Do school entry laws affect educational attainment and labor market outcomes?

Age based school entry laws force parents and educators to consider an important tradeoff: though students who are the youngest in their school cohort typically have poorer academic performance, on average, they have slightly higher educational attainment. In this paper we document that for a large cohort of California and Texas natives the school entry laws increased educational attainment of students who enter school early, but also lowered their academic performance while in school. However, we find no evidence that the age at which children enter school effects job market outcomes, such as wages or the probability of employment. This suggests that the net effect on adult labor market outcomes of the increased educational attainment and poorer academic performance is close to zero.     

The child’s emotional management in school competition: under-seven football / La gestión emocional del niño en la competición escolar: el fútbol prebenjamín

Abstract

Football is one of the most common extracurricular activities among schoolchildren. Illusions and expectations are poured into a competitive sport that complements their formal education at school. The controversy over competition in schoolchildren aged six and seven opens up a debate on the lessons that are constructed. This study explores the emotional management that children develop in order to participate in sports activities in relation to the lessons promoted by the school. This article presents an ethnographic study grounded upon participant observation, with 101 schoolchildren in the first and second years of primary school during one academic year in 207 sessions, and semi-structured interviews with 21 teachers. After analysing the narratives, the results reveal previous expectations and stresses, a level of activation adequate for the competitive demands of the environment, the development of the ability to be competent in a stressful situation, the emotional capitalization of knowing how to win and lose, the impact of social recognition on adaptative construction of self-esteem, and the management of episodes of stress.     

Sound representations in preschool students / Las representaciones del sonido en estudiantes de educación preescolar

Abstract

Studies of the representations that students construct, within the framework of embodied cognition, have shown that perception, action and cognition are linked and are the basis of these representations. From this framework of analysis, this study attempted to identified the representations of 23 preschool students (ages four and five) of sound production, perception and propagation. In-depth interviews were conducted using hypothetical situations and experimental tasks. Three representations were identified. The first one shows a conception of sound centred on objects. Representation 2 also focuses on objects and their relationship with the subject, but it begins to attribute characteristics to the sound itself, and in representation 3, sound has more intrinsic characteristics that expand its possibilities of interacting with the subject and other objects. We conclude that the construction of representations of sound starts from perceptual elements and is linked to actions, although its complexity also shows that they incorporate characteristics that go beyond this corporal correlate.     

Modelos de lectura y dislexias

Resumen

En este artículo se hace una revisión de las dislexias a partir de los modelos de lectura. Para ello se comienza por describir el modelo de lectura que, según los datos empíricos, rige la ejecución de los lectores normales. A partir de la literatura publicada se puede comprobar que los diferentes tipos de trastornos lectores se pueden explicar a partir del modelo. Se termina comentando las importantes implicaciones de este enfoque en el tratamiento de las dislexias en particular y en los métodos de enseñanza de la lectura en general.     

Mapping air pollution effects on atmospheric degradation of cultural heritage

The costs for deterioration and soiling of different materials due to air pollution are huge and the damage to culture targets endangers seriously the rich European cultural heritage. Within the sixth Framework Programme of the EU, the overall aim of the CULT-STRAT project has been to assess and predict the effects of different pollutants on materials and objects of cultural heritage in a multipollutant scenario and to identify indicators and thresholds levels of pollutants. In particular, the present paper reports one of the studies carried out in the CULT-STRAT project at city level and focused on the town of Madrid (Spain). Different maps are shown for the past, present and possible future scenarios: inventory of stock of cultural heritage for each selected material, concentration of selected pollutants (SO₂, NO₂, O₃ and PM₁₀), corrosion (cast bronze) and recession (Portland limestone), exceedance of tolerable degradation thresholds for each material and corrosion-cultural heritage overlapped maps. The model and the methodology developed could be useful if apply it to towns, regions or countries in order to quantify the percentage of Cultural Heritage at risk or to quantify the percentage of the area where corrosion/recession exceeds the established tolerable levels.     

Validity and reliability of a new field test (Carminatti's test) for soccer players compared with laboratory-based measures

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the validity (Study 1) and reliability (Study 2) of a novel intermittent running test (Carminatti's test) for physiological assessment of soccer players. In Study 1, 28 players performed Carminatti's test, a repeated sprint ability test, and an intermittent treadmill test. In Study 2, 24 players performed Carminatti's test twice within 72 h to determine test–retest reliability. Carminatti's test required the participants to complete repeated bouts of 5 × 12 s shuttle running at progressively faster speeds until volitional exhaustion. The 12 s bouts were separated by 6 s recovery periods, making each stage 90 s in duration. The initial running distance was set at 15 m and was increased by 1 m at each stage (90 s). The repeated sprint ability test required the participants to perform 7 × 34.2 m maximal effort sprints separated by 25 s recovery. During the intermittent treadmill test, the initial velocity of 9.0 km · h^?1 was increased by 1.2 km · h^?1 every 3 min until volitional exhaustion. No significant difference (P > 0.05) was observed between Carminatti's test peak running velocity and speed at VO_2max (v-VO_2max). Peak running velocity in Carminatti's test was strongly correlated with v-VO_2max (r = 0.74, P < 0.01), and highly associated with velocity at the onset of blood lactate accumulation (r = 0.63, P < 0.01). Mean sprint time was strongly associated with peak running velocity in Carminatti's test (r = ?0.71, P < 0.01). The intraclass correlation was 0.94 with a coefficient of variation of 1.4%. In conclusion, Carminatti's test appears to be avalid and reliable measure of physical fitness and of the ability to perform intermittent high-intensity exercise in soccer players.     

Effect of different inter-repetition rest intervals across four load intensities on velocity loss and blood lactate concentration during full squat exercise

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to analyze the acute effect of inter-repetition rest (IRR) intervals on mechanical and metabolic response during four resistance exercise protocols (REPs). Thirty resistance-trained men were randomly assigned to: continuous repetitions (CR), 10 s (IRR10) or 20 s (IRR20) inter-repetition rest. The REPs consisted of 3 sets of 6, 5, 4 and 3 repetitions against 60, 70, 75 and 80% 1RM, respectively, in the full squat exercise. Muscle fatigue was assessed using: percentage of velocity loss over three sets, percentage of velocity loss against the ~1 m·s^?1 load (V1 m·s^?1), and loss of countermovement jump (CMJ) height pre-post exercise. Blood lactate was measured before and after exercise. The percentage of velocity loss over three sets and lactate concentration were significantly lower (P < 0.05) for IRR groups compared to CR in all REPs. The CR group showed a significantly higher (P < 0.05) velocity loss against V1 m·s^?1 load and loss of CMJ height pre-post exercise than IRR groups in REP against 60% 1RM. In conclusion, both IRR groups produced a significant lower degree of fatigue compared to CR group. However, no significant differences were found in any measured variables between IRR configurations.