Developing audience awareness in writing

Beginning writers need to consider their audience; but this is only possible when the writer has reached a certain stage of cognitive development, as it is necessary to consider an absent reality (e.g. an audience reading the piece at a later point). Adapting the text to the audience is only possible when the physical task of writing becomes automatic and the writer is no longer absorbed by it. Then the writer is free to pay attention to other aspects of the task without overloading cognitive processes. Procedural facilitation involves the use of external aids to support a simplified version of the processes used by expert writers. It may function as a way of enabling beginning writers to adapt what they write for their audiences. At the same time, as this task becomes automatic, it may be seen as a way of promoting writing development. A quasi–experimental study is described in which a procedural facilitation strategy is used to promote writing skills, in particular, the skill of suiting the text to the communicative context. The study was with fifth and ninth grade Portuguese students. The results of the post–test show significant progress for the experimental groups in contrast to the control groups.     

Academics in a New Work Environment: the Impact of New Public Management on Work Conditions

New public management (NPM) approaches have informed policy in the public sector in advanced countries in the last decade. Some authors suggest that the main objective of NPM at the organisational level is to change the traditional way professionals are regulated. This study examines the impact of NPM on the working conditions of Portuguese higher education academics. The empirical data are based on official statistics, and the analysis leads to the following conclusions. Changes have been slow, but already reveal a corrosion of traditional employment practices. Employment has become more precarious as professionals are increasingly employed on non-tenured contracts. This tendency is more evident in the polytechnic sector. In short, this means that the growth in skilled employment in higher education in Portugal is based on precarious employment relations.     

Three- to Four-Year-Old Children Rapidly Adapt Their Predictions and Use Them to Learn Novel Word Meanings

Adults create and update predictions about what speakers will say next. This study asks whether prediction can drive language acquisition, by testing whether 3- to 4-year-old children (n = 45) adapt to recent information when learning novel words. The study used a syntactic context which can precede both nouns and verbs to manipulate children's predictions about what syntactic category will follow. Children for whom the syntactic context predicted verbs were more likely to infer that a novel word appearing in this context referred to an action, than children for whom it predicted nouns. This suggests that children make rapid changes to their predictions, and use this information to learn novel information, supporting the role of prediction in language acquisition.     

Teacher Factors and Special Class Referral Decisions

Using questionnaire data an examination was made of the personal and professional characteristics of 127 regular class (Grade 2‐5) teachers, all of whom had a child in their class whom they believed to be mildly retarded and not coping academically as well as socially in school. Of this group, 53 had referred the child to school psychological services while the remainder had not done so at the time of the study. A set of 28 variables derived from the questionnaire data was subjected to multiple regression analysis in order to examine the predictability of teachers’ referral decisions. Nine significant predictors were identified which together accounted for 35 percent of the variation in referral decisions. Inter‐group contrasts on these measures revealed that referring teachers were more likely to have made previous referrals, had better access to psychologists, were more confident of their ability to identify children who would qualify for special class admission, believed their school policy to b e more encouraging of referrals, were more likely to have made use of special programs, and received more frequent visits from psychologists. Results are discussed in terms of identifying “unserved mildly retarded” children in regular classes.     

Growth,functional capacities and motivation for achievement and competitiveness in youth basketball: an interdisciplinary approach

The interaction of multiple influences on the path to sport success is not yet fully understood by sport scientists. In this study, we examined variation in body size, functional capacities and motivation for achievement, competitiveness and deliberate practice of youth basketball players associated with differences in biological maturity status, chronological age and years of training experience. Reflecting the importance of interactive effects, we examined the relationships between the psychological variables and functional capacities. Fifty-eight male basketball players aged 9.5 to 15.5 years were considered. Variables included chronological age, estimated age at peak height velocity, stature, body mass and sitting height by anthropometry; the Work and Family Orientation and Deliberate Practice Motivation Questionnaires were also used. Finally, the Line Drill test and Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery level 1 (Yo-Yo IR1) tests were used as functional capacities indicators for basketball. Variance components models derived from series of multilevel linear regression models revealed a substantial variation by maturity status for body size, functional capacities indicators, mastery and will to excel. The influence of estimated maturity status on mastery and will to excel was independent of age and years of experience. In contrast, no relationships were observed between psychological variables and functional capacities indicators. We conclude that growth-related changes are relevant to understanding players´ motivations for achievement, competitiveness and deliberate practice. This should be of interest to those involved in the selection and development of youth basketball players.     

Energy expenditure and EPOC between water-based high-intensity interval training and moderate-intensity continuous training sessions in healthy women

The present study compared the energy expenditure (EE) during and after two water aerobics protocols, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate continuous training (CONT). A crossover randomized design was employed comprising 11 healthy young women. HIIT consisted of eight 20s bouts at 130% of the cadence associated with the maximal oxygen consumption (measured in the aquatic environment) with 10s passive rest. CONT corresponded to 30 min at a heart rate equivalent to 90–95% of the second ventilatory threshold. EE was measured during and 30 min before and after the protocols and excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) was calculated. Total EE during session was higher in CONT (227.62 ± 31.69 kcal) compared to HIIT (39.91 ± 4.24 kcal), while EE per minute was greater in HIIT (9.98 ± 1.06 kcal) than in CONT (7.58 ± 1.07 kcal). Post-exercise EE (64.48 ± 3.50 vs. 63.65 ± 10.39 kcal) and EPOC (22.53 ± 4.98 vs.22.10 ± 8.00 kcal) were not different between HIIT and CONT, respectively. Additionally, oxygen uptake had already returned to baseline fifteen minutes post-exercise. These suggest that a water aerobics CONT session results in post-exercise EE and EPOC comparable to HIIT despite the latter supramaximal nature. Still, CONT results in higher total EE.     

Aerobic exercise training performed by parents reduces mice offspring adiposity

The present study aimed to determine the effects of physical training performed by parents on mice offspring adiposity. Male and female parents underwent an aerobic training protocol for 7 weeks. The trained and sedentary parents were allowed to mate and the resultant offspring divided in: S (Offspring from Sedentary Parents), T (Offspring from Trained Parents), ST (Offspring from Sedentary Father and Trained Mother) and TS (Offspring from Trained Father and Sedentary Mother). After weaning, offspring was euthanized, blood collected and samples of mesenteric and inguinal fat pads used to isolate adipocytes for morphologic and histological analyses. Lee index, mesenteric fat pad, sum of visceral fat and total fat weight of female T was reduced in comparison to the other groups (p < 0.05). Periepididymal and sum of visceral fat in male T group was also reduced when compared to the other groups (p < 0.05). The diameter of mesenteric and inguinal adipocytes of T group was smaller compared to all groups comparisons for both sexes (p < 0.05). In summary, exercise training performed by parents reduced visceral offspring adiposity, the diameter of subcutaneous adipocytes and improved metabolic parameters associated to metabolic syndrome.