What Becomes of Undergraduate Dance Majors?

This paper examines the earnings, work patterns, and work histories of individuals employed in the field of dance using data from a survey of graduates of the Five College Dance Department. The respondents to our survey include not only those currently working in dance, but also some who never entered the profession and many others who entered but later left the field. We find that graduate education in dance, age, and prior dance experience are highly correlated with employment in the field of dance. Our findings are similar to those of other studies on artists, in showing that the returns to dance are low and that many of those employed in dance rely on non-dance jobs to supplement their dance earnings.     

A static method for obtaining a calibration factor for SRM bicycle power cranks

Many scientists and coaches are interested in mechanical power produced during cycling, and use Schoberer Rad Me\technik (SRM) bicycle power cranks to obtain this data. However, it has been expensive and difficult to calibrate SRM cranks, causing much of the collected data to be unreliable. We present a static method, derived from first principles, for obtaining a calibration factor for SRM cranks. A known mass and lever arm (chainring of a known diameter) are used to apply a known torque load to the instrument in four positions, and the output frequencies are used to calculate the calibration factor in Hz/Nm. The reproducibility of this method is ±0.01 Hz/Nm, which is acceptable for the application of the instrument, which is measurement of mechanical power application by cyclists at the crank. The method is reliable, inexpensive, and easy to set up, and will allow higher confidence in data collected using SRM power cranks. We recommend calibration of the power meter once every six months because of the measured drift of the calibration factor over time.     

Distribution of relative attention deficits on the WISC-R by age, sex, social class, and region

We examined the demographic distribution of 102 subjects with attention deficits in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) (Wechsler, 1974) standardization sample. Neither age nor occupational status was significant; males were overrepresented (3:1); and the West was overrepresented by 50%, largely due to the relatively high proportion of females in the West who appeared within the attention deficit sample (41% in West vs. 19% in the rest of the nation). Replication is encouraged.     

A comic author’s marketing techniques

What happens when an author undertakes a supplementary marketing campaign to university librarians? S. S. Hanna, the author of a comic account of finding a publisher, added to the efforts of the Iowa State University Press some communications of his own. The details of his campaign, and some of its results, are offered.