Sexual violence in organized sport in Germany

Although the topic of sexual violence in sport has gained considerable attention in recent years, prevalence rates of sexual violence experience in German athletes are not yet available. Therefore, the current study aimed to address this by assessing prevalence rates in a comprehensive sample of German elite athletes. Overall, 1529 German elite athletes over 16 years of age from 128 different sports took part in an online survey. Mean age was 21.6 years; 56% were female. Participants were presented with seventeen different sexual violence situations (from sexist jokes to forced penetration) and asked to indicate how often they had experienced each particular situation in the sport setting. Results revealed that 37.6% of the athletes had experienced at least one sexual violence situation in organized sport; 11.2% reported a severe form of sexual violence. Female athletes were affected significantly more often than male athletes, and persons with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual more often than heterosexuals. No significant differences could be found with regard to age, level of performance, type of sports, dis-/ability or migration background of the athletes. These results indicate that sexual violence is a problem that needs to be addressed across elite sports in Germany. Prevention concepts need to be developed and applied across sports contexts.     

From invisibility to impact: Recognising the scientific and societal relevance of interdisciplinary sustainability research

Academics are increasingly expected to produce concrete and directly applicable solutions to hard-to-solve ‘real-world problems’ such as poverty, development, and environmental degradation. However, conventional assessments of the impact of science on society have not yet been adequately adapted to capture the diverse effects of this type of problem-centred research. Drawing on a case study of a large-scale project on (un)sustainable consumption, this paper demonstrates the range, complexity and potential long-term nature of impact in interdisciplinary sustainability research. It thus supports arguments for alternative approaches to impact assessment that question conventional views of translating scientific knowledge into action, value the multi-directionality of science-society relations and recognise diverse forms of engagement between scientists and non-scientific actors through non-academic channels and outputs. The paper also challenges common (mis)conceptions of work practices in a university context by demonstrating the highly innovative and inclusive nature of much sustainability research that seeks to address the needs of diverse communities of actors. It is argued that only radically different ways of conceptualising and measuring short-, medium- and long-term impacts can capture the success or otherwise of social-scientific and interdisciplinary sustainability research.     

Changes in glycated proteins during impaired glucose tolerance

In persons with impaired glucose tolerance, serum glycated proteins (9.44±1.46μg hexose/mg protein) increased 1.69-fold (P<0.001) over control subjects compared to an increase of 1.95-fold in overt diabetics. However, correlations between serum glycated protein values and 2 h blood sugar values during the tolerance test (r=0.39) and between the former and graph area (r=0.30) were not strong. Glycated albumin (2.25 mol hexose/mol protein) and glycated haemoglobin (0.398±0.07 mol hexose/mol protein) in the study group also showed 1.67 and 1.24-fold increase respectively compared to controls. Fairly good correlations between glycated serum protein and glycated albumin (r=0.50) and glycated haemoglobin (r=0.45) were observed during this study. The data suggest that measurement of glycated proteins will be a useful index to detect impaired glucose tolerance.     

The Transition From Sublexical to Lexical Processing in a Consistent Orthography: An Eye-Tracking Study

We studied the transition in predominant reading strategy from serial sublexical processing to more parallel lexical processing as a function of word familiarity in German children of Grades 2, 3, 4, and adults. High-frequency words, low-frequency words, and nonwords of differing length were embedded in sentences and presented in an eye-tracking paradigm. The size of the word length effect was used as an indicator of serial sublexical decoding. When controlling for the generally higher processing times in younger readers, the effect of length over reading development was not direct but modulated by familiarity: Length effects were comparable between items of differing familiarity for Grade 2, whereas from Grade 3, length effects increased with decreasing familiarity. These findings suggest that Grade 2 children apply serial sublexical decoding as a default reading strategy to most items, whereas reading by direct lexical access is increasingly dominant in more experienced readers.     

Combat science: the emergence of Operational Research in World War II

World War II became known as the "wizard war" because the cycles of developing countermeasures and counter-countermeasures to the weapons deployed by all sides drove rapid technological change. However, technological innovation was not the only contribution scientists made to the war effort. Through Operational Research (OR)--the scientific scrutiny of new weapons, their deployment and relative efficiency--scientists also influenced how warfare itself was conducted. This new scientific field emerged in the UK, where it helped to tighten the defense against the Luftwaffe. It quickly spread to other aspects of the military machine, improving both antisubmarine campaigns and bombing strategy. But although this analytical approach to warfare offered military commanders a factual basis on which to base difficult decisions and deal with tactical and strategic uncertainty, it was not without controversy. Indeed, several recommendations that came out of OR sparked disputes over the allocation of resources and strategic priorities.     

Same Same,but Different: Word and Sentence Reading in German and English

The current study compared eye fixation patterns during word and sentence processing in a consistent and an inconsistent alphabetic orthography. German and English children as well as adults matched on word reading ability read matched sentences while their eye fixation behavior was recorded. Results indicated that German children read in a more small-unit plodder-like style with more diligent first-pass reading and less rereading. In contrast, English children read in a more large-unit explorer-like style with a greater tendency to skip words, and more regressions. It is important that these cross-linguistic processing differences largely persisted in the adult readers. Orthographic consistency thus influences both local word recognition and global sentence processing in developing and skilled readers.     

Making connections among multiple visual representations: how do sense-making skills and perceptual fluency relate to learning of chemistry knowledge?

To learn content knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and math domains, students need to make connections among visual representations. This article considers two kinds of connection-making skills: (1) sense-making skills that allow students to verbally explain mappings among representations and (2) perceptual fluency in connection making that allows students to fast and effortlessly use perceptual features to make connections among representations. These different connection-making skills are acquired via different types of learning processes. Therefore, they require different types of instructional support: sense-making activities and fluency-building activities. Because separate lines of research have focused either on sense-making skills or on perceptual fluency, we know little about how these connection-making skills interact when students learn domain knowledge. This article describes two experiments that address this question in the context of undergraduate chemistry learning. In Experiment 1, 95 students were randomly assigned to four conditions that varied whether or not students received sense-making activities and fluency-building activities. In Experiment 2, 101 students were randomly assigned to five conditions that varied whether or not and in which sequence students received sense-making and fluency-building activities. Results show advantages for sense-making and fluency-building activities compared to the control condition only for students with high prior chemistry knowledge. These findings provide new insights into potential boundary conditions for the effectiveness of different types of instructional activities that support students in making connections among multiple visual representations.