The Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry 2009

More ‘global’, and much more digital than most would expect, the article presents trends and developments of the world’s largest cultural industry as mirrored in its Global Ranking.     

Lernen im freiwilligen Engagement und gesellschaftliche Partizipation

This contribution analyses the impact of young people’s work on political participation in adulthood on the basis of Dewey’s theory of democratic education and a theory of community service sketched by Reinders. Its primary goal is to examine whether the acquisition of specific skills and specific knowledge obtained in social and political institutions is as important for – or even more important than – future political commitment as the development of pro-social attitudes. Based on survey data (n = 2,052), these assumptions are tested using ordinal probit models. These models show that in addition to effects of changes in attitude, specific experiences in voluntary work seem to be important to promoting political participation. Political commitment is, therefore, indeed closely connected to learning and educational processes in the sense of Dewey.     

Vergleichbarkeit von Abiturleistungen

This article examines differences in the mathematics and English proficiency of academic-track students in Baden-Württemberg (N?=?3526) and Hamburg (N?=?3734), investigating whether and to what extent these differences are reflected in the Abitur grades the students are awarded. The article also examines the extent to which scores in centrally conducted examinations provide better comparability than do coursework grades. Multilevel analyses predicting coursework grades in mathematics revealed clear between-state differences, with students in Hamburg being awarded higher mathematics grades than comparably able students in Baden-Württemberg. These differences are partly attributable to frame of reference effects and their impact on teachers’ grading practices. No corresponding between-state differences were found for English. Mathematics examination scores provided a much better measure of student achievement than mathematics coursework grades. The findings are discussed in terms of meritocratic access to sought-after university and training places.     

二年制高职汽车维修与检测专业教学改革探索

随着我国汽车工业的快速发展,车辆保有量在快速增长,这给高职院校汽车维修与检测专业的生存与发展提供了前所未有的机遇.针对高职院校汽车维修与检测专业的现状和存在的问题,提出了二年制高职汽车维修与检测专业教学改革的思路.     

Pre-game hydration status, sweat loss, and fluid intake in elite Brazilian young male soccer players during competition

In this study, we assessed the pre-game hydration status and fluid balance of elite young soccer players competing in a match played in the heat (temperature 31.0 ± 2.0 ° C, relative humidity 48.0 ± 5.0%) for an official Brazilian soccer competition. Fluid intake was measured during the match, as were urine specific gravity and body mass before and after the game to estimate hydration status. Data were obtained from 15 male players (age 17.0 ± 0.6 years, height 1.78 ± 0.06 m, mass 65.3 ± 3.8 kg); however, data are only analysed for 10 players who completed the full game. The mean (± s) sweat loss of players amounted to 2.24 ± 0.63 L, and mean fluid intake was 1.12 ± 0.39 L. Pre-game urine specific gravity was 1.021 ± 0.004, ranging from 1.010 to 1.025. There was no significant correlation between sweat loss and fluid intake (r = 0.504, P = 0.137) or between urine specific gravity and fluid intake (r = -0.276, P = 0.440). We conclude that young, native tropical soccer players started the match hypohydrated and replaced about 50% of the sweat lost. Thus, effective strategies to improve fluid replacement are needed for players competing in the heat.     

Differenzielles Lehren und Lernen: eine Kritik

In this article, the differential learning approach introduced in 1999 by Wolfgang Sch?llhorn is critically examined. After positioning this concept in relation to the historical motor-action controversy between information processing and dynamical system theory, we put forward the arguments that consequences claimed for sport practice are not theoretically substantiated, that the tentative demarcation from cognitivism fundamentally fails, that the data presented stands on shaky ground and that, from a practice-related perspective, the approach manifests a severe lack of practicability. In consideration of disastrous consequences for sport practice as well as sport science, we suggest for future publications on differential learning to refrain from deficient and theoretically as well as empirically unsubstantiated recommendations for sport practice.     

Ausblick auf die Zukunft der Anti-Doping-Bewegung

The reinforced anti-doping efforts, which were initiated with the foundation of the World Anti-Doping Agency, stand before a next development step. With the amendment of the World Anti-Doping Code in 2015, critical choices are to be made in order to achieve global harmonization. In particular the repressive system has proved not to be optimized and access to education and prevention of doping also needs to be reconsidered. Based on the practical experiences of the Austrian anti-doping work and the examination of the present situation open and fundamental problem areas are identified in order to provide impetus and solutions for the international anti-doping efforts.     

BMI group-related differences in physical fitness and physical activity in preschool-age children: a cross-sectional analysis

In the Ballabeina study, we investigated age- and BMI-group-related differences in aerobic fitness (20 m shuttle run), agility (obstacle course), dynamic (balance beam) and static balance (balance platform), and physical activity (PA, accelerometers) in 613 children (M age = 5.1 years, SD = 0.6). Normal weight (NW) children performed better than overweight (OW) children in aerobic fitness, agility, and dynamic balance (all p <.001), while OWchildren had a better static balance (p < .001). BMI-group-related differences in aerobic fitness and agility were larger in older children (p for interaction with age = .01) in favor of the NW children. PA did not differ between NW and OW (p > or = .1), but did differ between NW and obese children (p < .05). BMI-group-related differences in physical fitness can already be present in preschool-age children.     

Specific managerial human capital,firm age,and venture capital financing of biopharmaceutical ventures: A contingency approach

In this article we investigate how specific human capital in biopharmaceutical ventures' management teams impacts the financial commitment of venture capital investors. Further, we explore how this impact changes with the venture's age. We draw on data from 138 VC financing rounds in the US and Europe to show that biopharmaceutical ventures with greater portions of specific managerial human capital in the fields of management, law, medicine, and biosciences acquire more money in venture capital financing rounds, but this effect is contingent on the age of the venture. We discuss the implications of these findings for the literature on VC financing of high technology ventures.     

Robots: ethical by design

Among ethicists and engineers within robotics there is an ongoing discussion as to whether ethical robots are possible or even desirable. We answer both of these questions in the positive, based on an extensive literature study of existing arguments. Our contribution consists in bringing together and reinterpreting pieces of information from a variety of sources. One of the conclusions drawn is that artifactual morality must come in degrees and depend on the level of agency, autonomy and intelligence of the machine. Moral concerns for agents such as intelligent search machines are relatively simple, while highly intelligent and autonomous artifacts with significant impact and complex modes of agency must be equipped with more advanced ethical capabilities. Systems like cognitive robots are being developed that are expected to become part of our everyday lives in future decades. Thus, it is necessary to ensure that their behaviour is adequate. In an analogy with artificial intelligence, which is the ability of a machine to perform activities that would require intelligence in humans, artificial morality is considered to be the ability of a machine to perform activities that would require morality in humans. The capacity for artificial (artifactual) morality, such as artifactual agency, artifactual responsibility, artificial intentions, artificial (synthetic) emotions, etc., come in varying degrees and depend on the type of agent. As an illustration, we address the assurance of safety in modern High Reliability Organizations through responsibility distribution. In the same way that the concept of agency is generalized in the case of artificial agents, the concept of moral agency, including responsibility, is generalized too. We propose to look at artificial moral agents as having functional responsibilities within a network of distributed responsibilities in a socio-technological system. This does not take away the responsibilities of the other stakeholders in the system, but facilitates an understanding and regulation of such networks. It should be pointed out that the process of development must assume an evolutionary form with a number of iterations because the emergent properties of artifacts must be tested in real world situations with agents of increasing intelligence and moral competence. We see this paper as a contribution to the macro-level Requirement Engineering through discussion and analysis of general requirements for design of ethical robots.