Who is willing to pay for science? On the relationship between public perception of science and the attitude to public funding of science

This article examines the relationship between the general public's understanding of science and the attitude towards public funding of scientific research. It applies a multivariate and discriminant analysis (Wilks' Lambda), in addition to a more commonly used bivariate analysis (Cramer's V), to data compiled from the Third National Survey on the Social Perception of Science and Technology in Spain (FECYT, 2006). The general conclusion is that the multivariate analysis produces information complementary to the bivariate analysis, and that the variables commonly applied in public perception studies have limited predictive value with respect to the attitude towards public funding of scientific research.     

Kinematic analysis of the standing long jump in children 6- to 12-years-old

The purpose of this study was to analyze the kinematic variables that determine the performance of the standing long jump in children 6- to 12-years-old. There were 121 healthy children (58 girls) recorded while they performed the standing long jump test. All kinematic variables showed a significant correlation with calculated jump distance and measured jump distance, except for the knee joint angle at maximum shoulder extension angle, ankle joint angle at maximum shoulder extension angle, and shoulder joint angle at maximum knee flexion angle. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that sex, age, and body mass index accounted for 51.1% of the jump distance variance. Among all the kinematic variables, take-off distance and take-off speed were accounted for the most of the variation in the jump distance. Physical education teachers and coaches should consider special attention to these anthropometrics and kinematic aspects in improving the standing long jump performance in children.     

Applied Opportunity: Transfer Pathways of the Associates in Applied Sciences Degree in Kentucky

Growing numbers of previously terminal AAS degrees have been targeted for transfer agreements with four-year institutions (Townsend, 2001). What happens when terminal credentials designed for a specific segment of the labor market become part of a broader academic pathway? Does this open new opportunity for applied degree recipients? In this study, we analyze articulation agreements for AAS degrees between the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, and state public and private four-year colleges. This exploratory study reveals that while the expansion of credentials from AAS to the baccalaureate does offer some opportunities for students who begin what would have once been a terminal degree, the promise of smooth articulation is difficult to meet. Unless a student is focused and knowledgeable, almost all of the five types of transfer pathways described hold risks and there are numerous obstacles to successful completion.     

A Pornography Literacy Class for Youth: Results of a Feasibility and Efficacy Pilot Study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the preliminary efficacy of a media literacy curriculum focused on pornography among a sample of U.S-based, urban-residing youth. Participants were 24 youth between the ages of 15–24 years old, although 65% were 17–18 years old. The sample was 43% female, 43% male, 9% transgender, 52% Black, 22% Hispanic, 13% other race, 64% heterosexual, 14% gay, lesbian or bisexual, and 18% other sexual orientation. Participants completed a pre-test prior to the first class session and a post-test after the fifth and final session. Pornography-related knowledge increased from pre- to post-test. A change in the anticipated direction was observed for some pornography-related attitudes, and some pornography-related behavioral intentions. Pornography-related behavior (e.g., seeking out pornography for the first time) did not change from pre- to post-test. The novelty of these findings are two-fold. First, the study demonstrated that it is feasible to implement a pornography literacy curriculum in a nonschool setting, and second, that this particular curriculum may have had some positive impact.     

Robust sensorless observer-based adaptive sliding modes control of synchronous motors

Using a nonlinear complete order model of a synchronous motor, a robust second order sliding mode observer based control scheme is proposed. For that, a generalized super-twisting 3rd order observer is proposed for nonlinear systems. Based on the proposed observer scheme, a robust rotor flux observer is designed, then, a stator current observer is proposed using a classical super-twisting algorithm for extracting information of the rotor speed by means of the equivalent control method. The control design for the output tracking of a desired reference signal for the rotor speed is carried out with a classical super-twisting sliding mode algorithm and adaptive backstepping techniques. Due to the number of inputs, the flux in the excitation winding, and the direct component of the stator currents are also regulated. Numeric simulations predict a good performance of the closed-loop synchronous motor with parameter variations.     

A merging strategy proposal: The 2-step retrieval status value method

A usual strategy to implement CLIR (Cross-Language Information Retrieval) systems is the so-called query translation approach. The user query is translated for each language present in the multilingual collection in order to compute an independent monolingual information retrieval process per language. Thus, this approach divides documents according to language. In this way, we obtain as many different collections as languages. After searching in these corpora and obtaining a result list per language, we must merge them in order to provide a single list of retrieved articles. In this paper, we propose an approach to obtain a single list of relevant documents for CLIR systems driven by query translation. This approach, which we call 2-step RSV (RSV: Retrieval Status Value), is based on the re-indexing of the retrieval documents according to the query vocabulary, and it performs noticeably better than traditional methods. The proposed method requires query vocabulary alignment: given a word for a given query, we must know the translation or translations to the other languages. Because this is not always possible, we have researched on a mixed model. This mixed model is applied in order to deal with queries with partial word-level alignment. The results prove that even in this scenario, 2-step RSV performs better than traditional merging methods.