Lifelong Involvement Research Articles

Quiddity College: Thomas Jefferson's Legacy for Moral Science

William Stephenson clearly regarded this manuscript as one of his major works, an inevitable outcome of his life-long involvement in education. Given his commitment to the importance of subjective science, Stephenson felt the need for him to anticipate what kind of education it should entail, to focus his attention on how subjectivity might be cultivated. Quiddity College is his answer. It describes a two-year college curriculum in which facts are taken for granted – prior to entering Quiddity College students would have already acquired a grounding in physics, chemistry, genetics, etcetera, and everything subjective would be fostered in the College. Part I, drawing on his own experience of both British and North American practices, provides a critique of existing systems at College and University levels. It continues with a presentation of his ideas about subjectivity and the role it should play in an ideal College. The notions of play and communication-pleasure are central to his vision. Part II outlines a curriculum for Quiddity rooted in principles from the Scottish Enlightenment and taught by the seven Fellows of Quiddity College, named after Thomas Jefferson and members of his circle such as Thomas Paine, Joseph Priestley, David Rittenhouse, and Benjamin Rush.

Surviving Parish Ministry: A Rural Vicar’s Reflections on Creative Ways to Cope with the Pressure of the Role

ABSTRACT This article describes how somewhat unusual extra-parochial activities – running a therapeutic programme for survivors of child abuse and performing stand-up comedy – have enhanced the ministry and wellness of a rural priest. Two factors are suggested: these provide an outlet for stress, and they sharpen some key skills and qualities essential to parish ministry. The author focusses on two research themes – marginality and persona – and explores how they play out in his therapeutic work and the comedy world. The life-changing results that occur through the therapeutic programme mitigate ministry marginality, as does meaningful engagement through stand-up comedy with people who would never come to church. Further, he contends that his life-long involvement with therapeutic practice means that there is less distance between his public persona and his true personality and thus less existential tension, a factor that can significantly contribute to break-down.

Teaching models in physical education: current and future perspectives

The study of teaching models used during the discipline of physical education has been the object of analysis over the last few years. Even so, due to the increasing reduction in the levels of participation in sport, there is a need to reflect on the most effective pedagogy and teaching models to reverse this trend. For these reasons, this review has as main objective to synthesize the teaching methodologies present in the literature. The search strategy comprised search words that combined one of two primary keywords (“physical education”, “teaching-learning process”, and “teachers), with a second keyword (“model”, “pedagogy”, “competency”) and a third keyword (“sports”, “games”). After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 28 articles were counted for analysis. The results indicate that there is a need to strengthen the relationship between pedagogical theory and practice through innovation, which can emerge from the experimentation of new models, strategies, and teaching contents so that the discipline of physical education, in order to contribute unequivocally to the training of children and young people, resulting in lifelong involvement in physical activity.

Sport4Me: A people focused approach to engaging Australians in sport.

The traditional model of community club-based sport is fine for those, particularly children and youth, who enjoy the competitive focus and have the skills and commitment to play. But societal preferences during leisure time have changed dramatically over recent decades. However, sport organisations have made limited progress in response to these changes in providing ways in which children and youth can participate outside the traditional competitive structures and environments. In this paper the context of community club-based structures is reviewed leading into an assessment of the associated impact of these structures on sport participation. Children and youth's current motivations to play sport including what makes sport fun to play, are considered. It is then demonstrated that the associations between motivations to play sport and the factors that contribute to fun and enjoyment, are often misaligned for many individuals, with a primary focus on competition-based structures to deliver community club sport. In the final part of the paper a model for community sport organisations where people are put first is proposed - Sport4Me. Sport4Me is about flexible, inclusive, equitable sporting opportunities that focus on friends, fun, physical literacy and play. The model would complement the traditional competitive club-based model and afford participants more choice whilst fostering an environment that promotes lifelong involvement in sport. This model will require structural and cultural changes to the sporting environment and include coaching practices. Sport4Me is an evidence-based model, but it is not radical in its conceptualisation but rather, builds on previously proposed approaches, considers the needs and wants of potential sport participants and widens the scope of sport delivery.

Isocrates, Hieronymus Wolf and Juan Luis Vives

This contribution starts with a detailed presentation of the German humanist Hieronymus Wolf (1516-1580) and his life-long involvement with the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates (436-338 BCE). It focuses further on the relation between Wolf and Juan Luis Vives, and especially on the tactful way in which Wolf dealt with a puzzling error by Vives in his Latin letter to Cardinal Wolsey introducing his Latin translations of Isocrates’s Areopagiticus and Nicocles Vives had indeed affirmed that Nicocles was king of Salamis, an island of the Aegean Sea, whereas in reality he was king of Salamis, a city of Cyprus and lived in the fourth century BCE.

Most People Hate Physical Education and Most Drop Out of Physical Activity: In Search of Credible Curriculum Alternatives

High quality Physical Education should instigate and support all learners to develop into a lifelong participant in a way which upkeeps their own health, fitness, and well-being. There are, however, an ever-increasing number of children who drop out of participating in physical activities at the earliest opportunity, leading to an increase in sedentary lifestyles and a rise in childhood obesity. It is evidence such as this which indicates Physical Education, specifically in England, is not currently appropriate for all and requires change. To attempt to make the subject a more positive experience for all and to inspire lifelong involvement, varying the curriculum and including alternative activities for pupils might tap into useful wider cultures. This paper discusses the emergence of alternative sports, the challenges and synergies of implementation, and focuses on what could work and why.

Roderick William Somerville Brooks

Roderick William Somerville Brooks was born in the West Country and qualified from Bristol University in 1976. During his training he worked with Geoffrey Burston, who instilled him that older...

David and Max Lowenthal – and Marsh: public intellectuals and advocates in the political landscape. A personal view

ABSTRACT Taking its point of departure in the prominent, and controversial, legal, political and social engagement of David Lowenthal’s lawyer father, Max Lowenthal, this article first explores the evident influence of Max Lowenthal on his son’s distinctive, socially engaged approach to scholarship and writing as an academic, and as a public intellectual. It will then consider how Max Lowenthal’s example facilitated David Lowenthal’s subsequent lifelong involvement with the work of another publicly engaged and multifaceted lawyer, George Perkins Marsh. This background can help understand why David Lowenthal was himself a multifaceted advocate, whose work appealed to a broad readership of academics, professionals and laymen. Focusing on David Lowenthal’s writings from the beginning of his career until his death in 2018, the essay will illuminate the political landscape of his thinking and doing concerning cultural and environmental heritage.

The New Left and its legacies

Mike Rustin discusses his lifelong involvement in the New Left, which began when he was still at school. He describes the history of the First New Left, including the role played within it by figures such as Stuart Hall, Edward Thompson and Raymond Williams, and the role of the New Left in student politics in Oxford University, where Michael was a student and a leading member of the Labour club. He looks at the changing relationships between the New Left and the Labour Party in the 1960s and the publication of the May Day Manifesto in 1967. He also discusses the founding of the New Left Review and the transition from the time of its first editor, Stuart Hall, to that of its second, Perry Anderson, as well his two terms as a member of its editorial board, and his continuing disagreements and agreements with its editorial direction. His reflections on contemporary politics include a discussion of the relationship of New Left ideas to current movements and the Labour Party, a critique of vanguardism, and the founding of Soundings.

What does it mean to make a moral claim? A Wittgensteinian approach to energy justice

Recently an increasing number of studies have been developing the concept of ‘energy justice’. They explore local and global interconnections in energy production, supply and consumption and aim to present policymakers with a morally compelling case for shifting energy-related policies and practices toward greater fairness: locally, globally and across generations. They draw on various notions of justice but have not yet explored what it means to make a moral claim, i.e. on what basis moral obligations can be said to exist. Hence it is not clear what kind of appeal they are making to policymakers. Here I suggest an approach to moral claims informed by Wittgenstein’s philosophy could strengthen their approach. In this view, moral claims do not refer to objectively existing, universally applicable ethical truths, but nor are they merely statements of preference or affect. Instead, moral sensitivity is an essential element in the meaning of life for human beings, intrinsic to being a person. It develops through people’s lifelong involvement in communal practices, together with language about obligation and rightness/wrongness. Using this approach together with insights from pragmatist philosophers I suggest ways policymakers’ moral compass could be deepened and extended to respond more readily to energy justice concerns.

Josep Estalella i Graells (1879-1938): el científic que va renovar l’educació secundària.

Few teachers are remembered beyond the lifetime of their students, and fewer still when their specialty is the history of education. But one exception to this rule is Dr Josep Estalella (1879–1938), whose lifelong involvement with active learning resulted in enduring contributions to teaching methodology and teaching resources. Estalella’s commitment and leadership as director of the “Institut-Escola”, the Government of Catalonia’s progressive secondary school of the 1930s, made pedagogical change possible in Catalan secondary education. One hundred years after it was originally published, Estalella’s Ciència Recreativa (Recreational Science) is still considered to be a valuable teaching resource for helping children develop intellectually through play.

Human–Dolphin Interactions: Relationships, Connections, and the Reinforcement of an Ongoing Nature Relationship

ABSTRACTAlthough interactions between humans and wild animals have been explored in the literature, the mechanism for how such experiences influence wellbeing is an area needing further examination. This research used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the narratives of wellbeing from eight semi-structured interviews with people who had experienced intense close encounters with dolphins. Despite idiographic differences between narratives, a common theme of Relationships and Connectedness between participants and nonhuman animals emerged. The expression of this indicates that human–dolphin experiences fulfill aspects of the human need for connection and relationships and that the experiences promote wellbeing and environmental behaviors. This is contextualized within an ongoing nature relationship and the importance of a lifelong connection with wildlife, to ensure that humans see themselves as part of the natural world. Such a dynamic is discussed within the frame of the biophilia hypothesis and the importance of human contact with nature to ensure wellbeing. The narratives reported here describe strong emotional connections, transmitted through both tangible and perceived contact with dolphins, which translate into positive senses of emotion and wellbeing. The connections described are powerful: perceptions of communion and mutual exchange become articulated through rhetoric of friendship and kinship. Importantly, it appears that dolphin encounters are signifiers of wider relationships, both with nature and people. In this case, participants are reinforcing established habits of nature connectedness, habits reflecting a lifelong involvement with nonhuman animals. How connection with wild animals as a part of nature can promote wellbeing and in turn encourage environmental behavior is discussed in the context of the contemporary need for human responsibility to ensure the protection of nature and the survival of nonhuman animal species and habitats.

Tissue-Specific Expression of DNA Methyltransferases Involved in Early-Life Nutritional Stress of Chicken, Gallus gallus.

DNA methylation was reported as a possible stress-adaptation mechanism involved in the transcriptional regulation of stress responsive genes. Limited data are available on effects of psychological stress and early-life nutritional stress on DNA methylation regulators [DNMTs: DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), DNMT1 associated protein (DMAP1), DNMT 3 alpha (DNMT3A) and beta (DNMT3B)] in avian species. The objectives of this study were to: (1) investigate changes in expression of DNMT1, DMAP1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B following acute (AS) or chronic immobilization stress (CS); (2) test immediate effect of early-life nutritional stress [food deprivation (FD) for 12 h (12hFD) or 36 h (36hFD) at the post-hatching period] on expression of DNA methylation regulators and glucocorticoid receptor (GR), and the long-term effect of early-life nutritional stress at 6 weeks of age. Expression of DNMTs and plasma corticosterone (CORT) concentration decreased by CS compared to AS (p < 0.05), indicating differential roles of DNA methylation regulators in the stress response. Plasma CORT at 12hFD and 36hFD birds increased compared to control birds (12hF and 36hF), but there were no significant differences in plasma CORT of 12hFD and 36hFD birds at 6 weeks of age compared to 6 week controls. DNMT1, DMAP1, and DNMT3B expression in the anterior pituitary increased by 12hFD, but decreased at 36hFD compared to their controls (P < 0.05). In liver, DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B expression decreased by 12hFD, however, no significant changes occurred at 36hFD. Expression of DMAP1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B in anterior pituitary and DMAP1 and DNMT3A expression in liver at 6 weeks of age were higher in 36hFD stressed birds compared to controls as well as 12hFD stressed birds. Hepatic GR expression decreased by 12hFD and increased by 36hFD (p < 0.05). Expression patterns of GR in the liver of FD stress-induced birds persisted until 6 weeks of age, suggesting the possible lifelong involvement of liver GR in early-life nutritional stress response of birds. Taken together, results suggest that DNA methylation regulator genes are tissue-specifically responsive to acute and chronic stress, and hepatic GR may play a critical role in regulating the early-life nutritional stress response of birds. In addition, the downregulation of DNMT1 and DMAP1 may be one of the adaptive mechanisms to chronic early-life nutritional stress via passive demethylation.

Undergraduate students’ strategies for negotiating emerging performer and teacher identities

Nowadays, instrumental undergraduate students must often negotiate their emerging performer and teacher identities, and the results of this process affect the way they later balance their professional and personal life and their ability to sustain lifelong involvement in music. Drawing from recent sociological studies on bicultural identity integration, this study addresses two research questions: What strategies do undergraduate students adopt for negotiating both professional identities? And what are the characteristics of each strategy?One hundred and twenty-one undergraduate performance students participated in this study. Using cluster analysis, a typology of eight strategies for negotiating performer and teacher identities was developed: moratorium, diffusion, dichotomy, involvement with narrow vision, performers who happen to teach, assimilation or unwilling teacher dominance, quasi-integration and integration. These categories are characterized by students’ level of personal commitment, involvement, perceived freedom, breadth and accuracy of the professional image, and personal and social professional recognition.The strategies unfolded and described in this study could be useful for students who want to reflect on new ways of negotiating multiple professional identities and for researchers involved in musicians’ identity-building research.

A life in statistical mechanics

This is the first part of an oral history interview on the lifelong involvement of Joel Lebowitz in the development of statistical mechanics. Here the covered topics include the formative years, which overlapped the tragic period of Nazi power and World War II in Europe, the emigration to the United States in 1946 and the schooling there. It also includes the beginnings and early scientific works with Peter Bergmann, Oliver Penrose and many others. The second part will appear in a forthcoming issue of Eur. Phys. J. H.

Luigi Naldini on His Lifelong Involvement with the Development of Gene Therapy.

Luigi Naldini on His Lifelong Involvement with the Development of Gene Therapy.

甘肃省陇南市新生儿疾病筛查工作情况分析与体会

The neonatal disease screening was carried out in Gansu Longnan remote mountainous areas for 7 years. Health administrative departments and medical and health institutions eight counties conscientiously implement the one law and outlines, two planning and the implementation details of screening for neonatal diseases in Gansu Province. A total of 146935 newborn screening was conducted from March 2009 to September 2015, among them, 30 cases of neonatal phenylketonuria (PKU) and congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in 16 cases were found. Neonatal (PKU) prevalence of benzene acetone urine was 0.24‰, congenital hypothyroidism (CH) incidence was 0.10‰. The children were given free treatment, and were followed up for a better treatment effect. Leaders at all levels should attach importance to the establishment of organizational management, strengthen the standardized operation, enhance quality management, and extend in-depth publicity, which are the key factors to do a good job of screening for neonatal diseases. Disease symptoms could be found and cured effectively through the screening examination of diseases of newborn babies, which not only free the child and family from lifelong involvement, also alleviate the burden to the society. But more importantly, improve the quality of the national population.

Gender Differences in Meaningful Leisure Following Major Later Life Events

Using narrative analysis, 20 interviews with older adults in Northern Spain suggested that participants developed leisure involvements that kept them meaningfully engaged, though in different ways according to gender. Their leisure activities resulted from life-long involvement, but also stemmed from later life events—mainly retirement and widowhood—that allowed for change and new engagements. Meaningful activities were those that allowed the development of new skills and interests and reinforced relationships. This study revealed gender differences in the patterns of initiation and continuity of participants' involvement in meaningful leisure. While the women in the study tended to be more innovative after retirement and widowhood, the men tended to continue their participation in their life-long leisure activities. Incorporating a gender perspective was important for identifying the different processes through which older adults develop meaningful leisure.

An Ethics for the Erotic Avant-Garde: Feminism, Buddhism, and the Idea of Compassion in Mei-mei Berssenbrugge’s Lyric Poetry

This paper examines Mei-mei Berssenbrugge’s feminist lyric poetry and poetics, focusing on how her writing explores the middle ground between French feminism and the Mahayana lineage of Chinese Buddhism. While scholars have discussed Berssenbrugge’s feminist consciousness and its impacts on her innovative lyric practice, little attention has been given to her life-long involvement in the Chinese Buddhist tradition. In this respect, this essay traces the development of her feminist-Buddhist (or Buddhist-feminist) writing from the 1980s through 1990s, suggesting that the Chinese Buddhist bodhisattva Guanyin, a popular female deity known as the “Goddess of Compassion,” plays a significant role when Berssenbrugge yields an antiessential form of feminist ethics. Berssenbrugge’s transnational feminist imaginary seeks to promote Guanyin’s ethics of compassion, an ethics that fleshes out the bodhisattva’s maternity and her openness to the suffering other.

How Do Entomologists Consume and Produce Their Science?

The science of entomology is produced by a large body of researchers around the world, and although it is difficult to say how many people identify themselves as “entomologists,” ESA has more than 6,000 registered members.1 Thousands more scientists who may not identify themselves as entomologists are involved with the field of entomology, and valuable, original, and sometimes surprising entomological research is highlighted throughout the general press daily. For many of us, our job as an entomologist is connected to a passion. Sometimes it is a hobby and more than an occupation. It may become a career, a philosophy, and a lifelong involvement with a fascinating world. However, our science, like any other, is represented by the peer-review publication of the research projects with which we are involved. For careers in academia, the publication process is more than the simple reporting of scientific results; it is also a key for tenure, promotion, and funding, and therefore impacts everything we do as scientists and as entomologists: it is our currency. While the publication of research is the key to the progress of science as a whole, an important part of our job is to stay up-to-date with the literature in our field. This implies that we have to read, process, analyze, criticize, support, refute, and build on the literature that has previously been published, as a gradual process. We require an accumulation of knowledge from various fields …