Independent and joint associations of physical activity and fitness with fibromyalgia symptoms and severity: The al-Ándalus project

We examined independent and joint associations of objectively measured physical activity (PA) and physical fitness (PF) with pain, fatigue and the overall impact of fibromyalgia in 386 fibromyalgia women aged 51.2 ± 7.6 years. Levels of PA (light, moderate and vigorous) and PF were measured with triaxial accelerometry and the Senior Fitness Test, respectively. We used the Short-Form health survey-36 pain sub-scale and the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory to assess pain and multiple dimensions of fatigue, respectively. The impact of fibromyalgia was studied with the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR). Both, total PA and global PF were independently associated with pain pressure threshold, SF-36 pain, reduced activity, reduced motivation and FIQR total score (all, P ≤ 0.027). The associations between total PA and symptoms were weaker than those observed between global PF and symptoms. Overall, unfit patients with low PA showed a worse profile that fit patients with high PA (all, P ≤ 0.001). In summary, PA and PF are independently associated with pain, fatigue and the overall impact of fibromyalgia in women. Although PF presented greater associations with symptoms, the results suggest that both being physically active and keep adequate fitness levels might be convenient for fibromyalgia women.     

Individual Differences in Categorical Perception Are Related to Sublexical/Phonological Processing in Reading

This article examines the relationship between individual differences in speech perception and sublexical/phonological processing in reading. We used an auditory phoneme identification task in which a?/ba/-/pa/?syllable continuum measured sensitivity to classify participants into three performance groups: poor, medium, and good categorizers. A lexical decision task manipulated syllable and word frequency. We found that the two tasks were associated. Poor categorizers did not present the typical syllable frequency effect; however, the other groups were sensitive to phonological information to differing degrees and showed the inhibitory syllable frequency effect only for low-frequency words. These results suggest that auditory phoneme identification efficiency may be related to the sublexical processes involved in reading words.     

Digital illiteracy: a challenge for 21st century teachers / El analfabetismo digital: un reto de los docentes del siglo XXI

Resumen

El aprendizaje de la química requiere dominar los diferentes códigos mediante los que se representa gráficamente la organización espacial de las moléculas. Los alumnos deben no sólo aprender la nomenclatura de esos sistemas de representación, sino también sus reglas sintácticas, siendo capaces de traducir de un código o lenguaje a otro, y de decidir cuándo y con qué metas deben usar cada uno de esos sistemas de representación. Para investigar cómo proceden y qué dificultades tienen estudiantes universitarios de química para usar esos sistemas de representación realizamos dos estudios. En total participaron 201 estudiantes universitarios, 174 estudiantes argentinos de un primer curso de química orgánica y 27 estudiantes españoles de la carrera de Psicología, que respondieron a tareas escritas diseñadas específicamente para esta investigación.

Los resultados mostraron que en general los estudiantes de química utilizan los diferentes sistemas de representación de forma adecuada. Sin embargo, aunque son eficaces en los procesos de traducción, no lo son en cuanto a su uso estratégico dependiente del marco teórico-conceptual. Por otra parte, al presentarles en el segundo estudio una tarea sin contenido químico, pero gráficamente isomorfa a las tareas químicas, los estudiantes de química, a diferencia de los de psicología, cometían errores característicos como consecuencia de interpretar el problema con una tarea dentro de un sistema representacional químico. Se discuten también algunas de las implicaciones de los resultados para el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de la química en la universidad.     

Reasons which influence on the students’ decision to take a university course: differences by gender and degree

After compulsory secondary education; many teenagers face the process of choosing a university degree. This process involves uncertainties referred to their personal abilities, interests, social expectations and professional future. The present work is aimed at determining whether the reasons behind the selection of a particular university degree differ depending on the chosen degree. Another objective is determining whether these reasons differ significantly according to gender. The sample comprises 983 students belonging to the area of social and legal sciences at the University of Seville. The obtained results reveal the existence of four main reasons behind the selection of university degrees for which significant gender-related differences were observed: easy degree, job opportunities, high wages and provision of social services. Besides, these seven reasons are observed to differ widely in six of the considered degrees.     

Science Teachers’ Thinking About the Nature of Science: A New Methodological Approach to Its Assessment

This paper describes Spanish science teachers’ thinking about issues concerning the nature of science (NOS) and the relationships connecting science, technology, and society (STS). The sample consisted of 774 in-service and pre-service teachers. The participants responded to a selection of items from the Questionnaire of Opinions on Science, Technology & Society in a multiple response model. These data were processed to generate the invariant indices that are used as the bases for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyses. The overall results reflect moderately informed conceptions, and a detailed analysis by items, categories, and positions reveals a range of positive and negative conceptions about the topics of NOS dealt with in the questionnaire items. The implications of the findings for teaching and teacher training on the themes of NOS are discussed.     

Social Physique Anxiety and Intention to Be Physically Active: A Self-Determination Theory Approach

Purpose: Based on self-determination theory, the purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between social physique anxiety and intention to be physically active, while taking into account the mediating effects of the basic psychological needs and behavioral regulations in exercise. Method: Having obtained parents' prior consent, 390 students in secondary school (218 boys, 172 girls; M_age = 15.10 years, SD = 1.94 years) completed a self-administered questionnaire during physical education class that assessed the target variables. Preliminary analyses included means, standard deviations, and bivariate correlations among the target variables. Next, a path analysis was performed using the maximum likelihood estimation method with the bootstrapping procedure in the statistical package AMOS 19. Results: Analysis revealed that social physique anxiety negatively predicted intention to be physically active through mediation of the basic psychological needs and the 3 autonomous forms of motivation (i.e., intrinsic motivation, integrated regulation, and identified regulation). Conclusion: The results suggest that social physique anxiety is an internal source of controlling influence that hinders basic psychological need satisfaction and autonomous motivation in exercise, and interventions aimed at reducing social physique anxiety could promote future exercise.     

Greater basal skeletal muscle AMPKα phosphorylation in men than in women: Associations with anaerobic performance

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the association of gender, fibre type composition, and anaerobic performance with the basal skeletal muscle signalling cascades regulating muscle phenotype. Design: Muscle biopsies were obtained from 25 men and 10 women all young and healthy. Methods. Protein phosphorylation of Thr¹⁷²AMPKα, Ser²²¹ACCβ, Thr²⁸⁶CaMKII as well as total protein abundance of PGC-1α, SIRT1, and CnA were measured by Western blot and anaerobic performance by the Wingate test. Results: Percent type I myosin heavy chain (MHC I) was lower in men (37.1?±?10.4 vs. 58.5?±?12.5, P?P?P?221ACCβ and Thr²⁸⁶CaMKII fractional phosphorylation tended to be higher in men (P?=?.1). PGC1-α and SIRT1 total protein expression was similar in men and women, whereas CnA tended to be higher in men (P?=?.1). Basal AMPKα phosphorylation was linearly related to the percentage of MHC I in men (r?=?0.56; P?Conclusion: In summary, skeletal muscle basal AMPKα phosphorylation is higher in men compared to women, with no apparent effect on anaerobic performance.     

Institutional repositories versus ResearchGate: The depositing habits of Spanish researchers

Despite the increase in the number of institutional repositories worldwide, most of them seem underpopulated. At the same time, scientists are apparently willing to share copies of their publications on academic social networking sites. This paper compares the availability of the scholarly output in the institutional repositories of 13 top Spanish universities and in ResearchGate (RG). Results show that just 11.1% of the articles published in 2014 by researchers at these universities were available in their institutional repository in the first quarter of 2016. However, most of the articles that were not available in institutional repositories (84.5%) were published in journals that allow the deposit of the article in some form. In contrast, 54.8% of the articles were available in full text on RG. When authors who had uploaded copies of their articles to RG but not to their institutional repository were asked about their reasons, most replies focused on two issues: ignorance about the existence or operation of the institutional repository and awareness of the advantages offered by RG.     

The Use of BISAC in Libraries as New Cases of Reader-Interest Classifications

In the recent years, several libraries in the United States have been experimenting with Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC), the classification system of the book industry, as an alternative to the Dewey Decimal Classification. Although rarely discussed, these cases of implementation of BISAC arguably resemble other past cases of replacement of traditional classifications that received the name of reader-interest classifications. In this article, a comparison of the BISAC cases to the previous cases of reader-interest classifications is taken in order to determine if the current application of BISAC to libraries is susceptible to the same problems, dangers, and ends as occurred in the past.