A school-based motivational intervention to promote physical activity from a self-determination theory perspective

The authors analyzed the effects of a multidimensional intervention to promote physical activity (PA) in school, based on self-determination theory. The study involved 88 students, between 14 and 17 years old, who were divided into a control group (n = 59) and an experimental group (n = 29). In the experimental group, a 6-month intervention was conducted, applying a teaching unit of fitness and health in physical education (PE) classes, an extracurricular program of healthy PA, and meetings with families. Questionnaires were administered to measure different motivational variables and PA levels at four time points. Significant differences were found in favor of the experimental group in parental and peer autonomy support; integrated regulation in PE; autonomy, intrinsic, and identified regulation in leisure-time PA; moderate, hard, and very hard PA; and physical self-worth. Motivational effects were maintained over time but the effects on PA levels disappeared at 6 months.     

How Should Energy Be Defined Throughout Schooling?

The question of how to teach energy has been renewed by recent studies focusing on the learning and teaching progressions for this concept. In this context, one question has been, for the most part, overlooked: how should energy be defined throughout schooling? This paper addresses this question in three steps. We first identify and discuss two main approaches in physics concerning the definition of energy, one claiming there is no satisfactory definition and taking conservation as a fundamental property, and the other based on Rankine’s definition of energy as the capacity of a system to produce changes. We then present a study concerning how energy is actually defined throughout schooling in the case of France by analyzing national programs, physics textbooks, and the answers of teachers to a questionnaire. This study brings to light a consistency problem in the way energy is defined across school years: in primary school, an adapted version of Rankine’s definition is introduced and conservation is ignored; in high school, conservation is introduced and Rankine’s definition is ignored. Finally, we address this consistency problem by discussing possible teaching progressions. We argue in favor of the use of Rankine’s definition throughout schooling: at primary school, it is a possible substitute to students’ erroneous conceptions; at secondary school, it might help students become aware of the unifying role of energy and thereby overcome the compartmentalization problem.     

A Theater-Based Device for Training Teachers on the Nature of Science

Science & Education - This article presents and discusses an innovative pedagogical device designed for training pre-service teachers on the nature of science. We endorse an approach according...     

A neo-Schumpeterian model of health services innovation

The paper presents and empirically applies a neo-Schumpeterian model of innovation capable of studying interactions between service providers, patients and policy makers, and how these complex interactions determine the timing, direction, and success of innovations in the public sector. The model is tested using a case study that traces the introduction and development of ambulatory surgery in a Spanish hospital. The multi-agent model applies the ideas of Schumpeter to services, encompassing Schumpeter's five types of innovation, and re-introducing the policy-maker as a key agent in the innovation process. The model has a number of advantages over previous, reduced form models. First, it can analyse the interactions between the economic, social and political spheres that make up the complex selection environment of innovations. Second, it captures the recursive impact of radical innovations on agents’ competences and preferences, and their relative power. This brings politics, power, and rhetorical persuasion to the fore. Third, it provides an improved set of definitions for radical and incremental innovation. These are not only important for understanding the sources and drivers of innovation, but also for the accurate measurement of innovation.     

Creative adaptation: the role of new technology based firms in Portugal

This paper reviews two recent research studies on Portuguese New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs). Attention is given to the role and contribution of NTBFs to innovation. The main argument is that, by and large, NTBFs are less concerned with the introduction of major innovations and more with creative adaptive improvements to products and services based upon new technologies first introduced elsewhere. The empirical research found that Portuguese NTBFs are a recent phenomenon associated with diffusion of Electronics and Information Technologies (EIT) during the late 1980s. They perform a wide variety of knowledge-intensive activities, which enhance local users' adoption processes and they are associated with different forms of technology transfer through external linkages. Overall, NTBFs undertake a frequently unobserved role as technology searchers and acquirers that, pushed by idiosyncratic local niche market opportunities, selectively choose among and enhance technologies developed elsewhere, introducing them into the local market.     

The effects of self-efficacy,hope, and engagement on the academic achievement of secondary education in the Dominican Republic

Achievement in the academic settings has long lasting positive outcomes. In this study, hope, self-efficacy, and engagement are linked to academic success. The aims of this study were to test a model which predicts academic success in the Dominican Republic while testing for the mediator role of engagement. The sample was composed of 614 middle-school students. Scales of Dispositional Hope, Academic Self-Efficacy, Academic Self-concept, and Engagement were used. Academic performance was measured with students' grades in Spanish and Mathematics. Three structural equation models were tested. The retained model stated hope and self-efficacy as antecedents, engagement dimensions as mediators and grades and academic self-concept as final outcomes. There were significant effects of hope and self-efficacy on engagement, and behavioral engagement was the best predictor of academic success. These results point out that interventions should target variables, such as hope or engagement to increase academic success.     

Effects of medium- and long-distance running on cardiac damage markers in amateur runners: a systematic review,meta-analysis,and metaregression

BackgroundTo finish an endurance race, athletes perform a vigorous effort that induces the release of cardiac damage markers. There are several factors that can affect the total number of these markers, so the aim of this review was to analyze the effect of endurance running races on cardiac damage markers and to identify the factors that modify the levels of segregation of these cardiac damage markers.MethodsA systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library databases was performed. This analysis included studies where the acute effects of running races on cardiac damage markers (troponin I and troponin T) were analyzed, assessing the levels of these markers before and after the races.ResultsThe effects of running races on troponin I (mean difference = 0.0381 ng/mL) and troponin T (mean difference = 0.0256 ng/mL) levels were significant. The ages (R² = 14.4%, p = 0.033) and body mass indexes (R² = 14.5%, p = 0.045) of the athletes had a significant interaction with troponin I. In addition, gender, mean speed, time to finish the race, and type of race can affect the level of cardiac damage markers.ConclusionEndurance running races induce the release of cardiac-damage markers that remain elevated for at least 24 h after the races. In addition, young male athletes with high body mass indexes who perform races combining long duration and moderate intensity (i.e., marathons) release the highest levels of cardiac damage markers. Physicians should take into consideration these results in the diagnosis and treatment of patients admitted to the hospital days after finishing endurance running races.     

Microclimate monitoring by multivariate statistical control: The renaissance frescoes of the Cathedral of Valencia (Spain)

The renaissance frescoes of the metropolitan cathedral of Valencia, located at the vault of the apse, were restored in 2006. We describe a microclimate monitoring system that was implemented for the preventive conservation of the paintings. It is comprised by a set of temperature and relative humidity sensors positioned at different points of the vault. This system is rather unique because some of these sensors were inserted inside the paintings during the restoration process. A principal components analysis was applied to the data of relative humidity recorded in February 2007. The analysis was repeated in three additional months of 2007. The resulting loading plots highlight the most relevant similarities and dissimilarities among sensors. These plots can be considered as some sort of control maps that could be used to detect abnormal conditions in the future. Actually, moisture problems at certain zones of the frescoes are causing the formation of efflorescence, and the sensors located close to these zones are the ones recording the highest values of relative humidity.