Tracing discursive processes of shared knowledge construction in a technology-enhanced higher education setting

This study focused on combining both the group- and individual-level analyses in studying a collaborative activity in technology-enhanced interactions in a higher education setting. The aim was to make visible, with empirical examples, the quality of the students' web-based discussions and trace the route for shared understanding. By quantifying various communicative functions, the analysis provided general knowledge on the quality and purpose of the discussion in the group and highlighted the different functional positions each student had within the group. However, only a detailed interpretative analysis of the relationships between specific thematic contents, communicative functions, and the collaborative features of the discussion, in the temporal frame, made it possible to trace and gain a deeper understanding of the true acts of collaboration. It also highlighted the individual participants' different participatory and discursive positions in the different phases of the task. Over the study, it became evident that any attempts to define a collaborative activity from either the group's or individual's perspective would only result in a partial interpretation of the collaborative enterprise.     

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of a Novel Display Case Design: Case Study of the Renovated Anne Frank House

ABSTRACT

Many museums are housed in historic buildings, sometimes the building itself is part of the museum collection. Creating a stable environment by providing a nearly constant temperature and relative humidity at correct levels decreases the risk of object degradation. Maintaining this steady indoor environment, however, increases energy consumption and risks to the historic building. Museum display cases offer a solution to the mitigation of risks to which valuable objects may be subjected by providing an extra layer of protection to indoor climate fluctuations. The Anne Frank House is a historic house museum located in Amsterdam. The museum has undergone several renovations in the last years to deal with an increase in the number of visitors to over 1.2 million a year. The original diaries and other documents of Anne Frank are permanently on display in the Anne Frank House. With the recent refurbishment the possibility arose to design a new state-of-the-art display case. This study presents the results of the experimental research related to the design, performed in-situ. The temperature and relative humidity in the new exhibition space and inside the new display cases were monitored to gain insight into the hygrothermal behavior of these controlled environments. A complementary numerical study was performed to investigate effects of dynamic climate control of the exhibition gallery and climate conditions in the display case under various circumstances. Four main conclusions are presented in this paper. The investigated display case design is able to provide a stable relative humidity environment by means of silica gel, while using an active box-in-box climate control system to create stable temperature conditions. The inner case temperature depends on the temperature supplied by the display case air handling unit. Protocols must be in place in case of malfunction or failure of the climate control system of the display case. The air handling unit of the case needs to be shut off to create a passive environment for the objects on display until necessary actions are taken. Exhibition gallery set points can be less stringent when susceptible museum objects are on display in the display case. The environments are separated and provide an opportunity for energy saving set point strategies. The last conclusion drawn is that the numerical study provides valuable insight into imposing dynamic control of set points for temperature and relative humidity in the exhibition gallery and the effect on the display case environment.     

Gendered inequalities in competitive grant funding: an overlooked dimension of gendered power relations in academia

ABSTRACT

Research grant funding influences the organisation of academic work and academic careers. We problematise general approaches to gender bias in research grant funding and argue that it fails to include the wider structures of inequality and the unequal gendered power relations in academia. Approaching the subject with gender budgeting we challenge assumed gender-neutral practices. The objective is to illuminate how the gendered funding system and (the previous and subsequent) gendered structures of academia are maintained. The whole grants scheme is assessed, drawing on statistical data collected on the whole population of a medium-size, comprehensive research and educational institution in Iceland, and two types of competitive grants. The data is measured against the pool of applicants and comparisons within and between fields and ranks are made. By including the structures of inequality and the gendered power relations, the results show how the funding system is biased not only in favour of men, but towards the male-dominated and culturally masculine positions and fields. This approach illustrates the need to address the whole academic system in order to challenge the norms that maintain and reproduce gender inequalities.     

Initial Validity and Reliability of the Portuguese Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion 6-20 Scale

ABSTRACT

The aims of this study were to perform the cross-cultural adaptation of the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) 6–20 Scale to Brazilian Portuguese language and to start testing its validity and reliability. After performing the cross-cultural adaptation of the Scale, concurrent and discriminative validity, and reliability were determined on a treadmill in young (18–30 years) and older adult women (60–75 years). Considering young and older adult women, RPE presented high and moderate positive correlation with heart rate and high and low positive correlation with oxygen consumption, respectively. Older adult women presented RPE (11 ± 2) significantly higher than young ones (8 ± 1) exercising at the same absolute intensity. Intraclass coefficient correlation was excellent for RPE to young and older adult women. The Scale presented concurrent validity only to young adult women, whereas it presented discriminative validity between such groups of women. Moreover, the scale is reliable to young and older adult women.     

A cost/effectiveness evaluation of lay therapy treatment for child abusing and high risk parents

This longitudinal investigation tested the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of a lay therapy treatment program in comparison with a standard social work treatment approach. A pretest-extended posttest research design was used to follow a group of child abusing and high risk mothers who received lay therapy (N = 27) and a randomized control group of similar clients (N = 28) over a 12-month period. Outcome data were obtained through interview and direct observation of the parents and children at six-month intervals. A variety of standardized instruments were used including Cattell's 16 Personality Factor Test, Coopersmith's Self-Opinion Form, and the Nurturance and Parent Observation Scales, adapted from Baumrind. Treatment success was defined as progression toward the mean scores of a matched comparison group (N = 21) obtained from the general population of the community during the pretest. The results indicated a trend toward improvement on the outcome measures for both treatment groups. The group receiving lay therapy treatment improved only slightly more than the group receiving standard treatment; however, there was also significantly less attrition with the lay therapy group. Analysis of time budget study data indicated that the lay therapists spent an average of 17.46 hours per month with each of their clients thus permitting the social workers to spend considerably less time with lay therapy clients. Analysis of the direct costs of the programs, based on time budget information, indicated that the lay therapy treatment involved more direct client contact than the standard treatment approach and was also substantially more costly. The high cost of the program was attributed to low caseloads and redundancy in supervision. This study presents several practical program and research recommendations.     

A comparison of European American and Puerto Rican parents’ goals and expectations about the socialization and education of pre‐school children

This article identifies similarities and differences between Head Start parents of European American and Puerto Rican backgrounds regarding their socialization goals and expectations concerning the early educational experiences of their pre‐school children. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 60 parents (30 European American and 30 Puerto Rican) in their homes. The results show that both groups of parents valued pro‐social skills, school readiness skills, and skills related to good behaviour. Both sets of parents considered creative and physical skills to be least important. However, differences between groups were found regarding the relative importance of skills in the different developmental domains. The findings suggest that to maximize the effects of early childhood programmes and interventions it is important that educators and policy makers recognize and respond to differences in parents’ goals and expectations.     

Insect detectives

Insects are increasingly being used to trace absconding murderers. A fascinating branch of insect science (entomology)—forensic entomology—is introduced in this article.