Attitudes towards genetics: a case study among Brazilian high school students

The objective of our study was to investigate young people's attitudes towards modern genetics and biotechnology. Quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted among high school students in Rio de Janeiro. These included a survey of students in nine public and private schools as well as focus groups for a complementary analysis of their attitudes and perceptions with respect to these subjects. We observe that, in general, students are relatively well informed about some of the main issues related to the applications of genetics. In their assessment of the utility, the potential risks, and the need for encouragement of the different techniques used in genetic manipulation, they were able to make clear distinctions between the different purposes of each technique. Most students believed that transgenic food could be useful and that it should be encouraged, but they were also aware that there were risks involved. Furthermore, the students were strongly supportive of the labeling of transgenic food.     

Learning by exploration: Thinking aloud while exploring an information system

The aim of the current research is to examine the ability of people to learn a computer system by exploration and to asses the efficacy of a user interface with properties that are supposed to support exploration. The study described in this paper used the think-aloud method to obtain detailed information about the goals of the user and their realization during the initial learning phase. The focus here will be on discussing the role of thinking aloud and reflection during performing complex cognitive activities. In one condition of the experiment described here an interface was used with exploration-supportive properties. In the other condition these properties were removed from the interface. Subjects (university students) solved a number of (e-mail) tasks with these interfaces, without training, and had to think aloud during the first half. After solving the tasks a knowledge test about the interface was presented. The results on the three kinds of measures (think aloud measures, task performance and performance on the knowledge test) broadly were in favor of exploration-supportive interface. In the discussion attention is paid to the positive influence of thinking aloud, probably occurring because subjects were encouraged to use the available information on screen in the exploration-supportive condition. The consequences and potential disadvantages of display-based, exploratory learning in relation to planning are also discussed.     

Divergent Thinking Promotes Deductive Reasoning in Preschoolers

This study explored the hypothesis that preschoolers’ deductive reasoning would be improved by encouraging use of divergent thinking (DT). Children of 4–5 years of age (n = 120) were randomly given DT or neutral control exercises before deductive reasoning problems. To allow a stronger test of the hypothesis, half of the children receiving the DT exercises were given explicit examples, which have been shown to reduce ideational originality. Results indicate that, as predicted, DT exercises without examples significantly improved rates of deductive responding, compared to exercises with examples and the control condition. These findings indicate that DT is a key component in the early beginnings of deductive reasoning. Some educational implications are discussed.     

Cooperation in innovation activities: The importance of partners

This paper analyses the importance of cooperation partners for the development of innovation activities. We contribute to the literature on cooperation in innovation activities that seeks to identify the characteristics differentiating cooperative from non-cooperative firms by proposing a different approach to this problem. We distinguish firms according to their evaluation of cooperation partners in the development of innovation activities. We apply a probit selection model to account for the firm's decision to cooperate (or not). The data we use come from the Portuguese Third Community Innovation Survey. Our estimation results show that firms from high-technological industries, with higher levels of absorptive capacity and of innovation investment, who give importance to incoming spillovers management, and who cooperate with firms from the same group or with suppliers, place greater value on cooperation partners in the innovation process. Additionally, we also find that the factors influencing the importance attributed to cooperation activities are different from the ones behind the decision to cooperate.     

Knowledge protection strategies of multinational firms—A cross-country comparison

International knowledge spillovers, especially through multinational companies (MNCs), have recently been a major topic of discussion among academics and practitioners. Most research in this field focuses on knowledge sharing activities of MNC subsidiaries. Relatively little is known about their capabilities for protecting valuable knowledge from spilling over to host country competitors. We extend this stream of research by investigating both formal protection strategies (e.g. patenting) as well as strategic ones (secrecy, lead time, complex design). We conceptualize the breadth of firm's knowledge protection strategies and relate it to the particular situation of MNC subsidiaries. Moreover, we argue that their approaches differ with regard to host country challenges and opportunities. We address these issues empirically, based on a harmonized survey of innovation activities of more than 1800 firms located in Portugal and Germany. We find evidence that MNCs prefer broader sets of knowledge protection strategies in a host country with fewer opportunities for knowledge sourcing (Portugal). In Germany, though, they opt for narrower sets of knowledge protection strategies if they invest in innovation activities themselves. We deduce that these results are due to a need for reciprocity in knowledge exchanges to benefit fully from promising host country knowledge flows.     

The role of prevention-oriented attitudes towards nature in people's judgment of new applications of genomics techniques in soil ecology

New applications of genomics techniques in soil ecology may provide people with fresh insights into the richness of microbial life forms and natural methods to build on the "self-cleaning capacity" of soils. Because genetic modification might also be involved, this paper examines people's judgments about some applications, using a theory on the promotion- or prevention-orientations that they may associate with interventions in the natural world. A prevention-oriented way of thinking was hypothesized to correspond with a preference for more restrictions on a GM application, unless the person appreciates the application's benefits for nature restoration. Survey data agreed with the hypotheses and clarified the way in which people may talk about "nature knows best" or "nature needs a little help".     

Only a game? Player misery across game boundaries

ABSTRACT

Videogames often confront players with frustratingly difficult challenges, fearsome enemies, and tragic stories. As such, they can evoke feelings of failure, sadness, anger, and fear. Although these feelings are usually regarded as undesirable, many players seem to enjoy videogames which cause them. In this paper, I argue that player misery often originates from a fictional or lusory attitude which brackets game events from real-life, making the player’s emotions solely relevant within the game context. As they are part of the game themselves, these negative emotions can be enjoyed and easily relativized, since players can acknowledge that their cause is ‘only a game’. However, there are feelings of misery associated with the playing of videogames which are not caused by either the game’s fiction or challenge. In the last part of this paper, I describe a qualitatively different kind of player misery: one that is caused by elements that are not perceived as part of the game by the player, and is not bracketed from real life by a lusory or fictional attitude.     

Physiological responses in different intensities of resistance exercise – Critical load and the effects of aging process

Aim was to identify critical load (CL) in young and elderly apparently healthy male cohorts. To contrast the metabolic, cardiovascular and perceptual responses on CL according to age. We evaluated 12 young (23 ± 3 years) and 10 elderly (70 ± 2 years) apparently healthy active males, who underwent: (1) 1 repetition maximum (1RM) test on a 45° Leg Press; (2) on different days, three high-intensity resistance exercise constant load tests (60%, 75% and 90% 1RM) until fatigue (Tlim). Absolute values of both the CL asymptote and curvature constant (kg) were significantly lower in elderly subjects (P < 0.05). In contrast, elderly subjects demonstrated a significantly higher number of repetitions at CL when compared with young subjects (P < 0.05). As expected, oxygen uptake (VO₂) and heart rate (HR) during maximal aerobic exercise testing were significantly reduced in older subjects. However, percent-predicted aerobic capacity were higher in older subjects (P < 0.05). In addition, blood lactate ([La^?]) corrected to Tlim and rating of perceived exertion values were greater in younger subjects at all intensities (P < 0.05). These findings, despite reduced force production in older subjects, endurance-related parameters are well preserved according to age-adjusted percent-predicted values in apparently healthy males.     

青年女子排球运动员弹跳力模型的研制

为了探索发展青年女子排球运动员弹跳力的有效途径 ,以四川青年女子排球队 9名运动员和重庆女子排球队 13名运动员为研究对象 ,对有关弹跳力的多种因素进行了相关、多元回归分析 ,进而制定出发展弹跳力的回归模型 ,为青年女子排球运动员弹跳力训练提供参考     

Medical library services in Switzerland: catching up with EBM

The feature is a part of the series about medical library services in various countries. It gives an overview of medical library services to support research, education and clinical practice in Switzerland. Data were collected by means of an online survey and set in the wider context of the Swiss healthcare system. Key findings are that library services, including support by academic librarians, are provided to health care staff in hospitals – both university and others, while there is no information service infrastructure to serve the large number of GPs and specialists who mostly run their own practice. The authors recommend that – if the health authorities take EBM seriously – information services should be introduced for these small practices. J.M.