THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COLOUR IN LEARNING FROM EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION

The author reviews recent research comparing both the relative learning gains and relative attitudes of students using colour or monochrome television material. It is concluded that all users of educational television should resist the temptation to spend large sums on colour television equipment merely because colour is now widely preferred by society at large.     

Supporting Transgender College Students: Implications for Clinical Intervention and Campus Prevention

This study examines the experiences of transgender college students in coping with stress in comparison to their cisgender peers. Undergraduate and graduate students from 73 colleges, totaling 26,292 participants, of which 47 identified as transgender completed an online survey. Transgender students reported greater exposure to trauma and higher rates of suicidal experiences, as well as different precipitants to reported stressful periods and sources of support than their cisgender peers. Implications for individual and group counseling as well as outreach and prevention to better support transgender students are explored.     

Literacy Assessment and Student Diversity: An Australian case study

This article describes the reported practices in literacy assessment, recording, and reporting in 12 Australian schools characterised by populations of diverse learners. The findings indicate the problems and challenges teachers face in providing socially just and inclusive literacy assessment in heterogeneous classrooms. We make a number of suggestions related to enhancing assessment, recording, and reporting at the classroom level and argue for systemic support for teachers.     

Erythropoietin concentration and arterial haemoglobin saturation with supramaximal exercise.

The aim of this study was to determine if the hypoxaemic stimulus generated by intense exercise results in the physiological response of increased erythropoietin production. Twenty athletes exercised for 3 min at 109 +/- 2.8% (mean +/- s) maximal oxygen consumption. Estimated oxyhaemoglobin saturation was measured by reflective probe pulse oximetry (Nellcor N200) and was validated against arterial oxyhaemoglobin saturation by CO-oximetry in eight athletes. Serum erythropoietin concentrations-as measured using the INCSTAR Epo-Trac radioimmunoassay-increased significantly by 28 +/- 9% at 24 h post-exercise in 11 participants, who also had an arterial oxyhaemoglobin saturation < or = 91% (P < 0.05). Decreased ferritin levels and increased reticulocyte counts were observed at 96 h post-exercise. However, no significant changes in erythropoietin levels were observed in nine non-desaturating athletes and eight non-exercise controls. Good agreement was shown between arterial oxyhaemoglobin saturation and percent estimated oxyhaemoglobin saturation (limits of agreement = -3.9 to 3.7%). In conclusion, short supramaximal exercise can induce both hypoxaemia and increased erythropoietin levels in well-trained individuals. The decline of arterial hypoxaemia levels below 91% during exercise appears to be necessary for the exercise-induced elevation of serum erythropoietin levels. Furthermore, reflective probe pulse oximetry was found to be a valid predictor of percent arterial oxyhaemoglobin saturation during supramaximal exercise when percent estimated oxyhaemoglobin saturation > or = 86%.     

The Effect of Information Framing on Academic Task Completion

Information framing was investigated as a classroom management technique for academic task completion. Framing effect refers to the finding that people's choices are affected by how pre‐decisional information is framed (Tversky & Kahneman, 1984). In five 3rd and 4th Grade classrooms, teachers observed task completion rates of their students under five different framing conditions: unframed instruction; positively framed instruction with (a) group and (b) individual consequence; negatively framed instruction with (a) group and (b) individual consequence. Task completion rates were significantly greater under all framed instruction conditions than unframed, with effect sizes ranging from 0.21 to 0.32 and much greater at the class level. Improvement rates corresponding to effect sizes ranged from 20% to 70% at the class level, showing the usefulness of framing instructional directives.     

Long‐Distance and Proximal Romantic Relationship Satisfaction: Attachment and Closeness Predictors

Relationship satisfaction was examined in college student long‐distance romantic relationships (LDRRs) and geographically proximal romantic relationships (PRRs). LDRR/PRR attachment style proportions and relationship satisfaction were similar. Multiple regression analyses revealed that low attachment avoidance contributed uniquely to high LDRR satisfaction and that low attachment avoidance, low attachment anxiety, and living apart contributed uniquely to high PRR satisfaction. Relational closeness was not a unique predictor of LDRR or PRR satisfaction.     

Tasks, topics and relevance judging for the TREC Genomics Track: five years of experience evaluating biomedical text information retrieval systems

With the help of a team of expert biologist judges, the TREC Genomics track has generated four large sets of “gold standard” test collections, comprised of over a hundred unique topics, two kinds of ad hoc retrieval tasks, and their corresponding relevance judgments. Over the years of the track, increasingly complex tasks necessitated the creation of judging tools and training guidelines to accommodate teams of part-time short-term workers from a variety of specialized biological scientific backgrounds, and to address consistency and reproducibility of the assessment process. Important lessons were learned about factors that influenced the utility of the test collections including topic design, annotations provided by judges, methods used for identifying and training judges, and providing a central moderator “meta-judge”.     

The impact of library services in primary care trusts in NHS North West England: a large‐scale retrospective quantitative study of online resource usage in relation to types of service

Background: Within NHS North West England there are 24 primary care trusts (PCTs), all with access to different types of library services. This study aims to evaluate the impact the type of library service has on online resource usage. Methodology: We conducted a large‐scale retrospective quantitative study across all PCT staff in NHS NW England using Athens sessions log data. We studied the Athens log usage of 30 381 staff, with 8273 active Athens accounts and 100 599 sessions from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2007. Results: In 2007, PCTs with outreach librarians achieved 43% penetration of staff with active Athens accounts compared with PCTs with their own library service (28.23%); PCTs with service level agreements (SLAs) with acute hospital library services (22.5%) and with no library service (19.68%). This pattern was also observed when we looked at the average number of Athens user sessions per person, and usage of Dialog Datastar databases and Proquest full text journal collections. Discussion: Our findings have shown a correlation of e‐resource usage and type of library service. Outreach librarians have proved to be an efficient model for promoting and driving up resources usage. PCTs with no library service have shown the lowest level of resource usage.     

A value‐added study of the impact of science curriculum reform using the National Pupil Database

This article compares the examination performance of students following General Certificate of Secondary Education Applied Science and Double Award science on a value‐added basis. It uses data from the National Pupil Database, which are analysed by a variety of methods, including multilevel modelling. It argues that the claims made within Office for Standards in Education reports on the impact of the new Applied Science course are inaccurate, and in some cases positively wrong. The authors' analysis, based on the second (2003–05) cohort of students following the course, shows that students of lower attainment at Key Stage 3 appear to perform better than would have been predicted from their Key Stage 3 attainment, but that higher attaining pupils perform less well. Schools offering Applied Science show greater diversity in the value‐added effects they produce than they do with Double Award science. The article argues that analyses of this kind are of value in seeking to understand the impact of curriculum reform, but that they are dangerous as a generalized guide for policy. They must be complemented by work in schools in which the sources of the effects observed and of school diversity are examined.