Tour de France Champions born or made: where do we take the genetics of performance?

ABSTRACT

Cyclists in the Tour de France are endurance specialists. Twin and family studies have shown that approximately 50% of the variance in a number of performance-related phenotypes (whether measured at baseline, i.e., natural talent, or in response to training) including those important to cycling can be explained by genetic variation. Research into the specific genetic variants that are responsible has identified over 200 genes containing common genetic variants involved in the genetic predisposition to physical performance. However, typically these explain only a small portion of the variance, perhaps 1–2% and collectively they rarely explain anything approaching the 50% of the variance identified in the twin and family studies. Thus, there is a gap in our understanding of the relationship between heritability and performance. This gap may be bridged by investigation of rare variants or epigenetic variation or by altering study designs through increased collaborations to pool existing cohorts together. Initial findings from such efforts show promising results. This mini-review will touch on the genetics and epigenetics of sporting performance, how they relate to cyclists in the Tour de France and where best future efforts may be directed as well as discuss some preliminary research findings.     

Vocational education and development: key issues, with special reference to the Arab world

Despite the considerable capacity of most Arab governments to invest in education for development, relatively little has been achieved in the vocational and technical sector. Yet, as is well known, it is the production of good quality technicians that is crucial to sustainable industrial development at a national level. In this paper we attempt an analysis of the situation — to identify key issues that need to be addressed if progress is to be made. Two broad problems underlie the contemporary crisis: aspects of Arabic culture that tend to constrain wider involvement in vocational and technical employment, and the low status of technical education in the Western model of education bequeathed to these nations by the legacy of colonialism. Some recommendations are made to assist the resolution of the problem.     

Social engagement and regional theatre: patterns of theatre attendance

This paper assesses the degree to which a typical regional theatre engages with society. It uses postcodes from theatre booking data and compares the socioecenomic profiles of these postcodes with postcodes from which no theatregoers are drawn. A re-working of recent theories of class provides a conceptual context, whilst discriminant analysis is used to identify the socioecenomic factors of postcodes associated with theatre and non-theatre attendance. Education factors were the principal determinants of attendance, with occupational categories being important, but lower socioecenomic groups were less likely to engage with theatre. However, social engagement and factors determining attendance varied by type of show: comedy, drama, family and Shakespearian productions.     

Reasons, Values and Community in Moral Education

This paper argues that young people are unlikely to integrate themselves positively into adult life – to adopt its values, responsibilities and opportunities – unless that life is made more morally acceptable in their terms. Central to this process of community building and reconciliation with the young is the condition of solidarity which both results from and results in common values and a shared conception of the good life.     

Language Across a Curriculum of Teacher Training: an instance of course development

This paper describes the ways in which the relationship between teaching and learning in schools, and pupil and teacher language, are explored by students and staff in the different elements of a one‐year postgraduate initial training course for Secondary teachers. It deals with how the staff of a quite large department attempt to keep the theoretical and practical expressions of the topic together by monitoring the manner in which the elements of the whole course structure interact.     

The microelectronics revolution An assessment of its significance for education and teacher education

Mably, C. “The microelectronics revolution. An assessment of its significance for education and teacher education,” Revue ATEE Journal 3 (1980) 25‐35. Rapid advances in microtechnology, particularly in the field of microelectronics, and their subsequent applications in manufacturing, service and communication industries, have dramatic implications for social change. These changes pose fundamental questions for all levels of education and particularly for school curricula and the teacher in a changing society. Teacher education has a major responsibility in this urgent process and must now consider its response.