Using characteristics of serious leisure to classify rock climbers: a latent profile analysis

The growth of the climbing industry enables more people to use this sport to promote a healthy lifestyle. Given this trend, it is important to understand the heterogeneity of rock climbers and differences in their attributes, motivations and behaviors. In this study, the characteristics of serious leisure (SL) were used to classify rock climbers. Four hundred and eighty-six rock climbers recruited in this study were classified into three groups: low commitment (LC; N?=?82), high commitment (HC; N?=?355) and dedicated groups (N?=?49). A high mean on the financial return item distinguished the dedicated group (M?=?7.52) from the other two. Subsequently, the results of multinomial logistic regression, with the dedicated group as the baseline category, showed that with increases in experiences (i.e. days of climbing in the past year and years of climbing) and internalized motivations (i.e. intrinsic, identified and introjected motivations), a climber is less relatively likely of being in the LC group. Further, comparing the HC group with the dedicated group, with increases in experiences and introjected motivation, a climber is less likely of being in the HC group. The results of the classification complemented the results of previous qualitative SL studies regarding diverse participation in leisure commitment. The results with respect to motivation supported that internalization is associated with increases in commitment. Service providers should keep current regarding dynamic climbing culture and help clients fulfill diverse needs of commitment to rock climbing. The findings of this study enhance existing knowledge of recreationists’ development in the pursuit of adventure recreation.     

A kinect-based motion-sensing game therapy to foster the learning of children with sensory integration dysfunction

Sensory integration dysfunction (SID, also known as sensory processing disorder, SPD) is a condition that exists when a person’s multisensory integration fails to process and respond adequately to the demands of the environment. Children with SID (CwSID) are also learners with disabilities with regard to responding adequately to the demands made by a learning environment, and usually have performance difficulties in one or more areas of life, such as productivity, leisure and play, or activities of daily living, and this can reduce their learning motivation. This study tries to develop a motion-sensing digital game-based SID therapy to help such children become more engaged in physical training, with the hope that by improving their bodily-kinesthetic intelligence these children can be more confident of facing various learning challenges, like those associated with social participation. This research applied the Microsoft Kinect system and a specially designed motion-sensing game related to SID, and used interviews to collect responses from the children and their parents. The Chinese version of the sensory profile and clinical observation were applied to evaluate the effects of the therapy, and the triangulation method applied in the data analysis reveals the improvements of all participants in eight clinical observation items. The results imply that our approach was able to increase the learning motivation and actions of the CwSID who participated in this study, with better results than those obtained in our earlier work, which used the Nintendo Wii device and its commercially available games.     

Collegiate baseball players with more optimal functional movement patterns demonstrate better athletic performance in speed and agility

Sports injuries are common among baseball players and may result in abnormal movement patterns, increased risks of future injury, and unsatisfactory performance. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS?) has been developed to detect abnormal functional movement patterns and can be used for predicting risks of sports injury. However, whether FMS? scores are associated with athletic performance remains unclear. The goal of this study was to determine the association between functional movements and athletic performance in elite baseball players. Core stability, muscular strength and flexibility of the lower extremities, and FMS?, as well as athletic performance in sprinting, agility, and balance tests were assessed in 52 male collegiate Division I baseball players placed into two groups based on FMS? scores. The high-scoring group demonstrated better athletic performance than the low-scoring group, with a shorter duration of the agility test. No group differences were found in core stability, muscular strength, or muscle flexibility, except for rectus femoris flexibility. Thus, the FMS? score is associated with sprinting and agility performance in elite baseball players. These findings indicate that the FMS? may have a role in predicting athletic performance and thereby help determine the goals of training regimens or return-to-play strategies.     

半夏属的染色体数目、倍性与珠芽发生的关系

本文通过对半夏属Pinellia 5个种10个群体的染色体计数和珠芽数量统计，首次报道了5个染色体数目，同时发现珠芽的发生与染色体基数及多倍化程度有关：x=13的类群无珠芽，而x=9的有珠芽；在有珠芽的半夏P．ternata(Thunb．)Breit．中，平均每叶珠芽数随倍性的提高而增大。半夏是一个多倍体复合种，起源于无珠芽、染色体基数为x=7～9的二倍体祖先，可能是在该属的早期进化中由鹞落坪半夏P.yaoluopingensis X．H．Guo et X．L.Liu的x=13经非整倍性跌落而成，在发生上比鹞落坪半夏进化。     

Variable‐Length Computerized Adaptive Testing Using the Higher Order DINA Model

Cognitive diagnosis models provide profile information about a set of latent binary attributes, whereas item response models yield a summary report on a latent continuous trait. To utilize the advantages of both models, higher order cognitive diagnosis models were developed in which information about both latent binary attributes and latent continuous traits is available. To facilitate the utility of cognitive diagnosis models, corresponding computerized adaptive testing (CAT) algorithms were developed. Most of them adopt the fixed‐length rule to terminate CAT and are limited to ordinary cognitive diagnosis models. In this study, the higher order deterministic‐input, noisy‐and‐gate (DINA) model was used as an example, and three criteria based on the minimum‐precision termination rule were implemented: one for the latent class, one for the latent trait, and the other for both. The simulation results demonstrated that all of the termination criteria were successful when items were selected according to the Kullback‐Leibler information and the posterior‐weighted Kullback‐Leibler information, and the minimum‐precision rule outperformed the fixed‐length rule with a similar test length in recovering the latent attributes and the latent trait.     

Benchmarking U.S. university patent value and commercialization efforts: A new approach

Despite the economic significance of patented university research, it is difficult to measure the economic value of academic patented inventions and observe the extent to which universities are able to capture such value through patent licensing. Moving beyond assessing commercialization performance by simple statistics, we propose a new approach to benchmarking university patents and commercialization performance based on comparative corporate patent value. Our procedure involves matching university patents to patents with similar patent characteristics granted to public corporations, then estimating the “potential value” of these university patents by stock market reactions to grants of the matched corporate patents. These estimated values of university patents can significantly explain the technology-level income from licensing by a leading US research university and the annual licensing income of the member universities of the Association of University Technology Managers’ (AUTM). We find that AUTM universities realize an average of 16% of the estimated value of matched corporate patents. We also investigate correlates of university‐level potential patent value and suggest avenues for future research.     

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A TAIWANESE COMMUNICATION PROGRESSION IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

Common core standards, interdisciplinary education, and discipline-specific literacy are common international education reforms. The constructive–interpretative language arts pairs (speaking–listening, writing–reading, representing–viewing) and the communication, construction, and persuasion functions of language are central in these movements. This research developed and validated a communication progression in science education for elementary–secondary schooling in Taiwan. The framework for the communication progression was based on relevant literature, international curricula, and focus-group deliberations; it consisted of three dimensions: presentation, reaction, and negotiation. Delphi deliberations with questionnaires were applied to experts to evaluate the theoretical considerations and to experienced science teachers to evaluate the practical considerations. Results confirmed the importance of communications in science learning and the developmental nature of communications across elementary, middle, and secondary schools and validated the proposed framework and progression. The communication progression has application to other international education systems as they address common core standards and curricula in language and science.