Influence of cold-water immersion on limb blood flow after resistance exercise*

This study determined the influence of cold (8°C) and cool (22°C) water immersion on lower limb and cutaneous blood flow following resistance exercise. Twelve males completed 4 sets of 10-repetition maximum squat exercise and were then immersed, semi-reclined, into 8°C or 22°C water for 10-min, or rested in a seated position (control) in a randomized order on different days. Rectal and thigh skin temperature, muscle temperature, thigh and calf skin blood flow and superficial femoral artery blood flow were measured before and after immersion. Indices of vascular conductance were calculated (flux and blood flow/mean arterial pressure). The colder water reduced thigh skin temperature and deep muscle temperature to the greatest extent (P?<?.001). Reductions in rectal temperature were similar (0.2–0.4°C) in all three trials (P?=?.69). Femoral artery conductance was similar after immersion in both cooling conditions, with both conditions significantly lower (55%) than the control post-immersion (P?<?.01). Similarly, there was greater thigh and calf cutaneous vasoconstriction (40–50%) after immersion in both cooling conditions, relative to the control (P?<?.01), with no difference between cooling conditions. These findings suggest that cold and cool water similarly reduce femoral artery and cutaneous blood flow responses but not muscle temperature following resistance exercise.     

‘It’s alpha omega for succeeding and thriving’: parents,children and sporting cultivation in Norway

It has become increasingly apparent, internationally, that childhood is a crucial life-stage in the formation of predispositions towards sports participation and that parents are increasingly investing in the sporting capital of their children via a process of ‘concerted cultivation’. It is surprising, therefore, that parents’ involvement in the development of their children's sporting interests has received so little attention in Norway, given that sport is a significant pastime for Norwegians and participation has been steadily increasing – among youngsters, in particular – over the past several decades. Through a qualitative case study of a combined primary and secondary school in a small Norwegian city, this study sought to add to recent explorations of the role of parents in children's sporting involvement in Norway. As expected, it was evident that sport becomes taken for granted and internalised very early on in Norwegian children's lives. Less expected was the recognition that children's nascent sporting interests were often generated by sports clubs via early years schooling and, therefore, that parents played only one (albeit very important) part in the formation of their youngsters’ early sporting habits. Thus, parents, sports clubs and early years schooling appeared to form something akin to a ‘sporting trinity’ in youngsters’ nascent sporting careers. These findings may have implications for policy-makers looking towards Norway for a ‘recipe’ for sports participation.     

Scientific objectivity and E. B. Titchener's experimental psychology

Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison's recent book on the history of scientific objectivity showed that, over the course of the nineteenth century, natural scientists of many stripes became intensely concerned with the issue of the distorting influence that their own subjectivities might be having on their observations and representations of nature. At very nearly the same time, experimental psychology arose specifically to investigate scientifically the nature and structure of subjective consciousness. Although Daston and Galison briefly discussed some basic psychological issues-especially the discovery of differences in human color perception-they did not strongly connect the widespread European concern with scientific objectivity to the rise of experimental psychology. This essay critically examines the theoretical and empirical activities of the experimental psychologist who most energetically strove to discover the structure of subjective conscious experience, Edward Bradford Titchener. Titchener's efforts to produce an objective study of subjectivity reveal important tensions in early experimental psychology and also serve to situate experimental psychology at the center of an important intellectual struggle that was being waged across the natural sciences in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century.     

Interdisciplinary dialogues as a site for reflexive exploration of conceptual understandings of teaching–learning relationships

This study examines what the members of an interdisciplinary research alliance, at the intersection of Engineering and Education Ethnography, learned through ongoing dialogues among members (2012–2014). The analyses make visible how, and for what purpose(s), this interdisciplinary research alliance was constructed, including the theoretical/conceptual roots of perspectives guiding the members of the alliance, and how these orienting perspectives served as anchors for exploring points where differences in understandings became visible to members. By tracing responses that members had to differences in understandings, we examine how the differences became resources for members to (re)examine their initial assumptions and understandings of particular teaching–learning processes, and how these differences supported members, individually and collectively, in extending and (re)formulating their understandings of the relationship between and among teaching and learning processes that constituted no distance education processes. Through the presentation of three telling cases, we make visible how the dialogues led to different levels of ethnographic analysis (cases 1 and 2). Each was undertaken to develop an understanding of what counted as the no distance education process, both at the design and institutional level across national institutions as well as in the course across times and events. The third telling case explores transformations in understanding particular aspects of teaching–learning relationships that the members reported were related to the ongoing dialogues and ethnographic research.     

What's in their baggage? The cultural and social capital of Australian students preparing to study abroad

Governments and educational institutions promote study abroad in the belief that it offers valuable learning experiences for all students. Yet studies suggest that equitable access to study abroad is more myth than reality. This study took a narrative approach supported by survey data to explore this issue at one Australian university. The survey indicated that the majority of students are effectively excluded from the university's Student Exchange Programme, and that those included generally have high cultural, social and economic capital. Interviews revealed how multiple dimensions of privilege typically work to make study abroad imaginable, affordable and do-able for some. These findings are complicated by one student's atypical narrative, which serves to raise further questions for research.