Investigating the quality of interactions and public engagement around scientific papers on Twitter

This study explores science communication on Twitter by investigating a sample of tweets referring to academic papers in five different scientific fields. The specifications of science communicators on Twitter, the characteristics of those who initiate actions (by tweeting), the extent and quality of reactions (retweeting), individual and group interactions, and the distribution of tweets across types of engagement in the process of science communication (i.e., dissemination, consultation, and evaluation) were explored. A broad array of actors is involved in the communication of science on Twitter, with individual citizens and individual researchers playing an important role. In principle, this is promising for creating direct interaction, which can be difficult through more traditional mass media. The vast majority of communication activities regarding academic papers is undigested dissemination with almost no sign of debate, contestation, or collective reflection. Another general finding of this study is that bot accounts play a major role in the science communication landscape on Twitter.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Minerva</Emphasis> and the Development of Science (Policy) Studies

This article analyzes the transformation of Minerva from an intellectual towards a scholarly journal by making use of bibliometric methods. The aim is to provide some empirical insights that help to understand what properties of the journal changed in the course of this transformation process. Minerva was one of the first journals that reflected on science and its role in society and science policy in particular. Analyzing the development of the journal sheds light on the emergence of science (policy) studies and on Minerva’s role as a forerunner in this field. In a first step, the methods will be described. The second section provides some empirical results of the publication output of Minerva and its relations to other journals in the field. The empirical findings are put into a broader perspective in the concluding third section.     

Learning by starch potato growers: learning in small businesses with no employees

In small businesses with no employees, learning environments have a low learning readiness. Consequently, learners need to rely on their own agency to shape their learning experiences. Results from a study of agricultural entrepreneurs indicated that the components of motivation and self-regulated learning strategies shape learner's agency and explain learning environment configuration in small businesses with no employees. Configuration of the learning environment was found to be a weak determinant of the learning performance of these learners. However, results showed that prior performance of learners in small businesses with no employees dictates how their agency operates and what learning effect is achieved; higher prior performance results in higher learning effects. We conclude that mechanisms that underlie learning in traditional learning environments work similarly in learning environments in small businesses with no employees.     

Recovery of pulmonary diffusing capacity after maximal exercise

Abstract

Pulmonary diffusing capacity (Dl_co), together with spirometric variables, arterial oxygen tension (paO₂) and cardiac output were determined before and at intervals after maximal arm cranking, treadmill running and erogmeter rowing. Independent of the type of exercise, Dl_co increased immediately post‐exercise from a median 13.6 (range 7.3–16.3) to 15.1 (9.3–19.6) mmol min^‐1 kPa^‐1 (P <0.01). However, it decreased to 11.6 (6.9–15.5) mmol min^‐1 kPa^‐1 (P <0.01) after 24 h with cardiac output and paO₂ at resting values, and Dl_co normalized after 20 h. Thoracic electrical impedance at 2.5 and 100 kHz increased slightly post‐exercise, indicating a decrease in thoracic fluid balance, and there were no echocardiographic signs of left ventricular failure at the time of the decrease in Dl_co. Also, active muscle (limb) circumference and volume, and an increase in haematocrit from 43.8 (38.0–47.0) to 47.1 (42.7–49.8) (P <0.01), had normalized at the time of the decrease in Dl_co. Vital capacity, forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in 1 s, peak and peak mid‐expiratory flows did not change. However, total lung capacity increased from 6.8 (5.0–7.6) to 7.0 (5.1–7.8) litres (P <0.05) immediately after exercise and remained elevated at 6.9 (5.1–8.7) litres (P <0.05) when a decrease in Dl_co was noted. The results demonstrate that independent of the type of maximal exercise, an approximate 15% reduction in Dl_co takes place 2–3 h post‐exercise, which normalizes during the following day of recovery.     

Biomechanics of the ski cross start indoors on a customised training ramp and outdoors on snow

An effective start enhances an athlete's chances of success in ski cross competitions. Accordingly, this study was designed to investigate the biomechanics of start techniques used by elite athletes and assess the influence of different start environments. Seven elite ski cross athletes performed starts indoors on a custom-built ramp; six of these also performed starts on an outdoor slope. Horizontal and vertical forces were measured by force transducers located in the handles of the start gate and a 12-camera motion capture system allowed monitoring of the sagittal knee, hip, shoulder, and elbow kinematics. The starting movement involved Pre, Pull, and Push phases. Significant differences between body sides were observed for peak vertical and resultant forces, resultant impulse, and peak angular velocity of the shoulder joint. Significantly lower peak vertical forces (44 N), higher resultant impulse (0.114 Ns/kg), and knee joint range of motion (12°) were observed indoors. Although movement in the ski cross start is generally symmetrical, asymmetric patterns of force were observed among the athletes. Two different movement strategies, i.e. pronounced hip extension or more accentuated elbow flexion, were utilised in the Pull phase. The patterns of force and movement during the indoor and outdoor starts were similar.     

Conveying clinical reasoning based on visual observation via eye-movement modelling examples

Complex perceptual tasks, like clinical reasoning based on visual observations of patients, require not only conceptual knowledge about diagnostic classes but also the skills to visually search for symptoms and interpret these observations. However, medical education so far has focused very little on how visual observation skills can be efficiently conveyed to novices. The current study applied a novel instructional method to teach these skills by showing the learners how an expert model visually searches and interprets symptoms (i.e., eye-movement modelling examples; EMMEs). Case videos of patients were verbally explained by a model (control condition) and presented to students. In the experimental conditions, the participants received a recording of the model’s eye movements superimposed on the case videos. The eye movements were displayed by either highlighting the features the model focused on with a circle (the circle condition) or by blurring the features the model did not focus on (the spotlight condition). Compared to the other two conditions, results show that a spotlight on the case videos better guides the students’ attention towards the relevant features. Moreover, when testing the students’ clinical reasoning skills with videos of new patient cases without any guidance, participants studying EMMEs with a spotlight showed improved their visual search and enhanced interpretation performance of the symptoms in contrast to participants in either the circle or the control condition. These findings show that a spotlight EMME can successfully convey clinical reasoning based on visual observations.     

Analysing teachers' operations when teaching students: what constitutes scientific theories?

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to analyse teachers’ efforts to develop secondary school students’ knowledge and argumentation skills of what constitutes scientific theories. The analysis is based on Leontiev’s three-level structure of activity (activity, action, and operation), as these levels correspond to the questions why, what, and how content is taught. The unit of analysis was a school development project in science education, where design-based interventions were conducted. Data comprised notes and minutes from eight meetings, plans, and video recordings of the lessons, and a written teacher evaluation. The teachers’ (n = 7) learning actions were analysed to identify (a) concept formation in science education, (b) expressions of agency, (c) discursive manifestations of contradictions, and (d) patterns of interaction during the science interventions. Three lessons on what constitutes scientific theories were implemented in three different student groups (n = 24, 23, 24), framed by planning and evaluation meetings for each lesson. The results describe (1) the ways in which teachers became more skilled at ensuring instruction met their students’ needs and (2) the ways in which teachers’ operations during instruction changed as a result of their developed knowledge of how to express the content based on theoretical assumptions.     

Behavioural disorders in Danish schools: a qualitative analysis of background factors

A national survey has shown that the incidence of serious behavioural problems in Danish schools stands at 10 per cent. The present qualitative study makes use of a broad-spectrum ecological model in the search for aetiological factors underlying behavioural disturbance. The study covers 34 typical Danish schools matched in pairs on the basis of degree of disturbance in the national survey. The results indicate behavioural problems to be related more to system factors than to purely individual factors.     

Renal lactate elimination is maintained during moderate exercise in humans

Reduced hepatic lactate elimination initiates blood lactate accumulation during incremental exercise. In this study, we wished to determine whether renal lactate elimination contributes to the initiation of blood lactate accumulation. The renal arterial-to-venous (a-v) lactate difference was determined in nine men during sodium lactate infusion to enhance the evaluation (0.5 mol x L(-1) at 16 ± 1 mL x min(-1); mean ± s) both at rest and during cycling exercise (heart rate 139 ± 5 beats x min(-1)). The renal release of erythropoietin was used to detect kidney tissue ischaemia. At rest, the a-v O(2) (CaO(2)-CvO(2)) and lactate concentration differences were 0.8 ± 0.2 and 0.02 ± 0.02 mmol x L(-1), respectively. During exercise, arterial lactate and CaO(2)-CvO(2) increased to 7.1 ± 1.1 and 2.6 ± 0.8 mmol x L(-1), respectively (P < 0.05), indicating a -70% reduction of renal blood flow with no significant change in the renal venous erythropoietin concentration (0.8 ± 1.4 U x L(-1)). The a-v lactate concentration difference increased to 0.5 ± 0.8 mmol x L(-1), indicating similar lactate elimination as at rest. In conclusion, a -70% reduction in renal blood flow does not provoke critical renal ischaemia, and renal lactate elimination is maintained. Thus, kidney lactate elimination is unlikely to contribute to the initial blood lactate accumulation during progressive exercise.