Video Presentations that have to Teach

To be successful, an instructional video presentation needs to be effective, valued, liked and efficient, and educationalists and designers should strive (explicitly and implicitly) to satisfy these criteria. In the interests of optimum teaching effect, a didactical distinction is recommended between video presentations that have to ‘instruct’, ‘explain’, ‘tell’ and ‘let encounter’. A schema or frame of reference is proposed, the use of which (it is claimed) can help to optimise communication between video producer, teacher and instructional designer     

Are patenting scientists the better scholars?: An exploratory comparison of inventor-authors with their non-inventing peers in nano-science and technology

This paper explores the relationship between scientific publication and patenting activity. More specifically, it examines for the field of nano-science and nano-technology whether researchers who both publish and patent are more productive and more highly cited than their peers who concentrate on scholarly publication in communicating their research results. This study is based on an analysis of the nano-science publications and nano-technology patents of a small set of European countries. While only a very few nano-scientists appear to hold patents in nano-technology, many nano-inventors seem to be actively publishing nano-science research. Overall, the patenting scientists appear to outperform their solely publishing (non-inventing) peers in terms of publication counts and citation frequency. However, a closer examination of the highly active and highly cited nano-authors points to a slightly different situation. While still over-represented among the highly cited authors, inventor-authors appear not to be among the most highly cited authors in that category, with a single notable exception. One policy implication is that, generally speaking, patenting activity does not appear to have an adverse impact on the publication and citation performance of researchers.     

史怀哲、敬畏生命与世界宗教

史怀哲“敬畏生命”的生态伦理学认为一切生命不仅有价值,而且是神圣的.他把这看成是逻辑和思想的必然结果.他强调人类与其他各种生命形式之间休戚与共的关系,他所遵循的“不伤害生命”或“善待其他生命”等基本原则,与世界上其他宗教和文化的根本信念是一致的,如基督教、印度教、佛教、儒家和道家等,尽管理论上稍有不同.史怀哲还以自己一生都在非洲热带丛林里进行医疗事业的传奇经历,亲自实践着他的这一生命伦理理念,全身心地、多方面地努力追求敬畏生命的道德生活.     

Validation of two accelerometers to determine mechanical loading of physical activities in children

The purpose of this study was to assess the validity of accelerometers using force plates (i.e., ground reaction force (GRF)) during the performance of different tasks of daily physical activity in children. Thirteen children (10.1 (range 5.4–15.7) years, 3 girls) wore two accelerometers (ActiGraph GT3X+ (ACT), GENEA (GEN)) at the hip that provide raw acceleration signals at 100 Hz. Participants completed different tasks (walking, jogging, running, landings from boxes of different height, rope skipping, dancing) on a force plate. GRF was collected for one step per trial (10 trials) for ambulatory movements and for all landings (10 trials), rope skips and dance procedures. Accelerometer outputs as peak loading (g) per activity were averaged. ANOVA, correlation analyses and Bland–Altman plots were computed to determine validity of accelerometers using GRF. There was a main effect of task with increasing acceleration values in tasks with increasing locomotion speed and landing height (P < 0.001). Data from ACT and GEN correlated with GRF (r = 0.90 and 0.89, respectively) and between each other (r = 0.98), but both accelerometers consistently overestimated GRF. The new generation of accelerometer models that allow raw signal detection are reasonably accurate to measure impact loading of bone in children, although they systematically overestimate GRF.     

The Poverty of Constructivism

Constructivism claims to be a postepistemology that replaces 'traditional' concepts of knowledge. Supporters of constructivism have argued that progress requires that pre-service teachers be weaned off traditional approaches and that they should adopt constructivist views of knowledge. Constructivism appears to be gaining ground rapidly and should no longer be viewed as an exercise in radical thinking primarily aimed at generating innovative teaching. It has become an integral part of the pedagogic mainstream. Close examination of the theoretical foundations of constructivism, however, reveals that the basic assumptions of constructivism are flawed. Far from being a postepistemology, constructivism simply regresses to a pre-Renaissance mindset with theology replaced with a psychologism. Constructivists should be aware that the implications of constructivism for future generations may be both profound and non-benign.