Tall Stories: The Metaphorical Nature of Everyday Talk

This article questions some popular cultural assumptions about the nature of everyday discourse. It claims that such discourse is in fact richly metaphorical and that, through the operation of metaphor, we fictionalise ourselves as we talk. Because literary writing has dominated our culture and curriculum, English teachers have not been encouraged to explore an aspect of language that is at the core of how we think and behave.     

Google Scholar's Coverage of the Engineering Literature 10 years Later

In 2008 Meier and Conkling first tested Google Scholar's coverage of the engineering literature against citations gathered from the Compendex database. Since that time, other studies have used the same methodology and found improvement in Google Scholar's coverage. This study uses engineering dissertations from Proquest Dissertations & Theses to create a data set of citations for the comparison of fee-based databases, Compendex and Scopus, against Google Scholar. From 1950 to 2017 Google Scholar outperformed both Compendex and Scopus in discoverability of citations in nine engineering subjects. These results have implications for collection management and information literacy program planning for librarians.     

The effect of acute aerobic exercise on central arterial stiffness,wave reflections,and hemodynamics in adults with diabetes: A randomized cross-over design

BackgroundIndividuals with diabetes have greater central arterial stiffness, wave reflections, and hemodynamics, all of which promote the accelerated cardiovascular pathology seen in this population. Acute aerobic exercise has been shown to be an effective strategy for reducing central arterial stiffness, wave reflections, and hemodynamics in healthy individuals; however, the effects of acute aerobic exercise in reducing these outcomes is not well established in people with diabetes. Recently, implementation of high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) has shown superior improvements in cardiovascular health outcomes when compared to traditional aerobic exercise. Yet, the effect of HIIE on the aforementioned outcomes in people with diabetes is not known. The purpose of this study was to (i) describe the central arterial stiffness, wave reflections, and hemodynamic responses to a bout of HIIE and moderate-intensity continuous exercise (MICE) in adults with diabetes; and (ii) compare the effects of HIIE and MICE on the aforementioned outcomes.MethodsA total of 24 adult men and women (aged 29–59 years old) with type 1 (n = 12) and type 2 (n = 12) diabetes participated in a randomized cross-over study. All participants completed the following protocols: (i) HIIE: cycling for 4 × 4 min at 85%–95% of heart rate peak (HR_peak), interspersed with 3 min of active recovery at 60%–70%HR_peak; (ii) MICE: 33 min of continuous cycling at 60%–70%HR_peak; and (iii) control (CON): lying quietly in a supine position for 30 min.ResultsA significant group × time effect was found for changes in central systolic blood pressure (F = 3.20, p = 0.01) with a transient reduction for the HIIE group but not for the MICE or CON groups. There was a significant group × time effect for changes in augmentation index at a heart rate of 75 beats/min (F = 2.32, p = 0.04) with a decrease following for HIIE and MICE but not for CON. For all other measures of central arterial stiffness and hemodynamics, no significant changes were observed (p > 0.05).ConclusionA bout of HIIE appears to lead to a greater transient reduction in central systolic blood pressure than the reduction observed following MICE; however, both HIIE and MICE improved augmentation index at a heart rate of 75 beats/min in people with diabetes. There was no significant difference in response to HIIE and MICE in all outcomes. This provides preliminary evidence on the role of HIIE on such outcomes in people with diabetes.     

Access and Express: Professional Perspectives on Public Library Makerspaces and Intellectual Freedom

This study examines the roles of makerspaces and librarians in public libraries, as defined by nine librarians instituting makerspace services. It explores their understanding of creative spaces and library policy, specifically the foundational principles of intellectual freedom and access. Using constructivist discourse analysis tools, this study analyzes interview data to illuminate a concept of access grounded in expression, incorporating hands-on activities, tools, and social connections. This study has implications for practitioners and policymakers in reconsidering access as a positive liberty enabled by social contexts, and librarians’ enzymatic roles in facilitating those contexts.     

Breaking the tyranny of office hours: Overcoming professor avoidance

ABSTRACT

Studies have found that Faculty–Student Interaction (FSI) has many positive benefits for students including academic support, professional development, mentoring, and career planning. Research-intensive universities exhibit the lowest levels of faculty–student interaction within higher education. This article utilises qualitative methods to explore faculty, student, and staff perceptions of faculty–student interactions, particularly those that take place out of the classroom, at a research-intensive public U.S. university. We identify social distance between faculty and students based on unequal status within a rigid, hierarchically-organised culture as a key barrier to FSI. We then discuss methods that some of the faculty in our study used to mitigate their social distance with students in an effort to increase FSI.     

To be or not to be ‘a disabled student’ in higher education: the case of a postgraduate ‘non‐declaring’ (disabled) student

This paper draws on data from a research project that was funded by the UK's Higher Education Academy. The project focused on the experiences of disabled students in one English higher education institution, and a key feature of the project was to attempt to access the perspectives of ‘non‐declaring’ disabled students. This paper draws on the experiences of one of the ‘non‐declaring’ respondents, Anna, a postgraduate student. In the UK, some students declare their disabled status on entry to a higher education institution, some do so once at the institution and some never let the institution know of their impairment. It is the perspectives of this latter group that are particularly difficult to access. Anna's experiences as a postgraduate student provide some insight into what may affect decisions about declaration of impairment. Drawing on a social‐relational understanding of disability, factors that influenced her decision not to ‘declare’ and the consequent effect on her experience of higher education are explored.     

Child sexual abuse and bulimic symptomatology: relevance of specific abuse variables

OBJECTIVE: This study examined specific aspects of child sexual abuse in relation to symptom severity among hospitalized patients diagnosed with bulimia nervosa. METHOD: Participants were 45 hospitalized bulimic women who reported a history of child sexual abuse. Structured interviews were conducted in order to obtain detailed information regarding specific features of the abusive event(s). Participants also completed instruments that measured depression and eating pathology. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in severity of depression or eating disturbance among women reporting differing abusive experiences including intrafamilial versus extrafamilial abuse, abuse with or without the use of physical force, one versus multiple incidents, early abuse versus abuse occurring after age 14, contact versus noncontact abuse, disclosed versus undisclosed, and combined physical/sexual abuse versus sexual abuse alone. CONCLUSION: The specific characteristics of child sexual abuse are not related to the level of symptomatology for hospitalized bulimic patients. This study suggests that differences in the nature of the abuse may not be as important as the fact that the abuse occurred in the first place.     

The one-in-ten: quantitative Critical Race Theory and the education of the ‘new (white) oppressed’

ABSTRACT

This paper challenges the notion that quantitative data – as a numeric truth – exist independent of a nation’s political and racial landscape. Utilising large-scale national attainment data, the analysis challenges the belief that ‘White working class’ children in England, especially boys, are ‘the new oppressed’ – as a former equality adviser has publicly claimed. The analysis applies Quantitative Critical Race Theory, or ‘QuantCrit’, an emerging quantitative sub-field of Critical Race Theory in education. The paper argues that far from being ‘oppressed’, White boys continue to enjoy achievement advantages over numerous minoritised groups; especially their peers of Black Caribbean ethnic origin. Additionally, the analysis uniquely exposes racialised trends of ‘equivalency’ in core subject qualifications, whereby minority ethnic children are over-represented in certain lower-status qualifications that are counted as equivalent in education statistics but not in the real world labour market. The analysis concludes that knowing misrepresentations of quantitative data are at the heart of an institutional process through which race and racism are produced, legitimised and perpetuated in education.