Flowing Networks in the Entertainment Business: Organizing International TV Format Trade

Little is known about entertainment acquisition and production, especially the international format trade, although its worldwide market volume adds up to about 2.4 billion. Format trade is a process along the stages of creating, distributing, producing or reproducing, and broadcasting entertainment programs. Findings of a current empirical research project conducted by means of in-person interviews with managers in Germany and the United Kingdom reveal a phenomenon by which the particular organizations involved (creators, distributors, producers, and broadcast stations) establish structures that are called “flowing organizational networks.” Depending on situational requirements and the respective stages of the format trade process, actors tend to activate different organizational structures.     

Relational maintenance behaviors in the sibling relationship

Beatty, McCroskey, and Heisel (1998) argue that a limitation of current intervention research on communication apprehension is that the experimental designs employed in this research have failed to take into account the effects of testing on participants, among other things. To address this issue, this study employed a Solomon Four‐Group Design, which controls for testing effects, to examine whether systematic desensitization, a widely used procedure for reducing communication apprehension, would reduce communication apprehension beyond the level attributable to repeated testing. These data indicate that systematic desensitization produced a significant reduction in communication apprehension that cannot be explained by “testing effects.” The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings.     

AN INTEGRATION PROGRAM

This is an account of a teacher education program's attempt to connect with a neighboring community in order to better prepare faculty to teach about the urban context in which their preservice teacher education students practice. Taking a feminist perspective, the two authors discuss their goals—the processes of using a community organization to lead the discussion and obstacles inherent to university settings. Knowledge about urban communities is an area that is often neglected in teacher preparation and one that needs to be more fully considered.     

Characteristics of an Effective Community College Web Site

This study examined the characteristics of a community college Web site by using focus groups and questionnaires with currently enrolled students. Consistent with other studies, organization and content are highly valued. Unlike previous studies, however, many participants did not utilize the Web at all in their application process. This study concludes with implications for practice and recommendations based on the findings.     

Service Design in Student Affairs: Blueprinting the Student Experience

Innovative Higher Education - Service blueprinting is a service design technique commonly used by for-profit organizations to illustrate and enhance customer experiences. This article describes an...     

The effect of recovery strategies on physical performance and cumulative fatigue in competitive basketball

Abstract

To evaluate the effectiveness of recovery strategies on physical performance during a 3-day tournament style basketball competition, 29 male players (mean age 19.1 years, s = 2.1; height 1.84 m, s = 0.34; body mass 88.5 kg, s = 14.7) were assigned to one of three treatment groups: carbohydrate + stretching (7.7 g · kg ^?1 · day ^?1, s = 1.7; ‘n = 9), cold water immersion (11°C, 5 × 1; n = 10) or full leg compression garments (18 mmHg, ～18 h; n = 10). Effects of the recovery strategies on pre–post tournament performance tests were expressed as the mean change (% ± standard deviation of the change score). Changes and differences were standardized for accumulated game time, assessed against the smallest worthwhile change for each test, and reported qualitatively. Accumulated fatigue was evident over the tournament with small to moderate impairments in performance tests. Sprint and agility performance decreased by 0.7% (s = 1.3) and 2.0% (s = 1.9) respectively. Vertical jump decreased substantially after the first day for all treatments, and remained suppressed post-tournament. Cold water immersion was substantially better in maintaining 20-m acceleration with only a 0.5% (s = 1.4) reduction in 20-m time after 3 days compared with a 3.2% (s = 1.6) reduction for compression. Cold water immersion (?1.4%, s = 1.7) and compression (?1.5%, s = 1.7) showed similar substantial benefits in maintaining line-drill performance over the tournament, whereas carbohydrate + stretching elicited a 0.4% (s = 1.8) reduction. Sit-and-reach flexibility decreased for all groups, although cold water immersion resulted in the smallest reduction in flexibility. Basketball tournament play elicited small to moderate impairments in physical test performance. In conclusion, cold water immersion appears to promote better restoration of physical performance measures than carbohydrate + stretching routines and compression garments.     

The validity and reliability of a novel app for the measurement of change of direction performance

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present investigation was to analyze the validity and reliability of a novel iPhone app (CODTimer) for the measurement of total time and interlimb asymmetry in the 5 + 5 change of direction test (COD). To do so, twenty physically active adolescent athletes (age = 13.85 ± 1.34 years) performed six repetitions in the COD test while being measured with a pair of timing gates and CODTimer. A total of 120 COD times measured both with the timing gates and the app were then compared for validity and reliability purposes. There was an almost perfect correlation between the timing gates and the CODTimer app for the measurement of total time (r = 0.964; 95% Confidence interval (CI) = 0.95–1.00; Standard error of the estimate = 0.03 s.; p < 0.001). Moreover, non-significant, trivial differences were observed between devices for the measurement of total time and interlimb asymmetry (Effect size < 0.2, p > 0.05). Similar levels of reliability were observed between the timing gates and the app for the measurement of the 6 different trials of each participant (Timing gates: Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.651–0.747, Coefficient of variation (CV) = 2.6–3.5%; CODTimer: ICC = 0.671–0.840, CV = 2.2–3.2%). The results of the present study show that change of direction performance can be measured in a valid, reliable way using a novel iPhone app.     

Children Who Read Words Accurately Despite Language Impairment: Who Are They and How Do They Do It?

Some children learn to read accurately despite language impairments (LI). Nine- to 10-year-olds were categorized as having LI only ( n  =   35), dyslexia (DX) only ( n  =   73), LI + DX ( n  =   54), or as typically developing (TD; n  =   176). The LI-only group had mild to moderate deficits in reading comprehension. They were similar to the LI + DX group on most language measures, but rapid serial naming was superior to the LI + DX group and comparable to the TD. For a subset of children seen at 4 and 6 years, early phonological skills were equally poor in those later classified as LI or LI + DX. Poor language need not hinder acquisition of decoding, so long as rapid serial naming is intact; reading comprehension, however, is constrained by LI.