Innovation and Performance Improvement Integration

G2000's HR Execution Excellence—Retail Attendance System was one of the innovative projects to receive the ISPI Award of Excellence in 2016. It is a continuous improvement project that applies the concept of holistic human performance improvement using an ISPI human performance technology (HPT) model (ISPI, 2012) to streamline the front‐end and back‐end processes of our Retail Attendance System. As a result, it leads us to achieve one of our business goals: employment regulatory compliance. In our case, the project team was tasked with seeking solutions to ensure that the payroll process for retail staff could be performed accurately and in a timely manner. After applying the HPT model to conduct the gap analysis and identify the causes or factors that were limiting our performance, we integrated the concept of human‐centered design approach at the solution‐design phase of the project, to lead us to innovative solutions.     

Official and popular culture in the schooling process

This article analyses the schooling process in rural areas of Galicia (Spain) from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, considering educational initiatives promoted by both the state and the rural population. The former, which were governed by the official school culture, were driven by a moralistic approach; the latter, within the framework of popular school culture, were essentially aimed at literacy. The confrontation that arose between the two initiatives was finally resolved in favour of the official school. Our main goal here is to analyse how popular schools (ferrado schools) were perceived by official culture (school administrators and education experts) as well as by those who were directly involved as protagonists, i.e. the schoolteachers who ran these schools (escolantes) and their pupils.     

A model of equitable and sustainable redistribution of knowledge

Education is one of the pillars in which a Welfare State is effectively based on in order to achieve an equitable distribution of wealth. In contemporary society, knowledge and education are among the most appreciated goods, and everyone should have the right to acquire them, without distinction of gender, race, age, health or religion. From our experience of over 15 years at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya we can claim that virtual learning makes access to education easier for certain population strata, whereas otherwise, they would be excluded from such a right. A very significant group of students to consider are women with family burdens who, thanks to this kind of education, are able to gain access to higher education for the first time in their lives and at their maturity ages. Another significant group is students with disabilities, for whom virtual education makes it possible to get training in fields for which it would be more difficult to get in the case of the non-virtual university. Geographic factors are also relevant, since virtual education has provided rural areas and other places with poor infrastructures with a chance to gain access to higher education. This brings with it a redistribution of wealth among territories, and also among different social strata with fewer resources and limitations to commute long distances to higher education institutions. Another issue that needs pointing out is virtual communication. As it is asynchronic, it can lead to a high degree of reflection. All these elements enable us to have a virtual discussion about cultural and linguistic issues which have huge educational value.     

A machine learning approach to investigating the effects of mathematics dispositions on mathematical literacy

Mathematics competency is fast becoming an essential requirement in ever greater parts of day-to-day work and life. Thus, creating strategies for improving mathematics learning in students is a major goal of education research. However, doing so requires an ability to look at many aspects of mathematics learning, such as demographics and psychological dispositions, in an integrated way as part of the same system. Large-scale assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provide an accessible and large volume of coherent data, and this gives researchers the opportunity to employ data-driven approaches to gain an overview of the system. For these reasons, we have used machine learning to explore the relationships between psychological dispositions and mathematical literacy in Australian 15-year-olds using the PISA 2012 data set. Our results from this strongly data-driven approach re-affirm the primacy of mathematics self-efficacy and highlight novel complex interactions between mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics anxiety and socio-economic status. In this paper, we demonstrate how education researchers can usefully employ data-driven modelling techniques to find complex non-linear relationships and novel interactions in a multidimensional data set.     

Does a resistance exercise session with continuous or intermittent blood flow restriction promote muscle damage and increase oxidative stress?

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of low-load resistance exercise (LLRE) with continuous and intermittent blood flow restriction (BFR) on the creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), protein carbonyl (PC), thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) and uric acid (UA) levels in military men. The study included 10 recreationally trained men aged 19 ± 0.82 years who underwent the following experimental protocols in random order on separate days (72–96 h): 4 LLRE sessions at a 20% 1RM (one-repetition maximum [1RM]) with continuous BFR (LLRE + CBFR); 4 LLRE sessions at 20% 1RM with intermittent BFR (LLRE + IBFR) and 4 high-intensity resistance exercise (HIRE) sessions at 80% 1RM. The CK and LDH (markers of muscle damage) levels were measured before exercise (BE), 24 h post-exercise and 48 h post-exercise, and the PC, TBARS and UA (markers of oxidative stress) levels were measured BE and immediately after each exercise session. There was a significant increase in CK in the HIRE 24 post-exercise samples compared with the LLRE + CBFR and LLRE + IBFR (P = 0.035, P = 0.036, respectively), as well as between HIRE 48 post-exercise and LLRE + CBFR (P = 0.049). Additionally, there was a significant increase in CK in the LLRE + CBFR samples BE and immediately after each exercise (Δ = 21.9%) and in the HIRE samples BE and immediately after each exercise, BE and 24 post-exercise, and BE and 48 post-exercise (Δ values of 35%, 177.6%, and 177.6%, respectively). However, there were no significant changes in LDH, PC, TBARS, and UA between the protocols (P > 0.05). Therefore, a physical exercise session with continuous or intermittent BFR did not promote muscle damage; moreover, neither protocol seemed to affect the oxidative stress markers.     

Addressing the big picture: Deaf children and reading assessments

In the field of education, there is a great emphasis placed on literacy, from reading fluency to writing. There are various approaches that teachers can use in their classroom to design and identify needed areas of instruction, but these approaches do not always apply to Deaf Education. The act of using the same assessments throughout all student populations presents some potential issues, particularly the question of whether or not the students’ actual literacy abilities are being identified. The focus is to spotlight a frequently used approach for measuring reading fluency and present an alternative approach.     

Assessing the Impact of a Ceremony in Honor of the Body Donors in the Development of Ethical and Humanistic Attitudes among Medical Students

Activities related to body donation programs, such as donor memorial ceremonies, provide the opportunity to complement student training, especially with regard to the ethical and humanistic elements involved in medical training. This study sought to assess the impact of a ceremony in honor of the body donors has on ethical and humanistic attitudes in medical students. Medical students were surveyed about their perceptions of changes in themselves, respect for donors and donor families, and their relationship with patients. The effect of the students' contact with the family of the donor was analyzed in students who had contact with the cadaver in the dissection room and had either participated or not participated in the donor memorial ceremony. A total of 370 questionnaires were answered by first-, second-, and third-year medical students at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre in 2017. The students who participated in the ceremony presented more positive responses in relation to commitment to their studies, reflection on death, and positive development of empathy when compared to those who did not attend the ceremony. Most of the students that attended the ceremony suggested the event led to an improvement in the doctor–patient relationship. These results suggest that cadaver dissection with accompanied memorial ceremony involving contact with donor families is an effective means of fostering ethical and humanistic attitudes among medical students from the beginning of the course.     

Does the public communication of science influence scientific vocation? Results of a national survey

The purpose of this work was to determine if public communication of science and technology (PCST) has any influence on people's decision to become dedicated to scientific research. For this reason, a national survey involving 852 researchers from all disciplines was conducted in Argentina. The results showed that the factors affecting scientific vocation are many, and that, regardless of differences in gender, age or discipline, the greatest influence on the decision to go into scientific research is exerted by teachers. The analysis also demonstrated that different manifestations of PCST (science books, press articles, audiovisual material, and activities such as visits to science museums) play a significant role in awakening the vocation for science. From these results it may be stated that PCST--in addition to its function of informing and forming citizens--exerts a significant influence in fostering scientific vocation.     

Effect of bike-fit in the perception of comfort,fatigue and pain

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of different bike positions on the perception of fatigue, pain and comfort. Twenty cyclists underwent three tests that involved cycling for 45 min at their individual 50% peak aerobic power output while adopting different positions on the bike. Participants performed the cycling tests adopting three positions defined by two parameters (knee flexion angle [20°, 30°, 40°] and trunk flexion angle [35°, 45°, 55°]) in random order. Angles were measured using a 2D motion analysis system during cycling and applying Fonda’s correction factor. Perceptions of comfort, fatigue and pain were reported before the end of each test. The combination of 40° knee flexion and 35° trunk flexion was perceived as the most uncomfortable position. Moreover, greater knee flexion had a negative effect on trunk comfort, accompanied by greater levels of fatigue and pain perception in the anterior part of the thigh and knee. In conclusion, cyclists perceived the most comfortable position to be when the saddle height was within the recommended knee angle (30° calculated from the offset position or 40 ± 4.0° of absolute value). Upright trunk was found to be the most comfortable position for recreational cyclists, where aerodynamics is not so important. Cyclists’ bike perceptions should be taken into account when it comes to choosing the most beneficial position, since this can play a role in injury prevention and enhance cycling performance.