Now let's have a look at two model answers that I've written. One is a character-related answer and the other is a theme-related answer, okay? And of course, always remember when it comes to the exam questions, you always get either a character or a theme question to choose from. Now this past paper question asks, do you think piggy is an important character in Lord of the Flies, right about how Golding presents the character of piggy and how Golding uses piggy to present ideas about people in society. And as I mentioned, you want to first plan, consider four maximum five points to write about and of course you need to have an introduction and conclusion. Now whilst you're planning, of course, you want to first zone in on the key words. Of course, in this question, the key word is piggy, being important as a character in the novel, okay? And of course, how Golding presents him and how he's used to present ideas about people and society, okay? Now, let's look firstly at my introduction. Of course, always remember with an essay, you want to show your examiner that you understand the importance of introduction and conclusion, but you should not spend more than three minutes maximum on the introduction and three minutes on the conclusion. That's maximum, but I would suggest the more you practice, the quicker you're going to become and really you should be aiming for two minutes for each, meaning in total you're spending four minutes on intro and conclusion and you move on, okay? So the introduction. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding presents Piggy as a vital and intelligent character who this really shows the degradation of civilized values within other boys as the novel progresses. Golding uses him as a way to represent the superior social values of being civilized, rational and scientific as individuals. Piggy plays an important role in establishing order and rules as well as giving the other boys guidance, which was an essential reason why the boys managed to survive, yet he is presented as a physically weak character who's undermined by the other boys before he's finally killed. This essay will examine the important role that Piggy plays within the novel. So as you can see in my opening, I've linked it back to the question, why Piggy is important, he is vital and viscerally by the way means really vividly, okay? His treatment obviously shows the degradation, the downfall of civilized values within the boys who are supposedly really well to do very civilized, middle and upper class children from private schools in England. And of course, I've then developed how in summary, Piggy is seen as very superior in the sense that he has and he embodies civilized rational values. And I then mentioned whilst he's really important, he's still way too physically weak in this predatory environment, which leads him to be killed, okay? Then I've just mentioned that I'm going to be examining this in detail. Now let's look at my first point. Firstly, Golding presents Piggy as a vital character as he is used to represent the rational wise and civilized side of us. Piggy asks the boys, which better to have rules and agree or to hunt and kill? This rhetorical question is important in highlighting his intelligence and his need to maintain a social order among the boys. It's interesting that he's assertive as it shows that contrary to what we would expect, he's willing to fight to maintain a strong sense of civilization. From a psychological perspective, Piggy represents a super ego which derives from Freud's theory about human nature. He stated that the mind is like an iceberg and we as humans work hard to repress our hidden dark desires, which are our id. Piggy is able to successfully repress this throughout the novel and he maintains a strong sense of civility. Contextually, this is important as Piggy is used to contrast the brutality of war that enveloped the characters in the novel, as well as Golding when he served in the Second World War. Golding noticed that most people descended into savage brutality once they were beyond the watchful eye of the government. Thus, Piggy represents those who stayed civilized in spite of this. Now, what I want to highlight is what makes this a strong paragraph. Now, firstly, when you're writing any response within your paragraphs, you need to adopt the point evidence explanation and linking back method. Now, as you can see with this first point, I've first started off with a point which I'm going to highlight in pink, okay? So the point is in pink. Now, I've then supported my point with evidence, okay? And I'm going to highlight the evidence in blue. Now, I've then made my explanation, okay? So this rhetorical question and I've also highlighted in terms of language techniques. I've mentioned a rhetorical question which is actually a structural technique but essentially what I've done is I've shown an awareness of the structural and language techniques that Golding uses. Now, this is really, really good, opening with a point, then your explanation, evidence and then your explanation. However, this is only a part of what makes a really, really strong essay. Now, what you need to do is now link it back to the question, add relevant contextual factors as well as any other extra ideas. And this is really now the bulk of the analysis, okay? And I'm going to highlight this in yellow. This is really, really important. This is now what separates the very average level five answers from really strong level nine responses. It's this yellow part, this is your linking back. This is where you go into detail where you analyze not only what has been said from the novel but also talking about relevant factors such as context. And in this instance, for example, I've talked about the psychological side that Golding explores, which comes from a theorist called Sigmund Freud who talks about human nature. Now, one of the most important things to remember is when you're writing your answers and developing your points, you don't want to then say, this is what this point means and this is what the super ego means, for example. You want to allude indirectly to it without actually explaining everything because your examiner knows what this is. You just want to see that you're able to link it back and make it, of course, relevant to the key words and the question. Of course, the key words just to remember is how Piggy is important and what ideas he presents about people in society. So let's move on to my second point. Secondly, Piggy is portrayed as someone who values democracy and the rule of law from the start of the novel. He suggests that Ralph should blow the conch to bring the other survivors on the island to them. The fact that Piggy instantly gravitates to the conch is symbolic of the fact that Piggy represents common sense and discipline as he uses the conch to establish a sense of democracy and law. He urges the boys to abide by the rules to ensure the survival when he asks, how can you expect to be rescued if you don't put things first and act proper? This rhetorical question highlights Piggy's reliance on and his appreciation for civilization. Additionally, it shows his superior understanding of its importance and this is in stark contrast with the other boys who fell to grasp its meaning. Piggy represents what psychologist Sigmund Freud called the super ego as he's extremely well socialized and intelligence. Yet this causes friction and a degree of conflict with the other boys who experienced more primitive urges that Freud called the id because given they were outside of the world of grownups, they wish to carry out, to act in a more barbaric way surfaced much more vividly as their time on the island continued. Now again, I'm going to stop here and explain how I've structured this essay. So here, I've actually included elements of linking and analysis in parts of the essay and parts of the paragraph that maybe don't necessarily fit squarely at the end. And of course also I've still ended the paragraph with linking back and analyzing like this one, but also just to highlight to you. Firstly, I've began with the point linking back to the question, okay? And again here, the color code for the point is pink. I've then developed my point a little bit, okay? So I've developed that point somewhat a little bit more. Now what I've done is I've mentioned here just a little bit of analysis and this is just to illustrate to you that you can add a bit of analysis. What you don't want to do is get really carried away. I've talked about the symbolism of the conch and how this links back to Piggy representing common sense. This is a bit more advanced. So I would suggest if you do struggle with just understanding and considering how to do the point evidence explanation link method, don't do this as yet until you're really comfortable with writing your essay answers. Now I've made my point. I've added a little bit of linking and analysis already. However, I've quickly brought it back to my explanation or rather my evidence, which is in blue, okay? So now I've made my point. I've added a little bit of analysis and then I've added in my evidence. Now I've then essentially added in my explanation after this sense of evidence or rather this example of my evidence, okay? So I've supported my evidence with example and I've talked about how this retoccal question which is another structural technique, how this highlights Piggy's appreciation for civilization. Now as you can see here, I've then brought in the psychological perspective again. This is my link. So essentially this link here which I've added a little bit early on, also this could just go in at the end, okay? But I'm just showing you that it doesn't have to be very rigid. You can add a little bit of a link. What you don't want to do is get carried away and forget to add your evidence, your explanation, okay? However, what I'm trying to show you in this instance is you need to always remember that having a point, evidence and explanation is only half of the job done. You need to always add your link and analysis. This is the yellow section and please bear in mind that this is really the bulk of each paragraph because this is how important it is in securing really top marks. Let's look at the third paragraph. Thirdly, Piggy is presented as an outsider. The boys focus on the fact that Piggy is not fit to be a leader as not only was he physically unfit, however, he was also far more clumsy and less well-spoken in his vocabulary. To be sure, his vocabulary stands in stark contrast with Ralph, who's well-spoken as Piggy asserts. Nobody don't know we're here. Nobody don't know. This is important as it reveals Piggy came from a lower class than the other boys in the island. Contextually, this novel was written soon after the Second World War when class divisions in England were extremely stark. Thus, the boys would instantly sense that Piggy's family was from a lower class than them, making him vulnerable to being bullied. Furthermore, Piggy's status was further enhanced when the novel states that he was an outsider not only by accent, but by fat and asthma and specs and a certain disinclination to manual labour. The use of polysinderton in this description of Piggy emphasises the boys' division of him because of his physically weak appearance. Golding vividly conveyed the message that, despite Piggy representing the boys of Risen on the island, he was powerless to stop the descent into savagery of the other boys led by the novel's antagonist Jack simply because he belonged to a lower class which automatically marked him as an outsider. Golding uses the character of Piggy to explore how society can be dominated by the instinct of survival of the fittest, at the expense of more vulnerable outsiders and Piggy's role as a victim of prejudice is used to expose the darkness of man's heart. Now here again, what I've begun with is with a point. Again, here I'm going to highlight it in pink. Then here's my evidence. And then essentially, I've added a brief explanation and added some context really quickly on. Now what I then do, so this is of course context looking to analysis, however, what I've then also done and again, this is to show that the point evidence explanation method, you can obviously follow that particular structure but you can still add just a little bit of extra evidence if relevant and if it fits in to the wider point that you're making. So again here, I've added evidence and then mentioned polysinderton which is a structural technique and I've explained it and then added a bit more of analysis and talking about context, talking about class divisions. So as you can see here, again, what this illustrates is the importance of analysis and of course still don't forget that analysis isn't the whole picture, you still need to make a point, you need to add some evidence. You can add more than one piece of evidence. One piece of evidence is fine but if you can think of another quotation within good time that you think could add to your point and support your point even more, of course you can do so. Now let's look at my fourth point. Moreover, piggy spectacles are used as a powerful motif throughout the novel. Piggy spectacles are a symbol for civilization and the gradual destruction of spectacles charts the boys' descent into savagery. At first, the glasses are sturdy when we meet Piggy. This is evident in the description of his appearance, his lips quivered and the spectacles were dimmed with mist. However, as the novel progresses, his spectacles crack and this represents the gradual division that develops between the boys. Finally, by chapter 10, Jack attacks Ralph's group in the night and takes piggy spectacles so that his tribe can make a fire. This is important as it represents a total breakdown of unity as well as a complete destruction of social order among the boys. Piggy is distraught as he tells Ralph to remember what we came for, the fire, my specs. However, the destruction of Piggy's spectacles signal a turning point both in highlighting the savage nature of the boys that emerges as well as foreshadowing Piggy's death. This shows Piggy plays an important role as a crucial character in the novel as he highlights civiliser moral behaviour and ultimately his death points the destruction of these two virtues. Now again here, I make an additional point and I talk about Piggy's spectacles. So here is my opening point. Then I've highlighted this and supported this with some evidence. Then I develop my point a little bit more and of course this is actually another point I'm making, okay? So bear this in mind. So I'm developing yet another point talking about how actually as we look back at the question and of course what Piggy is important and how he shows people in society, these points that I'm making are highlighting the gradual disintegration of society and I've added another piece of evidence here, okay? So and the evidence should be in blue, not pink, okay? Now here I've then mentioned how this symbolizes a turning point, okay? So this is my explanation and then I've linked it back to the question, okay? Now let's look at my final point before I conclude. Finally the murder of Piggy is powerful in illustrating his importance as a character in the novel as it shows that there is no longer any order among the boys. The shocking description of his death goes against what we as readers associate with childhood as well as an innocence we perceive within children. Golding vividly depicts how the rock struck Piggy, a glancing blow from chin to knee, the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and seas to exist. This savage death hauntingly echoes the manner in which the boys killed the so earlier in the novel at once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, kept leapt on the beast's scream, struck a bit tall. This animalistic slaughter of Piggy, much like the pig, shows how the boys have descended into a brutal, Darwinian existence as they have been reduced to the bare animal instincts. This animalistic existence is further echoed on a witness, Piggy's dead body, his heart opened, Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit like a pig's after it's been killed. Golding uses a simile as this powerfully connects Piggy to an animal, much like the other boys appear to also function as animals. However, as he's the weakest among the clan, thus he has been sacrificed on a brutal and senseless death, showing how living outside of the social constraints of society has reduced the boys to mere primates and only the fittest among them can survive. Hence Piggy's death is important in illustrating the fact that civilization and the threat of punishment is vital for a functioning society. Without the imposition of strict social controls, even the most innocent of humans has the capacity to become a cruel and barbaric individual who preys on the weakest beings within his group. Now again here, I have started with a point, a really detailed point. Then I've added evidence. I've then added yet another point, talking about elsewhere and how this is reinforced, and I've then added additional evidence here. Now, I've then added a little bit of explanation here and I've coupled this explanation with some context and of course this is to do with Charles Darwin and how the boys on the island show this Darwinianism, this idea of survival of the fittest. I've then added a little bit more evidence to just reinforce my point as you can see here. Okay, and do bear in mind that this is a model response. You don't have to add as much evidence. This is just showing how perfect a response can get. Okay, now then here is another explanation. Okay, and this explanation is tied to this previous quotation. Now I've then developed and analyzed all that I've included and as you can see here, I've got extra analysis. Now let's look at my conclusion. To conclude, Piggy serves an important character as he highlights the fact that humans can aspire to be good civilizational logical people. Piggy is an emblem of this aspiration and he plays an important role in showing the highest values that humans can aspire to. However, the boys descent into savagery and his eventual death also highlight the depths human nature can sink to. Therefore, his character shows importance of placing the social constraints of civilization on people to ensure that we as individuals do not descend into the animalistic people that we're capable of becoming. And again, this conclusion just links back to why Piggy is important and what this shows about when it comes to ideas of people and society.


We'll start with Meredith Marokovic's first question for Davey. Hey Davey, thanks for joining us. Just curious as to whether or not you expected to be a part of that 60 player pool that were invited to Yankee Stadium. Hola Davey, gracias por estar aquí con nosotros. Quería preguntarte acerca si esperaba que sabía que te iban a poner dentro de esos 60 jugadores, ese roster que se hizo de 60 jugadores. Sabía que iba a estar dentro de esos 60 para venir aquí a entrenar. Bueno, sí, yo siempre, siempre me mantengo positivo. Sabía que en cualquier momento van a ser la llamada y por eso me mantuve preparando para cuando se diera este momento. Yeah, you know, for me it was about keeping a positive mind, you know, and keep training, keeping myself in shape for that call, you know, because at any time it could have, it could arrive and that's what I did. I just managed to stay training, waiting for a call. Where did you train during the quarantine period? Es donde tuite entrenando durante esa cuarentena. Bueno, tuve entrenando en Bonavos, en donde vivo mi ciudad y me la pasé entrenando con mi hermano, que juega profesional también y, sabe, cuando necesitaba practicar, soltar la agaditancia y eso, iba al play a una hora que no haya tanta gente y ya cuando necesitaba tirar suave, entonces lo hacía ahí mismo en mi casa. Yeah, you know, I was training back home in Bonavos, Dominican Republic and, you know, I happened to have my brother around. He's also a professional, a professional ball player, so I had the opportunity to practice with him. And if I needed to long toss and do more than the regular playing catch, I would go to the field at certain hours where there were not that many people around. And you flew through the system last year for the Yankees. What would you view as your greatest strengths and what are areas that you feel that you need to work on? Y como sabe, tu has tenido la capacidad de pasar por todos los niveles de Liga Menores a una buena velocidad en tu opinión de ti como lanzador, que tu crees que son tus fuerzas como lanzador y cuáles son algunas cosas que te gustaría trabajar más y mejorar. Bueno, principalmente, lo que me gustaría trabajar más, por lo menos lo que estoy trabajando ahora es mi agresividad. Lo estoy trabajando mucho en eso, lo acomodando de cada uno de los picheos, eso prácticamente nunca se deja de trabajar. Y bueno, creo que lo estoy haciendo bien y espero hacer un buen trabajo cuando me toque de nuevo. Y las fortalezas? Bueno, yo me siento muy bien. Una de las fortalezas mía es el spin de mi recta. Sabe, eso es bien importante. También siempre estoy trabajando en eso y en los picheos secundarios.  You know, I've been told it's very good and commanding it. It's also a big help of my arsenal. As far as improving, there's many things you can improve, right? But one of the things that I'm working on right now is being more aggressive, being more aggressive in terms of accounts and use my secondary pitches more effectively. Thank you guys. Brendan, you can unmute. You have the next question. Thanks, you see, baby, what was the greatest challenge or challenges to coming out of the bullpen last year? En tu opinión, verdad, tuviste la oportunidad de lanzar del bullpen, o sea, viniendo del bullpen. En tu opinión, ¿cuál tú diría que fue lo más difícil para justarte saliendo del bullpen e entrar a un juego? Bueno, cuando no viene del bullpen, creo que lo que se complica un poco ya cuando uno ha abrido, creo que la preparación, o sea, es una preparación diferente. Y creo que eso es lo único que se podría complicar un poco, pero, o sea, trato de hacer los jute-rapes y de acostumbrarme. Yeah, I would say, you know, being a starter and all the sudden being the bullpen, of course the preparation is different, right? And that's probably the biggest thing that you need to adjust and get used to. The preparations, you have to be ready much, much faster and at any given point, you know. But at the same time, it's about making the adjustments and, you know, I'm able to do that. I'm able to just adjust to whatever is needed. So you didn't have much difficulty at all doing that last year? I mean, so you would say that you didn't have much difficulty doing the bullpen? No, I didn't have much difficulty, because when I was playing, I knew what I was going to say and I was trying to prepare as best as possible. No, I don't think it was difficult at the same time. You know, they would let me know which days I was going to go in, and that kind of helps, you know, knowing ahead that there's a good chance that I'm going to get in the game although I'm coming out of the bullpen. We take the next question from Sweeney Murdy. Sweeney, go ahead. Davie, without a minor league season, what are some of the things you've been able to do that you felt you'd be able to improve on and over these last few months? Have you been able to measure something that you feel you've gotten better on despite not having real game competition? Davie, understanding that there's no smaller league season and that you don't have that opportunity to improve on certain things that give you, to participate in a smaller league season, understanding that, understanding where you were during the spring training to this day, what are some of the things that you think have improved in this time? Well, in this time, my mentality has improved a lot. I've improved a lot in the field and I've improved a lot in the field, too. I mean, I tried to put 100% of my part in that. We've improved a lot on how to treat a striker. Look at the movements he makes with each swing, with all that. I think I've learned a lot about that. You know, one of the things that I can pinpoint, Sweeney, is the ability to repatter, you know, understand what the hitters are trying to do just from being around this kind of baseball, this level of baseball and having a strong mind, you know, working on your mindset and not only on the field, but off the field, understanding what it takes. Definitely some of the things that I think have been able to improve. Thank you. Pete Caldera, you have the next question. Go ahead. David, just curious what your confidence level and your thoughts are as you try to go about barbing a role for yourself on this 2020 Major League team? I mean, in your opinion and what the training time is going to be, how do you try to win a position in this 2020 Major League team? Well, I try to do a good job, you know. I get along well with all of my teammates, even though I understand that there is a competition, I try to be positive, always being positive, doing a good job in what I can, controlling what I can control and doing what God wants.  Ron Blum, welcome back. Go ahead, unmute. Can you hear me now? Mm-hmm. David, would you say without a minor league season this year, does it set your back your chances to make it into the major leagues on a regular basis this year, or can you do enough work on the side to still progress the same amount? David, in your opinion, understanding that there won't be a minor league season, do you think that's going to set you back, do you think that's going to set your development as a striker, or do you think that all the work and all the preparation you're doing will still help you to make another step towards your goal? Well, at least I don't think I'm going to back off since I'm here and they gave me the opportunity to be here and to show what I can do here. And that's what I think, to try to execute what you can execute. Well, I don't think I'm going to back off. You know, I don't think it's going to hold me back, but it prevents me from taking strides to progress on my career.  Thank you. Take a few more, James Wagner. Floor is yours. Well, I hope you're doing well. I hope you're in the family are well. I'm just curious, was it ever a point, ever a discussion or consideration not to play this year, given the health risks?   Were any of those six factors at all in deciding what this year? Thank you for being here. I hope you're doing well, family, too. Understanding everything that's going on right now with the virus problem at some point, you thought that maybe you weren't going to play, that you weren't going to participate in this season. There are many factors that can influence your decision, but was there anything specific or did you have any doubts in yourself when you already understood that you were going to play and that maybe you weren't going to participate? Well, no. When I knew that I was going to be able to play, I tried to do as best as I could in my practice where I was living, in Dominicana, and I was waiting for them to call me here. I'm always positive. Well, I never doubted that I wasn't going to play. I was keeping up with the news and all that. At least I had the thought that at some point I was going to be able to play, that I was going to be able to play all the rest of the year. And thank God, we're here now. You know, it's one of the reasons why I wanted to keep in shape and keep practicing as much as I could, because I felt that there was a really good chance on playing. And then once I knew that it was going to be, it was going to become a reality that we were going to have a chance to have a season. It was a matter of just waiting, waiting for an invitation to come here and join the group here. That's why I wanted to just keep on practicing and staying in shape, just so that if that call was ever to come, that I'll be ready. In my head, I was always positive and encouraged that that was going to happen.  We'll take a final question from Marley. Marley Rivera, go ahead. Thank you, Jason. Gracias, David. Saludos. ¿Cómo estás? Espero que estés muy bien. Saludos. Primero que nada, David. Muchos de los lanzadores que ya lanzaron hablaron del hecho de que yo se sentían un poquito más adelantados que los bateadores. O sea, es que su ritmo estaba bastante mucho mejor. ¿Cómo te sentiste tú en la Lumita cuando lanzaste esa única entrada y tú entiendes que tú puedes contribuir inmediatamente al equipo? Bueno, entiendo, entiendo que sí. Me siento muy bien, gracias a Dios. Me siento controlando bien los bateadores, que eso es algo bien importante. Me siento tirando lo picheo en la zona, donde quiero. O sea, hay algunos dificultados a veces con lo picheo, pero es algo normal. Pero me siento bien. Creo que sí puedo contribuir con el equipo. Y por último, David, obviamente el hecho de que tienes que bregar, sin estar con fanáticos, ¿verdad? ¿Cómo lo sentiste jugar sin fanáticos? ¿Y cómo será esta temporada de 60 juegos? Bueno, como te digo, a veces con fanáticos no se emociona más. Es más adrenalina. Es mucho adrenalina, pero me siento bien. Trato de acostumbrarme a lo que hay y me siento bien así. Eso es lo que tenemos por ahora. Gracias.


Hello everyone and welcome to this talk. This is the 18th talk in the series organized by the Open Economics Forum and the so as economics department on the economics of COVID-19. In this series we have been discussing the recent economic developments pertaining to COVID-19 and its implications for the world ahead. Today we have with us Dr Victoria Stadheim, who is a lecturer in political economy at the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Forensics and Politics at the University of Rochester. She did her PhD from SOAS and her work includes her work focuses on particular on the political economy of the eurozone crisis and its manifestation especially in the case of Portugal. Today she just to mention the other talks have been put up online and I will share all the social media handles and do follow the various profiles. Today she will be discussing well the particular nature of the crisis examined from the perspective of Marxist political economy and well I'll let her take it from here. If you have any questions do please put them in the chat and it would be nice if you could also say which country you're from. So I think that's it I will share the things and Victoria should like to start. Okay hello everyone good afternoon. It's great to have been invited. Thank you so much for inviting me to the seminar series. It's a it's really a great initiative I've been following some of this and it's also nice to be back at SOAS even virtually. So thanks especially thanks to Sarah Stefano for organizing this and for Madhau for sharing this session. So thank you. So basically what I'm going to do is to provide some reflections or some initial reflections with regards to how we can understand the present crisis that is unfolding in front of us. How is it different from other crisis? Which theories can inform our analysis of what is going on? So these are sort of the situation is new and so are my thoughts about it obviously and as I will said in the beginning my research is primarily on the eurozone crisis and its manifestations in the case of Portugal. So I will I will provide some reflections about the nature of the present crisis particularly informed by Marxist political economy. Second well within that I will also discuss the strategies for crisis management that were implemented to address the public health crisis and the economic crisis and what part does that play in actually shaping the crisis. And then finally I will just make some very brief points about the future and possible policies. Okay so what type of crisis are we confronting? Well first of all we can say and this will come as absolutely no surprise that its initial route is in human health but it's causing a deep recession. So its initial route is not it's not a banking crisis not a currency crisis or an inflation crisis its route is in the human being basically. So when we pose the question of what type of crisis this is we are trying to understand its nature, its causes and this is not a straightforward task. So academics spend years and decades trying to grapple with the causes of crisis and they continue to disagree of course. We can also note that there are different types of economic crisis, banking crisis, current crisis etc. There are slow crisis, prolonged crisis and very sudden crisis. So the crisis of the 70s has been described as a sort of slow burning crisis and in contrast the global financial crisis was of a more kind of sudden nature. Related to this is also the question of causes of crisis versus triggers of crisis. It's easy to confuse the two triggers it is what initiates it. So in the case of the global financial crisis it was false in the subprime sector in the US but the causes are are deeper. They have to do with the underlying features of the national economy or of the global economy. Crisis theories focus on different issues across the sort of economic spectrum. They focus on policy failures, monetary policy, aggregate demand. Some focus on the falling rate of profits. One discussion with regards to the global financial crisis was whether its causes were in the sphere of finance or in the sphere of production. It's important to stress that each crisis is singular and that we cannot have one crisis theory that is able to account for every crisis. I'm sure we have all heard so far that the present slowdown caused by COVID-19 is commonly captured as a simultaneous supply and demand shock. So a shock to production and supply and at the same time a shock to demand. So for example we hear that from financial times an economist disruption has been two-fold causing havoc on both the demand and the supply side. That supply of goods is diminished with difficulty sourcing parts and staff unable to work and factory closures while the restricted movement of people and social distancing has acted to stifle demand. So delivering a double barrel blow to the economy. So it's of course both of these things. It's both supply and demand but I'm going to suggest a slightly different way of thinking about the current crisis. So I'm going to use Ben Fine and Lawrence Harris definition of crisis from the book Re-Reading Capital from 1979. It's very old but I think it's still useful and the book is about reading capital Marx's capital. So Fine and Harris they define crisis as a violent interruption in the circuit of capital and as forcible changes in the progress of capitalist accumulation not only in the pace of accumulation but also in its internal structure. So it's about capital accumulation, about production, the circuit of capital. So violent changes both in the speed, pace and in the form of accumulation. I can also add another definition which is quite similar in a more recent work Fine and Saad Filio who was in your seminar last week similarly defined crisis as forcible changes in the pace of accumulation as well as its internal structure. So these definitions point us to Marx's analysis of the process of capitalist accumulation. They point us to what is called the the circuit of capital and some of you may have seen illustrations of the circuit of capital in economic books or in classes that so as elsewhere but I will just explain briefly. The circuit of capital illustrates the accumulation of capital so it involves the process of production of commodities or if you want services as well and this circuit it includes means of production and human labor or labor power. So it starts with money the illustration well it can start in several ways but it's it can start with money and so money is first expended on capital and capital includes both labor power so that is the hiring of workers for a wage and the means of production so that's machines different types of inputs whatever is produced and so they interact and the production happens and commodities are produced. These quantities are then sold for profit so this means that the circuit of capital includes two spheres the sphere of production and the sphere of exchange because it includes buying inputs and labor power as well as selling the commodity. And it also sort of illustrates social relations between classes capital and labor and so forth. There is an alarm outside I hope you can still hear me. Now let's go. So this is commonly illustrated with M then C the money invested in C then LP and MP labor power and means of production then this is converged into C but a different type of commodity and it's sold for M money M prime so it's ended with more money than it started so there's value added in this process surplus value is realized through the sale of commodities. So we can observe that the present crisis takes the form of a violent interruption in the circuit of capital and a forcible change in the pace of capital capitalist accumulation along the lines of these definitions that I provided a couple of minutes ago. So we can see an interruption in several places along the circuit an interruption by the coronavirus and an interruption interruptions by created by the measures to to confront the crisis. So I'm going to talk about three types of interruptions and probably it would be possible to add many more but these are some initial thoughts. So paradoxically while this is likely to become the deepest recession in decades its origin is neither in the sphere of production or in exchange it is a crisis of public health and of human life. Nevertheless COVID-19 affected the sphere of production straight away. It affects human beings through their health and therefore also labor power. First human beings as human beings and secondly human beings in their capacity as workers so as providers of labor power. So very quickly it affects the process of accumulation and the circuit of capital. It affects production so usually when it is argued that crisis the sources or the causes of crisis can be found in the sphere of production it refers to something very different. Marxists sometimes argue this and there are divisions between Marxists. Sometimes they say this to argue that a crisis is caused in production and more specifically they're referring to what is called Marx's law of the tendency of the profit rate to fall and the falling rate of profit there are slightly different theories about it but usually it has to do with technical change and the relationship with value and so forth. So I won't go further into this but the main point here is to say that COVID-19 as a disease as a virus it affects the sphere of production in a different way. It affects production through labor and in this context I think that social reproduction theory is probably relevant to help us add to our understanding of the crisis and Sara Stefano talked about social reproduction a few weeks ago and can say much more than I can. Basically the availability of human beings as wage workers is an essential starting point for capitalist accumulation to take place and Marx stressed this and this is an historical process. An historical process is required for human beings to be available as wage workers. So Marx identifies labor power or the capacity to labor as a special commodity that the capitalist needs to set the system in motion and to keep it running. So labor power has the inverted comma peculiar property of being a source of value because it creates commodities and value for capitalism. However the existence and availability of labor power needs to be explained and this is where social reproduction theory comes in. So Marx does this kind of historically but Marxist feminists have sort of developed the analysis of what is required for labor power to exist and for labor power to be reproduced. So I'm going to just mention three processes which are outlined as being part of the reproduction of labor power. So that is the sort of the maintenance of human beings as providers of labor the capacity to work. And Marxist feminist Titi Patelacharia she outlines three processes through which the reproduction of labor power takes place. One by reproducing fresh workers so through childbirth. Two by activities that regenerate the worker outside the production process and allow her to return to it. So this includes food a bit to sleep in and also care in physical ways that keep the person whole. And finally third activities that maintain and regenerate non-workers outside of the production process. So in relation to COVID-19 it is the second aspect that is relevant. Food, bed, etc but care in a physical way. People need to be healthy to be able to participate in the labor market or to be able to offer their labor power for a wage. So COVID-19 starts with human health. It attacks human beings and therefore also human beings in their capacity as labor power. And thereby it affects production and capitalist accumulation straight away. We can just add to this that as we know the virus started in China so at the high global factory. So this opened the possibility of a very severe disruption of global supply chains. And of course industry in China production is China was certainly affected by the virus. I think in Wuhan which was the main region in the beginning automobile production was the most important sector but the containment of the virus in China was very effective. So we can say that it could have been much worse in terms of disturbing the global factory. Then moving on and coming back to the circuit of capital. A second moment of the crisis caused by COVID-19. The circuit of capital and process of accumulation are interrupted once again in a slightly different way. It's interrupted by the policies to contain the virus. So governments across the world stepped in and implemented the great lockdown as well as social distancing measures. So by seeking to stop the spread of the virus they simultaneously put capital accumulation on hold. That is a sudden interruption in the pace of capital accumulation. So as we know lockdowns and social distancing measures prevented people from going to work. So as a second moment of production is disrupted once again. This time through labor, directly through labor, labor human beings as labor power and not as human beings outside of the spare production. So that means that when we look at the economic crisis generated by the virus the state in a particular way is a major source of it. The state needs to form part of our analysis of this crisis. The state action interfered in capital accumulation. So usually the state often comes up in discussions about crisis. But usually when the state is a source of crisis it means something very different. It's about fiscal profligacy, policy failures, the Greek government has spent beyond it means and things like that. So that's not what I mean. I'm not saying it in that sense. I'm not saying it to blame the state. The state had to create an economic crisis if it were to save lives, at least at a certain stage in the contagion of the virus. So of course lockdown we know this lockdowns and social distancing measures they had a huge impact on the world of work. And in April the ILO wrote in one of its reports that the proportion of workers living in countries with recommended or required workplace closures has decreased from 81 to 68% over the last two weeks mainly driven by the lifting of workplace closures in China. So in other words earlier on it was 81% proportion of workers living in countries with required workplace closures and so forth. So that is a huge part of the global working population that was potentially affected by restrictions in terms of going to work of one kind or another. But the same report says that 80% of employers and 66% of own account workers live in working countries affected by such measures. And it says that it speaks of an unprecedented reduction in economic activity and working time. So yes for the state to basically stop capitalist accumulation or not stop it entirely but slow it down significantly. This is of course in normal times this is absurd it's entirely against the logic of capitalist accumulation. Capitalism always has to move in order to work it has to be constantly on the move. So this is strange. Of course some might say that actually the state didn't interrupts capitalism or puts it on hold it saved it well in a sense that's also true if we think in terms of capitalist accumulation if many people lose their lives or have ill health from the point of view of capital it won't work either unlike one I think it was a sage member he said something to the effects that if people don't people don't produce any value when they are dead. So one might might say that lockdowns and social distancing issues put a temporary break on capitalist accumulation while it did that in the medium term it was needed not only to save human lives but also capitalism. State intervention in the form of lockdowns also affected the circuit of capital in a third way through the sphere of exchange through demand the implementation of lockdowns and social distancing led to a collapse in aggregate demand as we know and it affected exchange if we think of this circuit it affected the sphere of exchange within it and the realization of circles value commodities were left unsolved. So to sum up so far COVID-19 is initially not an economic crisis but a human health crisis but it affected the sphere of production through labor straight away and in a second moment capital accumulation was affected once again through lockdowns and social distancing matters. So it's affected both through production and exchange. I will just well part of what I've said has been about crisis management but I will just provide a few very brief points on that. To understand a crisis we need to look at the strategies for crisis management policies that are implemented to address an economic crisis might help to get out of recession but it might also do the opposite. It might deepen a recession as many would argue that the austerity and internal devaluation did when it was implemented in the context of the Eurozone crisis. So we can say that crisis management can shape the trajectory and anatomy of an economic crisis so but in the case of a pandemic which leads to a recession the task of assessing the policies of crisis management is different for the obvious reason that there is a public health and an economic aspect. So what characterised the management of this public health and economic crisis? Well I will just briefly say that there's a huge deal of national variation. On the one hand we've had responses from authoritarian right-wing governments with leaders that have expressed either outright skepticism of the coronavirus or at the very least fail to grasp the danger of the disease and to take it seriously marked also by geopolitical rivalries, conspiracy theory directed at China as well as bottom-up support expressed through protest export support for leaders particularly the US, Brazil, the UK's more subtle version of some of these elements and on the other hand we know about many countries that have been successful in containing the virus through different strategies implementing manual contract tracing early on testing social distancing measures including internal travel restrictions and so forth at a much earlier stage. Some of them implemented complete lockdowns very early on others were able to avoid implementing full-scale lockdowns. So I just want to mention also that in Europe there is not a one-to-one or in the Eurozone as well there is not a one-to-one relationship between state capacity and economic policy space on the one hand and the ability to tackle the pandemic on the other hand among the most successful countries in terms of well the effects of the disease are peripheral Eurozone countries that were subjected to harsh austerity measures and structural adjustment in the previous crisis and the Eurozone crisis and these measures included the health sector so Portugal had 1522 deaths so far for a long time it was considerably lower but comparatively it's still low and this is in a sense impressive particularly given its border with Spain Greece has only 185 deaths so far and in the case how much time do I have yeah in the case of the UK I want to elaborate on the various measures because I'm sure many people here will have followed that very very closely but I would argue that that heart of the public health crisis and the recession is a spectacular failure to protect human lives and to take the virus seriously at an early stage this of course you know in many ways it's exposed to true colors of the society a deeply hierarchical society at heart of this crisis is also a complete unwillingness to take any lessons from other countries there were lessons to be learned early on they could have paid attention to Italy they could have learned formation economies but they let the virus get out of control here social distancing measures were initially left to voluntary market decisions taken by individuals please don't go to the pub and they waited to implement the lockdown until the public was ready to obey thus when thousands and thousands had died so if testing pp contract tracing and so forth had been in place early on many lives could have been saved and perhaps a full lockdown would would not have been necessary thus and of course the lockdown played such an important role in in creating the recession so perhaps that was at least a degree the degree of it could have been avoided this the scale of mortality has also been consistently toned down by the government's press conferences until the death toll surpassed italy when it was suddenly too early to make international comparisons so and i think the whole time they've hidden between two mantras we're taking the right steps at the right time and we are guided by the science both of these measures justifies just about anything at any time um so what next there is much that we don't know about what will come the the future and are we talking about the global economy national economies and so forth much will of course depend on how the actual pandemic develops when there will be a vaccine and so forth the epicenter of the pandemic has of course moved from from europe to latin america that's what the official numbers tell us within new outbreaks in china so the virus itself and its outbreaks will be a major determination in terms of the depth and duration of the recession and on top of this there are other kind of drivers of recession depending on countries or oil prices oil prices have fallen by almost 50 percent in the last crisis commodity prices for a very important mechanism of transmission of the crisis in developing and emerging economies um capital flight was also a huge challenge for developing countries for an exchange earnings etc but one thing that is for sure is that public debt will be a key feature or even a permanent feature in in many parts of the world um we might see very high public debt combined with extremely high unemployment specifically about the uk we don't know the scale of this yet there has been a job-brontainment scheme which i think was a good idea to implement but we don't know um whether it will have been effective some many employers will have used a furlough scheme but may never the less let go of their workers so one key question is about what will happen with this public debt will this lead to sort of accelerate austerity continuity of austerity or will it lead to a break with that will it be possible to pay back um this this level of debt um perhaps the public debt will be so high that it will force uh you know a paradigmatic change in terms of uh how we approach public debt and and and fiscal policy of course for many years the idea that one should shall always pay back the debts whether it's individuals or states that has been sort of an important mantra will that simply be impossible will there have to be some kind of ordered restructuring of debts um then very high unemployment is a possibility and um and in in in that context so so in terms of the public debt we could see that huge pressure on on public debt uh triggered by you know increasing interest rates um speculation and so forth and I think you know the loose monetary policy continuation with loose monetary policy will be important to to avoid that but of course in the case of the eurozone crisis um high high high interest rates and public debt you know that was speculation etc that contributed to forcing a you know a profound restructuring um yes and there may be a need for of course a huge employment generation program a green new deal perhaps simultaneous job creation and an environmental shift so yeah i think i'll i'll leave it there okay thank you so much many questions thanks for that very enlightening lecture um how would you like it would you like yeah would you like to ask the questions uh one at a time or uh sure yeah should i read them or are you reading them no i'll read them yeah um no sir um i think the first thing that we maybe can discuss that is quite pertinent to the last part of your lecture from raza remand is that what does it mean for what does the virus mean for the future of labour and what are the implications for precarious work and precarity okay yeah the world of labour okay i suppose this might be a potentially very depressing topic um of course many people have lost their jobs already um i think in the uk as i mentioned uh there is much that we haven't yet seen it depends what will happen when the government scales back the the furlough scheme the job retention scheme so we could see huge increases in in in unemployment we already have uh i don't know maybe some people here have actually seen it i haven't been able to go to london recently for obvious reasons uh but we read about like a new group of homeless people from the service sector restaurants hotels and so forth so you know on the one hand uh for a moment we saw all these alternatives i oh wow the homeless people were given hotels but at the same time we have a new group of homeless people and of course that's connected to the labour market and um so unemployment of you know we don't know the full extent who will um who will be the first ones to go of course uh the uk has a huge amount of so-called precarious workers the issue of casualization is is a defining feature of of the labour market here and precariousness what does it mean it refers to various types of so-called irregular employment from from fixed term contracts to contracts such as self-employment zero hour contracts and so forth the gig economy and etc and many of these will be very easy to fire easy to make redundant they will be the first ones to go and we see it clearly in the case of the university sector which i kind of um i'm part of uh the um yeah the the casualized workforce in universities are amongst many workforces who are who are extremely vulnerable um of course it will become more difficult to get a job uh also i think uh working life for those who maintain their jobs will change um there will be pressures to accept things that have been perhaps unthinkable so far um when there is this immediate threat of unemployment people are willing to accept much more um there is no doubt that many businesses will become front in real crisis and i'm not saying that um this is a limited situation at all but but in addition to the the very real pressures the crisis can also offer opportunities for employers to implement measures that they might have fantasized about before but am i been able to unable to to implement and those things can have to do with working time arrangements it's all called flexible working hours that might benefit employers far more than employees uh working pay forms of contractual arrangements and so forth and then i think there is one other aspect which has come up and that hasn't really been discussed so much i don't think in the academic literature at least is with very much to working from home so for the time being like being able to work from home is is a privilege because you are able to protect yourself against the virus and in certain jobs you you you have that opportunity whereas in other jobs essential workers don't have the opportunity to avoid human contact um but in the longer term well it is possible that this will become much more generalized much more permanent and well maybe well some people see benefits from this but at the same time that implies that you know employers will save a huge amount of money on offices it's employers that we are lending out our homes to employers so in a sense it's a huge transfers from employees to employers okay yeah thank you for that um actually if i um a question asked by sofiya earlier on uh it sort of it sort of follows on from this in that she mentions that in particular say the government industry where labor's only performed by women of color what do you think uh how do you think this would affect as you've been mentioning the world of work but in terms of a particular industry um in terms of i think especially you know increase the exploitation or increase forget it okay interesting question the government industry okay i i don't work specifically on the government industry myself it sort of comes into some of my work because it's been an important industry in in in portugal um specifically in portugal at one point there was quite a lot of discussion about uh a reliable of textile certain textile gives like production of of pp uh so production of of masks and so forth so perhaps for certain businesses in certain economies this you know this could be uh well an opportunity to produce something that is very much needed in in the global economy then women etc in the government industry uh i i this is not at all sort of my my area of expertise but i suppose some of that work happens in the factory some of it happens within home i know alessandra mesadra uh from so has analyzed the sort of nexus between um productive work and reproductive work and the next has been the factory real and the home and the integration of home female home workers um into the government sector in in india so i i suppose you could say that people who are integrated into the labor market through these forms of contractual arrangements are well extremely vulnerable to to redundancies they're very easy to get rid of so they're vulnerable in in that situation and i guess there will be a sort of nexus between formality and informality in this type of setting as well but it will depend partly on the demands of the global demand for what they produce right thanks okay so then our question from uh dr sara stifano um what what she's asked is that what many people have been talking about sort of the the oppositional relationship between we see between the economy and public health and yeah how it's in house house you know how true is that and how much has it been visible here that is the economy managed you know in opposition to the promotion of health outcomes and yeah that's interesting yeah uh i haven't totally sort of decided on on that question well clearly we see that the so-called needs of the economy as if the economy just except exists out there without us being part of it the economy has certain needs the economy or capitalism has a need to be in movement in order to kind of stay afloat when people stop going to work when they fail to pay back the mortgages and so forth everything can spiral out of control so like there is this need of the logic of the system which is sort of in contrast with the needs of of public health or of individual health but at the same time it's sort of the economy versus public health it almost assumes that human beings are not part of the economy and as this expert said the sage member i think well people don't produce much commodities when they're when they are dead or when they are ill so in that sense of course there's a policy question also that is part of the the economy versus public health like i mean i i think we need to prioritize public health part of huge failure is to you know the failure to protect human lives which which has created economic consequences as well and not just human okay and i think okay one a question another question from sofia and i think this is a question that so many people have been asking is that this is now universal unconditional basic income do you think that this is one of the possible solution and if so what you know what what do we need to keep in mind before implementing or having such a solution yeah yeah it's true many people have discussed that um it's not something that i've been sort of very focused on on before i've heard that many people um do focus on on on that now um yes if i mean i in general i think job retention i'd rather see job retention than universal income but if if we see a huge spike in unemployment perhaps universal income will be necessary of course we like we have to along with all other parts of public spending we we have to look at like what is the cost of this and what will be the general regime in terms of public debt fiscal consolidation and the idea of paying back public debt universal income i i don't know if it's a sort of massive public investment to generate jobs if that is a better alternative or if the two can go hand in hand obviously it doesn't have to be either or but yeah it's it's a possibility actually i'm i'm going to ask the question that i that i wanted to ask if that's okay yeah sure that i thought of i spent you know you were mentioning um you know this is sort of the unique nature of the state intervening in capitalist accumulation at this particular juncture and whether that you know we don't know how it's going to turn up but whether it's save capitalism or not whereas at the same time many people are saying that many people have said that this is so hello i'm losing you i can't hear you now hi i think mother is having some internet difficulties okay i had a question about basically what you're thinking is about the future of the system and what coronavirus has meant you know for it has shown the vulnerabilities of the capitalist system yeah um what do you think the future could be and what the future would hold and do you think the there's political momentum enough to actually get that change that isn't so desperately needed yeah yes um we have yeah we have seen vulnerabilities and we have also had sort of it may sound like i'm romanticizing but i think we have had sort of a very small opening a very small image of something completely different sort of you know homeless people being given uh hotel accommodation uh no pollution because of lockdowns uh and so forth and we have seen that there are alternatives we've been told for decades that there are no alternatives there are alternatives and the monetary is there as soon as you switch it off and it's a matter of of political will and of political projects but like will this be a turning point in terms of economic policy i don't know i don't think we can take it for granted in terms of austerity paying back your debts and fiscal consolidating it's possible it's very possible that this if i mean if it is if it's possible to pay it back but it's quite likely that this will just continue and that we will be very squeezed through taxation to pay this back which will be in line with the sort of the previous padding but we have seen that you know it can be different so it's very much technically we know all that things can be different uh so it's very much a political question is there an alternative project and like i don't see like a huge popular revolt in this country about the government's failure to address the coronavirus there is a huge revolt around racial injustice here in the uk and in in the world so this is you know this is a complete this is a well the response is partly related to the coronavirus but it's something that goes back much further historically but we would need like a a much bigger project and a political alliances that have an alternative project in terms of employment public investment debt and monetary policy and so of course unfortunately we have an opposition that is very ineffective at this point we do not an opposition that says that we need uh uh you know an exit strategy uh at the time when this came labor party was not what we needed at the time so we need you know we need different forces to to co-join and it's possible that that can be done union movements um perhaps black lives matter i don't know but different progressive forces but it would it will need to be a big alliance it can't be left to small tiny small left-wing groups yeah i think i'm just following on from that point from miss uh from lorenzo monoco the question is uh do you think that this will lead to a sort of class recomposition uh she asked to a class recomposition class recomposition okay so who is the question at the your from lorenzo monoco oh okay oh very nice hi lorenzo um well i think that class and many people will disagree i think that class there are many things that are connected to class but class is the determinations of class are found in in the sort of the relations of production so social relations so i think this is a question about labor markets and and production people's interconnection into the labor markets um are they you know mass wage workers as self-employed and so forth uh so that is yes i think it's absolutely possible that a recomposition of class is part of of of this violent rupture in in the form of capitalist accumulation so far in my presentation i talked about the change in the pace of accumulation the speeds caused by the virus and by government measures but if we might see also a change in the form of accumulation and that's too too early to tell and that could consist of well changes to do with precariousness self-employment wage labor are you know do people mainly work from home or not and this has political implications if people only work from home despite that we've seen like some quite amazing events academic and political online working from home means being isolated we need to see each other we need to meet to have political projects okay i think that's the last of the questions uh would you like to summarize quickly if we have a few minutes um yeah so well uh just um wants to summarize that these are some well initial reflections about you know a potential a possible perspective for analyzing the present crisis i focus very much on sort of accumulation and production there are of course um other other shifts that we might see that are at a different scale and that's a different different type of of changes geopolitical changes um political projects um and so forth so what i've addressed it is is just part of a big a much bigger picture and um well this crisis are often turning points this could be a turning point in a in a different way and it's been in very dangerous ways i think it's we see quite dangerous things when we when we hear about all of the kind of geopolitical rivalries that have been exacerbated in this uh in the context of of this virus so in terms of economic policy you know we need an entirely different project and well and and we we need the project that is peaceful uh which well you know which well i'm not saying that we're confronting a new world war but um public investment that um fostered this will be will be important um yeah and thank you very much for any interesting questions thanks for organizing this yeah thank you so much for coming and just before ending i'd like to say that um on the 22nd there's a talk um the open economics forum uh webinar series continues there's a talk on the economics of COVID-19 in Africa African feminist perspectives um hope you all can join us for that as well and there's further talks in the coming few weeks um so i would like to thank everyone for joining us and thank you especially to Victoria for thank you very much thank you for uh convening this um very much appreciate it okay have a lovely afternoon bye


If you were teaching sex education, where would you start? Okay, so we were talking about how sex ed should start with teaching about emotions. The very first emotion that should be taught is how to deal with rejection. All of us, and I mean all of us, will face rejection the first three, four, five times that we are attracted to somebody.  It is the most normal thing in the world, unfortunately. Yes, it hurts, but it is absolutely normal. It happens to everybody.  You know, what will people say? Your friends will laugh at you. People will make fun of you. Your honor is at stake, and that's where the violence begins. The acid attacks, the stabbings, the rapes, suicide. So if we can normalize this very, very normal thing called rejection, if we can actually start by teaching this, I think it will certainly contain the seeds of this kind of sexual violence. It may not actually stop the world crisis, but it's a super important place to start. So maybe this should also be a note to parents and teachers that when kids come to you talking about desire, talking about attraction, instead of shutting down that conversation, because that's what we automatically do, we need to start explaining that attraction happens. It is not a sin. And what are the emotions that go with it?


Hello Teacher Mentors. So far we've learned how we can set goals for our regions or schools. As mentors, we need data to set goals, measure our progress towards these goals and plan our next steps. So in this video, we'll cover exactly this. We'll cover the data you need to review and analyze periodically and suggestions for conducting a goal review meeting effectively. In our previous videos, we have discussed two goals. Let's understand what data we should review based on the goals. For goal one, where 100% teacher and student accounts need to be created, we need to review the rostering data. Now you must be thinking what is rostering. The process of creating teacher accounts, creating class and adding students in the class is called rostering. Data can be tracked only for those teachers and students whose accounts have been created. Therefore, creating accounts in the first step to ensure that you get a complete picture of active accounts in your schools, regions, block or district. Now as mentors, you must ensure 100% teachers have created their accounts on the Ka platform. You need to track how many teachers from each school have successfully created their accounts on Khan Academy on a weekly basis. The next step is to check whether these teachers have created their respective classes on their teacher dashboards. Third step under account creation is whether teachers have added all their students to their respective classes. Now let us see this as an example. You can collect data on your districts, blocks and schools like number of teachers who have registered, number of classes that have been created and number of students added to these classes. You can see the number of teachers who have created their accounts, their associated classes and number of students added to these classes. You can see schools 3 and 4 have one teacher each who have created their classes whereas all the other schools have two teachers each. Once you have this kind of data, you can identify schools that need support and schools that are doing well. After account creation, the second goal that we discussed was ensuring that students use Khan Academy for at least 30 minutes per week. This can be tracked by reviewing usage data. This data will tell you how much time the students are spending on Khan Academy. You also need this information to know whether they are using Khan Academy for the stipulated time every week. Each student should spend at least 30 minutes per week on Khan Academy. Only when students use it regularly every week, you can see the progress in their learning. If your school is a state partner with Khan Academy, then you will get the data from the usage tracker for your block or district schools from the Khan Academy team. The data will tell you about how many active students or very active students or learning minutes spent on the platform and more. Now please note, if you are a mentor of a private school which is not a state partner with Khan Academy, then you need to review all the data weekly. Given below are the data points that you can request from your teachers. Student-wise, total learning minutes, number of skills leveled up and number of skills without progress. Teachers can get this data from the activity overview tab of the class. For this, assign a day every week and ask teachers to collect the data. Now that we know the data we need as a mentor, let's see how to use this data to conduct a successful meeting. As mentors, we need regular feedback on the progress towards the goals we've set. For this, we recommend conducting a data meeting twice a month with teachers in our blocks or districts. Before every meeting, it would be important to study the program data available to us. In the case of a partner state, also share it with your teachers. In order to save time, plan every meeting and share discussion points with teachers ahead of time. These points could be around discussion on creation of teacher accounts, a discussion on classroom creation, a discussion on student accounts or on student usage. During the meeting, use the data to highlight the progress made towards each of these goals. For teachers who've met their goals or have shown good improvement, appreciate their efforts by rewarding certificates and asking them for the strategies that they are using. Make a note of these strategies and encourage others to apply them in their classrooms and schools. Use this meeting to also discuss the challenges teachers are facing, especially those who are lagging behind their goal. Conduct problem-solving conversations with those teachers and encourage them to try out the strategies adopted by successful teachers. Note points related to infrastructure, timetable arrangements and speak to principals or other concerned officials about it. Congratulations, you are now ready to conduct a review meeting. Do remember that you are collecting data periodically and analyzing it. In case you are from our partner state schools, take a look at the data tracker you've received from us. Once you've done this, note down the successes and challenges that you are seeing, which you want to discuss during the meeting. Also note down the names of teachers who deserve a certificate of appreciation for their efforts. Watch the next video for some valuable suggestions on observation and feedback.


So last year biologists celebrated the 150 year anniversary of Mendel's discovery of the laws of inheritance. From the time of Mendel, the population of the world increased from 1.2 to 7.5 billion and we expect that it will reach about 10 billion by 2050. But how are we going to feed so many people thinking that we have to double food production in the next 30 or 40 years? While crop breeding has been very successful over the last 50 years, the gains in crop yield have plateaued and it's very difficult to increase them further. This is because most crops went to a very severe genetic bottleneck when they were domesticated. And the industrialization of agriculture has further decreased the variety of crops that are grown on farms. It's very difficult to introduce new genetic variation into a crop without losing some of the traits that it was chosen for. But what about epigenetic variation which is not dependent on the DNA sequence and which is therefore not genetically encoded? Epigenetic variation can be stably maintained over many, many cell divisions during the lifetime of an individual. But is it stable enough to be passed on from one generation to the next? Is it heritable just like genetic variation? In Mendel's, epigenetic inheritance is very controversial. That's very different in plants where we know many traits that were thought to be caused by a mutation. That is a genetic change and turned out to be epigenetic in nature, namely due to changes in DNA methylation. As in plants, epigenetic variation is actually heritable over several generations and could in principle be used in a breeding program. Unfortunately, epigenetic variation is very unstable and it changes back very often, much more often than genetic variation does. And so many scientists think that epigenetic variation is not stable enough to be used in a breeding program. To test whether we can select novel traits in the absence of any genetic variation, we did selection studies using the model plant Arabidopsis talliana, which is the best-studied plant at the molecular and genetic level. So using genetically identical strains, we selected for seed dispersal at the distance. And after five generations of selection, we grew all the plants in a uniform environment to get rid of confounding effects and then assessed about 20 traits in the next generation. Among other traits, we found that the selected plants flowered one or two days later than the original non-selected plants. And this was stable for two or three generations without selection. When we looked at their genome, however, we didn't find any sign of a genetic change. So we performed a genome-wide study of DNA methylation and we found that approximately 50,000 cytosines had changed their methylation pattern in comparison to the original non-selected line. And this was consistent in all three independent, completely independent selection experiments. When we analyzed gene activity in these plants, we found that indeed many of the genes that are known to affect flowering time were altered in their activity and their methylation pattern. So they were genetically identical but they were epigenetically different, resulting in a delay in flowering time. We have shown that we can select novel traits in a complete absence of genetic variation. Thus, epigenetic variation could be a source in a breeding program. And genetic variation is not the only source of variation. What fraction of epigenetic variation is actually stable enough to contribute to the diversity of crops to feed a growing world population?


Apoptosis is a sequential order of cell death occurring regularly to ensure a homeostatic balance between the rate of cell formation and cell death. This review seeks to elaborate on the recent overview of the mechanism involved in apoptosis. Some element and signal contributing to its function and inhibition together with how their malfunction contribute to a number of cancer related cases.


In outside Africa, Israel has mounted extracts in the Gaza Strip, the force since the end of 11 days of cross-border fighting last month, and response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian territory. The flare-up, a force test for Israel's new government, followed a march in each Jerusalem on Tuesday by Jewish nationalists that had drawn threats of action by Hamas, the Rulian militant group in Gaza. The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked Hamas' armed compound in Gaza City and the southern town of Khan Yunis and was ready for all scenarios, including renewed fighting in the face of continued terrorist attacks emanating from Gaza. The strikes, the military said, came in response to the launching of the balloons, which the Israeli Fire Brigade reported caused 20 blazes in open fields in communities near the Gaza border. A Hamas spokesman, confirmed in the Israeli attacks, said Palestinians would continue to pursue their brave resistance and defend their rights and sacred sites in Jerusalem.


Hello everyone there, welcome to this course, Essential Secrets of JSON. My name is Krishanaj Rana and I am recording this course for Bitescow. JSON is one of the most popular formats for serializing data into objects and is really commonly used by many developers, especially for talking to front-end web applications. Now for any web applications, one of the most important facts is to be able to load data quickly and asynchronously without delaying page rendering. This capability is among the ones that raise the importance of JSON nowadays. So let's explore how JSON works and what we can do with JSON. So some of the major topics you will learn about in this course are as follows. So first we will see what is JSON and why JSON appears and then we will see why we should use JSON. And then we will see how it differs from XML and its advantages over XML. And then we will dig deeper into the JSON specification and then we will explore JSON in more detail like how to create JSON with object inside or array inside. Then we will convert a JSON string to an object and then convert an object back to a string in Chrome developer tools using JavaScript. And we'll see how to beautify JSON data using utility provided by Bitescout. And then we will see some gotchas or common mistakes generally developer do in JSON. And then we will read and manipulate JSON data using the PDF.co web API provided by Bitescout. Now in this course I will assume that you have some degree of technical experience in JavaScript and REST API. So let's jump into the course and hope you will join me on this journey to learn JSON.