Children’s and adolescents’ thoughts on pollution: cognitive abilities required to understand environmental systems

Pollution phenomena are complex systems in which different parts are integrated by means of causal and temporal relationships. To understand pollution, children must develop some cognitive abilities related to system thinking and temporal and causal inferential reasoning. These cognitive abilities constrain and guide how children understand pollution processes. Hence, ascertaining whether changes among children’s ideas of pollution are related to system thinking and inferential reasoning abilities could be useful in improving environmental education. Eighty participants between 9 and 16 years old were interviewed to evaluate how children explain different aspects of pollution-related systems. From the explanations found in these interviews, three progressive epistemic structures were reconstructed. The three epistemic structures differ in the type of causal and temporal relationship established by the participants and in the mechanisms that the participants used to relate the pollutant to its effects.     

Addressing inequal risk exposure in the development of automated vehicles

Ethics and Information Technology - Automated vehicles (AVs) are expected to operate on public roads, together with non-automated vehicles and other road users such as pedestrians or bicycles....     

Physiological determinants of speciality of elite middle- and long-distance runners

The aim of this study was to determine which physiological variables predict excellence in middle- and long-distance runners. Forty middle-distance runners (age 23 ± 4 years, body mass 67.2 ± 5.9 kg, stature 1.80 ± 0.05 m, VO(2max) 65.9 ± 4.5 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)) and 32 long-distance runners (age 25 ± 4 years, body mass 59.8 ± 5.1 kg, stature 1.73 ± 0.06 m, VO(2max) 71.6 ± 5.0 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)) competing at international standard performed an incremental running test to exhaustion. Expired gas analysis was performed breath-by-breath and maximum oxygen uptake (VO(2max)) and two ventilatory thresholds (VT(1) and VT(2)) were calculated. Long-distance runners presented a higher VO(2max) than middle-distance runners when expressed relative to body mass (P < 0.001, d = 1.18, 95% CI [0.68, 1.68]). At the intensities corresponding to VT(1) and VT(2), long-distance runners showed higher values for VO(2) expressed relative to body mass or %VO(2max), speed and oxygen cost of running (P < 0.05). When oxygen uptake was adjusted for body mass, differences between groups were consistent. Logistic binary regression analysis showed that VO(2max) (expressed as l · min(-1) and ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)), VO(2VT2) (expressed as ml · kg(-0.94) · min(-1)), and speed at VT(2) (v(VT2)) categorized long-distance runners. In addition, the multivariate model correctly classified 84.7% of the athletes. Thus, VO(2max), VO(2VT2), and v(VT2) discriminate between elite middle-distance and long-distance runners.     

Anticipatory strategies of team-handball goalkeepers

This study seeks to discover whether handball goalkeepers employ a general anticipatory strategy when facing long distance throws and the effect of uncertainty on these strategies. Seven goalkeepers and four throwers took part. We used a force platform to analyse the goalkeeper's movements on the basis of reaction forces and two video cameras synchronised at 500 Hz to film the throw using 3D video techniques. The goalkeepers initiated their movement towards the side of the throw 193 ± 67 ms before the release of the ball and when the uncertainty was reduced the time increased to 349 ± 71 ms. The kinematics analysis of their centre of mass indicated that there was an anticipatory strategy of movement with certain modifications when there was greater uncertainty. All the average scores referring to velocity and lateral movement of the goalkeeper's centre of mass are significantly greater than those recorded for the experimental situation with bigger uncertainty. The methodology used has enabled us to tackle the study of anticipation from an analysis of the movement used by goalkeepers to save the ball.     

Science–technology flows in Spanish regions: An analysis of scientific citations in patents

Many regions of the European Union with a high degree of autonomy have elected very clearly to stimulate scientific research and technological development (R&D) as a specific means of promoting economic growth and the welfare of their citizens. In Spain, several autonomous regions have organised their efforts in science and technology by means of the adoption of regional R&D plans. In some cases, particular concern is taken to link the scope of scientific research with that of technology, but even in these few cases, it is acknowledged that little is known of the mechanisms by which the results of scientific research are translated into technological development, and how this latter in turn influences the objectives of scientific research. Our aim in this article is to study in greater depth the relationship between science and technological development in the various regions of Spain. The methodology that we apply to investigate the links between science and technology is based on an analysis of scientific citations in patent documents (non-patent citation (NPC)). The results obtained from this study provide some relevant data on the interconnection between the scientific and technological systems from a regional perspective.     

Moving beyond the minimum: socially just pedagogies and Asperger’s syndrome in UK higher education

A year‐long longitudinal study was conducted to gain insight into the lives of eight students who had a label of Asperger’s syndrome during their transitions into higher education in the UK. Reflecting on life history data, the findings suggest that universities might actually be maintaining and (re)producing barriers that perpetuate the exclusion and ghettoisation of disabled people. The analysis goes beyond an acknowledgement of institutional disabling practices to pinpoint the subtle impacts of issues of pedagogy, learning, teaching, and assessment. It is argued, therefore, that inclusive education needs to engage more directly with the specific issues faced by learners with the label of Asperger’s syndrome. However, rather than viewing this as an issue of special education for distinctly impaired learners, Asperger’s syndrome must be understood with reference to wider questions of how higher educators respond to diversity and difference.     

Wage determinants among medical doctors and nurses in Spain

This paper examines the determination of wage rates for health professionals using three well known, and commonly used, econometric techniques: ordinary least squares, instrumental variables, and Heckman’s method. The data come from a graduate survey and the analysis focuses on a regional labor market, due to nationwide information on salaries is absent in Spain. After estimating different wage equations, the results suggest that OLS estimates are preferable. The findings show an important wage premium for medical doctors relative to nurses, but also a wage advantage for workers who are civil servants and a gender wage-gap that favors men. Although the expansion of higher education in Spain has reduced social inequalities in access, the main policy implication from this paper is that social class differences can still persist at the degree level—in the choice of degree—if students of higher socioeconomic status get a place at university in a degree of higher earnings, a fact that is corroborated in this study.