Evaluating the effectiveness of an in-service science program through the use of materials

The study evaluates the effectiveness of an in-service science program through measuring the use of materials available from the school district's resource supply center. This in-service program introduced the Science Curriculum Improvement Study simultaneously into all 35 elementary schools of one district. The live-material shipment orders served as an unobtrusive means of measuring teachers' behaviors. The 168 participants in the workshop before implementation did not significantly differ from the other 361 teachers in their use of materials. These participants were selected on the basis of availability and representation from each school. On a questionnaire they indicated a very high level of satisfaction with the workshop. The 128 participants in a second workshop during the summer following the first year of implementation made significantly greater use of the materials.     

Variable versus constant power strategies during cycling time-trials: Prediction of time savings using an up-to-date mathematical model

Abstract

Swain (1997 Swain, D. P. 1997. A model for optimizing cycling performance by varying power on hills and in wind. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29: 1104–1108. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) employed the mathematical model of Di Prampero et al. (1979 Di Prampero, P. E., Cortili, G., Mognoni, P. and Saibene, F. 1979. Equation of motion of a cyclist. Journal of Applied Physiology, 47: 201–206. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to predict that, for cycling time-trials, the optimal pacing strategy is to vary power in parallel with the changes experienced in gradient and wind speed. We used a more up-to-date mathematical model with validated coefficients (Martin et al., 1998 Martin, J. C., Milliken, D. L., Cobb, J. E., McFadden, K. L. and Coggan, A. R. 1998. Validation of a mathematical model for road cycling power. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 14: 276–291. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to quantify the time savings that would result from such optimization of pacing strategy. A hypothetical cyclist (mass = 70 kg) and bicycle (mass = 10 kg) were studied under varying hypothetical wind velocities (?10 to 10 m · s^?1), gradients (?10 to 10%), and pacing strategies. Mean rider power outputs of 164, 289, and 394 W were chosen to mirror baseline performances studied previously. The three race scenarios were: (i) a 10-km time-trial with alternating 1-km sections of 10% and ?10% gradient; (ii) a 40-km time-trial with alternating 5-km sections of 4.4 and ?4.4 m · s^?1 wind (Swain, 1997 Swain, D. P. 1997. A model for optimizing cycling performance by varying power on hills and in wind. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29: 1104–1108. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]); and (iii) the 40-km time-trial delimited by Jeukendrup and Martin (2001 Jeukendrup, A. E. and Martin, J. 2001. Improving cycling performance: How should we spend our time and money?. Sports Medicine, 31: 559–569. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Varying a mean power of 289 W by ± 10% during Swain's (1997 Swain, D. P. 1997. A model for optimizing cycling performance by varying power on hills and in wind. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29: 1104–1108. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) hilly and windy courses resulted in time savings of 126 and 51 s, respectively. Time savings for most race scenarios were greater than those suggested by Swain (1997 Swain, D. P. 1997. A model for optimizing cycling performance by varying power on hills and in wind. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29: 1104–1108. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). For a mean power of 289 W over the “standard” 40-km time-trial, a time saving of 26 s was observed with a power variability of 10%. The largest time savings were found for the hypothetical riders with the lowest mean power output who could vary power to the greatest extent. Our findings confirm that time savings are possible in cycling time-trials if the rider varies power in parallel with hill gradient and wind direction. With a more recent mathematical model, we found slightly greater time savings than those reported by Swain (1997 Swain, D. P. 1997. A model for optimizing cycling performance by varying power on hills and in wind. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29: 1104–1108. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). These time savings compared favourably with the predicted benefits of interventions such as altitude training or ingestion of carbohydrate-electrolyte drinks. Nevertheless, the extent to which such power output variations can be tolerated by a cyclist during a time-trial is still unclear.     

The activation,appropriation and practices of student-equity policy in Australian higher education

Current national reforms in Australian higher education have prioritised efforts to reduce educational disadvantage within a vernacular expression of neoliberal education policy. Student-equity policy in universities is enmeshed in a set of competitive student recruitment relations. This raises practice-based tensions as universities strive to meet specific institutional targets for low-socio-economic status (SES) and Indigenous student participation, whilst broadening participation more generally within the sector. This paper seeks empirically to trace the activation and appropriation of federal policy through two sites of higher education policy practices: a state government-sponsored equity practitioner body and two differently positioned universities, Dawson and McIllwraith, as they engage with low-SES schools. Working together Dorothy Smith’s insights into the textually mediated activation of local practices, Levinson and colleagues’ concept of the local appropriation of authorised policy, and Bourdieu’s notion of the contested field, we demonstrate that the generation of state level and institutionally specific policies for student-equity practices not only articulates to federal policy, but also appropriates the ruling relations of mandated policy. Further, the scope of these creative local appropriations is organised within a hierarchical academic field through which particular institutional imperatives, as well as the needs of low-SES students, are negotiated. The analysis demonstrates the vernacularisation of policy in the national rearticulation of global discourses, in appropriation at the level of the state body and in the practices of equity workers.     

Instructional/Educational Media

Public Telecommunications Review (bi-monthly at $12.50 per year in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, $17.00 Elsewhere) and Volume I:1 appeared in August 1973

S. Young Lee and Ronald J. Pedone's Summary Statistics of Public Television Licensees Fiscal Year 1972 (Washington: Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1973—no price listed, paperback)

Frederick Williams, Geraldine Van Wart and Monty Stanford's Carrascolendas: National Evaluation of a Spanish/English Educational Television Series (Austin, Texas: School of Communication, Center for Communication Research of the University of Texas, June 1973—$6.00, paper)

Children's Television Workshop offers its 1973 Annual Report (1 Lincoln Plaza, N.Y. 10023) which discusses developments in Sesame Street, Electric Company     

On Various Passion Plays

The Life Of Margaret Fuller by Madeleine B. Stern. Illustrated. E. P. Button Co. 549 pp. $3.75.

Torch And Crucible: The Life And Death Of Antoine Lavoisier by Sidney J. French. Princeton University Press. 275 pp. $3.50.

Education: Family Living And Our Schools: The Joint Committee on Curriculum Aspects of Education for Home and Family Living, Bess Goodykoontz and Beulah I. Coon, Chairmen. D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc. 450 pp. $2.50.

Radio And English Teaching. Edited by Max J. Herzberg. D. Appleton-Century Company. 243 pp. $2.00.

That They May Have Life: The Story Of The American University OF Beirut, 1866–1941. By Stephen B. L. Penrose, Jr. 335 pp. $3.75.

The Foundations Of Conservation Education. Henry B. Ward, Editor. The National Wildlife Federation. Washington, D.C. 242 pp. Sixty cents (paper); one dollar (cloth).

History: The Kentucky by Thomas D. Clark. Illustrated by John A. Spielman. Farrar and Rinehart. 431 pp. $2.50.

Religion: The Inner World: An Introduction To The Philosophy Of Christianity by John Wright Buckman. Harper and Brothers. 285 pp. $3.50.

Social Studies: Censorship 1917 by James R. Mock. Princeton University Press. 240 pp. $2.50.

Economic Consequences Of The Second World War by Lewis L. Lorwin. Random House. 510 pp. $3.00.

Travel: We Follow The Western Trail by Ruth Wheeler. The Macmillan Company. 157 pp. $2.00.     

Lead toxicity as a result of herbal medication

Awareness about the toxic effects of non-essential metals is still lacking in developing countries. Lead is one among them, which ranks second in the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’ s top 20 lists of toxic metals. Some of the herbal medicines prepared from certain roots and leaves are known to contain this toxic metal at alarming levels. We have a case of a person who suffered from the toxic effects of lead such as vomiting and colicky abdominal pain after consuming a herbal remedy for Jaundice treatment. This went unrecognized initially because of the presence of multiple problems like Malaria and Renal calculi. Lead poisoning as causative factor for anemia, vomiting and colic were confirmed only when blood lead concentration was estimated. A combination of chelation therapy and nutritional supplementation was found to be useful in reducing the body lead burden.     

Implementing performing rights

The purpose of this contribution is to move the study of performing rights forward and away from discussion of matters of principle to matters of implementation. Our procedure is to identify the chronological steps which have to be taken by composers or their representatives in ensuring that their property right can be exploited, resulting in payment for performances. At each step we shall attempt to offer observations, based principally but by no means solely on UK experience, on both the economic and legal issues that arise. The first stage in the exploitation of copyright is to create a work in a discernible form. In music this has traditionally taken the form of a score. However, today most popular music will take the form of a taped performance. This is followed by critical discussion of the term of copyright protection and whether a monopoly is created in respect of performing rights. In addition to performing rights, account has also to be taken of performers' rights, raising issues of where copyright protection ends and performers' rights begin. The second stage of exploitation is publication, promotion and performance of the work, a matter so complex that it has necessitated the establishment of collective organisations of authors and publishers to be effective. Policy issues arise about the relations between the members of such organisationsinter se, and between the organisations and users, and these are illustrated by a number of examples from the history of the British Performing Right Society. Disputes led to the establishment of specialist tribunals in the UK and elsewhere, and there have also been investigations of collecting societies by the British and EC competition authorities. The global market for music means that such issues transcend national frontiers, and there is some discussion of how performing rights are enforced internationally. The paper concludes by identifying a number of major issues: whether or not collecting societies operate against the consumer interest (it is suggested, generally not); the extent to which serious music is or should be subsidised by diversion of the income of the collecting societies in its support; and the possible extension of collective copyright administration into other fields, against the background of ever-increasing cross-border activity in cultural matters generally.