Flexural properties of the equine hoof wall

The equine hoof wall is a hard keratinous structure which transmits forces generated when the hoof contacts the ground to the skeleton of the horse. During locomotion, the hoof capsule is known to yield under impact resulting in an inward curvature of the dorsal wall and expansion of the heels. However, whilst researchers have studied the tensile and compressive properties of the hoof wall, there is a lack of data on the flexural properties in different locations around the hoof capsule. In this study the flexural properties and hydration status of the hoof wall was investigated, in two orthogonal directions, in different locations around the hoof capsule. The hoof was divided into three regions: the dorsal-most aspect (toe); the medial and lateral regions (quarters) and the heels caudally. Beams were cut both perpendicular and parallel to the axis of the tubules, termed transverse and longitudinal beams respectively. Differences in the mechanical properties were then investigated using three-point bending tests. There were considerable differences in the mechanical properties around the hoof capsule; transverse beams from the toe were 81% stiffer and 28% stronger than those from the heels. This corresponded with differences in the hydration of the hoof wall; beams from the toe had a lower water content (24.1±0.25%) than those from the heels (28.3±0.37%). Differences in the flexural properties are thought to be largely a result of variation in the water content. Mechanical data are further discussed in relation to variation in the structure and loading of the hoof wall

Placing the post in the landscape of colonial memories: revisiting the memory of a colonial frontier. [abstract].

Paul Fox closes his exploration of the institutionalisation of memory within museums with the question 'do Australians inhabit a postcolonial world or a landscape of colonial memories?' [Fox, 1992, 317] The question forms for him out of an analysis of the ways in which the orderings of aboriginality and space of the colonial museum continued to haunt Australian cultural imaginaries in the early 1990s. Fox traces how colonial museums ordered their knowledge always in reference to the imperial centre, accomplishing a kind of double colonialism – reinforcing 'the European acquisition of space' while ensuring that, for the 'former peripheral city of empire ... memory exists in and belongs to a system of knowledge created elsewhere' [ibid, pp. 308-9]. It seems to me Fox posed his question to invite a response affirming the colonial quality of Australian memory. However, considering his question in 2005, ‘post’ the debates over race, reconciliation, and history that dominated the turn of century, elicits a more uncertain response in me. This paper explores these questions through a study of the social memory of a colonial frontier in the southeast of South Australia. Drawing on Healy’s conception of social memory as a 'network of performances' in which 'relationships between past and present are performed' (1995, p. 5) the paper focuses on the ways in which one colonial ‘memory’ of the frontier, Mrs Christina Smith’s book "The Booandik Tribe of South Australian Aborigines: a Sketch of their Habits, Customs, Legends, and Language", first published in 1880, is performed in two contemporary renderings of the social memory of colonialism: the Lady Nelson Discovery Centre, in Mount Gambier, South Australia, and the writings of Mrs Heather Carthew, great granddaughter of Mrs Smith

Using electronic literature in online learning and teaching

Academics have traditionally guided the reading of students to inject a range of scholarly perspectives into a course. The use of the literature is an important part of developing critical thinking skills and part of becoming a member of a discipline. The Flinders University Library's Electronic Reserve developments offer a way for teachers to deliver the literature of a discipline using internet technologies. Where distance education is provided in the online mode, Electronic Reserve has become an integral part of the learning environment. Access to a list of subject readings available on Electronic Reserve can be incorporated into a WebCT site. Alternatively, teachers can link to a specific article that may form the basis of a structured learning activity such as an online discussion. This open system incorporates material from several formats, principally electronic journals and scanned articles. Unlike the proprietary systems available it doesn't limit academics and students to the output of particular groups of publishers. Copyright compliance is managed by the Library. At present, copyright laws limit what can be provided from books but it is hoped that future developments in electronic books will overcome these restrictions

The Distant Horizon: investigating the relationship between social sciences academic research and game development

Research in the social sciences devotes a great amount of attention to investigating the impact of video games on the individual and on society. However, results generated by this research often fail to inform game development. The present study investigated the outreach of research conducted by the academic community by interviewing 30 game developers and 14 researchers, highlighting critical aspects in the relationship between game research and game industry. Specifically, we found that the difference in priorities, speed cycles, and dissemination practices between these two contexts hinder communication. Subsequently, we carried out a focus group for a set of developers and researchers (N=6) with the aim of eliciting recommendation for improving communication between academics and developers. Among the recommendations to emerge were calls to diversify dissemination channels, promote joint conferences and develop research-production partnerships. It was felt such measures could strengthen the influence of research results outside the academic community

Regional variation in the flexural properties of the equine hoof wall

The equine hoof wall is a hard, keratinous structure that transmits forces generated when the hoof connects the ground to the skeleton of the horse. During locomotion the hoof capsule is known to deform, resulting in an inward curvature of the dorsal wall and expansion of the heels. However, while researchers have studied the tensile and compressive properties, there is a lack of data on the flexural properties of the hoof wall in different locations around the hoof capsule. In this study, the flexural properties and hydration status of the hoof wall were investigated in two orthogonal directions, in different locations around the hoof capsule. The hoof was divided into three regions: the dorsal-most aspect (toe), the medial and lateral regions (quarters) and the heels caudally. Beams were cut both perpendicular (transverse) and parallel (longitudinal) to the orientation of the tubules. Differences in the mechanical properties were then investigated using three-point bending tests. There were considerable differences in the flexural properties around the hoof capsule; transverse beams from the heel were 45% more compliant than those from the toe region. This corresponded with changes in the hydration of the hoof wall; beams from the heel region were more hydrated (28.2 ± 0.60%) than those from the toe (24.2 ± 0.44%; P < 0.01). Regional variation in the water content is thought to help explain differences in the flexural properties. Mechanical data are further discussed in relation to variation in the structure and loading of the hoof wall

How can we move forward when we know so little about where we've been? Questions about assessment from a five year longitudinal study into learning in higher education

Education is an overt attempt to influence students, to change their habits of thought and patterns of engagement. Whilst recent decades have witnessed a rhetorical shift from discourses of education to discourses of learning, this shift has arguably been stimulated more by a desire to better understand the effects of educators’ activities than by a desire to embrace student articulations of the nature and purposes of learning. This paper will report on a longitudinal research study in higher education which was designed to explore such student articulations, in relation to both the texts that were produced for assessment, and the multiple contexts from which both texts and talk emerged. Using a theoretical and methodological framing based on complexity theories, the study attempts to both produce and analyse data in a way that tries to take account of aspects of phenomena that are usually largely beyond the reach of conventional research approaches and current trends. For example, although starting from a broadly social and collectivist position, the study attempts to explore the ways in which individuals within collectives experience participatory practices differentially, are differentially engaged, and produce differential results in terms of assessment outcomes. This is of particular relevance in the still-individually-assessed world of institutional learning, which is arguably quite different to the workplace learning contexts which have given rise to theories such as situated learning and activity theory. From a complexity perspective, however, information about differential engagement is only a small part of the kaleidoscope of interconnecting factors and contexts which work together to produce specific assessment outcomes. The analysis attempts to examine assessment outcomes as emergent effects which arise when the interactions of particular and multiple individual contexts intersect through time with the interactions of equally specific and multiple institutional situations. The results of the study will be discussed in relation to some of the issues highlighted in the overview of the seminar series. For example, the assumption that digitisation can or will make education ‘borderless’, particularly in the light of the ‘largely literary structure of the university’s DNA’. The data will also be examined for evidence of ‘the valuing of social and pedagogic diversity’. Questions will be raised about who may be excluded from the new generations now seen to be attributed with technological literacy, and the limitations of the idea that flexible access and support will solve current problems by ‘accommodating a wide range of teaching and learning styles’

Linking the global and the local in educational research: some insights from dynamic systems theory

Furlong’s (2004) recent discussion of ‘the re-emergence of the paradigm wars’ draws attention to the remarkable resilience of what Martin Hammersley (2002) has called ‘two worlds theories’ in educational research (e.g. theory/practice; quantitative/ qualitative; global/local). Although the last thirty years or so have witnessed a range of analyses and deconstructions of binary thinking from a variety of critical and postmodern perspectives (see, for example, Derrida, 1976; Kaufman, 2001; Parker, 1997, Stronach & McLure, 1997), such thinking appears to be particularly recalcitrant within educational discourses

Constructions of learning in higher education: metaphor, epistemology, and complexity

This chapter sets out to explore the ways in which learning in Higher Education is discussed by a group of learners, as opposed to how it is discussed by theorists and policy makers2. This will be done through examining metaphors in the talk of a group of mature students who are about to embark upon a university access course. Questions will then be raised about the type of analysis which underpins this discussion, and an alternative analysis will be explored which will attempt to look at description and metaphor from a different epistemological perspective, that of complexity and non-linear/dynamic systems theory (Cilliers, 1998; Bosma & Kunnen, 2001)

Beyond 'mutual constitution': looking at learning and context from the perspective of complexity theory

First paragraph: The question of ‘mobilising learning across domains’ seems to directly contradict the notion of learning as situated, and tied up with the particularities of context. The requirement to consider such different ideas together, however, signifies something of the range of competing agendas, theoretical concepts and divergent histories which characterise the state of contemporary learning theory. This chapter will argue that some of the conceptual difficulties involved in theorising learning are the result of a clash between, on the one hand, a range of perspectives which have come to the conclusion that ‘knowledge must be contextual’ (Byrne, 2005a), and, on the other, a prevailing ontology which declares that contextual knowledge can only ever be ‘idiosyncratic’(Bassey, 1984, in Marsden, 2007). Evolving interpretations of situated learning, activity theory and actor network theory all attempt to deal with the difficulties that this creates. This chapter will explore how complexity theory, as a perspective which ‘arises among’ other discourses, rather than ‘over them’ (Davis & Sumara, 2006:8), offers a means of exploring some of the issues involved in contemporary articulations of knowledge, learning, cognition, and context in more detail

Pedagogies for diversity: retaining critical challenge amidst fears of 'dumbing down'

Growing concerns about retention and attrition rates in a mass and increasingly marketised higher education system have encouraged the idea that ‘meeting learner needs’ should be a key focus for institutional attention. It will be suggested that this approach is unrealistic, however, because of the extent of the diversity which it attempts to respond to. An alternative response is to move away from the individualised focus on needs, deficits and ‘support’, towards a consideration of ‘activities, patterns of interaction and communication failures’, in relation to higher education pedagogical cultures. This move reconceptualises the idea of ‘barriers to learning’, attempting to understand how more subtle aspects of higher education pedagogical cultures may themselves be creating conditions which make it difficult, or even impossible, for some students to learn. Deliberately forging a middle path between conventional and radical approaches to pedagogy, the paper attempts to identify examples of ‘older’ values and assumptions which may be positive and functional, and to separate these out from a number of other values and assumptions which, it is argued, may act to prevent students from being able to access new disciplinary worlds