The Relationship of Competition and Financial Commitment Revisited: A Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis in European Newspaper Markets

The Cincinnati Post published its last edition on New Year's Eve 2007, leaving the Cincinnati Enquirer as the only daily newspaper in the market. The next year, fewer candidates ran for municipal office in the Kentucky suburbs most reliant on the Post, incumbents became more likely to win reelection, and voter turnout and campaign spending fell. These changes happened even though the Enquirer at least temporarily increased its coverage of the Post's former strongholds. Voter turnout remained depressed through 2010, nearly three years after the Post closed, but the other effects diminished with time. The authors exploited a difference-in-differences strategy and the fact that the Post's closing date was fixed 30 years in advance to rule out some noncausal explanations for their results. Although their findings are statistically imprecise, they suggest that newspapers—even underdogs such as the Post, which had a circulation of just 27,000 when it closed—can have a substantial and measurable impact on public life.     

Resilience does not predict academic performance in gross anatomy

Few studies have evaluated resilience in an academic environment as it relates to academic success or failure. This work sought to assess resilience in regular and remedial students of gross anatomy during the first and second semesters of medical school and to correlate this personal trait with academic performance. Two groups of students were compared: the first group included first‐year medical students in the regular course, and the second group included first‐year medical students who did not pass the regular anatomy course and so were enrolled in the remedial course. Both groups completed anonymous surveys designed to gather demographic data and establish scores on the Connor‐Davidson resilience scale, which includes 25 statements rated zero to four on a Likert scale (maximum score 100). The average resilience score was the same for both groups, 80 ± 9. The average anatomy grades differed significantly between regular students (67± 15.0) and remedial students (61 ± 12.0). While there was no overall correlation between resilience score and anatomy grade, regular students with resilience scores of 75 or greater showed slightly better academic performance than their classmates. Similarly, remedial students with resilience scores of 87 or greater faired better academically. Resilience does not predict academic performance in gross anatomy, and further work is necessary to identify those intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence students' achievements. Anat Sci Educ. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

Teaching skills to promote clinical reasoning in early basic science courses

Basic and superior reasoning skills are woven into the clinical reasoning process just as they are used to solve any problem. As clinical reasoning is the central competence of medical education, development of these reasoning skills should occur throughout the undergraduate medical curriculum. The authors describe here a method of teaching reasoning skills in a clinical context during a human anatomy course. Anat Sci Educ 3:267–271, 2010. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

How do adult humans compare with New Caledonian crows in tool selectivity?

We examined humans’ tool selections on stick-and-tube tasks similar to those used to study crows’ and other avian species’ physical cognition. In Experiment 1, the participants selected a stick from a set of 10 to retrieve a candy placed in a horizontal tube. Although the stick that was selected depended on the distance to the candy, the participants generally did not select a stick whose length was the same as the candy’s distance from the open end of the tube nor did they select the longest stick in the set—two strategies that have been reported in crows. In Experiments 2 and 3, we used variations of the stick-and-tube task to determine what factors in addition to the candy’s distance influenced the participants’ selections. The results showed that tool selection depended on the stimulus context (i.e., the number and lengths of the alternative tools).     

Evaluation bias against work in progress: evidence from a Spanish marketing conference

Traditionally, the literature has analyzed the existence of bias in the evaluation of papers submitted to scientific journals, but it has not considered any possible bias in the evaluation of studies submitted to conferences. In this sense we can ask whether the conferences provide an adequate service for researchers. This study examines whether there is bias in the evaluation of work in progress submitted to a conference, and also examines the explanatory factors of the evaluation. To address these questions we use information from a marketing conference. The results show that completed work receives higher reviewer ratings than work in progress; a bias that is specifically present in the evaluation of information sources, methodology and results. This bias can be explained by the simple fact of being work in progress. Additionally, the results reveal that the number of references from journals listed in the Social Citation Index Report positively influences the evaluation of research studies.     

Using data mining to predict K–12 students' performance on large‐scale assessment items related to energy

This article reports a study on using data mining to predict K–12 students' competence levels on test items related to energy. Data sources are the 1995 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 1999 TIMSS‐Repeat, 2003 Trend in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Student population performances, that is, percentages correct, are the object of prediction. Two data mining algorithms, C4.5 and M5, are used to construct a decision tree and a linear function to predict students' performance levels. A combination of factors related to content, context, and cognitive demand of items and to students' grade levels are found to predict student population performances on test items. Cognitive demands have the most significant contribution to the prediction. The decision tree and linear function agree with each other on predictions. We end the article by discussing implications of findings for future science content standard development and energy concept teaching. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 554–573, 2008     

Physical activity among Spanish adolescents: relationship with their relatives' physical activity - the AVENA study

Identifying factors related to physical activity levels in young people is important for a more efficient health promotion. The aims of this study were to assess physical activity levels in a national sample of urban Spanish adolescents, and to examine the association between significant others' physical activity (father, mother, brother, sister, and close friends) and that of the adolescents. The present study comprised 2260 adolescents (1157 boys, 1103 girls) aged 13.0-18.5 years participating in the AVENA Study. Both the adolescents' physical activity and that of their relatives and close friends was assessed by questionnaire. The odds of being active were higher in boys than girls (odds ratio?=?2.79, 95% confidence interval?=?2.34-3.33) and tended to decrease across age groups in both boys and girls. Father's and older brother's physical activity was associated with boys' physical activity, while that of any significant other was associated with girls' physical activity. When both parents reported being active, boys had nearly two times higher odds of being active and girls had nearly three times higher odds of being active. The physical activity levels of Spanish adolescents are in line with those previously reported. Physical activity levels in girls are strongly related to the physical activity of any significant other, whereas physical activity levels in boys are only related to their male relatives' physical activity.