Hardware gimmick or cultural innovation? Technological, cultural, and social foundations of the Japanese video game industry

This paper examines the role of creative resources in the emergence of the Japanese video game industry. We argue that creative resources nurtured by popular cartoons and animation sector, combined with technological knowledge accumulated in the consumer electronics industry, facilitated the emergence of successful video game industry in Japan. First we trace the development of the industry from its origin to the rise of platform developers and software publishers. Then, knowledge and creative foundations that influenced the developmental trajectory of this industry are analyzed, with links to consumer electronics and in regards to cartoons and animation industry.     

Differences in African‐American and European‐American students' engagement with nanotechnology experiences: Perceptual position or assessment artifact?

This study examined middle and high school students' perceptions of a weeklong science experience with nanotechnology and atomic force microscopy. Through an examination of student self assessments and their writing, the study allowed us to examine some of the issues that may contribute to discrepancies that are seen between European‐American and African‐American students in science. The results of the study showed that after instruction, African‐American students were significantly more likely to agree with the statement that “science involves mostly memorizing things and getting the right answer,” than European‐American students. In addition, European‐American students were significantly more likely to write their newspaper stories from a first person perspective than their African‐American peers. The results are discussed in light of the assessment task, students' interpretations of formal writing, cultural differences in the use of language in writing, and possible cultural differences in students' perceptions of the science experience. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 787–799, 2007     

全球化下日本公民馆的发展及其社会影响

公民馆是日本社会环境下独特的产物,在日本的社会教育中居于相当重要的地位,对日本社会的影响至为深远。公民馆是一种从小区中发展出来的自发性组织,是集综合社会教育、社交娱乐、自治区振兴、产业振兴、青年养成等目的于一体的中心机构。公民馆以《社会教育法》为推动的政策依据,自战后以来,历经设置期、稳定期、探索期、改革期至停滞期等阶段。近年日本地方自治体出现发展新动向,即指定管理者制度的产生和非营利性组织的参与,这给公民馆运营带来变化,社会教育的小区共同体意识出现瓦解。因此继承公民馆理念,实现小区共同体再生,是日本终身教育今后发展值得关注的问题。     

Habituation may contribute to within-session decreases in responding under high-rate schedules of reinforcement

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that habituation contributes to within-session decreases in responding. In Experiment 1, rats’ leverpressing was reinforced under a fixed ratio (FR) 4 schedule throughout the baseline sessions. During the dishabituation sessions, the first 21 min and the last 21 min were FR 4; dishabituating events occurred during the middle 3 min. The dishabituating events altered the manner of reinforcer delivery in four different ways. Response rates increased after all dishabituating events. In Experiment 2, rats responded on several FR and variable ratio (VR) schedules. The ratio requirement varied from 3 to 15. Within-session decreases in responding were steeper during FR schedules than during VR schedules. In addition, response rates were well described as linear functions of cumulative number of food pellets eaten within sessions. These results support the habituation hypothesis but do not rule out the possibility that other satiety variables might contribute simultaneously.     

Popular social media as a tool for enhancing community-based end-of-life care education for healthcare professionals: a formative study

The purpose of this study is twofold: to assess the acceptance and usefulness of Nagoya University Small Private Online Courses, which is an online end-of-life care educational program through popular social media designed to supplement traditional end-of-life care education among healthcare professionals and to get constructive feedback with the aim of enhancing the impact of the program on fundamental knowledge of and attitudes toward end-of-life care provision. All 107 participants nationwide enrolled in this educational program completed the entire study. We found evidence of the beneficial effect of the social media strategies on participants’ knowledge and practice toward end-of-life care. In addition, data analyses provided insights into modifiable factors associated with learners’ active participation.     

An empirical study of the effects of decentralization in Indonesian junior secondary education

Decentralization in the education system has become a trend in many developing countries. However, it is not a solution to the many problems in education faced by these countries. One of the adverse effects of decentralization is disparity between regions or schools in terms of educational achievement. This paper offers a justification for such a view by studying the case of the Indonesian education system. Data was collected from about 5,000 Sekolah Lanjutan Tingkat Pertama (SLTP) schools (junior secondary schools). The method of covariance structure analysis was used to identify the influences and effects of factors related to educational environment upon educational outcome, and to make a comparison between before and after the introduction of decentralization in Indonesia. The main finding of this research is that increase in the school budget improves the quality of the educational environment and leads to higher test scores and lower dropout rates. Such positive results, however, turned out to be less significant, and the relationship between factors became weaker, during the period after decentralization had started. This was particularly the case for the group of schools whose budget level was relatively small. Therefore, there is a need to consider measures aimed at correcting the disparity between schools as well as regions.     

Habitual rowing exercise is associated with high physical fitness without affecting arterial stiffness in older men

The present study elucidated the effects of habitual rowing exercise on arterial stiffness and plasma levels of the vasoconstrictor endothelin-1 and the vasodilator nitric oxide (NO) in older men. Eleven rowers (68.0 ± 1.6 years) and 11 sedentary control older men (64.9 ± 1.1 years) were studied. Peak oxygen uptake (36.0 ± 1.7 vs. 27.7 ±1.9 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)), leg press power (1346 ± 99 vs. 1077 ± 68 W), and HDL-cholesterol (75 ± 5 vs. 58 ±3 mg · ml(-1)) were higher and triglyceride (78 ± 9 vs. 120 ± 14 mg · ml(-1)) was lower in rowers than in control participants (all P < 0.05). Arterial stiffness indices (carotid β-stiffness and cardio-ankle vascular index) and plasma endothelin-1 and NOx (nitrite + nitrate) levels did not differ between the two groups. These results suggest that habitual rowing exercise in older men is associated with high muscle power and aerobic capacity, and favourable blood lipid profile without affecting arterial stiffness or plasma levels of endotheline-1 and NO.     

Application of the Triad Training Model in a Multicultural Counseling Course

The authors investigated the effectiveness of the Triad Training Model (P. Pedersen, 1994a, 1994b, 2000a, 2000b) on influencing counselor empathy, intolerance for ambiguity, and multicultural competency by using a quasi‐experimental treatment group comparison design. No significant differences among the triad training group and two comparison groups were found. However, the changes in multicultural competency scores within the treatment group were found to be significant. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Toddlers' Sensitivity to Standard Violations

Young children's emerging sensitivity to standard violations has been postulated, but not systematically examined, as an important aspect of early morality. In this study, we observed 100 26–41-month-old toddlers in contexts that involved standard violations. In one context, children were shown flawed and whole objects. In the other context, they were led to believe they had damaged the examiners' valued possessions ("mishaps"). When presented with the flawed and whole objects, toddlers expressed preference for the latter, but showed more interest in the former, thus indicating that the whole-flawed quality was salient. Verbal and nonverbal reactions reflecting sensitivity to the whole-flawed aspects were interrelated. Moreover, manifestations of sensitivity to flawed objects were associated with several behavioral and affective responses during the contrived mishaps (acceptance of responsibility, apologies, focus on reparations, and distress). Thus, sensitivity to standard violations in toddlerhood appeared to be a general phenomenon underlying different aspects of early morality.     

Conceptual boundaries and distances: Students' and experts' concepts of the scale of scientific phenomena

To reduce curricular fragmentation in science education, reform recommendations include using common, unifying themes such as scaling to enhance curricular coherence. This study involved 215 participants from five groups (grades 5, 7, 9, and 12, and doctoral students), who completed written assessments and card sort tasks related to their conceptions of size and scale, and then completed individual interviews. Results triangulated from the data sources revealed the boundaries between and characteristics of scale size ranges that are well distinguished from each other for each group. Results indicate that relative size information was more readily understood than exact size, and significant size landmarks were used to anchor this relational web of scales. The nature of past experiences situated along two dimensions—from visual to kinesthetic in one dimension, and wholistic to sequential in the other—were shown to be key to scale cognition development. Commonalities and differences between the groups are highlighted and discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 282–319, 2006