Revisiting objective tests: A case study in integration at honours level

This paper examines the background to computer‐assisted assessment and shows how certain misconceptions or ‘myths’ have arisen around its use. It then discusses an actual implementation of computerized multiple‐choice question (MCQ) tests, addressing both the main theoretical issues, and the practicalities of the design and administration process. It confirms that honours‐level learning can be appropriately assessed using summative computer‐based objective tests, not just in the eyes of the adopting academic, but also in the eyes of the students. Care should, however, be taken to adopt a flexible implementation that is responsive to unforeseen problems

Cardiovascular and sexual health effects of postmenopausal testosterone therapy

Introduction: Testosterone is frequently used as part of postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) but few preparations have been approved for use in women. The effects of androgens on the female cardiovascular (CV) system remain poorly understood and concerns exist over the long-term CV safety of testosterone therapy. This study aimed to investigate the CV effects of the transdermal testosterone patch (TTP) in postmenopausal women, on concomitant HT, using surrogate markers for CV disease. Methods: This open label pilot study investigated the effects of 12 weeks TTP on arterial stiffness and endothelial function in 21 postmenopausal women. Primary outcome measures were augmentation index (AIx), assessed by pulse wave analysis (PWA), reactive hyperaemic index (RHI) using peripheral arterial tonometry (PAT) and insulin resistance using the homeostasis model (HOMA-IR). Libido (brief profile of female sexual function (B-PFSF)), anthropometry, lipids and serum hormone levels were also assessed. Results: Testosterone was associated with significantly improved libido (increased B-PFSF score 5.05 points (p<0.0001)), increased total testosterone (1.3 nmol/L, p<0.0001) and free androgen index (2.0, p<0.001). Hip circumference significantly reduced (-0.74 cm, p<0.05) but there was no change in weight, body mass index, waist circumference or blood pressure. Total cholesterol was unchanged, but there were small but significant decreases in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (-0.25 mmol/L, p<0.05) and lipoprotein (a) levels (-3.11mg/L , p<0.05). Fasting insulin, fasting glucose and insulin resistance were unchanged. There was no change to AIx (1.07, 95% CI -3.85-1.72, p=0.43), or RHI (0.06, 95% CI 0.19-0.31, p=0.61) but there was a significant increase in salbutamol-mediated vasodilatation (p<0.05), assessed by PWA. Conclusion: These data suggest that short-term physiological testosterone does not adversely affect arterial stiffness and may improve markers of endothelial function. Testosterone use was associated with reductions in HDL cholesterol and lipoprotein (a), but whether this has significant long-term CV effects remains unclear.Open Acces

Up close and personal:feminist pedagogy in the classroom

This commentary reflects on 20+ years as marketing academics committed to a feminist, critical approach to the marketing curriculum.Feminist pedagogy focuses on critiquing the wider, macro-structural realities that impact on gender inequality. A key aim is to empower students to consider how society might be differently structured. We also advocate a multiple perspectives approach, whereby there are no absolutes but rather contexts, thus nudging students to move beyond a micro-managerial mindset, and problematising many of the assumptions embedded in marketing. This includes understanding that identity positions shape social worlds and consumption patterns. Finally we identify three tools for implementing a feminist pedagogy: subjective personal introspection (SPI), collaborative and action learning and a low-hierarchy learning environment

An Embodied Approach to Consumer Experiences: The Hollister Brandscape

This paper uses embodied theory to analyse consumer experience in a retail brandscape, Hollister Co. By taking a holistic, embodied experience approach, our study reveals how consumers interact with such retail environments in corporeal, instinctive, sensual ways.The primary source of data were 97 subjective personal introspective accounts undertaken with the target age group for the store. These were supplemented with in-depth interviews with consumers, managers, and employees of Hollister.We offer a conceptualization of consumers’ embodied experience, which we term The Immersive Somascape Experience. This identifies four key touch points that evoke the Hollister store experience - each of which reveal how the body is affected by particular relational and material specificities. The authors propose an emergent theoretical framework - The Immersive Somascape Experience – that provides a holistic way to analyse how the body leads in emplacing the consumer within a retail brandscape. It depicts four embodied elements: Sense Activation, Corporeal Relationality, Brand Materialities and (Dis)Orientation. Together these may culminate in Consumer Emplacement. Future consideration of embodied experiences across different retail contexts may further develop these insights.The study reveals the perils and pitfalls of adopting a sensory marketing perspective. It also offers insights into how the body leads in retail brandscapes, addressing a lack in such approaches in the current retailing literature, and suggesting that embodied, experiential aspects of branding are increasingly pertinent in retailing in light of the continued growth of on-line shopping.Overall, the study shows how an embodied experience approach challenges the dominance of mind and representation over body and materiality, suggesting that an "intelligible embodiment” approach offers unique insights into consumers’ embodied experiences in retail environments