Fifteen years of building performance in Central Europe

The past 15 years have been quite a tumultuous ride for those involved in performance improvement in former communist Europe. This article traces the case of a boutique performance consultancy, KNO, whose American principals landed in the former Czechoslovakia at the onset of the “velvet revolution” in 1991. We analyze progress through the lens of three 5‐year cycles against dimensions of investor focus, infrastructure, employee mindset, business relationships, and performance services treated in the context of the changing political and economic times.     

Relevant social groups for open data use and engagement

The opening up of public sector data has provided a new data resource for the citizens. However, the use of open data and its consequent societal value has proved not to be as extensive as initially hoped for, although multiple innovations have emerged; rather it is still considered problematic, and knowledge about open data use is scarce. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to clarify open data use and engagement by people outside the public sector, especially what motives exists and how different user types align to these motives. To achieve this, a document analysis has been carried out of reported use cases identified in EU topic reports between 2014 and 2016. By applying the theory of Relevant Social Groups (RSG), which focuses on the people's interpretation of the purpose with the technology, we identified five RSGs representing overall motives for open data use: 1) Exploring for creativity, 2) Creating business value, 3) Enabling local citizen value, 4) Addressing global societal challenges, and 5) Advocating the open data agenda. We also discuss differences between the relevant social groups and the included user types, issues and implications for understanding the evolvement of the open data field, and suggests research ahead.     

Working-class girls in a foreign land. Social class and settling into university in a cross-current between two cultures

In Finland, the financial status of a family does not in general place any restrictions on a person's studies. However, in spite of equality of opportunity, class as a cultural and social issue is a significant factor guiding the education of young people. In the article, I analyse women with a working-class background studying at university, starting with experiences of class as it is lived. The data for the study have been generated using the memory work method. The analysis shows how class is manifested in the women's experiences as a sense of themselves as outsiders, being alone or ‘on their own’ and as feelings of inadequacy. The women are forced to find ways of doing things that suit them and to construct a space in which they can feel safe.     

Combined effects of pre-cooling and water ingestion on thermoregulation and physical capacity during exercise in a hot environment

The aim of the present study was to determine the combined effects of pre-cooling and water ingestion on thermoregulatory responses and exercise capacity at 32 degrees C and 80% relative humidity. Nine untrained males exercised for 60 min on a cycle ergometer at 60% maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) (first exercise bout) under four separate conditions: No Water intake, Pre-cooling, Water ingestion, and a combination of pre-cooling and water ingestion (Combined). To evaluate the efficacy of these conditions on exercise capacity, the participants exercised to exhaustion at 80% VO2max (second exercise bout) following the first exercise bout. Rectal and mean skin temperatures before the first exercise bout in the Pre-cooling and Combined conditions were significantly lower than in the No Water and Water conditions. At the end of the first exercise bout, rectal temperature was lower in the Combined condition (38.5 +/- 0.1 degrees C) than in the other conditions (No Water: 39.1 +/- 0.1 degrees C; Pre-cooling: 38.7 +/- 0.1 degrees C; Water: 38.8 +/- 0.1 degrees C) (P < 0.05). Heat storage was higher following pre-cooling than when there was no pre-cooling (P < 0.05). The final rectal temperature in the second exercise bout was similar between the four conditions (39.1 +/- 0.1 degrees C). However, exercise time to exhaustion was longer (P < 0.05) in the Combined condition than in the other conditions. Total sweat loss was less following pre-cooling than when there was no pre-cooling (P < 0.001). Evaporative sweat loss in the Water and Combined conditions was greater (P < 0.01) than in the No Water and Pre-cooling conditions. Our results suggest that the combination of pre-cooling and water ingestion increases exercise endurance in a hot environment through enhanced heat storage and decreased thermoregulatory and cardiovascular strain.     

美国基金动向

日本版NIH 及其制药企业,政策制定·战略规划需要佐证。为此,本研究尝试基于新的指标体系进行制药行业的现状俯瞰与未来预测。本篇基于连载第四篇导出的用于辨识制药企业在研药物及药物密切相关专利的新指标,按照国别和专利申请人,揭示低分子药物、不同技术类别的生物药的基础研究能力。     

Developmental Improvements and Persisting Difficulties in Children’s Metacognitive Monitoring and Control Skills: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Perspectives

This study investigated age-dependent improvements of monitoring and control in 7/8- and 9/10-year-old children. We addressed prospective (judgments of learning and restudy selections) and retrospective metacognitive skills (confidence judgments and withdrawal of answers). Children (N = 305) completed a paired-associate learning task twice, with a 1-year delay. Results revealed improvements in retrospective, but not in prospective monitoring and control. Furthermore, control remained suboptimal, seemingly a consequence of overoptimistic monitoring. Both age groups showed stronger monitoring-based control at the second compared to the first assessment. The comparison with a cross-sectional sample (N = 144) revealed that improvements in retrospective monitoring can be mainly attributed to naturally occurring development, whereas retrospective control seemed to improve due to increased task familiarity.     

University students’ understanding of the concepts empirical,theoretical, qualitative and quantitative research

University research education in many disciplines is frequently confronted by problems with students’ weak level of understanding of research concepts. A mind map technique was used to investigate how students understand central methodological concepts of empirical, theoretical, qualitative and quantitative. The main hypothesis was that some students have a confused conception of empirical. The mind maps revealed that in the beginning of the course, 75% of the students hold a problematic conception of research, and after the half year course, still half of the participated students had problems with expressing a scientifically sound conception of research. In addition to general undevelopedness of the maps, a severe confused conception of drawing a link from empirical to qualitative or quantitative, but not to both, was found. This finding indicates that some students have problems with understanding the very basic and central concept of empirical.     

Relations Between Teachers' Professional and Religious Orientations and Their Behavior During Morally Critical Incidents

The focus of this study is on how teachers' professional and religious orientations relate to their reaction intentions when confronted with morally critical incidents. The context of the study is the increasing importance of the moral task of teachers which is complex in current secularized and individualized Western society. The main assumption is that both professional and religious orientations constitute a possible source for understanding differences in teachers' behavior during such incidents. The results suggest that both orientations indeed play a role. This result is notable with regard to the religious orientations because of the absence of this variable in current research.     

Flow analysis and aerodynamic characteristics of a badminton shuttlecock with spin at high Reynolds numbers

A badminton shuttlecock flies in a high-drag, and thus, the sport has been a subject of research from the point of view of aerodynamics. A badminton shuttlecock generates significant aerodynamic drag and has a complex flight trajectory. It also has the smallest ballistic coefficient and exhibits the largest in-flight deceleration of any airborne sporting projectile. The ballistic coefficient of a projectile is a measure of its ability to overcome air resistance in flight and is inversely proportional to deceleration. The primary objectives of this study were to measure the aerodynamic properties of feather shuttlecocks under a range of the wind speed (10–60 m/s) and pitch angle (0°–25°). In particular, measurements of aerodynamic forces were performed at high Reynolds numbers (more than Re = 210,000), and the effect of shuttlecock deformation on aerodynamic properties was also investigated, because it is presumed that the flight dynamics is affected by the deformation of the shuttlecock skirt. A shuttlecock skirt is composed of an array of diverging stems, the ends of which are at the convergent end of the skirt, joined together in an end ring. The shuttlecock rotates about its major axis in actual flight, and thus, the experiments were performed on shuttlecocks with and without rotation (spin). Furthermore, the effect of the flow passing through the gaps between the slots (stiffeners) located at the leg portion of the shuttlecock skirt on aerodynamic characteristics is demonstrated by means of a shuttlecock model without gaps, which was completely covered with cellophane tape. The free rotation rate of a shuttlecock increased with an increase in the Reynolds number, and the drag coefficient gradually decreased above Re = 86,000 for a non-rotating shuttlecock. The reduction of drag can be explained by the deformation of the skirt observed in wind tunnel experiments at high speed. In this study, for a rotating shuttlecock, a reduction of drag was not observed over a whole range of Reynolds numbers, because deformation of the skirt for a rotating shuttlecock becomes smaller than that for a non-rotating shuttlecock. However, there was no significant difference in drag coefficient between rotating and non-rotating shuttlecocks, in contrast to the difference in drag coefficient between shuttlecocks with and without gaps. The drag coefficient for a shuttlecock without gaps was significantly smaller than that for a standard shuttlecock (with gaps). For a standard shuttlecock, the air flowed through the gaps into the shuttlecock skirt, and this flow was related to high aerodynamic drag.