Middle school physical education physical activity quantification: a pedometer steps/min guideline

The objective of the study was to improve physical activity (PA) surveillance of the Healthy People 2010 Objective 22:10 (i.e., 50% of the lesson time engaged in PA) by establishing a pedometer steps/min guideline to quantify time engaged in PA during physical education. A sample of 180 middle school students had their PA measured via pedometry (steps/min) and behavioral observation (PA time). Factorial analyses of variance were used to examine PA differences. Linear and logistic regression, decision accuracy, and receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) statistics were used to test steps/min cut points against the 50% PA recommendation. PA differences were not found (p > .01). Steps/min was a significant (p < or = .01) predictor of PA time, and the binary outcome of meeting or not meeting the PA recommendation. A steps/min interval of 82-88 was an accurate indicator of the 50% PA recommendation. The ROC statistic was .97 (p < or = .01), suggesting steps/min was an excellent discriminator of the binary outcome. Pedometer steps/min is a valid, objective, and practical approach for surveillance of physical education PA, a key physical education and public health outcome.     

The paradoxes of patenting at General Electric: Isador Ladoff's journey from Siberian exile to the heart of corporate capitalism

Isador Ladoff (1857-1918) worked briefly in the General Electric Company Research Laboratory, from 1901 to 1903. Since he was not employed to invent, Ladoff maintained that he, not the company, owned his invention of a new arc lamp electrode, eventually winning his case on appeal in 1911. The conduct and course of this patent litigation are examined in the light of Ladoff's remarkable life as a prisoner of the czar in Siberia before his escape to the United States in 1891 and as a socialist activist and writer thereafter. In showing that Ladoff's socialist principles activated his struggle with GE, the essay brings out the ironies of his defense of individualism against the incipient socialism of the laboratory supposedly espoused by officials of the company. The case is interesting in relation to the shift from the ideology, and the reality, of heroic individual invention to that of corporate invention in U.S. industrial research. That shift in turn was a crucial landmark in the longer history of the place of science in negotiation and contest about the relationship between creativity and intellectual property.     

Toward a cosmic sociology of education

We old warriors of ideology critique and wissensoziologie should not be too hard on ourselves for having forgotten reflexivity and the labors of putting paradigms, including our own, back into the context of history and social movement. Normal science is our necessary bread and butter. We achieved a lot by shaking the liberal foundations of sociology of education, although in America, despite a mandatory ‘inclusiveness’ in educational studies, in the higher science of sociology of education, liberalism still holds sway, underneath the triumphant pyrotechnics of advanced multivariate analyses. You may have some qualitative research, however, even focused on studies of race and gender. Still, class analysis did, and again now, does, make a dent, accumulating careful empirical research, both in ethnographies and models of statistical causality. Likewise, when postmodernism took the stage, curriculum studies added new light and meaning to understanding the school text. More recently and less prominently, ‘spirituality’ now revitalizes interest in ‘holistic’ education, even ‘transcendental learning’, as Miller calls his revival of the nineteenth-century American Transcendentalist movement, in education.     

Preschool Temperament Assessment: A Quantitative Assessment of the Validity of Behavioral Style Questionnaire Data

Research Findings: Child temperament is an important construct, but its measurement has been marked by a number of weaknesses that have diminished the frequency with which it is assessed in practice. We address this problem by presenting the results of a quantitative construct validation study. We calculated validity indices by hypothesizing the magnitude of relationships between Behavioral Style Questionnaire (BSQ) subscales and criterion measures assessing student–teacher relationships, student characteristics related to teaching stress, and peer play interactions. We tested these hypotheses against the actual correlations observed in a sample of 44 children 40 to 68 months of age. These analyses indicated strong support for 4 of the BSQ subscales (Activity, Rhythmicity, Approach, and Adaptability) and moderate support for 1 subscale (Mood). However, new item generation and testing is recommended for 3 subscales (Intensity, Persistence, and Threshold), along with further construct definition work for the final subscale (Distractibility). Practice or Policy: These findings are particularly relevant for early childhood educators who wish to assess temperament yet are uncertain of the issues involved in its measurement. Results derived from the BSQ, viewed in context, can increase practitioners’ understandings of children's individual characteristics and guide the development of interventions to promote optimal early educational experiences for children.     

Do discounted journal access programs help researchers in sub‐Saharan Africa? A bibliometric analysis

Prior research has suggested that providing free and discounted access to the scientific literature to researchers in low‐income countries increases article production and citation. Using traditional bibliometric indicators for institutions in sub‐Saharan Africa, we analyze whether institutional access to TEEAL (a digital collection of journal articles in agriculture and allied subjects) increases: (i) article production; (ii) reference length; and (iii) number of citations to journals included in the TEEAL collection. Our analysis is based on nearly 20,000 articles – containing half a million references – published between 1988 and 2009 at 70 institutions in 11 African countries. We report that access to TEEAL does not appear to result in higher article production, although it does lead to longer reference lists (an additional 2.6 references per paper) and a greater frequency of citations to TEEAL journals (an additional 0.4 references per paper), compared to non‐subscribing institutions. We discuss how traditional bibliometric indicators may not provide a full picture of the effectiveness of free and discounted literature programs.