Crux of time management for students

At the beginning of each academic session, I typically devote a class or two to share my tips on time management and personal productivity with newly admitted students at the Central University of Punjab. I believe this is a crucial first step for students, as the curriculum hardly contains any information on either. I also notice that an article on this important theme is altogether non-existent. In this write-up, some of the most important methods of time management and personal productivity are thoroughly reviewed before concluding with a few pedagogical suggestions for teachers to ensure that their students manage time efficiently and be more productive with their studies and research.     

Predicting Participation in Environmental Education by Teachers in Coastal Regions of Tanzania

Theories of responsible environmental behavior (REB) have most often been applied in developed countries and to direct forms of REB such as recycling and conserving water. This study applied a model of REB to a developing country setting in Tanzania based in part on variables from a Hungerford and Volk (1990) Hungerford, H. R. and Volk, T. L. 1990. Changing learner behavior through EE. Journal of Environmental Education, 21: 8–21. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] model and targeting an indirect form of behavior: teaching environmental education (EE) to youth. A quantitative survey was developed and administered to 397 teachers from schools in coastal regions of the country. Regression analyses revealed a sequential model in which entry level variables predicted ownership variables, and ownership variables predicted empowerment variables. In addition, cognitive variables were particularly strong in predicting behavioral intent compared to affective variables.     

Educational family background and the realisation of educational career intentions: participation of German upper secondary graduates in higher education over time

In this article, we evaluate the impact of social origin on the realisation of educational intentions at the time of becoming eligible for higher education in Germany. In general, we find high persistence of intentions and actual attendance of higher education. However, effects of parental education on the changes of educational intentions increase the existing social inequality with regard to higher education at the time of leaving secondary school. The group which is affected most are those young adults planning to study after vocational training—while the gap between different origin groups does not widen much during other stop-outs from education. This can be explained only partly by previous educational performance. The findings suggest that estimates of educational inequality are attenuated when entry into higher education is approximated by educational intentions of young adults.     

Open and distance education as a strategy for human capital development in Nigeria

The development of human capital has been identified as the most important component of all the factors employed in production economics. Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has placed great emphasis on training and education for human capital formation. However, the education process as the primary means of developing human resource has failed, in its conventional mode, to fulfil the needs of the country. This paper therefore examines the impact of open and distance learning on the human capital development processes in teacher education and other areas in Nigeria, presenting an overview of human capital development efforts in Nigeria with a focus on the tertiary education system. The study also maps out the potential benefits and logical justifications for the application of distance learning systems in the training and development of professionals for the industrial and corporate sectors of the economy. In conclusion, a proposal is made for the full‐scale adoption of open and distance learning as a fundamental strategy for human resource development in the country.     

Broadcasting and Cable

Larry James Gianakos' Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1959-1975 (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1978—$27.50)

Albert C. Book and Norman D. Cary's The Radio and Television Commercial (Chicago: Crain Books, 1978—$6.95, paper)

Jay S. Harris's TV Guide: The First 25 Years (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978—$14.95)

Steven R. Rivkin's A New Guide to Federal Cable Television Regulations (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1978—$25.00)

Felix Chin's Cable Television: A Comprehensive Bibliography (New York: Plenum Publishing, 1978—$45.00)     

Failures and Successes: Notes on the Development of Electronic Cash

Between 1997 and 2001, two mid-sized communities in Canada hosted North America's most comprehensive experiment to introduce electronic cash and, in the process, replace physical cash for casual, low-value payments. The technology used was Mondex, and its implementation was supported by all the country's major banks. It was launched with an extensive publicity campaign to promote Mondex not only in the domestic but also in the global market, for which the Canadian implementation was to serve as a "showcase." However, soon after the start of the first field test it became apparent that the new technology did not work smoothly. On the contrary, it created a host of controversies, in areas as varied as computer security, consumer privacy, and monetary policy. In the following years, few of these controversies could be resolved and Mondex could not be established as a widely used payment mechanism. In 2001, the experiment was finally terminated. Using the concepts developed in recent science and technology studies (STS), this article analyzes these controversies as resulting from the difficulties of fitting electronic cash, a new sociotechnical system, into the complex setting of the existing payment system. Implementing a new technology is seen as a long process in which social and technological actors are required to adapt to one another. In the Mondex case, such adaptation did not happen sufficiently to stabilize the sociotechnical network as a whole. However, in some limited areas mutual adaptation did occur, and there the Mondex experiment produced some surprising successes. In this perspective, the story of Mondex not only offers lessons on why technologies fail, but also offers insight how short-term failures can contribute to long-term transformations. This suggests the need to rethink the dichotomy of success and failure.     

In vivo determination of the effect of shoulder pads on tackling forces in rugby

Tackling in rugby is now a major cause of injury. The use of rugby shoulder pads is intended to reduce injury from front-on tackles, although the pad's ability to reduce injury has not been examined. This paper strives to present a novel method, using Tekscan sensors, for measuring in vivo impact intensities during a front-on tackle to assess the effectiveness of rugby shoulder padding in reducing peak force during impact. It was hypothesized that padding would not significantly reduce peak impact force. Rugby pads were instrumented with thin film force sensors to measure impact intensities during tackles with and without pads. Sensors were first statically then dynamically calibrated using force plate data. Results showed that the pad significantly reduced peak impact force by up to 35% when impacted with an object and by 40% overall for all tackles. The hypothesis that the shoulder pad could not significantly reduce peak force at impact was rejected, since the pad reduced peak force by 41% in tackles with a run-up and 40% overall for all tackles. However, this reduction in force was localized directly above the acromioclavicular joint, while forces in the surrounding areas were not reduced.     

Injuries in Australian school-level rugby union

There is a high incidence of injuries in rugby union due to the physical nature of the game. In youth rugby union, there are large variations in injury rates reported. Our study investigated the rates of injuries in school-level rugby union players in Australia using the consensus statement for rugby union injuries. Injury surveillance was conducted on 480 rugby players from 1 school in Queensland, Australia. Injury data were collected using paper-based injury recording forms during the 8-week rugby season using a “medical-attention” injury definition. In total, 76 players sustained one or more injuries, with a total of 80 injuries recorded. The overall injury rate was 31.8 injuries/1000 match player hours (95% CI, 25.4–39.4). Concussion had an incidence rate of 6.0/1000 match player hours (95% CI, 3.5–9.6). The incidence of upper limb and lower limb injuries were 9.1 and 9.9/1000 match player hours, respectively (95% CI, 5.9–13.5 and 6.6–14.5). The older age divisions had higher injury rates and most injuries occurred while tackling or being tackled. The injury rates observed in this sample of Australian school rugby union players provides direction for future studies to enable informed decisions relating to development of injury prevention programmes at this level of rugby.