Scale of attitudes of schoolchildren towards immigrant pupils

In the academic year 2004–2005, approximately 400,000 immigrant pupils were enrolled in Spanish schools and six-form colleges. The racial and ethnic diversity that Spanish society and schools present could be a source of new opportunities and social enrichment, for the national as well as the immigrant population. However, this contact between nationals and immigrants is not free of problems. School is one of the areas where attitudes towards different social groups begin to be formed, while at the same time being the main opportunity that our society has to create an environment of coexistence and attitudinal change. The first step to look at such a complex phenomenon in more detail is to have evaluation tools available that allow us to measure it. In this article we present the results referring to psychometric features, and we carry out a differential analysis of the Scale of attitudes of school-children towards immigrant pupils.     

Application of the Rasch model to measuring the impact of scientific journals

This paper focuses on a fresh and fair way to determine a ranking of science journals according to the “number of citations-to and articles published,” data used by SCI Journal Citation Reports of ISI to determine journal ranking by “impact factor.” Impact is considered a latent variable defined by a set of items (citations and articles published). The theoretical background is Item Response Theory, which suggests that, if we can understand how each item in a set of items operates with an object, then we can estimate a measure for the object. The Rasch model is the most common formulation of that theory. This technique is here applied to the citations and articles published of 62 medical journals (objects) to provide a Rasch measure for these journals which is compared with the current “impact factor” computation.     

急性低氧及力竭运动对大鼠骨骼肌肌球蛋白重链(MHC)亚型基因表达的影响

研究急性低氧及力竭运动对大鼠骨骼肌肌球蛋白重链(MHC)亚型基因表达的影响。取健康SD雌性大鼠80只，随机分成4大组：常氧对照组(C)，常氧力竭组(NE)，低氧对照组(HC)和低氧力竭组(HE)。采用半定量反转录聚合酶链式反应(RT—PCR)法，测定各组骨骼肌MHCⅠ、Ⅱa、Ⅱx、Ⅱb4种亚型的mRNA基因表达。结果表明，MHC各亚型mRNA所占百分比分析显示，单纯低氧能刺激MHC亚型mRNA表达出现“由慢到快”的趋势；力竭运动则能刺激MHC mRNA表达出现“由快到慢”的趋势。关于MHC亚型转变在功能上的意义还有待进一步研究。     

从天堂涌来的千万匹水--评金肽频爱情、乡情、亲情诗

金肽频是一位年轻有为、非常有个性、有实力的诗人。他的诗既有江南才子式的敏感与多情,也有哲人式的睿智与善思。他的诗歌写作涉及众多题材和精神领域,其中涉及爱情、乡情、亲情的诗歌写作极具个性色彩。他的爱情诗创作灵感都是来自真实的情感经历和独特感受,蕴含着爱情发生的秘密及爱的真谛,既以真情、炽爱感动人心,引发读者的共鸣,也透过爱的现象揭示爱的真谛,表达诗人对爱的感悟和理解,从而更好地引导读者树立正确的爱情观。他写乡情、亲情的诗歌,忠实于自己的生命体验和生活感悟,表达出他对故乡、亲人的挚爱、眷念与感恩。在诗歌艺术上,他注重诗情、诗意的艺术转化,以新奇的意象、陌生化的诗境呈现给读者;他在营造意境的过程中注意采用多种手法安排诗的内在结构,使诗情、诗意在不断转换、深化中更具内在的凝聚力。     

Profiles of self-perceived competencies and conceptions of academic writing in university students / Perfiles de competencias y concepciones sobre la escritura académica en estudiantes universitarios

Abstract

This study analyses Spanish undergraduates’ perceptions of their competency in academic writing, as well as their perception of the criteria that define its quality. We identified student profiles and examined their relationship with (1) certain sample characteristics, such as years of university experience, area of study and students’ gender, and (2) variables related to the process of writing, namely the students’ perception of the writing process and the importance they attribute to its characteristics. The data obtained came from the European Writing Survey (EUWRIT) which was administered to 1,044 students from nine Spanish universities. Profiles were identified by means of k-means cluster analysis. The relationship between these profiles and the variables studied was examined by means of chi-squared analyses and univariate ANOVAs. Two profiles were identified: students who are confident about their writing skills and who acknowledge the importance of writing in their field of knowledge; and students who are relatively confident about their writing ability and who consider writing to be relatively important in their subject area.     

Factors influencing the presence of sustainability initiatives in the strategic planning of Spanish universities

Sustainability issues in higher educational institutions have attracted increasing levels of attention from both the public and policy-makers in recent decades. Many studies have called for a more integration of sustainability into mainstream university operations and curricula. Nevertheless, the interest in sustainability issues has been more recent in the specific case of Spain. On this basis, the aim of this paper is to examine the main factors (size of universities, chairs related to sustainability, political orientation and sustainability disclosure) that might explain the presence of sustainability initiatives in Spanish universities. To accomplish this task, data were collected using a systematic content analysis of the published strategic plans of Spanish universities during the last decade. Two main findings were identified: first, the four variables chosen were not related to the presence or absence of sustainability initiatives in the strategic plans of Spanish universities, excepting the partial influence exerted by the size and political orientation. Second, there was a scarce presence of sustainability initiatives in the strategic plans of Spanish universities analysed.