks.Cílem příspěvku je prezentovat odhad hmotnostní koncentrace těkavých organických sloučenin (VOC) jako je benzen (B), toluen (T), ethylbenzen (E) a m-, p- a o- xyleny uvnitř prostoru pro řidiče motorového vozidla. Naměřené výsledky byly porovnány s českými limity pro vnitřní a vnější prostředí. Měření probíhalo v Brně na různých trasách s různými režimy ventilace vozidla
- …
