Full Steam Ahead: A Conceptual Analysis of User-Supplied Tags on Steam

This article describes a conceptual analysis of user-generated tags applied to video games in the Steam video game distribution system. The research team scraped all user-generated tags available on Steam and then conducted a conceptual analysis of the tags, sorting them into categories and comparing them to the current version of the Video Game Metadata Schema. This analysis allowed the team to identify new metadata elements and terms useful to game players. We present a discussion covering the major issues in organizing the terms, as well as the implications for the future work in the area of video game metadata.     

Future Directions in the Movement Arts and Sciences

I argue in this paper that sport should be retained as an important part of the educational rationale for physical education. I consider Siedentop's critique of physical education and his alternative in the form of Sport Education. Siedentop's goals for youth sport and physical education and use of the work of Alisdair McIntyre are explored. It is argued that if we work to experience activities that are inherently pleasurable and intrinsically satisfying, then there is a possible future for activities such as sport. I conclude that school physical education is well placed to take up this challenge of sustaining sport as a moral practice and that the pedagogical tools already exist to do this in the form of a critical pedagogy.     

Post-exercise ingestion of a unique, high molecular weight glucose polymer solution improves performance during a subsequent bout of cycling exercise

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of post-exercise ingestion of a unique, high molecular weight glucose polymer solution, known to augment gastric emptying and post-exercise muscle glycogen re-synthesis, on performance during a subsequent bout of intense exercise. On three randomized visits, eight healthy men cycled to exhaustion at 73.0% (s = 1.3) maximal oxygen uptake (90 min, s = 15). Immediately after this, participants consumed a one-litre solution containing sugar-free flavoured water (control), 100 g of a low molecular weight glucose polymer or 100 g of a very high molecular weight glucose polymer, and rested on a bed for 2 h. After recovery, a 15-min time-trial was performed on a cycle ergometer, during which work output was determined. Post-exercise ingestion of the very high molecular weight glucose polymer solution resulted in faster and greater increases in blood glucose (P < 0.001) and serum insulin (P < 0.01) concentrations than the low molecular weight glucose polymer solution, and greater work output during the 15-min time-trial (164.1 kJ, s = 21.1) than both the sugar-free flavoured water (137.5 kJ, s = 24.2; P < 0.05) and the low molecular weight glucose polymer (149.4 kJ, s = 21.8; P < 0.05) solutions. These findings could be of practical importance for athletes wishing to optimize performance by facilitating rapid re-synthesis of the muscle glycogen store during recovery following prolonged sub-maximal exercise.     

Research Methods

ESSENTIALS OF BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH by Robert Rosenthal and Ralph Rosnow (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984—price not given)

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH by Jerome Kirk and Marc L. Miller (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1986—$10.95/6.00)

QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS by Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Hubermann (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1984—price not given)

HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS by Arline Fink and Jacqueline Kosecoff (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985—$12.00, paper)     

Volkswirtschaftliche Erträge wirksamer Bildungsreformen zur Reduktion der Zahl der Risikoschüler

The weak educational performance of a noteworthy share of students in Germany is not only a problem in itself, in the sense of a missing capability for self-dependent participation in society. It also has substantial consequences for the economy. This article provides projections of the economic returns that can be expected from hypothetical educational reforms that succeed in effectively reducing the number of at-risk students. We start by discussing existing theoretical and empirical research on the consequences of educational competencies for economic growth. On this basis, we perform projections of the magnitudes of additional economic wealth that can be expected from effective educational investments. Apart from a summary of existing results of long-run projections to 2090, we also report new projections for shorter time horizons. The results, which report the economic returns to effective educational reforms that reduce the number of at-risk students by state (Bundesland) in 10-year intervals from 2020–2050, may prove particularly relevant in political and budgetary discussions. The article closes with a discussion of results from the economics of education literature on which educational reforms might be expected to be successful in reducing the number of at-risk students.     

Dealing with conflicting or consistent medical information on the web: When expert information breeds laypersons' doubts about experts

The present study investigated how dealing with conflicting versus consistent medical information on the Web impacts on topic-specific and medicine-related epistemic beliefs as well as aspects of health decision making. One hundred mostly female university students were randomly assigned to three groups. Two intervention groups searched the Web for information on cholesterol to advise a fictitious friend about treatment. Pre-selected websites for these groups provided either conflicting or consistent information. The third group, the control group, did not conduct Web search. Results showed that the intervention groups differed in topic-specific epistemic beliefs. After the Web search, their medicine-related epistemic beliefs were more advanced while remaining unchanged in controls. The intervention groups also differed in some aspects of decision making.     

Pigeons learn to answer the question “where did you just peck?” and can report peck location when unexpectedly asked

If pigeons are trained on matching-to-sample with differential responding required to the two samples, there is evidence that the differential responding can control comparison choice. We asked whether similar responding required at two different locations could also serve as the basis for comparison choice. Pigeons were pretrained to report the location that they had pecked. To reduce the likelihood that they could use the presence of differential proprioceptive cues at the time of their report, a common response was required between the location response and the comparison choice. They were then given experience with a conditional discrimination in which location of the comparison response varied randomly and was incidental to the choice of comparison. On test trials, after the pigeons had made their comparison choice, they showed a significant tendency to choose the appropriate test comparison when they were unexpectedly asked to report the location of their previous pecking response. These results have implications for the demonstration of episodic-like memory in pigeons because they suggest that pigeons have the capacity to recall, unexpectedly, specific details about their past experiences. 2007 Psychonomic Society, Inc.