Ability of test measures to predict competitive performance in elite swimmers

The purpose of this study was to quantify the relationship between changes in test measures and changes in competition performance for individual elite swimmers. The 24 male and 16 female swimmers, who were monitored for 3.6 years (s = 2.5), raced in a major competition at the end of each 6-month season (3.6 competitions, s = 2.2). A 7 x 200-m incremental swimming step-test and anthropometry were conducted in up to four training phases each season. Correlations of changes in step-test and anthropometry measures between training phases and seasons with changes in competition performance between seasons were derived with repeated-measures mixed-modelling and linear regression. Changes in competition performance were best tracked by changes in test measures between taper phases. The best single predictor of competition performance was skinfolds for females (r = -0.53). The best predictor from the step-test was stroke rate at a blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol x l(-1) (females: r = 0.46; males: r = 0.41); inclusion of the second-best step-test predictor in a multiple linear regression improved the correlations (females: r = 0.52 with speed in the seventh step included; males: r = 0.58 with peak lactate concentration included). In conclusion, a combination of fitness and technique factors is important for competitive performance. The step-test is a useful adjunct in a swimmer's training preparation for tracking large changes in performance.     

Accuracy of Test-Score-Difference Decisions and the Jagged-Profile Effect

The Kelley and Lord procedures for determining the degree to which decisions concerning test score differences are judged to be accurate are discussed. Data are presented illustrating the jagged profile effect. This expression refers to the fact that the profile of subtest performance for independent-school pupils is a different shape than that of the publisher’s national norm group. The effect is due to the extent of non-isomorphism between the shapes of the two profiles. The inappropriate use of the publisher’s norm group causes discrepancies in the direction and accuracy of difference decisions.     

Freedom as Non‐Domination,Standards and the Negotiated Curriculum

This article investigates the application of Philip Pettit's concept of freedom as non‐domination to the issues of educational standards and the negotiated curriculum. The article will argue that freedom as non‐domination (and the connected concept of debating contestations as part of a legitimate democratic state) shines a critical light on governmental practice in England over the past two decades. Joshua Cohen's proposal of an ideal deliberative procedure is offered as a potential mechanism for the facilitation of debating contestations between stakeholders over the curriculum. Cohen places particular importance on the participants being ‘formally and substantively equal’ in the proceedings and being able to ‘recognize one another as having deliberative capacities’. It will be argued that formal and substantive equality between children and responsible adults is highly problematic due to the ‘considerable interference’ (Pettit) teachers and adults have to make in children's lives. However, the article does offer examples of children's deliberative capacities on the issue of the curriculum (in response to Cohen).     

Appraising research policy instrument mixes: a multicriteria mapping study in six European countries of diagnostic innovation to manage antimicrobial resistance

This article provides prospective appraisal of key policy instruments intended to stimulate innovation to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR refers to the ability of microbes to evolve resistance to those treatments designed to kill them, and is associated with the overuse or misuse of medicines such as antibiotics. AMR is an emerging global challenge with major implications for healthcare and society as a whole. Diagnostic tests for infectious diseases can guide decision making when prescribing medicines, so reducing inappropriate drug use. In the context of growing international interest in policies to stimulate innovation in AMR diagnostics, this study uses multicriteria mapping (MCM) to appraise a range of policy instruments in order to understand their potential performance while also highlighting the uncertainties that stakeholders hold about such interventions in complex contexts. A contribution of the article is the demonstration of a novel method to analyse and visualise MCM data in order to reveal stakeholder inclinations towards particular options while exploring interviewees’ uncertainties about the effectiveness of each instrument's design or implementation. The article reports results from six European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK). The findings reveal which policy instruments are deemed most likely to perform well, and why, across stakeholder groups and national settings, with areas of common ground and difference being identified. Importantly, the conclusions presented here differ from prominent policy discourse, with international implications for the design of mixes of policy instruments to combat AMR. Strategic and practical methodological implications also emerge for general appraisal of innovation policy instrument mixes.     

Website creation and resource management: developing collaborative strategies for asynchronous interaction with library users

Objective: To make electronic resources available to library users while effectively harnessing intellectual capital within the library, ultimately fostering the library’s use of technology to interact asynchronously with its patrons (users). Methods: The methods used in the project included: (1) developing a new library website to facilitate the creation, management, accessibility, maintenance and dissemination of library resources; and (2) establishing ownership by those who participated in the project, while creating effective work allocation strategies through the implementation of a content management system that allowed the library to manage cost, complexity and interoperability. Results: Preliminary results indicate that contributors to the system benefit from an increased understanding of the library’s resources and add content valuable to library patrons. These strategies have helped promote the manageable creation and maintenance of electronic content in accomplishing the library’s goal of interacting with its patrons. Conclusions: Establishment of a contributive system for adding to the library’s electronic resources and electronic content has been successful. Further work will look at improving asynchronous interaction, particularly highlighting accessibility of electronic content and resources.     

To Me It’s Like Having a Kid,Kind Of: Analysis of Student Reflections in a Developmental Mentoring Program

This qualitative longitudinal study focuses on analyses of journals written by 31 sixth grade students who participated in the Chapel Buddy program. The Chapel Buddy program is a developmental mentoring program that pairs sixth graders with kindergarten students. Mentors responded to guided writing prompts three times during the course of the year. Prompts were designed to encourage mentors to explore their role as mentors and their understanding of the mentor–mentee relationship. Results indicated that the program presented a rich, experiential learning opportunity for the sixth graders to develop a relationship with a younger child, to reflect on what it means to be in a helping relationship, and to examine their experiences as “big kids.” Sixth graders varied in their ability to successfully engage and manage their kindergarten mentees, which in turn meaningfully affected the mentors’ satisfaction. Strategies to maximize the educational value of developmental mentoring programs with younger mentors are discussed.     

Apocalypticism in secular public discourse: A proposed theory

Scholars have long studied biblical apocalyptic texts and later religious texts in the same genre, considering their distinctive features and their effects. Literary theorists have found apocalyptic strains in secular literature and studied the literary texts as apocalyptic. Studying speeches as apocalyptic illuminates the rhetorical effects of the speeches and underscores the narrative elements of apocalyptic discourse that have been merely taken for granted.     

Making a Community Network Sustainable: The Future of the Wired High Rise

Much time and money has been committed by governments, private business, and the third sector over the last 5 years in establishing opportunities for underserved populations to gain access to new forms of information and communication technologies, in an effort to overcome the so-called “digital divide.” This article traces the efforts that have been made to establish a networked community at a single high-rise public housing estate in inner Melbourne, Australia, and considers some of the potential opportunities for and barriers to ensuring the continuity of the network, which is large, complex, costly, and potentially fragile, into the future.