bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Literacy Makeover: Educational Research and the Public Interest on Prime Time
Authors: Lefstein Adam
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Literacy education has always been hotly contested, and in England the debate has recently intensified in controversies over synthetic phonics teaching and the National Literacy Strategy. This article brings together four theoretical and policy contexts in studying this debate: (1) the long-standing and on-going “reading wars”; (2) theories of deliberative democracy, and the particular problems of how the mass media facilitate and/or suppress public discourse and the participation of academic experts in the public sphere; (3) the affordances and constraints of television news reporting, and in particular, the emergence of the makeover reality television genre as a model for current affairs reporting; and (4) the “evidence-based policy” movement in educational research.

Purpose/Questions

This article examines a prominent media event—the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television program Newsnight's reports on synthetic phonics teaching—to reflect on the relationship between educational research, the media, and the treatment of educational problems in the public sphere. I ask: How are educational problems represented in the mass media? How do and should academic researchers participate in public debates about these problems?

Research Design

This interpretive study is based primarily on critical analysis of three news reports and was informed by rhetorical criticism, genre analysis, ethnographic research of the educational program represented, and theoretical concerns about the interaction of research, the mass media, and the public sphere. Key participants in the media event were also interviewed.

Findings

The prestigious news program has poorly served public debate by narrowing the problem of educational improvement to a question of teaching method; by promoting a “makeover” approach to school reform; and by casting the issue in the inherited yet inadequate terms of the traditional “reading wars” frame. The two educational researchers appearing on the program adopted different rhetorical strategies. One invoked his academic authority and acted as an epistemological gatekeeper. The second, who was deemed to be more successful, addressed viewers as consumers of educational goods and couched her academic concerns in everyday language.

Conclusions

The case study has implications for the way that educational researchers communicate their ideas to the general public. In particular, it raises questions about the desirability and likely effectiveness of the currently popular strategy to maximize research influence through the promotion of “evidence-based” policy.
Cultural Match or Culturally Suspect: How New Teachers of Color Negotiate Sociocultural Challenges in the Classroom
Authors: Achinstein Betty , Aguirre Julia
Published: February 2022

Background

The call to recruit and retain teachers of color in urban high-minority schools is based on an assumption of a cultural match with students. Yet new teachers of color may find themselves challenged by students with whom they are supposedly culturally matched. Although past research has examined recruitment, preservice, and veteran experiences of teachers of color, little research investigates the critical novice phase.

Purpose

The study examines the induction experiences of new teachers of color in urban high-minority schools as they negotiate challenges about cultural identifications. The research questions ask: How, if at all, do new teachers of color experience sociocultural challenges from students? If they do experience such challenges, how do the teachers respond to them in practice?

Participants

Fifteen new teachers of color working in urban high-minority secondary schools in different subject domains in California. The participants include Latino, African American, Asian, Filipino, and biracial new teachers.

Research Design

This article draws from cross-case analysis of case studies of new teachers of color on the theme of responses to sociocultural challenges.

Data Collection/Analysis

Data are from teacher interviews, classroom observations, and focus groups, reflecting 3 years in the teachers’ lives. We coded the data on three levels: preliminary coding of sociocultural challenges, pattern coding of responses to challenges, and cross-case analysis.

Findings

The study findings complicate the limited conception of cultural match currently dominating policy and research rhetoric about teachers of color. The authors highlight a surprising new form of “practice shock” that the novices of color experienced when students of color questioned the teachers’ cultural identifications, finding them culturally suspect. The study also challenges the prevailing description of novices’ response to practice shock as moving toward more control-focused teaching. Instead, most novices at times took up the challenges as teachable moments and opportunities to broaden student conceptions. Teachers drew on “emergent multicultural capital” to negotiate challenges in ways that shaped teaching practice.

Conclusions

The literature on novices, drawn from a White-dominant sample, has not included a discussion of sociocultural conflicts or the supports needed in induction years for teachers of color. The study revealed the lack of support that many of the teachers felt in relation to negotiating sociocultural issues. The study raises issues about targeted induction support for teachers of color that educators and researchers should consider as they seek to diversify the workforce.
Winning the Epistemological Struggle: Constructing a Cultural Model of Shared Authority in an Elementary Classroom
Authors: Crawford Teresa
Published: February 2022

Background

Constructivist epistemology offers an explanation of the nature of knowledge and how people learn that has emerged as a prominent approach endorsed by schools of teacher education. This perspective stands in direct contrast to the understanding of knowledge and learning based on behaviorist epistemology. These opposing epistemological views represent two paradigms of educational practice within which the role of authority is positioned very differently, each with its own effect on the way learning is understood. When teachers are asked to redefine the role they take in classrooms, they are essentially being asked to successfully manage a shift between paradigms. This task requires the abandonment of established ways of practice and the development of new strategies of action.

Focus of Study

This article addresses the following questions: (1) How does a teacher go about reorganizing participation patterns in ways that redefine the habits and modes of experience that are largely taken for granted in schools? (2) What are the results in terms of the distribution of authority and whose knowledge counts? (3) What are the effects on opportunities for learning when such paradigmatic shifts are accomplished? Specifically, the intent of this study is to identify the ways in which authority was a shared construct among members of a fourth/fifth-grade classroom, how members took up the role of authority, and the effect that it had on opportunities for learning.

Research Design

Three classroom episodes were theoretically sampled as key events from an ethnographic data set collected over one academic year. Using an ethnographic and critical discourse approach designed to study interaction in educational settings, each episode was analyzed to illustrate how authority and the situated processes and practices associated with it were socially constituted through the language of the classroom. Evidence was provided within each set of analyses to show that these episodes were not isolated instances, but reflected established patterns of practice among participants.

Conclusions

Overall, the findings serve as an example of how shared authority contributes to alternative ways of viewing knowledge and whose knowledge counts, and what it means to be a learner. Most important, this study demonstrates that when shared authority is a consistent classroom practice, what emerges over time is a cultural model within which students can begin to restructure their developing epistemological frames as they revise their notions of knowledge and ways of knowing.
Negotiating Mandates and Memory: Inside a Small Schools Network for Immigrant Youth
Authors: Jaffe-Walter Reva
Published: February 2022

Context

Networks are seen as important vehicles for educators’ professional development because they provide opportunities for educators to develop their teaching and leadership capacities and establish forums for educator resistance. Networks that also function as intermediary organizations provide spaces in which educators and network leaders can bridge and buffer the external demands of accountability policies.

Focus of Study

This article considers how the Internationals Network for Public Schools (Internationals Network) contends with the often incompatible external demands of current accountability policies, and the internal professional and pedagogical practices of their schools. First, this article explores the challenges that the International schools encounter as they negotiate commitments to inquiry-based learning and local decision making in the context of top-down mandates. Second, it discusses the history, practices, and internal challenges of the network. Finally, it provides examples of how the network acts as a bridge and buffer for the schools as it negotiates current external accountability pressures.

Setting

The International High Schools serve a population of recently arrived immigrant youth from over 90 countries, who speak over 50 languages and come from socioeconomic backgrounds that qualify most for free lunch. The International High Schools constitute a network of nine public high schools throughout New York City and one newly opened school in Oakland, California. The term network is used here to refer to both the nonprofit intermediary organization, Internationals Network, and the community of Internationals educators across schools.

Research Design

This case study engages Shore and Wright's (1997) approach to the anthropology of policy that involves exploring policies through various sites to understand how the discourses, provisions, and technologies of education policies are encountered, experienced, and negotiated by different members of a community. This article is based on participant observation of network meetings and retreats, and interviews with educators and leaders within the Internationals Network that took place over a period of 2 years.

Findings

This study finds that the role of the network is critical in the Internationals context because it creates spaces for fostering professional community and contending with the multiple external demands of accountability policies. This study also concludes that the institutional knowledge and historical memory that has grown over time within and between International schools is a significant resource for educators as they negotiate external challenges. Finally, this study calls for an accountability of policy itself in which policy makers consider how education policies are experienced by youth, educators, and schools.
Small Schools, Large Districts: Small-School Reform and New York City's Students
Authors: Iatarola Patrice , Schwartz Amy Ellen , Stiefel Leanna , Chellman Colin C.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

High school reform is currently at the top of the education policy making agenda after years of stagnant achievement and persistent racial and income test score gaps. Although a number of reforms offer some promise of improving U.S. high schools, small schools have emerged as the favored reform model, especially in urban areas, garnering substantial financial investments from both the private and public sectors. In the decade following 1993, the number of high schools in New York City nearly doubled, as new “small” schools opened and large high schools were reorganized into smaller learning communities. The promise of small schools to improve academic engagement, school culture, and, ultimately, student performance has drawn many supporters. However, educators, policy makers, and researchers have raised concerns about the unintended consequences of these new small schools and the possibility that students “left behind” in large, established high schools are incurring negative impacts.

Research Design

Using 10 years (1993–2003) of data on New York City high schools, we examine the potential systemic effects of small schools that have been identified by critics and researchers. We describe whether small schools, as compared with larger schools, serve an easier-to-educate student body, receive more resources, use those resources differently, and have better outcomes. Further, we examine whether there have been changes in segregation and resource equity across the decade contemporaneous with small-school reform efforts.

Findings/Results

We find that, although small schools do have higher per-pupil expenditures, lower pupil-teacher ratios, and a smaller share of special education students than larger schools, their students are disproportionately limited English proficient and poor, and their incoming students have lower test scores. Thus, the evidence is mixed with respect to claims that small schools serve an easier-to-educate student body. Systemwide, we find that segregation is relatively stable, and although there have been some changes in the distribution of resources, they are relatively modest.

Conclusions/Recommendations

If small schools do eventually promote higher achievement (considering their student mix and other factors that differentiate them from larger schools), many more will be needed to house the 91.5% of the students still attending large schools. Otherwise, strategies that work for the vast majority of students who do not attend small schools will need to be identified and implemented.
Small-School Reform through the Lens of Complexity Theory: It's “Good to Think With”
Authors: Mcquillan Patrick J.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

In light of the consistent underperformance of the comprehensive high school, districts across the country, mostly urban, have begun creating small schools, believing that they may offer a more personalized, supportive, and demanding learning environment. To explore this assumption, this article examines small-school reform through the lens of complexity theory, considering both the promise and problems associated with this approach to educational change.

Purpose/Objective

With complexity theory as an analytic lens, this article looks at extant research in the area of small-school reform. Specifically, the article draws on fundamental features of complexity theory (e.g., initial conditions, distributed authority, control parameters, fractals, and synergy) as a way to assess both the problems and promise of small-school reform.

Intervention/Program/Practice

This article focuses on the effects of small-school reform— specifically, the impact of small schools, defined in general as those that enroll between 300 and 450 students, have an explicit thematic focus, promote broad democratic participation for all community members, and attempt to personalize students’ education as a means to enhance educational achievement.

Research Design

Drawing on the lens of complexity theory, this article offers a secondary analysis of research that I and others have conducted. Employing specific features of complexity theory, this article offers an analysis of these studies from a new analytic perspective.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Overall, complexity theory is “good to think with.” It offers a systematic way to conceptualize and direct reform in a dynamic, nonlinear system. It is not precise, and certainly not predictive, but complexity theory—with its attention to changed interactions, initial conditions, distributed authority, control parameters, and fractals—offers a holistic framework for understanding the systemic nature of educational reform. Too often, efforts at educational change have been atheoretical, ignoring the multiple, interrelated, and interacting elements of our schools and school systems. Viewing the educational system as composed of isolated and discrete structures, such efforts assumed that complicated phenomena could be understood by analyzing their constituent parts, when in fact the sum of the whole was greater, and more complex, than the sum of the individual parts. Consequently, reforms modified one or two elements in a system apart from related elements, assuming that these actions would produce the intended outcome through a linear, cause-and-effect relationship. But often, the status quo endured. Rather than assuming such predictable and linear interactions among discrete elements in an educational system, complexity theory draws attention to the evolving interrelationships among system elements at various levels of the system. It offers a means to analyze emerging patterns and trends to illuminate how the disparate system parts are, or are not, working together.
Care of the Self in a Context of Accountability
Authors: Gunzenhauser Michael G.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

This article is a part of a larger philosophical and empirical project by the author and collaborators to understand the ways in which high-stakes accountability policy fosters normalizing educational practices and concomitant resistance by educators and students.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

In this article, the author explores how Michel Foucault's notion of the “care of the self” might provide a conceptual basis for resistance to the normalizing practices and disciplinary power associated with high-stakes accountability and resulting educational practices.

Research Design

The author employs a philosophical analysis of key concepts associated with normalization, the care of the self, the educated self, and high-stakes accountability. The article is presented as a philosophical argument.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The author suggests that to shift attention from limited notions of the self toward expansive and creative possibilities for constituting the self requires clarity on what we mean by the educated self in a context of accountability. It also necessitates a new professional ethics characterized by critical reflection and intersubjective engagement.
Deweyan Reflections on Knowledge-Producing Schools
Authors: Schneider S.B. , Garrison Jim
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Our article examines some of the philosophical underpinnings of knowledge-producing schools (KPS). KPS is an Australian initiative advanced by such researchers as Chris Bigum, Colin Lankshear, and Michael Knobel.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

We examine the epistemology and the theory of new literacy that KPS scholars put forth, which we strongly endorse, and address a lack of attention to embodiment and the emotions that KPS epistemology would seem to require. Our article is devoted to addressing this omission, which we frequently find in other approaches to literacy studies as well.

Research Design

We call on the philosophy of Deweyan pragmatism to provide a friendly critique and reconstruction of KPS epistemology. In doing so, we will rely on the perspective of Deweyan pragmatism supplemented by some of the insights of pragmatist feminism.

Conclusions/Recommendations

In our reconstruction of KPS, we offer a Deweyan performance epistemology that resembles the epistemology championed by KPS in some important ways, but by emphasizing the role of embodiment and emotion (“bodying”) in making meaning and making knowing, it allows us to better comprehend what it entails to be a member of a community of practice.
Echo Effects and Curriculum Change
Authors: Cornbleth Catherine
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

This project is framed by a critical pragmatism, which is evident in the questioning of how social conditions and events outside schools influence classroom practice and in exploring the question of who benefits, collectively and individually, socially and politically, as well as pedagogically.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The intent of this work is to better our understanding of the school-society nexus generally and, more specifically, of curriculum practice and change in relation to societal conditions and events. This goal is pursued by means of analysis of relevant research to illustrate what might be called “echo effects” in order to account for changes in curriculum policy and practice in response to external press.

Research Design

Methodologically, this is an analytic article that reexamines data and interpretations from several relevant research projects. In addition to media research relevant to the conception of “echo,” four cases/studies provide illustration of echoes and apparent “echo effects” on curriculum policy and/or practice: state-level curriculum policymaking; school administrator perceptions and practices regarding censorship challenges; teachers’ responses to new or increased state testing in academic subject areas; and teachers’ responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Echoes and apparent echo effects on curriculum policy and classroom practice are important because they demonstrate one means by which events and “social forces” enter into public and professional discourses, and that discourses matter, in part by framing issues, focusing attention, and rendering legitimacy. Echo effects appear to be dependent on the echoes being received or “heard” and on the extent to which they are perceived or interpreted in ways (1) compatible with one's values and priorities, and (2) feasible to act on in current circumstances (given one's assessment of the situation, one's political and professional skills, and so forth). Next steps include examining the conditions under which echo effects are stronger or weaker and perhaps attempting to manage (e.g., deflect) the echoes themselves. Notably, the cases of echo effects offered here all contribute, though in varying degrees, to the narrowing of curriculum policy and practice. The cumulative curriculum effects of these echoes appear to sustain more than challenge the status quo. With greater awareness and understanding of how external influences enter in and operate, we are better able to raise questions and attempt to reshape curricular and other educational issues, not merely to participate in the debates on terms set by others or to be swept along by default.
Learning Motivation: The Role of Opportunity
Authors: Mccaslin Mary
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Student motivation typically has been studied as it relates to extrinsic (e.g., reinforcement) and intrinsic (e.g., choice) sources of influence. Our observation of Grades 3–5 classrooms engaged in Comprehensive School Reform (CSR), however, unexpectedly indicated that opportunities for both rewards and choice were scarce. This study sought to better understand what might influence student motivation in these settings.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was (1) to listen to students to understand how they talked about school, classroom learning, and related issues that appeared to matter to them; (2) to observe students in their daily negotiations of school tasks, challenges, and relationships; (3) to then design survey measures to capture these students’ perspectives and motivational dynamics; and (4) to determine if the apparent student motivational dynamics generalized to other students in similar contexts.

Research Design

The author conducted a participant observation project in a single school, engaged in school reform, that served students living in poverty. The study involved frequent (N = 45) school visits from the spring of one school year through the spring of the next. The goal was to generate hypotheses about what might inform student motivational dynamics in the context of CSR schools.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The central theme to emerge from the participant observation study was the key role of opportunity in students’ learning motivation and motivation to learn. Motivational opportunities were organized into three types: supports, challenges, and threats. Each was represented in survey measures that appear useful in capturing the motivational dispositions and beliefs about school of students in Grades 3–5 in similar contexts.
Teacher Support of Student Autonomy in Comprehensive School Reform Classrooms
Authors: Bozack Amanda Rabidue , Vega Ruby , Mccaslin Mary , Good Thomas L.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Research in the self-determination theoretical (SDT) tradition indicates that teachers’ autonomy-supportive behaviors result in students’ greater perceived academic competence, better academic performance, and increased achievement. This study describes autonomy-supportive teacher behaviors in schools participating in Comprehensive School Reform (CSR).

Research Question

In a 2006 pilot study to determine if autonomous opportunities occurred in CSR classroom contexts, Bozack, McCaslin, and Good identified the presence or absence of autonomy-supporting teaching in their written narratives of classroom practices. The current study moves that pilot research forward by asking, Are autonomy-supportive teaching practices present? And if so, what is the nature of the teacher-student interactions in these classrooms?

Population

The sample consisted of 696 intervals of field notes from 106 classroom observations in five CSR schools in Grades 3, 4, and 5.

Research Design

Comprehensive School Reform Classroom Observation System (CSRCOS) observation field notes were analyzed using the Autonomy Supportive Behavior Instrument (ASBI). The scale was developed based on previous SDT research suggestions about how teachers can foster autonomy in the classroom.

Conclusions

Results indicated that all eight teaching practices suggested by SDT were present in our field notes; however, their frequency and form varied considerably from SDT expectations. Students had many opportunities to manipulate objects, but in half of the codes, we found that students were using the same objects for the same tasks in the same way, suggesting that there was little opportunity for students to choose how they wanted to work with objects. Students had many opportunities to talk. Teachers prompted and guided student learning most of the time, yet rarely helped students to relate ideas and concepts from one topic to another or from one lesson to another. Opportunities for student choice were infrequent, and when our field notes included verbal exchange, we found that teachers consistently responded to student questions and student-initiated dialogue. We rarely identified explicit instances of encouragement or teachers engaging the experiences, expertise, or perspective of students.
Can We Help Dropouts: Thinking about the Undoable
Authors: Mann Dale
Published: February 2022

Recognizing that we live in a complex world, Dale Mann reminds us that there are few simple answers to persistent educational problems. He argues that the dropout problem calls for imaginative and multiple approaches to what is really a diverse set of problems preventing students from completing high school. His overview sets the stage for the articles that follow.
Why Urban Adolescents Drop into and out of Public High School
Authors: Fine Michelle
Published: February 2022

Statistics on school experiences of dropouts provide one sort of picture of the problem. In this article Michelle Fine provides another. Using ethnographic techniques, she describes through the eyes and words of actual dropouts the factors that led them to leave school.
Comments on Tomorrow's Teachers
Authors: Dreeben Robert
Published: February 2022

Can education be improved by improving teacher education without taking into account the many other forces that impinge on the quality of education? Probably not, is Dreeben's conclusion. Regarding the Holmes Group report, he concludes that the proposed differential staffing is merely a new set of names for the kind of staffing we already have: substitute and nontenured teachers, tenured teachers, and administrators — and that what we are really witnessing in this and other reform proposals is an underlying political debate of major proportions regarding the educational role of the state and our conceptions of the public and the private.
Teaching: International Concerns
Authors: Altbach Philip G.
Published: February 2022

Offering a comparative perspective, Altbach looks at the prestige accorded European secondary school teachers, the undereducated third world teaching force, the seeming lack of relation between teacher education and different levels of international achievement, and current teacher reforms in Japan and Russia.
Tomorrow's Teachers and Today's Schools
Authors: Raywid Mary Anne
Published: February 2022

First considering the threat of the Holmes Group proposals to teacher educators in undergraduate colleges, Raywid then turns to criticize the differential staffing proposal as a cutting up of what should be a connected set of roles and tasks that all good teachers should be able to perform. She ends with a critical exploration of the idea of sound subject matter preparation for teachers.
Developing Thinking Skills with Computers
Authors: Black John B. , Swan Karen , Schwartz Daniel L.
Published: February 2022

Computers, in and out of education, are powerful retrievers of information. In an age of information, our key need is not to retrieve more of it with yet greater ease, but to reason more astutely. Will working with computers and new logic-oriented languages help?
Economic Issues Related to Child Care and Early Childhood Education
Authors: Edelman Marian Wright
Published: February 2022

Seeing the economy and social structure of America as inexorably linked, Edelman explores the benefits of adequate child care to the family, the child, and the nation. She takes seriously the slogan, today's child is tomorrow's worker.
Kindergarten: Current Circumstances affecting Curriculum
Authors: Fromberg Doris Pronin
Published: February 2022

What should we teach young children? Should we strive to develop general intellectual skills or introduce them to formal academic subjects? Should the classroom be a formal-traditional environment or an open-experiential one? How do current certification and administrative practices affect the kindergarten education of young children? Fromberg answers these questions in her essay on the kindergarten curriculum.
Improving the governance of information technology: Insights from the history of Internet governance
Authors: Pandey Neena , Dé Rahul , Ravishankar MN
Published: February 2022

Governance of the Internet is a matter of global importance and concern. The multi-stakeholder (MS) and multilateral (ML) forms have been presented as two competing and plausible models of Internet governance. Drawing on actor–network theory (ANT) and building on an interpretive case study of rich archival data, this paper examines how the focal actor’s (i.e. the U.S. government’s) beliefs influence the choice of Internet governance form. It further explores the strategies of the focal actor to translate the interests of the ML network’s supporters, with a view to enrolling them in the MS governance network. The analysis shows how the focal actor has established the MS governance form through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as an Obligatory Passage Point to keep the Internet successfully operational. The analysis also illuminates the combination of structural and collaborative strategies employed to allay the growing dissatisfaction with the MS governance form. The paper suggests that whilst the protocols and technical standards of the Internet are increasingly relegated to the background, the social and political network that Internet artefacts draw together in a meta-form has grown in prominence. It also argues that there may be a hierarchy of beliefs, which influence how actors enact their translation strategies. Finally, the paper discusses parallels between the MS/ML forms of Internet governance and IT governance in organizational contexts.
Herniated superficial lipomas in gluteal and thigh support areas: a special clinical ultrasound presentation
Authors: Whittle Carolina , Fajre Ximena , Silva Catalina , Castro Alex
Published: February 2022

Background

Lipomas are the most frequent benign tumor. They have been described as soft, well-defined, slow-growing palpable masses, and classified as deep or superficial.

Purpose

To present the clinical and ultrasound findings of herniated superficial subcutaneous lipoma (HSL), located in pressure/support areas, not previously described.

Material and Methods

A seven-year retrospective review was performed. Patients with a preoperative high-resolution ultrasound (HRUS) diagnosis of HSL archived in the computational system and histological study information were selected.

Results

A total of 37 patients (mean age = 46 years) were recruited. The clinical diagnoses were “lipoma” or “suspected lipoma” in just 46% of the cases. This was three times more frequent in women. Tumors were located mainly in the gluteal (38%) and proximal thigh areas (35%). Clinically, all patients showed small, soft, rounded skin nodules. On HRUS, they appear as lipomatous tumors that protruded, compressed, and thinned the covering dermal layer. The subcutaneous portion was bigger than the herniated part, with an iceberg image.

Conclusion

HSL in support areas have a special clinical ultrasound presentation, not previously described. It is important to recognize them for a proper diagnosis and treatment, especially because they clinically may present as small superficial lesions; however, they are associated with a larger subcutaneous portion (iceberg image). It is probable that an estrogen influence on the adipose tissue can be suspected because of the female predominance.
Leukocyte-Rich versus Leukocyte-Poor Platelet-Rich Plasma for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Double-Blind Randomized Trial
Authors: Di Martino Alessandro , Boffa Angelo , Andriolo Luca , Romandini Iacopo , Altamura Sante Alessandro , Cenacchi Annarita , Roverini Veronica , Zaffagnini Stefano , Filardo Giuseppe
Published: February 2022

Background:

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is gaining large interest in clinical practice as a minimally invasive injective treatment for knee osteoarthritis (OA). Different preparation methods are available, and the presence of leukocytes, deemed detrimental in some preclinical studies, is one of the most debated aspects regarding PRP efficacy.

Purpose:

To compare the safety and effectiveness of leukocyte-rich PRP (LR-PRP) and leukocyte-poor PRP (LP-PRP) for the treatment of knee OA.

Study Design:

Randomized controlled trial; Level of evidence, 1.

Methods:

A total of 192 patients with symptomatic knee OA (Kellgren-Lawrence grade 1-3) were randomly allocated to 3 weekly injections of LR-PRP or LP-PRP. LP-PRP was obtained with a filter for leukodepletion. LR-PRP and LP-PRP were divided into aliquots of 5 mL, with a mean platelet concentration of 1146.8 × 109/L and 1074.9 × 109/L and a mean leukocyte concentration of 7991.4 × 106/L and 0.1 × 106/L, respectively. Patients were evaluated at baseline and thereafter at 2, 6, and 12 months for the primary outcome, the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) subjective score; and for secondary outcomes, the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) subscales, EuroQol–visual analog scale (EQ-VAS), and Tegner score.

Results:

No differences between groups were observed in terms of absolute values or improvement of the clinical scores across all follow-up intervals. The mean IKDC subjective score at baseline and 12 months improved from 45.6 to 60.7 in the LR-PRP group as compared with 46.8 to 62.9 in the LP-PRP group ( P = .626). No severe adverse events were described in either group, although 15 mild adverse events (knee pain or swelling) were reported: 12.2% for LR-PRP and 4.7% for LP-PRP ( P = .101). No statistically significant difference was also found between LR-PRP and LP-PRP in terms of failures (7.8% vs 3.5%, P = .331).

Conclusion:

This double-blind randomized trial showed that 3 intra-articular LR-PRP or LP-PRP injections produced similar clinical improvement in the 12 months of follow-up in patients with symptomatic knee OA. Both treatment groups reported a low number of adverse events, without intergroup differences. The presence of leukocytes did not significantly affect the clinical results of PRP injections.

Registration:

NCT02923700 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier).
A prioritization score for elective urological surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Medically Necessary Time-Sensitive (MeNTS) score system
Authors: Coello Iris , Peraire Maria , de la Cruz Marta , Pieras Enrique C
Published: February 2022

Purpose:

The COVID19 pandemic has caused a redistribution of hospital resources. Prioritization strategies are needed in order to organize elective surgeries. We compared the new Medically Necessary Time-Sensitive score (MeNTS) and its factors (disease, procedure, and patient factors) between operated and deferred cases, and also to a subjective priority scale in the Urology department.

Methods:

The MeNTS score and a subjective prioritization scale were prospective applied to all patients included on the surgical waiting list from March 10 to September 9, 2020. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare MeNTS scores between operated and non-operated groups. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare MeNTS scores between three subjective priority groups.

Results:

A total of 150 cases were operated while 100 were deferred. Median total MeNTS score in the operated group was 39.5 whereas in the non-operated group it was 38 ( p = 0.135). Median disease factors score was 9.5 in the operated group and 11 in the non-operated group( p = 0.033). Median procedure factors score was 10 in both groups ( p = 0.02). Median patient factors score was 17 in the operated group and 18 in the non-operated group ( p = 0.210). Disease factors displayed a significant difference between the three subjective priority groups

Conclusions:

Total MeNTS score does not show significant differences between operated and non-operated patients. However, we demonstrate a relationship between MeNTS disease factors and the operated group as well as with the subjective priority scale.
Incorporating Perceptions of Multiple Stakeholders while Assessing Architectural Heritage Value: A Case of Odishan Temple Architecture in India
Authors: Mishra Partha Sarathi , Muhuri Soumi
Published: February 2022

Stakeholder participation for the value assessment of Indian architectural heritage, especially the temple architecture, is rare due to the lack of published methodologies. Therefore, considering Odishan Temple Architecture as a case study, this research focuses on stakeholders’ perceptions while assessing the value of architectural heritage. This study identified five groups of stakeholders for evaluating parameters. Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests were used to derive the results. Sixteen parameters showed discrepancies in opinions; the opinions of the current decision-makers differed significantly from other groups. However, this study identified the scope for involving the opinions of all stakeholders for an unbiased and robust decision-making process.
Experimental investigation of friction stir spot welding of polymer-aluminum alloy weldments
Authors: Joudaki Jalal , Safari Mehdi , Joodaki Mohammad
Published: February 2022

The friction stir spot welding (FSSW) process is one of the main solid-state joining methods used widely for welding different materials and dissimilar metals. In this article, the welding of Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and aluminum alloy sheets by the FSSW process will be investigated experimentally. The joining of polymer (PTFE) and metal (AA1050 aluminum alloy) was done successfully. The effect of process parameters including tool rotational speed, penetration depth, initial holding time, dwell time, and tool shoulder diameter on the joint strength and elongation of the weldments will be studied using response surface methodology (RSM). The joint strength was increased by creating a threaded hole in the aluminum sheet. A mechanical lock was created between the softened PTFE and the edge of the threaded hole. The shear-tensile tests have been carried out for 32 designed experiments. The results show that the joint strength increased by increasing the initial holding time due to the better wettability of PTFE and aluminum sheet. The joint strength increased by increasing the tool rotational speed and tool diameter (better pouring of the hole and formation of the mechanical lock). Two different fracture modes have been observed in the samples: (1) fracture in the peripheral area of the joint (partial interfacial fracture mode) and (2) fracture in the mechanically locked area (pull-out mode with tearing).
Analysis and prediction of tool wear in dry turning of hardened D3 steel using hybrid insert: A novel wear map approach
Authors: Rath Debabrata , Panda Sumanta
Published: February 2022

Previously cubic boron nitride (CBN) and ceramic inserts were used for the dry turning of heat-treated D3 tool steel with cutting speed beyond 200 m/min, suffers from severe tool wear and generation of high temperature at the interface. To overcome these shortcomings, a hybrid ceramic insert that is, Al2O3 + Ti (C,N) with coated (TiN) is used in dry turning of D3 tool steel (heat-treated). Use of the hybrid insert with a lower feed rate (0.04 mm/rev) and a minimum depth of cut (0.4 mm) improves the surface quality of the turning process by significantly reducing the tool wear and cutting forces requirement in a cutting speed range of 165– 175 m/min. Even though ceramic tool inserts have high wear resistance at elevated temperatures but it has limited impact strength. So, ceramics is only recommended for shocks and vibration-free high-speed cutting operations of hardened steel under a dry environment. The novelty of this article is the development of a wear map for the analysis and prediction of tool wear. The Scanning electron microscope studies of wear region elucidate that low tool wear that the predominant modes of wear for low tool wear cutting conditions are delamination and abrasion. Besides for higher tool wear the prevailing wear mode is a combination of abrasion as well as adhesion wear. It is perceived that our proposed methodology outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
Research on the design and traction characteristics of a vehicle track shoe for sandy land
Authors: Yang Kun , Gan Linjie , Chen Shao
Published: February 2022

The track shoe is the key component of the tracked chassis in contact with the ground. In order to improve the passing capacity (traction force) of the tracked chassis in sand, we designed a track shoe for running on sand, inspired by the ostrich-foot. Focusing on the structural parameters of the track shoe, we developed a traction model of the track shoe behavior based on the theory of vehicle terra-mechanics. The finite element analysis of different forms of track shoes was carried out combined with orthogonal experiments, and verified by the soil bin test. The results show that the width of the track shoe and the height of the track grouser are positively correlated with the traction performance of the chassis, and each additional track shoe increases its traction by 30%. The No.1 sand-special track shoe (the design inspiration comes from the sand-gathering function of ostrich-foot.) can improve the traction of the tracked chassis by 41.7%. The tractive force model can well predict the tractive force of the tracked chassis in sand, and the track shoe designed in this paper is helpful to improve the tractive force of the tracked chassis in sandy land.
Comparative Study of Numerical Analysis of Compacted Strand and Round Strand under Axial Tensile Load
Authors: Zhang Feng , Cao Yang , Deng Yong , Qian Zhong , Yuan Chunyu , Zhu Yixian , Wu Guoqing
Published: February 2022

Using differential geometry theory, geometric modeling and finite element modeling of round strand and compacted strand before and after the rolling process are carried out. Using Costello theory, the rationality of the model is verified. The effects of five different friction factors on the mechanical properties of both were simulated and analyzed under the same axial tensile load. The results show that under the same axial tensile load and friction factor, the maximum equivalent stress and displacement of the compacted strand is smaller than those of round strand. When the axial load is 5 kN and the friction factor is 0, the maximum equivalent stress of the compacted strand relative to the round strand is reduced by 38.1%, and the displacement is reduced by 19.3%. Under the same axial tensile load and different friction factors, the maximum equivalent stress of the round strand increases approximately linearly with the friction factor; while the maximum equivalent stress of the compacted strand has a small increase between the friction factor of 0 and 0.05, and after 0.05 the maximum equivalent stress almost does not change. The displacement of both decreases as the friction factor increases. Under the same strain, the reaction force of the compacted strand is greater than that of the round strand, which proves that the compacted strand has higher tensile strength than the round strand.
Late-Holocene vegetation and fire history in Western Putorana Plateau (subarctic Siberia, Russia)
Authors: Novenko Elena Yu , Rudenko Olga V , Mazei Natalia G , Kupriyanov Dmitry A , Batalova Vlada A , Volkova Elena M , Phelps Leanne N , Davis Basil AS
Published: February 2022

We present a reconstruction of vegetation dynamics and fire history from the western part of the Putorana Plateau during the Late-Holocene. The study area is located in the remote and poorly investigated region of Central Siberia, which represents an important area for understanding climate and environmental changes in the Russian Subarctic. Pollen and macroscopic charcoal data from three closely located lakes along an altitudinal transect in the Khantaika River basin show no major changes in vegetation in the study area during the last 3.9 ka BP. However, a detailed analysis of the data reveals an extension of forest coverage in lake catchments at about 3.1 ka BP followed by a gradual degradation of woodlands, and an expansion of shrubs and tundra vegetation at around 2.7–2.5 ka BP. Fire activity was relatively high between 3.0 and 2.0 ka BP compared to all but the most modern part of the record, while macroscopic charcoal accumulation reaches a maximum in the most recent surface sediments. This suggests an increase in the frequency and area of fires in the region since the end of the 19th century, which has no analog during the Late-Holocene.