Film Production

Freddie Young and Paul Petzold's The Work of the Motion Picture Cameraman (New York: Hastings House, 1972 -- $15.00)

King Vidor on Film-Making (New York: David McKay, 1972 -- $6.95)

Vladimir Nilsen's The Cinema as a Graphic Art: On a Theory of Representation in the Cinema (New York: Hill & Wang, 1972 -- $2.95, paper)     

The road to self-assessment: exemplar marking before peer review develops first-year students’ capacity to judge the quality of a scientific report

Lack of clarity about assessment criteria and standards is a source of anxiety for many first-year university students. The Developing Understanding of Assessment for Learning (DUAL) programme was designed as a staged approach to gradually familiarise students with expectations, and to provide opportunities for the development of the skills required to successfully complete assessment tasks. This paper investigated the students’ perceptions of the first two components of the DUAL programme, which assist first-year biology students to engage with stated assessment criteria and standards in order to develop their capacity to make judgements about scientific report exemplars, their peers’ scientific reports and ultimately their own. The study found strong evidence (96% of responses) that the marking and discussion of exemplar reports with peers and demonstrators clarified expectations of scientific report writing. A key feature of this element of DUAL was the opportunity for structured discussion about assessment criteria and standards between peers and markers (demonstrators). During these discussions, students can clarify explicit statements and develop a tacit knowledge base to enhance their ability to judge the quality of others’ work and their own. The peer review exercise (the second element of DUAL) was not rated as highly, with 65% of students finding the process helpful for improving their report. The negative reactions by a sizeable minority of students highlight the need to clearly communicate the expectations and benefits of peer review, with a focus on how the process of giving feedback to peers might benefit a student as much as receiving feedback on their own report.     

Performance score variation between days at Australian national and Olympic women's artistic gymnastics competition

We determined the inter-day variability in elite-standard women's artistic gymnastics competition scores. National (50 gymnasts for up to three days) and Olympic (24 gymnasts for up to five days) competition scores published in the public domain ('Giant poster pull-out', 2010 ; Gymnastics Australia, 2008 ) were evaluated using three statistical measures. Analyses of the inter-day differences in the mean scores as a percentage (MDiff%), coefficient of variation percentages for the mean score across both days (CV%), and Pearson correlation coefficients for the inter-day score (r) were interpreted using thresholds from trivial to large. National-class gymnasts' two-day performance variation was trivial for vault, small for floor and beam, and moderate for bars. When senior gymnasts competed for a third day the performance variation increased to moderate for vault. Across five days of Olympic competition there were trivial (e.g. CV%: vault = 0.8) to small (e.g. CV%: bars = 2.0) variations in performances between days on all apparatus. Olympians' performance score consistency is superior to senior, national-class competitors. The performance score consistency required for gymnasts who aspire to participate at the Olympics as a top-24 competitor is better than 3%.     

Durable Research,Portable Findings: Rhetorical Methods in Case Study Research

ABSTRACT

Case studies have been a central methodology employed by scholars working in the rhetoric of science and technical communication. However, concerns have been raised about how cases are constructed and collected, and what they convey. The authors reflect on how rhetoricians of science and technical communication researchers can – and do – construct a variety of case-based mixed-methods studies in ways that may make our research more portable and durable without undercutting the important and central role of case-based analysis.     

A transparent cell-culture microchamber with a variably controlled concentration gradient generator and flow field rectifier

Real-time observation of cell growth provides essential information for studies such as cell migration and chemotaxis. A conventional cell incubation device is usually too clumsy for these applications. Here we report a transparent microfluidic device that has an integrated heater and a concentration gradient generator. A piece of indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass was ablated by our newly developed visible laser-induced backside wet etching (LIBWE) so that transparent heater strips were prepared on the glass substrate. A polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) microfluidic chamber with flow field rectifiers and a reagent effusion hole was fabricated by a CO₂ laser and then assembled with the ITO heater so that the chamber temperature can be controlled for cell culturing. A variable chemical gradient was generated inside the chamber by combining the lateral medium flow and the flow from the effusion hole. Successful culturing was performed inside the device. Continuous long-term (>10 days) observation on cell growth was achieved. In this work the flow field, medium replacement, and chemical gradient in the microchamber are elaborated.     

A qualitative investigation of the temporal patterning of the precompetitive anxiety response

The aim of this study was to examine retrospective perceptions and causal beliefs about temporal experiences of competitive anxiety and related symptoms in the lead up to competition. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 9 elite performers to examine the interaction of intensity, frequency and direction of symptoms associated with competitive anxiety before competition. Data analysis identified six causal networks that supported theoretical predictions suggesting that intensity of cognitive anxiety symptoms remained relatively stable in the lead up to competition, whereas somatic anxiety peaked sharply at the onset of performance. Frequency of anxiety symptoms increased as the competition approached and changes in interpretation of anxiety symptoms were also reported, with self-confidence identified as a moderating variable. The findings highlight the dynamic properties of the stress response and emphasize the need to consider the idiosyncratic nature of the level, frequency and interpretation of performers' precompetitive experiences.     

Benetech global literacy services: Working towards a ‘born accessible’ world

Key points

• Bookshare is the world's largest library of accessible titles provided to members and through special agreements.
• Dyslexia is often forgotten as an impediment to access but must be accounted for within accessible publications.
• Certification of accessibility provides confidence for purchasers and a marketing tool for publishers.
• Accessibility requires multiple routes to access, on different platforms and in different formats.
• Accessible artworks need particular attention, and this is often lacking in ‘accessible’ publications.