I agree to sit next to you. Does that mean I like you? Measuring using the wrong tapeline – the lack of ‘Social Distance’ measures for inclusive school development and research – a review of the literature

This review provides an overview of definitions and measurements of ‘Social Distance’ and attitudes children without disabilities carry towards children with disabilities. Measures include explicit and implicit approaches but clearly, the ‘Bogardus Social Distance Scale’ (A Social Distance Scale, 1933, 14 May 2014) is the most used scale in research, yet it is outdated. For a deeper look into what impacts children's ‘Social Distance’ in inclusive school settings and in order to find measurable constructs, relevant attitude questionnaires are discussed. To bring long‐used measures and attitudes together, a comprehensive model of ‘Social distance’ is introduced. This model integrates the classical view on ‘Social Distance’ as interaction willingness with feelings associated with this interaction and includes attitudes children carry towards individuals and towards the group the interaction partner is believed to belong to. In summary, this paper shows the need for a more comprehensive and precise measure on how school children really engage with one another.     

Heart rate and movement pattern in street soccer for homeless women

Street soccer has been shown to be effective in improving cardiovascular and musculoskeletal fitness in homeless men, due to high heart rate (HR) and multiple intense actions. The purpose of this study was to investigate HR, movement pattern, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), flow and worry during street soccer for homeless women. Fifteen homeless women (30.3?±?5.0?years [± standard deviation, SD], 1.65?±?0.08?m, 65.1?±?11.0?kg, 5?±?4?years football experience) from three countries participated in 4?a-side street soccer games in Women’s Homeless World Cup 2015. Mean and peak HR were 174?±?7 and 188?±?10?beats per minute (bpm), respectively, and >160 bpm 76?±?23% of the playing time (11.1?±?2.6?min). Distance covered per minute was 68.6?±?8.9?m of which 82?±?14, 15?±?6 and 3?±?3% were covered with low- (0–9?km/h), moderate- (9–13?km/h) and high-speed (>13?km/h) running, respectively. The 43?±?5, 45?±?3 and 12?±?3% of the distance were covered running forward, sideways, and backward, respectively. Player Load was 9.2?±?1.7?arbitrary units (AU) per minute and the number of accelerations >1.5?ms^–2 was 15.3?±?2.7 per minute. The score for flow was high (5.5?±?0.8), whereas rating of perceived exertion (RPE) values (4.8?±?2.5) and the score for worry (4.6?±?1.3) were moderate. Street soccer for homeless women elicits high HR and a movement pattern comparable and for some parameters even higher than street soccer and recreational football for homeless and untrained men. Street soccer may be a suitable training intervention for homeless women, and especially moderate RPE and high flow score speaks in favour of an expectation of high participation and adherence.     

The influence of gate start position on physical performance and anxiety perception in expert BMX athletes

The critical importance of the start phase in bicycle motocross (BMX) racing is increasingly acknowledged. Past experiments underlined that the internal lane of the starting gate provides a strong positional advantage. However, how lane position affects start performance and cognitive and somatic state anxiety remains unexplored. We examined the start performance and anxiety responses of youth national-level BMX riders in both experimental and ecological contexts. We used contextualization motor imagery routines to evaluate start performance and state anxiety from the internal and external lanes. Cycle ergometer measures revealed a better start performance from the external lane, but we did not record any lane effect on actual gate start times. Both somatic and cognitive anxiety scores were higher before racing from the internal compared to the external lane. Finally, state anxiety (i.e., somatic anxiety, worry and concentration disruptions) negatively predicted the start performance. Present findings provide original insights on psychological factors involved in BMX start performance, and might contribute to fruitful coping interventions and training programmes in sports overlapping the framework of “handicap races” taking the specific form of positional advantages/disadvantages at the start (e.g., ski/snowboard cross, athletics, swimming, motorsports, etc.).     

A biomechanical comparison of countermovement performance after short-term traditional and daily-undulated loaded vertical jump training

In order to assess lower extremity muscle mechanical properties in athletes, power-load characteristics during multi-joint tasks are frequently examined. This work compared 6 weeks of traditional (TP) and daily-undulated (DUP) periodized loaded countermovement jumping (CMJ). 20 amateur athletes (age: 24.2 ± 2.6 years, height: 175.6 ± 7.1 cm, body mass: 71.5 ± 7.7 kg, 10 males/10 females) exercised three times weekly using maximal CMJs with loads corresponding to 0%, 15% and 30% of body mass. Prior to the training period, subjects were once-only assigned by random to either the TP or DUP training scheme. Pre-to-post training, maximal center of mass (COM) -height, -take-off velocity, -power output and -impulse were compared during CMJ with additional loads corresponding to 0–30% of body mass. ANOVA (time * group) with repeated measures revealed significant (P < 0.05) temporal gains of maximal COM-height (2–11%), -take-off velocity (1–7%), -power (2–8%) and -impulse (3–9%) over most loading conditions for TP and DUP. However, ANOVA indicated no group effects for any outcome. Independent from the periodization model, maximal power output remained statistically unchanged with increased testing loads. For short-term conditioning periods, TP and DUP were equally effective in enhancing biomechanical jumping variables under varying loading conditions.     

The Swedish riding school: a social arena for young riders

The aim was to explore how young riders experience the riding school. By analysing focus groups interviews, a picture emerged showing that young riders’ main motive for participating at riding schools was the social aspects. Riding schools could be characterized through an institutional perspective in which the young riders became internalized and socialized into a stable culture. The young riders identified with the norms and values of the riding instructors through master–apprentice learning. In addition, the results revealed a change in the stable culture since the instructors encouraged social interactions and participation in the community that became central to learning and development. Opportunities to influence and interact were important for the individuals and from a child’s rights perspective. Through participation in the community of practice at riding schools, young riders not only learn about riding and horse management but also develop important personal social skills.     

Die Öffnung des Schulsystems: Fakt oder Fiktion?

Opening up educational paths and especially decoupling educational courses and final school qualifications are seen as important aspects of the modernization of Swiss education. The study presented here investigates to what extent this de-linking actually took place in the case of the Swiss canton Freiburg. 525 pupils from German-speaking schools were observed in their progress from the end of primary school (year 6) to the transfer into the upper secondary level Gymnasium (year 10) or into alternative educational routes. Indeed, almost half of the young people, who went to the Gymnasium, previously studied at a middle-level general secondary school and not the preparatory Progymnasium; a strong indication of decoupling. Furthermore, the study shows that entry into the upper secondary level Gymnasium is still possible for pupils despite weak performance at primary level. Irrespective of the evidence for an opening of the education system, the findings also show that attending a Progymnasium has a significant effect on school biographies. The chance of transferring into the upper secondary level Gymnasium is twice as high for graduates, who attended a Progymnasium, as for comparative pupils, who did not. Additionally, a privileged social background correlates with a high chance of entry into the upper secondary level Gymnasium.     

Relevance feedback and cross-language information retrieval

This paper presents a study of relevance feedback in a cross-language information retrieval environment. We have performed an experiment in which Portuguese speakers are asked to judge the relevance of English documents; documents hand-translated to Portuguese and documents automatically translated to Portuguese. The goals of the experiment were to answer two questions (i) how well can native Portuguese searchers recognise relevant documents written in English, compared to documents that are hand translated and automatically translated to Portuguese; and (ii) what is the impact of misjudged documents on the performance improvement that can be achieved by relevance feedback. Surprisingly, the results show that machine translation is as effective as hand translation in aiding users to assess relevance in the experiment. In addition, the impact of misjudged documents on the performance of RF is overall just moderate, and varies greatly for different query topics.     

Die FHStG-Novelle BGBl I 2007/89 – Fachhochschul-Recht aus trüber Quelle?

Die Novelle BGBl I 2007/89 des FHStG führte zu einigen wesentlichen ?nderungen im Fachhochschul-Studienrecht. Sie brachte einerseits die Etablierung einer Studierendenvertretung im Fachhochschul-Bereich sowie andererseits Vorgaben für die (arbeitsrechtliche) Stellung von Lehrbeauftragten. Im folgenden Beitrag werden diese beiden Neuerungen dargestellt und einer kritischen Betrachtung unterzogen, wobei sich – dies sei vorweggenommen – einige Punkte als durchaus problematisch und daher verbesserungswürdig erweisen.     

IT portfolio decision-making in local governments: Rationality,politics, intuition and coincidences

IT project portfolio management (IT PPM) has evolved into a significant area of research interest, but we know little about IT PPM practices in public sector organizations. Therefore this article investigates decision-making processes in the IT PPM practices of local governments, and discusses how these practices match the normative advice proposed by the IT PPM literature. We rely on decision-making theories together with case-studies of four Danish local governments. We find that politics, intuition and coincidence play a crucial role in IT PPM decision-making, while technical rationality (as proposed by the IT PPM literature) plays a minor role. Our account also reveals how the decision-making practices create IT portfolio problems and in some aspects is considered to have a negative impact on the outcome of e-government investments. Our analysis and previous research into decision-making allows us to argue that implementing textbook-IT PPM is difficult because it relies on decision-making ideals that are incompatible with organizational contexts and individual behavior in these organizations. Instead of radically changing decision-making styles, the organizations might be better off improving IT PPM practice within the boundaries of their existing decision-making styles, and the IT PPM literature might improve support for practitioners by incorporating other decision-making styles besides technical rationality.