The nature of American student reentry adjustment and perceptions of the sojourn experience

This study investigated reentry adjustment experiences of American students after an extended sojourn abroad. Fifty-eight overseas sojourners were compared to 74 domestic travellers and findings indicated that the returnees from abroad experienced much greater reentry adjustment problems. The results support previous studies which document the existence of the reentry adjustment phenomenon. Results revealed that changes in the individual's value structure are an important factor that is associated with reentry adjustment. This study underscores previous research which states that the reentry transitional period includes positive and growthful aspects for the returnees.     

Contextualised skill acquisition research: a new framework to study the development of sport expertise

Background: Under the view of dynamical system theory, expertise in sports emerges from the interaction of multiple constraints. At an individual level, important interactions amongst constraints could include the relationships that evolve between one's family, playmates/coaches, and specific training activities. Or more broadly, other environmental constraints can be the strong socio-cultural-historical contexts that influence expertise development in sports around the world, such as rugby (e.g. New Zealand) and football (e.g. Brazil). An increasing number of studies have demonstrated the influence of environmental constraints on the development of sport expertise. Whilst making important contributions to knowledge, such studies have been limited in scope and fail to consider in depth how informal and even aversive learning environment constraints affect skills development.

Objective: The objective of this paper is to outline a new contextualised approach to studying socio-cultural constraints on individuals, proposing an interpretive, multi-method approach to holistically investigate the interacting constraints on an athlete's development pathway.

Aims: We explain a rationale for adopting an interpretive research paradigm (in contrast to traditional positivist approaches) for exploring socio-cultural constraints. The epistemological and methodological assumptions of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model of Human Development are proposed as an underpinning framework for data collection and organisation of material. We advocate for ethnographic strategies of inquiry, followed by a discussion of potential methods for generating and analysing data: contextual analysis, participant-observation, and open-ended interviews. Finally, we discuss evaluation criteria for this contextualised approach viewed from a coherence theory of truth.

Purpose: This position statement seeks to: (1) promote methodological possibilities to investigate the effect of socio cultural constraints on expertise acquisition in sport and (2) offer significant new theoretical and epistemological insights from the constraints-led approach to expertise and to integrate some of the interdisciplinary differences that exist in the body of sciences.

Final thoughts: Our tentative contribution to the development of the proposed contextualised skill acquisition research framework is to build bridges across the methodological boundaries between sociology and motor learning in the first instance, rather than offering a unifying approach for the whole field. We hope that this position statement will provide a foundation for future related empirical papers and to stimulate other researchers to consider the framework for their own investigations of motor learning in the field.     

翻译视角下的昭和哲学--京都学派的书写方式

文章所探讨的是寻找所谓“翻译哲学”的依据。首先阐述了什么是“翻译哲学”,进而选择1930年代的京都学派,尤其是以田边元、三木清、西田几多郎为中心,以“翻译哲学”为视角来考察了他们对翻译的见解以及他们的书写方式。     

The relationship between self-concept and achievement in TIMSS 2007: A comparison between American and Japanese students

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between eighth-grade students?? maths-related self-concepts and their achievements in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007. The students?? maths self-concept was compared with other variables, namely their mothers?? education, their fathers?? education and the amount of books held in the students?? households. To investigate the potential role of culture, a comparison between American and Japanese students?? scores was also included. The findings demonstrated that students?? maths self-concept was positively associated with their achievement both in the United States and Japan, but Japanese students, while having higher achievement, had a lower maths self-concept than American students. Maternal education, paternal education and the number of books at home were also found to be positively related to achievement. Examining standardised coefficients, the study confirmed a strong interaction between maths self-concept and country, as well as a positive connection between maths self-concept as such (irrespective of the country) with maths achievement.     

功绩可歌,友谊长存——祝贺段文杰先生90华诞

一 今年八月,我们敬爱的段文杰先生迎来了九十华诞.在段先生从事敦煌艺术事业的六十年间,作为艺术家,作为研究者,也作为管理者,他在不同的领域都作出了卓越的成绩.我们在祝贺段文杰先生九十华诞的同时,也为他取得的成绩而赞叹.     

Absence of postzygotic isolating mechanisms: evidence from experimental hybridization between two species of tropical sea urchins

Two reef margin species of tropical sea urchins, Echinometra sp. C (Ec) and Echinometra oblonga (Eo), occur sympatrically on Okinawa intertidal reefs in southern Japan. Hybridization between these species was examined through a series of cross-fertilization experiments. At limited sperm concentrations, where conspecific crosses reached near 100% fertilization, both heterospecific crosses showed high fertilization rates (81%–85%). The compatibility of the gametes demonstrated that if gamete recognition molecules are involved in fertilization of these species, they are not strongly species-specific. We found that conspecific crosses reached peak fertilization levels much faster than did heterospecific crosses, indicating the presence of a prezygotic barrier to hybridization in the gametes. Larval survival, metamorphosis, and juvenile and adult survival of hybrid groups were nearly identical to those of their parent species. Hybrids from crosses in both directions developed normally through larval stages to sexually mature adults, indicating that neither gametic incompatibility nor hybrid inviability appeared to maintain reproductive isolation between these species. In adults, Ec×Ec crosses gave the highest live weight, followed by Eo (ova)×Ec (sperm), Ec (ova)×Eo (sperm), and Eo×Eo. Other growth performance measures (viz., test size, Aristotle’s lantern length, and gonad index) of hybrid groups and their parental siblings showed the same trends. The phenotypic color patterns of the hybrids were closer to the maternal coloration, whereas spine length, tube-foot and gonad spicule characteristics, pedicellaria valve length, and gamete sizes showed intermediate features. Adult F₁ hybrids were completely fertile and displayed high fertilization success in F₁ backcrosses, eliminating the likelihood that hybrid sterility is a postzygotic mechanism of reproductive isolation. Conversely, intensive surveys failed to find hybrid individuals in the field, suggesting the lack or rarity of natural hybridization. This strongly suggests that reproductive isolation is achieved by prezygotic isolating mechanism(s). Of these mechanisms, habitat segregation, gamete competition, differences in spawning times, gametic incompatibility or other genetic and non-genetic factors appear to be important in maintaining the integrity of these species.     

Students’ perceptions of a marine education program at a junior high school in Japan with a specific focus on Satoumi

In many coastal areas of Japan, local fishermen manage fish and other marine resources in a sustainable manner. Such areas are referred to as Satoumi. In this study, we focused on Hinase Junior High School in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, which is implementing a proactive marine education program in collaboration with local fishermen to maintain Satoumi. We conducted semi-structured interviews with the students (n = 108; thirty-six students in each grade [seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-graders]) at Hinase Junior High School. Using the grounded theory, we identified students’ perceptions of this program as well as of the sea. The results revealed that the program appears to have changed students’ perceptions, such as recognizing the importance of the sea and eelgrass as well as their behavior such that they no longer throw waste into the sea. The higher the grade level was, the more that students felt close to and were willing to care for the sea. Our study suggests that the program has helped to develop individuals who are knowledgeable about the fishing community of Hinase, fishermen’s roles, and activities that would contribute to biodiversity conservation and who are motivated to conserve Satoumi in the future.