Resting MAPK expression in chronically trained endurance runners

Purpose: There is a paucity of research investigating the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) in chronically trained (CT) athletes. Thus, it is unclear how MAPK may contribute to performance and muscle adaptation in CT subjects. The purpose of this study was to determine MAPK total protein, and phosphorylated expression of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38-MAPK (p38) between untrained, and chronically trained runners. Methods: Tissue samples were analysed from sedentary (SED; n?=?5) controls and chronically trained runners (CT; n?=?5). Resting muscle biopsy samples were analysed for total-MAPK – and ratio of phosphorylated/total (p-MAPK) – ERK1/2, JNK, and p38-MAPK via western blotting. Mann–Whitney U tests and effect sizes were utilized to determine differences in total MAPK protein content and phosphorylation status between SED and CT subjects. Results: There was no difference in total-MAPK expression between SED and CT (p?>?.05). p-p38-MAPK tended to be greater for CT compared to SED (p?=?.07). There were moderate effect sizes of decreased pERK/total-ERK (d?=??0.69) and increased pJNK/total-JNK (d?=?0.54) in CT compared to SED. There was a positive correlation between p-p38-MAPK/total-MAPK and the percentage of type I fibres (r?=?0.73, p?=?.016). Conclusion: Contrary to previous studies, chronic endurance training does not greatly influence total MAPK protein expression in chronically trained runners. However, resting phosphorylation of p38-MAPK may contribute to enhanced oxidative metabolism at chronically trained levels. These alterations are likely involved in the different physiological adaptations that occur following long-term training or at highly competitive levels.     

Formative Automated Computer Testing (FACT)

This study describes the context for the development of a tool to formatively assess information technology skills of students. The tool provides a reliable and valid assessment of word processing competency, utilizing automation to apply the test instrument via the Microsoft Office package. Tests can be designed directly by tutors, and delivered via a network. Evaluation of the tests suggests that immediate automated testing is preferred by students compared to a traditional written test. There is evidence that the tool improves the IT skills of its users, whereas a traditional written test has no such beneficial effect.     

“Fixing” the “Facts”: flexible learning as policy invention

This article examines the contemporary move within the Australian university context towards flexible learning. Drawing on the notions of policy as text and discourse, it is suggested that policies seek to provide authoritative meanings for practices they promote — to fix the facts about which they speak. The article explores the emergence of discourses of flexible learning as effects of policy texts and changes within the social formation. These discourses resonate with those already operating within the social formation, and in this may have effects other than those immediately apparent. An initial analysis of Australian higher education policy texts indicates a contemporary diversification of the use of the metaphor of flexibility as a discursive strategy through which mechanisms of governance can be intensified.     

Open learning: Politics or pedagogy?

This paper is intended to contribute to the discussion of the meaning of open learning. The trend in higher education in Australia towards open learning is seen to be politically driven. We argue that the lack of educational debate over its meaning and implications allows us to presume that open learning is of social value, while in reality it may have the power to create anew binary divide in higher education or to re‐fashion entirely what constitutes knowledge within society. In order to ‘de‐reify’ the term we argue that a critical examination of its meaning, from a political as well as pedagogical perspective, is necessary.     

Finopower: Governing Intersections Between Gambling and Finance

Regulatory distinctions between “problem” and “recreational” gambling have contributed to the neglect of important discursive and cultural practices at the intersection of finance and gambling. This intersection is now sufficiently formative of everyday life and popular culture to warrant closer scrutiny within cultural studies research. Through a range of examples, I elaborate the concept of “finopower” as a specific kind of governmentality through which individuals negotiate the mutual imbrications of gambling and finance. The final part of the article draws on theories of “post-disciplinary” societies to explore social and political implications of cultural distinctions between skill and chance-based games.     

‘Flexible learning'—unsettling practices

This paper explores the significance and effects of contemporary moves towards ‘flexible learning’ within Australian institutions of education and training. Arguing that there is a tendency within discourses of pedagogy and policy to assume that flexible learning signifies merely a ‘better'form for the delivery of learning, the possibilities that it may be a practice that changes the content or outcomes of learning itself are discussed. A ‘story’ is developed which suggests that flexible learning may have the potential to change both the identities of learners and teachers and knowledge itself in quite unsettling ways.     

Reading policy texts: lifelong learning as metaphor

As lifelong learning becomes a greater focus for policy at local, national and supranational levels, a question emerges as to how to engage in policy analysis. This is a debate, which is already taking place in relation to policy analysis in other sectors of education. However, this has had little influence on policy studies in lifelong learning. This paper reviews the wider debates and argues for the productiveness of a discursive approach to policy analysis. In particular, it argues that the notion of metaphor can be deployed in such analysis to good effect. This is illustrated through an initial analysis of the UK government's 1998 Green Paper, The Learning Age: a Renaissance for a New Britain.     

Growing up in the Federal Republic of Germany: chance and risk in a modern Sozialstaat 1

This paper seeks to extend work previously published that points to the importance of rhetorical analysis to policy studies. It argues against the notion that policy can be dismissed as ‘spin’ and explores further the work of rhetoric within the UK government’s policy texts of lifelong learning. For the authors, rhetorical analysis helps to point to the politics of discourse that is at play in policy‐making processes. This paper points to some of the conceptual resources upon which one can draw in undertaking rhetorical deconstructions of policy texts and discourses, in this case, of lifelong learning, and one’s own role, as analysts and sultans of spin.