Social structures and the flow of scientific information in public agencies: an ideal design

Despite widespread dissatisfaction with the quality of scientific information employed in planning and policy-making in public agencies, relatively little is known about the scientific information acquisition behaviors of public managers. The purpose of this paper is to facilitate research on scientific information acquisition in public agencies by suggesting that: (1) planning and policy-making are ‘policy technologies’ and share certain attributes with more traditional technologies; (2) many propositions developed in the literature on information flows in R&D labs are, therefore, helpful in structuring thinking about information flows in public agencies; and (3) it may be possible self-consciously to design social and organizational structures so as to enhance informal flows of scientific information. After gleaning some of the propositions concerning scientific information flows from the R&D management literature, an ‘ideal design’ approach is employed to develop a model in which the social and organizational structures of a public agency optimize scientific information flow.     

Impacts of grants and contracts on academic researchers’ interactions with industry

Based on a representative national sample of 1564 academic researchers, we investigate the impacts of research grants and contracts on the nature and extent of faculty research and technology activities with industry. A particular focus is on understanding the independent contributions of industry and government grant sources on levels of industrial involvement. In addition to examining the source of grants, the study controls for a number of independent factors including: scientific field, research center affiliation, tenure status, and gender. Results suggest independent effects of grants and contracts on industrial activities. Grants and contracts from industry have a significant effect on academic researchers’ propensity to work with industry, as measured by an “industrial involvement scale.” Federally-sponsored grants also have an impact in increasing work with industry, but a more moderate one. Further, those with more grants and contracts (of each type) have a greater propensity for industrial involvement than those who have such contracts but fewer. This holds even when proxies for productivity and career stage are introduced in regression equations. The analysis also considers whether provision of grants and contracts is best viewed as a predictor of industrial involvement or just another type of industrial involvement using factor analysis and nested multivariate modeling to compare effects.     

Designing usable interventions: bringing student perspectives to the table

This commentary examines the rationale behind the use of participatory approaches to the design and development of educational interventions, particularly with respect to the inclusion of students in the process. The perspectives and claims put forth in this special issue are examined against an emerging approach to designing more usable educational interventions called design-based implementation research, or DBIR.     

Global citizenship as education for peacebuilding in a divided society: structural and contextual constraints on the development of critical dialogic discourse in schools

In post-conflict and divided societies, global citizenship education has been described as a central element of peacebuilding education, whereby critical pedagogy is seen as a tool to advance students’ thinking, transform their views and promote democratic behaviours. The present study investigates understandings of and attitudes to global citizenship and the challenges faced in its implementation. Teacher interviews highlight lack of time and resources for critical reflection and dialogue. Where opportunities for relevant training are provided, this can benefit critical engagement. Boundaries of educational systems and structures also influence pupils’ understandings of the issues as evidenced in questionnaire findings. We argue that critical pedagogies may be limited unless criticality and activism transcend local and global issues and are applied to schools themselves. Emotional engagement may be required for teachers to claim the space to critically reflect and share with colleagues within and beyond their sectors in order to enable critical discourse amongst pupils.     

Promoting early career teacher resilience: a framework for understanding and acting

In this paper, we undertake a brief review of the ‘conventional’ research into the problems of early career teachers to create a juxtaposed position from which to launch an alternative approach based on resilience theory. We outline four reasons why a new contextualised, social theory of resilience has the potential to open up the field of research into the professional lives of teachers and to produce new insights into the social, cultural and political dynamics at work within and beyond schools. We then move from these theoretical considerations to explain how we used them in a recent Australian research project that examined the experiences of 60 graduate teachers during their first year of teaching. This work led to the development of a Framework of Conditions Supporting Early Career Teacher Resilience which we outline, promote and advocate as the basis for action to better sustain our graduate teachers in their first few years of teaching. Finally, we reflect on the value of our work so far and outline our practical plans to ‘mobilise’ this knowledge in ways that will make it available to a variety of audiences concerned with the welfare of this group of teachers.     

Diving

The purpose of this study was to compare the reverse two and one half somersault dive in a tuck position (305C) performed by females (n = 24), and the reverse two and one half somersault dive in a pike position (305B) performed by males (n = 21), to determine changes required by females to successfully perform 305B. Key performance variables in reverse dives were also compared to those of forward dives. Video data of the dives performed at the 1999 FINA World Diving Cup were captured and digitised to obtain times and postures of the divers at specific events including hurdle landing, takeoff, and entry. Estimates of hurdle flight height and mass‐normalised work done on the springboard were obtained from hurdle and flight times. The males did more work on the springboard to achieve greater height and rotation than females. Females performing 305C had less hip and knee flexion at hurdle landing than males performing 305B and took longer to achieve maximum hip flexion after takeoff from the springboard. To progress from 305C to 305B females need to adjust their techniques to put more energy into the system. Desirable changes include increased height in the hurdle and increased hip and knee flexion prior to hurdle landing. Comparison of results for reverse dives with data previously presented for forward dives indicated that divers are more limited in the number of somersaults and dive position in reverse dives than forward dives despite equivalent or better height in reverse dives than forward dives.     

Diving

The purpose of this study was to compare the backward two and one half somersault dive in a tuck position (205C) performed by females (n = 22) and the backward two and one half somersault dive in a pike position (205B) performed by males (n = 27) and by females (n = 6) to determine changes required by females to successfully perform 205B. Video data of the dives performed at the 1999 FINA World Diving Cup were captured and digitised to obtain times and postures of the divers at specific events including maximum depression, takeoff, and entry. Estimates of mass‐normalised work done on the springboard were obtained from flight times. Males performed 31% more mass‐normalised work on the springboard to gain height than females. Based on the dive scores and the short time to extend and prepare for entry it was concluded that females are not yet able to perform 205B with the same quality as they perform 205C. Females performing backward dives need to adjust their techniques to allow increased work on the springboard to generate height and rotation. Also, faster contraction of the hip flexors may allow them to achieve the tightest position more quickly to complete rotations with more time to prepare for entry.     

Editorial

In this paper, the scientific literature and that on the sports sciences relevant to javelin throwing is critically reviewed. This is particularly timely because of the change in the specification of the javelin for the men's event, which was introduced by the IAAF in 1986. A full discussion of the aerodynamics of the javelin is presented with due consideration of the change in pitching moment characteristics that the rules change had brought about. The uses and limitations of current computer programs for simulating javelin flight, in order to estimate optimal release parameters, are profiled. Consideration is also given to the effects of wind velocity, air density, javelin weight and the flutter and spin of the javelin on its flight.

The review further considers the optimization of release parameters, drawing upon computer simulations and field‐based data. The effects of release speed, release height, release angle, release angle of attack and release pitch rate are assessed. The javelin throwing technique is discussed in relation to cinematographically derived data, including an evaluation of experimental procedures. The importance to successful performance of the grip, the run‐up and transition phases, the cross over and delivery strides are each reviewed. Finally, some prognoses as to the direction of future research into this complex throwing skill are offered.     

The role of a short post-lunch nap in improving cognitive,motor, and sprint performance in participants with partial sleep deprivation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a post-lunch nap on subjective alertness and performance following partial sleep loss. Ten healthy males (mean age 23.3 years, s = 3.4) either napped or sat quietly from 13:00 to 13:30 h after a night of shortened sleep (sleep 23:00 – 03:00 h only). Thirty minutes after the afternoon nap or control (no-nap) condition, alertness, short-term memory, intra-aural temperature, heart rate, choice reaction time, grip strength, and times for 2-m and 20-m sprints were recorded. The afternoon nap lowered heart rate and intra-aural temperature. Alertness, sleepiness, short-term memory, and accuracy at the 8-choice reaction time test were improved by napping (P < 0.05), but mean reaction times and grip strength were not affected (P > 0.05). Sprint times were improved. Mean time for the 2-m sprints fell from 1.060 s (s _[xbar]  = 0.018) to 1.019 s (s _[xbar]  = 0.019) (P = 0.031 paired t-test); mean time for the 20-m sprints fell from 3.971 s (s _[xbar]  = 0.054) to 3.878 s (s _[xbar]  = 0.047) (P = 0.013). These results indicate that a post-lunch nap improves alertness and aspects of mental and physical performance following partial sleep loss, and have implications for athletes with restricted sleep during training or before competition.     

Performance analysis research: Meeting the challenge

Abstract

The keeper-independent strategy, in which a football penalty kicker selects a target location in advance and ignores the goalkeeper's actions during the run-up, has been suggested to be the preferable strategy for taking a penalty kick. The current in-field experiment investigated the question of whether the goalkeeper can indeed be ignored. Ten intermediate-level football players were instructed to adopt a goalkeeper-independent strategy and to perform penalty kicks directed at one of two targets located in the upper corners of the goal under three conditions: without a goalkeeper, in the presence of a goalkeeper (who tried to save the ball), and in the presence of a goalkeeper who was informed by the penalty kickers where they intended to direct the ball. The mere presence of a goalkeeper impaired shot accuracy. The shots were more centralised, that is, biased toward the goalkeeper. The effects were enhanced for the condition in which the penalty kicker knew the goalkeeper was knowledgeable about ball direction. The findings were consistent with the response activation model that holds that aiming at a target can be biased toward salient visual non-targets. The implications for adopting and practising goalkeeper-independent strategies are discussed.