Can public arts education replace arts subsidization?

The debate about whether the arts should be supported or not is far from new, and most governments support the arts in one way or the other. The literature considers several arguments in favor of such interventions. Public education may seem to be an action which could, in the long run, lead to possible reductions of subsidies. Surveys show that those who have been exposed to the arts when young participate more when adult. However, the “non-market” transmission from parents to children generates an external effect, which has to be taken into account to reach first-best situations. We construct an overlapping generations model in which young consumers are exposed to both public education toward the arts and to non-altruistic transmission of such a taste from their parents. We show that the first-best can be reached only if there is both public cultural education and subsidization of arts consumption. Therefore, education cannot be considered as a substitute for subsidies to arts consumption. However, as is often the case in European countries, government intervention is usually below the first-best level. Using a model calibrated on French data, we show that it is then preferable to subsidize education, while consumption, especially of the older generations, should be taxed rather than subsidized.

Museum Assessment and FDH Technology: Towards a Global Approach

This paper presents a global approach for museum assessment. We conceptualise a museum as an entity which needs to be evaluated according to three well defined tasks: preservation, research and communication, and outcomes. We propose a methodology based on the determination of efficiency frontiers. This method uses a deterministic non parametric and non convex technology (Free Disposal Hull). We analyse technical efficiency, but also scale efficiency with a new restrictive scale approach. We present an ordering of museums into classes representing a level of performance with respect to the three required tasks. We illustrate our analysis using a three year database of museums from the French speaking region of Belgium.     

Adjunct question effects with review

The effects on retention of adjunct questions either placed at the end of a passage or inserted after their respective paragraphs within the passage were examined. The high school subjects were encouraged to review the materials after encountering the questions, a departure from traditional procedures in the field. Both treatments led to superior retention of the previously questioned facts when compared to a passage-only control group, but did not increase retention of previously unquestioned facts. The position of the adjunct questions did not differentially affect performance. The discrepancy of the results from those traditionally reported are interpreted in terms of the procedures employed.     

The influence of ventilatory control on heart rate variability in children

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of breathing frequency and tidal volume on resting heart rate variability in children aged 9 years (n = 29) and 16 years (n = 19). Heart rate variability was measured in four conditions: (1) without the control of ventilation followed at random by (2) a fixed breathing frequency of 12 breaths x min(-1), (3) a breathing frequency of 12 breaths x min(-1) but with a fixed tidal volume of 30% vital capacity and (4) a fixed breathing frequency of 6 breaths x min(-1) and a tidal volume of 30% vital capacity. A total of 128 RR intervals (the time between two spikes in the heart rate) were detected and absolute high- and low-frequency spectral components were calculated using autoregressive modelling. The younger children were unable to control ventilation to achieve conditions 3 and 4; therefore, a 2 x 2 (group x condition) analysis of variance was used to analyse conditions 1 and 2. There were significant interactions between group and heart rate variability conditions for the low-frequency component and the ratio of low to high frequencies (P < 0.001). The main effect for condition showed that at 12 breaths x min(-1) with no fixed tidal volume there was a significantly higher standard deviation of the RR interval, total power and high-frequency (P< 0.01) and low-frequency spectral components (P < 0.05) than in the condition with no ventilatory control. Across the four breathing conditions for the older participants, the high-frequency spectral component was significantly higher in the condition at 6 breaths x min(-1) with a fixed tidal volume than in that with no ventilatory control (P < 0.005); the ratio of high to low frequencies was significantly lower for the spontaneous condition than those performed at 12 breaths x min(-1) (P < 0.001). The results provide evidence of the need for ventilatory control when assessing short-term resting heart rate variability in children.     

Kinematics of cycling in relation to anterior knee pain and patellar tendinitis

The coronal and sagittal plane leg movements of 24 experienced male cyclists were assessed using video analysis while cycling on a Kingcycle windload simulator. The cyclists were grouped into those with a history of injury and an asymptomatic group on the basis of self-reported injury status. The ages, cycling experience, competition distances and competition speeds of the two groups were compared using Student's t-test. No significant differences (P < 0.05) were found for any of these variables. The maximum and minimum shank adduction, shank adduction velocities, knee flexion and ankle dorsiflexion values were also compared using Student's t-test. Significant differences were found at the point of maximum adduction (1.9 degrees; P = 0.019) and minimum dorsiflexion (4.9 degrees; P = 0.014). These differences indicated more dorsiflexion and greater abduction on the part of the symptomatic cyclists, supporting previous research that found that cyclists with a history of injury differ from those without a history of injury in the coronal plane leg movement patterns they adopt. Also, the most extreme medial position of the knee relative to the ankle occurred during knee extension. This supports the potential injury mechanism proposed by Francis (1986), which had previously only been examined using coronal plane kinematics.