Mapping public support for innovation: A comparison of policy alignment in the UK and France

This paper proposes and tests a three-dimensional model of public support design as a framework to compare public incentives for innovation in firms through time and across countries, and consequently to compare forms of policy alignment of innovation objectives in an economy. Using data on 149 French and British policy programmes from the early 1980s to 2002, this paper shows that policy-makers implement programmes within a different three-dimensional design space in order to align several distinctive objectives and consequently strengthen the impact of governmental measures. Moreover, as the objectives of the national players and policy-makers evolved, the portfolio of innovation policies also evolved in their separate ways. Nevertheless, some similar trends are also observed.     

Interdisciplinary therapy changes superoxide dismutase activity and adiponectin in obese adolescents: a randomised controlled trial

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of interdisciplinary therapy in the parameters of the oxidative stress and the anti-inflammatory responses of obese adolescents. We selected 57 participants, who were randomly divided into 2 groups: interdisciplinary therapy group and a control group. After 6 months of intervention, 17 participants of the interdisciplinary therapy group and 8 of the control group returned for re-evaluation. The interdisciplinary therapy group participated in a treatment with 4 weekly sessions of exercise, a weekly group therapy session and a weekly nutritional education session. Blood parameters of oxidative stress and anti-inflammatory response were evaluated. The results demonstrated that there were significant increases in the interdisciplinary therapy group for superoxide dismutase activity (6.56 ± 3.22 to 11.40 ± 7.49) and ferric-reducing antioxidant potential concentration (532.91 ± 106.48 to 573.25 ± 112.57), although adiponectin levels did not reduce (40.9 ± 29.34 to 49.05 ± 41.22). A significant decrease in nitrite levels was also found (14.23 ± 8.48 to 11.45 ± 6.05). In the control group, significant reduction was found in adiponectin (31.56 ± 18.88 to 18.01 ± 11.66). This study suggests that interdisciplinary therapy for 6 months was effective in improving the anti-inflammatory responses and the antioxidant defences in obese adolescents.     

Analysing the socio-psychological construction of identity among pre-service teachers

A teacher’s representation of self is crucial in how they construct their identity. In this article, it is argued that pre-service teachers’ identities are intricately linked to their perceptions of the teaching profession. This paper explores the social construction of identity among pre-service teachers and the implications for professional identity. It focuses on pre-service teachers in Kenya. The findings presented here are primarily based on semi-structured interviews distributed among students enrolled in a Kenyan university. They highlight pre-service teachers’ difficulty in overcoming the negative perceptions of the profession and building positive identities of self as teacher. They also underscore the need for training programmes that take perceptions and representations of the teaching profession into account when formulating training curricula.     

The moving image in education research: Reassembling the body in classroom video data

While audio recordings and observation might have dominated past decades of classroom research, video data is now the dominant form of data in the field. Ubiquitous videography is standard practice today in archiving the body of both the teacher and the student, and vast amounts of classroom and experiment clips are stored in online archives. Yet little to no research interrogates how this data partakes in the history of scientific cinema, assembling particular images of teacher and student bodies, nor how the digital nature of video devices might indeed challenge theoretical assumptions about social science more generally. This paper situates current video research practices within the history of scientific cinema and opens up the discussion about how these practices are linked to shifting structures of industrial labor. The paper uses the work of Gilles Deleuze – on art, cinema and the body – as a means of provoking the reader to consider new ways of working with the moving image.     

Factors affecting student success at the National Open University of Venezuela

This study analyzed the effect of selected variables on attrition in the Introductory Course of the National Open University of Venezuela. The findings suggested that noninstitutional variables accounted for the largest proportion of variance of student completion. Counseling and course redesign may enhance students’ motivation to persist successfully.     

Research Fictions: Arts-Informed Narratives That Disrupt the Authority of the Text

In this paper I examine the dilemma faced by reflexive narrative inquirers who write in the first-person “I” while advocating for a postmodern reading of the “self.” This paper asks the question: How can the reflexive educational researcher craft a research narrative that, on the one hand, strives for self-presence, while on the other hand, denies the transparency of language? I discuss current post-structuralist critiques of educational research rhetoric, and extend the critique to narrative research, suggesting that an arts-informed approach to narrative allows researchers to disrupt the authority of their text. I explore the use of a specific fictionalizing technique – the unreliable narrator – to assist readers in critically deciphering reflexive research narratives.