Air quality: a comparison of students' conceptions and attitudes across the continents

A closed‐form questionnaire was used to explore the ideas of school students about the composition of air, the causes and consequences of air pollution and the extent to which the students would accept various courses of action to reduce air pollution. Items for the questionnaire were derived from the results of interviews and an earlier open‐form questionnaire. More than 3000 students aged 11 to 17 years and from Australia, Hong Kong and the UK were surveyed. There was a degree of similarity between students from the different countries in their knowledge about air composition and air pollution. In terms of attitudes, however, there were differences in students' opinions about the acceptability of actions to improve air quality. Path analysis of the data appeared to show that Hong Kong students are more amenable to education as an instrument to influence their attitudes. For the other countries, the acceptability of actions for environmental protection was related to the degree of concern about air quality     

Front- or rear-weighted track start or grab start: Which is the best for female swimmers?

The aim of this study was to compare three competitive swimming starts (grab, rear-weighted track, and front-weighted track). The starts were compared in terms of time and instantaneous horizontal velocity, both at take-off from the block and at 5 m from the wall. Twenty US college female swimmers performed three trials of each of the three randomly ordered starts. Swimmers left the block significantly sooner using the front-weighted track start (0.80 s) than the other two starts (both 0.87 s; P < 0.001). In the rear-weighted track start, however, the athletes left the blocks with significantly higher horizontal velocity than in the grab or front-weighted track start (3.99 vs. 3.87 and 3.90 m/s, respectively; each P < 0.001). By 5 m, the front-weighted track start maintained its time advantage over the grab start (2.19 vs. 2.24 s; P = 0.008) but not the rear-weighted track start (2.19 vs. 2.21 s; P = 0.336). However, the rear-weighted track start had a significant advantage over the front-weighted track start in terms of instantaneous horizontal velocity at 5 m (2.25 vs. 2.18 m/s; P = 0.009). Therefore, the rear-weighted track start had a better combination of time and velocity than the front-weighted track start. There was also a trend for the rear-weighted track start to have higher velocity at 5 m than the grab start, although this did not reach statistical significance (2.25 vs. 2.20 m/s; P = 0.042). Overall, these results favour the rear-weighted track start for female swimmers even though most of the athletes had little or no prior experience with it. Additional research is needed to determine whether males would respond similarly to females in these three different swimming starts.     

Effects of caffeine on time trial performance in sedentary men

Abstract It is not known if ergogenic effects of caffeine ingestion in athletic groups occur in the sedentary. To investigate this, we used a counterbalanced, double-blind, crossover design to examine the effects of caffeine ingestion (6 mg?·?kg(-1) body-mass) on exercise performance, substrate utilisation and perceived exertion during 30 minutes of self-paced stationary cycling in sedentary men. Participants performed two trials, one week apart, after ingestion of either caffeine or placebo one hour before exercise. Participants were instructed to cycle as quickly as they could during each trial. External work (J?·?kg(-1)) after caffeine ingestion was greater than after placebo (P?=?0.001, effect size [ES]?=?0.3). Further, heart rate, oxygen uptake and energy expenditure during exercise were greater after caffeine ingestion (P?=?0.031, ES?=?0.4; P?=?0.009, ES?=?0.3 and P?=?0.018, ES?=?0.3; respectively), whereas ratings of perceived exertion and respiratory exchange ratio values did not differ between trials (P?=?0.877, ES?=?0.1; P?=?0.760, ES?=?0.1; respectively). The ability to do more exercise after caffeine ingestion, without an accompanying increase in effort sensation, could motivate sedentary men to participate in exercise more often and so reduce adverse effects of inactivity on health.     

Motivation for return to study as a predictor of completion of degree amongst female mature students with children

The motivation for return to study, as measured by the Continuing Education Women Questionnaire (modified), of 117 mature age female graduates with children was compared with that of 118 former mature age female students with children who had discontinued a degree program before graduation. Motivation was found to relate to a number of predictors, including previous education, age, marital status, family life cycle stage, satisfaction with previous employment and family support for return to study. Interrupters as a group were found to be similar in motivation to graduates. However, certain subgroups of interrupters scored higher on those aspects of motivation which stressed study as a way to ameliorate or escape from unpleasant or difficult life circumstances. These same difficult circumstances in turn made graduation more unlikely and led to discontinuance. The conclusion is drawn that life circumstances may be a more parsimonious predictor of attrition in this population than motivation.     

A proactive balanced scorecard

This paper describes a methodology for the development of a proactive balanced scorecard (PBSCM). The balanced scorecard is one of the most popular approaches developed in the field of performance measurement. However, in spite of its reputation, there are issues that require further research. The present research addresses the problems of the balanced scorecard by utilizing the soft computing characteristics of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs). By using FCMs, the proposed methodology generates a dynamic network of interconnected key performance indicators (KPIs), simulates each KPI with imprecise relationships and quantifies the impact of each KPI to other KPIs in order to adjust targets of performance.