Innovation strategies for education: Liberal and Utilitarian Educational Tendencies in the Higher Education System

This paper discusses innovation strategies for education. The authors of the paper argue that the leading modern universities are the educational and training ones. The global changes in higher education have happened due to several reasons: information playing a key role in modern society (nowadays, it is possible to find plenty of information on any questions); the task of education is to develop educational, professional and cultural skills of students, which is not the original central idea of modern European countries as well as Russia; the tendency to unite several higher education institutions. The authors acknowledge that there are several trends in higher education: the multilevel system; modern information technologies; the distant educational system and development; university complexes; new educational standards; new educational technologies and management structures etc. At the same time, the authors claim that there are at least two systems (tendencies) in the theory of university development: liberal and pragmatic. The former is connected with the educational university’s mission; the later is related to the needs of modern society

Developmental pathways to autism: a review of prospective studies of infants at risk

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and the presence of restrictive and repetitive behaviors. Symptoms of ASD likely emerge from a complex interaction between pre-existing neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities and the child's environment, modified by compensatory skills and protective factors. Prospective studies of infants at high familial risk for ASD (who have an older sibling with a diagnosis) are beginning to characterize these developmental pathways to the emergence of clinical symptoms. Here, we review the range of behavioral and neurocognitive markers for later ASD that have been identified in high-risk infants in the first years of life. We discuss theoretical implications of emerging patterns, and identify key directions for future work, including potential resolutions to several methodological challenges for the field. Mapping how ASD unfolds from birth is critical to our understanding of the developmental mechanisms underlying this disorder. A more nuanced understanding of developmental pathways to ASD will help us not only to identify children who need early intervention, but also to improve the range of interventions available to them

Limb kinematics, kinetics and muscle dynamics during the sit-to-stand transition in greyhounds

Standing up from a prone position is a critical daily activity for animals: failing to do so effectively may cause an injurious fall or increase predation susceptibility. This sit-to-stand behaviour (StS) is biomechanically interesting because it necessitates transitioning through near-maximal joint motion ranges from a crouched (i.e., poor mechanical advantage) to a more upright posture. Such large joint excursions should require large length changes of muscle-tendon units. Here we integrate experimental and musculoskeletal simulation methods to quantify the joint motions, limb forces, and muscle fibre forces, activations and length changes during StS in an extreme athlete – the greyhound – which has large hindlimb muscles bearing short-fibred distal muscles and long tendons. Study results indicate that hindlimb anti-gravity muscle fibres operate near their ~50% limits of length change during StS; mostly by starting at highly lengthened positions. StS also requires high muscle activations (>50%), in part due to non-sagittal motions. Finally, StS movements require passive non-muscular support in the distal hindlimb where short-fibred muscles are incapable of sustaining StS themselves. Non-locomotor behaviours like StS likely impose important trade-offs between muscle fibre force capacity and length changes, as well as active and passive mechanisms of support, that have been neglected in locomotor biomechanics studies

Dynamics Of Groups At Work

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