The role of higher education institutions in national development

Abstract from the report of the International Conference on Education (33rd Session) of the International Bureau of Education. It deals with (i) the role of higher education institutions in national development, (ii) improving and sustaining the competence of educators and (iii) managing the system of education.     

Radiation reaction forces and the expanding universe

The expanding universe is described in terms of the known forces of classical physics. It is shown that great clouds of stars are non-conservative systems and that radiation reaction forces play a part in guiding stellar motions. The forces are of importance in unsymmetrical stars and evidence is collected to show that perhaps all stars are possessed of deep seated thermal asymmetries. The forces continually act to increase the mean velocity of the stars and the galaxy is calculated to expand at a rate which closely approximates the observed rate of expansion. From a relation connecting the mean velocity of the stars and their age, it is deduced from the observed motions that the age of the galaxy is about 10¹⁰ years. The deduced rate of expansion of the galaxy agrees well with the observational data and is identical in form and numerical constant with Hubble's relation connecting the velocity of recession and distances of nebulæ.Because of the relative size and spacing of the extra galactic nebulæ and the short time scale it is supposed that the nebulae were formed by fission from a parent-super nebula and this resulted in thermal asymmetries which brought the newly considered forces into action.The resulting expansion was produced by slow evolutionary radiation processes which bear no direct relation to the properties of space or atomic constants.The calculations suggest that in describing the motions of typical stars over long periods of time, radiation reaction forces are as important as the classical gravitational forces.     

Comment on Dissociation between running economy and running performance in elite Kenyan distance runners

Mooses and colleagues suggest that running economy alone does not explain superior distance running performance in elite Kenyan runners. Whilst we agree with the multi-factorial hypothesis for Kenyan running success, we do not believe that running economy can be overlooked to the extent that it was based on this particular study. Based on the methods used and the range of athletes tested, in this response letter we question whether this study provides any basis for downplaying the influence of running economy or suggesting that other factors compensate for it to enable superior performance.     

Elite wheelchair rugby: a quantitative analysis of chair configuration in Australia

Limited recommendations of wheelchair configurations for court sports have been identified in the published literature. To accommodate the wide range of impairments in wheelchair rugby, players are given a point score that reflects their impairment. Players have regularly been grouped as high-, mid-, or low-point players in research, with high-point players having greater levels of muscle function compared with other classifications. This research documented the wheelchair configurations of elite Australian wheelchair rugby players across classification groups. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found for increased seat height and decreased seat depth for high-point players compared with low- and mid-point groups, respectively. Low-point players displayed reduced wheelchair mass compared with high- and mid-point players, as well as increased frame length. Camber angles showed no significant differences across the classification groups. The incorporation of anthropometric measures, such as the elbow angle at the top dead center, was also investigated. While elbow angle showed no significant differences, seat height-to-total arm length ratio was higher for high-point players. Participants also completed surveys detailing their perception of the effect of altering wheelchair configurations. It is suggested that wheelchair configurations should consider an individual’s anthropometrics, impairment, training history, and court role to promote optimal performance, with predictive modeling having the potential to reduce the associated time and cost.     

Using computer generated images and text for the whole of an undergraduate course

Computer generated images are being used to provide text and diagrams for lectures. These images are then openly available to first year undergraduates in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing Systems at the University of Northumbria. A large lecture theatre is fitted with a computer-driven overhead projector and is used to display the files to over one hundred students. The image files and a text file commentary are provided, via automated routines on department computers, for students to copy onto their own discs.
The images are produced in a compressed and self displaying form, allowing all the material for the course to be contained on a single 1.4Mb floppy disc. All the material associated with these lectures is held on magnetic media.
This paper describes the method used, comments on some of the practical problems of using the method, and gives some of the student reaction to it.     

Emotional regulation and emotional development

Current neofunctionalist views of emotion underscore the biologically adaptive and psychologically constructive contributions of emotion to organized behavior, but little is known of the development of the emotional regulatory processes by which this is fostered. Emotional regulation refers to the extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions. This review provides a developmental outline of emotional regulation and its relation to emotional development throughout the life-span. The biological foundations of emotional self-regulation and individual differences in regulatory tendencies are summarized. Extrinsic influences on the early regulation of a child's emotion and their long-term significance are then discussed, including a parent's direct intervention strategies, selective reinforcement and modeling processes, affective induction, and the caregiver's ecological control of opportunity for heightened emotion and its management. Intrinsic contributors to the growth of emotional self-regulatory capacities include the emergence of language and cognitive skills, the child's growing emotional and self-understanding (and cognized strategies of emotional self-control), and the emergence of a theory of personal emotion in adolescence.