奥运争光竞技体育服务产品提供方式的实证分析

研究以奥运争光类竞技体育服务产品的提供方式为对象,通过对我国传统竞技体育服务产品提供方式的历史考察发现,举国体制是我国传统竞技体育服务产品提供的重要方式之一。在现实条件下,奥运争光竞技体育服务产品的提供具有多元可能性,而专项资金、资助高校培养模式、委托生产——合约模式、非营利组织生产等方式。     

The role of athlete narcissism in moderating the relationship between coaches' transformational leader behaviors and athlete motivation

Leadership research that examines follower characteristics as a potential moderator of leadership effectiveness is lacking. Within Bass's (1985) transformational leadership framework, we examined follower narcissism as a moderator of the coach behavior-coach effectiveness relationship. Youth athletes (male = 103, female = 106) from the Singapore Sports Academy (mean age = 14.28, SD = 1.40 years) completed the Differentiated Transformational Leadership Inventory (Callow, Smith, Hardy, Arthur, & Hardy, 2009), the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Terry, 1988), and indices of follower effort. Multilevel analyses revealed that athlete narcissism moderated the relationship between fostering acceptance of group goals and athlete effort and between high performance expectations and athlete effort. All the other transformational leader behaviors demonstrated main effects on follower effort, except for inspirational motivation.     

The Effects of a Comprehensive Early Literacy Project on Preschoolers’ Language and Literacy Skills

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a federally funded early literacy project that aimed to promote the school readiness skills of preschool-age children from low income families. Through daily, explicit, and systematic instruction, the project targeted to improve preschoolers’ oral language skills, phonological awareness, print awareness, and alphabet knowledge that aligned with the existing curriculum of the local school district. Data were collected through multiple sources at the individual child level, classroom level, and from the family/home environment. Significant gains were found between pre- and post-tests in child outcomes, classroom environments, instructional practices, parent attitudes toward early literacy, and family involvement in literacy activities. Additionally, classroom organization was identified as a significant predictor for children’s receptive language skills. Limitations of the current study and implications for future research as well as instructional practices were discussed.     

Young Children's Trust Beliefs in Peers: Relations to Social Competence and Interactive Behaviors in a Peer Group

Research Findings: The aim of this study was to explore the relations between children's trust beliefs and social competence as well as social preference. In addition, this study examined how children with different trust belief profiles may differ in their peer interactive behaviors. A total of 47 children ages 5 to 6 participated in this study. Data were collected via observation of play behaviors, a teacher-rated social competence scale, and a child interview. The results indicated that children's trust beliefs in friends’ promise-keeping behaviors were positively associated with intrapersonal and interpersonal domains of social competence. Children who had greater trust in non-friend classmates’ promise-keeping behaviors tended to be sociable in a group, polite, and more preferred, and they were less likely to be disliked by peers. Children with different trust profiles exhibited differential interactive behaviors with peers. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that parents and early childhood educators should pay more attention to the extent to which young children trust their close friends and familiar peers, especially in terms of keeping promises. Adults may model their efforts in keeping their promises made to children and enhance children's capacity to reciprocate trust in close relationships. Adults can help children differentiate their trust based on the intimacy of relationships.     

Risky business: Students and smartphones

The increase in smartphone adoption has been no less than astounding. Unfortunately, the explosive growth has been accompanied by a rash of security problems. A contributing factor to the growing security problem is a lack of education, training, and awareness. In addition, “bring your own device” (BYOD) policies often leave security responsibilities to the competencies of device owners, which compromises security. Today’s students are tomorrow’s employees with responsibilities for protecting their work environment. They need to understand and practice a full-range of mobile security practices so that they can safely access the information assets of their organizations. If students are not engaging in such practices, educational institutions have a responsibility to ensure that students understand how to keep information assets secure. This paper investigates the smartphone security practices of undergraduate college students. Five hundred students in business classes at a regional public university were surveyed to determine their use of recommended smartphone security practices. The study found that many smartphone users did employ some security measures, but a high percentage of them were ignoring potential risks. This suggests a need for increased education, training, and awareness.     

Microfluidic three-dimensional hydrodynamic flow focusing for the rapid protein concentration analysis

A simple microfluidic 3D hydrodynamic flow focusing device has been developed and demonstrated quantitative determinations of quantum dot 525 with antibody (QD525-antibody) and hemagglutinin epitope tagged MAX (HA-MAX) protein concentrations. This device had a step depth cross junction structure at a hydrodynamic flow focusing point at which the analyte stream was flowed into a main detection channel and pinched not only horizontally but also vertically by two sheath streams. As a result, a triangular cross-sectional flow profile of the analyte stream was formed and the laser was focused on the top of the triangular shaped analyte stream. Since the detection volume was smaller than the radius of laser spot, a photon burst histogram showed Gaussian distribution, which was necessary for the quantitative analysis of protein concentration. By using this approach, a linear concentration curve of QD525-antibody down to 10 pM was demonstrated. In addition, the concentration of HA-MAX protein in HEK293 cell lysate was determined as 0.283 ± 0.015 nM. This approach requires for only 1 min determining protein concentration. As the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to determinate protein concentration by using single molecule detection techniques.     

Software review

STATISTICA 5.0. StatSoft, 2325 East 13th Street, Tulsa, OK 74104, (918) 583–4149. $995 retail, academic site license—$2,000 for 10 copies. Requirements: 386 or better, 4 Meg RAM, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or 95.     

A Comparison of Approaches for the Analysis of Interaction Effects Between Latent Variables Using Partial Least Squares Path Modeling

Although stratification in the workplace has received considerable attention in the literature on organizations, there is little systematic understanding about how individual and structural characteristics act to produce a stratified workplace. This study focuses on understanding the dynamics of workplace attainment by examining stratification within higher education administration. The purpose of the study is twofold—(a) to propose and test a model concerning how organizational and individual variables affect workplace attainment and (b) to demonstrate the application of structural equation modeling in estimating and testing this model. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical significance and practical implications.     

The Development and Validation of a Survey for Evaluating Primary Students’ Self-efficacy in STEM Activities

STEM integration has become a popular concept not only in the context of education practices but also as a way of learning. The integration of the STEM domains is evident in students’ learning experiences when engaging in STEM activities. However, there is a lack of instruments for evaluating students’ levels of self-efficacy in these activities. Therefore, the aims of this study were to develop a survey for evaluating upper primary students’ self-efficacy in STEM activities and to explore whether a student’s gender, grade, and participation in STEM activities predict his or her self-efficacy in STEM activities. A total of 844 fourth- to sixth-grade primary students participated in this study. After pilot testing, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted, the survey was found to have a single-factor structure with high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .90). Linear regression analysis showed that school and out-of-school participation in STEM activities significantly predicted the students’ self-efficacy in STEM activities, while grade and gender did not. The survey developed in this study provides a reliable and valid way to measure students’ self-efficacy in STEM activities. These findings also highlight the importance of encouraging students’ participation in both formal and informal STEM activities.