Situating Cognition and Crossing Borders: Resisting the Hegemony of Mediated Education

Advances in technology coupled with a changing social, political and economic climate is seeing a proliferation in the growth of mediated education. Recognizing that mediated education and the application of various technologies in mediated education is constructed from a particular cultural perspective, this paper proposes to challenge this perspective, arguing that we need to develop heuristic frameworks that help us think of meeting the needs of a culturally diversified population. Using the concept of communities of practice as an analytical lens it begins by making explicit the origins of mediated education and the implications this has had for culturally marginalized peoples. Arguing that mediated education, as it is constructed, is a form of neo-colonialism, it proposes to examine mediated education within the context Giroux's concept of border crossings. Implications for application are then explored.     

The effect of marathon running on carnitine metabolism and on some aspects of muscle mitochondrial activities and antioxidant mechanisms

Carnitine is an essential co-factor in the catabolism of fats as an energy source. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of running a marathon on the metabolism of carnitine by endurance-trained athletes, and to evaluate the effect of carnitine administration on the performance of such exercise. The effects of marathon running on mitochondrial enzymes and cellular anti-oxidants were also examined to assess whether the expression of these activities is altered by exercise. Subjects were 10 experienced male marathon runners aged between 19 and 25 years. Running a marathon caused a fall in the plasma content of unesterified carnitine (37%) and an increase in the level of acetylcarnitine present (288%). Loading of the athletes with L-carnitine for 10 days before running a marathon abolished the exercise-induced fall in plasma-free carnitine (P less than 0.05) whilst amplifying the production of acetylcarnitine (P less than 0.05). Carnitine loading of the athletes studied made no detectable improvement in performance of the marathon (P greater than 0.05). Cytochrome oxidase, succinate cytochrome C reductase and superoxide dismutase activities present in skeletal muscle were unaltered by marathon running. However, such exercise caused a large increase in the tissue content of oxidized glutathione (189%) at the expense of reduced glutathione (-18%).     

Include me out: critical readings of social exclusion,social inclusion and lifelong learning

Social exclusion and inclusion have emerged as strong policy-leading concepts at both the national and international level in recent years. Policies on lifelong learning are themselves in part premised on the contribution education and training can make to promoting an inclusive society. It is argued that social exclusion offends against human dignity, denies people their fundamental human rights and leads, in conjunction with social and economic instability, to marginalization and deepening inequalities, which threaten the stability of democracy. Social inclusion therefore appears to be an unconditional good. The argument in this paper suggests that this is not the case. Drawing on critical social policy studies and post-structuralist philosophy, we argue that the notion of inclusion relies on exclusions, some of which may be chosen and even desirable. We suggest that those interested in lifelong learning should take a more critical stance towards the social inclusion agenda to which it is being harnessed.     

Organizational dynamics of an NLM-grant-funded consortium: the Nursing Information Consortium of Orange County

The development of the Nursing Information Consortium of Orange County (NICOC) is traced over time, and reasons for the crises encountered are explored. Based on the experiences of NICOC, recommendations for other consortia are included, as well as for the consortium grant process.