Intercultural non-conscious influences: Prosocial effects of Buddhist priming on Westerners of Christian tradition

Prosocial concepts and behavior are often found to be activated when participants are primed with concepts of their own religious cultural tradition. We investigated whether similar effects can be found when people (Westerners of Christian tradition) are primed with concepts of a different from their own religious cultural tradition (Buddhist and Islamic). Participants (104 young Belgian adults) were randomly assigned to three conditions. They were supraliminally primed with either Buddhist or Islamic images; or they were not primed (control condition). Priming Buddhism increased prosocial intentions (spontaneous sharing of hypothetical gains), and decreased, among participants highly valuing universalism, implicit prejudice toward an ethnic outgroup. Priming Islam had no effect on prosociality or prejudice. The findings suggest that concepts from one religious and cultural context are transposable, under some conditions, to another religious and cultural context and can influence even implicit social cognition.     

Universalism and the spirit of sport: evidence from Greece and Australia

Despite the World Anti-Doping Code’s 11-value Spirit of Sport statement being declared the universal ethical basis for global sporting practice, there is no empirical evidence whether the Spirit statement is the universal ethical basis for sport. Best-worst scaling surveys were completed by five independent (two Greek and three Australian) to determine whether there is cultural variation in which values were considered important or unimportant to sport. The results indicate Greeks and Australians mostly agree about what is unimportant to sport, but vary in terms of what is considered important. The variation indicates that the ethical justification for anti-doping may be less than universal. Moreover, the findings point to the need for more research into the Spirit statement as the proscribed universal ethical basis for a global practice, including philosophical and ethical inquiry, and how people understand both the individual values and the Spirit statement as a whole.     

Effects of sprint interval exercise dose and sex on circulating irisin and redox status markers in adolescent swimmers

Irisin and redox status markers seem to share common pathways of exercise-induced upregulation. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of sprint interval swimming exercise dose and sex on the circulating levels of irisin and redox status markers in adolescent swimmers. Sixteen male and 16 female adolescent swimmers completed two sets of 4 × 50 m maximal freestyle swimming with a send-off time of 90 s, separated by 10 min of passive recovery. Venous blood samples were obtained pre-exercise (Pre), after the first set (Post1) and after the second set (Post2). Males had higher irisin levels than females. Reduced glutathione (GSH, μmol g Hb^?1) increased from 8.6 (2.2) [pooled males and females, mean (SD) throughout] at Pre to 9.4 (2.1) at Post1 and Post2. Total antioxidant capacity (μmol DPPH mL^?1) increased from 0.89 (0.17) at Post1 to 0.94 (0.16) at Post2. 8-hydroxy-2´-deoxyguanosine (ng mL^?1) increased from 20.9 (6.9) at Pre and 21.5 (7.1) at Post1 to 25.0 (10.9) at Post2. Overall, sprint interval swimming exercise induced small but potentially effective changes in the studied parameters. Exercise dose influenced the GSH and 8-OHdG responses, and sex affected irisin levels.     

Bridging theory and practice in e-government: A set of guidelines for architectural design

The diverse array of contributions to the discipline of e-government, from evaluative frameworks and conceptual models to guidelines for initiatives and implementation architectures, evidences the requirement, both from the researcher's and the practitioner's standpoint, of sound theoretical foundations that can be applied directly in practice. We propose a cycle between theory and practice where theoretical approaches will support informed empirical studies of initiatives and enable the processes for future implementations, the analysis of which will lead to more encompassing theories. Upon this proposition, we present a theoretical analysis of e-government evolution and subsequently test the results of this analysis against two real-life cases. The juxtaposition of the theoretical positions and the practical findings leads us to the development of a set of guidelines for the analysis and design of e-government information systems. We frame these guidelines into an existing reference model for information systems development. Thus, the paper's contribution lies on three axes: first, the furthering of a theoretical perspective of e-government; second, the combination of theory and practice in the effort to understand practical particularities of the field; and third, the introduction of a usable set of design guidelines that can be applied in future implementations.     

An empirical investigation of mobile government adoption in rural China: A case study in Zhejiang province

This study is among the first attempts to empirically investigate the adoption of mobile government by rural populations in developing economies. Based on 409 validated questionnaires collected from families living in rural China, the study examines the interdependences among rural inhabitants' demographic attributes, their access to and perceptions of mobile government, and quantifies how their intention to use mobile government is influenced by technology attributes, social factors and trust beliefs. The results indicate that young males, who live far from a village center or market, and have some knowledge of recent government policies, tend to have a more positive perception of mobile government, and therefore become potential adopters of the service. Perceived ease of use, near-term usefulness, long-term usefulness, integrity, benevolence, image and social influence have significant and positive influences on the intention to use mobile government. Specifically, perceived ease of use, long-term usefulness and social influence have a direct influence on intention to use, while perceived near-term usefulness, integrity, benevolence and image have an indirect influence.     

Effects of endurance and high-intensity swimming exercise on the redox status of adolescent male and female swimmers

Abstract

Throughout adolescence, swimmers begin to carry out demanding endurance and high-intensity training sets, the effect of which on redox status is largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of 2000-m continuous swimming and 6 × 50-m maximal swimming on the redox status of adolescent swimmers. Fifteen male and 15 female swimmers, aged 14–18 years, provided blood samples before, immediately after, 1 h after, and 24 h after each exercise for the determination of redox status parameters. Oxidative damage was short-lived and manifest as increases in 8-hydroxy-2?-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) 1 h after high-intensity exercise (39%, P < 0.001) and in malondialdehyde immediately after both exercises (65%, P < 0.001). Alterations in antioxidant parameters were sustained during recovery: reduced glutathione decreased 24 h post-exercise (11%, P = 0.001), uric acid increased gradually after high-intensity exercise (29%, P < 0.001) and bilirubin peaked 24 h post-exercise (29%, P < 0.001). Males had higher 8-OHdG (49%, P = 0.001) and uric acid (29%, P < 0.001) concentrations than females. However, females showed higher values of malondialdehyde than males immediately post-exercise (30%, P = 0.039), despite lower pre-exercise values. In conclusion, both endurance and high-intensity exercise perturbed the redox balance without inducing prolonged oxidative damage in trained adolescent male and female swimmers. These swimming training trials were not found to be detrimental to the redox homeostasis of adolescents.     

Predictors of doping intentions in elite-level athletes: a social cognition approach

Doping use is an ongoing problem in contemporary sports. Despite efforts to detect and control doping, research on its etiology is limited, especially among elite-level athletes. The present study used an integrated social cognition model to examine the predictors of doping intentions. Structured anonymous questionnaires were completed by 1075 Greek adult elite-level athletes (M age = 25 years, SD = 5.89, 36.1% females) from both team and individual sports. Multiple regression and mediation analyses showed that attitudes, normative beliefs, situational temptation, and behavioral control significantly predicted doping intentions. A normative process was identified whereby situational temptation mediated the effects of normative beliefs on intentions. The findings provide the basis for future social cognition research in doping use, and set the framework for the development of evidence-based preventive interventions.     

Computer-Supported Collaborative Concept Mapping: Study of Synchronous Peer Interaction

The paper studies undergraduate students' synchronous peer interaction using a shared Activity Space and a text communication tool. Several groups of students collaborated in order to accomplish a data-modelling task in the context of a Databases University undergraduate course. The paper presents the collaboration support environment, i.e. a concept-mapping tool, used in this study. Subsequently, evaluation of the effectiveness of the environment in the educational process is discussed along various dimensions, like group synthesis, task control, content of communication, roles of the students and the effect of the tools used. Special emphasis is given in the ways the tools and the representations used complement each other and support the process. A discussion on the use of computer-supported collaborative problem solving environments is also included.     

High‐school students’ reasoning while constructing plant growth models in a computer‐supported educational environment

This paper highlights specific aspects of high‐school students’ reasoning while coping with a modeling task of plant growth in a computer‐supported educational environment. It is particularly concerned with the modeling levels (‘macro‐phenomenological’ and ‘micro‐conceptual’ level) activated by peers while exploring plant growth and with their ability to shift between or within these levels. The focus is on the types of reasoning developed in the modeling process, as well as on the reasoning coherence around the central concept of plant growth. The findings of the study show that a significant proportion of the 18 participating dyads perform modeling on both levels, while their ability to shift between them as well as between the various elements of the ‘micro‐conceptual’ level is rather constrained. Furthermore, the reasoning types identified in peers’ modeling process are ‘convergent’, ‘serial’, ‘linked’ and ‘convergent attached’, with the first type being the most frequent. Finally, a significant part of the participating dyads display a satisfactory degree of reasoning ‘coherence’, performing their task committed to the main objective of exploring plant growth. Teaching implications of the findings are also discussed.