Effect of a Hanging Exercise on the Epiphyseal Cartilage of the Humerus of Albino Rats

This study was designed to determine the number of days of pedometer monitoring necessary to achieve reliable and valid estimates of a 1-year average of step counts in adults based on either consecutive days (CD) or random days (RD) of data collection. Twenty-three participants (16 women; M age = 38 years, SD = 9.9) wore a Yamax SW 200 pedometer and recorded their step counts for 365 consecutive days. Nine measurement periods of various lengths were selected (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 21, and 30 days). Each measurement period was randomly selected 10 times each for CD and RD from the larger database. For reliability and validity, two-way intraclass correlation coefficients and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) were calculated, respectively. The year-round average was considered the criterion measure of the “true” habitual physical activity. Data were analyzed separately by CD and RD. At least 5 CD or 6 RD were necessary to achieve an ICC of .80. A minimum of 30 CD or 14 RD were necessary to achieve an MAPE lower than 10%. These findings provide researchers and practitioners with useful information to determine appropriate measurement length and the method of data selection based on a desired level of reliability and validity.     

Kinematic analysis of three water polo front crawl styles

During water polo matches, players use different front crawl styles. The purpose of this study was to conduct a kinematic analysis of three water polo front crawl styles: front crawl with head under water, front crawl with head above water, and front crawl when leading the ball. Ten proficient water polo players performed 3 × 15 m sprints in each front crawl style, which were recorded three-dimensionally by two surface and four underwater cameras. The results showed no differences in performance and several kinematic characteristics among the water polo front crawl styles. However, front crawl when leading the ball showed shorter stroke length and greater stroke frequency. Front crawl with head underwater presented greater maximal finger depth and elbow angle at mid-stroke position. Front crawl with head above water and when leading the ball showed greater trunk obliquity and maximal depth of right and left foot, and shorter kick stroke frequency. The findings suggest that proficient players learn to master front crawl with head above water to achieve top velocity. Despite the common use of the front crawl with head underwater as the basis for water polo fast displacement, coaches should emphasize the use of the specific water polo styles to attain high performance.     

Intergenerational conflict and public education expenditure when there is co-residence between the elderly and young

The main objective of this paper is to show that a family arrangement in which the elderly co-reside with the young determines that the elderly support the public education expenditure. Considering that this type of family arrangement is more common in Latin American countries than in the United States, our study is concentrated in Brazil. This study is based on a panel of 2054 Brazilian municipalities using data from the 1991 and 2000 censuses.     

The association of child abuse and neglect with adult disability in schizophrenia and the prominent role of physical neglect

ObjectiveTo assess long-lasting effects of childhood trauma on the functional outcome of adult patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.MethodNinety-nine stable patients with schizophrenia followed in an outpatient program at a public university hospital in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, were investigated for childhood traumatic experiences by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and for functional impairment by the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHO/DAS). The schizophrenia diagnosis was assessed by ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria according to the Operational Criteria Checklist for Psychotic Illness (OPCRIT).ResultsChildhood trauma in general was associated with increased disability in adulthood, reflected by impaired Overall Behavior (p = .023) and Global Evaluation (p = .032). Analysis of specific traumatic domains revealed that increased childhood physical neglect was associated with functional impairment in Overall Behavior (p < .000), Social Role Performance (p = .037) and Global Evaluation (p = .014). Higher emotional abuse was associated with impaired Overall Behavior (p = .026), and higher emotional neglect with poor Global Evaluation (p = .047). Additionally, earlier onset of illness was associated with lower level of functioning evidenced by impairment in Overall Behavior (p = .042). Linear regression using WHO/DAS sections (Overall Behavior, Social Role Performance and Global Evaluation) as dependent variables and CTQ subscales indicated that only physical neglect had an effect on adult functionality.ConclusionsChildhood trauma was associated with functional and social impairment in adult patients with schizophrenia. Specific types of abuse and neglect, such as physical neglect and emotional abuse and neglect, influenced disability, and the most robust association was physical neglect. Studies involving more patients, with normal controls and additional measurements of biological liability, should be conducted to confirm this association and to increase the understanding of gene-environment relationship in schizophrenia and pathways to disability.Practice implicationsFurther investigation is warranted to clarify the association between childhood trauma and disability in schizophrenia, as well as to develop standardized instruments for the assessment of trauma and earlier detection of risk along with education of patients and families about adequate care, in an effort to reduce the incidence of disability in schizophrenia.     

Learning-by-Consuming and the Dynamics of the Demand and Prices of Cultural Goods

The major distinctive feature of cultural goods is that consumers must learn how to consume them, implying that preferences should be modelled as intertemporally dependent. The canonical model in the literature uses a habit formation analogy. In this paper, we discuss in detail, though in the simplest setup, a consistent preference structure for that model. Then, we derive the implications for the dynamics of two aggregate equilibrium models, a fixed price model and a flexible price model. The learning-by-consuming behaviour is characterised by a preference structure displaying bounded adjacent complementarity in the demand for the cultural good. This implies that there will be short run complementarity between the stocks of culture and financial wealth and that the adjustment of the demand for cultural goods, or of their relative price, will have some inertia. In the exogenous price model, we find that increases in income will raise the long run demand for cultural goods while increases in the relative price will decrease it. In the endogenous price model, an increase in the supply of cultural goods will imply an initial undershooting of the price of cultural goods followed by an upward transition process. Our results seem to be consistent with the empirical results on the demand for cultural goods and seem to offer an explanation for the Baumol and Bowen paradox.JEL Classification: Z1, E21Earlier versions of this paper have been presented at the 1st Conference of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Investigação em Economia (SPiE, 1997) and at the Xth Conference of the Association for Cultural Economics International, 1998, Barcelona.     

Marxism in Vygotskian approaches to cultural studies of science education

In this paper we initially address the main categories of Marxism, illustrating how Vygotsky has appropriated them as mediational meta-theoretical tools for building concepts for his psychological approach. In order to investigate the influence of Marxism in cultural studies of science education, we make an account of how current research, sustained by Vygotsky’s original and successor theories, has been appropriating meta-theoretical categories of dialectical materialism. Once we identified Cultural Studies of Science Education as a journal that would probably concentrate papers that follow these perspectives, we decided to take it as the context of this study. In the process of selecting the corpus to be reviewed from the editions published from 2006 to 2011, we have found that 16 % of the articles that matched keywords denoting frameworks related to the Vygotskian tradition developed and appropriated the categories of dialectical materialism. The quality and originality of contemporary development of CHAT denote that this framework has been playing a very important role in recent expansion of Vygotskian approaches to research in science education. Among the papers that we considered to develop and appropriate Vygotskian frameworks, incompletion in the appropriation of meta-theoretical categories of dialectical materialism and the misusage of dialectics intertwined with dialogism were highlighted. Our findings suggest that overcoming these limitations can enhance political analysis of sociocultural phenomena in the context of science education. It also represents a strengthening of the role of dialectical materialism in expanding sociocultural perspectives toward a better articulation between individual and institutional-centered analyses.     

Aerobic exercise did not have compensatory effects on physical activity levels in type 2 diabetes patients

Although exercise promotes beneficial effects in diabetic patients, some studies have questioned the degree of their importance in terms of the increase in total energy expenditure. In these studies, the decrease of physical activity levels (PAL) was referred as “compensatory effect of exercise”. However, our aim was to investigate whether aerobic exercise has compensatory effects on PAL in type 2 diabetes patients. Eight volunteers (51.1 ± 8.2 years) were enrolled in a supervised exercise programme for 8 weeks (3 d · wk^?1, 50–60% of VO₂ peak for 30–60 min). PAL was measured using tri-axial accelerometers in the 1st, 8th and 12th weeks. Biochemical tests, cardiorespiratory fitness, anthropometric assessment and body composition were measured in the 2nd and 11th weeks. Statistical analysis was performed using non-parametric tests (Friedman and Wilcoxon, P < 0.05). We found no significant differences in PAL between intervention periods, and participants spent the majority of their awake time in sedentary activities. However, the exercise programme generated a significant 14.8% increase in VO₂ peak and a 15% reduction in fructosamine. The exercise programme had no compensatory effects on PAL in type 2 diabetes patients, but improved their cardiorespiratory fitness and glycaemic control.     

Integrator element as a promoter of active learning in engineering teaching

In this paper, we present a teaching proposal used in an Introductory Physics course to civil engineering students from Porto's Engineering Institute/Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP). The proposal was born from the need to change students’ perception and motivation for learning physics. It consists in the use of an integrator element, called the physics elevator project. This integrator element allows us to use, in a single project, all the content taught in the course and uses several active learning strategies. In this paper, we analyse this project as: (i) a clarifying element of the contents covered in the course; (ii) a promoter element of motivation and active participation in class and finally and (iii) a link between the contents covered in the course and the ‘real world’. The data were collected by a questionnaire and interviews to students. From the data collected, it seems that the integrator element improves students’ motivation towards physics and develops several skills that they consider to be important to their professional future. It also acts as a clarifying element and makes the connection between the physics that is taught and the ‘real world’.     

Tools for Science Inquiry Learning: Tool Affordances,Experimentation Strategies,and Conceptual Understanding

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Manipulative environments play a fundamental role in inquiry-based science learning, yet how they impact learning is not fully understood. In a series...     

Sodium bicarbonate ingestion increases glycolytic contribution and improves performance during simulated taekwondo combat

Purpose: To investigate the effect of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) on performance and estimated energy system contribution during simulated taekwondo combat. Methods: Nine taekwondo athletes completed two experimental sessions separated by at least 48?h. Athletes consumed 300?mg/kg body mass of NaHCO₃ or placebo (CaCO₃) 90?min before the combat simulation (three rounds of 2 min separated by 1 min passive recovery), in a double-blind, randomized, repeated-measures crossover design. All simulated combat was filmed to quantify the time spent fighting in each round. Lactate concentration [La^?] and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured before and after each round, whereas heart rate (HR) and the estimated contribution of the oxidative (W_OXI), ATP (adenosine triphosphate)-phosphocreatine (PCr) (W_PCR), and glycolytic (W_{[ La^? ]}) systems were calculated during the combat simulation. Results: [La^?] increased significantly after NaHCO₃ ingestion, when compared with the placebo condition (+14%, P?=?0.04, d?=?3.70). NaHCO₃ ingestion resulted in greater estimated glycolytic energy contribution in the first round when compared with the placebo condition (+31%, P?=?0.01, d?=?3.48). Total attack time was significantly greater after NaHCO₃ when compared with placebo (+13%, P?=?0.05, d?=?1.15). W_OXI, W_PCR, VO₂, HR and RPE were not different between conditions (P?>?0.05). Conclusion: NaHCO₃ ingestion was able to increase the contribution of glycolytic metabolism and, therefore, improve performance during simulated taekwondo combat.