Relationship satisfaction among Turkish and British adults

We tested three theories (adult attachment, autonomy/relatedness, and gender roles) to understand relationship satisfaction among 150 British and 170 Turkish adults, all involved in romantic relationships. Avoidance, relatedness, autonomy–relatedness, and masculinity mediated the relationship between culture and romantic relationship satisfaction. Additionally, as anticipated, Turkish participants scored lower on relationship satisfaction and autonomy whereas British participants scored lower on avoidance and relatedness. Contrary to expectation, gender role differences (differences between masculinity and femininity) in the United Kingdom were not significantly smaller than in Turkey. It is concluded that adult attachment provides a useful framework for understanding country-level differences.     

The rating of perceived exertion predicts intermittent vertical jump demand and performance

The aims of this study were (a) to assess the ability of the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) to predict performance (i.e. number of vertical jumps performed to a fixed jump height) of an intermittent vertical jump exercise, and (b) to determine the ability of RPE to describe the physiological demand of such exercise. Eight healthy men performed intermittent vertical jumps with rest periods of 4, 5, and 6 s until fatigue. Heart rate and RPE were recorded every five jumps throughout the sessions. The number of vertical jumps performed was also recorded. Random coefficient growth curve analysis identified relationships between the number of vertical jumps and both RPE and heart rate for which there were similar slopes. In addition, there were no differences between individual slopes and the mean slope for either RPE or heart rate. Moreover, RPE and number of jumps were highly correlated throughout all sessions (r = 0.97-0.99; P < 0.001), as were RPE and heart rate (r = 0.93-0.97; P < 0.001). The findings suggest that RPE can both predict the performance of intermittent vertical jump exercise and describe the physiological demands of such exercise.     

Decentralising the patent system

Modern patent systems are slow, inefficient, expensive, and may result in outcomes that actively harm technological progress. This paper proposes a substantive re-think of these systems and lays a foundation upon which practical solutions can be built. Many solutions proposed in the past, such as prior-art bounties, outsourced examination, and dynamic fee setting, have gone unheeded due to the cost of administering them and the rigidity of the patent system. We explore how distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) enable these major changes by altering the way stakeholders are able to interact with the patent records system. We find that transitioning to a DLT-based patent records system can enable many previously suggested improvements to current patent systems in a flexible, scalable, and transparent manner. The case for such a transition is strengthened when jointly considering the complex but common roots of problems facing modern patent systems, rather than a balkanised set of technical solutions to address each issue independently. Noting that a DLT-based system is not a panacea, we also provide comment on the political, legal, and organisational challenges that must be overcome for such changes to be implemented at scale.     

学术简讯

常识的概念已经成为一种意识形态,在当代社会构建霸权主义、并将霸权主义作为道德与智力领导力的过程中起着重要作用。尽管在事实上新自由主义作为一种经济发展模式已经彻底失败,与新自由主义相关的文化政治仍然盛行于世,并在塑造现代政府和教育角色的理念中变成了新的常识。新自由主义全球化是全球化中最突出的模式,以市场相对于政府的主导地位和放松管制的治理模式为前提,在"学术资本主义"背景下深深地影响了高校。由此带来的改革通常以促进国际竞争力为合理借口,也被称为"竞争型改革"。市场力量日益渗透到高等教育领域,围绕学术资本主义"游戏"展开的大学治理模式的重构,均显示了新自由主义对高校影响的四个主要方面,即效率与问责制、认证与普及化、国际竞争力、私有化。通过引入以管理主义治理院校的新型模式,高校深化并扩大了自身的危机。虽然高校采纳并实施了这些改革措施,但是在不同领域,在自上而下地通过政策和重心调整强制改革时,全球化面临着越来越大的阻力。在许多情况下,新自由主义改革通过收取较高学费与减少政府对院校和个人的支持,限制了一些阶级和种族接受高等教育的机会。 更多还原     

Research results of two personal learning environments experiments in a higher education institution

This paper focuses on institutionally powered personal learning environments (iPLEs). The concept of the iPLE can be seen as a way universities can incorporate learner-centred approach into the architecture of their technology-enhanced learning environments. The aim of this paper is to pose that there are other ways to learn complementary to virtual learning environments, such as using distributed Web 2.0 tools from personal learning environments (PLEs). With that aim in mind, this paper presents an exploratory study with two different iPLE configurations, analyses how they modify the learning–teaching process, and reports their perceived usefulness from the students' point of view. These two case studies were carried out by a research group of educational technology from a Spanish university in graduate and postgraduate courses. As reported by other case studies, the results revealed that students use the environment basically in the academic context and this usage is conceived as another time and effort requiring task. This fact can be observed in the low level iPLEs customization. The overall conclusions we can extract are, on the one hand, that the new environment to integrate informal and formal learning should be flexible and adaptable to the student's needs and preferences and, on the other hand, that academic tools might someday become personal tools.     

Countering plutocracies: increasing autonomy and accountability through culturally relevant leadership

In urban school districts across the USA there are mandates to implement zero tolerance policies. As this occurs, there is an increasing number of students, specifically students of colour, who are being jettisoned out of the educative process. When school principals have little autonomy regarding how they handle disciplinary infractions within their schools, it becomes relatively easy for them to opt out of making tough decision. The authors assert that Culturally Relevant Leadership is a framework that, if applied correctly, can help school leaders reduce the multiple school suspensions and expulsions that are occurring among students of colour.     

对职业教育本质属性的再认识

职业教育是职业教育学科体系中的核心概念和分析问题的逻辑元起点,对其本质属性的明确,无论对职业教育的理论研究,还是对职业教育的具体实践,都具有非常重要的意义。     

Using e-mail to support reflective narration

This article presents an exploratory study of e-mail use for reflective narration. Narration is viewed from three perspectives: the narrating act, the narrative statement, and the story. These perspectives are used to characterize the 69 e-mails that were exchanged between 13 groups of children from three primary schools. The findings show that e-mail narration has monologic and dialogic qualities, and leads to cognitive and personal reflections on the learning task. We conclude that e-mail can serve a meaningful function in a narrative curriculum aimed at experiential inquiry. In addition, we suggest a need for future research that adopts a broad view of learning that includes different kinds of dialogues and values affective as well as cognitive aspects of these dialogues.