A count data travel cost model of theatre demand using aggregate theatre booking data

Theatres have a market bounded by the distance theatregoers are willing to travel to see shows and productions. This paper uses count data models (Poisson regression and negative binomial models) to investigate the determinants of attendance at a regional theatre in England. It uses booking data for 29 theatrical productions supplied by the theatre, and matches this, using postcodes, with census socio-economic information on household characteristics. Socio-economic and travel cost (distance) are used to explore theatregoers attendance, and also to estimate consumer surplus, and to assess whether consumer surplus on ticket sales exceeds the annual government subsidy to the theatre.     

Consolidation of carbonate stones: Influence of treatment procedures on the strengthening action of consolidants

This article demonstrates the importance of treatment application procedures on the consolidation effectiveness obtained by comparison of the results obtained using three different consolidants on four carbonate stone types, and proposes a general methodology for assessing the potential effectiveness of consolidants in laboratory conditions. It stresses the relevance of taking into account the treatment methodology, given the influence application protocols can have on the overall behaviour of the consolidated material. Several mechanical properties were assessed to demonstrate this influence on the performance of the consolidant. The results demonstrate that the strengthening action achieved with a specific product can only be defined in a strict relation to the treatment protocol used to produce it. The results also contribute towards the definition of standard testing protocols on stone consolidation. The application of a consolidant by direct contact capillary absorption is a reliable procedure and the results are easier to interpret than others obtained by brushing or by full immersion, thus making this procedure a good candidate for an eventual standard laboratory assessment method of the consolidation action of any specific stone/consolidant combination. This study also showed that the best test method to assess the strengthening action of stone consolidants in soft stones is DRMS (Drilling Resistance Measuring System). Moreover, the collection of longitudinal ultrasound velocity profiles determined in stones specimens treated by contact capillary absorption was shown to be a useful non-destructive method to assess the depth of the strengthening action achieved.     

Interview Experiences and Diversity Concerns of Counselor Education Faculty From Underrepresented Groups

The authors used transcendental phenomenology to explore the campus interview experiences and diversity concerns of counselor education faculty from underrepresented populations. Six themes were identified: issues of integrity, disappointment in the counseling profession, importance of authenticity, intersectionality of major identity markers, competence, and supportive experiences. Findings suggest that culturally competent search committees should be aware of biases and policies promoting institutional and systemic discrimination.     

Pre-service teachers and visual arts education. A study based on artistic creation as a way of interrogating reality / Los futuros docentes y la enseñanza de las artes visuales. Un estudio basado en la creación artística como forma de interrogar la realidad

: This study explores pre-service teachers’ knowledge of visual arts education and their ability to undertake creative processes. It is a study conducted with 88 primary school student teachers from a university in southern Spain. The participants were required to produce an artistic piece in which they were asked to reflect their thoughts on visual art education. The resulting pieces served as a tool for inquiry which enabled us to evaluate their theoretical and practical knowledge after performing an analysis of their form and content. After analysing the data, we concluded that future teachers are aware that arts education develops many types of skills, although they are only partially able to carry out a satisfactory artistic creation process. Therefore, it is essential to reinforce the training of pre-service teachers in the domain of artistic processes. Questioning pre-service teachers directly, and doing so through artistic creation, has allowed us to ascertain their level of knowledge of the visual arts.     

The reliability and sources of error of using rubrics-based assessment for student projects

Rubrics are widely used in higher education to assess performance in project-based learning environments. To date, the sources of error that may affect their reliability have not been studied in depth. Using generalisability theory as its starting-point, this article analyses the influence of the assessors and the criteria of the rubrics on the assessment of two service-learning projects. A sample of 365 novice students studying for three different undergraduate degrees was evaluated by eight student assessors and two teachers at three stages of assessment. Depending on the type of project and the stage of assessment, between 19.27 and 39.55% of the total variance was attributed to the quality of the projects, 0–7.49% to the main effect of the raters, and 3.44–17.3% to the main effect of the criteria. The results demonstrated that acceptable levels of reliability (≥.70) were obtained with three raters and eight criteria or four raters and nine criteria in contexts of relative or absolute decisions, respectively.     

How need for cognition affects the processing of achievement-related information

The present article analyzed, how need for cognition (NFC) influences the formation of performance expectancies. When processing information, individuals with lower NFC often rely on salient information and shortcuts compared to individuals higher in NFC. We assume that these preferences of processing will also make individuals low in NFC more responsive to salient achievement-related cues because the processing of salient cues is cognitively less demanding than the processing of non-salient cues. Therefore, individuals lower in NFC should tend to draw wider ranging inferences from salient achievement-related information. In a sample of N = 197 secondary school students, achievement-related feedback (grade on an English examination) affected changes in expectancies in non-corresponding academic subjects (e.g., expectation of final grade in mathematics or history) when NFC was lower, whereas for students with higher NFC, changes in expectancies in non-corresponding academic subjects were not affected.     

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.