Harry Potter: Agency or Addiction?

This article considers limitations on agency for characters in the Harry Potter novels, in particular, how far they are driven by an addictive yearning for their beloved dead. As well as Harry’s yearning for his dead parents, Dumbledore’s guilt, Snape’s longing and Slughorn’s craving can be read as evidence of addiction rather than love, while the Sorting ritual throws into doubt agency among the students in general.     

支架理论下英语面授和网络自主学习整合有效性的探究

信息技术和外语课堂教学整合的关键是教学设计和教学理念。本文以支架理论为依托,从教学实践出发,探讨了支架理论下的教学模式对于大学英语课程整合的有效性及其对于深化教学改革的指导作用。     

The timing and critical incident of epistemic beliefs change in Hong Kong college students: an exploratory study

Research on epistemic beliefs (beliefs about what knowledge is and what knowing is) has advanced and there is now a burgeoning interest in examining this construct in the Chinese cultural context. However, issues related to understanding epistemic beliefs change remain under-explored. The present study used a qualitative approach to explore Chinese college students’ timing and critical incidents of epistemic beliefs change. Eight college students from Hong Kong participated in interviews and three key themes emerged from their responses. First, students identified college transition as a major source of epistemic perturbation. Second, they attributed epistemic beliefs change mostly to educational encounters. These encounters were characterized by a curriculum with multiple perspectives, being taught by teachers who could provide cognitive scaffolding for epistemic belief resolution, and assessment processes that allowed the latitude to demonstrate multiple perspectives. Furthermore, these characteristics of assessment (mainly regarding examinations) also emerged as a strand of culturally nuanced findings. Students explicitly regarded assessment influencing their epistemic beliefs and described how they differentiated their incongruent “professed” and “practised” epistemic beliefs so as to fit the rules of the public examination. The findings have yielded cultural implications and suggest the need to understand epistemic beliefs transcending the naive-sophisticated dichotomy.     

我国图书馆文献信息服务研究综述

以2000-2011年中国知网数据库收录的有关图书馆文献信息服务的文献为研究对象,从发文量年度分布、研究主题、作者及作者单位、载文期刊等方面进行了统计分析,并对其研究内容、研究热点和研究成果进行了综述。     

从圈羊到放羊：体育专业研究生创新能力培养的范式转向

传统体育专业研究生的培养模式以＂圈羊式＂为其主要特点,外在的培养目标、规范化的课程体系、以控制为导向的教学方法和单一的评价模式是横亘在研究生创新道路上的层层藩篱。而实现从＂圈羊式＂培养模式向＂放羊式＂培养范式的转向,坚持以自组织为核心的、以创新能力的建构生成、课程体系的多元化理解、研究性学习方法和多元尺度评价为特点的新培养范式,则是推倒藩篱,引导研究生创新性不断生成的重要途径。     

Health benefits of Kung Fu: A systematic review

Abstract

The Chinese martial arts (Kung Fu) have existed for centuries and are generally accepted as being beneficial for health without much empirical data. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the health effects of “hard” Kung Fu styles by performing electronic and manual searches of the literature. The aspects of health and the Kung Fu style examined varied between most studies; in some cases, the martial art group consisted of practitioners of other martial art styles also. Of 2103 references identified, only nine papers were eligible and reviewed. All were observational studies, observing a range of health aspects possibly related to Kung Fu training or performance. Our findings suggest that there is no evidence that Kung Fu practice is associated with the prevention or treatment of any health condition. However, as a moderate- to high-intensity form of aerobic exercise, it may confer benefits similar to those attributed to other aerobic training modalities. However, this hypothesis remains to be tested in clinical trials. Physiological benefits (e.g., aerobic capacity and bone density) may be associated with long-term Kung Fu practice. Future research in this area should adopt experimental designs, clearly identifying eligibility criteria, testing and training protocols, and include health-related outcomes and documentation of adverse events, to advance knowledge in this field.     

The Impact of an Obstacle Course Sport Education Season on Students' Aerobic Fitness Levels

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if factor patterns of selected sports skills were similar for two samples, a skilled sample and one consisting of a wide range of skills. Comparisons were also made with kinesiological evidence regarding the patterning of basic sports skills. Data consisting of performance scores on various sports skills were available for 166 high school girls. Out of this sample, a smaller sample was drawn consisting of 69 girls who were above average in skill. Two factor models, alpha and incomplete image analysis, were used in the analysis of this data. The factor pattern of selected sports skills performed by subjects above average in skill was similar in many respects to that of a sample which included a wide range of skill. The primary difference lay in the clustering of overarm skills which appeared in the above-average factor pattern. The overarm and push patterns of the above-average sample resembled the patterns of skill obtained through kinesiological analysis. The structure of kicking, underarm, and sidearm skills remained obscure, based on the results of factor analytic techniques.     

Comparison of the prevalence and treatment of hypertension in two populations in the United States: Masters swimmers versus the NHANES population

Abstract

This research compares the prevalence of hypertension in a group of adult masters swimmers with an age and sex matched cohort from the 2008 NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey), used to represent the general population in the United States. Masters swimmer data were obtained from a one-time survey of all United States Masters Swimming (USMS) members. Both datasets included demographics, drug therapy, diseases and health status. Characteristics of swimming sessions as well as perceptions of impact of medications on exercise were also collected from the USMS respondents. Of 1346 completed surveys from USMS respondents, 15.8% self-identified as having hypertension while 36.2% participants in the NHANES survey suffered from hypertension (P < 0.001). The two groups were well matched for age and gender but the USMS group was primarily Caucasian, higher income, higher education, and reported higher health status. In the USMS group, not only was hypertension less prevalent but those who suffered from hypertension took fewer medications (P = 0.04) to manage their hypertension than in the NHANES group. Additionally, The USMS group suffering from hypertension considered themselves healthier (P < 0.001) than the NHANES group.     

Dealing with metadata quality: The legacy of digital library efforts

In this work, we elaborate on the meaning of metadata quality by surveying efforts and experiences matured in the digital library domain. In particular, an overview of the frameworks developed to characterize such a multi-faceted concept is presented. Moreover, the most common quality-related problems affecting metadata both during the creation and the aggregation phase are discussed together with the approaches, technologies and tools developed to mitigate them. This survey on digital library developments is expected to contribute to the ongoing discussion on data and metadata quality occurring in the emerging yet more general framework of data infrastructures.