Cultural heritage and the attractiveness of cities: evidence from recreation trips

Many cities are trying to attract tourists by investing in urban amenities. Cultural heritage is an important example, and substantial investments are needed to keep ancient inner cities and characteristic monumental buildings in good shape. The costs of these policies are usually clear, and the benefits are often much more difficult to assess. This paper attempts to fill part of this gap by studying the destination choices of urban recreation trips that have urban recreation as the main travel motive. We estimate a discrete choice model for destination choice that takes into account the potential importance of unobserved characteristics. The model allows us to compute the marginal willingness-to-travel for destinations offering more cultural heritage, which we measure as the area of the inner city that has a protected status because of the cultural heritage that is present there.     

Cheaper patents

The 1883 Patents Act in Britain provides perspective for modern patent policy reforms because it radically changed incentives for inventors by reducing filing fees by 84 percent. Patents increased 2.5-fold after the reform, which was evenly distributed across the geography of inventors, the organization of invention and sectors. By realizing a large demand for cheaper patents the reform increased the propensity to patent and shifted inventive activity inside the patent system. It did not increase innovation as measured by changes in the distribution of high and low value patents and citations to English inventor patents in the United States.     

Physiological determinants of speciality of elite middle- and long-distance runners

The aim of this study was to determine which physiological variables predict excellence in middle- and long-distance runners. Forty middle-distance runners (age 23 ± 4 years, body mass 67.2 ± 5.9 kg, stature 1.80 ± 0.05 m, VO(2max) 65.9 ± 4.5 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)) and 32 long-distance runners (age 25 ± 4 years, body mass 59.8 ± 5.1 kg, stature 1.73 ± 0.06 m, VO(2max) 71.6 ± 5.0 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)) competing at international standard performed an incremental running test to exhaustion. Expired gas analysis was performed breath-by-breath and maximum oxygen uptake (VO(2max)) and two ventilatory thresholds (VT(1) and VT(2)) were calculated. Long-distance runners presented a higher VO(2max) than middle-distance runners when expressed relative to body mass (P < 0.001, d = 1.18, 95% CI [0.68, 1.68]). At the intensities corresponding to VT(1) and VT(2), long-distance runners showed higher values for VO(2) expressed relative to body mass or %VO(2max), speed and oxygen cost of running (P < 0.05). When oxygen uptake was adjusted for body mass, differences between groups were consistent. Logistic binary regression analysis showed that VO(2max) (expressed as l · min(-1) and ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)), VO(2VT2) (expressed as ml · kg(-0.94) · min(-1)), and speed at VT(2) (v(VT2)) categorized long-distance runners. In addition, the multivariate model correctly classified 84.7% of the athletes. Thus, VO(2max), VO(2VT2), and v(VT2) discriminate between elite middle-distance and long-distance runners.     

Quantification of the physiological loading of one week of "pre-season" and one week of "in-season" training in professional soccer players

The aim of this study was to quantify the physiological loads of programmed "pre-season" and "in-season" training in professional soccer players. Data for players during each period were included for analysis (pre-season, n = 12; in-season, n = 10). We monitored physiological loading of training by measuring heart rate and rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Training loads were calculated by multiplying RPE score by the duration of training sessions. Each session was sub-categorized as physical, technical/tactical, physical and technical/tactical training. Average physiological loads in pre-season (heart rate 124 ± 7 beats · min(-1); training load 4343 ± 329 Borg scale · min) were higher compared with in-season (heart rate 112 ± 7 beats · min(-1); training load 1703 ± 173 Borg scale · min) (P < 0.05) and there was a greater proportion of time spent in 80-100% maximum heart rate zones (18 ± 2 vs. 5 ± 2%; P < 0.05). Such differences appear attributable to the higher intensities in technical/tactical sessions during pre-season (pre-season: heart rate 137 ± 8 beats · min(-1); training load 321 ± 23 Borg scale · min; in-season: heart rate 114 ± 9 beats · min(-1); training load 174 ± 27 Borg scale · min; P < 0.05). These findings demonstrate that pre-season training is more intense than in-season training. Such data indicate that these adjustments in load are a direct attempt to deliver training to promote specific training adaptations.     

第13届国际ISSI大会论文投稿、评审及录用分析

 第13届国际科学计量学与信息计量学大会（ISSI 大会）于2011年7月4日-7日在南非德班召开。作为大会议程主席和理论专题主席,本文作者介绍了大会论文征文和投稿的内容及形式,展示了论文评审机制与评价指标,并对提交论文、录用论文及评审专家的国别分布做了分析。中国是提交全文和研究进展论文最多的国家,作者总频次居各国之首,但论文录用率较低。中国也是提交墙展论文最多的国家,显示了中国学者参加国际ISSI大会的热情。由来自25个国家95名成员组成的大会科学委员会中只有一名中国委员,这提示我们中国学者应该更积极地参与国际会议的学术和组织工作。论文最后讨论了中国学者投稿国际ISSI大会,走上国际论坛的几个问题。     

Building Universities of Quality: An Analysis of the Views of University Students concerning their Academic Training

The primary objective of this paper has been to define a quality university from the user's perspective, based on what students expressed regarding different aspects of the institution. Two methodologically different formats of collecting information have assisted in testing the coherence of their opinions. A qualitative and quantitative approach helped to evaluate the results.