Enhancing the MeSH thesaurus to retrieve French online health resources in a quality-controlled gateway

The amount of health information available on the Internet is considerable. In this context, several health gateways have been developed. Among them, CISMeF (Catalogue and Index of Health Resources in French) was designed to catalogue and index health resources in French. The goal of this article is to describe the various enhancements to the MeSH thesaurus developed by the CISMeF team to adapt this terminology to the broader field of health Internet resources instead of scientific articles for the medline bibliographic database. CISMeF uses two standard tools for organizing information: the MeSH thesaurus and several metadata element sets, in particular the Dublin Core metadata format. The heterogeneity of Internet health resources led the CISMeF team to enhance the MeSH thesaurus with the introduction of two new concepts, respectively, resource types and metaterms. CISMeF resource types are a generalization of the publication types of medline. A resource type describes the nature of the resource and MeSH keyword/qualifier pairs describe the subject of the resource. A metaterm is generally a medical specialty or a biological science, which has semantic links with one or more MeSH keywords, qualifiers and resource types. The CISMeF terminology is exploited for several tasks: resource indexing performed manually, resource categorization performed automatically, visualization and navigation through the concept hierarchies and information retrieval using the Doc'CISMeF search engine. The CISMeF health gateway uses several MeSH thesaurus enhancements to optimize information retrieval, hierarchy navigation and automatic indexing.     

Exploring students’ expectations of learning analytics: A person-centered approach

Education and Information Technologies - In order to successfully implement learning analytics (LA), we need a better understanding of student expectations of such services. Yet, there is still a...     

Kompetenzniveaus in der ingenieurwissenschaftlichen akademischen Grundbildung – Analysen im Fach Technische Mechanik

This paper examines subject-specific structures and the levels achieved by students of Mechanical and Construction Engineering in the subject of Engineering Mechanics (EM). EM presents a major obstacle for students in the two courses of study mentioned. Until now, researchers have not examined which characteristics of the requirements in EM cause this obstacle. Initial efforts to address this research gap were made in the research project KoM@ING. Competence structure modelling confirms three dimensions of EM: statics, elastostatics and dynamics. This paper presents results on proficiency scaling for statics and dynamics. We found that the subject-specific mathematical requirements primarily explain the item difficulties. Moreover, the following features are relevant for item difficulty: the number of solution steps (for statics), the number of EM-specific terms and the content-specific features of complexity (for dynamics). The mathematical requirements and the content-specific features of complexity are revealed as important didactic elements in this higher education context.     

Biomechanical pole and leg characteristics during uphill diagonal roller skiing

Diagonal skiing as a major classical technique has hardly been investigated over the last two decades, although technique and racing velocities have developed substantially. The aims of the present study were to 1) analyse pole and leg kinetics and kinematics during submaximal uphill diagonal roller skiing and 2) identify biomechanical factors related to performance. Twelve elite skiers performed a time to exhaustion (performance) test on a treadmill. Joint kinematics and pole/plantar forces were recorded separately during diagonal roller skiing (9°; 11 km/h). Performance was correlated to cycle length (r = 0.77; P < 0.05), relative leg swing (r = 0.71), and gliding time (r = 0.74), hip flexion range of motion (ROM) during swing (r = 0.73) and knee extension ROM during gliding (r = 0.71). Push-off demonstrated performance correlations for impulse of leg force (r = 0.84), relative duration (r = ? 0.76) and knee flexion (r = 0.73) and extension ROM (r = 0.74). Relative time to peak pole force was associated with performance (r = 0.73). In summary, diagonal roller skiing performance was linked to 1) longer cycle length, 2) greater impulse of force during a shorter push-off with larger flexion/extension ROMs in leg joints, 3) longer leg swing, and 4) later peak pole force, demonstrating the major key characteristics to be emphasised in training.     

The role of community in the development of elite handball and football players in Denmark

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the place of early development in a sample of Danish male elite and youth handball and football players. The sample included 366 handball and football players from the elite Danish league in the season 2011–2012 and a comparison sample of youth players under the age of 12 from 2003, including 147,221 football and 26,290 handball players. Odds ratio analysis showed that both population size and density significantly affected the proportional number of youth players per community and the odds of athletes reaching an elite level in football and handball. The odds for youth player registrations in both handball and football increased in rural in contrast to urban communities. However, elite football players primarily came from communities of high density (>1000 pop./km²), whereas elite handball players primarily came from less densely populated communities (100 to <250 pop./km²). Furthermore, there seems to be a relation between representation of elite and talent clubs in different communities and the probability of becoming an elite player in both sports. The limited number of elite players in both sports from rural communities may be due to national talent development strategies that do not incorporate development support for clubs in rural areas. Additionally, the results of the study clearly suggest the need to include the youth player population to advance research findings in birthplace effect studies.     

A longitudinal analysis of the reciprocal relationship between academic procrastination,study satisfaction,and dropout intentions in higher education

Student dropout is a multi-causal process. Different theoretical models on student dropout consider dysfunctional study behavior (e.g., academic procrastination) and low study satisfaction as possible determinants of students’ dropout intentions during their university studies. However, these models neglect contemporary conceptualizations that assume reverse relationships between dropout intentions and other determinants of the dropout process. Until now, empirical evidence on these assumptions is scant. The present three-wave longitudinal study explored the reciprocal relationships between academic procrastination, study satisfaction, and dropout intentions over one semester. To this end, we used data of N = 326 undergraduate students enrolled in mathematics and law. Our latent cross-lagged panel model replicated existing empirical cross-sectional findings between the variables (i.e., academic procrastination, study satisfaction, and dropout intentions). Regarding the longitudinal relations, as expected, the cross-lagged effects showed that higher dropout intentions significantly related to subsequent higher academic procrastination and lower study satisfaction. Unexpectedly, academic procrastination did not significantly relate to subsequent dropout intentions. Additionally, higher study satisfaction significantly associated with subsequent higher dropout intentions—possibly due to unfulfilled expectations. Further, higher study satisfaction significantly related to subsequent higher procrastination—possibly due to more confidence among satisfied students. Our results broaden the view on dropout intentions as part of the dynamic interplay of student dropout determinants and the need to refine dropout models’ assumptions accordingly. Practically, realistic expectations seem important to reduce dropout intentions. Further, student counselors should have a closer look at the reasons for academic procrastination to develop individual solutions for this dysfunctional behavior.