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This article contributes to the sociology of education and technology by providing a cultural analysis of scepticism towards new technologies in school, using reactions to the telepresence robot 'AV1' as its case. AV1 is designed to connect 'homebound' students with their 'school-based' teachers and classmates. Despite its idealistic purpose, the robot has been met with significant scepticism by Norwegian school workers. To understand why, the article proposes the novel concepts of 'educational purity' and 'technological danger' to highlight the shared beliefs that underlie school workers' concerns. We find that school workers see AV1 as threatening key ideals of schools being pedagogically oriented, physically copresent and bounded institutions – all concerns that reflect widespread ideas about how technologies tend to (not) function within educational contexts. In highlighting these symbolic tensions between new technologies and schools, the article sets a course for future studies into the cultural sociology of education and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Homebound' children are unable to attend school for illness-related reasons. To lessen their predicament, schools have begun experimenting with 'telepresence robots' that can enable remote participation. While promising, we know little about the use of telepresence robots in practice. To begin to redress this, we draw on 159 semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences of 37 child users of the robot 'AV1' in Norwegian schools. The children's experiences varied, with some benefitting greatly and others not getting any benefit from using the robot. To explain these variations, we reconstruct the robot's critical component structure – that is, the assembly of sociomaterial elements that determines whether and how the robot works in practice. We also explore the benefits of using the robot when these critical components align. In so doing, we provide in-depth knowledge about the potential and prerequisites of using telepresence robots in schools – to the benefit of users, producers and scholars of telepresence technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between labor market discrimination, stereotypes and employers' experiences with immigrant workers. Based on interviews with 58 employers, recruited as part of three randomized field experiments on ethnic discrimination in the Norwegian labor market, we find that experience matters in three distinct ways: first, employers with negative experiences with immigrant workers were unwilling to give job applicants from the same group an opportunity; second, employers with positive experiences with immigrant workers were more willing to hire workers from the same group, and third, employers without experiences with immigrant workers seemed to be risk averse and resort to general stereotypes of immigrants. Our findings contrast with a US study, where some employers, despite their positive experiences with black workers, still were unwilling to give job applicants from the same group an opportunity. Theoretically, we suggest that the role of employers' experiences for labor market discrimination depends on how deeply embedded stereotypes of minorities are in the employers' society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the impact of the physical environment and construction of play culture in kindergartens. Based on a case study, we explore employees’ perception of indoor physical environment and children’s play. The findings revealed that gender is interwoven in the physical environments and materials. Children’s play practices are associated with gender and perceived as setting different requirements for physical design. These play practices are anchored to different rooms and create a connection between rooms, zones, and gender. In additional, play practices produce and reproduce the employees’ ideas of gender. The physical environment has a structural power on children’s play practices. The impact of the environment on the construction of play practices makes visible the importance of reflecting on the construction of the indoor environment and gender meaning in order to contribute to using the kindergarten in an equal manner. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction and purpose: The ability of apple rootstocks to become infected by Neonectria ditissima, the cause of European canker, was studied over two years. Materials and methods: Rootstocks B9 and M9 with a size suitable for grafting (6-10 mm stem diameter, termed rootstocks), and smaller sized rootstocks (<5 mm stem diameter, termed transplants) of B9, M9, M26, MM106 and Antonovka were inoculated with N. ditissima at different times, either with contaminated map pins or with spore suspensions. In addition, the rootstocks were either defeathered (side shoots removed), topped (top shoot headed) or both, to create wounds that would normally occur during propagation, while wounds on transplants were made by removing leaves. Results and discussion: One month after inoculation, slightly sunken canker lesions had developed around the inoculation points of the map pins or wounds. No lesions developed on the non-inoculated controls. Map pin inoculation resulted in 30% to 89% infection and spore suspension sprayed on wounds from 5% to 45% infection. When the cankered areas were split open, brown lesions with necrotic tissue due to infection by N. ditissima appeared. The transplants of M9, M26 and MM106 inoculated with contaminated map pins in 2014 developed necrosis on 40% to 67% of the plants, but there were no differences in the incidence or severity among the different types. On the transplants of B9, Antonovka and M9 inoculated in 2015, there was more necrosis on B9 (42%) than on Antonovka (11%) and more sporulating lesions on B9 (29%) than on M9 (9%) or on Antonovka (4%). Conclusion: It can be concluded that rootstocks used for apple trees may become infected by N. ditissima, and wounds should thus be protected during propagation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact on work culture when men work in kindergartens. In Norway, as in other countries there has been a call for more male staff in kindergartens. Increasing the amount of men may imply that institutionalized norms and practice are put under pressure. By using a case study approach, the focus is on employees’ experiences and practice in daily life in the kindergarten. Two processes, negotiation about work organization and the division of labour, illustrate the empirical part of this article. The findings indicate that female staff negotiate for standardized workdays and norms of sameness, while the males negotiate for a flexible workday and division of labour based on their interests. The difference in practice between males and females and negotiation about the division of labour contribute to constructing gendered work cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of controlled atmosphere (CA) conditions on physiological disorders and fungal fruit decay on apple ‘Aroma’ were investigated. Fruit from three growing seasons were stored at 1% or 2% O2(both at 2% CO2) at either 1°C or 3°C in small research units; controls were kept in the same ventilated rooms at the two temperatures (ambient air). The fruit were removed from storage after four or six months and assessed for fruit decay immediately afterwards and after two weeks at 20°C. Fruit quality parameters were recorded at the end of storage. On a three-year average, fruit stored in CA was less ripe at the end of storage. After both four and six months storage, CA reduced total decay (physiological disorders and fungal decay) by on average 70% and 45%, respectively, compared to storage in ambient air. Senescent breakdown was lower after CA storage for four months, but not after six months and not after simulated shelf life. Soft scald was lower when stored in CA both after cold storage at 1°C and simulated shelf life. After storage at 3°C there was lower incidence of soft scald when stored in CA after four months, but not after six months. For fungal fruit decay in general, there was no effect of low oxygen, however, 2% O2gave slightly less bitter rot (Colletotrichum acutatum) than 1% O2and significantly less than ambient air after simulated shelf life. Averaged over all oxygen levels, 1°C gave significantly less bitter rot than 3°C. It may be concluded that use of CA for storage of ‘Aroma’ is a good way of reducing development of physiological disorders. However, development of bitter rot seemed to be more influenced by temperature and storage time than by low O2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formation and growth of neutral SO2clusters is investigated in an adiabatic-expansion setup by means of sulfur 2p (S2p) photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical modeling. The shift in S2p ionization energy between the cluster and a single molecule, i.e., IE(cluster)-IE(monomer), is recorded and used to monitor the mean cluster size over a wide range of expansion conditions. The produced clusters were shown to fall into two different size regimes. Comparison between theoretical simulations and experimental observations suggests that while the smallest clusters belong to the ultrafine particle mode and have a liquid-like structure, the larger clusters belong to the accumulation mode of fine particles and possibly have a frozen cluster core. The transition between the two size/structure regimes occurs over a narrow interval in expansion conditions and may possibly reflect a change in growth mechanism from monomer addition to growth by cluster-cluster collisions. (c) Jarle Harnes, Mahmoud Abu-Samha, Mathias Winkler, and Knut J. Børve [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We have investigated the metal–ligand bond energies in C2H4–Pt(PH3)2and C60–Pt(PH3)2by means ofab initiocorrelated methods (MP2, MP4(SDQ), MP4, QCISD, CCSD and CCSD(T)) in conjunction with large basis sets. For De(C2H4–Pt(PH3)2), an accurate value of 17.2 kcal/mol is established at the CCSD(T) level of theory. Due to the size of the system, the bond energy for the Buckminsterfullerene system was explored in terms of a sequence of model systems of increasing size, providing a Deestimate of 28.2 kcal/mol at the ONIOM(CCSD(T)/C14H8:MP2/C60) level of theory. The performance of a range of high-end density functionals (with and without dispersion) is evaluated for these systems by comparison to the bestab initioresults. Among these, we find density functionals BLYP and B3LYP, augmented by Grimme’s D3 dispersion correction (to give the corresponding DFT-D methods), to provide good and consistent agreement with our best estimates. Next, DFT-optimised structures for C2H4–Pt(PPh3)2and C60–Pt(PPh3)2are presented for the first time. Ligand binding energies were computed for ethylene and C60using DFT-D, thus allowing the first computational estimate of the driving force in the ligand substitution reaction (η2-C2H4)Pt(PPh3)2+C60→ (η2-C60)Pt(PPh3)2+C2H4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Density functional theory calculations on exohedral metallofullerenes Pd n C 60 show that the palladium–fullerene bond energy remains essentially constant for n=1-6. A novel Pd 2 (η 2 -C 60 ) structure with the two metal atoms bridging over a six‐membered ring has been identified as the most stable arrangement of two palladium atoms on the surface of C 60 , although entropy considerations suggest that both isolated atoms and weakly bonded metal aggregates may exist in equilibrium. Both metal atoms benefit from η 2 coordination at (6–6′) junctions as well as some metal–metal interaction. Binding of Pd atoms to the fullerene is preferred over palladium dimerization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A DFT investigation of substitutional metallofullerenes MC 59 (M=Sc—Ni) shows that they are drop‐shaped, with the deviation from spherical structure depending on the size of the metal atom. The metal atomic radius, however, seems to be unimportant for the stability of the metallofullerenes. In general, the stability increases toward the right‐hand side of the transition series, commensurate with the higher electronegativities of the late transition metals. CrC 59 is calculated to be more stable than the metallofullerenes of manganese and iron, suggesting that future observation of CrC 59 may be anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During three growing seasons (1999-2001), disease incidence of non-abscised aborted and normally developing (sound) sweet cherry fruits were investigated in a research orchard at Ullensvang, western Norway. To reveal possible fungal infections, aborted and sound fruits of two cultivars (cv. Van for three years and cv. Lapins for two years) were harvested over four to seven weeks in an experimental orchard during the green fruit phase and incubated at 20°C in moisture saturated air for 7 days. The most frequently observed fungal pathogens were Monilinia laxa , Colletotrichum gloeosporioides , and Botrytis cinerea . The mean of all observations (± standard deviation) over three years, showed that aborted and sound fruits had a disease incidence of 51.9% (±31.8) and 5.2% (±9.7), respectively, after seven days incubation. In 24 of 25 trials aborted fruits had significantly higher disease incidence than sound fruits after incubation. In one season, when fruits were collected from two commercial orchards, aborted fruits had much higher disease incidence than sound fruits (a mean of 6.5 and 4.5 times higher incidence for the two orchards, respectively). Time of fruit abortion varied with the years (two years observation) and the two cultivars, but the major abortion took place between the fourth and eighth week after anthesis. A higher disease incidence and more rapid disease development in non-abscised aborted fruits indicate that they are more vulnerable to fungal colonisation than sound fruits and may thus be potential incoulum sources for neighbouring, healthy fruits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]