Empowering Marginalized Youth: A Self‐Transformative Intervention for Promoting Positive Youth Development

This article reports the results of a positive youth development (PYD) intervention for adolescents in alternative high schools (209 African American and Hispanic American adolescents, aged 14–18; 118 females and 91 males). The intervention was guided by a self‐transformative model of PYD (Eichas, Meca, Montgomery, & Kurtines, 2014). This model proposes that the actions youth take to define themselves function as active ingredients in positive development over the life course. Consistent with the self‐transformative model, results provided support for direct or mediated intervention effects on the self‐transformative processes of self‐construction and self‐discovery, life goal development, identity synthesis, and internalizing problems. The findings illustrate the utility of using a self‐transformative approach to PYD in work with marginalized youth populations.     

‘Surprise Me!’ The (im)possibilities of agency and creativity within the standards framework of history education

Abstract

In the current culture of regulation in higher education and, in turn, the history discipline, it is timely to problematize discipline standards in relation to student agency and creativity. This article argues that through the inclusion of a critical orientation and engaged pedagogy, historians have the opportunity to bring a more agentic dimension to the disciplinary conversation. Discipline standards privilege that arrogant historical moment in the higher education sector when certain skills development and knowledge creation becomes a hegemonic discourse. As a result, there is less emphasis on creativity, agency, and individual opportunities for the demonstration of the historical imagination at work. We need to ensure that the insights gained from teaching and learning practice and research are not lost in the rush to meet discipline standards through compliance.     

Examining preservice teacher content and pedagogical content knowledge needed to teach reading in elementary school

Recently, increased attention has been placed on the importance of having knowledgeable and skilled teachers in order to influence reading achievement. Yet many international reports suggest that large numbers of children are not learning to read. How can we better prepare teachers with the necessary knowledge to teach reading? The current study examined the reading instructional knowledge of elementary education preservice teachers (N = 87) from two teacher education programmes. Programme A required five reading methods courses and Programme B required two methods courses. Findings indicate that the preservice teachers presented fairly robust levels of knowledge in the areas of phonological awareness, phonics, comprehension and vocabulary. However, we found statistically significant differences in knowledge based on the programme attended and the number of courses completed. Suggestions for improving reading teacher education are provided.     

Science,technology and regional economic development

In recent years it has become clear that a firm's competitive position is significantly influenced by its capacity to innovate. This paper explores the hypothesis that if there are factors operating at the regional level which inhibit this capacity, then firms located in particular regions may suffer. One such factor might be a lack of centralized scientific services. Regions under-represented in terms of a viable scientific infrastructure may find difficulty in attrating new science-based firms, and firms already in the region may find themselves at a comparative disavantage compared with firms located elsewhere. Social forces of this kind might be playing an important part in enhancing the social and economic problems of underdeveloped regions.     

Whole-body vibration effects on the muscle activity of upper and lower body muscles during the baseball swing in recreational baseball hitters

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of whole-body vibration (WBV) on the muscle recruitment of selected upper and lower body muscles during the baseball swing. Participants were recreationally trained males (n = 16, 22 +/- 2 years, 181.4 +/- 7.4 cm, 84.7 +/- 9.0 kg), with previous baseball experience. Subjects participated in three randomized sessions on separate days, consisting of three sets of five swings offa hitting tee. Exercises (upper and lower body dynamic and static movements) with or without WBVexposure were performed between swing sets. During each swing, the gastrocnemius, biceps femoris, gluteus maximus, pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, and triceps brachii were evaluated for electromyographic (EMG) activity. EMG values were normalized to EMG measured during maximal voluntary isometric contraction. Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences in EMG activity across the three treatments. In addition, the results displayed a specific muscle recruitment order during the swing, starting with the lower body followed by the upper body muscles. This study was the first to report the recruitment order during the baseball swing. Although acute exposure to WBV did not significantly alter the muscle recruitment, these results may prove useful for practitioners looking to enhance baseball swing performance.     

Decentralising the patent system

Modern patent systems are slow, inefficient, expensive, and may result in outcomes that actively harm technological progress. This paper proposes a substantive re-think of these systems and lays a foundation upon which practical solutions can be built. Many solutions proposed in the past, such as prior-art bounties, outsourced examination, and dynamic fee setting, have gone unheeded due to the cost of administering them and the rigidity of the patent system. We explore how distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) enable these major changes by altering the way stakeholders are able to interact with the patent records system. We find that transitioning to a DLT-based patent records system can enable many previously suggested improvements to current patent systems in a flexible, scalable, and transparent manner. The case for such a transition is strengthened when jointly considering the complex but common roots of problems facing modern patent systems, rather than a balkanised set of technical solutions to address each issue independently. Noting that a DLT-based system is not a panacea, we also provide comment on the political, legal, and organisational challenges that must be overcome for such changes to be implemented at scale.     

Conditioned avoidance responses survive contingency degradation in the garden slug,Lehmannia valentiana

Joint presentations of a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) strengthen the contingency between them, whereas presentations of one stimulus without the other degrade this contingency. For example, the CS can be presented without the US either before conditioning (CS–no US and then CS–US; latent inhibition) or after conditioning (CS–US and then CS–no US; extinction). In vertebrate subjects and several invertebrate species, a time lapse usually results in a return of the conditioned response, or spontaneous recovery. However, in land mollusks, spontaneous recovery from extinction has only recently been reported, and response recovery after latent inhibition has not been reported. In two experiments, using conditioned aversion to a food odor as a measure of learning and memory retention, we observed contingency degradation via latent inhibition (Experiment 1) and extinction (Experiment 2) in the common garden slug, Lehmannia valentiana. In both situations, the contingency degradation procedure successfully attenuated conditioned responding, and delaying testing by several days resulted in recovery of the conditioned response. This suggests that the CS–US association survived the degradation manipulation and was retained over an interval of several days.     

Device for on-the-water measurement of rowing output

All those who compete in the sport of rowing have used the land rowing machine, Ergometer (commonly called the ‘erg’), manufactured by Concept II (Morrisville, Vermont, USA). Ergon is the Greek word for work, hence the Ergometer measures work. Rowers are commonly ranked according to their ‘erg score.’ The fault in this ranking is that the land Ergometer cannot account for many of the important technical aspects associated with rowing on the water. The goals of this project were to (1) develop a system for on-the-water measurement of work during rowing and then (2) demonstrate the potential of such a system to quantify performance and improve rowing technique. To achieve these goals, force was measured using strain gauges glued to the shaft of the rowing oar and angular displacement was measured using a potentiometer. The force and displacement measurements were sent to a microcontroller, which calculated the total work done in a particular stroke, as well as other parameters, and displayed the values to the rower. The parameters were used to evaluate the performance of three collegiate rowers on the water. The data were also used to plot force profiles, which were reviewed with each rower and the coach to illustrate the rowers’ habits and facilitate improving technique. One rower was ‘tutored’ with the device through five on-the-water practices, after which his force profiles and parameter values demonstrated significant improvement. The device not only provided a standard to which all rowers were compared on the water, but also supplied the rowers with important information on technical aspects of their strokes and pacing themselves.