Living while being alive: education and learning in the Treatment Action Campaign

This paper is based on research into the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa. The research investigated whether, through being active members of this social movement, HIV‐positive activists learn things they could not otherwise learn about their status and the epidemic, and how they put such knowledge to use. We show how activists develop a critical understanding of the underlying causes of their ill health and its link to economic poverty and global politics. The paper concludes by suggesting that adult educators can assume direct responsibility for poverty reduction by working in and with social movements.     

Are News Media Substitutes? Gratifications,Contents, and Uses

Internet is generally expected to have one of two effects on traditional news media: It displaces them, or it forces them into distinct market niches. A shared assumption underlying both expectations is that news media displacement, or substitution, is a function of the degree to which news media are functional equivalents. This article explores this assumption from a niche theoretical perspective, using survey data from 2 student samples as illustrative cases. Findings indicate that, for these students, news media substitution does not depend on functional equivalence of media in providing gratifications and gratification opportunities or types of content. Post hoc analyses suggest instead that, for this particular audience, media use depends on habit and media accessibility. Follow-up studies should further investigate these relations for representative samples.     

Division,result and score margin alter the physical and technical performance of elite wheelchair tennis players

ABSTRACT

This study determined the physical and technical demands of elite wheelchair tennis (WT) match-play, how the demands differed between divisions (Men, Women, Quad) and the effect that set result and score margin had on these demands. Seventeen WT players were monitored during a singles competition. Physical measures of performance were analysed using an indoor tracking system and inertial measurement units. Technical measures of performance were examined using video analysis. Physical measures of performance differed by division (Men > Women > Quad) for most parameters. Rallies were longer during Men’s (P = 0.027) and Women’s (P = 0.004) matches compared to Quad’s and fewer shots were hit off 2 bounces in Men’s matches compared to Women’s and Quad’s (P ≤ 0.026). High-speed activity (HSA) increased during losing sets (P = 0.043). Most physical measures of performance increased by moderate to large effects during sets with a small score margin (≤3 games differential). Mean speed and HSA were similar during losing sets, regardless of margin, but decreased (large effects) when winning by a large margin. This study demonstrated the physical and technical demands that elite WT players need to be prepared for and how situational factors can influence these demands.     

Metadata Collaboration between the Swiss National Library and Research Institutions in the Field of Swiss Historiography

Abstract

This article presents examples of metadata collaborations between the Swiss National Library (NL) and research institutions in the field of Swiss historiography. The NL publishes the Bibliography on Swiss History (BSH). In order to meet the demands of its research community, the NL has improved the accessibility and interoperability of the BSH database. Moreover, the BSH takes part in metadata projects such as Metagrid, a web service linking different historical databases. Other metadata collaborations with partners in the historical field such as the Law Sources Foundation (LSF) will position the BSH as an indispensable literature hub for publications on Swiss history.     

Four and twenty blackbirds: how transcoding ability mediates the relationship between visuospatial working memory and math in a language with inversion

Writing down spoken number words (transcoding) is an ability that is predictive of math performance and related to working memory ability. We analysed these relationships in a large sample of over 25,000 children, from kindergarten to the end of primary school, who solved transcoding items with a computer adaptive system. Furthermore, we investigated the nature of transcoding difficulty of over 300 two- and three-digit numbers. All data come from a Dutch sample, meaning that transcoding is complicated by decade-unit inversion: 24 is pronounced as ‘four-and-twenty’. Omission to invert the digits of a spoken number when writing it down is an inversion error: the incidence of these declined but did not disappear in later elementary school. Furthermore, transcoding ability mediated the relationship between visuospatial working memory and mathematics performance, a strong effect that declined with age. Inversion error making mediated this same relationship in an inverted U-shaped curve, peaking around grade 2 (8 years old). At the item level, structural characteristics related to inversion and irregular pronunciation of units and decades explained a large part of the variance in item difficulty. We conclude that number transcoding is an important ability to develop mathematical proficiency and discuss the implications of these findings.     

When easy comes hard: the development of adaptive strategy selection

Can children learn to select the right strategy for a given problem? In one experiment, 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds (N = 50), 11‐ to 12‐year‐olds (N = 50), and adults (N = 50) made probabilistic inferences. Participants encountered environments favoring either an information‐intensive strategy that integrates all available information or an information‐frugal strategy that relies only on the most valid pieces of information. Nine‐ to 10‐year‐olds but not older children or adults had more difficulties learning to select an information‐frugal strategy than an information‐intensive strategy. This counterintuitive finding is explained by children’s less developed ability to selectively attend to relevant information, an ability that seems to develop during late childhood. The results suggest that whether a strategy can be considered “easy” depends on the development of specific cognitive abilities.     

Fine mapping of multiple interacting quantitative trait loci using combined linkage disequilibrium and linkage information

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) and their additive, dominance and epistatic effects play a critical role in complex trait variation. It is often infeasible to detect multiple interacting QTL due to main effects often being confounded by interaction effects. Positioning interacting QTL within a small region is even more difficult. We present a variance component approach nested in an empirical Bayesian method, which simultaneously takes into account additive, dominance and epistatic effects due to multiple interacting QTL. The covariance structure used in the variance component approach is based on combined linkage disequilibrium and linkage (LDL) information. In a simulation study where there are complex epistatic interactions between QTL, it is possible to simultaneously fine map interacting QTL using the proposed approach. The present method combined with LDL information can efficiently detect QTL and their dominance and epistatic effects, making it possible to simultaneously fine map main and epistatic QTL.