Extended Validation of the Korean Version of the Quality of Life Survey

In this study, we examined the factor structure and reliability of the Korean Quality of Life (KQoL) survey and compared the KQoL survey to both the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). We also assessed associations between KQoL scores and physical activity (PA) participation. Participants were 557 (male = 281, female = 276) healthy Korean adults with ages between 18 and 71 years (M = 33.2, SD = 14.2). Results of confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the 7-subscale model and indicated acceptable values supporting convergent validity (χ² = 1,678.758, df = 443, p < .001, RMSR = .045, RMSEA = .071, TLI = .880, CFI = .892). Correlations of KQoL subscales with similar subscales of WHOQOL-BREF and with SWLS supported concurrent validity. Results confirm that the KQoL survey can assess multidimensional aspects of quality of life (QoL), including spiritual, physical, social, and psychological. KQoL scores were positively related to PA participation, in line with previous research supporting the positive association of PA with QoL.     

Toward a Learning Technologies knowledge network

The National Science Foundation-funded Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) is designed to be a national resource for stimulating research and development of technology-enabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 science, math, engineering and technology learning. The Center, launched at the end of 1997, is organized around four themes identified as areas where research is likely to result in major gains in teaching and learning, and sponsors research across disciplines and institutions in its four theme areas. CILT brings together experts in the fields of cognitive science, educational technologies, computer science, subject matter learning, and engineering. It engages business through an Industry Alliance Program and is also training postdoctoral students. CILT's founding organizations are SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning, University of California at Berkeley (School of Education and Department of Computer Science), Vanderbilt University's Learning Technology Center, and the Concord Consortium. Through its programs, CILT seeks to reach beyond these organizations to create a web of organizations, individuals, industries, schools, foundations, government agencies, and labs, that is devoted to the production, sharing and use of new knowledge about how learning technologies can dramatically improve the processes and outcomes of learning and teaching. This paper describes the rationale and operations of the Center, and first-year progress in defining a set of CILT partnership projects with many other institutions that came out of our national theme-team workshops. Roy Pea, of SRI International, is Director of CILT. Marcia Linn (U. California, Berkeley), John Bransford (Vanderbilt University), Barbara Means (SRI International), and Robert Tinker (Concord Consortium), serve as CILT's coprincipal investigators. Sherry Hsi (Ubiquitous Computing) and Sean Brophy (Technology and Assessment Models) are among the first group of CILT Postdoctoral Fellows. Jeremy Roschelle (SRI International) and Nancy Songer (University of Michigan) are CILT theme-team leaders. Roy Pea and Marcia Linn would like to thank the Spencer Foundation for support during their year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, in which they developed the CILT concept with the other authors. CILT is funded by National Science Foundation grant #CDA-9720384. Pea and Linn would also like to acknowledge contributions to this article by the many authors of CILT partnership project proposals, and by theme-team leaders. The authors thankfully acknowledge Donna Baranski-Walker for her many contributions to developing the CILT Industrial Alliance Program while serving as its Director in 1998.     

Premiums,announcement returns and desperation in high tech mergers: A growth options analysis

We examine the announcements of high tech mergers using a relatively new proxy for growth options we call “growth to book.” We find this adds significantly to help explain the premiums paid and announcement period abnormal returns when acquiring tech targets. Higher synergies are expected by managers and investors when targets have low growth options and acquirers have high growth options, resulting in higher premiums paid and either less negative or more positive abnormal returns. However, we find significant variation in the results by the relative size of the target and when low growth to book (GTB) firms acquire. While high GTB acquirers tend to pay more in premiums, low GTB acquirers can pay higher premiums and receive some of the most negative returns at announcement. We find evidence some acquisitions are motivated by desperation as these acquirers have the lowest GTB and do a disproportionate number of the relatively largest deals, receiving the worst abnormal returns at announcement.     

Evaluating the Efficacy of a Short Aging Simulation Workshop for an Interdisciplinary Group of Health-care Employees at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Several interventions aimed at increasing positive attitudes towards older adults among health-care professionals have been introduced. These interventions tend to focus on a small subset of clinical employees, ignoring other clinical and nonclinical hospital staff. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a short aging simulation workshop toward increasing positive attitudes towards older adults among a multidisciplinary group of workshop participants using a pre/post quasiexperimental design. Four hundred seventy six new employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs completed the Kogan's Attitudes Toward Old People Scale (KOP) immediately before and after participating in a short aging simulation workshop. Significant pre- to-posttest increases in KOP scores were identified for nurses, physicians, psychologists, other clinical employees, and nonclinical employees, but not among medical support assistants, nurse assistants, and social workers. There existed no significant differences between each group's pretest scores; however, staff of higher educational achievement had significantly higher posttest scores as compared to persons of lower educational status. This short aging simulation workshop was successful in increasing positive attitudes towards older adults among staff who had higher educational achievement.     

Effects of a short-term pre-season training programme on the body composition and anaerobic performance of professional rugby union players

Abstract

Pre-season rugby training develops the physical requisites for competition and consists of a high volume of resistance training and anaerobic and aerobic conditioning. However, the effects of a rugby union pre-season in professional athletes are currently unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of a 4-week pre-season on 33 professional rugby union players. Bench press and box squat increased moderately (13.6 kg, 90% confidence limits ±2.9 kg and 17.6 ± 8.0 kg, respectively) over the training phase. Small decreases in bench throw (70.6 ± 53.5 W), jump squat (280.1 ± 232.4 W), and fat mass (1.4 ± 0.4 kg) were observed. In addition, small increases were seen in fat-free mass (2.0 ± 0.6 kg) and flexed upper-arm girth (0.6 ± 0.2 cm), while moderate increases were observed in mid-thigh girth (1.9 ± 0.5 cm) and perception of fatigue (0.6 ± 0.4 units). Increases in strength and body composition were observed in elite rugby union players after 4 weeks of intensive pre-season training, but this may have been the result of a return to fitness levels prior to the off-season. Decreases in power may reflect high training volumes and increases in perceived of fatigue.     

‘Sport was the centre of my memories’: the performance of sport in Australia’s Asian garrisons

ABSTRACT

For better or worse, sport mirrors and mediates much of everyday life. Within both the military and colonial spheres, the physical attributes of sport are especially prized as tangible representations of social and cultural hierarchies. In turn, this further enhances the prestige and influence of sport within these two particular environments. Sport becomes particularly potent in instances where military forces undertake garrison duties in overseas colonial and post-colonial environs. This paper highlights the centrality of sport to the lives of the Australian service personnel and their families who were posted to Australia’s garrisons in the decades after World War II. The myriad roles of sport within these overseas garrison environments – as comforter, connector, healer and reinforcer on the one hand, and as isolator, oppressor and subverter on the other – are explored. This paper suggests that, for a variety of reasons, participation in sports served as the central organising force for most Australian service personnel and their families in these Australian military communities.