Comparison of methods for determining power generated on a rope-braked cycle ergometer during low-intensity exercise

This study compares the instrumentation and analysis techniques used when determining the power expended pedalling a rope-braked ergometer manufactured by Monark (Sweden) during a low intensity test. Power values were generated by eight subjects. The instrumentation consisted of load cells to measure the rope brake forces, a tachometer to measure the flywheel velocity and instrumented pedal cranks manufactured by Schoberer Rad Messtechnik (SRM). The subjects pedalled a rope-braked ergometer at 60 rev min^-1, against a resistance of 3 kg, for 5 minutes. Three different measurements of the mean power were recorded and these were compared with the value given by Monark. The SRM cranks provided two sets of results using different software packages supplied with the cranks. SRM standard software is used for taking measurements during training and cycle races over long time periods. An additional piece of software is provided by SRM called Ptnew, which gives readings of torque and pedal cadence over periods up to 30 seconds. Using the values supplied by Monark each subject generated 180 W of power. The mean power for the eight subjects, measured using the SRM cranks, was 170.36 W (SD 4.11) using the alternative SRM software (Ptnew) over a 30 second period and 173.68 W (SD 2.21) using the standard SRM software. From the direct measurement of the brake forces and flywheel velocity the mean power across the eight subjects was 148.90 W (SD 5.89). The SRM cranks measure the input power, whereas the direct measurement system measures the power output excluding mechanical losses. These values give a figure for the mechanical efficiency for the roped-braked ergometer of 88%. It was found that Monark overestimates the power generated by the subjects when compared with both the SRM systems and the direct measurement instrumentation.     

The Warren Cup: Highlighting Hidden Histories

Contemporary artists and art galleries have been more active than museums in representing gay and lesbian culture in public spaces in recent decades. However same‐sex relationships have a long history that is reflected in the collections of museums that have material from the classical world. The culture of ancient Greece and Rome was less inhibited about the representation of sexual acts than many nineteenth‐century museums would have liked. Objects with frank images of sexual acts were discreetly censored or hidden away in secret cabinets. This article draws on one object as a case study, a Roman silver cup dated to the early years of the first century AD acquired by the British Museum in 1999. The cup is decorated with beautifully realised scenes in relief decoration which show two pairs of males engaged in love‐making, each pair consisting of one older male and a youth. The object could never have been acquired or publicly displayed earlier in the twentieth century. The vessel known as the Warren Cup (after a previous owner) provides a provocative stimulus for debate about male‐to‐male lovemaking. Discussion of the meaning of the scenes, and the possible reasons why they were represented on such a high‐status object, generates more questions than answers. This uncertainty contributes to the power of this object to open up debate. This article will raise questions for educators and students to consider about the Cup, an object which society has only recently ceased to regard as pornographic or obscene.     

Being Subjective about Autistic Thinking and Learning to Learn

In this paper, we discuss the deviant pattern of the development of thinking in autism and outline our thesis that the problem with autistic memory is in developing a personal episodic memory, and that this difficulty arises because of a deficit in the development of an experiencing self, which we have termed (after Brewer, 1986) an ‘ego‐self. We discuss constraints which we suggest result in learnable thinking skills remaining domain specific: difficulties with (i) language, (ii) coding, storage and retrieval of information and (iii) the role of emotions. We discuss what ‘improving the thinking’ of individuals with autism would entail and draw implications regarding fundamental requirements and caveats of teaching thinking for all individuals.     

Availability of accessible publications: designing a methodology to provide reliable estimates for the Right to Read Alliance

OBJECTIVES: To establish reliable estimates of the proportion of books available in formats accessible to visually impaired people; to recommend a practical method of updating the estimates. METHODS: The project had two stages. Stage one estimated the overall availability of all categories of books. The British National Bibliography (BNB) for 1999-2003 was chosen as the sampling frame. A sample of 2069 titles over the 5 years was selected using a systematic sample design. These titles were then checked for availability against the catalogues of four major producer/suppliers of materials in accessible formats. The second stage involved checking the availability of books in six genres; about 400 titles for each genre were examined. RESULTS: Of the titles selected for the overall estimate, 92 (4.4%) were found to be available in one or more accessible formats. Availability of titles in accessible formats varied greatly between categories. Adult fiction had the highest number of available publications (26.3%), least represented were cookery (1.9%) and gardening (1.8%). CONCLUSIONS: This study provided baseline figures and a methodology for the Right to Read Alliance to monitor their progress in campaigning for more books to be accessible to visually impaired people.