Cultural variation in children's social organization

This article examines how 31 triads of 6- to 10-year-old children from 3 cultural backgrounds organized their interactions while folding Origami figures. Triads of children whose families had immigrated to the United States from indigenous heritage regions of México (and whose mothers averaged only 7 grades of schooling) coordinated more often as an ensemble, whereas triads of European heritage U.S. children whose mothers had extensive schooling more often engaged dyadically or individually. When the European heritage children did engage as an ensemble, this often involved chatting rather than nonverbal conversation regarding folding, which was more common among the Mexican heritage children. Mexican heritage U.S. triads whose mothers had extensive schooling showed an intermediate pattern or resembled the European heritage children.     

Locus and nature of perceptual phonological deficit in Spanish children with reading disabilities

The aims of this study were (a) to determine whether Spanish children with reading disabilities (RD) show a speech perception deficit and (b) to explore the locus and nature of this perceptive deficit. A group of 29 children with RD, 41 chronological age-matched controls, and 27 reading ability-matched younger controls were tested on tasks of speech perception. The effect of linguistic unit (word vs. syllable) and type of phonetic contrast (voicing, place and manner of articulation) were analyzed in terms of the number of errors and the response time. The results revealed a speech perception deficit in Spanish children with RD that was independent of the type of phonetic contrast and of linguistic unit.     

Editorial H-score as a metric of inner authenticity for national scientific journals—Pilot study for the field of pedagogy

There is evidence that national scientific journals are important for local communities despite their limited audience due to national languages and topics, like in pedagogy. However, it is not easy to assess the level of scientific rigour of local journals, as most do not have available scientometric data and are often published in minority languages. We hypothesize that a possible manifestation of a latent trait of inner authenticity of the scientific journal (meaning the journal is accepted by a community interested in developing the field which conducts internationally accepted research) could be H-index of the editorial board members. To test this approach, we evaluated H-index and gender of editorial board members (n = 490) from 17 Czech and Slovak national science-oriented scientific pedagogical journals which were not indexed or indexed in Erih+ or Scopus, and compared this with the five lowest-rated journals from the same field indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The H-index of editorial board members was somewhat higher in indexed journals with those from WoS showing higher scores, and the number of board members with no discernable H-index was far greater in non-indexed journals. Editorial boards of journals indexed in WoS were mostly male, compared to a dominance of women on boards of non-indexed journals. Acknowledging the limited sample, it appears that the H-index of editorial board members may be a way to value national scientific journals.     

How to attract university applicants: exploring tertiary education advertising patterns in the Czech Republic

Tertiary Education and Management - In the highly dynamic, competitive and uncertain environment of tertiary education, universities nowadays have to intensify marketing communication to address...     

Refining Students’ Explanations of an Unfamiliar Physical Phenomenon-Microscopic Friction

Research in Science Education - The first phase of this multiphase study involves modeling of college students’ thinking of friction at the microscopic level. Diagnostic interviews were...     

Determinants of public engagement on municipal Facebook pages

Abstract

This article analyzes the determinants of public engagement on the Facebook pages of municipalities. The sample consists of 170 Italian and Spanish municipalities that used Facebook in 2014. The findings show that posting a lot of information on municipal Facebook pages does not increase the engagement of citizens. Also, frequent posting of information per se does not engage public engagement. However, if the posts are published when public can pay attention to them (e.g., off days), the likelihood of public engagement increases. Furthermore, the citizens’ engagement on municipal Facebook page depends on the level of citizens’ income – there is a negative relationship between citizens’ income and the level of participation.     

Pedometer-determined physical activity and its comparison with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire in a sample of Belgian adults

Pedometer-determined physical activity (PA) levels in Belgian adults were provided and compared to PA scores reported in the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The representative sample (N=1239) of the Belgian population took on average 9655 (4526) steps/day. According to pedometer indices 58.4% were insufficiently active. Steps/day differed significantly between gender (F = 5.0, p = .026), age groups (F = 3.3, p = .01), employment status (F = 6.2, p = .013), and days of monitoring (F = 7.4, p = .007). Steps/day were negatively correlated to the time spent sitting and positively to PA at work, in transport, and in leisure time (p < .001). Steps data can discriminate between PA levels reported in the IPAQ. Belgian population pedometer-determined PA levels are higher than those reported in samples of the United States; however, there is a wide distribution of ambulatory behavior     

The Impact of an Erasmus Placement in Students’ Perception of their Intercultural Communicative Competence

Pre- and post-questionnaires answered by UK Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Spain’s University of Salamanca (USAL) students on their placement abroad support a comparative analysis of its impact on their intercultural communicative competence, comprising the awareness, attitude, skills and knowledge dimensions. NTU students started their placements with better results in them all. Yet, while both groups completed their stay with a similarly increased awareness, the knowledge and skills of the USAL group matched the results of NTU students and, whereas the scores of the attitude dimension towards the host country of NTU students did not increase significantly, those of USAL students decreased.     

Measuring allocative efficiency in Cultural Economics: the case of “Fundación Princesa de Asturias” (The Princess of Asturias Foundation)

The literature on Cultural Economics provides us with some examples for the measurement of technical efficiency. However, there are few case studies dedicated to the analysis of allocative efficiency. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by incorporating a methodology that analyses both technical and allocative efficiency. We use the Shephard’s distance function, particularly suitable when affronted with non-profit-making firms or institutions that are not interested in cost minimization. As an empirical application, we analyse the efficiency of Fundación Princesa de Asturias (PAF), a Spanish non-governmental organization devoted to promoting the cultural, scientific and humanistic values of universal heritage, the period of study being 1988–2012. Our findings suggest that PAF could have used 7% less inputs to achieve the same level of output. On the other hand, we have found allocative inefficiency. Concretely, the input for other expenditures appears to have been over-utilized in relation to both the inputs for labour and current assets, with labour in turn being over-utilized in relation to current assets. Moreover, our results indicate that both technical and allocative efficiency have clearly improved during the period analysed. In summary, our empirical application shows how distance function methodology can be successfully implemented to measure allocative efficiency in cultural firms and institutions.     

Effects of blood flow restriction without additional exercise on strength reductions and muscular atrophy following immobilization:A systematic review

Purpose:To investigate whether blood flow restriction(BFR) without concomitant exercise mitigated strength reduction and atrophy of thigh muscles in subjects under immobilization for lower limbs.Methods:The following databases were searched:PubMed,CINAHL,PEDro,Web of Science,Central,and Scopus.Results:The search identified 3 eligible studies,and the total sample in the identified studies consisted of 38 participants.Isokinetic and isometric torque of the knee flexors and extensors was examined in 2 studies.Cross-sectional area of thigh muscles was evaluated in 1 study,and thigh girth was measured in 2 studies.The BFR protocol was 5 sets of 5 min of occlusion and 3 min of free flow,twice daily for approximately 2 weeks.As a whole,the included studies indicate that BFR without exercise is able to minimize strength reduction and muscular atrophy after immobilization.It is crucial to emphasize,however,that the included studies showed a high risk of bias,especially regarding allocation concealment,blinding of outcome assessment,intention-to-treat analyses,and group similarity at baseline.Conclusion:Although potentially useful,the high risk of bias presented by original stodies limits the indication of BFR without concomitant exercise as an effective countermeasure against strength reduction and atrophy mediated by immobilization.