Spinning in the NAPLAN ether: 'Postscript on the control societies' and the seduction of education in Australia

This paper applies concepts Deleuze developed in his ‘Postscript on the Societies of Control’, especially those relating to modulatory power, dividuation and control, to aspects of Australian schooling to explore how this transition is manifesting itself. Two modulatory machines of assessment, NAPLAN and My Schools, are examined as a means to better understand how the disciplinary institution is changing as a result of modulation. This transition from discipline to modulation is visible in the declining importance of the disciplinary teacher/student relationship as a measure of the success of the educative process. The transition occurs through seduction because that which purports to measure classroom quality is in fact a serpent of modulation that produces simulacra of the disciplinary classroom. The effect is to sever what happens in the disciplinary space from its representations in a luminiferous ether that overlays the classroom

Pedometer step counting in South Africa: tools or trinkets?

Objectives. This study addressed (i) the accuracy of measuring ambulatory signals and (ii) the susceptibility to nonambulatory signals, of the Discovery Vitality Pedometer (VT) and the Kellogg's Special K Step Counter (KL) compared with three research-grade pedometers (DW: Yamax DigiWalker SW-401, MTI: MTI Actigraph AM-7164-2.2 , NL: New Lifestyles NL 2000). Design. One hundred instruments (20 instruments/brand) were tested at five level walking speeds on a motorised treadmill (3.24, 4.02, 4.80, 5.64, 6.42 km.hr-1) and during motor vehicle travel on tarred roads (62.9 km). Results. The KL was highly variable across all speeds, while the VT tended to be variable at the lowest speed. The DW, NL and VT significantly underestimated steps below 4.80km.hr-1 (41 - 94%, p < 0.02) but accuracy improved at speeds &#8805; 4.80 km.hr-1 (98 - 102%). The KL displayed the highest variability (60% inter-instrument variance) followed by the VT (10% inter-instrument variance). The research-grade pedometers were the least variable (0 - 1% inter-instrument variance). At 4.80 km.hr-1, all research- grade pedometers measured within a 10% margin of error compared with the 90% of VT units and 42% of KL units. The VT was significantly more resistant to nonambulatory signals than the DW (p < 0.01). The KL was the most variable in its response to non-ambulatory signals while the NL was the most consistent. The MTI detected the most non-ambulatory signals (p < 0.05). Conclusions. The KL should not be used as a promotional pedometer. The VT achieved the minimum standards required of a promotional pedometer. Further testing is required for longevity, and performance under free-living conditions. South African Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 18 (3) 2006: pp. 67-7

A tetrabenzotriazaporphyrin based organic thin film transistor: Comparison with a device of the phthalocyanine analogue

The characteristics of bottom-gate bottom-contact organic thin film field-effect transistors (OTFTs) with 70 nm thick films of solution processed non-peripherally octahexyl-substituted nickel tetrabenzo triazaporphyrin (6NiTBTAP) molecules as active layers on silicon substrates are experimentally studied and the results are compared with the similary configured transistors using the corresponding nickel phthalocyanine (6NiPc) compound. 6NiTBTAP transistors are found to exhibit improved performance over 6NiPc transistors in terms of greater saturation hole mobility, two orders of magnitude higher on/off ratio and lower threshold voltage. This enhanced performance of 6NiTBTAP OTFTs over 6NiPc devices is attributed to improved surface morphology and large grain size of the active 6NiTBTAP film

A new vocabulary for cultural-economic geography?

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record.Ibert et al.’s (2019) paper is a welcome stimulus to, and a re-focusing on, what seem to us to be reasonably well-established problematics and debates. It seems familiar to us because of our work, since 2011, on the followthethings.com project. From this perspective, their remit for new cultural-economic geography research doesn’t seem cultural enough (what about cultural geography’s recent ‘turn’ towards creative practice?), the publications drawn upon seem unnecessarily traditional (what about geography’s ongoing turn towards digital practice and ‘natively digital’ outputs?), and the research practices needed for the work that is outlined seem undeveloped (what can we learn about capitalism’s ‘dark’ places and strategies of association and dissociation from, among others, creative digital practice?). Digital outputs such as followthethings.com risk being bypassed by more traditional practices of academic review, and our insistence that it should ‘stand on its own’ without accompanying academic papers doesn’t, admittedly, help. So, in this response, we have chosen to engage with the paper’s main themes and arguments by sketching out our parallel world of ongoing research in which strategies and vocabularies of dissociation feature strongly. What we conclude is that both of our projects could be seen to be working towards the same goal: to assemble a new vocabulary that is better suited for the analysis of this area of cultural economic geography. We’d like to collaborate on this with Ibert et al. (2019) and anyone else who’s interested.Kone Foundatio

Do low levels of physical activity in female adolescents cause overweight and obesity? Objectively measured physical activity levels of periurban and rural adolescents

Background. The increase in obesity levels in South African adolescents is attributed to an energy imbalance such that physical inactivity is causally related to adiposity. However, in some settings obesity occurs in spite of high physical activity levels.Objectives. To examine objectively measured physical activity levels of rural black female and male adolescents from periurban to rural settings in relation to weight status, and specifically the direction and strength of the associations.Methods. Seven-day accelerometry-derived pedometry data (step counts and activity energy expenditure) were collected for 178 adolescents (85 females, 93 males; age 13.7 - 18.0 years) living in six demographic surveillance site villages. Anthropometric measures were body mass index (kg/m2), waist circumference (cm) and sum of skinfolds (mm). Weight status was determined using international growth standards for stunting, underweight (UW), normal weight (NW), overweight (OW) and obesity (OB).Results. Females had greater adiposity and lower 7-day average step counts and activity energy expenditure, and achieved fewer days at ≥10 000 steps and more days at &lt;5 000 steps (p&lt;0.05). The age and gender-weighted prevalences for female/male stunting, UW-NW, OW-OB, &lt;5 000 steps/day and ≥12 500 steps/day were 12.4%/20.7%, 74.3%/99.1%, 25.8%/0.9%, 12.3%/0.9% and 50%/64.9%, respectively (females v. males, p&lt;0.05). In multivariate models (weighted and adjusting for age, gender, village, season), step counts and activity energy expenditure were positively related to adiposity measures (p&lt;0.05).Conclusion. Both UW-NW and OW-OB periurban to rural adolescents were active to highly active on most days of the week. Physical activity was directly associated with adiposity measures

Drinking From the Firehose: The Serial's Life Cycle: The Report of its Death has been greatly exaggerated

Opinion piece about the trend of renaming or reorganizing serials units within technical services departments in librarie

Seeing Double at Neptune's South Pole

Keck near-infrared images of Neptune from UT 26 July 2007 show that the cloud feature typically observed within a few degrees of Neptune's south pole had split into a pair of bright spots. A careful determination of disk center places the cloud centers at -89.07 +/- 0 .06 and -87.84 +/- 0.06 degrees planetocentric latitude. If modeled as optically thick, perfectly reflecting layers, we find the pair of features to be constrained to the troposphere, at pressures greater than 0.4 bar. By UT 28 July 2007, images with comparable resolution reveal only a single feature near the south pole. The changing morphology of these circumpolar clouds suggests they may form in a region of strong convection surrounding a Neptunian south polar vortex.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures; accepted to Icaru

Fun With Facebook

Opinion piece about the joys and pitfalls of social networkin

Radiocarbon and stable isotope evidence of dietary change from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages in the iron gates: New results from Lepenski Vir

A previous radiocarbon dating and stable isotope study of directly associated ungulate and human bone samples from Late Mesolithic burials at Schela Cladovei in Romania established that there is a freshwater reservoir effect of approximately 500 yr in the Iron Gates reach of the Danube River valley in southeast Europe. Using the delta(15)N values as an indicator of the percentage of freshwater protein in the human diet, the C-14 data for 24 skeletons from the site of Lepenski Vir were corrected for this reservoir effect. The results of the paired C-14 and stable isotope measurements provide evidence of substantial dietary change over the period from about 9000 BP to about 300 BR The data from the Early Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic are consistent with a 2-component dietary system, where the linear plot of isotopic values reflects mixing between the 2 end-members to differing degrees. Typically, the individuals of Mesolithic age have much heavier delta(15)N signals and slightly heavier delta(13)C, while individuals of Early Neolithic and Chalcolithic age have lighter delta(15)N and delta(13)C values. Contrary to our earlier suggestion, there is no evidence of a substantial population that had a transitional diet midway between those that were characteristic of the Mesolithic and Neolithic. However, several individuals with "Final Mesolithic" C-14 ages show delta(15)N and delta(13)C values that are similar to the Neolithic dietary pattern. Provisionally, these are interpreted either as incomers who originated in early farming communities outside the Iron Gates region or as indigenous individuals representing the earliest Neolithic of the Iron Gates. The results from Roman and Medieval age burials show a deviation from the linear function, suggesting the presence of a new major dietary component containing isotopically heavier carbon. This is interpreted as a consequence of the introduction of millet into the human food chain