Back to Reality: The Complex Relationship Between Patterns in Immigration News Coverage and Real-World Developments in Dutch and Flemish Newspapers (1999–2015)

Although prior studies investigating immigration news typically documented a dominant focus on negativity and threats, only limited empirical research is available, which scrutinizes the way real-world developments affect these patterns in immigration news. This study aims to fill this void. First, we report results of a large-scale and longitudinal content analysis (N = 4,340,757) of trends in immigration news coverage in two Western European cases, Flanders (the northern, Dutch-speaking, largest region of Belgium) and the Netherlands, from 1999 to 2015. Both the salience of immigration as a news topic on itself and its linkages with three prominent issues (i.e., crime, terrorism, and socioeconomic issues) are explored. Second, this study builds on previous insights by comparing dynamics in immigration news to real-world events and developments. Overall, the results show that the linkage of immigration to issues of crime, terrorism, and the economy in Flemish and Dutch newspapers was considerable throughout the 17-year period under study. Yet there is limited evidence for a close relationship between news and real-life developments; hence, trends in immigration news seem largely unaffected by trends in society.     

Barriers to prisoner participation in educational courses: Insights from a remand prison in Belgium

International Review of Education - This article examines the profile of prisoners who do not take part in formal education while being incarcerated (e.g. language or ICT courses) and the barriers...     

The long-term athlete development model: physiological evidence and application

Within the UK, the "Long Term Athlete Development" (LTAD) model has been proposed by a variety of national governing bodies to offer a first step to considering the approach to talent development. The model, which is primarily a physiological perspective, presents an advancement of understanding of developing athletic potential alongside biological growth. It focuses on training to optimize performance longitudinally, and considers sensitive developmental periods known as "windows of opportunity". However, it appears that there are a number of problems with this theoretical model that are not necessarily transparent to coaches. Principally, the model is only one-dimensional, there is a lack of empirical evidence upon which the model is based, and interpretations of the model are restricted because the data on which it is based rely on questionable assumptions and erroneous methodologies. Fundamentally, this is a generic model rather than an individualized plan for athletes. It is crucial that the LTAD model is seen as a "work in progress" and the challenge, particularly for paediatric exercise scientists, is to question, test, and revise the model. It is unlikely that this can be accomplished using classical experimental research methodology but this should not deter practitioners from acquiring valid and reliable evidence.     

Online Celebrity Bashing: Wrecking Ball or Good for You? Adolescent Girls’ Attitudes Toward the Media and Public Bashing of Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez

Journalists and readers of celebrity news regularly bash celebrities online, a behavior that is easily accepted among adolescents. This study investigates whether these attitudes of acceptance differ according to the perpetrator of the bashing (media versus public) and the likeability of the involved celebrity (liked versus disliked). Using a vignette study, we examine adolescent girls’ attitudes toward media (journalists’) and public (readers’) bashing of a generally disliked celebrity (Miley Cyrus) and a generally liked celebrity (Selena Gomez). All participants read an identical negative news story (media bashing) and two related negative reader comments (public bashing). Participants were randomly assigned to read this information about either Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez. Results of a mixed-design ANOVA showed that the girls had less negative attitudes toward media bashing compared with public bashing. Moreover, they more easily accepted the bashing of a disliked celebrity than the bashing of a liked celebrity.     

"三言"、"二拍"性爱描写的文化意蕴

“三言”、“二拍”中性爱描写的出现 ,有其历史必然性 ,它是明代中后期的时代文化环境、作家的性爱观念、读者的阅读趣味以及商业出版等诸多因素综合作用的产物。其性爱描写对于冲击宋明理学和宗教禁欲主义 ,肯定和张扬人的本能欲望 ,刻划人物的性格心理等 ,皆具有丰富的文化意蕴和审美价值     

戴着口罩掏垃圾箱——纪念熊伟教授逝世五周年

熊伟教授是三四十年代中国研究存在主义的专家之一,在德国哲学的教学研究以及著作的翻译上,有许多贡献。文革后,他抛弃”戴着口罩掏垃圾箱”的精神枷锁, 重新研究存在主义,培养了一批有才华的学生。“在学习西方哲学中来发展中国哲学”是他真正关心的工作,也是他留给后的一项历史任务。     

Quality of grey literature in the open access era: Privilege and responsibility

Conclusions We are living a deep change in the information transfer process involving the different actors of the editorial scene (from authors to editors, web-editors, e-publishers and readers), who occasionally play different roles at the same time (e.g., authors sometimes bypass the editor thus assuming direct responsibilities in the diffusion of documents in the Internet). Furthermore, information producers, managers or seekers often show twofold personalities like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They would like to find all documents free on the Internet and be able to read original, reliable, and high quality information, but they are sometimes reluctant to spread their papers through online nonofficial channels as they care for the impact factor, prestige, and career advancement. It is a revolutionary period in which new and alternative forms of scholarly communication live together with more traditional ones and the future is difficult to define. Recent initiatives of open access—such as Pubmed Central, Public Library of Science, Budapest Open Access Initiative—are contributing to define new trends in the editorial market, challenging the traditional distribution channels, mainly managed by commercial editors, and placing the authors’ role and publication copyrights under severe discussion. In this landscape, GL now has new dignity and becomes closer and closer to innovative scientific publications supported by researchers in view of a generalised movement towards open access. The nuances of grey are becoming lighter and lighter. The questions are many, the answers few, but, in any case, the ethical responsibility of producing and issuing quality documents can never be disregarded.     

Design and implementation of multi-campus,modular master classes in biochemical engineering

The Master of Science in engineering technology: biochemical engineering is organised in KU Leuven at four geographically dispersed campuses. To sustain the Master's programmes at all campuses, it is clear that a unique education profile at each campus is crucial. In addition, a rationalisation is required by increased cooperation, increased exchange of lecturers, and increased student mobility. To achieve this, a multicampus education system for the M.Sc. in engineering technology: biochemical engineering was developed by offering modules that are also available for students of other campuses. Such a module is primarily based on the research expertise present at the campus. In the development, special attention has been given to the optimal organisation of the modules, evaluation, required modifications of the current curricula, and the practical consequences for students following the module at another campus. Even in the first year of implementation, around 30% of the students followed a multicampus module, which indicates the potential success of the multicampus concept described here.     

Contextualising Vocational Knowledge: A Theoretical Framework and Illustrations From Culinary Education

The nature of knowledge in vocational education is often described in dichotomies such as theory versus practice or general versus specific. Although different scholars now acknowledge that vocational knowledge is more than putting bits of theoretical and practical knowledge together, it is still unclear how vocational knowledge should be theorised instead. In this article we theorise the idea of contextualising vocational knowledge to understand the nature of vocational knowledge and illustrate this process of contextualising with empirical examples from culinary education. We adopt an activity-theoretical focus on contextualising that involves both particularising and providing coherence. We posit a cognitive process of meaning making where meaning derives from seeing the relationships of parts to the whole. The aspects of the nature of coherence and the relation between concepts and actions seem rather underdeveloped in vocational education theory. To characterise this process at a micro-level, we enhance the activity-theory approach with an inferentialist one. Inferentialism offers a way to focus on reasons and inferential relations between concepts and actions that provides coherence in vocational knowledge. To characterise the broad spectrum of processes relevant for vocational knowledge, we propose the terms “conceptualising” and “concretising”. Conceptualising involves inferring what follows from understanding a concept in a particular situation in relation to the meaning of other concepts. Concretising involves inferring what follows from understanding an aspect of the occupational practice in which students are participating. We argue that this way of framing vocational knowledge helps to better understand its nature and development.