On passion and sports fans: a look at football

The purpose of the present research was to test the applicability of the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) to being a sport (football) fan. Three studies provided support for this dualistic conceptualization of passion. Study 1 showed that harmonious passion was positively associated with adaptive behaviours (e.g. celebrate the team's victory), whereas obsessive passion was positively associated with maladaptive behaviours (e.g. risking losing one's job to go to a game). Study 2 used a short Passion Scale and showed that harmonious passion was positively related to the positive affective life of fans during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, psychological health (self-esteem and life satisfaction), and public displays of adaptive behaviours (e.g. celebrate the team's victory into the streets), whereas obsessive passion was predictive of maladaptive affective life (e.g. hating opposing teams' fans) and behaviours (e.g. mocking opposing teams' fans). Finally, Study 3 examined the role of obsessive passion as a predictor of partner's conflict that in turn undermined partner's relationship satisfaction. Overall, the present results provided support for the Dualistic Model of Passion. The conceptual and applied implications of the findings are discussed.     

Examining Change in Cortisol Patterns During the 10‐Week Transition to a New Child‐Care Setting

The transition to out‐of‐home child care brings a number of challenges for children, including complex peer interactions and extended separations from parents. Children often show a midmorning to afternoon rise in cortisol on child‐care days, compared to the typical diurnal decline seen at home. Changes in cortisol were examined in a wide age range of children (N = 168; 1.2 months to 8 years, M = 3.27 years) during the 10‐week transition to a new child‐care setting. Structural equation modeling using latent change scores showed that children experienced an increase in the cortisol rise at child care across the 10‐week transition. Furthermore, child age moderated the difference between home‐ and child‐care cortisol patterns. Findings are placed in a developmental context, and potential implications and future directions are discussed.     

Determination of the centre of mass kinematics in alpine skiing using differential global navigation satellite systems

In the sport of alpine skiing, knowledge about the centre of mass (CoM) kinematics (i.e. position, velocity and acceleration) is essential to better understand both performance and injury. This study proposes a global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based method to measure CoM kinematics without restriction of capture volume and with reasonable set-up and processing requirements. It combines the GNSS antenna position, terrain data and the accelerations acting on the skier in order to approximate the CoM location, velocity and acceleration. The validity of the method was assessed against a reference system (video-based 3D kinematics) over 12 turn cycles on a giant slalom skiing course. The mean (± s) position, velocity and acceleration differences between the CoM obtained from the GNSS and the reference system were 9 ± 12 cm, 0.08 ± 0.19 m · s^-1 and 0.22 ± 1.28 m · s^-2, respectively. The velocity and acceleration differences obtained were smaller than typical differences between the measures of several skiers on the same course observed in the literature, while the position differences were slightly larger than its discriminative meaningful change. The proposed method can therefore be interpreted to be technically valid and adequate for a variety of biomechanical research questions in the field of alpine skiing with certain limitations regarding position.     

Separation of platelets from other blood cells in continuous-flow by dielectrophoresis field-flow-fractionation

We present a microfluidic device capable of separating platelets from other blood cells in continuous flow using dielectrophoresis field-flow-fractionation. The use of hydrodynamic focusing in combination with the application of a dielectrophoretic force allows the separation of platelets from red blood cells due to their size difference. The theoretical cell trajectory has been calculated by numerical simulations of the electrical field and flow speed, and is in agreement with the experimental results. The proposed device uses the so-called "liquid electrodes" design and can be used with low applied voltages, as low as 10 V(pp). The obtained separation is very efficient, the device being able to achieve a very high purity of platelets of 98.8% with less than 2% cell loss. Its low-voltage operation makes it particularly suitable for point-of-care applications. It could further be used for the separation of other cell types based on their size difference, as well as in combination with other sorting techniques to separate multiple cell populations from each other.     

Public Sector Research: A Growing Role in Innovation Systems

This essay highlights three converging trendsexperienced by `public sector research' duringthe past decade. Looking especially at France,our discussion draws attention to the new rolesof universities, the blurring of relationshipsbetween types of research institutions andresearch activities, and the development of`research collectives' as an organizationalfeature now emerging throughout Europe.     

Instructional Goals: determination and specification

This paper develops the argument that the form in which instructional goals are specified should depend on the nature of the knowledge underlying the particular instruction being developed. It examines the two central issues of goal determination (how goals are derived) and goal specification (how they should be represented) in order to counter the assumption that one type of goal formulation (be it via behavioural objectives, work models, or cognitive objectives) is optimal for instruction.