Polymorphisms within the COL5A1 gene and regulators of the extracellular matrix modify the risk of Achilles tendon pathology in a British case-control study

Several genetic loci have been associated with risk of Achilles tendon pathology (ATP) within South African and Australian populations. The aim of this study was, therefore, to evaluate eight previously implicated genetic variants in an independent British population. A total of 130 asymptomatic controls (CON) and 112 participants clinically diagnosed with ATP comprising 87 individuals with chronic Achilles tendinopathy (TEN) and 25 with Achilles tendon ruptures (RUP) were included. All participants were genotyped for variants within the COL5A1, MIR608, IL-1β, IL-6 and CASP8 genes. Primary findings implicated COL5A1 and CASP8. Three inferred allele combinations constructed from COL5A1 rs12722, rs3196378 and rs71746744 were identified as risk modifiers. The T–C–D combination was associated with increased risk of ATP (P = 0.023) and RUP (P < 0.001), the C–A–I combination was associated with increased risk of ATP (P = 0.011), TEN (P = 0.011) and RUP (P = 0.011) and the C–C–D combination was associated with decreased risk of ATP (P = 0.011) and RUP (P = 0.004). The CASP8 rs3834129 DD genotype was associated with decreased risk of TEN (P = 0.020, odds ratio: 0.45, 95% confidence interval: 0.22–0.90) and the CASP8 I–G (rs3834129–rs1045485) inferred allele combination was associated with increased risk of TEN (P = 0.031). This study further highlights the importance of polymorphisms within COL5A1 and CASP8 in the aetiology of ATP.     

A Systematic Review of Life Skill Development Through Sports Programs Serving Socially Vulnerable Youth

Purpose: Despite the strong belief in sports programs as a setting in which socially vulnerable youth can develop life skills, no overview exists of life skill development in sports programs serving this youth group. Therefore, the present systematic review provides an overview of the evidence on life skill development in sports programs serving socially vulnerable youth and, insofar as it was investigated in the included studies, of the conditions conducive to life skill development in these sports programs. Method: Potentially relevant studies published during 1990 to 2014 were identified by a search in 7 electronic databases. The search combined terms relating to (a) sport, (b) youth AND socially vulnerable, and (c) life skills. Eighteen of the 2,076 unique studies met the inclusion criteria. Results: Each included study reported that at least 1 life skill improved in youth who participated in the studied sports program. Improvements in cognitive and social life skills were more frequently reported than were improvements in emotional life skills. Only a few of the included studies investigated the conditions in the studied sports programs that made these programs conducive to life skill development. Conclusions: Sports programs have the potential to make a difference in the life skill development of socially vulnerable youth. This conclusion needs to be treated with some caution, because the studies experienced many challenges in reducing the risk for bias. Several alternative research strategies are suggested for future studies in this field.     

By the Water’s Edge: a Hermeneutic Look at Suffering and Self-Compassion in Counselling Psychology

What is to be done in response to client suffering? Our aim in this paper is to explore the generative potential in viewing the topic of suffering and self-compassion through an interpretive lens. To accomplish this goal, we review Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics as a way of understanding these topics while looking to the central tenets of counselling psychology as a guide in elucidating the therapeutic experience. In so doing, we stress the significance in recognizing the interpretive and unique experience of suffering and self-compassion, in turn privileging the client’s conceptualizations and experiences.     

Towards a philosophy of academic publishing

This article is concerned with developing a philosophical approach to a number of significant changes to academic publishing, and specifically the global journal knowledge system wrought by a range of new digital technologies that herald the third age of the journal as an electronic, interactive and mixed-media form of scientific communication. The paper emerges from an Editors' Collective, a small New Zealand-based organisation comprised of editors and reviewers of academic journals mostly in the fields of education and philosophy. The paper is the result of a collective writing process.     

Using clickers in nonmajors- and majors-level biology courses: student opinion, learning, and long-term retention of course material

Student response systems (clickers) are viewed positively by students and instructors in numerous studies. Evidence that clickers enhance student learning is more variable. After becoming comfortable with the technology during fall 2005-spring 2006, we compared student opinion and student achievement in two different courses taught with clickers in fall 2006. One course was an introductory biology class for nonmajors, and the other course was a 200 level genetics class for biology majors. Students in both courses had positive opinions of the clickers, although we observed some interesting differences between the two groups of students. Student performance was significantly higher on exam questions covering material taught with clickers, although the differences were more dramatic for the nonmajors biology course than the genetics course. We also compared retention of information 4 mo after the course ended, and we saw increased retention of material taught with clickers for the nonmajors course, but not for the genetics course. We discuss the implications of our results in light of differences in how the two courses were taught and differences between science majors and nonmajors.     

“Totally different standards”: consumer orientation in study abroad contexts

The paper takes an interest in consumer behavior in international higher education (HE). It takes qualitative narratives of international student experience as a point of departure for a discussion of the degree to which students conceive of their experience in consumer terms when they evaluate their stays abroad. Intentionally, the group of informants consists of culturally diverse subjects (Danish and Chinese students). While the size of the sample does not allow for any wide-ranging conclusions on the connection between cultural background and adoption of consumer identity, it enables the researchers to evaluate whether cultural background seems to pertain to the propensity of students to think and act in a consumer-oriented manner in their experience of the different material and academic standards they were faced with in their study abroad environment. Based on an interest in the role of the student in the era of academic capitalism, the study investigates whether the fact that universities increasingly operate on market and market-like conditions influences students’ way of conceiving of their study abroad experience. To what extent do students perceive themselves as consumers investing in services and products?     

Discovering Indigenous Australian Culture: Building Trusted Engagement in Online Environments

ABSTRACT

Promoting and facilitating access to historical collections for Indigenous communities has recently increased across Australia. Such activities have been integrated into the practices of archives and libraries seeking to reunite Indigenous people with materials that not only document their past but also inform their future. Challenges in accessing these materials go beyond retrieval and include concerns about their emotional content. The State Library of New South Wales is working to create trusted environments for Indigenous peoples and collections with both physical and digital spaces. Through the presentation of work undertaken at the State Library, this article explores how the digital environment can be an effective extension of the physical site in which cultural collections are held. In addition, this article looks at issues that must be addressed to ensure the success and ongoing viability of Web spaces, specifically, the long-standing power dynamics that often dominate interactions with Indigenous collections and that have displaced power from the traditional owners of Indigenous knowledge.     

Teaching is … opening up spaces to explore academic work in fluid and volatile times

Universities are built upon the collaborative work of academic staff and students, yet the nature of this work has been undergoing profound and rapid change. Pressures within Australia’s higher education sector have led to a fracturing of traditional academic roles and growing feelings of disconnection. While there have been many narrative, ethnographic and autoethnographic explorations of academic work, few studies have employed visual arts-informed methodologies to interrogate the ways in which academics represent their teaching, research and community engagement work. In this article we outline findings about academics’ views of their teaching work. These findings surfaced from an arts-informed participatory research project, that sought to open up a space for (re)presentations of academic work. With a focus on teaching, three through lines emerged during the analysis: voicing absences and resistances; initiating layers of reflexive moments and expressing complexity through collage. We argue that the academics’ responses allow us to trace the emotional terrain of contemporary academic work. They also open up ways to unpack, express and make visible academics’ complex thoughts, feelings and ideas about teaching practices.