Gender violence in schools: taking the ‘girls-as-victims’ discourse forward

This paper draws attention to the gendered nature of violence in schools. Recent recognition that schools can be violent places has tended to ignore the fact that many such acts originate in unequal and antagonistic gender relations, which are tolerated and ‘normalised’ by everyday school structures and processes. After examining some key concepts and definitions, we provide a brief overview of the scope and various manifestations of gender violence in schools, noting that most research to date has focused on girls as victims of gender violence within a heterosexual context and ignores other forms such as homophobic and girl violence. We then move on to look at a few interventions designed to address gender violence in schools in the developing world and end by highlighting the need for more research and improved understanding of the problem and how it can be addressed

Current Status of Radioisotope Applications in Defence

Reviews the current status of radioisotope applications in Defence- R&D Establishments, Defence Inspectorates, Ordnance Factories, Public Sector Undertakings under the Defence Ministry, Army, Navy and Air Force Establishments and Military Hospitals. It also lists the users of film badge service in Defence. Training programmes in radioisotope applications in Defence conducted by DRDO organisations have also been highlighted

CHIMP: A Framework for Multimedia Documents

A multimedia document consists of different types of media objects that are to be presented at different instants of time and for different durations. The media objects may be stored in computer systems connected by a network, thereby rendering the document distributed. The authors may wish to collaborate in a distributed manner to edit a multimedia document. Hence, an authoring system needs to identify a retrieval schedule that describes the time instants at which the objects have to be retrieved as well as the logical paths to be followed by the objects. In this paper, we consider a collaborative multimetia document authoring system with the above mentioned features. We propose a difference constraints based temporal specification for the multimedia document. This approach allows us to generate flexible schedules for retrieving objects over the computer network. This flexible retrieval schedule can handle variations in system parameters such as available network throughput and buffer resources

Resource Lock Commit Protocol (RLCP) for Multimedia Object Retrieval

Many multimedia presentation applications involve retrieval of objects from more than one collaborating server. Presentations of objects from different collaborating servers might be inter-dependent. For instance, we can consider distributed video servers where blocks of movies are distributed over a set of servers. Here, blocks of a movie from different video servers have to be retrieved and presented continuously without any gaps in the presentation. Such applications first need an estimate of the available network resources to each of the collaborating server in order to identify a schedule for retrieving the objects composing the presentation. A collaborating server can suggest modifications of the retrieval schedule depending on its load. These modifications can potentially affect the retrieval schedule for other collaborating applications. Hence, a sequence of negotiations have to be carried out with the collaborating servers in order to commit for a retrieval schedule of the objects composing the multimedia presentation. In this paper, we propose an application sub-layer protocol, Resource Lock Commit Protocol (RLCP), for handling the negotiation and commitment of the resources required for a collaborative multimedia presentation application. (Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-97-08

AVIS: An Advanced Video Information System

During the last few years, the advent of the CD-Rom, and the introduction of high bandwidth communications networks has caused a spectacular explosion in the availability of large video- libraries. While a great deal of effort has been invested in problems of how to effectively utilize bandwidth to communicate large bodies of data across the network, relatively little effort has gone into how to organize, and access, video databases. In this paper, we describe how video data may be organized and structured so as to facilitate queries. We develop a formal model of video data and show how spatial data structures, suitably modified, provide an elegant way of storing such data. We develop algorithms to process various kinds of video queries and show that in most cases, the complexity of these algorithms is linear. We develop algorithms to update these video databases. A prototype system called AVIS ("Advanced Video Information System") has been designed at the University of Maryland based on these concepts

The Brexit Botnet and User-Generated Hyperpartisan News

In this paper we uncover a network of Twitterbots comprising 13,493 accounts that tweeted the U.K. E.U. membership referendum, only to disappear from Twitter shortly after the ballot. We compare active users to this set of political bots with respect to temporal tweeting behavior, the size and speed of retweet cascades, and the composition of their retweet cascades (user-to-bot vs. bot-to-bot) to evidence strategies for bot deployment. Our results move forward the analysis of political bots by showing that Twitterbots can be effective at rapidly generating small to medium-sized cascades; that the retweeted content comprises user-generated hyperpartisan news, which is not strictly fake news, but whose shelf life is remarkably short; and, finally, that a botnet may be organized in specialized tiers or clusters dedicated to replicating either active users or content generated by other bots

The advanced video information system: Data structures and query processing

We describe how video data can be organized and structured so as to facilitate efficient querying. We develop a formal model for video data and show how spatial data structures, suitably modified, provide an elegant way of storing such data. We develop algorithms to process various kinds of video queries and show that, in most cases, the complexity of these algorithms is linear. A prototype system, called the Advanced Video Information System (AVIS), based on these concepts, has been designed at the University of Maryland

The future problem solving program international: an intervention to promote creative skills in portuguese adolescents

The Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) is an internationally applied educational program that involves young people. Its theoretical foundation is both the Creative Problem Solving Model and the Futurist Thinking. It aims to promote creative and critical thinking through a futurist approach to problems. This study intended to analyze the effects of the program on creative skills evaluated by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Figural Version). The participants’ perceptions of the efficacy of the program were also assessed. This intervention was carried out with 131 adolescents over a period of 7 months in an extra-curricular context. The evaluation of the program takes into account periods both before and after interventions, using similar experimental and control groups. The results showed significant statistical differences for the all skills studied and very positive perceptions of the efficacy of FPSPI. Two significant gender differences in creative performance were also found. The results are described and discussed in order to promote awareness for future research concerning this program(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Regulation of LRRK2 activity by metabolic stress and heavy metal exposure

Genetic variability in the gene encoding leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) is associated with both familial and sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD). While LRRK2 is known to modulate vesicular trafficking and stress signaling through its phosphorylation and kinase activity, how it responds to metabolic and environmental stressors remains poorly understood. Here, we show that acute inhibition of glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation triggers rapid, reversible dephosphorylation of LRRK2 at constitutive sites in cells, ex vivo brain slices, and primary astrocytes. In contrast, glucose deprivation modestly increases LRRK2 kinase activity and Rab substrate phosphorylation. In vivo, chronic 2-deoxyglucose treatment reduces S935 phosphorylation in kidney tissue, linking energy stress to LRRK2 modulation in peripheral organs. Strikingly, manganese (Mn), a PD-relevant environmental toxicant, robustly activates LRRK2, inducing pS1292 autophosphorylation and phosphorylation of Rab8a, Rab10 and Rab12, while suppressing S935 phosphorylation after a 24 hrs exposure. Time-resolved analysis revealed distinct temporal substrate regulation, with rapid Rab12 phosphorylation and pRab10 levels gradually increasing and peaking only after 24 h. Phosphorylated Rab10 remains closely associated with both lysosomal and centrosomal membranes under Mn stress. Mn impaired mitochondrial respiration and increased ROS, and antioxidant treatment rescued Rab10 phosphorylation, establishing a redox-dependent mechanism of LRRK2 activation. Together, these findings reveal stressor-specific modes of LRRK2 regulation and suggest that LRRK2 integrates metabolic and environmental signals via redox-sensitive pathways relevant to PD pathogenesis