Pathsways to school achievement in very preterm and full term children

Individual differences in academic success were investigated in a geographically defined whole-population sample of very preterm children with a gestational age of less than 32 weeks or a birth weight of less than 1500 gm. The sample consisted of 264 very preterm children (75.6% of German-speaking survivors) and 264 controls matched for gender, socioeconomic status, marital status and age of mother, who were studied from birth. The present analyses focused on the impact of cognitive skills assessed at ages 6 and 8 on academic success at the age 13. IQ scores, prereading skills, reading, spelling, and math performance assessed during the last kindergarten year and again at the end of Grade 2 were used as predictors of academic success in early adolescence. Differences between very pretern children and controls in cognitive abilities already observed in earlier assessments remained stable over time, with controls on average performing more than half a standard deviation above the level of preterm children. Preterm children also performed poorer on the literacy measures and indicators of math performance. Multivariate and causal modeling revealed different prediction patterns for the two groups. Whereas IQ was particularly important for the prediction of academic success in the pre-term sample, general IQ was less relevant for the prediction of academic success in the control group. When subgroups of at-risk children were formed according to birth weight categories, we found that school problems were most pronounced for children with extremely low birth weight (1000 gm and less).     

Functioning and participation of young adults with ASD in higher education according to the ICF framework

Because of a better understanding of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in all stages of life and the improvement of support of students with ASD in primary and secondary education, an increasing number of students with ASD are accessing higher education. Previous research suggests that these students have fewer opportunities in higher education due to a number of functioning and participation problems. However, literature regarding students with ASD in higher education is rather scarce. This article presents an overview of recent studies in a literature review describing the functioning and participation problems of young adults with ASD. This literature review is complemented by focus groups with student mentors and interviews with students with ASD to connect the insights from the literature review to the context of higher education and to check whether all functioning and participation problems are covered by the existing literature. The review showed that little is known about the functioning and participation problems of students with ASD in higher education. However, knowledge about the full spectrum of problems can be the first step towards a better match between the individual problems and the offered reasonable accommodations to increase the participation chances and success rate of these students in higher education.     

Students' explanatory schemas and the quality of college instruction: Some evidence for buffer and compensation effects

Although researchers have begun to examine how perceptions of academic performance affect college students' achievement striving, little is known about these linkages in different instruction settings. Students' explanatory schemas, for example, may act as buffers against the deleterious effects of poor-quality instruction. As well, effective instruction may serve to compensate for other schemas that predispose students to failure. Three causal schema groups were created by informing students that their performance on a prelecture test was due to either ability, effort, or test difficulty. Students then observed a videotaped lecture presented by a low- or a high-expressive instructor, after which they wrote a test and completed a questionnaire. When instruction was ineffective, the effort and ability schemas produced better performance in low-perceived-success students, whereas no differences occurred between schema groups in high-perceived-success students. When instruction was effective, the three schemas led to similar achievement patterns in both low- and high-perceived-success students. These results were discussed in terms of buffer and compensation effects.     

Pathway to success: using students’ insights and perspectives to improve retention and success for university students from low socioeconomic (LSE) backgrounds

In an increasingly complex landscape of diversification and massification, universities are grappling with challenges of student attrition. This paper presents findings from a project investigating how students from low socio-economic backgrounds at a regional Australian university perceive challenges and supports associated with retention and success. Twenty-seven students received intensive one-to-one support from a Faculty-embedded ‘academic advisor’, and reflected on this support, their overall student experience, and strategies to enhance student success. Students identified a range of challenges that they experienced across an academic year (personal circumstances, lack of preparedness for university study, timely access to support, course/programme difficulties) and what worked well for them (academic advisor, University support services, growing confidence in self as competent student, peer support). A range of strategies for enhancing student success were identified by students, namely consistency across teaching design and delivery, transparency of delivery modes, mandatory orientation, access to a dedicated academic advisor, and increased peer connectedness. The applicability and viability of the proposed strategies within current higher education settings are explored.     

How organisations evaluate their knowledge management projects: a meta-study of the period 1992–2002

The key objective of this research was to develop an understanding of what organisations are measuring within the context of knowledge management (KM) evaluation. A comprehensive meta-analysis of international articles dealing with the evaluation of KM, Intellectual Capital and other closely related domains between the years 1992 and 2002 was undertaken. A total of 1539 articles reflected the search topic. A manual review of all abstracts resulted in a narrowed selection of 223 articles, sourced from 126 different journals. Data for 1992–1995 were rejected due to insufficient occurrences of empirical measurement. Content analysis with the use of the NUD^*IST^® software of the data resulted in 12 evaluation factors being identified. Four factors made up 72% of the study's findings: human capital, financial, process and customer. However, by charting the number of measures within each factor against each year from 1996 to 2002, some identifiable trends were highlighted. Financial, human capital, internal infrastructure and composite measures, such as the Balanced Scorecard, have grown in varying degrees in frequency of use, while customer, process, intellectual property, innovation and quality-related measures have gradually lost ground.     

Early Crying,Sleeping, and Feeding Problems and Trajectories of Attention Problems From Childhood to Adulthood

This study investigated if crying, sleeping or feeding problems that co-occur (multiple regulatory problems [RPs]) or are persistent predict attention problems and diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood and adulthood. Participants were 342 individuals who were assessed at 5, 20, and 56 months for crying, sleeping, and feeding (RPs) and at 6, 8, and 28 years for ADHD diagnoses, attention problems, and attention span. Infants/toddlers with multiple/persistent RPs had an increased risk of receiving an ADHD diagnosis both in childhood and adulthood compared to those who never had RPs. Multiple/persistent RPs were further associated with a high-decreasing attention problems trajectory from childhood to adulthood. Interventions to alleviate early RPs may prevent the development of attention problems.     

纳粹统治下的德国物理学会

1933年到1945年的德国物理学会的历史并不能完全涵盖希特勒统治下的物理学史,但它确实也反映了在第三帝国期间物理学家工作和生活的许多重要方面.     

Learn by doing: How to include new requirements of research in engineering education

Co-operation between university and industry for technology transfer is not only useful for industry, but also for students. In the Fraunhofer Institute of the author, about 40 projects annually for individual companies as well as co-operative research projects with many partners for international programmes such as EUREKA, ESPRIT and LEONARDO are carried out. Students are involved in many ways, as part-time assistants or during their intermediate and diploma thesis projects as well as PhD theses, and contribute significantly to the research and development. By being members of a team of professionals they learn about their later work in industry to the extent that they get ideas for planning their careers and even consider becoming entrepreneurs themselves.     

Effect of ski boot rear stiffness (SBRS) on maximal ACL force during injury prone landing movements in alpine ski racing: A study with a musculoskeletal simulation model

A common anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury situation in alpine ski racing is landing back-weighted after a jump. Simulated back-weighted landing situations showed higher ACL-injury risk for increasing ski boot rear stiffness (SBRS) without considering muscles. It is well known that muscle forces affect ACL tensile forces during landing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of different SBRS on the maximal ACL tensile forces during injury prone landings considering muscle forces by a two-dimensional musculoskeletal simulation model. Injury prone situations for ACL-injuries were generated by the musculoskeletal simulation model using measured kinematics of a non-injury situation and the method of Monte Carlo simulation. Subsequently, the SBRS was varied for injury prone landings. The maximal ACL tensile forces and contributing factors to the ACL forces were compared for the different SBRS. In the injury prone landings the maximal ACL tensile forces increased with increasing SBRS. It was found that the higher maximal ACL force was caused by higher forces acting on the tibia by the boot and by higher quadriceps muscle forces both due to the higher SBRS. Practical experience suggested that the reduction of SBRS is not accepted by ski racers due to performance reasons. Thus, preventive measures may concentrate on the reduction of the quadriceps muscle force during impact.