Student satisfaction in higher education: a meta-analytic study

This paper discusses the results of a meta-analysis performed to identify key antecedent and consequent constructs of satisfaction in higher education. We offer an integrated model to achieve a better understanding of satisfaction in the context of higher education. To accomplish this objective, we identified 83 studies that were valid and relevant to the research objective of the current study, generating a total of 469 observations. We identified studies published from 1986 to 2016 and analyzed six antecedent dimensions (perceived value of educational services, resources provided to the student, service quality perception, marketing orientation, identity of the higher education institution, university environment) and one consequent dimension related to satisfaction. The 7 dimensions exhibited a total of 51 relationships. We believe that the originality of the findings clearly contributes to future academic research in higher education.     

Efficacy of an intervention to improve fluency in children with developmental dyslexia in a regular orthography

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a method to improve reading fluency in children with dyslexia. The method, which we named "subsyllabic," was aimed at automatizing the recognition of syllables within words in connected texts, presented by ad hoc software. Two versions of this method--one self-paced and the other one with automatic syllable identification-were compared to a method based on phonemic awareness, assisted reading, and other psycholinguistic exercises. The efficacy of the two versions of the subsyllabic method was further studied by repeating the first version twice and the second version three times using an AB design, with each phase lasting approximately 3 months. This part of the study provided not only follow-up data but also useful information on if and how fluency may change after repeated treatment. Outcomes obtained by a total of 63 children with dyslexia suggested that the subsyllabic method was superior to the control method and that the use of an automatic presentation of target syllables produced better results. Furthermore, we observed that fluency improved approximately at the same rate after each treatment repetition. Our data support the possibility of improving reading fluency at a significant clinical level, at least for regular orthographies. The crucial component of the subsyllabic method seems to be the facilitation of syllable recognition within words in connected texts and the emphasis on their rapid recognition using an automatized procedure.     

The geometric curvature of the spine during the sirshasana,the yoga’s headstand

This study analysed the behaviour of the geometric curvature of the spine during sirshasana. The position of dorsal retroreflective markers was computed via stereophotogrammetric analysis in six males and five females (29.4 ± 8.8 years, 63.0 ± 11.4 kg, 1.66 ± 0.08 m [average ± standard deviation]). The spinal points were projected onto the sagittal and frontal planes of the trunk, a polynomial was fitted to the data and the two-dimensional geometric curvature was quantified. The inferior lumbar lordosis decreased compared to the orthostatic position and gait, which may favour the posterior protrusion of the lumbar spinal nucleus pulposus in people with posterior herniation. The lateral deviation at the middle of the thoracic spine increases during sirshasana, which may reflect increased difficulties for postural control and spinal loads. It could be useful for promoting positive spinal structural and functional chronic adaptations for healthy participants, if the yoga programme is carefully planned and the spinal alignment is carefully monitored during a headstand. However, it may aggravate some spinal diseases, especially scoliosis.     

Predicting athletes’ functional and dysfunctional emotions: The role of the motivational climate and motivation regulations

This study examined the relationships between perceptions of the motivational climate, motivation regulations, and the intensity and functionality levels of athletes’ pleasant and unpleasant emotional states. Specifically, we examined the hypothesised mediational role of motivation regulations in the climate–emotion relationship. We also tested a sequence in which emotions were assumed to be predicted by the motivational climate dimensions and then served as antecedents to variability in motivation regulations. Participants (N = 494) completed a multi-section questionnaire assessing targeted variables. Structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed that a perceived task-involving climate was a positive predictor of autonomous motivation and of the impact of functional anger, and a negative predictor of the intensity of anxiety and dysfunctional anger. Autonomous motivation was a partial mediator of perceptions of a task-involving climate and the impact of functional anger. An ego-involving climate was a positive predictor of controlled motivation, and of the intensity and impact of functional anger and the intensity of dysfunctional anger. Controlled motivation partially mediated the relationship between an ego-involving climate and the intensity of dysfunctional anger. Good fit to the data also emerged for the motivational climate, emotional states, and motivation regulations sequence. Findings provide support for the consideration of hedonic tone and functionality distinctions in the assessment of athletes’ emotional states.     

Nearest neighbor search in metric spaces through Content-Addressable Networks

Most of the Peer-to-Peer search techniques proposed in the recent years have focused on the single-key retrieval. However, similarity search in metric spaces represents an important paradigm for content-based retrieval in many applications. In this paper we introduce an extension of the well-known Content-Addressable Network paradigm to support storage and retrieval of more generic metric space objects. In particular we address the problem of executing the nearest neighbors queries, and propose three different algorithms of query execution. An extensive experimental study on real-life data sets explores the performance characteristics of the proposed algorithms by showing their advantages and disadvantages.