The ‘no problem’ Discourse model: Exploring an alternative way of researching student learning

In this paper we explore an alternative way of characterising the student learning experience, drawing on sociocultural perspectives on learning. Here, learning is not merely the application of an approach to a cognitive task, but a social process of identity formation. In particular, we draw on Gee's concept of Discourse models to identify the implicit theories students use to make sense of their learning and assessment experiences. From interviews with third year engineering students, we identified what we termed the ‘no problem Discourse model’, in which students construct an upbeat portrayal of their experience of a course, despite experiencing crises induced by assessment events. Through a process of justification the seriousness of the crisis is denied. This Discourse model appears to have its roots in a popular Discourse of self-actualization. There was evidence of co-construction of this model during the student learning interviews. This suggests implications for the roles that teachers can play in either maintaining or challenging the Discourse models that are adopted by students.     

Transformative innovation in peri-urban Asia

This paper draws on two case studies from India and China to discuss how and why rapidly urbanizing contexts are particularly challenging for transformative innovation but are also critical sustainability frontiers and learning environments. We argue that lack of understanding and policy engagement with peri-urbanization in its current form is leading to increasing exclusion and unrealized potential to support multiple sustainable urban development goals. Peri-urbanization is often characterized by the neoliberal reordering of space and a co-option of environmental agendas by powerful urban elites. Changing land-use, resource extraction, pollution and livelihood transitions drive rapid changes in interactions between socio-technical and social-ecological systems, and produce complex feedbacks across the rural–urban continuum. These contexts also present characteristic governance challenges as a result of jurisdictional ambiguity, transitioning formal and informal institutional arrangements, heterogeneous and sometimes transient communities, shifts in decision making to distant authorities and the rapid growth of informal market-based arrangements with little incentive for environmental management. These unique features of peri-urbanization may reinforce a lack of inclusion and hinder experimentation, but they can also present valuable opportunities for transformative innovation. This innovation is unlikely to follow the lines of niche management and upscaling but rather should take advantage of peri-urban dynamics. There are possibilities to build new alliances in order to renegotiate governance structures across the rural–urban continuum, to reframe urban sustainability debates and to reconfigure socio-technical and social-ecological systems interactions.     

The Effect of Whole-Body Vibration on Lower-Body Resistance Detraining in College-Age Women

Purpose: This study explored the effect of whole-body vibration (WBV) using accelerations of 2.56 g to 7.68 g on lower-body detraining. Methods: All participants (N = 20) were trained using a lower-body resistance-training program for 30 min twice per week from Week 0 to Week 6. At the end of the program, they were randomly assigned to a control group that performed no further training or a WBV group that performed a progressive static WBV program. Data for the 5-repetition-maximum (5RM) squat and extensors and flexors of the knee and ankle were collected at Weeks 0, 6, 8, 10, and 12 for all participants. Results: Two-way (condition vs. time) analysis of variance revealed that although the WBV group maintained strength in the 5RM from Week 6 through Week 8 and the control group had a lower 5RM in Week 8 from Week 6, no differences in the 5RM squat existed between the groups at Week 8. Two-way factorial multivariate analysis of variance revealed no differences between the groups at any of the time for torque of knee flexion, dorsiflexion, or plantar flexion. Conclusion: Static WBV of 2.56 g to 7.68 g did not attenuate detraining of the flexors and extensors of the knee and ankle.     

The impact of the hospital library on clinical decision making: the Rochester study.

In these times of economic constraint, libraries of all types are under increasing pressure to evaluate their services. Hospital libraries face a particular challenge because the goals of the health care system demand that the relevance of library services to patient care be determined. The hospital librarians in Rochester, New York, responded to this challenge by developing a research project that explored the impact of library services on clinical decision making. A systematically sampled group of 448 physicians in the Rochester area agreed to participate in the study between September 1990 and March 1991. The physicians were asked to request some information related to a current clinical case and then to evaluate its impact on the care of their patients. Senior medical staff or administrators acted as study facilitators in each of the fifteen participating hospitals. As a result of the information provided by the library, 80% of the 208 physicians who returned their questionnaires said that they probably or definitely handled some aspect of patient care differently than they would have handled it otherwise. Changes in the following specific aspects of care were reported by the physicians: diagnosis (29%), choice of tests (51%), choice of drugs (45%), reduced length of hospital stay (19%), and advice given to the patient (72%). Physicians also said that the information provided by the library contributed to their ability to avoid the following: hospital admission (12%), patient mortality (19%), hospital-acquired infection (8%), surgery (21%), and additional tests or procedures (49%). The physicians rated the information provided by the library more highly than that provided by other information sources such as diagnostic imaging, lab tests, and discussions with colleagues. In addition to confirming earlier research findings that information provided by hospital libraries is perceived by physicians as having a significant impact on clinical decision making, the results increase our store of scientific knowledge about the specific nature and extent of the impact of information provided by the hospital library.     

The effect of a flexed elbow on bowling speed in cricket

The laws of bowling in cricket state 'a ball is fairly delivered in respect of the arm if, once the bowler's arm has reached the level of the shoulder in the delivery swing, the elbow joint is not straightened partially or completely from that point until the ball has left the hand'. Recently two prominent bowlers, under suspicion for transgressing this law, suggested that they are not 'throwing' but due to an elbow deformity are forced to bowl with a bent bowling arm. This study examined whether such bowlers can produce an additional contribution to wrist/ball release speed by internal rotation of the upper arm. The kinematics of a bowling arm were calculated using a simple two-link model (upper arm and forearm). Using reported internal rotation speeds of the upper arm from baseball and waterpolo, and bowling arm kinematics from cricket, the change in wrist speed was calculated as a function of effective arm length, and wrist distance from the internal rotation axis. A significant increase in wrist speed was noted. This suggests that bowlers who can maintain a fixed elbow flexion during delivery can produce distinctly greater wrist/ball speeds by using upper arm internal rotation.