Probable Pasts and Possible Futures

This article examines the ways in which the news of the siege and fall of Heidelberg in 1622 was conveyed, both in printed news pamphlets and in the regular letters of news written by the Cambridge scholar Joseph Mead. Through this, it investigates the ways in which contemporaneity (to use Brendan Dooley’s term) is produced, and complicated, by the time taken to transport international news in the early modern period. Reports of the fall of Heidelberg arrived in England some time behind events, and often unconfirmed, promising confirmation and further crucial details to follow. The awareness of contemporaneity across European space fostered by the availability of foreign news was complicated by its belatedness. Furthermore, as Mead’s letters demonstrate, international and domestic news networks could be subject to disruption and delay, making the forward projection of serialised news texts fraught with uncertainty.     

IP Address Data and its Place in the Library Community Today and in the Future

Internet Protocol (IP) technology has played an important role in the management of access to scholarly work within institutions since the advent of electronic publishing in the late 1990s. Despite recent efforts to explore alternative modes of authentication, the ubiquitous use of IP address authentication within the systems of libraries, publishers, and third party vendors around the world suggests it will continue to play a significant role for the foreseeable future. However, recent studies show that a large amount of the IP address data held within publisher systems is incorrect, improperly assigned, or requires clarification. Poor source data carries significant risks—not the least of which translates into unreliable usage reporting for libraries and publishers. The IP Registry is designed to help mitigate these challenges by creating a Registry of cleaned data that libraries and publishers can interact with in a centralized fashion thereby helping to ensure accuracy and reducing the level of resources necessary to manage and communicate changes to existing data. The database of more than 60,000 academic, corporate, and government libraries was created through the amalgamation of raw source data from more than 170 scholarly publishers. In addition to cleaned IP address data, the Registry includes standardized English naming, aliases, local language naming (and characters), hierarchies, and organizational IDs for each record. The importance of accurately understanding current usage and how libraries utilize published content is clear. Regardless of what the future holds, the need for a clean and stable source of IP address data is real for libraries, publishers, and vendors alike.     

Play and Divergent Problem Solving: Evidence Supporting a Reciprocal Relationship

A series of three studies was conducted to examine the relationship between specific forms of social and pretend play and divergent (figural and semantic) and convergent problem solving in preschool aged children. Naturalistic and experimental designs were used to provide a clearer account of the nature of the relationship between play and problem solving and to challenge the assumption that there is a single direction bf influence (play influencing problem solving) rather than the influence being complex and reciprocal. Overall, the results support a complex reciprocal causality model in which the development of divergent problem solving skills facilitates the development of play skills and vice versa.     

Seasonal variation in physical activity among preschool children in a northern Canadian city

Little research has examined seasonal differences in physical activity (PA) levels among children. Proxy reports of PA were completed by 1,715 parents on their children in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Total PA (TPA) minutes were calculated, and each participant was classified as active, somewhat active, or inactive. Logistic regression models were conducted to examine associations between PA status and seasons. Significant seasonal differences were observed for TPA, weekday PA, weekend PA, and active play. Children were significantly more likely to be physically active in the summer and spring and somewhat physically active in the summer and fall, relative to winter Children living in cold climates are less likely to be physically active in the winter.     

The Same But Different: Standardizing Interview Procedures in the Multinational

In this paper, the reality of attempted standardization of recruitment interviewing in a multinational company is presented. The focus in this instance is on recruitment in a single multinational in three superficially similar North European countries: the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany. The organization on which the study was based wanted to improve the diversity of its recruitment and offer fair opportunities to all. The results of this study indicate that any standardization of procedures in multinationals must take into account the influence of cultural differences in implementation. On the basis of the case presented here, the Dutch will implement procedures precisely as a matter of compliance and fairness on a social contract basis; the Germans will emphasize the discourse around standard procedure implementation and want to ensure a full and thorough discussion; and Britons will take a pragmatic approach with procedures seen as recommended guidelines only. The implications of the findings for the case study company and its efficiency in recruiting diverse individuals are discussed.     

The effect of 14 weeks of vitamin D3 supplementation on antimicrobial peptides and proteins in athletes

Heavy training is associated with increased respiratory infection risk and antimicrobial proteins are important in defence against oral and respiratory tract infections. We examined the effect of 14 weeks of vitamin D₃ supplementation (5000 IU/day) on the resting plasma cathelicidin concentration and the salivary secretion rates of secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA), cathelicidin, lactoferrin and lysozyme in athletes during a winter training period. Blood and saliva were obtained at the start of the study from 39 healthy men who were randomly allocated to vitamin D₃ supplement or placebo. Blood samples were also collected at the end of the study; saliva samples were collected after 7 and 14 weeks. Plasma total 25(OH)D concentration increased by 130% in the vitamin D₃ group and decreased by 43% in the placebo group (both P = 0.001). The percentage change of plasma cathelicidin concentration in the vitamin D₃ group was higher than in the placebo group (P = 0.025). Only in the vitamin D₃ group, the saliva SIgA and cathelicidin secretion rates increased over time (both P = 0.03). A daily 5000 IU vitamin D₃ supplement has a beneficial effect in up-regulating the expression of SIgA and cathelicidin in athletes during a winter training period, which could improve resistance to respiratory infections.     

Children's Perception of Proportion in Graphs

Children ranging in age from 9 to 13 years made judgments of proportion with a variety of graphical elements in 2 experiments. Younger children can be misled by irrelevant dimensions of objects used to portray magnitudes and proportions, but older children make their judgments like adults, ignoring or accommodating the extra dimensions. Although the psychophysical function for older children and adults is approximately linear, closer inspection reveals a complex pattern of bias that is not captured by traditional psychophysical models. A characteristic pattern of over- and underestimation was observed and also turns out to be present, but previously unnoticed, in judgments made by adults. The pattern of bias is consistent with the view that the visual system extracts real or virtual axes of symmetry and that subjects use these, in addition to the object boundaries, as points of reference when making their judgments. A model that assumes repulsion of judgments away from these reference points is described and fitted to the children's data. The model is motivated by both neurophysiological and cognitive considerations.     

Young adults and everyday-life information: The role of news media

There is a paucity of research examining the everyday-life information seeking of young people, especially investigating the role that the news media has in providing information to young people for use in their everyday lives. A qualitative, interpretivist approach is adopted, involving 34 students, ages 18 to 25, from an Australian university. First, 20 students were interviewed about their news seeking (including topics and sources). Then 14 students participated in verbal protocol analysis, which involved a series of tasks concerning online and print newspapers. Lastly, students were interviewed about how they sought everyday-life information and whether they thought that they had incidentally acquired or encountered information on everyday-life topics in online or print newspapers in the recent past. Findings indicated that, contrary to expectations, traditional print media still played a role for young people, and social media were perceived as important for communication with friends, rather than for news gathering. Purposeful information seeking was more likely to occur online, but both print and online newspapers retained an incidental role in providing information to students for their everyday lives. Participants used a range of media to suit their particular needs and purposes. Thus, access to a wide variety of sources is important for everyday-life information seeking (ELIS) by young people.     

Assessment of Student Learning Associated with Tree Thinking in an Undergraduate Introductory Organismal Biology Course

Phylogenetic trees provide visual representations of ancestor–descendant relationships, a core concept of evolutionary theory. We introduced “tree thinking” into our introductory organismal biology course (freshman/sophomore majors) to help teach organismal diversity within an evolutionary framework. Our instructional strategy consisted of designing and implementing a set of experiences to help students learn to read, interpret, and manipulate phylogenetic trees, with a particular emphasis on using data to evaluate alternative phylogenetic hypotheses (trees). To assess the outcomes of these learning experiences, we designed and implemented a Phylogeny Assessment Tool (PhAT), an open-ended response instrument that asked students to: 1) map characters on phylogenetic trees; 2) apply an objective criterion to decide which of two trees (alternative hypotheses) is “better”; and 3) demonstrate understanding of phylogenetic trees as depictions of ancestor–descendant relationships. A pre–post test design was used with the PhAT to collect data from students in two consecutive Fall semesters. Students in both semesters made significant gains in their abilities to map characters onto phylogenetic trees and to choose between two alternative hypotheses of relationship (trees) by applying the principle of parsimony (Occam''s razor). However, learning gains were much lower in the area of student interpretation of phylogenetic trees as representations of ancestor–descendant relationships.     

Being First Means Being Credible? Examining the Impact of Message Source on Organizational Reputation

Research in organizational communication and public relations suggest that in times of crises, messages generated by the organization are most likely to positively influence stakeholder perceptions, whereas those generated by the press may have negative ramifications. Although this advice seems logical, to date there is little research that investigates this claim empirically and directly. Two experiments were conducted to explore the separate and combined impact of print and televised messages concerning an organization in the midst of a crisis. The findings offer empirical evidence that statements from organizations experiencing crises may offset negative stakeholder responses. Theoretical and pragmatic implications are discussed regarding these findings.