`To Relate Knowledge and Action': the Impact of the Rockefeller Foundation on Foreign Policy Thinking during America's Rise to Globalism 1939–1945

The Rockefeller Foundation played a key role inthe shift from `isolationism' to globalism inUS foreign policy between 1939 and 1945. TheFoundation utilised its considerable financialresources in a conscious and systematic attemptto assist official policymakers and academicsto build a new globalist consensus within thestate and public opinion. The article testsfour theoretical models that have been used todescribe Rockefeller initiatives. It concludesthat a Gramscian analysis provides the mosthelpful way of understanding the Foundation'srole in American foreign affairs.     

Freirean critical consciousness in a refugee context: a case study of Syrian refugees in Jordan

This paper argues that education underpinned by critical pedagogies offers an alternative for engaging with the complexities of conflict, peace and social transformation in refugee contexts. Drawing upon a semi-ethnographic qualitative study with a focus on a non-formal educational programme for supporting Jordanian and Syrian refugee youth, we find that participatory pedagogies provide a promising mechanism for reaching out-of-school refugees in host communities. However, a series of intersecting factors, namely the perception that empowerment education is antithetical to the goal of gaining certification, leads to manipulation of the pedagogies. Hence, empowerment education risks being co-opted by the ‘banking model’ of education. The paper critiques the dominant market-oriented education and suggests an alternative approach to engage with challenges in refugee contexts.     

Introduction of vertical integration and case-based learning in anatomy for undergraduate physical therapy and occupational therapy students

The purpose of the present pilot study was to evaluate the benefits of innovative teaching methodologies introduced to final year occupational and physical therapy students in Christian Medical College in India. Students' satisfactions along the long-term retention of knowledge and clinical application of the respiratory anatomy have been assessed. The final year undergraduate physical therapy and occupational therapy students had respiratory anatomy teaching over two sessions. The teaching involved case-based learning and integrated anatomy lectures (vertical integration) with the Anatomy department. Pretest and immediate and follow-up post-tests were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the innovative methods. A feedback questionnaire was marked to grade case-based learning. The method of integrated and case-based teaching was appreciated and found to be useful in imparting knowledge to the students. Students retained the gained knowledge adequately and the same was inferred by statistically significant improvement in both post-test scores. Vertical integration of anatomy in the final year reinforces their existing knowledge of anatomy. Case-based learning may facilitate the development of effective and clinically sound therapists.     

Effect of time on biomechanics during exercise on the functional re-adaptive exercise device

ABSTRACT

Mechanistic studies of the Functional Re-adaptive Exercise Device (FRED) have shown it automatically recruits Lumbar Multifidus (LM) and Transversus Abdominis (TrA) – two deep-spinal muscles that are atrophied and show altered motor control in low back pain (LBP). No studies have investigated the time required to familiarise to FRED exercise, which is required to inform future FRED based clinical trial protocols. This study therefore determined the effect of time, during FRED exercise, on biomechanical outcome measures, to establish the familiarisation period, and assess for loss of technique throughout a ten minute trial. A cohort comparison study of 148 participants, 70 experiencing low back pain, had lumbopelvic kinematics, exercise frequency and movement variability measured during a 10 minute trial. Magnitude-based inference was used to assess for familiarisation, using plots of variation over time with familiarised reference ranges. The no pain group took 170 seconds, and the back pain group took 150 seconds, to familiarise. A familiarisation period of at least 170 seconds (2.8 minutes) is recommended. This justifies, and provides a familiarisation time for use of the FRED as a motor control intervention.     

Age and sex related variations in the levels of tear proteins in healthy Indian people

In 150 healthy Indians, aged 10 months to 84 years, levels of total proteins. IgA, IgG and lysozyme in tears have been estimated to find age and sex, related variations. No sex related changes, were observed but levels increased significantly with advancing age upto 30 years, remained stationary between 31–45 years, and started declining thereafter, Immunoglobulin G was quantifable in 26% cases only. Furthermore, tear samples with high concentrations of total proteins had high level of IgA and lysozyme.