The public response to innovative strategies for the control of biodeterioration in archaeological hypogea

Between April and September 2003, 1500 visitors of the Catacomb of St. Callistus participated to a scientific research by filling in a questionnaire to express their opinion about a new illumination system experimentally set up in the Ocean’s Cubiculum. Their answers were statistically evaluated and represented the first public opinions on this archaeological site, including their knowledge of conservation problems and their positive attitude towards the use of new strategies for the preservation of this monument.     

What is associated with race performance in male 100-km ultra-marathoners--anthropometry, training or marathon best time?

We investigated the associations of anthropometry, training, and pre-race experience with race time in 93 recreational male ultra-marathoners (mean age 44.6 years, s = 10.0; body mass 74.0 kg, s = 9.0; height 1.77 m, s = 0.06; body mass index 23.4 kg · m(-2), s = 2.0) in a 100-km ultra-marathon using bivariate and multivariate analysis. In the bivariate analysis, body mass index (r = 0.24), the sum of eight skinfolds (r = 0.55), percent body fat (r = 0.57), weekly running hours (r = -0.29), weekly running kilometres (r = -0.49), running speed during training (r = -0.50), and personal best time in a marathon (r = 0.72) were associated with race time. Results of the multiple regression analysis revealed an independent and negative association of weekly running kilometres and average speed in training with race time, as well as a significant positive association between the sum of eight skinfold thicknesses and race time. There was a significant positive association between 100-km race time and personal best time in a marathon. We conclude that both training and anthropometry were independently associated with race performance. These characteristics remained relevant even when controlling for personal best time in a marathon.     

Body Mass and Circumference of Upper Arm Are Associated With Race Performance in Ultraendurance Runners in a Multistage Race—The Isarrun 2006

In the present study, we investigated the association of anthropometric parameters with race performance in ultraendurance runners in a multistage ultraendurance run, in which athletes had to run 338 km within 5 consecutive days. In 17 male successful finishers, calculations of body mass, body height, skinfold thicknesses, extremity circumference, skeletal muscle mass (SM), and percentage body fat (%BF) were performed before the race to correlate anthropometric parameters with race performance. A positive association was shown between total running time and both body mass (r² = .29, p < .05) and upper arm circumference (r² = .23, p < .05). In contrast, body height, skinfold thicknesses, extremity circumference, SM, and %BF showed no association with race performance (p > .05). We concluded that in a multistage ultraendurance run, body mass and upper arm circumference were negatively associated with race performance in well experienced ultraendurance runners. In contrast, body height, skinfold thicknesses, circumferences of the other extremities, SM, and %BF showed no association with race performance.     

Adolescents who experienced sexual abuse: fears, needs and impediments to disclosure

OBJECTIVE: Understanding the impediments that prevented sexually abused adolescents from disclosure to their family or to professionals, and analyzing the responses they received when they did disclose. METHODS: In depth anonymous interviews were conducted in Italy through a toll-free telephone line with 36 young people who experienced sexual abuse in adolescence. A qualitative analysis was carried out of the adolescents' feelings, fears and needs, and of the help received, if any. RESULTS: The main impediments to disclose to a family member were fear of not being believed, shame, and fear of causing trouble to the family. The main impediments for not seeking services were ignorance of the existence/functioning of protective agencies, wish to keep the secret, lack of awareness of being abused, mistrust of adults and professionals, and fear of the consequences of disclosure. When they did disclose to professionals, the teens received very limited support. CONCLUSION: Adolescents need to receive proper information about the risk of being sexually abused and about the help they can receive from their social network and protective agencies. There is a crucial need for appropriate training of professionals.     

e-university: a cross-case study in four Italian universities

This paper describes the aims, the methods, the stages and the results of the research project 'e-University. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a factor of change in Italian universities', undertaken between 2003 and 2006 by the Universities of Trento, Perugia and Sassari and the Catholic University of Milan.
The characteristics of the four institutions' subjects and objects of the investigation are analysed as case studies and then compared as a cross-case study in the light of the factors that we feel constitute the main areas of concern in the four institutions as to the implementation of ICTs in the teaching/learning process, ie, the characteristics of the governance strategic plan, the choices relating to technology and the choices related to pedagogy. The paper describes the collaborative effort characterising the community of researchers through the different stages of the research. It also analyses how the individual features of each university—relating to its history, the number of students, the range of faculties, the diffusion of e-learning, the driving factors for innovation, the institution's policies—have fostered a lively and fruitful discussion between different view points, thus engendering deeper reflections for each context.     

Teacher judgments and pupils’ causal explanations: Social valorization of effort-based explanations in school context

Achievement evaluation in school contexts may be considered as a kind of social judgment, which is affected by social and moral determinants since it is not merely an estimation of pupils’ accomplishment (Dompnier, Pansu, & Bressoux, 2006; Weiner, 2003). Teachers’ judgments have been investigated starting from the analysis of two theoretical approaches: the norm of internality (Dubois, 2003), and the attributional approach to social motivation (Weiner, 2006). In order to study the social valorization of internal explanations referring to effort in school context, an empirical research has been conducted. Our study investigates how teachers evaluate fictitious pupils, which are supposed to explain events by means of different types of causal explanations. According to our results, pupils providing effort-based explanations receive more positive judgments. Findings are discussed by considering effort as a key principle of school environments.     

Performance and age of African and non-African runners in World Marathon Majors races 2000–2014

The age for the fastest marathoners is well investigated, but not the age and nationality of the fastest. We investigated the age of peak marathon performance for the annual top 100 women and men competing in four races of the “World Marathon Majors” (Boston, Berlin, Chicago and New York) and the “Stockholm Marathon” between 2000 and 2014 using mixed-effects regression analyses and one-way ANOVA. Race times of Ethiopian men decreased to 2:14 h:min, but remained unchanged for Kenyan (2:14 h:min), Moroccan (2:15 h:min) and South African (2:18 h:min) men. Race times in Ethiopian (2:34 h:min), Kenyan (2:29 h:min) and South African (2:49 h:min) women showed no changes. Age increased in Ethiopian and South African men to 29.0 ± 5.0 and 32.0 ± 1.0 years, respectively. Age for Kenyan (29.9 ± 2.0 years) and Moroccan (34.9 ± 3.9 years) men remained unchanged. Age remained unchanged for Ethiopian (26.5 ± 2.0 years), Kenyan (30.0 ± 0.8 years) and South African (36.3 ± 7.0 years) women. In summary, Ethiopian men improved marathon race times, but not Ethiopian women. Age increased in Ethiopian men, but not in Ethiopian women. For practical applications, female and male marathoners from Ethiopia were the youngest and the fastest.     

Hyperlink format, categorization abilities and memory span as contributors to deaf users hypertext access

Sixty deaf and hearing students were asked to search for goods in a Hypertext Supermarket with either graphical or textual links of high typicality, frequency, and familiarity. Additionally, they performed a picture and word categorization task and two working memory span tasks (spatial and verbal). Results showed that deaf students were faster in graphical than in verbal hypertext when the number of visited pages per search trial was blocked. Regardless of stimuli format, accuracy differences between groups did not appear, although deaf students were slower than hearing students in both Web search and categorization tasks (graphical or verbal). No relation between the two tasks was found. Correlation analyses showed that deaf students with higher spatial span were faster in graphical Web search, but no correlations emerged between verbal span and verbal Web search. A hypothesis of different strategies used by the two groups for searching information in hypertext is formulated. It is suggested that deaf users use a visual-matching strategy more than a semantic approach to make navigation decisions.     

Evaluating the effects of interactive innovations at farm level: the potential of FADN

Purpose: This study explores the potential of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) to assess the technical, economic and environmental effects of cooperative innovation projects at farm level.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The analysis of the FADN potential relies on the classification of innovations and the co-identification, through the Most Significant Change (MSC) approach, of the most relevant indicators for tracking and assessing the performances of innovations and attributing to them the effects of a specific innovation.

Findings: The study shows that the FADN has a certain range of useful indicators and that they have a good coverage of the different types of innovation. Furthermore, the farm visits let emerge the importance of participatory approaches to capture the different changes and interplays occurred in farming processes.

Practical implications: The paper lays the foundations for the adaptation of the current methodology for data collecting and provides useful insights concerning the overcoming representativeness claims, costs’ issues, and problems related to the observation time limit.

Theoretical implications: The paper reveals the importance of participatory monitoring and evaluation approaches in helping the collection of more robust and relevant account data on farm, as well as in attributing certain results to a specific innovation and recognising synergies and side-effects of cooperative processes.

Originality/Values: The paper provides some recommendations on how to enlarge the scope of the FADN survey in order to be used effectively in the analysis of the performance of cooperative innovations at farm level.