Visualizing Inequities: A Step Toward Equitable Student Outcomes.

The underrepresentation and underperformance of low-income, first-generation, gender minoritized, Black, Latine, and Indigenous students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occurs for a variety of reasons, including, that students in these groups experience opportunity gaps in STEM classes. A critical approach to disrupting persistent inequities is implementing policies and practices that no longer systematically disadvantage students from minoritized groups. To do this, instructors must use data-informed reflection to interrogate their course outcomes. However, these data can be hard to access, process, and visualize in ways that make patterns of inequities clear. To address this need, we developed an R-Shiny application that allows authenticated users to visualize inequities in student performance. An explorable example can be found here: https://theobaldlab.shinyapps.io/visualizinginequities/. In this essay, we use publicly retrieved data as an illustrative example to detail 1) how individual instructors, groups of instructors, and institutions might use this tool for guided self-reflection and 2) how to adapt the code to accommodate data retrieved from local sources. All of the code is freely available here: https://github.com/TheobaldLab/VisualizingInequities. We hope faculty, administrators, and higher-education policymakers will make visible the opportunity gaps in college courses, with the explicit goal of creating transformative, equitable education through self-reflection, group discussion, and structured support.

Prioritizing Technology Initiatives to Reduce Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults.

In their insightful commentary, Kokorelias et al. (2024) explore the potential of technology in supporting aging in the right place, addressing both opportunities and challenges from individual to societal levels. Our commentary specifically focuses on recent empirical evidence for technology's benefits in enhancing social connectivity and reducing loneliness for older adults, both with and without cognitive impairments. It emphasizes the need for a proper balance between the use of technology and face-to-face interactions and highlights the importance of addressing concerns related to privacy, cybersecurity and safety in this domain. In addition to the barriers outlined by Kokorelias et al. (2024), we discuss challenges related to the transfer of technology, the necessary steps required to ensure that technological interventions are effective beyond well-controlled studies and the responsibility of industries to design technology in such a way that innovations can benefit as many people as possible.

A Human Factors Approach for Designing, Developing and Deploying Technology for Aging in the Right Place.

Technology to support aging in the right place (AIRP) has much promise, but the potential is not yet being met. In their paper outlining the opportunities and challenges in the use of technology to support AIRP, Kokorelias et al. (2024) provided a roadmap for the next steps. Our commentary focuses on two questions they raised: (1) How can technology be designed and developed to better meet the specific needs, preferences and abilities of older adults? (2) How do we evaluate technology in natural settings? Widespread technology adoption will emerge from consideration of the users; an understanding of their unique needs; iterative participatory design and user testing; and support for facilitating conditions to ease deployment into people's lives and minimize abandonment.

Incentivizing green building technology: A financial perspective on sustainable development in India.

Future viability depends on ensuring a sustainable society because green energy methods may efficiently reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, stakeholders, consumers, and developers continue to be notably ignorant of the financial incentives connected to green technology. Moreover, there is still a dearth of studies on the range of financial incentives offered by different authorities in India. Monetary incentives, such as tax breaks, indirect tax exemptions, and refunds, are crucial in encouraging the use of green technology in the modern world. This study explores the importance of financial incentives for green building technologies in India, which also looks at the wide range of incentives provided by federal, state, and local governments. Furthermore, the study highlights various state government programs such as goods subsidies, exemptions from local taxes, and fee waivers. Notably, several incentives aimed at consumers, developers, and other stakeholders have been implemented by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). This review study emphasizes the effectiveness of financial incentives in green construction projects and draws attention to a clear knowledge gap regarding the adoption of green technology. This study also provides insights into potential future directions. Studies and research results emphasize the importance of spreading the word about financial incentives as a key factor in determining the adoption of green technologies. Many parties, including governmental organizations, municipal governments, developers, and clients engaged in green building technology projects, stand to gain increased awareness.

Curated character of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic lithic artefact assemblages in Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria).

The dispersal of Homo sapiens across Eurasia during MIS 3 in the Late Pleistocene is marked by technological shifts and other behavioral changes, known in the archaeological record under the term of Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP). Bacho Kiro Cave in north Bulgaria, re-excavated by us from 2015 to 2021, is one of the reference sites for this phenomenon. The newly excavated lithic assemblages dated by radiocarbon between 45,040 and 43,280 cal BP and attributed to Homo sapiens encompass more than two thousand lithic artifacts. The lithics, primarily from Layer N1-I, exist amid diverse fauna remains, human fossils, pierced animal teeth pendants, and sediment with high organic content. This article focuses on the technological aspects of the IUP lithics, covering raw material origin and use-life, blank production, on-site knapping activities, re-flaking of lithic implements, and the state of retouched lithic components. We apply petrography for the identification of silicites and other used stones. We employ chaîne opératoire and reduction sequence approaches to profile the lithics techno-typologically and explore the lithic economy, particularly blade production methods, knapping techniques, and artifact curation. Raw material analysis reveals Lower Cretaceous flints from Ludogorie and Upper Cretaceous flints from the Danube region, up to 190 km and 130 km, respectively, from Bacho Kiro Cave, indicating long-distance mobility and finished products transport. Imported lithic implements, were a result of unidirectional and bidirectional non-Levallois laminar technology, likely of volumetric concept. Systematic on-anvil techniques (bipolar knapping) and tool segmentation indicate re-flaking and reshaping of lithic implements, reflecting on-site curation and multifaceted lithic economy. A limited comparison with other IUP sites reveals certain shared features and also regional variations. Bacho Kiro Cave significantly contributes to understanding the technological and behavioral evolution of early Homo sapiens in western Eurasia.

Outdated and re-configured: Challenging linear conceptualizations of ageing through the case of revived obsolete technologies.

Taking as a starting point the conventional view of ageing as a linear process beginning in a youthful and productive stage but gradually deteriorating, this paper shifts the usual anthropocentric focal point towards technological artifacts which do not conform to this typical view. More specifically, three examples of technologies previously considered obsolete, but which have seen a revival in the last decade, are presented: the so-called dumbphones, analogue cameras, and vinyl players. Although very different at first glance, the three cases of these revived technologies show a similar evolution trajectory which breaks from the typical view of ageing in technological artifacts. Instead, they indicate how their revival does not simply entail a reconsideration of their initial value (such as it is often the case with antiques or heirlooms), but a transformation, hybridisation, and re-envisioned purpose. To this effect, the agential realism theory is applied to show how the revival of technological artifacts and practices once considered outdated attempts to dissolve binaries such as old/new, young/old, or slow/fast. Furthermore, such artifacts reveal trajectories of ageing that are unlike their human counterparts, but which can make way for new manners of articulating issues pertaining to ageing as a process in humans as well. The contribution of the paper lies in illustrating how adopting a non-linear view of ageing and fundamentally questioning its inherent binaries has the capacity to produce a much-needed nuanced view of ageing in humans, non-humans, and their sociomaterial entanglements.

The impact mechanism and empirical analysis of financial efficiency of science and technology empowering regional real economy growth.

With the aim of exploring the impact mechanism of scientific and technological financial efficiency on regional real economy growth in the context of ecological civilization construction, this study introduces environmental regulation as a mediating factor. By analyzing changes in science and financial efficiency of science and technology, we provide an effective basis for regional real economy development. To achieve this goal, we define concepts such as science and financial efficiency of science and technology and regional real economy, measure data from 2012 to 2021, analyze the impact of science and financial efficiency of science and technology on economic growth using intermediary models, test mediation effects with bootstrap methods, and identify significant differences between regions. It indicates that enhancing science and financial efficiency of sci-tech benefits China's regional real economy growth, but there's unbalanced development across regions. Additionally, environmental regulation serves as a crucial intermediary in the relationship between sci-tech finance and economic growth. There exist regional disparities in the mediation effects of environmental regulation, with eastern regions demonstrating stronger effects compared to central and western regions.

Fostering green technology innovation with green credit: Evidence from spatial quantile approach.

Green technology is an important path to achieve low-carbon development, and green credit provides financial support for green technology innovation. Existing literature often fails to pay attention to the important role of spatial factors and outliers in green technology innovation. Based on 2005-2022 provincial panel data in China, this paper uses a novel spatial lag quantile model to explore the impact of green credit on green technology innovation and its impact mechanism. The empirical results indicate that green credit exerts a greater positive impact on green technology in the provinces with moderate technical level. Technological innovation has the characteristic of spatial spillover. The spatial spillover of technology contributes more to green technology innovation in the provinces with low- and medium-tech level. This result has been proven even after robustness test of the changes in sample units, and the replacement of core variable values. Further mechanistic analysis demonstrates that banking market structure and enterprise R&D investment both produces the greater impact on green technology innovation in the low-tech provinces such as Qinghai, Ningxia, and Hainan. This article provides policy reference for local governments to formulate green finance policies and promote carbon neutrality strategies.

COP 28 Policy Perspectives: Achieving Environmental Sustainability through FDI, Technological Innovation Index, Trade Openness, Energy Consumption, and Economic Development in N-11 Emerging Economies.

Despite remarkable success in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to achieve maximum economic growth, the Next-11 emerging economies grappling with an undesirable situation of environmental degradation have become a hot topic at COP28. Researchers have long focused on this connection, emphasizing the urgent need for international and national environmentalists to promote sustainable development (SD) in these rapidly growing economies under the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change action plans. As a result, this study examines the role of FDI in the N-11 emerging economies, focusing on energy usage and technological innovation within the theoretical framework of the Halo-Haven hypothesis, covering the period from 1990 to 2022. We utilize ARDL, FMOLS, and DOLS techniques to analyze both short-term dynamics and long-term equilibrium relationships, effectively managing heterogeneity, time dynamics, and cross-sectional dependence issues to produce comprehensive results. The long-term analysis supports the haven hypothesis, demonstrating an affirmative relationship between FDI, economic growth, and carbon emissions, whereas energy usage is negatively associated with carbon emissions. Furthermore, the D-H test established a reciprocal causal relationship between variables such as FDI, economic growth, trade openness, and environmental pollution. However, we found a one-way causal correspondence in the usage of green energy, the technological innovation index, and carbon emissions. Given the mixed findings, policymakers should focus on attracting FDI to the green energy sector while reinforcing regulations and implementing stringent oversight for FDI in energy-intensive industries. This approach will ensure that such investments adhere to high environmental standards, thereby benefiting future generations.

Government innovation subsidies, green technology innovation and carbon intensity of industrial firms.

Government innovation subsidies play an important role as a policy to incentivize green transformation of enterprises, but whether government innovation subsidies can reduce the carbon intensity of industrial enterprises is still unclear, the exploration of the impact pathway needs to be further developed. This study takes government innovation subsidies as the entry point. It takes Chinese industrial listed companies as the research object from 2007 to 2021, explores the internal mechanism of government innovation subsidies on carbon intensity of industrial enterprises, analyzes the heterogeneity of the impact of government innovation subsidies on the carbon intensity of government innovation subsidies, and finally compares the differences arising from the governance effects of the policies of government innovation subsidies and government non-innovation subsidies. The results of the study show that: 1. Government innovation subsidies are beneficial for improving the energy utilization efficiency of enterprises and significantly reducing carbon intensity, unit government innovation subsidies can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of industrial enterprises by 11.069 tons per 10,000 yuan of output value; 2. Government innovation subsidies can effectively incentivize industrial enterprises to carry out green technological innovations, and improve the quantity and quality of green technological innovation; 3. Government innovation subsidies can reduce carbon intensity of industrial enterprises by incentivizing the green technological innovations of enterprises to "increase the quantity and improve the quality". In fact, carbon intensity of industrial enterprises could be significantly reduced by incentivizing green technological innovation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the greater the pressure of environmental tax and the higher the degree of market competition, the stronger is the effect of government innovation subsidies in reducing carbon intensity. The inclusion of government non-innovation subsidies in the control study shows that government innovation subsidies with innovation orientation motivate industrial enterprises to reduce carbon emissions significantly more than those subsidies without innovation orientation. In conclusion, this study provides a practical reference for the promotion of green technological innovation in enterprises to "increase the quantity and improve the quality" and reduce carbon intensity, as well as a revelation for the adoption of differentiated policies for different enterprises.

Industry visions of technology for older adults: A futures anthropology perspective.

The negative portrayal of ageing as a human decline burdening society has prompted Ageing Technology industries (AgeTech) to foresee solutions rooted in the Ageing in Place paradigm. These ostensibly neutral future interventions are intertwined with socio-technical dynamics. While Science and Technology Studies (STS) and anthropology scholars have questioned these AgeTech practices, limited literature explores industry's predictions of future AgeTech. Drawing on STS and futures-anthropology literature, I interrogate AgeTech industry visions of future assemblages involving older people, smart home technology, and socio-material discourses rooted in their own discrepancies and dilemmas. To unpack AgeTech futures, my methods include a review of 49 industry reports and 29 interviews with industry experts. Based on the reports, I designed comics to be used in interviews with experts spanning CEOs and managers of companies designing technology for older people, consultants, and aged-care workers based in 12 countries. Ageing futures are far from being neutral or a chronological process, instead they are non-consensual and fragmented. In the review and interviews, I captured future assemblages of a fragmented AgeTech industry in relationships with governments and industry giants. The fragmentation continues unfolding in participants from diverse countries and professions contesting dominant AgeTech narratives. In dissecting future assemblages, I also unpack non-consensual futures based on diverging experts' values (e.g. safety versus activity) and humans' values like control and improvisation challenging predictive and surveillance technology. AgeTech Futures transcend physical matters or assemblages of technologies and humans. They encompass future normativities, tensions, divergent values, and ideological concepts. I propose not only alternatives to the visions found in industry narratives, but also encourage scholars to understand the AgeTech industry's dilemmas.

Vacina e tecnologia: uma ótima combinação | Coisa de Homem

Fala, Truta! Neste episódio do Coisa de Homem, vocês vão entender como tecnologia tem tudo a ver com vacina e essa combinação salva vidas! E como a gente sempre diz que o SUS é lindo, você vão conhecer mais sobre a importância da rede na imunização aqui do município de São Paulo.

Associations between parents' autonomy supportive management language and children's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics talk during and after tinkering at home.

We conducted a time series analysis of parents' autonomy supportive and directive language and parents' and children's STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) talk during and after a problem-solving activity (i.e., tinkering). Parent and child dyads (N = 61 children; Mage = 8.10 years; 31 boys; 54% White) were observed at home via Zoom. After tinkering, a researcher elicited children's reflections, and approximately 2 weeks later dyads reminisced together about the experience. During tinkering, the more autonomy supportive STEM talk parents used in 1 min, the more children talked about STEM in the next minute. During reminiscing, parents' autonomy support was also associated with children's STEM talk. Results suggest the importance of considering how both the content and style of parents' talk can support children's STEM engagement.

From screens to seas: Tech contaminants in tiger sharks.

The potential negative impacts of Technology-Critical Elements (TCEs) on the environment and wildlife, despite increasingly recognized, remain largely overlooked. In this sense, this study aimed to investigate the concentrations of several TCEs, including rubidium (Rb), titanium (Ti) and various Rare Earth Elements (REEs), in different tissues of tiger sharks. Sharks incidentally caught by artisanal fleets in southern Brazil were opportunistically sampled and liver, gills, kidneys, heart, muscle, eyes, brain, skin, and teeth were analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Significant Rb concentration variations were observed across different tissues, with higher levels detected in kidneys and lower levels in the liver. Titanium concentrations also exhibited significant differences, with higher levels detected in teeth and lower levels in liver. Although no statistical differences were observed for the analyzed REEs, a trend of higher accumulation in the liver, gills, and skin was noted. Light Rare Earth Elements (LREEs) were found predominantly in all organs, with neodymium, lanthanum, and cerium as the most significant REEs detected. Several statistically significant correlations were identified between Rb and REEs, as well as between Ti and REEs, indicating systemic transport of these elements across different tissues. These findings indicate that the growing extraction and disposal of metallic elements, driven by technological advancements, may lead to their assimilation by marine fauna, particularly at higher trophic levels. The potential harmful effects on these organisms remain unknown and require urgent investigation. Additionally, as mining activities intensify globally, precise legislative measures are essential to address environmental concerns, species conservation, and human health considerations.

Evaluating the performance of Tunisian higher Institutes of Technological Studies (ISETs) using a stochastic frontier analysis.

Benefiting from low repetition and dropout rates, as well as their excellent employability rate of their students, the Higher Institutes of Technological Studies (ISETs) have acquired a strategic position in the Tunisian higher education system. This paper aims to use the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) method to measure the efficiency of Tunisian Higher Institutes of Technological Studies (ISETs) and to determine the factors that cause performance differences. The results indicate that ISETs appear well managed, although some of them warrant a more detailed analysis (below-average efficiency). Also, it was found that the ISETs situated in the most industrialized part of the country, the Central-East, record highest scores of efficiency, while those in the South-East show more homogeneous efficiency. The results underscore the importance of focusing support and improvement efforts on ISETs located in less developed regions or those with lower efficiency levels. Moreover, the negative relationship between the age of institutions and their efficiency suggests that reforms to institutional practices may be necessary for older establishments. Finally, institutes that are located in one of the main cities will not necessarily be more efficient than the others. The findings presented in this paper have targeted and practical implications for the development of the ISET network in Tunisia.

Factors affecting behavioral intentions of farmers in Southeast Asia to technology adoption: A systematic review analysis.

Agriculture remains one of the most vital economic sectors in Southeast Asia. However, the progress of this sector has been hindered by small-scale production, limited technology application, decreasing agricultural land size and quality, climate change, rapid urbanization, low productivity, and aging farmers. Technology adoption by rural farmers is still lacking, and the factors affecting farmers' behavioral intentions are still unclear, especially in Southeast Asia. Therefore, this study aims to determine the factors affecting behavioral intentions toward technology adoption among rural Southeast Asian farmers. A systematic literature review was performed to determine the factors affecting behavioral attention to technology adoption among smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia. Approximately 18 related studies were found based on the systematic review. According to the results of the study, farmers' behavioral intentions toward technology adoption can be classified as internal factors or external factors. Internal factors explain behavior, while external factors explain household, institutional, technological, social, and economic factors. The review revealed 21 factors categorized into five subthemes: household-specific factors, institutional factors, economic factors, technology factors, and behavior factors. This study is important because agriculture remains one of the most vital and pillar economic sectors in Southeast Asia. In addition, it has become a guideline for determining farmers' behavioral intentions toward the adoption of new agricultural technology.

Quantitative evaluation of science and technology financial policies based on the PMC-AE index model: A case study of China's science and technology financial policies since the 13th five-year plan.

The formulation of science and technology financial policies directly influences the direction of national economic development. Quantitative evaluation of these policies is an important method to reflect the consistency and strengths and weaknesses of policy interrelations. This paper analyzes 16 science and technology financial policy documents issued by the Chinese central government from 2016 to 2022, using text analysis and content analysis to extract keyword frequencies, and constructs 9 primary variables and 34 secondary variables. For the first time, a PMC-AE index model for science and technology financial policies is established, and a quantitative evaluation is conducted on 5 significant policy documents out of the 16. The results show that, from an overall analysis, Policy 1 and Policy 4 are at a good level, while the other three policies are at an excellent level. From the analysis of individual policy PMC-AE indexes, the rankings in descending order are: P2 > P5 > P3 > P4 > P1. Overall, the policies effectively meet the needs of China's science and technology financial development, with P2, P3, and P5 being at an excellent level, P4 at a good level, and P1 at an acceptable level, mainly reflecting the need for improvement in aspects such as policy synchronization with the current stage, targeted entities, guiding fields, and policy content. It is recommended that Chinese government departments should focus on five aspects in policy formulation: building a talent system for science and technology finance, improving the quality of financial services, coordinating central and local financial policies, protecting intellectual property rights in science and technology finance, and strengthening financial supervision. This will be conducive to the effective implementation of science and technology financial policies.

Analyzing blank cutting edge efficiency associated with the adoption of microblade technology: A case study from Tolbor-17, Mongolia.

The phenomenon of lithic miniaturization during the Late Pleistocene at times coincided with increased artifact standardization and cutting edge efficiency-likely reflecting the use of small, sharp artifacts as interchangeable inserts for composite cutting tools and hunting weapons. During Marine Isotope Stage 2, Upper Paleolithic toolmakers in northern East Asia specifically used pressure techniques to make small, highly standardized lithic artifacts called microblades. However, little is currently known about how microblades affected the cutting edge efficiency of the toolkits they were a part of. We applied three methods of analyzing cutting edge efficiency to two Upper Paleolithic assemblages recently excavated from Tolbor-17, Mongolia, that document the periods before and after the introduction of microblade technology to the Tolbor Valley. A model incorporating allometric relationships between blank cutting edge length and mass suggests no difference in efficiency between the two periods, while two more conventional approaches both indicate a significant increase. The potential for improved cutting edge efficiency is only observed when the microblade sample is artificially inflated via simulation. Our results highlight challenges related to detecting and interpreting archaeological differences in cutting edge efficiency at the assemblage level.