Crossing, grading, and keeping pure: animal breeding and exchange around 1860

During the first half of the nineteenth century, breeders of livestock in the United States and Germany began to approach animal husbandry in a more systematic manner. Responding to changes in ideas about heredity and economic pressures, they imported large numbers of animals from abroad, especially from Great Britain. With these imported breeds they set out to transform their native specimens to better meet the needs of an industrializing nation. Their strategies for animal improvement, which included grading, crossing, and pure breeding, constituted practical experiments into heredity that ran parallel to the work of naturalists. By 1860, the modern system of breeding, with its attention to public registries of pedigrees, gained increasing influence in both contexts.     

Global Status, Intra-Institutional Stratification and Organizational Segmentation: A Time-Dynamic Tobit Analysis of ARWU Position Among U.S. Universities

Ranking systems such as The Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings and Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Rankings of World Universities simultaneously mark global status and stimulate global academic competition. As international ranking systems have become more prominent, researchers have begun to examine whether global rankings are creating increased inequality within and between universities. Using a panel Tobit regression analysis, this study assesses the extent to which markers of inter-institutional stratification and organizational segmentation predict global status among US research universities as measured by position in ARWU. Findings indicate some support that both inter-institutional stratification and organizational segmentation predict global status.     

Internet access in libraries

Abstract

This article compares the newspaper coverage of Internet access in public libraries across two countries, Canada and Singapore. The aim is to discover some of the main concerns and themes that the press identifies with libraries, noting the differences between the two countries in this regard, and then to provisionally link these differences to certain structural characteristics of their respective societies and states. To achieve these aims I compare press coverage produced in terms of dates of publication, discourse producers, and discourse content. Implications of the findings for libraries and librarians are discussed.     

Addressing Real Issues for the Uncertain and Challenging Environment of the Media Industry

Emerging theory suggests that news directors in local television emulate the thinking of their general managers. This possibility has proven difficult to test, however, because news directors and general managers generally have unrelated work roles. A study of anchor hiring, a duty they do have in common, reveals a shared concern about both journalistic and economic factors. Thus it may be a mistake to assume these managers always prioritize the "bottom line" as some have speculated.     

Reflective practice,experience, and the interpretation of anxiety symptoms

Abstract

We offer an examination of the processes athletes undertake following a sporting experience in order to learn how to interpret their anxiety-related symptoms as facilitative to performance. Six experienced, elite athletes were interviewed regarding the reflective practices adopted following both positive and negative critical incidents with a view to generating knowledge about their competitive anxiety symptoms. Composite sequence analysis procedures were employed to allow data to be considered as meaningful sequences for both the positive and negative incidents. Findings showed distinctions between the effects of positive and negative incidents on the reflective and learning processes and how this influenced the further appraisal of competitive anxiety symptoms. Support is provided for the use of reflective practice as a framework for experiential learning within sport.     

Variability and progression in competitive performance of Paralympic swimmers

Abstract

Analysis of variability and progression in performance of top athletes between competitions provides information about performance targets that is useful for athletes, practitioners, and researchers. In this study, 724 official finals times were analysed for 120 male and 122 female Paralympic swimmers in the 100-m freestyle event at 15 national and international competitions between 2004 and 2006. Separate analyses were performed for males and females in each of four Paralympic subgroups: S2–S4, S5–S7, S8–S10 (most through least physically impaired), and S11–S13 (most through least visually impaired). Mixed modelling of log-transformed times, with adjustment for mean competition times, was used to estimate variability and progression. Within-swimmer race-to-race variability, expressed as a coefficient of variation, ranged from 1.2% (male S5–S7) to 3.7% (male S2–S4). Swimming performance progressed by approximately 0.5% per year for males and females. Typical variation in mean performance time between competitions was ～1% after adjustment for the ability of the athletes in each competition, and the Paralympic Games was the fastest competition. Thus, taking into account variability, progression, and level of competition, Paralympic swimmers who want to increase substantially their medal prospects should aim for an annual improvement of at least 1–2%.