THE FUNCTION OF THE HOME

Several months ago, while on a trip East, the editor conversed with a fellow‐traveller about a projected plan for introducing weekday religious education in Ellwood City, Pa. The plan as developed contains several rather interesting features, which may be of value to those planning week‐day instruction in other places. With the consent of Rev. Arthur M. Stevenson, to whose tact and good judgment the successful outcome is largely due, we print his letter giving details.     

Kinematic analysis of the double side kick in pointfighting,kickboxing

The double side kick is a frequently used technique in pointfighting on which most offensive kicking techniques are based on. The aim of the study was to identify parameters, e.g., trunk and leg positions, durations and velocities that affect successful technique execution.

44 fighters, male and female, including European and World champions, participated in the research. The participants performed double side kicks to a punching bag with the target at chest level. 10 international experts scored (1–10 points; interrater correlation ICC (3,1): 0.952) videos of the best individual trial for quality of technique execution. Based on the average of the scores participants were categorised into 2 equally sized groups. For kinematic data acquisition, a Vicon 3D-motion capturing system was used. The normalised knee height of the kick leg (KHK), normalised absolute distance to the frontal shoulder (DKS) at the end of both chambering phases, the horizontal velocity during both chambering phases (KEV), the durations of all 6 functional phases and total duration, were analysed.

KHK1, KHK2, DKS1 and DKS2, total duration as well as 4 out of 6 phase durations and KEV1 showed significant differences between groups in two-sided t-test or Mann–Whitney U-test for not normally distributed variables.     

Protective role of onion against acute alcoholic fatty liver

Rats were fasted for 8 hours and then fed 3 ml of 25% (v/v) ethanol per 100g body weight and subsequently sacrificed 18 hours later. The levels of triacylglycerols and total cholesterol were significantly raised in serum and liver of alcohol fed rats. However, when rats were fed on aqucous extract of onions (300 mg per 100g body weight) with 25% ethanol, no rise in serum and liver lipids was observed. Alcohol fed to the fats with or without onion extract had no effect on serum, AST, ALT and alkaline phosphatase levels. The increase in serum urea in ethanol-fed rats was not altered in rats fed a mixture of alcohol and onion extracts. Values of liver MDA was lower in rats fed ethanol with or without onion extract compared to controls. Onion extract seemed to show a hypolipidemic effect in alcohol fed rats.     

Assessing college student perceptions of instructor customer service via the Quality of Instructor Service to Students (QISS) Questionnaire

This study presents the results of a three‐step project designed to: (1) identify what students perceive to be quality service as offered by instructors, (2) relate the dimensions identified to an appropriate survey instrument (the QISS) and pilot‐test the instrument, and (3) survey a stratified representative sample of the undergraduate population with the instrument. A stratified sample of students (N=457) were surveyed using the QISS questionnaire in the spring semester of 2004. The QISS is a modified SERVQUAL questionnaire. Results indicate that students consistently identify Reliability and Responsiveness as the most important dimensions of instructor service to students. Female students consistently report that their experiences with instructors do not meet their expectations. The same holds true for males but to a lesser degree. Information provided from this kind of assessment provides a means of identifying areas where student satisfaction is already strong and areas where it can be improved.     

UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY IN THE COMPUTER AGE

Through increasingly sophisticated computerization, libraries will evolve from being passive depositories of published materials to becoming dynamic information systems. Stored information will be analyzed and recoinbined in original ways which are similar to the processes occurring on the frontiers of disciplines which are giving rise to new combined disciplines: Thus the partnership of computerized information systems and interdisciplinary scientific research will vastly widen the frontiers of human discovery.     

A Fistful of Headings: Name Authority Control for Video Recordings

Lower DVD costs and increased patron demand have led to more video recordings in library catalogs. With long lists of cast and crew, these catalog records are more detailed than many books. For institutions requiring authorized name headings, both personal and corporate, heavily detailed catalog records for video recordings can be burdensome. Not all libraries that contribute original cataloging records to utilities such as OCLC are authorized to create corresponding authority records. A recent survey asked a sample of catalog librarians of video recordings in different types of libraries about their viewpoints and workflows in the context of authority control.     

Development of legal expertise

In a comprehensive empirical investigation (N = 71,405) we analyzed the development of legal expertise in a critical 1-year period of academic legal training in which advanced law students start practicing to solve complex cases. We were particularly interested in the functional form of the learning curve and inter-individual differences in learning. Performance increases monotonically with the number of practice exams following a slightly concave learning curve without any considerable kinks. Considering the performance development over time, however, the curve is not monotonic and shows intermediate drops in performance. We provide evidence which suggests that these drops are due to cyclic drops in motivation. There are about equally sized marginal effects of practicing law exams in general and practicing exams in the specific area of law. However, students with high (vs. low) initial performance profit more from practicing exams within a specific area of law whereas students with low initial performance profit more from practicing exams in general. The concave increase in performance with the number of practicing exams is mainly driven by individuals with low initial performance. Those with high initial performance mainly display a linear learning trend. We discuss the practical implications of these findings for academic legal training.