Stories of reading: Inside and outside the texts of portfolios

This essay employs Barbara Herrnstein Smith's notion of “contingencies of value,” the idea that evaluations of text vary because our readings take place in specific contexts and are shaped by cultural and historical exigencies. In this study, we apply this notion to the reading of student texts in a college composition portfolio assessment. Through an analysis of taped teacher discussions of students' writing and an examination of student responses to the grading process, we conclude that in every reading of a text (but especially in the reading of the multiple texts of a portfolio) readers posit an “implied author.” That is, based on their reading of a single text or portfolio, teacher-readers construct a persona that represents the author, and this projection can strongly influence the reader's evaluation of student work. Group discussions of portfolios allow teachers to expose and explore the value-laden nature of these judgments.     

Effects of article retraction on citation and practice in medicine.

At times, there are reasons for authors to make a formal statement of retraction of work they publish in biomedical journals. This study examines 235 retracted articles and looks at the reasons for these retractions and citations to the articles subsequent to retraction. The primary reasons for retraction are error of various kinds (such as problems with method or sample, including contamination of samples) and misconduct. The 235 articles are cited a total of 2,034 times after retraction. This set of citations can be divided into two groups: citations that appear in journals included in the Abridged Index Medicus and those that appear in other journals included in MEDLINE. While most of the citations in these two groups of journals can be categorized as "implicitly positive," 275 make explicitly positive mention of retracted articles. The implications for continued citation for biomedical research and clinical practice are discussed.     

An ethnographic field study of the influence of social interactions during the school day for children diagnosed with ADHD

The aim of this ethnographic field study was to investigate the influence of school-day social interactions on the well-being and social inclusion of children diagnosed with ADHD. The empirical data consisted of participant observations and informal interviews over a three-month period at a Danish primary school. Two ADHD-diagnosed 11-year-old boys in the fourth and fifth grades were followed on an alternating basis. The field notes were analysed using a qualitative content analysis that incorporated Etienne Wenger’s concepts of social identity and participation. The results revealed that the effects of school-day social interactions are complex and situation dependent. Medication, friendships and relationships with teachers and other adults strongly influence how children diagnosed with ADHD participate in social interactions and, consequently, how they thrive. We argue that it is important to emphasise the mediation of these children’s participation in the classroom community throughout an entire school day to ensure their social inclusion and well-being.     

Naturalistic Language Recordings Reveal “Hypervocal” Infants at High Familial Risk for Autism

Children's early language environments are related to later development. Little is known about this association in siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who often experience language delays or have ASD. Fifty‐nine 9‐month‐old infants at high or low familial risk for ASD contributed full‐day in‐home language recordings. High‐risk infants produced more vocalizations than low‐risk peers; conversational turns and adult words did not differ by group. Vocalization differences were driven by a subgroup of “hypervocal” infants. Despite more vocalizations overall, these infants engaged in less social babbling during a standardized clinic assessment, and they experienced fewer conversational turns relative to their rate of vocalizations. Two ways in which these individual and environmental differences may relate to subsequent development are discussed.     

High-frequency resistance training does not promote greater muscular adaptations compared to low frequencies in young untrained men

The aim of the study was to compare the effect of resistance training (RT) frequencies of five times (RT5), thrice- (RT3) or twice- (RT2) weekly in muscle strength and hypertrophy in young men. Were used a within-subjects design in which 20 participants had one leg randomly assigned to RT5 and the other to RT3 or to RT2. 1?RM and muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) were assessed at baseline, after four (W4) and eight (W8) RT weeks. RT5 resulted in greater total training volume (TTV) than RT3 and RT2 (P?=?.001). 1?RM increased similarly between protocols at W4 (RT5: 55?±?9?Kg, effect size (ES): 1.18; RT3: 51?±?11?Kg, ES: 0.80; RT2: 54?±?7?Kg, ES: 1.13; P?P?2, ES: 0.54; RT3: 22.0?±?4.6?cm², ES: 0.19; RT2: ES: 0.25; 23.8?±?3.8?cm²; P?2; ES: 0.69; RT3: 23.6?±?4.2?cm², ES: 0.58; RT2: 25.5?±?3.7?cm²; ES: 0.70; P?2; RT3: 21.2?±?4.0?cm²; RT2: 22.9?±?3.8?cm²). Performing RT5, RT3 and RT2 a week result in similar muscle strength increase and hypertrophy, despite higher TTV for RT5.     

Improved similarity-based modeling for the classification of rotating-machine failures

Similarity-based modeling (SBM) is a technique whereby the normal operation of a system is modeled in order to detect faults by analyzing their similarity to the normal system states. First proposed around two decades ago, SBM has been successfully used for fault detection in varied systems. In spite of this success, there is not much study performed in the literature regarding its design, that encompasses both similarity metrics and model training. This work aims at contributing with an in-depth study of SBM for fault detection considering these two design aspects. This is done in the context of proposing a novel system to identify rotating-machinery faults based on SBM, that is employed either as a standalone classifier or to generate features for a random forest classifier. New approaches for training the model and new similarity metrics are investigated. Experimental results are shown for the recently developed Machinery Fault Database (MaFaulDa) that has an extensive set of sequences and fault types, and for the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) bearing database. Results for both databases indicate that the proposed techniques increase the generalization power of the similarity model and of the associated classifier, achieving accuracies of 98.5% on MaFaulDa and 98.9% on CWRU database.     

Faster V̇O2 kinetics after priming exercises of different duration but same fatigue

This study compared the responses of two priming exercises of similar fatigue on the adjustment of the oxygen uptake time constant (τV?O₂) in cycling. Ten healthy young adults (25 ± 3 yr) performed: three step transitions from a 20-W baseline to the power output (PO) below the gas exchange threshold (MOD, MOD_PRE); a 3-min bout (P_3MIN) at 90% of peak PO (PO_peak), followed by MOD (MOD_3MIN); and a 6-min bout (P_6MIN) at 80% of PO_peak, followed by MOD (MOD_6MIN). The O₂ supply-to-O₂ demand ([HHb]/V?O₂) ratio was calculated for MOD_PRE, MOD_3MIN, and MOD_6MIN. Neuromuscular fatigue was measured isometrically pre- and post-priming exercise. Reductions in maximal voluntary contraction (?29 ± 6 vs ?34 ± 7%) and high-frequency doublet amplitude (?48 ± 13 vs ?43 ± 11%) were not significantly different between P_3MIN vs P_6MIN, suggesting similar fatigue. τV?O₂ for MOD_3MIN and MOD_6MIN were similar, being ~25% smaller than MOD_PRE. The [HHb]/V?O₂ ratio was significantly greater in MOD_PRE (1.13 ± 0.12) compared to MOD_3MIN (1.02 ± 0.04) and MOD_6MIN (1.02 ± 0.04). This study showed that priming exercise of shorter duration and higher intensity, was sufficient to accelerate V?O₂ kinetics similarly to that observed subsequent to P_6MIN when the muscle fatigue was similar.