Comparison of advanced and intermediate 200-m backstroke swimmers' dominant and non-dominant shoulder entry angles across various swimming speeds

During backstroke, an optimum shoulder entry angle of 180° has been anecdotally suggested; however, this has yet to be investigated biomechanically. The aim of this study was to quantify shoulder entry angles for advanced and intermediate backstroke swimmers. Six advanced (season's best?<150?s) and six intermediate (season's best?>160?s) 200-m backstroke swimmers had markers applied to the medial humeral epicondyles and glenoid cavities. Following a familarization period, participants completed backstroke swimming trials (90?s each) in a swimming flume at 50%, 60%, 70%, and 80% of their season's best 200-m velocity. A camera positioned above the flume recorded frontal plane motion, which was digitized and analysed in Simi Motion Systems. The mean peak angle between the upper arm and the line of progression was established in ten strokes for each participant. The results showed backstroke shoulder entry angles for advanced swimmers (170°) were significantly closer to the suggested optimum 180° compared with those of intermediate swimmers (161°). The non-dominant arm displayed values closer to the optimum (171°), while swimming speed had no effect on backstroke shoulder entry angle. In conclusion, backstroke shoulder entry angle may help discriminate between advanced and intermediate backstroke swimmers and may be influenced by laterality dominance, being independent of swimming speed.     

Functions of digital learning within the international mobility programme – perspectives of university students and staff from Europe

Education and Information Technologies - This paper is based on research studies conducted in the academic community of students and staff members (teachers, researchers and administrative staff)...     

Polish Higher Education

This study analyzes degrees of differences between the private and public sectors of Polish higher education. It finds them to be strong: Polish private institutions function very differently from Polish public institutions and these differences correspond with those found in the literature on higher education elsewhere in the world. Polish intersectoral differences follow directions anticipated from the global literature. The study also provides material usable in policymaking by government agencies, public-private universities, and families.     

The chameleon on a tartan rug: adaptations of three academic developers’ professional identities

This paper builds on discussions of academic developers’ identity experienced as a discomfiting, troubled, and often marginal space. Three experienced academic developers, located in research-intensive institutions in three different countries, using auto-ethnographic writing and a shared narrative inquiry, explore moments of congruence and conflict. While there are elements that sustain them in their job, the categorisation of their role can impact on their ability to do their job, undermining their credibility. This can prevent them from engaging in research that could enrich practice in their institutions and inform institutional strategy or change the culture in teaching and learning. Instead they are forced into discomfit: having to defend their right to be involved in the institutional discussions. The most worrying issue is the pervasive trend in the change of academic developers’ status (from tenure-track academic peers to professionals).     

Neighborhood disparities in access to information resources: Measuring and mapping U.S. public libraries’ funding and service landscapes

Information inequity is a central concern of the digital age. Many recognize the role of public libraries in bridging such inequities. Unfortunately, however, public libraries are often limited by the funding available to them. This study used a geographic information system (GIS), inequality measures, and multiple regressions to analyze statistics from the Public Libraries Survey (PLS) collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and from census tract data. It evaluated the levels of public library funding and services and tested how these resources vary with neighborhood income and urbanization levels. This is one of the few nationwide multivariate studies of neighborhood-level variations. The study revealed significant funding and service variations across the nation's 9000 library systems. Distributions of digital materials, full-time staff with a master's degree in library and information science, and library programs were especially disparate. Library systems in lower-income or rural neighborhoods were relatively less funded and offered fewer information resources. Interestingly, the only variable that was not significantly associated with neighborhood income was the number of public Internet terminals. This suggests that recent funding and research efforts may have made a difference. Similar funding efforts are encouraged for other types of library resources such as staff education and training. In light of the prevalent disparities in resource levels across neighborhoods, the study calls for a fundamental evaluation of the funding mechanisms for libraries. Also, information behavior research should investigate how this structural information inequity affects individuals’ information use decisions.     

Using a Core Text with Bilingual Children

This study shows how the achievement of bilingual learners can be raised within the classroom context and within the framework of the National Curriculum. One text was used to stimulate a wide variety of language activities including using different styles and structures, having a sense of audience and an extended vocabulary, and exploring the children's own experiences and beyond.     

A new family of old Hirsch index variants

The Hirsch index h and the g index proposed by Egghe as well as the f index and the t index proposed by Tol are shown to be special cases of a family of Hirsch index variants, based on the generalized mean with exponent p. Inequalities between the different indices are derived from the generalized mean inequality. The graphical determination of the indices is shown for one example.     

A case study of the modified g index: Counting multi-author publications fractionally

The citation records of 26 physicists are analyzed in order to determine the modified g index g_m which takes multiple coauthorship into account by fractionalized counting of the publications. The results are compared with the original g index as well as with the h index and the respective modified h index h_m. Although the correlations between these indices are relatively strong, the arrangement of the datasets is significantly different in detail depending on whether they are put into order according to the values of either the original or the modified indices.     

Factors affecting the speed of free writing

Factors affecting the free writing speed of 11‐year‐old students were investigated using the Group and Individual Assessment of Handwriting Speed. Intelligence, gender, legibility and whether the student has special educational needs or speaks English as an additional language were all found to impact on writing speed to a significant extent. In one of the two schools studied, the students wrote significantly faster than the students in the other school. This ‘teacher effect’ was found to be independent of the other significant factors examined in the study and was attributed largely to instructional differences between schools and teachers. The average writing speed was 36% lower than published norms for this test, implying that 70.2% of the students would be eligible for extra time in examinations and raising doubts regarding the validity of these norms. It was concluded that vulnerability to teacher effects and other factors makes free writing an unreliable method of measuring writing speed, especially when group administered, and calls into question its use to justify the provision of examination access arrangements or accommodations.     

Why they sat still: the ideas and values of long‐serving teachers in challenging inner‐city schools in England

Within the UK there are grave concerns about retention and attrition rates within the teaching profession, particularly in challenging schools. These are compounded by worries about the gap that will be left as long‐serving teachers reach retirement age. This article is about the working lives of long‐serving teachers in three high‐poverty urban schools in England. In a climate in which teaching is tightly controlled and suffering from problems of retention and recruitment, the teachers discuss intensely personal and emotional commitments to their work‐place. Qualitative in‐depth interviews with 20 long‐serving teachers, all of whom had management responsibilities, are used to explore their lives and careers. These histories evoke a strong sense of the ideas and values that make up their personal and professional identities. These are then contrasted with the ideas and values in officially mandated views of progression within the profession. Within the stories of their professional lives, the teachers talk about the emotional dimensions of their work and the emotional ties of their ‘work‐place’. The article concludes that recognition of the emotional dimensions within teachers’ work at an official level could go some way to helping with recruitment and retention in schools facing challenging circumstances.