The Spotification of public service media

This article investigates contemporary cultural policy reforms enabled by paid digital media distribution services, taking the case of the integration of Spotify into the Swedish public media system. Specifically, it reflects on the conflicts arising over the prioritization of digital distribution over cultural preservation, during the gradual substitution of the Spotify digital services for the services provided by the traditional material media archive, the Grammofonarkivet. It considers the factors influencing changes in the Swedish cultural policy environment and the nature of the complaints and human rights claims made by employees of the Grammofonarkivet to UNESCO regarding its structural transformation. It also postulates a “Spotification” model of public service media emerging in Sweden but potentially affecting other countries with public media systems served by traditional media archives.     

A Model for Expanding Active Learning Regionally: The Greater Upstate New York Inquiry-Based Learning Consortium

What began as a small group of professors gathering to discuss implementation of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) in our classes has developed into a strong regional community of practice. Through a generous grant and a lot of hard work, we created the Greater Upstate New York IBL consortium with a mission to create, grow, and maintain a community of instructors across the region. We describe how the consortium formed organically and the way that it operates. We provide suggestions for creating your own regional community of practice for supporting the adoption and enhancement of active learning techniques.     

Perceived life stress and anxiety correlate with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms in runners

Numerous causes of exercise-related gastrointestinal (GI) distress exist but scarce research has evaluated potential psychological causes. Runners (74 men, 76 women) prospectively recorded running duration, intensity (Rating of Perceived Exertion [RPE]), and GI symptoms for 30 days. Six GI symptoms were rated on a 0–10 scale. The percentage of runs over 30 days that participants reported at least one upper, lower, or any GI symptom ≥3 was calculated. After 30 days, participants completed a questionnaire on GI distress triggers (demographics, anthropometrics, experience, analgesic use, antibiotic use, probiotic consumption, fluid/food intake, stress, anxiety). Stress and anxiety were measured via the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The median percentage of runs that participants experienced at least one GI symptom ≥3 was 45.6% (interquartile range [IQR], 16.6–67.3%). Age and running experience negatively correlated with GI distress occurrence (rho = ?0.17 to ?0.34; p < 0.05). Run RPE, probiotic food consumption, PSS scores, and BAI scores positively correlated with GI distress occurrence (rho = 0.18 to 0.36; p < 0.05). Associations between GI distress, stress and anxiety remained significant after adjustment for covariates, except for lower GI symptoms. This study suggests that stress and anxiety contribute to running-related GI distress.     

Curriculum Transformation in a Post-Apartheid South African University: The Arts Faculty,Tshwane University of Technology

During the apartheid rule in South Africa, established universities and other tertiary institutions were forcibly segregated to serve particular racial groups. Some critics have stated that the apartheid regime in South Africa supported an exclusively Western model of education, and that university education was based on a mono-cultural approach with bias towards Western values and expectations. With the demise of apartheid in 1994, the Government of National Unity (GNU) merged the fragmented hodgepodge of segregated tertiary institutions into 23 (now 26) public universities (26 since in 2004), Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) being one. There has been a paradigm shift to accommodate a new form of education which is not only supposed to address the imbalances of the past but be of relevance to the twenty-first-century knowledge economy. The transformation of the education sector is supposed to boost the Africanisation (African-oriented content) of the syllabus, foregrounding the cultural practices and values of the African people. In TUT the arts faculty faced challenges of rationalisation, and the faculty management is poised to effect the paradigm shift. The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the African-oriented content concept has been realised in the arts curriculum of Tshwane University of Technology TUT.     

The impact of attendance on first-year study success in problem-based learning

The literature on first-year study success has identified a host of factors that may affect a student’s chances of succeeding, ranging from personal circumstances to educational environment. One of the factors that often emerges in this context is (non-)attendance of classes, lectures and tutorials. Intuitively, one would expect this to be all the more important in programmes that employ a student-centred and interactive approach to learning, such as problem-based learning. Interestingly, there is little dedicated research that looks into the importance of (non-)attendance in such a learning environment. This article addresses this gap in the literature by looking at the effect of (non-)attendance on the study success of three cohorts of Maastricht University’s Bachelor in European Studies (annual intake of 325–350 students). Controlling for a range of factors, we find that attendance matters for several measures of study success and also for the committed and participating student.     

Kieferchirurgische Operationsplanung mit Hilfe von Techniken der virtuellen Realit?t

Für ein vollst?ndig computergestütztes Planungssystem zum Zwecke der kieferchirurgischen Operationsplanung ist die Bereitstellung von virtuellen Werkzeugen für den Chirurgen eine grundlegende Voraussetzung. Ausgehend von den Volumendaten mit Sch?del- und Kieferknochen des Patienten erm?glicht ein einfaches Interface unter Verwendung einer geeigneten Visualisierung und haptischer Eingabeger?te die interaktive Definition und Manipulation einzelner virtueller Knochensegmente. Wir haben moderne kraftrückgekoppelte Ger?te aus dem Niedrigpreisbereich eingebunden und auf ihre F?higkeit untersucht, das dreidimensionale Verst?ndnis im Planungsproze?durch Anlehnung an die Vorg?nge bei der chirurgischen Prozedur zu erh?hen. Durch diese Eingabeger?te ist es m?glich, die Knochensegmentierung für eine Osteotomie des Unterkiefers intuitiver und schneller durchzuführen. Die definierten Teilvolumina ergeben zusammen mit ihrer r?umlichen Neuanordnung auf Grundlage einer kephalometrischen Analyse einen Operationsplan. Nach erfolgter Planung werden die Planungsergebnisse in den Operationssaal übertragen. Die intraoperativen Techniken beinhalten die Visualisierung der Planungsergebnisse, die Steuerung der Anwendung über Sprache und die Bestimmung der Patientenposition mittels eines elektromagnetischen 3D-Trackingsystems.