Images of the future for education? Videoconferencing: a literature review

In the past two decades, as new capabilities for video communication have emerged, their use in educational contexts has steadily increased. Initially located in higher education, the use of videoconferencing for a broad range of learning purposes is now established in many schools. Although a considerable body of literature exists that describes the experience of videoconferencing using traditional pedagogies, much less has been published on the contextual factors that lead to effective learning outcomes and innovative uses of videoconferencing. The purpose of this review is to establish a baseline for researchers interested in the area. In focusing on educational uses in both higher education and mainstream schooling, the review examines the affordances and barriers to effective teaching and learning, with what are increasingly robust and easy‐to‐use technologies. The paper concludes with a call for further research into the more innovative possibilities of videoconferencing.     

Film Directors

Alexander Sesonske, Jean Renoir: The French Films, 1924-1939 ( Cambridge: Harvard University Press -- $25.00 cloth/ $9.95 paper)

Martin Williams, Griffith: First Artist of of the Movies (New York: Oxford University Press -- $12.95)

Tony Rayns (ed.), Fas sbinder ($8.25 paper/$17.50 cloth)

Peter Baxter (ed.), Sternberg ($9.50 paper/$17.50 cloth)

G. K. Hall "Reference Publications III Film" series (Boston: C.K. Hall, 1979 except 1980 for Penn volume -- at prices shown below)     

It Is Not Just a Matter of Taste: 19th-Century Psychophysics and 21st-Century Sensory Evaluation Surveys of Food and Beverages: A Brief Review with Illustrative Readings

ABSTRACT

Virtually all major food and beverage processing companies employ professional taste-testing panels or conduct consumer preference surveys for appearance, aroma, and texture as well as taste. The literature and procedures underlying this sensory evaluation of foods have a strong basis in the specialty within experimental psychology called psychophysics. Founded in the late 1800s in Germany, psychophysics continues to flourish today in university departments of psychology and teaching hospital departments of neurology and psychiatry. While greatly aided by advances in chemical detection and medical imaging, sensory evaluation is actually still based mostly on eliciting human subject responses to physical and chemical sensations from novel food and beverage products, or from new formulations of familiar products, and then statistically analyzing the respondent's reactions as entered on questionnaires. This article reviews some of the terminology and concepts of psychophysics as applied to the contemporary sensory evaluation of commercially important foods and beverages, and lists selected classic or current research readings related to several enduring questions of test and questionnaire reliability in these intertwined fields.     

The Uncertainty of the eGFR

The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is a parameter derived from the serum creatinine, patient age and gender and is used to ascertain renal function. It is subject to variation because of the analytical error of the creatinine measurement and biological variation. The widespread use of the eGFR to classify renal disease has led to the identification of more patients with marginal chronic kidney disease but because of the uncertainty of the eGFR it has also led to over-diagnosis of some kidney disease. There is a well described age relation with eGFR.The uncertainty of the eGFR at the critical decision level of 60 mL/min/1.73 m² is calculated to be 11. Caution needs to be exercised when interpreting an eGFR between 49 and 71 mL/min/1.73 m².     

HIGH ABILITY STUDENTS WHO DROP OUT FROM BRITISH UNIVERSITIES

During the last thirty years the annual dropout rate from universities in Britain has been fairly constant at around 14 percent In 1990 the financial cost of this carnage was estimated at £ 60,000,000. This study was concerned with 204 highly able students — as measured by school examination successes – who dropped out of universities by the end of the first year of study. Very few did so because the work was too difficult. Despite 45 percent saying they had left “because University did not suit them,” starting again in a new university was a common feature. The students were very unaware of the stress factors associated with leaving home to start life in a new community, and usually did not seem to have counselling support to overcome this early hurdle. Evidence from other studies suggests that the nonresponders were probably less successful in mending their lives than the responders.     

Assessment of Competence in Radiography Education

An action research project concerning the development of clinical assessment procedures in radiography education investigated the views of university‐based clinical lecturers and hospital radiographers concerning the existing assessment framework. Based on the outcomes of this initial review a revised summative assessment tool was developed, including assessment of professional conduct as well as technical competence. Evaluative comment from radiographers and students on the trialling of the tool was positive, and would seem to indicate a sound basis for further development.     

An overview of Prolog debugging tools

In this paper we present an overview of the advances in debugging standard Prolog programs. The analysis offered is in terms of a classification of tools that provide different degrees of activity in the debugging process. Other possible dimensions of analysis are also outlined.