Cardiac structure and function in weight trainers, runners, and runner/weight trainers

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare cardiac structure and function in adult male weight trainers, runners, and those who do both activities. Subjects had actively participated in the various training programs for the previous five years. Age ranged from 28.4 to 31.3 years in the three groups. Echocardiography was used to assess selected heart diameters, volumes, indices of contractility, and thicknesses, while VO2 max and percent body fat were measured using standard methods. Heart structure and function were expressed in absolute terms and relative to total body weight. An alpha level of .05 was used in all comparisons. Results indicated the runners demonstrated significantly greater relative LVIDd, LVIDs, and LVPW than the weight trainers. The runner/weight trainers possessed significantly greater relative LVIDd, LVIDs, LVPW, IVS, and LVEDV than the weight trainers. No significant differences, absolute or relative, existed between the runner and runner/weight trainer groups in any of the myocardial structure and function variables. It was concluded that men who run or run and weight train have similar structural and functional characteristics of the heart and possess greater relative internal diameter and left ventricular wall thickness than men who only weight train.     

THE PRO-EEC CONVERSION OF GREEK PUBLIC OPINION (1981-90)

Greece became an EEC member in 1981, following a parliamentaryvote in the then New Democracy (conservative)–controlledparliament. Opinion polls indicated though that were a referendumheld at the time, membership would have been rejected, as thegovernment had lost its popular support (and lost power in thecourse of that year) and an across-the-board anti-western majorityhad emerged in a country whose people's national identity wasfirst defined during and as a defense against the crusades.Ten years later, there exists in Greece a very large consensusin favor of EEC membership which includes even the communistleft, at least programmatically. The spectacular, and unprecedentedamong Community countries, pro-EEC conversion is the subjectof this paper. First, using the European Commission's Eurobarometerand Eurodim's Helleno-barometer data, the evolution of Greekpublic opinion towards the EEC is documented. Secondly, thetrend data in the various voting groups show that this conversionis basically the result of the transformation of the socialistelectorate from anti-EEC to pro-EEC, but with a lag behind thesimilar change in the party's (PASOK) policies during its eight-yearrule (1981–9). Thirdly, evidence is provided that anti-westernismhas not died out in Greece, but that it has both mellowed andbecome ‘selective’. So, we conclude that the pro-EECconversion was not the result of some general ‘Westernization’of Greek public opinion, but the outcome of a ‘learningexperience’: during their country's ten-year EEC membership,the Greeks discovered that the benefits from this internationalcommitment far outweighed the costs. In fact, it is argued thatthe pro-EEC conversion of Greek public opinion has contributedto the mellowing of its anti-westernism: whereas the crusadeswere instrumental in cutting the Greeks from Europe, the EECappears now the vehicle of their reintegration into a worldin whose development they have historically played a major role.     

E-learning and Evaluation in Modern Educational System

Implementation of information and communication technologies as well as emersion of new user interfaces and web 2.0 technologies changes the way of education system, the way of living and business transactions in general. The way we communicate, operate, produce and live is also changing. In accordance with it, the systems of education change from traditional to modern. The following changes occur： from content delivery to knowledge production, from transfer of knowledge from teachers to students towards encouragement of development and construction of knowledge, from courses and programs changing to the adaptation of the study environment, from the faculty professionalism to the quality of teaching and student learning and the early involvement of students in research work and projects. These occurring changes also affect the students＇ and professors＇ mobility. Here, the word ＂mobility＂ represents not only the student exchange programs and the easier transitions from one＇s home university to a foreign one, but also the way professors conduct their classes. With the development of certain software, students＇ class attendance no longer represents an important factor, as they can now learn from distance using the mentioned software, taking the learning process one step further. In order for above-mentioned changes to occur, the use of e-learning and the development of new tools are almost mandatory. With this in mind, the goal of this paper is to analyze quantitatively the changes that are occurring almost every day that affect the students＇ learning and the professors＇ teaching methods.     

Personalised news and scientific literature aggregation

Content-based filtering can be deployed for personalised information dissemination on the web, but this is a possibility that has been largely ignored. Nowadays, there are no successful content-based filtering applications available online. Nootropia is an immune-inspired user profiling model for content-based filtering. It has the advantageous property to be able to represent a user’s multiple interests and adapt to a variety of changes in them. In this paper we describe our early efforts to develop real world personalisation services based on Nootropia. We present, the architecture, implementation, usage and evaluation of the personalised news and paper aggregator, which aggregates news and papers that are relevant to an individual’s interests. Our user study shows that Nootropia can effectively learn a user’s interests and identify relevant information. It also indicates that information filtering is a complicated task with many factors affecting its successful application in a real situation.     

Do charismatic presidents influence college applications and alumni donations? Organizational identity and performance in US higher education

The effect of charismatic leadership on organizational performance is contested. Yet despite the lack of consistent evidence of the value of charismatic leadership to organizations, presidential searches have increasingly favored charismatic candidates. This study shows how organizational identity mediates the relationship between charismatic leadership and organizational performance. Among religious colleges, but not among private colleges considered overall, there is a positive relationship between presidents’ charismatic leadership and the number of applications for enrollment and the amount of financial donations colleges receive. This suggests that among organizations with atypical identities, charismatic leadership can be interpreted as a meaningful signal of organizational performance.     

Language delays, reading delays, and learning difficulties: interactive elements requiring multidimensional programming

Researchers have hypothesized four levels of instructional dialogue and claimed that teachers can improve children's language development by incorporating these dialogue levels in their classrooms. It has also been hypothesized that enhancing children's early language development enhances children's later reading development. This quasi-experimental research study investigated both of these hypotheses using a collaborative service delivery model for Grade 1 children with language difficulties from a socially and economically disadvantaged urban community in Australia. Comparing the end-of-year reading achievement scores for the 57 children who received the language intervention with those of the 59 children in the comparison group, the findings from this research are supportive of both hypotheses. The interrelationships between learning difficulties, reading difficulties, and language difficulties are discussed along with children's development in vocabulary, use of memory strategies and verbal reasoning, and the need for multidimensional programming.     

The influence of a distractor during compound preexposure on latent inhibition

Nonreinforced exposure to a nontarget stimulus that was followed by nonreinforced exposure to a target/nontarget simultaneous compound stimulus resulted in enhanced latent inhibition of the target. Conditioning was slower after this treatment than after nonreinforced exposure to the target stimulus alone (Experiment 1). However, a salient auditory stimulus presented immediately after the compound in the second phase reduced levels of latent inhibition, relative to the enhanced latent inhibition produced when no such extracompound stimulus was presented (Experiments 2 and 3). This effect was not noted if the salient auditory cue was presented 10 sec after the termination of the compound stimulus (Experiment 4). In Experiment 5, there was no disruption of simple latent inhibition produced by a salient stimulus. These results are consistent with enhanced latent inhibition’s being produced by the formation of within-compound associations, which are disrupted by the salient extracompound stimuli.     

Tempest, Arizona: Criminal Epistemologies and the Rhetorical Possibilities of Raza Studies

This essay looks at Ethnic Studies activism in Arizona through a rhetorical lens in order to highlight epistemological aspects of activities such as a high school Chicano Literature class, Roberto “Dr. Cintli” Rodriguez’s journalism, and student activism to defend the Mexican-American Studies Department. Taking rhetoric’s premise that language is at the center of knowledge construction (epistemology), this essay turns to Chicano activism as a language that produces knowledge differently. The participation of students, particularly in the indigenous spiritual runs, is an important example of the traditionally central role of students to the field of Chicano Studies. Runs also work inwardly to strengthen participants and build group cohesion. These practices, like Chicano and Ethnic Studies in general, constitute a critical dialectical way of thinking, a disruptive opposition to traditional rationalities that tend to gloss over colonialist histories and justify status quo racial inequalities. Thinking about these activities rhetorically allows readers to understand how the participants communicate with a wider audience and how they generate knowledge uniquely around Chicano Studies.