Mussolini and the idealisation of empire : the Augustan exhibition of Romanita

The Augustan Exhibition of Romanita`, held in Rome’s Palazzo delle Esposizioni between 1937 and 1938, exemplifies the aestheticisation, ritualisation and sacralisation of politics during the Fascist era in Italy. This article conducts a multi-layered spatial analysis of the exhibition that considers space as passively experienced, as an agent to re-map memory, as a mediator between intention and reception and as having both physical and mental characteristics. The relative sizes of the spaces, their sequence and their axial placement within the Palazzo’s plan were the most powerful forces that conveyed the exhibition’s overall political and social aims. The Mostra Augustea della Romanita` (MAR) is here analysed as a form of historical representation with a specific narrative which is played out within an orchestrated space in order to create and reinforce a (Fascist) political identity. The idea of Rome took on material aspects through a kind of ‘recognition effect’ for the visitor by presenting Romanita` as a collective mirror in which to view an image of their own social visage. Thus an active connection would, according to the organisers, be forged between a Roman past and a Fascist present, and its two leaders and creators, Augustus and Mussolini, as well as between the individual and society. The MAR also demonstrates the prevalence of the cult of Il Duce in Fascist society and its importance for maintaining high levels of consent. With its focus on a particular view of the ancient world, the MAR was an ephemeral event that acted as teleological justification for the advent and supposed permanence of Fascism, which at the same time presented itself as a unique archaeological, scientific and educational document of the Roman world.

The role of policy in improving diets : experiences from the Pacific obesity prevention in communities food policy project

There is global interest in using multisectoral policy approaches to improve diets, and reduce obesity and non-communicable disease. However, there has been ad hoc implementation, which in some sectors such as the economic sector has been very limited, because of the lack of quality evidence on potential costs and impacts, and the inherent challenges associated with cross-sectoral policy development and implementation. The Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities food policy project aimed to inform relevant policy development and implementation in Pacific Island countries. The project developed an innovative participatory approach to identifying and assessing potential policy options in terms of their effectiveness and feasibility. It also used policy analysis methodology to assess three policy initiatives to reduce fatty meat availability and four soft drink taxes in the region, in order to identify strategies for supporting effective policy implementation.

The quality of community reintegration planning for child molesters : effects on sexual recidivism

Research on the causal factors underlying sex offender recidivism has not considered the success or failure of the reintegration process by which the offender rejoins the community after prison. The authors developed a coding protocol to measure the quality and comprehensiveness of reintegration planning for sex offenders. The protocol was retrospectively applied to groups of recidivists and nonrecidivists who were matched on static risk level and follow-up time. The protocol demonstrated adequate reliability. Compared to nonrecidivists, recidivists had significantly lower scores relating to accommodation, employment, and the Good Lives Model secondary goods, as well as lower total reintegration plan scores. ANCOVAs showed that when IQ and level of sexual deviance were controlled for, accommodation (a place to live) was significantly related to sexual recidivism and the Good Lives Model—secondary goods was significantly related to any recidivism. These results suggest that poor reintegration planning may be a risk factor for recidivism.

How did we ever arrive at the conclusion that teachers are the problem? A critical reading in the discourses of Australian schooling

A Quality Teacher debate is presented within historical and contemporary contexts, including a political history of Australian schooling over the last 20 or so years. It is argued that there is a crisis of confidence in schooling, which is currently being played out by positioning teachers as the 'problem' and not just the 'solution' to this crisis.

The influence of body build on estimates of body composition from anthropometric measurements in premenopausal women

Objective: To assess the influence of body build on the bias and limits of agreement for estimates of body fat obtained from anthropometric prediction equations when compared with the same data obtained by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA).

Survey design and subjects: Ninety-one premenopausal women, aged between 20 and 54 years, were chosen to represent a range of skeletal body build (relative silting height 0.50-0.56) and body fatness [body mass index (BMI) 18-34 kg/m²]. Measurements of weight, sitting height, stature, skinfold thickness, waist, umbilical and hip circumference and total body resistance and reactance were made on all subjects by standard techniques after an overnight fast. A DEXA measurement of total body fat, fat-free soft tissue and total body bone mineral mass was also obtained within 2 weeks of the anthropometric assessment.

Results: At the group level the mean difference (bias) between DEXA and the anthropometric estimates of body fat was similar for all three anthropometric estimates ranging from 2.7 kg with impedance to 1.8 kg with skinfold thickness. The 95% limits of agreement were also similar, ranging from ±5.3 kg with body mass index to ±4.1 kg with impedance. Umbilical circumference, BMI and the amount of bone mineral expressed as a proportion of the fat-free soft-tissue mass were all significantly (P < 0.01) correlated with the level of bias between DEXA and the anthropometric estimates of body fat. This was not the case for relative sitting height or measures of body fat distribution. Regression equations which included BMI or umbilical circumference in combination with the predicted estimates of body fat essentially eliminated the association between the level of bias in predicted body fat and the level of body fatness. They also reduced the 95% limits of agreement between DEXA and the anthropometric estimates of body fat.

Conclusions: Using DEXA estimates of body fat as the standard of reference our results suggest that the comparability and precision of body fat estimates derived from age- and/or sex-specific anthropometric prediction equations based on skinfolds and BMI, but not impedance, can be improved by adjusting for differences in BMI and umbilical circumference respectively.

Pheromone production, male abundance, body size, and the evolution of elaborate antennae in moths

The males of some species of moths possess elaborate feathery antennae. It is widely assumed that these striking morphological features have evolved through selection for males with greater sensitivity to the female sex pheromone, which is typically released in minute quantities. Accordingly, females of species in which males have elaborate (i.e., pectinate, bipectinate, or quadripectinate) antennae should produce the smallest quantities of pheromone. Alternatively, antennal morphology may be associated with the chemical properties of the pheromone components, with elaborate antennae being associated with pheromones that diffuse more quickly (i.e., have lower molecular weights). Finally, antennal morphology may reflect population structure, with low population abundance selecting for higher sensitivity and hence more elaborate antennae. We conducted a phylogenetic comparative analysis to test these explanations using pheromone chemical data and trapping data for 152 moth species. Elaborate antennae are associated with larger body size (longer forewing length), which suggests a biological cost that smaller moth species cannot bear. Body size is also positively correlated with pheromone titre and negatively correlated with population abundance (estimated by male abundance). Removing the effects of body size revealed no association between the shape of antennae and either pheromone titre, male abundance, or mean molecular weight of the pheromone components. However, among species with elaborate antennae, longer antennae were typically associated with lower male abundances and pheromone compounds with lower molecular weight, suggesting that male distribution and a more rapidly diffusing female sex pheromone may influence the size but not the general shape of male antennae.

Towards discovery of influence and personality traits through social link prediction

Estimation of a person’s influence and personality traits from social media data has many applications. We use social linkage criteria, such as number of followers and friends, as proxies to form corpora, from popular blogging site Livejournal, for examining two two-class classification problems: influential vs. non-influential, and extraversion vs. introversion. Classification is performed using automatically-derived psycholinguistic and mood-based features of a user’s textual messages. We experiment with three sub-corpora of 10000 users each, and present the most effective predictors for each category. The best classification result, at 80%, is achieved using psycholinguistic features; e.g., influentials are found to use more complex language, than non-influentials, and use more leisure-related terms.

The roses of success

Sometimes success can be detrimental to learning while failure can be good. What appears as a disaster can often lay the foundations for future success.

Usually, educators and students focus on building confidence through successful completion of learning tasks, summarised by Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. A positive feedback loop is established if learners are successful in mastering new ideas and skills. The problem is if teachers, trainers and instructors never challenge students to the fullest extent of their abilities, as this might also ensure overconfidence, slow progress and boredom.

We should not avoid the risk of failure; science is all about the possible risk of failure. Testable hypotheses have the potential to fail an experimental or computational test; ideas that are not testable are considered to be outside the realm of science. The occasional failure shows the limits and scope of an idea’s validity and enables us to advance scientific ideas.

There is a need to find the balance between challenge that extends students, and over-extension. The former results in greater and true confidence and ability, while the latter leads to catastrophic failure and crises of confidence. Education, like life and like all scientific endeavour is about taking responsible risks safely. When we cultivate the roses of success that grow from the ashes of disaster, we must not forget that roses have thorns, or that the occasional setback or failure is just as important for learning as a succession of successes.

The impact of a computerised consolidation accounting package (CCAP) on student performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between the use of a computerised learning tool (specifically designed to teach consolidation accounting) and student performance in the final examination of an undergraduate accounting unit on Corporate Accounting.

Design/methodology/approach – A regression model was developed to analyse 1,103 observations of assignment and examination scores, collected over three semesters, to test the central proposition that computer assisted learning enhances student learning outcomes and performance in the exam.

Findings – The results show a positive and significant relationship between the computerised accounting assignment on consolidated accounting (linked to usage of the computerised tool) and the consolidation question in the final examination. The findings suggest that the computerised consolidation accounting package (CCAP) assists students to understand the concepts underpinning consolidation accounting.

Research limitations/implications – The data were collected from a single institution, which may not represent the population of accounting students. Due to ethical obligations, the study lacked a control group that would have allowed meaningful comparison and assessment of student performance. Furthermore, whilst the findings in this study were able to demonstrate a positive association between the CCAP and exam performance, it is unable to determine the quality and depth of the learning experience from using the CCAP.

Practical implications – The present study found that a CCAP and its usage has the potential to positively impact student performance on assessment tasks on subject matter similar to concepts contained the computer package. Such findings may encourage instructors to seek ways of incorporating learning technologies in the pedagogical design.

Originality/value – This is believed to be one the few papers that has exclusively studied the impact of a specific CCAP and a specific segment in accounting education (consolidation accounting) using direct measures, CCAP assignment score and the final examination score for a question dedicated to consolidation accounting.

The number of years lived with obesity and the risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality

Background The role of the duration of obesity as an independent risk factor for mortality has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to analyse the association between the duration of obesity and the risk of mortality.

Methods A total of 5036 participants (aged 28–62 years) of the Framingham Cohort Study were followed up every 2 years from 1948 for up to 48 years. The association between obesity duration and all-cause and cause-specific mortality was analysed using time-dependent Cox models adjusted for body mass index. The role of biological intermediates and chronic diseases was also explored.

Results The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for mortality increased as the number of years lived with obesity increased. For those who were obese for 1–4.9, 5–14.9, 15–24.9 and ≥25 years of the study follow-up period, adjusted HRs for all-cause mortality were 1.51 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.27–1.79], 1.94 (95% CI 1.71–2.20), 2.25 (95% CI 1.89–2.67) and 2.52 (95% CI 2.08–3.06), respectively, compared with those who were never obese. A dose–response relation between years of duration of obesity was also clear for all-cause, cardiovascular, cancer and other-cause mortality. For every additional 2 years of obesity, the HRs for all-cause, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other-cause mortality were 1.06 (95% CI 1.05–1.07), 1.07 (95% CI 1.05–1.08), 1.03 (95% CI 1.01–1.05) and 1.07 (95% CI 1.05–1.11), respectively.

Conclusions The number of years lived with obesity is directly associated with the risk of mortality. This needs to be taken into account when estimating its burden on mortality.

The duration of obesity and the risk of type-2 diabetes

Objective The evidence for the association between obesity and the risk of type 2 diabetes has been derived mainly from the analysis of the degree of obesity. The role of the duration of obesity as an independent risk has not been fully explored. The objective of the present study was to investigate the association between the duration of obesity and the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Design Prospective cohort study.

Setting The Framingham Heart Study (FHS), follow-up from 1948 to 1998.

Subjects A total of 1256 FHS participants who were free from type 2 diabetes at baseline, but were obese on at least two consecutive of the study’s twenty-four biennial examinations, were included. Type 2 diabetes status was collected throughout the 48 years of follow-up of the study. The relationship between duration of obesity and type 2 diabetes was analysed using time-dependent Cox models, adjusting for a number of covariates.

Results The unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) for the risk of type 2 diabetes for men was 1·13 (95 % CI 1·09, 1·17) and for women was 1·12 (95 % CI 1·08, 1·16) per additional 2-year increase in the duration of obesity. Adjustment for sociodemographic variables, family history of diabetes, health behaviour and physical activity made little difference to these HR. For women the evidence of a dose–response relationship was less clear than for men, particularly for women with an older age at obesity onset.

Conclusions The duration of obesity is a relevant risk factor for type 2 diabetes, independent of the degree of BMI.

Social media in the classroom : a simple yet complex hybrid environment for students

This article reports on part of the author’s PhD action research study. It examines the complexity of features that social media and Web 2.0 offer when combined with face-to-face teaching and learning. Action research was used to help redesign the learning programs of thirteen Middle Years classes over an eighteen month period. These learning programs took advantage of the unique communicative methods offered by social media and provided spaces such as blogs, groups and discussion forums. Students developed their own identity when working online, made online friends, left comments for peers and uploaded content which included publishing, peer reviewing and self assessment. The research highlighted the simplicity in the creation and exchange of user-generated content and interaction while identifying a complex depth behind such interaction. Designing learning programs using social media enabled the students to be active and valued participants in the learning process and a ‘hybrid’ learning environment

Leptin and the development of obesity and diabetes in Psammomys obesus

The recently discovered ob gene and its circulating product, leptin, may be critical factors in the control of energy balance. Recent studies in ob/ob mice, which lack circulating leptin, have shown dramatic reductions in food intake and bodyweight after leptin treatment. In addition, studies in both humans with obesity and animal models of obesity have demonstrated hyperleptinemia. Here, we report a longitudinal study examining changes in circulating leptin during the development of obesity and diabetes in Psammomys obesus. Over the 8 weeks of the study, lean animals increased their bodyweight by 154% and leptin levels remained essentially unchanged. In contrast, animals that developed obesity (223 % increase in bodyweight), hyperglycemia, and hyperinsulinemia also developed hyperleptinemia between 4 weeks and 8 weeks of age. These results demonstrate that the development of hyperleptinemia is associated with the development of obesity and subsequent metabolic abnormalities.