Futures for Children's Literature: Evolution or radical break?

As electronic media increasingly dominate narratives for children, not merely the form or the content but the very nature of narrative is changing. Future narratives for the 'computer reader', using the Internet and multimedia may seem to be no more nor less than individual, unassessable chaos. But these readers still need to subsist in a linear educational system and teachers will have to negotiate the profound intellectual shift that the mediation between old and new narratives implies. At the most basic level this will involve revising what we mean to be 'literate' and to be a 'good reader'.     

Caution: Classroom under observation

In this article, it is argued that there are serious difficulties in observing someone else teach for the purpose of providing evaluation or corrective feedback on their teaching. The article reports on responses from a group of teacher educators who watched a videotaped classroom lesson. Their written critiques were surprisingly contradictory, so much so as to call into question the reliability of lesson critiques. It is suggested that, where observation and critique of classroom teaching are used, summative judgements be avoided, and that a major goal of observations be to stimulate debate about different teaching styles and individual and cooperative reflection. Most importantly, observers must acknowledge the variety of intentions and perspectives of classroom teachers.     

Phonological skills and comprehension failure: A test of the phonological processing deficit hypothesis

Shankweiler and colleagues argue that text comprehensionproblems in young children arise from phonological processingdifficulties. Their work has focused on children with poor wordreading ability. We investigated this hypothesis for children whoexperience comprehension difficulties in the presence of age-appropriate word reading skills. We found that good and poorcomprehenders performed comparably on various measures ofphonological processing and differed on a task that made greaterdemands on working memory, Bradley and Bryant's odd-word-outtask. In a final study, hierarchical regression analyses supportedthis distinction: the odd-word-out task was a strong predictor ofreading comprehension performance even after IQ, vocabulary and single word reading had been controlled for, but a lessmemory-dependent phonological task was not. These studiessupport previous work which indicates that poor comprehenders'problems arise from higher-level processing difficulties.     

Investigating the causes of reading comprehension failure: The comprehension-age match design

The reading-level (or reading-age) match design has become a widely-used tool for investigating the possible direction of the relation between particular skills and word reading ability: Cause or consequence. This paper outlines an analogous method for identifying candidate causes of reading comprehension failure, the `comprehension-age match design' and discusses the strengths and limitations of this design.     

Place and Space in the Design of New Learning Environments

The development of online and virtual teaching and learning environments to augment formal face-to-face environments raises questions about the way the new communication and information technologies (CITs) are being incorporated into the on-campus environment. More importantly, this development challenges the meaning of the on-campus student learning experience. The new CITs require institutions, teachers and researchers to reconsider the relationship of the physical setting to the student learning experience. This paper highlights examples of recent developments of new learning environments which have been enhanced by the contribution of educational developers at several Australian universities. It also proposes a set of pedagogically informed principles to guide the development of on-campus teaching and learning environments which may feature the use of CITs.     

Effective self-regulation of goal attainment

Self-regulatory strategies of goal setting and goal striving are analyzed in three experiments. Experiment 1 uses fantasy realization theory (Oettingen, in: J. Brandstätter, R.M. Lerner (Eds.), Action and Self Development: Theory and Research through the Life Span, Sage Publications Inc, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1999, pp. 315–342) to analyze the self-regulatory processes of turning free fantasies about a desired future into binding goals. School children 8–12 years of age who had to mentally elaborate a desired academic future as well as present reality standing in its way, formed stronger goal commitments than participants solely indulging in the desired future or merely dwelling on present reality (Experiment 1). Effective implementation of set goals is addressed in the second and third experiments (Gollwitzer, Am. Psychol. 54 (1999) 493–503). Adolescents who had to furnish a set educational goal with relevant implementation intentions (specifying where, when, and how they would start goal pursuit) were comparatively more successful in meeting the goal (Experiment 2). Linking anticipated situations with goal-directed behaviors (i.e., if–then plans) rather than the mere thinking about good opportunities to act makes implementation intentions facilitate action initiation (Experiment 3).     

Elektronische Vertr?ge und ihre verbindliche Aushandlung Ein formales Modell für verbindliche Telekooperation

Dieser Artikel erarbeitet eine formale Bestimmung der Begriffe “elektronischer Vertrag”, seine “Ziele”, “Verpflichtungen” und seine “verbindliche Aushandlungsphase”. Die hier erarbeiteten Begriffe dienen erstens der Spezifikation elektronischer Vertr?ge und zweitens der Verifikation lokaler Implementationen von elektronischen Vertragskooperationen. Besonders behandelt werden die lokale Darstellungen von Vertr?gen und ihre vermittelnde Kommunikation, mehrfache sowie sich überlappende Durchl?ufe durch eine verbindliche Phase und die Rolle von Beweismitteln. Die Begriffe beruhen auf der Theorie der formalen Sprachen bzw. der Automaten. Sie werden an einem einfachen Beispiel einer bilateralen Auftragskooperation demonstriert.     

Entwurf und Implementierung eines SQL-normkonformen Datenbankkatalogs für ein relationales Datenbankmanagementsystem

Bei relationalen Datenbanksystemen haben sich de-jure-Normen für SQL stetig weiterentwickelt; mit diesen Normen wird es einfacher, portable Datenbankanwendungen zu entwickeln. Die SQL-Norm ruht auf zwei S?ulen, zum einen auf der Datenbanksprache SQL, zum anderen auf einer Vorgabe eines Datenbankkatalogs, welcher die gespeicherten Daten beschreiben soll. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird derjenige Teilbereich des Datenbankkatalogs der aktuellen SQL99-Norm dargestellt, der bereits in der SQL92-Norm (ISO/IEC 9075:1992 bzw. DIN 66315) definiert ist und die klassischen (nicht objektrelationalen) Elemente einer relationalen Datenbank beschreibt. In dieser Darstellung nimmt der zweischichtige Spezifikationsansatz (Informationsschema, Definitionsschema) einigen Raum ein; mit seiner Hilfe weist SQL einen eleganten Weg, auf dem existierende Datenbanksysteme normkonforme Datenbankkataloge bereitstellen k?nnen. Anhand des Datenbankmanagementsystems DB2 wird anschlie?end untersucht, wie ein normkonformer Datenbankkatalog (das sogenannte Informationsschema) „oberhalb” des verfügbaren DB2-Katalogs realisiert werden kann, d. h. wie die vom Informationsschema geforderten Sichten auf DB2-Katalogtabellen abgebildet werden k?nnen. Auf generelle Schwierigkeiten und M?glichkeiten einer solchen Abbildung (ein- oder zweistufig) wird ebenso eingegangen wie auf Probleme, die sich speziell bei DB2 ergeben. In einer prototypischen Realisierung konnte das Informationsschema bis auf wenige Einschr?nkungen komplett umgesetzt werden. Damit wurde die Machbarkeit normkonformer Kataloge nachgewiesen. In heute verfügbaren DBMS-Produkten sind Datenbankkataloge in dieser konsequent normkonformen Gestalt leider immer noch nicht anzutreffen.     

新兴的数字化革命:打造图书馆员的领导力

香港大学图书馆领导研修班是为现任和未来图书馆领导而设的密集式培训班,预计参加者主要为现任或未来的馆长或助理馆长.研修班将采用英语作为主要讲授语言另辅以部分中文翻译,采取让学员透过一系列主题讲学、个案研究、小组活动及互动讨论的方式向其它馆员和资讯业专家学习.     

Blood flow restriction in human skeletal muscle during rest periods after high-load resistance training down-regulates miR-206 and induces Pax7

BackgroudBlood flow restriction (BFR) with low-intensity resistance training has been shown to result in hypertrophy of skeletal muscle. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that BFR during the rest periods between acute, high-intensity resistance exercise sessions (70% of 1 repetition maximum, 7 sets with 10 repetitions) enhances the effects of the resistance training.MethodsA total of 7 healthy young men performed squats, and between sets BFR was carried out on one leg while the other leg served as a control. Because BFR was applied during rest periods, even severe occlusion pressure (approximately 230 mmHg), which almost completely blocked blood flow, was well-tolerated by the participants. Five muscle-specific microRNAs were measured from the biopsy samples, which were taken 2 h after the acute training.ResultsDoppler data showed that the pattern of blood flow recovery changed significantly between the first and last BFR. microRNA-206 levels significantly decreased in the BFR leg compared to the control. The mRNA levels of RAC-β serine/threonine-protein kinase v22, nuclear respiratory factor 1, vascular endothelial growth factor, lupus Ku autoantigen protein p70 genes (p < 0.05), and paired box 7 (p < 0.01) increased in the BFR leg. The protein levels of paired box 7, nuclear respiratory factor 1, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α did not differ between the BFR leg and the control leg.ConclusionBFR, during the rest periods of high-load resistance training, could lead to mRNA elevation of those proteins that regulate angiogenesis, mitochondrial biogenesis, and muscle hypertrophy and repair. However, BFR also can cause DNA damage, judging from the increase in mRNA levels of lupus Ku autoantigen protein p70.