How parents help children with homework in China: Narratives across the life span

This study examines how ten young adults in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China, perceived how their parents helped them with homework during their childhood and adolescence. Between 2011 and 2012, we interviewed five men and five women from Dalian who had first been recruited in 1999 from a college prep high school, a vocational high school, and a junior high school as part of a longitudinal study of Chinese singleton children. In this sample, most parents had not finished high school but expected their children to finish college. Parents’ lack of ability to directly assist their children in their schoolwork at home (and thus promote their children’s skills) was compensated for by involvement strategies that often tapped into their children’s motivation. Our study illustrated how several strategies that have not been reported in the Western scholarship on parental involvement (i.e., reasoning about the importance of education, watching children study, and offering food, criticizing, and blaming) can map onto the skill and motivation development model Western researchers have developed, while highlighting the previously understudied salience of these particular strategies, especially for parents who do not have enough education to teach the skills their children need for upward mobility.     

The Digital Divide and Increasing Returns: Contradictions of Informational Capitalism

The spectacular growth of the Internet in Korea has propelled her to the very top of the international rankings based on technology peneration statistics. The resulting international attention and national pride have fostered the notion of “Korea—a strong Internet nation.” The ready embrace of this idea by officials and the public at large has made a critical evaluation almost an anathema. This article reviews the published critiques, which have been rare and scattered, and opens up the “what next” question for an unbounded discussion.     

A mixed methods approach to electronic word-of-mouth in the open-market context

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has been identified as a key factor affecting online sales. However, the factors leading to eWOM in the open-market context are not fully understood. Since many Internet vendors have adopted the open-market business model, it is essential to understand the factors for eWOM leading to the success of open-market business. This study investigates factors affecting eWOM in the open-market context based on a sequential combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The exploratory findings in the qualitative study form the basis for the quantitative study survey research. The findings from this mixed methods study indicate the significance of three new factors (information-sharing desire, self-presentation desire, and open-market reward) and two established factors (open-market satisfaction and open-market loyalty) affecting eWOM directly and indirectly. This study makes a useful contribution to the broader literature on eWOM. These findings also inform open-market providers as to how to promote and manage eWOM for online business success.     

A sequence-based filtering method for exhibition booth visit recommendations

As exhibitions are known to play important roles in marketing and sales promotion, the exhibition industry has grown significantly not only in the exhibition event size and frequency but also in the number of participating firms and visitors. While the challenge in assessing economic returns from exhibitions is being studied, it is agreed that the eventual success of an exhibition resides largely in its ability to meet the visitors’ needs. Visitors use an exhibition as a source of information when searching for products or services. Though an exhibition provides an information-rich environment, however, visitors often get lost in the abundance of information. A specialized recommender system can be a good solution to information overload as it can guide visitors to right exhibition booths and help them collect necessary information. Traditional collaborative-filtering recommender systems, however, use only customers’ rating or purchase records so that they do not capture exhibition visitors’ temporal visit sequences and dynamic preferences. Moreover, due to the computation overhead, they cannot generate real-time recommendation in ubiquitous environments for exhibitions. In order to overcome these drawbacks, this study proposes a booth recommendation procedure that takes into consideration not only booth visit records but also visit sequences. Experiment results show that the proposed procedure achieves higher recommendation accuracy, faster computation, and more diversity than a typical collaborative-filtering recommender system. From the results, we conclude that the proposed booth recommendation procedure is suitable for real-time recommendation in ubiquitous exhibition environments.     

The role of governance effectiveness in explaining IT outsourcing performance

Recent studies on IT outsourcing have examined the effect of contract specification and relationship strength on IT outsourcing performance in a separate manner. Previous studies, however, ignored the importance of the governance effectiveness that bonds contractual control and relationship strength together to deliver expected outcomes in IT outsourcing exchange. In this paper, we propose a model of IT outsourcing management where governance effectiveness mediates the effect of both contractual control and relationship strength on IT outsourcing performance. We collected data from 143 client companies of IT outsourcing and analyzed it using the PLS method. Our findings show that both contract specification and relationship strength significantly influence governance effectiveness, although contract specification carries the more effect on governance effectiveness than relationship strength does. The governance effectiveness in turn mediates the effect of contract specification and relationship strength on three sub-dimensions of outsourcing performance: cost efficiency, performance improvement, and overall satisfaction. The results and implications are further discussed.     

All-aqueous multiphase microfluidics

Immiscible aqueous phases, formed by dissolving incompatible solutes in water, have been used in green chemical synthesis, molecular extraction and mimicking of cellular cytoplasm. Recently, a microfluidic approach has been introduced to generate all-aqueous emulsions and jets based on these immiscible aqueous phases; due to their biocompatibility, these all-aqueous structures have shown great promises as templates for fabricating biomaterials. The physico-chemical nature of interfaces between two immiscible aqueous phases leads to unique interfacial properties, such as an ultra-low interfacial tension. Strategies to manipulate components and direct their assembly at these interfaces needs to be explored. In this paper, we review progress on the topic over the past few years, with a focus on the fabrication and stabilization of all-aqueous structures in a multiphase microfluidic platform. We also discuss future efforts needed from the perspectives of fluidic physics, materials engineering, and biology for fulfilling potential applications ranging from materials fabrication to biomedical engineering.     

Biomechanical analysis of dragon boat paddling: A comparison of elite and sub-elite paddlers

Abstract

In this study, video and force analysis techniques were used to distinguish between dragon boat paddlers of different ability. Six elite paddlers (three males, three females) and six sub-elite paddlers (two males, four females) were compared during high-intensity paddling (80–90 strokes · min^?1). Video filming was conducted for two-dimensional kinematic analysis and an instrumented paddle was used to collect force data. Paddling efficiency, paddle force characteristics, and paddler kinematic variables were measured. Elite paddlers achieved higher paddling efficiency than sub-elite paddlers (elite: 76 ± 4%; sub-elite: 67 ± 10%; P = 0.080). Elite paddlers also showed higher peak force (elite: 16.3 ± 4.8 N · kg^?2/3; sub-elite: 11.4 ± 2.6 N · kg^?2/3; P = 0.052), average force (elite: 7.9 ± 2.8 N · kg^?2/3; sub-elite: 5.5 ± 1.4 N · kg^?2/3; P = 0.084), and impulse (elite: 3.0 ± 0.9 (N · s) · kg^?2/3; sub-elite: 1.9 ± 0.4 (N · s) · kg^?2/3; P = 0.026) than sub-elite paddlers, but these three results should be viewed with caution due to the small sample size and the unequal number of males and females in the two groups. Superior technique and greater strength enable the elite paddlers to achieve higher paddling efficiency. Paddlers use different joint movement patterns to develop propulsion, which are reflected in variations in the force–time curve.     

Haptic perception accuracy depending on self-produced movement

Abstract

This study measured whether self-produced movement influences haptic perception ability (experiment 1) as well as the factors associated with levels of influence (experiment 2) in racket sports. For experiment 1, the haptic perception accuracy levels of five male table tennis experts and five male novices were examined under two different conditions (no movement vs. movement). For experiment 2, the haptic afferent subsystems of five male table tennis experts and five male novices were investigated in only the self-produced movement-coupled condition. Inferential statistics (ANOVA, t-test) and custom-made devices (shock & vibration sensor, Qualisys Track Manager) of the data were used to determine the haptic perception accuracy (experiment 1, experiment 2) and its association with expertise. The results of this research show that expert-level players acquire higher accuracy with less variability (racket vibration and angle) than novice-level players, especially in their self-produced movement coupled performances. The important finding from this result is that, in terms of accuracy, the skill-associated differences were enlarged during self-produced movement. To explain the origin of this difference between experts and novices, the functional variability of haptic afferent subsystems can serve as a reference. These two factors (self-produced accuracy and the variability of haptic features) as investigated in this study would be useful criteria for educators in racket sports and suggest a broader hypothesis for further research into the effects of the haptic accuracy related to variability.     

The British Olympic Association's Position Statement on Athlete Confidentiality

Abstract

In this study, we determined the specificity of a low frequency taekwondo training programme on physical fitness levels in adolescent females who receive limited physical education instruction (i.e. 2 days per week). Major components of physical fitness assessed were: skeletal muscle fitness (hand grip strength, bent arm hang, standing long jump, and isokinetic strength), flexibility (sit-and-reach test), speed and agility (10 × 5-m shuttle run), and cardiovascular fitness ([Vdot]O _2max and 20-m shuttle run). Changes in body composition were also assessed (dual X-ray absorptiometry, DXA). Participants were divided into two groups, a taekwondo training group (n = 21), which trained 50 min a day, 2 days per week for 12 weeks, and a control group (n = 10). Taekwondo training improved isokinetic strength, standing long jump, and sit-and-reach performance. Body fat mass and percent body fat were reduced. No changes in grip strength, bent arm hang time, speed and agility, or cardiorespiratory fitness were observed. Results indicate that low frequency taekwondo training in adolescent females produces beneficial changes in skeletal muscle fitness, flexibility, and body composition in a relatively short period of time. Consequently, this specific type of training can be useful to female adolescents in structured school environments where physical education classes are limited and there is little free time for physical activity.     

Child temperament moderates effects of parent-child mutuality on self-regulation: a relationship-based path for emotionally negative infants

This study examined infants' negative emotionality as moderating the effect of parent-child mutually responsive orientation (MRO) on children's self-regulation (n=102). Negative emotionality was observed in anger-eliciting episodes and in interactions with parents at 7 months. MRO was coded in naturalistic interactions at 15 months. Self-regulation was measured at 25 months in effortful control battery and as self-regulated compliance to parental requests and prohibitions. Negative emotionality moderated the effects of mother-child, but not father-child, MRO. Highly negative infants were less self-regulated when they were in unresponsive relationships (low MRO), but more self-regulated when in responsive relationships (high MRO). For infants not prone to negative emotionality, there was no link between MRO and self-regulation. The "regions of significance" analysis supported the differential susceptibility model not the diathesis-stress model.