Institutional financial assessment: Methodology and meaning

This paper responds to the fourth annual report by W. John Minter and Howard R. Bowen on Independent Higher EducationFinancial and Educational Trends in Independent Higher Education, 1978. Primary thesis: established financial reporting does not tend to do justice to a sound assessment of the financial condition of colleges and universities. Because the latter belong to the service economy, we must know more than we do about changes in quality. Such studies also must say how well institutional objectives are being achieved. College presidents and deans have tended to provide researchers with overly optimistic information. When they later see that Bowen and Minter report this very fact, they complain that their conclusions are not gloomy enough. Such double standards damage realistic program assessment efforts. The blame falls on the respondents and not on the authors. Neither can the authors be blamed for shortcomings in financial accounting ignoring the total cost of institutional activity. If accounting practice were based on a total cost concept the news about higher education finance would more nearly reflect what we all know is true: colleges and universities are worse off than the statistics say.Presented at the Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Houston, Texas, May 1978.     

Republican Scientific-Medical Library, The Republic of Armenia: progress and programs

In 1990, the Republican Scientific-Medical Library (RSML) of the Ministry of Health of Armenia in collaboration with the Fund for Armenian Relief created a vision of a national library network supported by information technology. This vision incorporated four goals: (1) to develop a national resource collection of biomedical literature accessible to all health professionals, (2) to develop a national network for access to bibliographic information, (3) to develop a systematic mechanism for sharing resources, and (4) to develop a national network of health sciences libraries. During the last decade, the RSML has achieved significant progress toward all four goals and has realized its vision of becoming a fully functional national library. The RSML now provides access to the literature of the health sciences including access to the Armenian medical literature, provides education and training to health professionals and health sciences librarians, and manages a national network of libraries of the major health care institutions in Armenia. The RSML is now able to provide rapid access to the biomedical literature and train health professionals and health sciences librarians in Armenia in information system use. This paper describes the evolution of the RSML and how it was accomplished.     

Bilateral arm power imbalance in swim bench exercise to exhaustion

We examined the supposition that swimmers may exhibit an imbalance in bilateral arm power output during simulated swimming exercise. Ten competitive front crawl swimmers (5 males, 5 females; age 20.5+/-2.3 years; height 1.74+/-0.09 m; body mass 72.0+/-16.7 kg; 400 m freestyle swim time 278+/-20.5 s; mean +/- s) performed four incremental (10 W x min(-1)) swim ramp tests on a computer-interfaced biokinetic swim bench ergometer. External power output from each arm was measured continuously to exhaustion. The results showed that, throughout the course of the simulated swim, external power output clearly favoured the left arm (F1,9 = 12.5, P= 0.006). This was especially evident in the final 30 s to exhaustion, when 54.0+/-3.87% of external power output was derived from the left arm versus 46.0+/-3.87% from the right arm. The disparity in external power output was further highlighted when the participants were grouped into unilateral and bilateral breathers. Unilateral breathers (n = 5) produced 57.1+/-2.62% of external power output from the left armversus 42.9+/-2.62% from the right arm (P= 0.001). Bilateral breathers (n = 5) exhibited a more balanced external power output of 51.0+/-1.82% from the left arm and 49.0+/-1.82% from the right arm (P = 0.177). Evidence of power imbalance in the simulated swimming stroke may have important implications for optimizing swim performance. The observed power imbalance may be reduced when a bilateral breathing technique is adopted.     

Measurement of total energy expenditure by the doubly labelled water method in professional soccer players

To determine the daily energy requirements of professional soccer players during a competitive season, we measured total energy expenditure in seven players (age 22.1+/-1.9 years, height 1.75+/-0.05 m, mass 69.8+/-4.7 kg; mean +/- s) using the doubly labelled water method. Energy intake was simultaneously estimated from 7 day self-report dietary records. Mean total energy expenditure and energy intake were 14.8+/-1.7 MJ x day(-1) (3532+/-408 kcal x day(-1)) and 13.0+/-2.4 MJ x day(-1) (3113+/-581 kcal x day(-1)), respectively. Although there was a significant difference between total energy expenditure and energy intake (P < 0.01), there was a strong relationship between the two (r= 0.893, P< 0.01). Basal metabolic rate and recommended energy allowance calculated from the Recommended Dietary Allowances for the Japanese were 7.0+/-0.3 MJ x day(-1) (1683+/-81 kcal x day(-1)) and 15.6+/-0.8 MJ x day(-1) (3739+/-180 kcal x day(-1)), respectively. A physical activity level (total energy expenditure/ basal metabolic rate) of 2.11+/-0.30 indicated that, during the competitive season, professional soccer players undertake much routine physical activity, similar to that of competitive athletes during moderate training. Energy intake estimated using dietary records was under-reported, suggesting that its calculation from these data does not predict energy expenditure in soccer players.     

Evidence for the importance of openness to experience on performance of a fluid intelligence task by physically active and inactive participants

The cross-sectional relationship between exercise training history and performance on a fluid intelligence test was examined. In addition, openness to experience was included as a potential trait-based contributor to predicting cognitive performance. Results supported past literature demonstrating that aerobically trained or active participants performed significantly better on the fluid intelligence task than aerobically untrained or inactive participants. Hierarchical regression analysis results revealed, as predicted, that openness to experience was a significant predictor of fluid intellectual performance. When entered into the hierarchical regression equation, openness to experience accounted for 16.0% of unique variance in Culture Fair Intelligence Test performance. By contrast, participants' exercise training history, which initially and significantly (p < .05) accounted for approximately 12.0% of the variance in cognitive performance, accounted for 5.0% (p > .05) after openness was entered. Participants were, on average, more open than inactive participants. Results are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms aerobic exercise training and openness to experience share in regard to brain functioning and performance of fluid intelligence tasks. Future research is suggested that examines biological factors known to influence cognitive performance in exercise settings.     

Cognitive interference during competition among volleyball players with different goal orientation profiles

In this study, we examined interfering thoughts during sport competition among university volleyball players as a function of dominant goal orientation and outcome. In particular, we investigated the performance worries and thoughts of escape experienced while performing in athletes with high task and low ego orientation and athletes with high ego and low task orientation. Goal orientations were assessed before the start of a volleyball tournament, whereas cognitive interference was assessed on three different occasions after games. The results revealed no consistent differences for performance worries. In contrast, in all analyses we found that athletes with high ego and low task orientations reported more thoughts of escape when losing than when winning, and more thoughts of escape than athletes with high task and low ego orientations when winning or losing. The results support in part the suggestion that a high ego orientation, when not accompanied by a high task orientation, can be linked to motivationally maladaptive cognitions.