Caring for Children: Some Long-term Issues

Using Felicity Fletcher-Campbell's work on 'looked-after children' (children in care) as a starting point, John Wilson considers an appropriate response to the decline of traditional support networks such as the extended family and the community in which it is situated. In his view, this should not involve separate pastoral care but a reconceptualizing of our whole picture of what the school is for. At the centre of this is the idea that, to be effective, much learning requires a personal relationship. He goes on to discuss the nature of relationships, and suggests that they must be informed by some form of clear values. The remainder of his paper discusses what it might be about a community (school) that would promote real engagement and partnership.     

A static method for obtaining a calibration factor for SRM bicycle power cranks

Many scientists and coaches are interested in mechanical power produced during cycling, and use Schoberer Rad Me\technik (SRM) bicycle power cranks to obtain this data. However, it has been expensive and difficult to calibrate SRM cranks, causing much of the collected data to be unreliable. We present a static method, derived from first principles, for obtaining a calibration factor for SRM cranks. A known mass and lever arm (chainring of a known diameter) are used to apply a known torque load to the instrument in four positions, and the output frequencies are used to calculate the calibration factor in Hz/Nm. The reproducibility of this method is ±0.01 Hz/Nm, which is acceptable for the application of the instrument, which is measurement of mechanical power application by cyclists at the crank. The method is reliable, inexpensive, and easy to set up, and will allow higher confidence in data collected using SRM power cranks. We recommend calibration of the power meter once every six months because of the measured drift of the calibration factor over time.     

Distribution of relative attention deficits on the WISC-R by age, sex, social class, and region

We examined the demographic distribution of 102 subjects with attention deficits in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) (Wechsler, 1974) standardization sample. Neither age nor occupational status was significant; males were overrepresented (3:1); and the West was overrepresented by 50%, largely due to the relatively high proportion of females in the West who appeared within the attention deficit sample (41% in West vs. 19% in the rest of the nation). Replication is encouraged.     

A comic author’s marketing techniques

What happens when an author undertakes a supplementary marketing campaign to university librarians? S. S. Hanna, the author of a comic account of finding a publisher, added to the efforts of the Iowa State University Press some communications of his own. The details of his campaign, and some of its results, are offered.