Copyright and licensing — the changing scene

A rapid survey of the key current issues and changes in the copyright and licensing environment. Briefly discusses the reasons why there is so much change, and in particular the changing attitudes of both authors and customers towards publishers. Surveys the new contractual problems confronting publishers; the requirements for doing business electronically in future; major legal changes; and developments in licensing. Concludes by considering how publishers can influence what happens.     

Search on surfaces: Exploring the potential of interactive tabletops for collaborative search tasks

Collaborative information seeking often takes place in co-located settings; such opportunities may be planned (business colleagues meeting in a conference room or students working together in a library) or spontaneous (family members gathered in their living room or friends meeting at a café). Surface computing technologies (i.e., interactive tabletops) hold great potential for enhancing collaborative information seeking activities. Such devices provide engaging direct manipulation interactions, facilitate awareness of collaborators’ activities, and afford spatial organization of content. However, current tabletop technologies also present several challenges that creators of collaborative information seeking system must account for in their designs. In this article, we explore the design space for collaborative search systems on interactive tabletops, discussing the benefits and challenges of creating search applications for these devices. We discuss how features of our tabletop search prototypes TeamSearch, FourBySix Search, Cambiera, and WeSearch, illustrate different aspects of this design space.     

The oxygen-conserving potential of the diving response: A kinetic-based analysis

We investigated the oxygen-conserving potential of the human diving response by comparing trained breath-hold divers (BHDs) to non-divers (NDs) during simulated dynamic breath-holding (BH). Changes in haemodynamics [heart rate (HR), stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO)] and peripheral muscle oxygenation [oxyhaemoglobin ([HbO₂]), deoxyhaemoglobin ([HHb]), total haemoglobin ([tHb]), tissue saturation index (TSI)] and peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO₂) were continuously recorded during simulated dynamic BH. BHDs showed a breaking point in HR kinetics at mid-BH immediately preceding a more pronounced drop in HR (?0.86 bpm.%^?1) while HR kinetics in NDs steadily decreased throughout BH (?0.47 bpm.%^?1). By contrast, SV remained unchanged during BH in both groups (all P > 0.05). Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) results (mean ± SD) expressed as percentage changes from the initial values showed a lower [HHb] increase for BHDs than for NDs at the cessation of BH (+24.0 ± 10.1 vs. +39.2 ± 9.6%, respectively; P < 0.05). As a result, BHDs showed a [tHb] drop that NDs did not at the end of BH (?7.3 ± 3.2 vs. ?3.0 ± 4.7%, respectively; P < 0.05). The most striking finding of the present study was that BHDs presented an increase in oxygen-conserving efficiency due to substantial shifts in both cardiac and peripheral haemodynamics during simulated BH. In addition, the kinetic-based approach we used provides further credence to the concept of an “oxygen-conserving breaking point” in the human diving response.     

Relationship between laboratory-measured variables and heart rate during an ultra-endurance triathlon

The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between the performance heart rate during an ultra-endurance triathlon and the heart rate corresponding to several demarcation points measured during laboratory-based progressive cycle ergometry and treadmill running. Less than one month before an ultra-endurance triathlon, 21 well-trained ultra-endurance triathletes (mean +/- s: age 35 +/- 6 years, height 1.77 +/- 0.05 m, mass 74.0 +/- 6.9 kg, = 4.75 +/- 0.42 l x min(-1)) performed progressive exercise tests of cycle ergometry and treadmill running for the determination of peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), heart rate corresponding to the first and second ventilatory thresholds, as well as the heart rate deflection point. Portable telemetry units recorded heart rate at 60 s increments throughout the ultra-endurance triathlon. Heart rate during the cycle and run phases of the ultra-endurance triathlon (148 +/- 9 and 143 +/- 13 beats x min(-1) respectively) were significantly (P < 0.05) less than the second ventilatory thresholds (160 +/- 13 and 165 +/- 14 beats x min(-1) respectively) and heart rate deflection points (170 +/- 13 and 179 +/- 9 beats x min(-1) respectively). However, mean heart rate during the cycle and run phases of the ultra-endurance triathlon were significantly related to (r = 0.76 and 0.66; P < 0.01), and not significantly different from, the first ventilatory thresholds (146 +/- 12 and 148 +/- 15 beats x min(-1) respectively). Furthermore, the difference between heart rate during the cycle phase of the ultra-endurance triathlon and heart rate at the first ventilatory threshold was related to marathon run time (r = 0.61; P < 0.01) and overall ultra-endurance triathlon time (r = 0.45; P < 0.05). The results suggest that triathletes perform the cycle and run phases of the ultra-endurance triathlon at an exercise intensity near their first ventilatory threshold.     

What were the processes and outcomes of involving secondary school pupils transitioning from primary to secondary school in pre-arrival shared-reading? A case study

ABSTRACT

Coombe Boys’ School in New Malden worked with Kingston University to establish a ‘Big Read’, a scheme of pre-arrival shared-reading for boys transitioning from local primary schools into year 7 of the Coombe Boys’ secondary school. A novel was chosen for shared-reading, and all arriving pupils were given a copy at their Induction Day (at the end of the summer term). Copies were also made available to all staff. The book was the basis of group-based activities during the school’s Summer School (three weeks before of the start of the autumn term) and of cross-curricular individual and group-based activities during the early teaching weeks of the new school year. Outcomes were monitored using online surveys of pupils, staff and parents/guardians, and through face to face interviews with individuals from representative groups. Here outcomes are reported, both direct and indirect, comparisons made with similar schemes within higher education, and recommendations are made for how the scheme might be adapted for greater effectiveness in future.     

Foreign Cinema

Noel Burch, To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in the Japanese Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979 – $19.50/ $9.75)

Peter Cowie, Dutch Cinema: An Illustrated History (South Brunswick, New Jersey: A. S. Barnes, 1979–$12.00)

Documentary and Educational Films of the 1930s (244 pp.)

Films of Comment and Persuasion of the 1930s (256 pp.)

Peter Morris, Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema, 1895-1939 (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1978–$19.95/$7.95)