BEYOND THE MILITARY SPHERE

The article discusses the political and public debates in Israel over the appropriateness of a military radio station in a democratic state. The Israeli station was established in 1950 to assist the defense forces in absorbing and educating new Jewish immigrants, but later developed to become one of Israel's major media outlets. Previously unstudied documents reveal that the initiative to launch the station was met with criticism from its early stages; concerns about letting the army run a radio station without public oversight have been raised repeatedly ever since. This research project illustrates the benefits of media historiography as an effective prism for studying wider aspects of societies in which various media organizations operate. It adds, as well, to the historiography of military radio stations around the world.     

Eye Movements of Children in Reading English and Hebrew

Time-compressed, tape recorded messages were used to determine if listening to the message twice, in the same amount of time required to listen to the uncompressed message once, would improve listening comprehension scores of high and low aptitude men. The results indicated that for both groups of subjects, listening to the compressed messages twice improved comprehension scores over scores obtained by listening to the compressed tapes once. Comprehension of repeated time compressed messages was not improved over that obtained by a single listening to the uncompressed messages.     

A dynamical systems approach for the submaximal prediction of maximum heart rate and maximal oxygen uptake

This study examines the viability of utilizing a dynamical system model and heuristic parameter estimation algorithm to make predictions for maximum heart rate (\(\mathrm {HR_{max}}\)) and maximal oxygen uptake (\(\dot{\mathrm {V}}{\mathrm {O_{2max}}}\)) using data collected from a submaximal testing protocol. \(\dot{\mathrm {V}}{\mathrm {O_{2max}}}\) is widely considered to be the best single measurement of overall fitness in humans. When a \(\dot{\mathrm {V}}{\mathrm {O_{2max}}}\) assessment is not available, \(\mathrm {HR_{max}}\) is often used to prescribe exercise intensities for training and rehabilitation. In the absence of maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), \(\mathrm {HR_{max}}\) and \(\dot{\mathrm {V}}{\mathrm {O_{2max}}}\) are typically estimated using traditional submaximal prediction methods with well-known limitations and inaccuracies. For this study, 12 regularly exercising healthy young adult males performed a bout of maximal CPET on a cycle ergometer to determine their true \(\mathrm {HR_{max}}\) and \(\dot{\mathrm {V}}{\mathrm {O_{2max}}}\). Participants also performed a submaximal bout of exercise at varied intensities. A dynamical system model and heuristic parameter estimation algorithm were applied to the submaximal data to estimate the participants’ \(\mathrm {HR_{max}}\) and \(\dot{\mathrm {V}}{\mathrm {O_{2max}}}\). The submaximal predictions were evaluated by computing the coefficient of determination \({R^2}\) and the standard error of the estimate (SEE) through comparisons with the true maximal values for \(\mathrm {HR_{max}}\) (\({R^2 = 0.96}\), SEE = 2.4 bpm) and \(\dot{\mathrm {V}}{\mathrm {O_{2max}}}\) (\({R^2 = 0.93}\), SEE = 2.1 mL kg\(^{-1}\) min\(^{-1}\)). The results from this study suggest that a dynamical system model and heuristic parameter estimation algorithm can provide accurate predictions for \(\mathrm {HR_{max}}\) and \(\dot{\mathrm {V}}{\mathrm {O_{2max}}}\) using data collected from a submaximal testing protocol.     

Benchmarking the environmental values and attitudes of students in New Zealand's post‐compulsory education

How much do teachers in tertiary education know about the sustainability characteristics of their incoming students and, if this knowledge were to be available, how could their educational approaches be influenced by this knowledge? In New Zealand, Otago Polytechnic has committed itself to the goal that every graduate may think and act as a sustainable practitioner, and staff are changing their approach to teaching to achieve this. This research sought to benchmark the environmental worldview attributes of an incoming cohort of Otago Polytechnic students to support academic staff who need to know more about the sustainability interests and characteristics of their students, so that they may provide appropriate educational programmes. The research was also designed as the first stage of longer‐term research to evaluate the impact of these institutional changes on how students transform during the period of their tertiary education experience. The data and analysis presented here suggest that even before students start to study in the institution different groups have substantially different sustainability values‐sets. The authors anticipate that the research instruments and approaches used in the present study will contribute to a substantial national exploration of the sustainability value‐sets of tertiary students.     

Enhancing educational software with audio: assigning structural and functional attributes from the SSF model

Forty-five years of intuitive combinations of audio-visual information have produced only mixed results. This paper proposes a conceptual, case-based method for adding audio to software. This method, unlike the intuitive approach, requires the researcher to assign structural and functional attributes from the SSF Model to specific software activities.     

SES-related aspects of neuropsychological performance

Children from different socioeconomic backgrounds have been observed to employ different cognitive styles in problem-solving situations. These cognitive styles have in turn been linked to the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. It was hypothesized, therefore, that performance asymmetries would also be SES-related, high-SES children processing stimuli presented to the right visual field-left hemisphere (RVF-LH) more efficiently than those presented to the left visual field-right hemisphere (LVF-RH) and low-SES children showing the reverse pattern. A laterality task was administered tachistoscopically to 120 children, divided evenly by SES (high and low), sex, and grade (fifth and seventh). A marked RVF-LH advantage emerged among the high-SES group and a weak LVF-RH advantage among the low-SES group. Thus, the results provided general support for the central hypothesis. The findings are reviewed in the context of current models of human information processing in the cerebral hemispheres, and their broader implications for understanding SES-related differences in cognitive function are discussed.     

Influence of the referral process by a child protective agency on the outcome of psychiatric-psychological assessments of child abuse/neglect cases

Many Child Protective agencies in the United States have guidelines for referring certain kinds of abuse/neglect cases for psychiatric-psychological assessments which leave up to the referring agent such decisions as: choice of assessor (psychiatrist, psychologist, other), purpose of evaluation, and part of the family system to be evaluated. In order to develop a more systematic approach to comprehensive evaluations of abusive families, the referral process from the Hawaii Child Protective Services Agency to a child guidance center was analyzed through chart review, and its influence on the outcome of psychiatric-psychological assessments was examined. Evaluations by psychiatrists were also compared with those of psychologists. The results showed that the great majority of the cases referred for assessment were victim-children and that recommendations paralleled this trend by being child rather than adult or family oriented. In addition, referral questions and resulting recommendations centered more on diagnosis than on issues of intervention (treatment, placement, legal needs), suggesting an underutilization of the assessors' clinical skills. Differences between psychiatrists and psychologists are also reported. These findings point to a need for greater commitment to family pathology. Implications for developing more effective referral guidelines and for training are discussed.