Widening participation,the instrumentalization of knowledge and the reproduction of inequality

According to Michel Foucault, modernity is predicated on the emergence of an instrumental idea of knowledge, which does not affect the constitution of the individual as a subject. This article aims to explore this thesis in the context of British Higher Education through a problematization of widening participation policies, and how they have been increasingly constructed in economic-instrumental terms. This approach suggests two main considerations within the framework of Foucault's argument. First, widening participation initiatives have contributed to reinforce an idea of knowledge as an instrumental set of notions external to the subject rather than a process of transformation of the self. Second, widening participation initiatives have been dominated by a neoliberal approach to the problem of inequality which has turned students into seemingly equal consumers of knowledge. However, it will be argued, this approach contributes to reproduce in different ways the inequality gap between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds.     

Testing Extension Services through AKAP Models

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to analyse the attitude of Italian farms in gaining access to agricultural extension services (AES).

Design/methodology/approach: The ways Italian farms use AES are described through the AKAP (Awareness, Knowledge, Adoption, Product) sequence. This article investigated the AKAP sequence by submitting a questionnaire to a sample of Italian farms, providing questions on each step of the sequence.

Findings: The results confirm the validity of the model and the necessity to evaluate AES in each phase of the sequence, through an in-depth analysis of the possible motivation for not adopting them.

Practical implications: The functional repositioning of agriculture redefines the role of the farm, by introducing new possibilities of production and by fostering multifunctional activities. In this context, new tasks for AES emerge, aiming at sustaining farm development along either sectorial or territorial paths. Difficulties in adopting AES call for both fostering higher levels of access to services on behalf of farms and the adequate supply of services to farms' new needs.

Originality/value: AKAP models have been prevailingly used in developing countries to evaluate the efficacy of extension in increasing agricultural productivity. This article demonstrates how this model could be of help in developed agriculture too in performing new lines of development rooted in the new models of multifunctional agriculture.     

Significance of studying the petrography and mineralogy of the geological environment of old rupestrian churches to prevent their deterioration. A case study from the South Carpathians

This paper provides new insights into understanding the causes of deterioration of the Corbii de Piatra rupestrian church and shows the significance of studying the geological environment of historical rock-cut settlements when undertaking preservation and restoration actions. The Corbii de Piatra church is one of the few rupestrian churches remaining in Romania and is an important part of the country's heritage. The church is carved in a stratum of polymictic sandstone of Oligocene age, which is part of the Getic Depression, located in the southern part of the South Carpathians. In the 14th century the interior walls of the church were decorated with mural paintings of a high artistic value. Over the centuries, the church's walls and mural paintings have been negatively affected by a series of physicochemical processes. These processes were studied through field investigations and laboratory analyses carried out between October 2007 and November 2010. The investigations revealed that tectonic fissuring and the structural anisotropy of the rock facilitate the infiltration of meteoric water through the walls into the interior of the church, from north to south, maintaining a high-level of humidity in the northern wall and in the interior of the church. The most harmful effects observed were: (i) the partial hydrolysis of the feldspars through reaction with water from the pores, producing a friable mass of phyllosilicates which led to a superficial disaggregation of the rock and to a diminished cohesion between the rock and the mortar of the fresco, (ii) the reprecipitation of the gypsum as efflorescences on the northern wall and ceiling, covering the mural painting in localized areas, as a result of the transportation of the gypsum by water from the upper strata, (iii) the alteration of the cinnabar pigment, as a result of water penetration by diffusion through the fresco from the wet rock to the pictorial layer (the secondary effect observed being the formation of sulfuric acid, which further reacted with the carbonate from the fresco to form gypsum), (iv) the development of biotic crusts, predominately algal, on the interior wet walls, which, facilitated by the permanent high humidity and the semi-obscurity of the interior of the church, have covered large surfaces of the fresco. Compared to the interior, the exterior vertical walls have been exposed to prolonged daily and seasonal variations of temperature and humidity. These variations have caused repeated variations in the volume of the sandstone, leading to contraction fissuring and peeling of the vertical walls. Any future procedures that might be used to conserve the church should strive to reduce the humidity of the sandstone in the interior walls.     

The effective reduction of tourniquet application time after minor modification of the CLSI H03-A6 blood collection procedure

Introduction:

The phlebotomists’ procedures are a still source of laboratory variability. The aim of this study was to verify the efficacy of minor modification in procedure for collection of diagnostic blood specimens by venipuncture from CLSI H03-A6 document is able to reduce the tourniquet application time.

Materials and methods:

Thirty phlebotomists were invited to participate. Each phlebotomist was trained individually to perform the new venipuncture procedure that shortens the time of tourniquet release and removal. The phlebotomy training program was delivered over 8h. After training, all phlebotomists were monitored for 20 working days, to guarantee the adoption of the correct new procedures for collection of diagnostic blood specimens. After this time frame the phlebotomists were evaluated to verify whether the new procedure for blood collection derived from CLSI H03-A6 document was effective to improve the quality process by decrease in tourniquet application time. We compared the tourniquet application time and qualitative difference of phlebotomy procedures between laboratories before and after phlebotomy training.

Results:

The overall mean ± SD tourniquet application time before and after this intervention were 118 ± 1 s and 30 ± 1 s respectively. Minor modifications in procedure for blood collection were able to reduce significantly the tourniquet application time (−88 s, P < 0.001).

Conclusions:

The minor modifications in procedure for collection of diagnostic blood specimens by venipuncture from CLSI H03-A6 document were able to reduce the tourniquet application time. Now the proposed new procedure for collection of diagnostic blood specimens by venipuncture could be considered usefulness and should be put into practice by all quality laboratory managers and/or phlebotomy coordinators to avoid preanalytical errors regard venous stasis and guarantee patient safety.     

The importance of the International Tennis Federation's junior boys' circuit in the development of professional tennis players

The relationship between junior boys' tennis success, as measured by a top 20 International Tennis Federation's Junior Circuit (ITFJC) ranking, and subsequent ranking accomplishments in professional men's tennis is discussed. The names, countries, and birthdates of all players to achieve a top 20 ITFJC boys' year-end ranking from 1992 to 1998 were recorded. The progress of these players through the professional ranks was then tracked to the end of 2004. Results indicate that 91% of top 20-ranked boys achieved a professional men's ranking, while a stepwise regression analysis revealed junior ranking (JR) to be a predictor of future, professional ranking (beta = 0.232, r(2) = 0.054, p < 0.05). A regression equation [predicted professional rank = 78.17 + 6.31*(JR)] accounted for a significant amount of variance in professional ranking. For male players, therefore, the achievement of a top 20 junior ranking appears to be a reasonable yardstick for future, professional success. The type of surface upon which junior players develop their games was also shown to influence professional ranking highs, with play on clay courts or a combination of clay and hard courts helping to produce higher, professionally ranked players than hard court play alone (p< or = 0.01).     

Enhancing web search in the medical domain via query clarification

The majority of Internet users search for medical information online; however, many do not have an adequate medical vocabulary. Users might have difficulties finding the most authoritative and useful information because they are unfamiliar with the appropriate medical expressions describing their condition; consequently, they are unable to adequately satisfy their information need. We investigate the utility of bridging the gap between layperson and expert vocabularies; our approach adds the most appropriate expert expression to queries submitted by users, a task we call query clarification. We evaluated the impact of query clarification. Using three different synonym mappings and conducting two task-based retrieval studies, users were asked to answer medically-related questions using interleaved results from a major search engine. Our results show that the proposed system was preferred by users and helped them answer medical concerns correctly more often, with up to a 7 % increase in correct answers over an unmodified query. Finally, we introduce a supervised classifier to select the most appropriate synonym mapping for each query, which further increased the fraction of correct answers (12 %).     

Quality Impact on Diagnostic Blood Specimen Collection Using a New Device to Relieve Venipuncture Pain

A new device called Buzzy^® has been recently presented that combines a cooling ice pack and a vibrating motor in order to relieve the venipuncture pain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of Buzzy^® use during diagnostic blood specimen collection by venipuncture for routine immunochemistry tests. Blood was collected from 100 volunteers by a single, expert phlebotomist. A vein was located on the left forearm without applying tourniquet, in order to prevent any interference from venous stasis, and blood samples were collected using a 20-G straight needle directly into 5 mL vacuum tubes with clot activator and gel separator. In sequence, external cold and vibration by Buzzy^® was applied on the right forearm—5 cm above the chosen puncture site—for 1 min before venipuncture and continued until the end of the same procedure already done in the left forearm. The panel of tests included the following: glucose, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, total protein, albumin, c-reactive protein, urea, creatinine, uric acid, alkaline phosphatase, amylase, AST, ALT, g-glutamyltransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, total bilirubin, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron, sodium, potassium, chloride, lipase, cortisol, insulin, thyroid-stimulating hormone, total triiodothyronine, free triiodothyronine, total thyroxine, free thyroxine and haemolysis index. Clinically significant differences between samples were found only for: total protein, albumin and transferrin. The Buzzy^® can be used during diagnostic blood specimens collection by venipuncture for the majority of the routine immunochemistry tests. We only suggest avoiding this device during blood collection when protein, albumin and transferrin determinations should be performed.     

Acoustofluidic phase microscopy in a tilted segmentation-free configuration

A low-cost device for registration-free quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) based on the transport of intensity equation of cells in continuous flow is presented. The method uses acoustic focusing to align cells into a single plane where all cells move at a constant speed. The acoustic focusing plane is tilted with respect to the microscope’s focal plane in order to obtain cell images at multiple focal positions. As the cells are displaced at constant speed, phase maps can be generated without the need to segment and register individual objects. The proposed inclined geometry allows for the acquisition of a vertical stack without the need for any moving part, and it enables a cost-effective and robust implementation of QPM. The suitability of the solution for biological imaging is tested on blood samples, demonstrating the ability to recover the phase map of single red blood cells flowing through the microchip.     

Stability of memristor neural networks with delays operating in the flux-charge domain

The paper considers a class of neural networks where flux-controlled dynamic memristors are used in the neurons and finite concentrated delays are accounted for in the interconnections. Goal of the paper is to thoroughly analyze the nonlinear dynamics both in the flux-charge domain and in the current-voltage domain. In particular, a condition that is expressed in the form of a linear matrix inequality, and involves the interconnection matrix, the delayed interconnection matrix, and the memristor nonlinearity, is given ensuring that in the flux-charge domain the networks possess a unique globally exponentially stable equilibrium point. The same condition is shown to ensure exponential convergence of each trajectory toward an equilibrium point in the voltage-current domain. Moreover, when a steady state is reached, all voltages, currents and power in the networks vanish, while the memristors act as nonvolatile memories keeping the result of computation, i.e., the asymptotic values of fluxes. Differences with existing results on stability of other classes of delayed memristor neural networks, and potential advantages over traditional neural networks operating in the typical voltage-current domain, are discussed.     

Women show similar central and peripheral fatigue to men after half-marathon*

Women are known to be less fatigable than men in single-joint exercises, but fatigue induced by running has not been well understood. Here we investigated sex differences in central and peripheral fatigue and in rate of force development (RFD) in the knee extensors after a half-marathon run. Ten male and eight female amateur runners (aged 25–50 years) were evaluated before and immediately after a half-marathon race. Knee extensors forces were obtained under voluntary and electrically evoked isometric contractions. Maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVC) force and peak RFD were recorded. Electrically doublet stimuli were delivered during the MVC and at rest to calculate the level of voluntary activation and the resting doublet twitch. After the race, decreases in MVC force (males: ?11%, effect size [ES] 0.52; females: ?11% ES 0.33), voluntary activation (males: ?6%, ES 0.87; females: ?4%, ES 0.72), and resting doublet twitch (males: ?6%, ES 0.34; females: ?8%, ES 0.30) were found to be similar between males and females. The decrease in peak RFD was found to be similar between males and females (males: ?14%, ES 0.43; females: ?15%, ES 0.14). Half-marathon run induced both central and peripheral fatigue, without any difference between men and women. The maximal and explosive strength loss was found similar between sexes. Together, these findings do not support the need of sex-specific training interventions to increase the tolerance to neuromuscular fatigue in half-marathoners.