'No research is insignificant': implementing a Students-as-Researchers Festival

There are increasing demands for Higher Education (HE) students to play a role in research-active communities and, similarly, for College Based Higher Education (CBHE) lecturers to develop their research practices. A cross-consortium Student Research Festival was designed to create a collaborative 'community of discovery' (Coffield and Williamson, 2011) and enable final year students to disseminate their research studies to a wider audience. The Festival drew on current HE pedagogies to build an open communicative space in which the three dimensions of practice architecture (Kemmis et.al., 2014) were embodied. The Festival was evaluated through a Collaborative Action Research project in order to establish how the sharing of research contributed to the participants' identity as researchers. Data were analysed using the a priori categories afforded by the practice architecture framework. Valuable insights emerged into the students' conception of research, as detached from the 'real' world and belonging to the privileged few. These views were challenged by the experience of the Festival, which narrowed the gap between student and researcher and unsettled existing roles. Recommendations include widening the scope of the Festival to include other stakeholders and embedding further research building opportunities in the undergraduate curriculum

Think about graduate school

The office of Career services hosted an information session about graduate educationOffice of career service

Innovative 4-H tobacco programs in selected burley and fire-cured tobacco-producing counties in Tennessee

County Extension Staffs in 60 Tennessee tobacco-producing counties and 65 present and former participants in 4-H tobacco activities, constituted the populations contacted in this survey-type study. Purposes were to identify and characterize successful 4-H tobacco activities as a future basis for developing innovative 4-H approaches. Four-H tobacco project specialists in other states in the region also were contacted for useful information. Major findings included the following, arranged in descending order of activities, as seen by respondents: 1. Fair exhibits, reportedly used in all 40 counties having innovative programs, were offered mainly in August and September, held at fairgrounds with uncured tobacco stalks, judged by agents, recognized winners with cash and ribbons sponsored by fairboards, and seen to need central themes. 2. Sales, reportedly used in 12 of the 40 counties having innovative programs, were offered mainly in late fall till early spring, held at tobacco warehouses with cured tobacco tied in hands, conducted by warehouse personnel and Extension agents, and spon-sored by agricultural companies. 3. Shows, reportedly used in 14 of the 40 counties having innovative programs, were offered mainly in the months of August to February, were held at tobacco warehouses with cured tobacco tied in hands, were judged by tobacco buyers, U.S.D.A. graders, and tobacco trade representatives, recognized winners with cash and ribbons sponsored by fairboards, and needed to be organized so as to maximize enjoyment and future usefulness to the 4-H\u27er. 4. Judging/grading contests, reportedly used in nine of the 40 counties having innovative programs, were offered mainly in September, held at fairgrounds, and needed to be organized so as to maximize interest and enjoyment of the 4-H\u27er. 5. Project tours, reported in five of the 40 counties having innovative programs, were offered mainly in the summer and fall, included visits to tobacco related facilities, were conducted by experiment station personnel. Extension agents, and warehouse personnel, were sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, and needed to be organized so as to maximize the 4-H member\u27s interest. Extension tobacco experts from other states had little additional to offer in the way of 4-H activity innovation. Implications were drawn and recommendations made for use of findings and further study

Mortality from infectious pneumonia in metal workers: a comparison with deaths from asthma in occupations exposed to respiratory sensitizers

Introduction: national analyses of mortality in England and Wales have repeatedly shown excess deaths from pneumonia in welders. During 1979-1990 the excess was attributable largely to deaths from lobar pneumonia and pneumonias other than bronchopneumonia, limited to working-aged men, and apparent in other metal fume-exposed occupations. We assessed findings for 1991-2000 and compared the mortality pattern with that from asthma in occupations exposed to known respiratory sensitizers.Methods: the Office of National Statistics supplied data on deaths by underlying cause among men aged 16-74 years in England and Wales during 1991-2000, including age and last held occupation. We abstracted data on pneumonia for occupations with exposure to metal fume and on asthma for occupations commonly reported to surveillance schemes as at risk of occupational asthma. We estimated expected numbers of deaths by applying age-specific proportions of deaths by cause in the population to the total deaths by age in each occupational group. Observed and expected numbers were compared for each cause of death.Results: among working-aged men in metal fume-exposed occupations we found excesses of mortality from pneumococcal and lobar pneumonia (54 deaths vs. 27.3 expected) and from pneumonias other than bronchopneumonia (71 vs. 52.4), but no excess from these causes at older ages, or from bronchopneumonia at any age. The attributable mortality from metal fume (45.3 excess deaths) compared with an estimated 62.6 deaths from occupational asthma.Conclusion: exposure to metal fume is a material cause of occupational mortality. The hazard deserves far more attention than it presently receive