Exploring expectations,experiences and long-term plans of Chinese international students studying in the joint Sino-Russian degree

This article investigates the transitioning process of international Chinese undergraduate students studying in Russia. The paper offers new insights into changes in the expectations and experiences of Chinese students at various stages of their joint educational studies in China and Russia. Drawing on a qualitative study of 20 Chinese undergraduates studying in Russia, the findings of the study indicate that before studying in Russia, most of Chinese students had low expectations about their study programme. However, once they were in Russia, students’ perception of the value of their international education experiences changes through varied opportunities for self-reflexivity in an unfamiliar cultural environment. The study also offers an example of methodological approach useful for researching international students’ experiences, particularly within but not limited to context of Sino-Foreign university partnerships.     

Integrating moving average control procedures into the risk-based quality control plan in small-volume medical laboratories

IntroductionThe modern approach to quality control (QC) in medical laboratories implies the development of a risk-based control plan. This paper aims to develop a risk-based QC plan for a laboratory with a small daily testing volume and to integrate the already optimized moving average (MA) control procedures into this plan.Materials and methodsA multistage bracketed QC plan for ten clinical chemistry analytes was made using a Westgard QC frequency calculator. Previously, MA procedures were optimized by the bias detection simulation method.ResultsAspartate aminotransferase, HDL-cholesterol and potassium had patient-risk sigma metrics greater than 6, albumin and cholesterol greater than 5, creatinine, chlorides, calcium and total proteins between 4 and 5, and sodium less than 4. Based on the calculated run sizes and characteristics of optimized MA procedures, for 6 tests, it was possible to replace the monitoring QC procedure with an MA procedure. For the remaining 4 tests, it was necessary to keep the monitoring QC procedure and introduce MA control for added security.ConclusionThis study showed that even in a laboratory with a small volume of daily testing, it is possible to make a risk-based QC plan and integrate MA control procedures into that plan.     

Occupational physical activity, overweight, and mortality: a follow-up study of 47,405 Norwegian women and men

This population-based 24-year follow-up study evaluated the association of occupational physical activity (OPA) with overweight and mortality in 47,405 men and women, healthy at baseline, and reporting OPA as sedentary (reference), light, moderately heavy, or heavy. The adjusted odds ratio for overweight was slightly less than 1 for all categories of current nonsedentary work in men but increased by OPA in women. Only heavy OPA conferred a lower mortality with an adjusted rate ratio of 0.84 (95 % confidence interval, 0.76-0.92) for men and 0.69 (95 % confidence interval, 0.52-0.91) for women. This observational study, with OPA recorded in the 1970s and 1980s, suggested a slight protective effect for overweight by nonsedentary work for men and lower mortality by heavy OPA for both genders.     

Orthodox education in Russian schools: an ideological choice

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ideological, political and social implications of the preference for orientating the public school curriculum in Russia towards Orthodox education. In some regions of the Russian Federation, Orthodox preferences increased by 20% over 4 years, and the indices reflecting enchurchment in the Russian regions are consistently lower than in the Moscow region, especially in rural areas. The confusion of Russian moral and patriotic traditions with Orthodox values and the ideological partnership between the public school authorities and the Orthodox organisations could explain the growth in Orthodox preferences. Although most teachers of the Orthodox curriculum, and most of the parents who choose it for their children, are not practising members of the church, Orthodox education implemented in public schools could result in an outcome opposite to the goals of the Orthodox curriculum.     

Permanent uncertainty as normality? Finnish-Russian double degrees in the post-Crimea world

ABSTRACT

EU-Russia higher education cooperation has continued despite global tensions including Crimea incorporation. One example of this cooperation is the development of Finnish-Russian double degree programmes.

This paper focuses on institutional environments where double degrees develop and asks how and why they produce uncertainty from inside Finnish and Russian universities in the period of this unfavourable political situation. The matryoshka model is applied to understand the institutional environment of a university and the institutions around it. The institutional nature of a double degree is determined by comparative analysis of how internal university stakeholders in Finland and Russia perceive a programme’s benchmarks.

The study is based on the analysis of interviews conducted in partner universities. This paper discusses how perceptions of double degrees influence uncertainty in programme provision within and between institutional environments in Finnish and Russian universities. In addition, the level of institutionalisation of the double degrees may be evaluated.     

Is the Medium the Message? Examining Transactions Conducted via Text in Comparison with Traditional Virtual Reference Methods

Texting is a widespread mode of communication and libraries are experimenting with it to interact with users. This article presents the results of a study on virtual reference service. The authors seek to determine whether or not the texting service is filling a different information need than chat and email by examining the level of difficulty and the topic of questions using these different methods of communication. Findings indicate a marked difference between the type and complexity of questions sent via text and traditional forms of virtual reference, and suggest that texting fills a complimentary role in relation to other traditional virtual reference communication channels used within libraries.     

Occupational Physical Activity,Overweight, and Mortality

Abstract

This population-based 24-year follow-up study evaluated the association of occupational physical activity (OPA) with overweight and mortality in 47,405 men and women, healthy at baseline, and reporting OPA as sedentary (reference), light, moderately heavy, or heavy. The adjusted odds ratio for overweight was slightly less than 1 for all categories of current nonsedentary work in men but increased by OPA in women. Only heavy OPA conferred a lower mortality with an adjusted rate ratio of 0.84 (95% confidence interval, 0.76–0.92) for men and 0.69 (95% confidence interval, 0.52–0.91) for women. This observational study, with OPA recorded in the 1970s and 1980s, suggested a slight protective effect for overweight by nonsedentary work for men and lower mortality by heavy OPA for both genders.     

Departmental academic support for doctoral students in Russia: Categorisation and effects

Departmental academic support plays an important role in a doctoral journey. However, different types of support may be related to different outcomes. This paper aims to provide a categorisation of types of departmental academic support and analyse the relationship between these different categories of support and doctoral students' confidence that they will complete their dissertations. The empirical base for the research is data from a cross-institutional survey of doctoral students at six Russian universities. Based on the results of latent class analysis (LCA), we distinguished six types of departmental academic support depending on the functions performed by supervisors, other faculty members and department heads. Consistent with previous research, we found that departmental academic support plays a crucial role in doctoral students' experiences and outcomes, while lack of support is related to a lower level of confidence about completing a dissertation. At the same time, our results provide evidence that excessive collective engagement in doctoral students' work from departmental staff may be less effective than the strong engagement of a supervisor, assisted by informational support from other staff members.     

Transformation of teacher training in a rapidly evolving digital environment

Education and Information Technologies - Today the increasing level of technology in education requires corresponding skills from the teachers. However, they often do not have them. The purpose of...