Frequency and attendance at popular music concerts in the USA: Does facility age matter?

Popular music is a valuable community amenity in the USA. State and local governments often encourage concert development by subsidizing construction and operation of concert venues. The facilities most likely to receive public support also host professional sports franchises. Public policy arguments supporting subsidization often maintain that concert frequency declines as facilities age, thus necessitating their replacement. Anecdotal evidence is inconsistent on the matter. Using a two-year pooled cross-section of 1234 concerts in 80 professional sports facilities from July 2012 to June 2014, the present study tests if facility age predicts changes in concert frequency and attendance. The results lend support to subsidy proponents' arguments, but the magnitude of the age effects is unlikely to warrant significant subsidy levels.     

The Stanford-Binet mental age and the WISC-R test age: A comparison study

The Stanford-Binet and WISC-R were administered to 100 students (CA—6 to 15 years) to determine the comparability of the age equivalent scores obtained from each test. The limited range of test age (TA) values in the WISC-R Manual required the use of extrapolated values for some subjects. The results indicated that, for subjects whose WISC-R scores fell within the TA table, the Binet MAs and WISC-R TAs were comparable (p>.05). However, when the use of extrapolated TAs was required, the scores were not comparable (p<.05). Implications for test age and mental age equivalency were discussed.     

Residual force enhancement due to active muscle lengthening allows similar reductions in neuromuscular activation during position- and force-control tasks

BackgroundResidual torque enhancement (rTE) is the increase in torque observed during the isometric steady state following active muscle lengthening when compared with a fixed-end isometric contraction at the same muscle length and level of neuromuscular activation. In the rTE state, owing to an elevated contribution of passive force to total force production, less active force is required, and there is a subsequent reduction in activation. In vivo studies of rTE reporting an activation reduction are often performed using a dynamometer, where participants contract against a rigid restraint, resisting a torque motor. rTE has yet to be investigated during a position task, which involves the displacement of an inertial load with positional control.MethodsA total of 12 participants (6 males, 6 females; age = 22.8 ± 1.1 years, height = 174.7 ± 8.6 cm, mass = 82.1 ± 37.7 kg; mean ± SD) completed torque- and position-matching tasks at 60% maximum voluntary contraction for a fixed-end isometric contraction and an isometric contraction following active lengthening of the ankle dorsiflexors.ResultsThere were no significant differences in activation between torque- and position-matching tasks (p = 0.743), with ∼27% activation reduction following active lengthening for both task types (p < 0.001).ConclusionThese results indicate that rTE is a feature of voluntary, position-controlled contractions. These findings support and extend previous findings of isometric torque-control conditions to position-controlled contractions that represent different tasks of daily living.     

The Critical Role of Stereopsis in Virtual and Mixed Reality Learning Environments

Anatomy education has been revolutionized through digital media, resulting in major advances in realism, portability, scalability, and user satisfaction. However, while such approaches may well be more portable, realistic, or satisfying than traditional photographic presentations, it is less clear that they have any superiority in terms of student learning. In this study, it was hypothesized that virtual and mixed reality presentations of pelvic anatomy will have an advantage over two-dimensional (2D) presentations and perform approximately equal to physical models and that this advantage over 2D presentations will be reduced when stereopsis is decreased by covering the non-dominant eye. Groups of 20 undergraduate students learned pelvic anatomy under seven conditions: physical model with and without stereo vision, mixed reality with and without stereo vision, virtual reality with and without stereo vision, and key views on a computer monitor. All were tested with a cadaveric pelvis and a 15-item, short-answer recognition test. Compared to the key views, the physical model had a 70% increase in accuracy in structure identification; the virtual reality a 25% increase, and the mixed reality a non-significant 2.5% change. Blocking stereopsis reduced performance on the physical model by 15%, on virtual reality by 60%, but by only 2.5% on the mixed reality technology. The data show that virtual and mixed reality technologies tested are inferior to physical models and that true stereopsis is critical in learning anatomy.     

Economic Fundamentalism, Globalization, and the Public Remains of Education

Economic fundamentalism as the new colonialism. Features of global religious fundamentalism. The historical rise of economic fundamentalism in the West since the end of the Cold War. The impact of economic fundamentalism on national identity, governmental power, and educational policy. Education in the age of globalization.