All that glitters is not gold—Mixed early labour market outcomes of STEM graduates in Poland

The expansion of higher education resulted in a growing interest in post-graduation labour market outcomes. Two conflicting narratives are present in the debate. The first focuses on the shortage of skills and the need for further expansion of the sector and seems to pertain mostly to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The second revolves around over-education and mismatch leading to graduate unemployment or underemployment. Such concerns pertain especially to humanities and social sciences. However, in this article, we argue that the STEM versus non-STEM opposition on which this debate is premised is not adequate for analysing post-graduation labour market outcomes. We leverage a unique administrative dataset comprising monthly records on the labour market status of the entire population of recent Polish university graduates (N = 161,323) to demonstrate the heterogeneity of the STEM category in terms of labour market outcomes and the limited predictive value of the field of study for those outcomes. We argue that the category is too broad and internally diverse to be used as an overarching category, especially in research meant to inform policymaking.     

Are you in h?

A new method of assessment of scientific papers, scientists, and scientific institutions was defined. The significance of a paper was assessed by the definition of the largest (the most prestigious) set, including that paper in its h-core. The sets of papers were defined by affiliation (country, city, university, department) or by subject (branches and sub-branches of science, journal). The inclusion of a paper in the h-core of certain set(s) was used as an indicator of the significance of that paper, and of the scientific output of its author(s), of their scientific institution(s), etc. An analogous procedure was used to assess the contribution of an individual to the scientific output of his/her scientific institution, branch of science, etc.     

Acute effects of static stretching on characteristics of the isokinetic angle – torque relationship,surface electromyography,and mechanomyography

Abstract

The aims of this study were to examine the acute effects of static stretching on peak torque, work, the joint angle at peak torque, acceleration time, isokinetic range of motion, mechanomyographic amplitude, and electromyographic amplitude of the rectus femoris during maximal concentric isokinetic leg extensions at 1.04 and 5.23 rad · s^?1 in men and women. Ten women (mean ± s: age 23.0 ± 2.9 years, stature 1.61 ± 0.12 m, mass 63.3 ± 9.9 kg) and eight men (age 21.4 ± 3.0 years, stature 1.83 ± 0.11 m, mass 83.1 ± 15.2 kg) performed maximal voluntary concentric isokinetic leg extensions at 1.04 and 5.23 rad · s^?1. Following the initial isokinetic tests, the dominant leg extensors were stretched using four static stretching exercises. After the stretching, the isokinetic tests were repeated. Peak torque, acceleration time, and electromyographic amplitude decreased (P≤ 0.05) from pre- to post-stretching at 1.04 and 5.23 rad · s^?1; there were no changes (P > 0.05) in work, joint angle at peak torque, isokinetic range of motion, or mechanomyographic amplitude. These findings indicate no stretching-related changes in the area under the angle – torque curve (work), but a significant decrease in peak torque, which suggests that static stretching may cause a “flattening” of the angle – torque curve that reduces peak strength but allows for greater force production at other joint angles. These findings, in conjunction with the increased limb acceleration rates (decreased acceleration time) observed in the present study, provide tentative support for the hypothesis that static stretching alters the angle – torque relationship and/or sarcomere shortening velocity.     

Choosing the Future: Economic Preferences for Higher Education Using Discrete Choice Experiment Method

Research in Higher Education - This study illustrates how respondents’ stated choices (the discrete choice experiment method) combined with the random utility framework can be used to model...     

New seniority-independent Hirsch-type index

The following seniority-independent Hirsch-type index has been defined. A scientist has index hpd if hpd of his/her papers have at least hpd citations per decade each, and his/her other papers have less than hpd + 1 citations per decade each. In contrast with the original h-index, which steadily increases in time, hpd of a mature scientist is nearly constant over many years, and hpd of an inactive scientist slowly declines. Therefore hpd is suitable to compare the scientific output of scientists in different ages.     

DNA-like linguistic secret sharing for strategic information systems

The development of DNA cryptography has contributed to the ability of solving many computationally difficult problems by offering the capability of executing calculations in parallel. This capability is used particularly in solving NP-complete problems or implementing cryptography and steganography solutions. Biological computation models based on bonds between nitrogen bases in nucleic acid chains that make up DNA structures can also be used to develop new solutions for smart information management. This study discusses new secret splitting techniques based on mathematical linguistic methods and designed for intelligently managing secret data within hierarchical structures. These techniques make use of information coding models found in the coding of DNA sequences.     

Philosophies and ethics of the project archive

Archival research can be described as preoccupied with the ontology of data formation and collection in relation to the speaking and writing subject. From its outset, it can be located in the humanistic tradition, which the archival and historical discipline has inherited. Thus, archival research can be described as preoccupied with the ontology of data formation and collection in relation to the speaking and writing subject. At the same time, the archival researcher—the human subject—is produced as the sole source of subjective experiences, consciousness and feelings, and has become the central player in this tradition, embedded in debates over the concept of human autonomy in archival research. Archival researchers—human subjects—should be continually challenged by their own discipline, and by such arguably scientific methods, which often espouse rejecting their ethical commitments to idiosyncrasy, entanglements and the blurring of subject–object binaries. An approach that re-elevates these commitments, we argue, raises the importance of archival research as an ethically non-neutral philosophical project.     

Assessing Understanding of the Learning Cycle: The ULC

An 18-item, multiple choice, 2-tiered instrument designed to measure understanding of the learning cycle (ULC) was developed and field-tested from the learning cycle test (LCT) of Odom and Settlage (Journal of Science Teacher Education, 7, 123–142, 1996). All question sets of the LCT were modified to some degree and 5 new sets were added, resulting in the ULC. The ULC measures (a) understandings and misunderstandings of the learning cycle, (b) the learning cycle’s association with Piaget’s (Biology and knowledge theory: An essay on the relations between organic regulations and cognitive processes, 1975) theory of mental functioning, and (c) applications of the learning cycle. The resulting ULC instrument was evaluated for internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha, yielding a coefficient of .791.