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A view that has been gaining prevalence over the past decade is that the human conceptual system is malleable, dynamic, context-dependent, and task-dependent, that is, flexible. Within the flexible conceptual representation framework, conceptual representations are constructed ad hoc, forming a different, idiosyncratic instantiation upon each occurrence. In this review, we scrutinize the neurocognitive literature to better understand the nature of this flexibility. First, we identify some key characteristics of these representations. Next, we consider how these flexible representations are constructed by addressing some of the open questions in this framework: We review the age-old question of how to reconcile flexibility with the apparent need for shareable stable definitions to anchor meaning and come to mutual understanding, as well as some newer questions we find critical, namely, the nature of relations among flexible representations, the role of feature saliency in activation, and the viability of all-or-none feature activations. We suggest replacing the debate about the existence of a definitional stable core that is obligatorily activated with a question of the degree and probability of activation of the information constituting a conceptual representation. We rely on published works to suggest that (1) prior featural salience matters, (2) feature activation may be graded, and (3) Bayesian updating of prior information according to current demands offers a viable account of how flexible representations are constructed. This proposal provides a theoretical mechanism for incorporating a changing momentary context into a constructed representation, while still preserving some of the concept's constituent meaning.

This article discusses the modular representation theory of finite groups of Lie type from the viewpoint of Broué's abelian defect group conjecture. We discuss both the defining characteristic case, the inspiration for Alperin's weight conjecture, and the non-defining case, the inspiration for Broué's conjecture. The modular representation theory of general finite groups is conjectured to behave both like that of finite groups of Lie type in defining characteristic, and in non-defining characteristic, to a large extent. The expected behavior of modular representation theory of finite groups of Lie type in defining characteristic is particularly difficult to grasp along the lines of Broué's conjecture, and we raise a new question related to the change of central character. We introduce a degeneration method in the modular representation theory of finite groups of Lie type in non-defining characteristic. Combined with the rigidity property of perverse equivalences, this provides a setting for two-variable decomposition matrices, for large characteristic. This should help make progress towards finding decomposition matrices, an outstanding problem with few general results beyond the case of general linear groups. This last part is based on joint work with David Craven and Olivier Dudas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teacher's use of representations is a crucial aspect of instructional quality in mathematics education, given their pivotal role in facilitating mathematics learning. However, in our international research community, perspectives on what constitutes high-quality use of representations may vary. This cross-cultural study aims to explore whether the perspectives from Western literature, emphasizing the importance of explicit connections between symbolic and graphic representations, can be extended legitimately to the East Asian context. Using a situated approach, the study elicited norms of high-quality representation use from researchers in Germany and Taiwan. A total of 31 mathematics education professors from both countries evaluated the use of representations in three secondary mathematics classroom situations presented as text vignettes. The vignettes, designed by the German research team, each depicted a situation where from their perspective, a norm of high-quality representation use, specifically the explicit connection between symbolic and graphic representations, was violated. Qualitative analysis of the researchers' responses revealed that in each situation, at least half of the German researchers expected explicit connections between representations. Conversely, the majority of Taiwanese researchers only expected such connections in one situation, particularly when the graphic representation served as an independent learning objective rather than solely aiding conceptual understanding. These findings indicate easily unnoticed culture-specific differences regarding how a common aspect of instructional quality is expected to unfold in teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine how researchers and teachers in a multi-year professional development program shifted their conceptualizations of equity. Following (Grapin et al (2023) Sci Educ 107:999–1032), we ground our analysis in two conceptualizations of equity that exist across fields: equity-as-access (learners should have access to disciplinary knowledge, practices, and career paths) and equity-as-transformation (learners should transform what it means to learn and participate in disciplines). In this study, we describe a professional development (PD) design initially intended to support equitable science teaching and learning by focusing on representations. This initial framing did not distinguish between conceptions of equity-as-access versus equity-as-transformation. As a result, the PD did not provide facilitators or teachers with resources for ideological sensemaking towards equity-as-transformation. Catalyzed by teachers' request for PD focused on multilingual learners (MLs), we noticed aspects of our design that offered only images of equity-as-access. In response, we designed activities for teachers that offered space and resources for considering equity-as-transformation. As a case study (Yin (2014) Case study research: design and methods, SAGE) using interaction analysis (Jordan and Henderson (1995) J Learn Sci 4:39–103) of PD videos, we describe how we PD activities and facilitation strategies to integrate transformative conceptualizations of equity. These findings have implications for both research and practice. In terms of research, they demonstrate the importance of using multiple lenses to consider equity in science classrooms. In terms of practice, they underscore the importance of providing teachers with opportunities to explicitly connect new perspectives of equity with day-to-day experiences of classroom teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Teaching a course on religions of the world is challenging, especially considering the cogent critiques of that paradigm and the history of its construction. In our courses and text, we have employed a strategy comparing different representations of a single religion to help students develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Within this approach, we employ a functionalist methodology that addresses how each representation of a religion empowers particular groups as well as how the practices and ideas within each religion function. Organizing a course and textbook in this fashion coordinates with assignments that ask students to compare the construction and functions of different representations of the same religion, thus reinforcing to students that no single description of a religion is complete or free from individual and group interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we shed light on the relationship between the production processes in televised football in Poland and representations of race/ethnicity. Previous research has extensively explored representations of race/ethnicity in mediated sports texts, but there remains a gap in understanding the production processes and their connection to these representations, particularly in contexts beyond the Anglosphere. In order to address this gap, in this study we conducted interviews with football media professionals and conducted field visits at football media organizations in Poland. Our findings reveal that football media professionals employ various discursive strategies when giving meaning to racial/ethnic diversity in televised football and within the football media workplace, which occasionally incorporate stereotypes. Generally, football media professionals took a color-evasive stance, and argued that they do not speak through racial/ethnic stereotypes in their work. Critical reflections on the production process are also hindered by the everyday practices and dominant working cultures in the football media office, which is constructed and maintained by media professionals as a predominantly White and masculine space. We contextualize these findings in light of previous studies on race/ethnicity in sport media, and the complex discourses surrounding Whiteness in the Polish context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to parenthood is a significant period of transformation and adjustment for all members of a new family, reshaping relational dynamics that often endure throughout the initial years of a child's life. This qualitative and longitudinal study aimed to explore coparenting representations held by both partners in a parental couple, along with observations of their family interactions, at three distinct points in time, with the aim to better understand the interaction between these representational and behavioral observations. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 17 heterosexual, first‐time parents in Santiago de Chile, during pregnancy and at two different times during the first year of their child's life. Family interactions were assessed using the Lausanne Trilogue Play task (LTP) on all occasions. Three main coparenting representation categories emerged: traditional, ambiguous, and co‐responsible. On observation, approximately half of the couples showed cooperative coparenting interactions, while the other half had conflictual interactions. Couples generally followed stable trajectories over time. Cooperative couples demonstrated co‐responsibility and open dialogue, while conflictual couples tended to follow traditional gender roles with tacit communication styles. This study highlights the importance of promoting co‐responsibility and dialogue for fostering cooperative relational dynamics during the critical transition to parenthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Brazilian higher education institutions, English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) courses and workshops play a key role in helping professors to rethink their methodology and their concepts of language, especially regarding English conceived as a lingua franca. In an attempt to bring a local perspective for EMI, this paper examines university professors' representations on an online EMI course for professors from nine public universities in Paraná. It is grounded on the concept of representation from critical discourse analysis. The results reveal the beliefs and motivations of the participants concerning EMI in Brazil. The motivations for EMI were related to language use/practice; the status of English in the world and in the scientific scenario or field of study; and internationalization reasons. On the other hand, the challenges were associated with language aspects and students' participation. In relation to the online course, results indicated that there were more potentialities than limitations and that the course had an impact on the resignification of concepts, especially related to English as a Lingua Franca as this perspective has the potential to transform professors' views on language conception and use of Portuguese in the classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing diffusion of perspectivism within the debate on information system ontologies [ISOs] does not correspond to a thorough analysis of what perspectivism specifically consists of. This paper aims to fill this void. First, I show what supporting perspectivism in information system ontologies [PISO] means in terms of (minimal) claims and implications; then I argue that the definitions of ISO implicitly assume PISO's (minimal) claims or, in other words, that ISOs presuppose and maintain PISO. Section 2 presents the main definitions of ISO. Section 3 specifies what claims are common to all perspectivists in ISO. Sects. 4–7 analyze the implications of those claims. Section 8 explores the chance of multiple perspectivisms within ISOs' domain. Finally, Sects. 9–10 assume that, if PISO's (minimal) claims and (their) implications can be inferred from ISO's definitions, then ISOs are perspectivist, or PISO's minimal claims are assumptions underlying ISOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a descriptive exploratory study in which we analyzed 313 sixth to eighth grade students' answers to a word problem, accompanied by diagrams, involving generalization in an algebraic functional context. In this research, we jointly addressed two objectives: (a) to determine the strategies deployed by students to generalize and (b) to identify the types of representation used to express their generalizations. We integrated how regularities are produced, evidenced in structures and represented by students. One of the most prominent findings was that functional strategy was used by almost all the students who generalized. They expressed the generalization using verbal, symbolical, or multiple representations. Ways of expressing regularities that are not restricted to algebraic symbolism are also shown. Although the potential to identify functional relationships was observed in sixth graders, seventh and eighth school students were able to represent more varied and structurally complex relationships. However, no relevant differences in generalization strategies were found between students of different ages with and without previous algebraic training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia Contemporanea is the property of Historia Contemporania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Research on television representations has identified the discrimination top-level women athletes are subjected to and the ways in which they are discredited. In particular this research has identified the process of gendering competitions (so-called "women's sports"), the infantilization of women athletes, emphasis on "appropriate femininity," stigmatization of transgressive female athletes, sexualization of athletes, and compulsory heterosexuality. More recent research has uncovered a shift in gendered representations of women athletes towards less explicit and more insidious sexism, based primarily on a hierarchy in favor of male over female sport. To assess the situation of representations of high-level women athletes in France and their evolution, the author carried out a socio-semiotic analysis from a perspective opened by gender studies by focusing on a particular media: the television broadcasts of sports competitions. We selected a corpus of TV broadcasts of World Championship and Olympic competitions comprising six sports--gymnastics, tennis, basketball, football, rugby, and boxing from 2005 to 2015--studied diachronically. This article will examine the discourses of commentators and the filmed images (camera movements) that participate in the construction of sports broadcasting. Television representations of women's sports were analyzed at the intersection of gender, class, race, sexuality, and national identity. The research was paired with a list breaking down the journalists' gendered identities to account for inequalities of access to this position and raise the question of the influence of gendered expertise. Based on these analyses, this article will conclude by providing recommendations for the recognition of women's sports such as: deconstructing the male gaze, valuing women's sports performances, and fighting with an intersectional approach to discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the crystallised C ∗ -algebra C (S U q (2)) at q = 0 to obtain a unitary that gives an approximate equivalence involving the GNS representation on the L 2 space of the Haar state of the quantum SU(2) group and the direct integral of all the infinite dimensional irreducible representations of the C ∗ -algebra C (S U q (2)) for nonzero values of the parameter q. This approximate equivalence gives a KK class via the Cuntz picture in terms of quasihomomorphisms as well as a Fredholm representation of the dual quantum group S U q (2) ^ with coefficients in a C ∗ -algebra in the sense of Mishchenko. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a locally compact group G and 1 < p < ∞ , let B p (G) denote the p-analog of the Fourier–Stieltjes algebra B (G) (or B 2 (G)) . Let r : B p (G) → B p (H) be the restriction map given by r (u) = u | H for any closed subgroup H of G. In this article, we prove that the restriction map r is a surjective isometry for any open subgroup H of G. Further, we show that the range of the map r is dense in B p (H) when H is either a compact normal subgroup of G or compact subgroup of an [SIN] H -group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a representation φ : B n → G n of the braid group B n , n ≥ 2 into a group G n , we are considering the problem of whether it is possible to extend this representation to a representation Φ : S M n → A n , where S M n is the singular braid monoid and A n is an associative algebra, in which the group of units contains G n . We also investigate the possibility of extending the representation Φ : S M n → A n to a representation Φ ~ : S B n → A n of the singular braid group S B n . On the other hand, given two linear representations φ 1 , φ 2 : H → G L m (k) of a group H into a general linear group over a field k , we define the defect of one of these representations with respect to the other. Furthermore, we construct a linear representation of S B n which is an extension of the Lawrence–Krammer–Bigelow representation (LKBR) and compute the defect of this extension with respect to the exterior product of two extensions of the Burau representation. Finally, we discuss how to derive an invariant of classical links from the Lawrence–Krammer–Bigelow representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the concept of group theory and to apply it in other field of sciences has been a problem among undergraduate students. Although there are some attempt by Dubinsky et al, [1], where some finite groups were discussed among students, the paper was limited to theoretical aspect of the topic. This research is therefore designed to explore clearly the procedure for constructing finite groups for better understanding of the subject area in the given domain. The research is channeled towards the use of group theory in Network Dynamics, which serves as concrete application of finite groups to the students. Some minor open problems with regards to algebraic graph theory was discussed which lead to network dynamics and groupoid formalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In France, many social representations refer to gifted children who describe them as hypersensitive, curious, and creative. Although sometimes inaccurate, these representations can be conveyed in media intended for children and contribute to an erroneous transmission of characteristics of children with particularities. The objective of this study was to identify the social representations of gifted characters in French children's literature. For this, we used a coding grid to analyze a corpus of 23 French books. The grid was designed based in the emotional and creative characteristics and their associated behaviors. Results showed that the representations of the gifted characters in the books studied were stereotypical, particularly in terms of their emotional characteristics. Applications and perspectives for future studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of JMD: Journal für Mathematik-Didaktik is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This text presents some psycho-sociological comments on the social representation (or SR) of the object "hymen" and its practical counterpart of defloration. The main argument is based on the observation of the recurrence of fetishistic attitudes towards bodily objects and ritual behaviors associated with the initiation into sexuality and the idea of physical and moral purity. The SR of virginity is observed in a heterogeneous corpus: history books, short stories, novels, anthropological archives, secondary data on the conception of virginity among young people, essays, online press, ethnographic reports, etc. This social representation may also include other terms such as "chastity", "purity", "first time", "sexual initiation", "abstinence" or "continence." First, the genesis of the objectified and anatomical meaning of virginity and defloration is analyzed as a scientifically and institutionally constructed imaginary process. Entering the world of sexuality, however, involves bodily techniques and behaviors that are less and less regulated today. The representational, semantic (connotations, effects of cultural matrices) and historical evolution of the purity associated with virginity are also examined. Various themes will be addressed in turn: the disjunctive structure (instrumentalization/idealization) of virginity; the proximity between puritanical and perverse attitudes towards these phenomena; certain mythographies and rituals (magic, novels) and the practice of bodily rituals, remnants of earlier practices. The interpretation of the social representation of the virginity and its anthropological logic are synthesized at the end of the article. Finally, the philosophical and psycho-sociological meanings of the purity fetish are presented. The couple virginity/defloration and more generally any form of bodily organization that conveys eroticism and sexuality, are seen as structures of protraction, quite very close to the notion of apparatus (or device). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, literature in dementia ethics has extensively looked at moral questions revolving around the care of older people living with dementia. Particularly prevalent are autonomy-related concerns regarding topics such as advance directives. In this paper, we argue that these discussions are crucially premised on how dementia is understood and represented. Despite the multiplicity of dementia presentations in people, the dominant discourse predominantly frames dementia as 'monstrous,' an 'enemy,' a destructive experience in need of eradication. We contend that such a monolithic approach, from a moral standpoint, is problematic in several respects. Indeed, framing heavily influences the way dementia is understood and experienced, leading to stigmatization, bias, and distress. Not only does it influence decisions and discussions on advance directives, but we argue that this flawed understanding of dementia is rooted in and contributes to epistemic harm. In the first section, we introduce the ethics of advance directives. More specifically, we introduce the view developed by Dworkin who has largely influenced the debate by making the case for advance directives by grounding them in the principles of autonomy and beneficence. In the second section, we show how dementia is still mostly framed monolithically as a 'destructive experience.' We then show that this framing is problematic because it oversteps the different pathologies dementia implies, which leads to an inaccurate representation of the condition. In the third section, we present possible alternative framings: dementia as normal aging, a person-centered care framework, and an embodied view. In the fourth section, drawing on recent developments in the epistemic injustice literature, we explore how maintaining and utilizing flawed understandings of dementia may lead to distinct moral-epistemic harms for those living with dementia and inform ongoing discussions on advance directives. Finally, in the concluding section, we return to the case of advance directives and what the implications of rethinking dementia are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whole number computations are a critical skill that serves as a foundation upon which higher-order concepts in mathematics are taught to children. To facilitate their instruction, educators often use multiple representations to support a child's cognition. Representations with physical manipulatives are widely studied through a graduated instructional sequence featuring concrete, representational, and abstract stages of learning. In contrast, research on representational sequences featuring virtual manipulatives is less robust. Thus, this study evaluated an instructional strategy with virtual manipulatives, static representational drawings, and abstract algorithms to teach multiplication to three U.S. elementary students with mathematics difficulty. A functional relation was established via a single-subject multiple probe design between the treatment and students' accuracy performance. Baseline-corrected Tau estimates confirmed a medium effect size for all three students, while student performance on measures assessing the number of errors committed and the duration of sessions also returned favorable findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to intensifying wildfire seasons, scholars call for new wildfire policy and management approaches. Based on the assumption that science, policy, and management are integrated spheres of meaning-making, this article aims to contribute to reflective and creative research conversations about fire policy and management by directing analytical attention to the role of science. Using Causal Layered Analysis, we unpack scientific representations of three wildfire events/seasons in Sweden, the US, and Australia. The analysis illustrates that scientific representations of wildfires are contextual and promote particular policy recommendations and management interventions. Furthermore, the review identifies a discrepancy between dominant, more simplistic representations and the dynamic and complex representation emerging from an interdisciplinary reading of the literature. To address this discrepancy, we argue that there is a need to continuously renegotiate the boundaries of wildfires through rethinking the process underpinning the scientific representations to account for the complexity inherent in wildfire events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores a third-grade teacher's (Deb) developing knowledge and practice for incorporating representations into her teaching of science over the course of 2 years. Data was gathered from the same science unit (Rock Formation) over 2 years, and consisted of video of seven lessons, one of which was the same lesson taught over both years. Also collected were artifacts from the lessons, pre (planning) and post (reflection) lesson conversations for each of the seven lessons, and interviews conducted with Deb before and after her teaching of the full unit each year. The results showed Deb's learning process of using representations was multi-faceted and incremental. Even with using the same representation forms and/or activities, in the second year, Deb was able to 1) incorporate representations on multiple aspects of teaching such as reviewing previous knowledge, introducing new topics, and assessing students thinking; 2) use multiple representations in one aspect of teaching; 3) engage students in higher levels of learning. These changes were related to Deb's reasoning of selecting representations, which are described further in the paper. This research contributes to an emerging knowledge base on what teachers know and are able to do with incorporating science representations into their practice. It also contributes to the field of science teacher professional development and the need for considering the multi-faceted nature of teacher learning. Implications for teacher professional development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research syntheses have identified several potentially high-leverage teaching strategies for improving low-attaining secondary school students' learning of mathematics. These strategies include the structured use of representations and manipulatives and an emphasis on derived facts and estimation. This paper reports on 70 semi-structured interviews conducted with low-attaining students in Years 9–10 (ages 13–15) in England. The interviews addressed the students' perceptions of learning mathematics and the teaching strategies that they experienced and believed were most helpful. Many students reported rarely using number lines, not spontaneously estimating answers and being unfamiliar with derived facts. During the interviews, with minimal direction, students often showed that they were well able to make use of these strategies; however, they did not report making spontaneous use of them independently. We conclude that many of the most well-evidenced and recommended strategies to support low-attaining students in mathematics appear to be unfamiliar and unvalued, and we discuss how this might be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This text presents some psycho-sociological comments on the social representation (or SR) of the object “hymen” and its practical counterpart of defloration. The main argument is based on the observation of the recurrence of fetishistic attitudes towards bodily objects and ritual behaviors associated with the initiation into sexuality and the idea of physical and moral purity. The SR of virginity is observed in a heterogeneous corpus: history books, short stories, novels, anthropological archives, secondary data on the conception of virginity among young people, essays, online press, ethnographic reports, etc. This social representation may also include other terms such as “chastity”, “purity”, “first time”, “sexual initiation”, “abstinence” or “continence.” First, the genesis of the objectified and anatomical meaning of virginity and defloration is analyzed as a scientifically and institutionally constructed imaginary process. Entering the world of sexuality, however, involves bodily techniques and behaviors that are less and less regulated today. The representational, semantic (connotations, effects of cultural matrices) and historical evolution of the purity associated with virginity are also examined. Various themes will be addressed in turn: the disjunctive structure (instrumentalization/idealization) of virginity; the proximity between puritanical and perverse attitudes towards these phenomena; certain mythographies and rituals (magic, novels) and the practice of bodily rituals, remnants of earlier practices. The interpretation of the social representation of the virginity and its anthropological logic are synthesized at the end of the article. Finally, the philosophical and psycho-sociological meanings of the purity fetish are presented. The couple virginity/defloration and more generally any form of bodily organization that conveys eroticism and sexuality, are seen as structures of protraction, quite very close to the notion of apparatus (or device).

Abstract In today’s rapidly changing world, technology has profoundly impacted our daily lives, making it increasingly difficult to predict what skills will be necessary for the future. To address this challenge, 21st-century skills have been proposed as a framework for shaping future education, in which one of the skills is technological literacy. How the latter is understood, positioned, and approached is influenced by discourses produced within and among various societal practices, such as the educational system. This article provides a glimpse of the discourse on technological literacy by exploring how “technological literacy” is portrayed within the visual cultures of four Swedish upper secondary VET programs. Our results indicate that the portrayals of becoming technologically literate for VET students vary among the programmes. However, they all emphasise practical and hands-on activities, where students can be seen engaging with various tools, equipment, and objects relevant to each programme’s field of study. Teamwork and peer-to-peer learning are also portrayed as central to these programmes, simultaneously as leadership roles and the distribution of responsibilities among students are commonly featured. While the programmes’ visual portrayals reflect diversity in ethnicity and gender, traditional gender roles are still (re)produced in the pictorials.

Simple, inexpensive and relatively durable, the board seems a natural part of class. Paradoxically, considering it as a teaching technique in its own right (Cuq & Gruca, 2005) may seem surprising, but in reality, it is the most widespread technological medium in the classroom. Therefore, writing on the board is a practice considered an integral part of the teaching profession in order to streamline the transmission of knowledge. Despite the fact that its presence is almost systematic in all classes, its use and management are little studied. Reorganizing, witnessing interactions and materializing the transition from oral to written, the functions of the board are multiple, however, are teachers and learners aware of this? What representations do they have of the painting? Indeed, we attempted through a semi-directive interview, intended for 4th AM learners, to show whether they consider the whiteboard as a didactic tool and, to identify their representations in relation to the role that this tool would play in their learning in class, more particularly during a session of reading comprehension of an argumentative text. Furthermore, the preliminary results showed on the one hand the preponderant role played by the blackboard in the FFL class and on the other hand, that its management and organization are two factors which allowed optimal performance and a considerable contribution current teaching/learning techniques.

Intellectuals and artists have been crafting an image of the Romanian peasant as the building block of the nation since the second half of the 19th century. The process went hand in hand with the modernization of the elites, and the peasant was thus mainly ‘discovered’ within the cultural framework of Romanticism, as the ‘eternal autochthon’ (Mihăilescu,2017, p.173), creator of the specific Kultur of the Romanian people. However, dramatic social transformations such as the difficult transition period of the ʹ90s have shifted the focus from a complimentary representation of the peasant as the national foundation – and all the positive characteristics of his/her habitus in terms of material, spiritual and aesthetic values– to a rather alienated and anachronistic figure coming across as a burden that has to be carried into modernity by the enlightened social strata. This paper uses visual analysis, grounded in Barthesian semiotics, to explore the changes in modes of representation of the peasant in popular media from the depository of national values to a marginal lower class, striving to keep up with the urban lifestyle. Various portrayals of peasants in TV series and sketches, movies and memes point to the degradation of the peasant figure in the public imagination. Images of poverty, bad taste and a lack of hygiene seem to pollute the bodies, garments and home environments of the rural characters, with a toxic effect on their language and behaviour as well. Although there have always been derogatory images of the peasants in the discourse of the elites (Mihăilescu also coined the term ‘domestic primitive’ for the representation associated with the historical tendency to portray the peasants as a backward population incapable of progress), in recent times this tendency has prevailed, especially with the rural-themed successful TV series Las Fierbinți, for mainly ideological reasons which will be discussed. Thus, apart from deconstructing a national myth, I argue that the representation of contemporary peasants and their degenerating habitus also contributes to the polarization in the Romanian society.

Motherhood under 15 years is constructed as having crossed the line of societal morals and this construction shapes the provision of sexual and reproductive health services (SRH) for mothers under 15 years in Uganda. Using collaborative ethnography and through the lens of discourses and governmentality, I established that adolescent pregnancy is constructed within normative discourses enshrouded in religious and cultural values. What is constructed as non‐normative is regulated through restrictive SRH policies and penalizing discourses which inhibit access to SRH services and care. A paradigm shift in adolescent SRH policies that are rooted in human rights and equity is one alternative required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's rapidly changing world, technology has profoundly impacted our daily lives, making it increasingly difficult to predict what skills will be necessary for the future. To address this challenge, 21st-century skills have been proposed as a framework for shaping future education, in which one of the skills is technological literacy. How the latter is understood, positioned, and approached is influenced by discourses produced within and among various societal practices, such as the educational system. This article provides a glimpse of the discourse on technological literacy by exploring how "technological literacy" is portrayed within the visual cultures of four Swedish upper secondary VET programs. Our results indicate that the portrayals of becoming technologically literate for VET students vary among the programmes. However, they all emphasise practical and hands-on activities, where students can be seen engaging with various tools, equipment, and objects relevant to each programme's field of study. Teamwork and peer-to-peer learning are also portrayed as central to these programmes, simultaneously as leadership roles and the distribution of responsibilities among students are commonly featured. While the programmes' visual portrayals reflect diversity in ethnicity and gender, traditional gender roles are still (re)produced in the pictorials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reveals the views of the outstanding military, statesman and socio-political figure Sultan-Gaza Valikhanov on a wide range of issues of the colonization of Asian spaces by the forces of the Russian Empire. Based on the materials of the anniversary celebrations dedicated to the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the annexation of Siberia to Russia, in the preparation and publication of which G. Valikhanov was directly involved, the main «platforms», channels and ways of broadcasting problematic issues of the incorporation of the eastern outskirts into Russia are identified: the politics of the population, penal colonization, resettlement, enlightenment and education, railway construction. In the course of the study, it was established that the approach chosen by G. Valikhanov to organize the structure of the anniversary edition made it possible to identify the most significant problems that determined the logic of including the eastern outskirts in the general imperial space, and also to present in the final text of the conclusion, according to which the anniversary celebrations dedicated to significant historical events, in particular the annexation of Siberia to Russia, are an effective way of consolidating public and, above all, regional forces, allowing them to show communicative agreement in the discussion of the most pressing Siberian issues by society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through language, children participate actively in the construction of meanings around sexuality, which is governed unequally according to gender. This article examines the articulation of the social constructions of sexuality and gender with the pictorial and narrative representations of boys and girls from 9 to 11 years of age from four public schools in Barcelona province in the 2020–2021 school year. We used participatory methods, including drawing activities and focus groups. The findings suggest that hegemonic social constructions of masculinity and femininity guide children's practices and narratives about sexuality, (re)producing differences between 'boys' and 'girls'. The desire to fit into these hegemonic models puts pressure on boys to make their genitalia and bodies visible, and talk about sexuality through joking, while female genitalia are rendered invisible, and girls have calm discussions about sexuality. The article shows how children navigate, negotiate, or resist such governmentality and the inequalities that result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a case study within a three-year-long design research study. The purposes of this study are twofold. The first purpose includes investigating whether there is a significant difference in seventh-grade students' proportional reasoning skills before and after a teaching experiment conducted in line with the perspectives of Hypothetical Learning Trajectories and the theory of Realistic Mathematics Education and assess retention of those skills by means of quantitative analysis. The second purpose includes describing the changes and patterns in students' levels of ratio understandings and related uses of informal, pre-formal, and formal representations through the analysis of students' written work in the achievement tests and task-based interview results. Findings of the study showed that the intervention proved successful in enhancing students' proportional reasoning skills and supporting the shift in students' levels of ratio understanding and representation use from informal ones to more formal ones. Students' levels of ratio understanding and representation use are described in detail with several sample student responses from the pre-, post- and retention assessments, which also delineate the shift in students' proportional reasoning skills from informal to formal ones. Several discussions are made to discuss the findings and their potential implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Explores the representations of truck platooning acceptance on different stakeholders. • Exemplifies how similarly themed representations capture differences in perspective. • Suggests that on-road experiences may potentiate more positive representations. • Points towards the research gap on the impact of platooning in the future of work. Truck platooning, involving two or more automated trucks virtually linked in a convoy through vehicle automation and communication technologies, has become a core topic in the long-haul freight transport industry. Despite its potential benefits – fuel efficiency, reduced carbon emissions, operation cost savings, improved road safety, and alleviated traffic congestion – further research is required to understand the representations of technology acceptance that will mediate its adoption across different stakeholders. This study presents a systematic review of the representations of decision-makers, truck drivers, and the general public on truck platooning acceptance. A total of 35 papers were included in the review and grouped into (i) studies with no platooning experience, (ii) studies with a simulated platooning experience, and (iii) studies with an on-road platooning experience. Representations were extracted using thematic analysis to synthesize the perspectives of each stakeholder and organized in themes. Even when similar themes emerged, representations highlight each stakeholder singular perspective. Although decision-makers have a more positive outlook on the potentialities of the technology, they are concerned about several obstacles related to its implementation and risks that may undermine the promised efficiency benefits of truck platooning. Regarding general public, peripheral drivers are mainly concerned about the reliability and safety of truck platooning and the potential traffic conflicts. Truck drivers denote the potential advantages in driving comfort and road safety, but highlight their concerns about employment, the reliability of the automation, loss of driving pleasure, trust in the platooning systems and their elements, and additional stress associated with the reconfiguration of their activity by the technology. Meanwhile, considering the role of experience, when the technology was experimented on-road, representations became more positive. Still, although these experiments are closer to real-world context, they only focused on basic driver-truck interactions and did not account for multitask driving scenarios, nor explored truck drivers' employment concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore the dichotomy of direction and stimulus through a reflection on arts-based methods used in a research study into post-industrial communities in South Wales and consider whether in participatory processes, a catalyst for artistic creativity could become construed as researcher-led control over the activities. Through an examination of the methods and outcomes of the project, which employed a range of qualitative methods with an artistic and creative basis, I reflect on the positives and negatives of such an approach and also consider how my positionality affected my epistemological stance. Ultimately, I conclude that the complex storying of participatory activities and the issues of power and identity involving both researcher and participants inevitably means that the research 'dance' blurs the distinction between participation and direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annuario di Antropologia is the property of Ledizioni-LediPublishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective Natural language processing (NLP) algorithms are increasingly being applied to obtain unsupervised representations of electronic health record (EHR) data, but their comparative performance at predicting clinical endpoints remains unclear. Our objective was to compare the performance of unsupervised representations of sequences of disease codes generated by bag-of-words versus sequence-based NLP algorithms at predicting clinically relevant outcomes. Materials and Methods This cohort study used primary care EHRs from 6 286 233 people with Multiple Long-Term Conditions in England. For each patient, an unsupervised vector representation of their time-ordered sequences of diseases was generated using 2 input strategies (212 disease categories versus 9462 diagnostic codes) and different NLP algorithms (Latent Dirichlet Allocation, doc2vec, and 2 transformer models designed for EHRs). We also developed a transformer architecture, named EHR-BERT, incorporating sociodemographic information. We compared the performance of each of these representations (without fine-tuning) as inputs into a logistic classifier to predict 1-year mortality, healthcare use, and new disease diagnosis. Results Patient representations generated by sequence-based algorithms performed consistently better than bag-of-words methods in predicting clinical endpoints, with the highest performance for EHR-BERT across all tasks, although the absolute improvement was small. Representations generated using disease categories perform similarly to those using diagnostic codes as inputs, suggesting models can equally manage smaller or larger vocabularies for prediction of these outcomes. Discussion and Conclusion Patient representations produced by sequence-based NLP algorithms from sequences of disease codes demonstrate improved predictive content for patient outcomes compared with representations generated by co-occurrence-based algorithms. This suggests transformer models may be useful for generating multi-purpose representations, even without fine-tuning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminal justice agencies increasingly recruit new personnel online using social media. This paper analyzes correctional officer recruitment videos appearing on YouTube. Engaging with literature on social media representations and authenticity, we examine the content and the themes appearing in these videos. We use a grounded theory approach to data analysis accompanied by a semiotic reading of these video texts. We argue that these video representations convey a sense of fantastical authenticity, meaning there is a mythical or embellished dimension to these depictions and accounts. We also find that these videos communicate establishment narratives about prisons and prison work. We also situate our analysis in broader literature on social media use and communications by criminal justice agencies. We conclude with reflections on what this means for understanding representations of criminal justice as well as social media use by prison authorities in North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The good regulator theorem and the internal model principle are sometimes cited as mathematical proofs that an agent needs an internal model of the world in order to have an optimal policy. However, these principles rely on a definition of “internal model” that is far too permissive, applying even to cases of systems that do not use an internal model. As a result, these principles do not provide evidence (let alone a proof) that internal models are necessary. The paper also diagnoses what is missing in the GRT and IMP definitions of internal model, which is that models need to make predictions that represent variables in the target system (and these representations need to be usable by an agent so as to guide behavior). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of eHumanista is the property of Professor Antonio Cortijo-Ocana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

When listeners hear a voice, they rapidly form a complex first impression of who the person behind that voice might be. We characterize how these multivariate first impressions from voices emerge over time across different levels of abstraction using electroencephalography and representational similarity analysis. We find that for eight perceived physical (gender, age, and health), trait (attractiveness, dominance, and trustworthiness), and social characteristics (educatedness and professionalism), representations emerge early (~80 ms after stimulus onset), with voice acoustics contributing to those representations between ~100 ms and 400 ms. While impressions of person characteristics are highly correlated, we can find evidence for highly abstracted, independent representations of individual person characteristics. These abstracted representationse merge gradually over time. That is, representations of physical characteristics (age, gender) arise early (from ~120 ms), while representations of some trait and social characteristics emerge later (~360 ms onward). The findings align with recent theoretical models and shed light on the computations underpinning person perception from voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous peoples' right to control representations of their own culture and heritage is unquestionable, but in the case of tourism activities other stakeholders' understandings come into play. The nation-state is still an important organizational foundation for tourism. For the Indigenous Sámi people, who are located in four different nation-states, national destination management organizations (DMOs) have a crucial role in how their culture and traditions are represented. The current study examines the content of Visit Norway and Visit Sweden's visual marketing of indigenous Sámi tourism products. Using content analysis to sort electronic images and related texts, categories distinguishing natural, human, and other types of relevant symbols were created. The marketing strategies of both countries reinforce the traditional connection of the Sámi people to nature and their reindeer. Visit Sweden uses a distinct notion of what we call the artification of the Sámi, where young female artists contribute to the modern image of this indigenous people. Visit Norway continues to use more stereotypical representations of the Sámi, with a focus on colourful outfits and traditional buildings. Thus, tourism marketing continues to reinforce simplified images of the indigenous populations of the Arctic and their relation to the nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the self-representations of Russian-speaking women with anorexia on YouTube. Using multimodal interaction analysis, the research focuses on how the explanatory model of anorexia and the representation platform influence the narratives produced by vloggers who have experienced or are experiencing anorexia. It is concluded that anorexia is mainly represented in these videos as a weight-related mental health disorder. Although the explanatory model of anorexia shapes self-representations on YouTube, the platform plays an even greater role in the construction of such narratives. This study's findings fill gaps in the existing literature by revealing the joint structural influences that shape storytelling regarding the anorexia experience. The theoretical perspective utilized in this article could be further applied in research examining media representations of other mental health conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we aim to explore the interconnection between Children's Literature and contemporary technologies, though not from the perspective of technology as a didactic tool or as a media to produce or reproduce literary texts. Instead, we examine how technology is present in books for children and picture books. This approach is based on the concepts of children's literature, and childhood and technologies. We also present an initial corpus of stories and picture books either about technology or in which technology structures the book or the narrative. Our conclusion is that in some texts the encounter of both worlds produces significant literary experiences. However, there is a literary core that cannot be integrated with technology. This tension is also part of the cultural representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different why-questions emerge under different contexts and require different information in order to be addressed. Hence a relevance relation can hardly be invariant across contexts. However, what is indeed common under any possible context is that all explananda require scientific information in order to be explained. So no scientific information is in principle explanatorily irrelevant, it only becomes so under certain contexts. In view of this, scientific thought experiments can offer explanations, should we analyze their representational strategies. Their representations involve empirical as well as hypothetical statements. I call this the "representational mingling" which bears scientific information that can explain events. Buchanan's thought experiment from constitutional economics is examined to show how mingled representations explain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss a new framework for operator-valued Gaussian processes and their covariance kernels. Our emphasis is four-fold: (i) starting with a positive operator-valued measure (POVM) Q , we present algorithms for constructing an associated centered, operator-valued, Gaussian process X with Q as its covariance kernel; (ii) we present different classes of POVMs, and we examine the corresponding classes of operator-valued Gaussian processes X ; (iii) for the operator-valued Gaussian processes X at hand, and the non-commutative framework, we present the corresponding Itô-integrals; and we (iv) outline features of the operator-valued setting which are different from the more familiar case of scalar-valued Gaussian processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]