Technological research in the EU is less efficient than the world average. EU research policy risks Europeans’ future

We have studied the efficiency of research in the EU by a percentile-based citation approach that analyzes the distribution of country papers among the world papers. Going up in the citation scale, the frequency of papers from efficient countries increases while the frequency from inefficient countries decreases. In the percentile-based approach, this trend, which is uniform at any citation level, is measured by the e_p index that equals the P_{top 1%}/P_{top 10%} ratio. By using the e_p index we demonstrate that EU research on fast-evolving technological topics is less efficient than the world average and that the EU is far from being able to compete with the most advanced countries. The e_p index also shows that the USA is well ahead of the EU in both fast- and slow-evolving technologies, which suggests that the advantage of the USA over the EU in innovation is due to low research efficiency in the EU. In accord with some previous studies, our results show that the European Commission’s ongoing claims about the excellence of EU research are based on a wrong diagnosis. The EU must focus its research policy on the improvement of its inefficient research. Otherwise, the future of Europeans is at risk.     

Timescales for exploratory tactical behaviour in football small-sided games

The aim of this study was to identify the dynamics of tactical behaviour emerging on different timescales in football small-sided games and to quantify short- and long-term exploratory behaviour according to the number of opponents. Two teams of four professional male footballers played small-sided games against two different teams with a variable number of opponents (3, 5 and 7). Data were collected using a combination of systematic observation and a non-differential global positioning system (15 Hz). The temporal diversity and structural flexibility of the players were determined by calculating the dynamic overlap order parameter q, entropy and trapping strength. Analysis of the exploratory dynamics revealed two different timescales, forming a different metastable landscape of action for each constraint. Fast dynamics lasted on average a few seconds and consisted of changes in tactical patterns. The long timescale corresponded to the shared tasks of offence and defence lasting tens of seconds. The players’ tactical diversity decreased with an increasing number of opponents, especially in defence. Manipulating numerical imbalance is likely to promote changes in the diversity, unpredictability and flexibility of tactical solutions. The fact that the temporally nested structure of constraints shaped the emergence of tactical behaviour provides a new rationale for practice task design. The manipulation of numerical imbalance on the timescale of a few tens of seconds, on which the exploratory behaviour of players saturates, may help coaches to optimise the exploratory efficiency of the small-sided games.     

A response to strategies and tactics through participatory action research in a developmental mathematics course

This paper explores the value of participatory action research in a community college developmental mathematics course. The authors used the framework of critical mathematics education in order to understand the critical conversations of students about their learning experiences, and also to help the instructor of the course develop the curriculum that attended to student experiences. The authors also draw on Michel de Certeau’s ideas about strategies and tactics to understand how students responded to their past learning experiences. Data results from the study show that students can gain a better understanding of their own learning and subsequently develop deeper content knowledge when they are more involved in the teaching and learning process. Lastly, the authors conclude that as adult learners grow in their understanding of the learning processes and of the content being presented, participatory action research can play an important role in the entire development of thinking and intellectual engagement.     

Effects of vanadate supplementation on high fat-diet and diabetes-induced metabolic changes in liver

Normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats were fed the control high starch-diet or a high fatdiet supplemented with or without sodium orthovanadate (1.5 mg/g diet) for six weeks. Plasma glucose, insulin and triacylglycerol levels and the activities of hepatic glycogen synthase, phosphorylase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, malic enzyme, and ATP-citrate lyase were measured in these eight groups of rats. The high fat-diet increased the levels of insulin (P<0.05) and triacylglycerol (P<0.01) in plasma and decreased the activities (P<0.001) of phosphorylase (active from and total) and the lipogenic enzymes. Vanadate supplementation led to significant (P<0.001) decreases in the elevated insulin and triacylglycerol levels whereas the enzyme activities remained unaffected. Diabetes and fat diet in combination caused 3.7-fold increases in plasma glucose and triacylglycerol levels and vanadate decreased them by 58% and 74% respectively. Vanadate improved the activities of hepatic glycogen metabolizing and lipogenic enzymes in diabetic rats when they were fed on control starch-diet but not with high fat-diet. This study shows that vanadate normalizes hyperinsulinemia and hypertriglyceridemia but not the defective hepatic glycogen metabolism in high fat-fed rats.     

The family caregiver after the institutionalization of the dependent elderly relative

The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between the institutionalization of a dependent elderly relative and the family caregiver’s mental health, quality of life and caregiving satisfaction. We present data from 140 family caregivers caring for elderly family members, of whom 77 continued to live with family members and 63 had been institutionalized. We evaluated the factors influencing the decision to institutionalize the dependent relative, the effect of institutionalization on the caregiver’s psychological well-being and quality of life and the impact of strategies to find the meaning and cope with the relative’s placement on the caregiver’s emotional health and quality of life. Care does not end after institutionalization, but the stressors the caregiver faces change. Our results suggest that finding meaning increases satisfaction and reduces feelings of overload. They show that after institutionalization, stressors affecting caregivers are partly relieved, and that finding meaning increases the caregiver’s satisfaction, while decreasing the degree of overload. Our data, further, indicates that a good relationship and cooperation between the staff of the institution and the family are important to improve the caregivers’ emotional health and quality of life, and consequently, the quality of life of the dependent elderly relative.     

Experience of cooperative learning in engineering

The objective of this work is to share the authors’ experience towards a different mode of teaching/learning method. Cooperative learning (Jigsaw) was employed on the University of Vigo's fourth-year engineering students. The results of the experience show that cooperative learning is quite a viable alternative to the classical way of lecturing at the university when the number of students is not too high. The authors’ observation indicates that students did not show a lot of interest towards the new learning style but their resistance changed once they began the activity. The Jigsaw method has proved to be a useful tool for improving the learning process so that students have the opportunity to participate actively in the learning activities.     

Evaluating research and researchers by the journal impact factor: Is it better than coin flipping?

The journal impact factor (JIF) is the average of the number of citations of the papers published in a journal, calculated according to a specific formula; it is extensively used for the evaluation of research and researchers. The method assumes that all papers in a journal have the same scientific merit, which is measured by the JIF of the publishing journal. This implies that the number of citations measures scientific merits but the JIF does not evaluate each individual paper by its own number of citations. Therefore, in the comparative evaluation of two papers, the use of the JIF implies a risk of failure, which occurs when a paper in the journal with the lower JIF is compared to another with fewer citations in the journal with the higher JIF. To quantify this risk of failure, this study calculates the failure probabilities, taking advantage of the lognormal distribution of citations. In two journals whose JIFs are ten-fold different, the failure probability is low. However, in most cases when two papers are compared, the JIFs of the journals are not so different. Then, the failure probability can be close to 0.5, which is equivalent to evaluating by coin flipping.