New Education in Old Europe

The article gives a survey about the development of archival education in some central European countries within the past 15 years. Although there are similar problems and challenges in all these countries, the different Universities and Archives Schools have developed different strategies for dealing with them. The range of reactions reaches from small reforms of the curriculum to completely new orientations of the entire education.     

Spatial scientometrics: Towards a cumulative research program

We propose a research program to analyse spatial aspects of the science system. First, we provide a review of scientometric studies that already explicitly take the spatial dimension into account. The review includes studies on (i) the spatial distribution of research and citations, (ii) the existence of spatial biases in collaboration, citations and mobility, and (iii) the citation impact of national versus international collaborations. Then, we address a number of methodological issues in dealing with space in scientometrics. Finally, to integrate spatial and non-spatial approaches, we propose an analytical framework based on the concept of proximity. A proximity approach allows for combining hypotheses from different theoretical perspectives into a single framework.     

Parallel assessment of nutrition and activity in athletes: Validation against doubly labelled water, 24-h urea excretion,and indirect calorimetry

Abstract

The assessment of nutrition and activity in athletes requires accurate and precise methods. The aim of this study was to validate a protocol for parallel assessment of diet and exercise against doubly labelled water, 24-h urea excretion, and respiratory gas exchange. The participants were 14 male triathletes under normal training conditions. Energy intake and doubly labelled water were weakly associated with each other (r = 0.69, standard error of estimate [SEE] = 304 kcal · day^?1). Protein intake was strongly correlated with 24-h urea (r = 0.89) but showed considerable individual variation (SEE = 0.34 g · kg^?1 · day^?1). Total energy expenditure based on recorded activities was highly correlated with doubly labelled water (r = 0.95, SEE = 195 kcal · day^?1) but was proportionally biased. During running and cycling, estimated exercise energy expenditure was highly correlated with gas exchange (running: r = 0.89, SEE = 1.6 kcal · min^?1; cycling: r = 0.95, SEE = 1.4 kcal · min^?1). High exercise energy expenditure was slightly underestimated during running. For nutrition data, variations appear too large for precise measurements in individual athletes, which is a common problem of dietary assessment methods. Despite the high correlations of total energy expenditure and exercise energy expenditure with reference methods, a correction for systematic errors is necessary for the valid estimation of energetic requirements in individual athletes.     

Citizenship education and the reparation of future teachers : A study

This study examines the views of future teachers of social studies regarding significant global trends, required citizen characteristics, and necessary educational strategies to develop the said characteristics. The study builds upon the landmark work of the nine-nation Citizenship Education Policy Study (CEPS I) carried out in the late 1990s that resulted in the model calledmultidimensional citizenship. The original work focused on the views of policy makers and scholars. The present research, CEPS II, is a follow-up study that seeks to determine the views of the next generation of those who will teach citizenship and civic education through social studies programs in seven participant societies: China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, The Netherlands, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States of America. The results suggest that the future teachers, when compared with the policy experts and scholars in the original CEPS I study, are more optimistic about the future and are more oriented towards personal development and participatory behaviors that will positively impact the common good.     

The eternal flower of the child: The recognition of childhood in Zeami’s educational theory of Noh theatre

European theorists of childhood still tend to locate the first positive acknowledgements of childhood as a human developmental period in its own positive right between the 16th and 18th century in Europe. Even though the findings of Ariès have been constantly challenged, it still remains a commonplace, especially within the history of education, to refer to Jean-Jacques Rousseau of the 18th century as one of the earliest and most prominent conceptualisers of childhood as a positive period that must not be evaluated in the light of its distance to adulthood but for its inherent value as an important and unmissable period of human life. Such a view is as unhistorical as it is biased and eurocentred. This article endeavours to shed at least a small light on the history of education and of childhood outwith the usual focus. The central objects of examination are the theoretical treatises of Zeami Motokiyo regarding the Noh theatre which have long been recognised as one of the great cultural achievements of humankind. Despite their acknowledged importance, theorists of education have hardly engaged with these treatises even though they present us with a whole theory of education that also embraces a very original and positive theory of childhood. Given that the treatises originate from the 14th-early 15th century, they pre-date everything the typical Western History of Education would bring forth as the beginning of a positive childhood and a pedagogy that acts accordingly.     

A real options perspective on R&D portfolio diversification

This paper shows that the conditionality of investment decisions in R&D has a critical impact on portfolio risk, and implies that traditional diversification strategies should be reevaluated when a portfolio is constructed. Real option theory argues that research projects have conditional or option-like risk and return properties, and are different from unconditional projects. Although the risk of a portfolio always depends on the correlation between projects, a portfolio of conditional R&D projects with real option characteristics has a fundamentally different risk than a portfolio of unconditional projects. When conditional R&D projects are negatively correlated, diversification only slightly reduces portfolio risk. When projects are positively correlated, however, diversification proves more effective than conventional tools predict.     

What do students gain from games? Dice games vs word problems

Learning the fundamentals of probability and random variables can be a struggle for many students. Games by their nature require active participation and reward mastery, lending naturally to the framework of active learning. In this study, we designed and evaluated the efficacy of a lab activity using a game where strategy hinges on sums of dice to teach about linear combinations of independent random variables. We found that both activities lead to improved understandings of course concepts, but the dice game provided increased student engagement and interest.     

The Cost-effectiveness of Preventive Conservation Actions

ABSTRACT

Two historic house museums, a municipal art gallery, and a provincial archive have had comprehensive risk and option assessments done by the Canadian Conservation Institute. For each institution, an average of 60 options addressing 40 risks was analyzed in terms of risk reduction, cost, and cost-effectiveness. A meta-analysis found that cost-effectiveness follows a strong economy of scale within each institution. By estimating valuation of each collection, cost-effectiveness was converted into benefit–cost ratio of dollar spent per dollar value saved and was found not to follow an economy of scale between small and large institutions. Optimization software was applied to see if precise maximization of risk reduction gave significantly different recommendations than those in the original reports which relied on the Pareto rule of addressing the largest risks first.     

Low energy availability in exercising men is associated with reduced leptin and insulin but not with changes in other metabolic hormones

Low energy availability, defined as low caloric intake relative to exercise energy expenditure, has been linked to endocrine alterations frequently observed in chronically energy-deficient exercising women. Our goal was to determine the endocrine effects of low energy availability in exercising men. Six exercising men (VO_2peak: 49.3 ± 2.4 ml · kg^?1 · min^?1) underwent two conditions of low energy availability (15 kcal · kg^?1 fat-free mass [FFM] · day^?1) and two energy-balanced conditions (40 kcal · kg^?1 FFM · day^?1) in randomised order. During one low energy availability and one balanced condition, participants exercised to expend 15 kcal · kg^?1 FFM · day^?1; no exercise was conducted during the other two conditions. Metabolic hormones were assessed before and after each 4-day period. Following both low energy availability conditions, leptin (?53% to ?56%) and insulin (?34% to ?38%) were reduced (P < 0.05). Reductions in leptin and insulin were independent of whether low energy availability was attained with or without exercise (P > 0.80). Low energy availability did not significantly impact ghrelin, triiodothyronine, testosterone and IGF-1 (all P > 0.05). The observed reductions in leptin and insulin were in the same magnitude as changes previously reported in sedentary women. Further research is needed to understand why other metabolic hormones are more robust against low energy availability in exercising men than those in sedentary and exercising women.     

Policy on ethnic segregation in a system of choice: the case of The Netherlands

This paper examines the implications of the uneven distribution of minority pupils and the Dutch system of choice for policies on ethnic segregation at both the local and school level. The analysis is based on a sample of 27 municipalities serving 23% of all Dutch primary school pupils. Segregation to a large extent can be found in The Netherlands as elsewhere, and the constitutional freedom of education is precisely the factor that places important restrictions on solving this problem adequately. At the local level more than one‐third of all municipalities, for various reasons, do not take any action. Of the others that do take action the majority saddles the schools with the responsibility since the problems are mainly seen as of an educational nature. According to the school principals a percentage of minority pupils exceeding 50‐60% causes ‘white’ parents to leave and they are given every opportunity to do so by the Dutch system of free parental choice. Therefore a radical reorientation is required in the Dutch system of choice in order to address the challenges of ethnic segregation.