Medical students' attitudes toward the anatomy dissection room in relation to personality

Assessment of the personalities of medical students could enable medical educators to formulate strategies for the best development of academic and clinical competencies. In this article, we focus on the experience of students in the anatomy dissecting room. While there have been many attempts to evaluate the emotional responses of medical students to human cadaveric dissection, there has been no investigation into how different personality traits affect the responses. The main hypothesis tested was that there is a relationship between personality traits and attitudes toward the dissection room. For the present study, a group of French medical students (n = 403; mean age 21.3 ± 1.6; 65.3% female) completed a "Big Five" personality inventory and a questionnaire to assess their attitudes in regard to human dissection. The findings are consistent with our hypothesis, in that we found a relationship between reporting anxiety and four of the "Big Five" dimensions (all except openness). The rated level of anxiety was positively correlated with negative affectivity, more strongly at the beginning than at the end of the course. There were significant gender differences in attitudes toward dissection. The findings are discussed in relation to the possibility of preparing students for the dissecting room experience and also in relation to the students' understanding of mortality issues.     

Education and poverty in affluent countries

This article reflects on the desire to defend and claim public education amidst the educational policy effects of contemporary neoliberal politics. The defence of public education, from schools to higher education, undoubtedly provides a powerful counter-veiling weight to the neoliberal policy logic of education-as-individual-value-accrual. At a time of intense global policy reform centred on marketisation in education, the public education institutions of the post-war welfare state are often characterised as being lost, attacked, encroached upon and dismantled. In this paper, I contend it is important to avoid mobilising a memory of public educational pasts that do not account for their failings and inequalities. Turning to a historical engagement with the emergence of neoliberal politics, the paper explores how challenges and contestations surrounding ‘the public’ from multiple standpoints converged in the rise of neoliberalism. Recognition of these convergences and contestations, I suggest, assists to provide a more nuanced account of the relationship between neoliberal reform and the welfare state, and thus of the complex task of imagining, claiming and working towards a just and equitable public education.     

The effect of inquiry teaching and advance organizers upon student outcomes in science education

Two areas of research were explored in this meta-analysis: comparison of inductive versus deductive teaching approachs, and the use of advance organizers. This study involved the coding of 128 characteristics for 39 studies which spanned the period from 1957 through 1980. The coding variables included 57 which were concerned with features of the treatment while 12 were concerned with outcome attributes. Aspects such as research methodology, sample characteristics, and instructional experiences were examined quantitatively in terms of their relationships to the treatment effects through the use of a common metric for all studies. Mean effect sizes were calculated and reported.     

Physiological effects of infant exposure to environmental tobacco smoke: a passive observation study

This study explored infant physiologic responses of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) using a longitudinal passive observation study with a control group. Fifteen smoking and 15 non-smoking mothers were initially contacted in hospital maternity units, with home visits made when their infants were 2, 4, and 6 weeks old. Exposure to ETS was measured using infant urinary nicotine and cotinine levels. The physiologic effects of infant ETS exposure were measured by rectal temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. The smoking mothers in this sample were poorer, had less education, and were less likely to be married than the mothers who did not smoke. At birth, the infants of smoking mothers had higher diastolic blood pressure than infants of non-smoking mothers (p < .008). Mothers who smoke cigarettes should be educated that maternal smoking behavior can affect an infant's cardiovascular function. Parents should also be counseled about the risks of smoking in close proximity and/or in an enclosed space with an infant, especially in a motor vehicle.     

Acute effects of intense interval training on running mechanics

The aims of this study were to determine if there are significant kinematic changes in running pattern after intense interval workouts, whether duration of recovery affects running kinematics, and whether changes in running economy are related to changes in running kinematics. Seven highly trained male endurance runners (VO 2max = 72.3 +/- 3.3 ml kg -1 min -1 ; mean +/- s) performed three interval running workouts of 10 X 400 m at a speed of 5.94 +/- 0.19 m s -1 (356 +/- 11.2 m min -1 ) with a minimum of 4 days recovery between runs. Recovery of 60, 120 or 180 s between each 400 m repetition was assigned at random. Before and after each workout, running economy and several kinematic variables were measured at speeds of 3.33 and 4.47 m s -1 (200 and 268 m min -1 ). Speed was found to have a significant effect on shank angle, knee velocity and stride length (P ? 0.05). Correlations between changes pre- and post-test for VO 2 (ml kg -1 min -1 ) and several kinematic variables were not significant (P > 0.05) at both speeds. In general, duration of recovery was not found to adversely affect running economy or the kinematic variables assessed, possibly because of intra-individual adaptations to fatigue.     

Solving Bernstein's Problem: A Proposal for the Development of Coordinated Movement by Selection

In recent years, many established concepts in the theory of human motor development have undergone profound change, and our knowledge has increased greatly. Nevertheless, some outstanding problems remain unsolved. A central problem concerns the redundancy of effective movements, first pointed out by N. A. Bernstein. The human motor system is mechanically complex and can make use of large number of degrees of freedom. The controlled operation of such a system requires a reduction of mechanical redundancy, effectively by reducing the number of degrees of freedom. More recent work has shown that this problem is hard to solve explicitly by computing solutions to the equations of motion of the system. Equally challenging to traditional computational approaches is the fact the motor systems show remarkable adaptability and flexibility in the presence of changing biomechanical properties of motor organs during development and when faced with different environmental conditions or tasks. Solutions to these problems would have a large impact on a variety of issues in child development. In this article, we stress the importance of the somatic selection of neuronal groups in maps for the progressive transformation of a primary movement repertoire into a set of motor synergies and adaptive action patterns. We present results from computer simulations of a simple motor system that works according to such selectional principles. This approach suggests a provisional solution to Bernstein's problem and provides new parameters to guide experimental approaches to the development of sensorimotor coordination.     

What next? Three knowledge objectives for communication researchers

This essay identifies as knowledge objectives the need to (1) understand the interrelatedness of communicative contexts, (2) pinpoint more precisely the serial nature of communication, and (3) establish the relationship between laboratory and naturalist investigations     

Studies on the use of fear appeals: A summary and analysis

While a number of studies have been concerned with the effects of varying intensities of fear appeals on audience response, interpretation of the findings poses a number of problems. The author summarizes some of the major research thus far conducted, analyzes several of the problems involved in interpreting the findings of these studies, and provides some tentative suggestions for fruitful approaches to the study of the effects of fear‐arousing appeals.     

Ultras in Indonesia: conflict,diversification, activism

Abstract

Ultras play a vital role in the life of Indonesian football. Ultra fandom has emerged as a highly visual, highly spectacular, and frequently violent form of fandom in post-reformasi Indonesia. Ultra fan groups are overwhelmingly made up of young, urban men who dedicate much of the leisure time to supporting their club – whether through being at the stadium, creating on tifos, or through social-media campaigns. Supporter groups such as PSIM’s Brajamusti are linked to the cultural and political realities of everyday life in Yogyakarta. While the Surabaya-based Bonek are engaged in an ongoing struggle against FIFA and Indonesia’s football federation. The Solo-based Pasoepati are a more recent fan group who have supported several Solo-based teams. This article draws on field work carried out between August and December 2014. The article explores how the different fan groups interact with each other with their city and how they imagine an improved ‘soccer-scape’ in Indonesia.