Search results
1 – 10 of 187In this study, I analyze two Brazilian experiences, their main characteristics and quandaries in Brazil. I collect and analyze social–historical documents and statistic data…
Abstract
In this study, I analyze two Brazilian experiences, their main characteristics and quandaries in Brazil. I collect and analyze social–historical documents and statistic data related to the Program of Indigenous Inclusion (PROIND) and University For All Program (PROUNI). It was noticed that both the experiences have contributed for the growth in school registrations of college students from sub-represented ethnical groups, and there was an increase of cultural diversity; although there were marks of resistance from some students and professors, these marks have been overcome by the perseverance and success obtained by those who have been contemplated by these programs.
Details
Keywords
There is a growing demand in industry for engineering graduates who can think “sustainably.” However, there are many barriers to developing assessment that fosters sustainability…
Abstract
There is a growing demand in industry for engineering graduates who can think “sustainably.” However, there are many barriers to developing assessment that fosters sustainability learning in engineering classrooms. There is no consensus on the definition of sustainability and its key competencies and teaching resources are limited.
Staff are unclear about what to teach, how to teach, and how to assess learning. Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning and should be planned from the earliest stages, but this is rarely done. Engineering relies heavily on traditional assessments such as tests and examinations, but these are known to encourage surface learning. Sustainability is complex, multidisciplinary, and needs context, which requires higher-order thinking characteristic of deep learning.
Current assessment types for sustainability include examinations, case study, concept maps, and project-based learning. However, more research is needed to develop best practice assessments. Recommendations for teaching approach are to use a rigorous approach to instructional design, use a systems approach, and use a teaching model that promotes deep learning, incorporates context, and promotes alignment of learning objectives and assessment. Community-oriented assessments are recommended that feature the interdisciplinarity and complexity of sustainability and promote higher-order thinking.
Details
Keywords
Using visual materials to understand a social object requires the researcher to know that object's purpose, and this is true whether the object is an artifact, a restricted event…
Abstract
Using visual materials to understand a social object requires the researcher to know that object's purpose, and this is true whether the object is an artifact, a restricted event, a small social world, or something as massive as the modern city. I argue that the purpose of the city as a settlement is driven by the need to safely sleep in peace at night while satisfying other basic biophysical needs during the day as conveniently as possible. An examination of these needs identifies 10 functional prerequisites for human settlement, entangling its inhabitants in involuntary community with entities and events other than themselves, whether they like it or not. In addition, the rise of the modern city exacerbates the challenge of living in a reluctant community and pressures its inhabitants to come to terms with the consequences for how these relationships affect daily life. I highlight nine challenges posed as questions that have been particularly salient in American urban history since the mid-nineteenth century. How these challenges have been addressed indicates not only what it takes to make a modern city a settlement suitable for satisfying human needs, but also just how deeply invested its residents are in making the city work. Finally, the 10 functional prerequisites and nine moral challenges not only provide a framework for researching the city, but also suggest a coherent outline for imagining a “shooting script” or guide for conducting visual research.
Details
Keywords
This paper presents the second-generation estimates for the Italian engineering industry in 1911, a year documented both by the customary demographic census, and the first…
Abstract
This paper presents the second-generation estimates for the Italian engineering industry in 1911, a year documented both by the customary demographic census, and the first industrial census. The first part of this paper uses the census data to estimate the industry’s value added, sector by sector; the second further disaggregates each sector by activity, and estimates the value added, employment, physical product, and metal consumption of each one. A third, concluding section dwells on the dependence of cross-section estimates on time-series evidence. Three appendices detail the specific algorithms that generate the present estimates; a fourth, a useful sample of firm-specific data.
The sustainable performance of hotels which constitute a major part of the tourism industry, gains increasing importance day by day. Sustainability has become mandatory not only…
Abstract
The sustainable performance of hotels which constitute a major part of the tourism industry, gains increasing importance day by day. Sustainability has become mandatory not only for the tourism industry but also for all industries producing goods and services. Reducing the negative impact of development on the environment and environmental innovation which aims to benefit from natural resources and energy effectively and consciously helps hotels to be sustainable. The tourism industry has a complex structure and exists as being intertwined with other branches of science. Tourism, which is a multidisciplinary industry, is nourished by other branches of science as well as supplies other fields of science by providing working space. Some new solutions that are put forward by materials science and engineering take place in the tourism industry as new innovations. Owing to this interaction, the workload of the personnel working in hotels is reduced and the enterprises save material and energy. At the same time, the customers who benefit from the services of the hotels consume the services in more comfortable and safer environments.
Ceramic materials are generally used in toilet and bathroom parts of hotels. However, ceramics are observed to be used in lobbies, cafes, restaurants, pools, facades, and similar areas in addition to toilets and baths in hotels. The aim of this study is to identify new ceramic solutions that affect and contribute to the sustainability of the hotels which is a major sector under the roof of the tourism industry and to contribute the literature. In order to actualize this aim, the document analysis method which is one of qualitative research methods was used and the literature search was carried out to identify new ceramic solutions. The result of study includes moisture control tiles with the ability to keep the humidity at normal standards in terms of human health and that can be used in hotels, facade systems that clean themselves and the polluted air, thermal coating systems for heat insulation, antibacterial materials that provide hygiene, and dirt repelling products. Also, it is seen that there are new ceramic solutions such as costless night lighting and security strips as well as materials with a phosphorescence property for aesthetical purposes and also, tiles with heat control which offer different possibilities aesthetically. It is observed that the different benefits obtained from each of identified new ceramic solutions ease off the workload of personnel working in the hotels, enable material and energy saving in hotels and at the same time, provide an accommodation in a more comfortable and safer environment for customers. In addition to this, the use of high-technology ceramics and nanomaterials in the field of tourism creates places where technology and aesthetics combine.
Details
Keywords
Boris N. Filatov, Valentina V. Klauchek, Nikolay G. Britanov and Sergei V. Klauchek
The world community has long striven for the liquidation of chemical weapons of mass destruction. The 1925 Geneva treaty “On the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating…
Abstract
The world community has long striven for the liquidation of chemical weapons of mass destruction. The 1925 Geneva treaty “On the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacterial Methods of Warfare” was the first international accord on chemical weapons prohibition. Signed by 125 countries, the USSR ratified the treaty in December 1927. The later development of the “Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and their Destruction” (henceforth “the Convention”) followed this early step and was undertaken with Russia's active participation. The Convention was signed by the Russian Federation in January 1993 and ratified by the State Duma in November 1997 with the decision to end chemical weapons stockpiling by 2007. As a signatory, Russia accepted international responsibilities for solving many interrelated problems, paramount among them was the protection of people and the environment (The Convention…, 1994, item 4).
This chapter reflects on the approach and learning of an innovative project in Bangladesh that addresses drinking water security issues of the poor and marginal communities…
Abstract
This chapter reflects on the approach and learning of an innovative project in Bangladesh that addresses drinking water security issues of the poor and marginal communities through participatory research, innovation, and social mobilization. The people, living in the most difficult geophysical areas, are facing severe crisis of drinking water and associated health risks due to remoteness, seasonality, social isolation, and poor institutional links. The geophysical constraints such as growing salinity, arsenic, flood and drought, and drawdown of groundwater tables have aggravated the problems. The existing government services hardly reach to the most unserved and needy people because of remoteness and lack of responsiveness of the government departments. A participatory action research project led to collective understanding about the severity of the problems and associated health risks and vulnerability. This again built greater awareness and motivated the poor, women, and marginal communities to establish links with key actors and take various local and collective actions toward ensuring their greater access to drinking water, sanitation facilities, and health services from the relevant government departments and development agencies.