The moral disengagement in sport scale--short

A scale has recently been developed to measure moral disengagement in sport (Boardley & Kavussanu, 2007). It consists of 32 items that measure the eight mechanisms of moral disengagement proposed by Bandura (1991). In the present study, we aimed to: (a) examine whether a subset of these items could form a short version of the scale; (b) provide evidence for the construct validity of the short version; and (c) test its measurement invariance across sex and sport type. A total of 992 football, rugby, hockey, basketball, and netball players from three different samples completed the long version of the scale. Data analyses indicated that the short version of the scale consisted of eight items and had high internal consistency. Construct validity of the scale was evidenced via correlations with sport moral disengagement and prosocial and antisocial behaviour. Multisample confirmatory factor analyses established measurement invariance across sex and partial measurement invariance across four team sports. In conclusion, the short version of the scale is a reliable and valid measure of moral disengagement in sport.     

Body composition and nutritional profile of male adolescent tennis players

In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated the body composition and dietary intake of 44 adolescent tennis players. After being divided into two groups (age 10-13 years and age 14-18), the players had their weight, height, and sexual maturation assessed. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to assess body composition. Food intake was obtained from a non-consecutive 4-day food record. The data were analysed using the Virtual Nutri v.1.0 software and compared with the present recommendations for adolescent athletes or dietary reference intakes. Body mass index and body fat for tennis practice were adequate for 89% and 71% of the tennis players respectively, regardless of age group. A calorie deficit greater than 10% of energy expenditure was observed in 32% of the sample. Fifty percent of the athletes consumed carbohydrates in accordance with recommended values. Protein and lipid intakes were above recommended values, while fibre, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and folic acid intakes were below recommendation for 98%, 80%, 100%, 100%, and 98% of the tennis players respectively. The observed nutritional deficiencies represent an additional barrier for adolescents engaged in competitive sports to achieve an optimum nutrition to maintain growth, health, and performance.     

Organizing links with science: Cooperate or contract?: A project-level analysis

Links with science have been argued to improve the (innovation) performance of firms. Yet we still know comparatively little about the project-level characteristics affecting the organization of such links. Our study, based on a sample of 52 projects carried out by a multinational company in the semiconductor industry, reveals that the knowledge attributes of a project help in predicting how the R&D activities will be organized. In particular, basic projects are likely to be developed through formal cooperative agreements with universities. Such projects also tend to be strategically less important. For strategically more important projects, in contrast, and for those where the knowledge to be developed is particularly novel to the firm, the firm is more likely to resort to formal contracting with a university for a specific component of the R&D project, usually early on in the project.     

Learning from Failure: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Study Which Resulted in Unfavorable Financial Outcomes

This article describes a cost-benefit analysis study which resulted in unfavorable financial outcomes and discusses how this result became a learning opportunity for human performance development (HRD) professionals in the organization. Demonstrating the contributions of human performance development/performance improvement (HRD/PI) programs through cost-benefit analysis is a continuing need in organizations. However, most cost-benefit analysis case studies have reported favorable financial results. While these results may help raise the perceived status of the field, in fact, reporting unfavorable results may provide a richer professional learning opportunity than otherwise might be available.     

Third and fourth graders' conceptions of repeated trials and best representatives in science experiments

This study involved 24 third- and fourth-grade students in a suburban school in the Chicago area. These children had been learning science through a reform-based, integrated science and mathematics curriculum for about 2 years. In this study I explore how these children made sense of a scientific procedure that had been introduced to them and they had used before in their own experimental inquiries: performing repeated trials and determining the best representative of the measurements of a continuous dependent variable. Specifically, I explore how children made sense of the variability in the results of repeated trials, how their ideas of repeated trials and best representatives are related to their understandings of the sources of the variability, and how they thought about what would be the best representative of their measurements. The data and analysis reveal the complexity of the understandings involved in this apparently simple procedure, as children attempted to appropriate for themselves the procedure that had been introduced to them. The results support the idea that many of the children had not conceptualized the procedure of repeating trials and finding the best representative of the results in the way adult practitioners do. They also point to the value of introducing children to such experimental procedures. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 853–872, 1997.     

e-Business usage across and within firms in the UK: profitability, externalities and policy

Using data from the third UK Community Innovation Survey we model the usage of e-business across and within firms in the UK in the year 2000 as a single observation upon an integrated process of inter- and intra-firm diffusion. The intra-firm dimension is a significant extension to standard analysis. The model estimates indicate that the pattern of e-business usage reflects the heterogeneity of firms in terms of size, other innovative activity and labour force skills (generating differences in the payoffs to use) as well as market and non-market intermediated externalities. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Music search engines: Specifications and challenges

Nowadays we have a proliferation of music data available over the Web. One of the imperative challenges is how to search these vast, global-scale musical resources to find preferred music. Recent research has envisaged the notion of music search engines (MSEs) that allow for searching preferred music over the Web. In this paper, we examine the growing research topic of MSEs, and provide potential specifications to follow and challenges to face.     

The virtual laboratory concept applied to strain measurements

In recent years the methodology of engineering education has been changing and many projects deal with improving the educational software. This paper reports on the virtual laboratory, a virtual environment applied to experimental analysis. The goals of the virtual laboratory are to introduce the laboratory environment to the student entering this world, so different from the typical theoretical lectures, for the first time, and to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks. It should be mentioned that the virtual laboratory is not meant to replace highly enriching, practical experience, but rather is meant to train the individual, in order to improve his/her performance in later actual practice. The virtual laboratory experience starts with the study of strain measurements, an engineering technique widely used to measure deformations, strains, mechanical properties of materials and other variables which are used to analyse many problems.The strain measurement virtual laboratory is meant to offer the possibility of simulating experiences, undergone in a real laboratory, through the Internet. The student is expected to familiarize him/herself with the techniques, procedures, devices and theories in the laboratory environment.