Relative efficiency of R&D activities: A cross-country study accounting for environmental factors in the DEA approach

This paper applies the production framework associated with the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method to evaluate the relative efficiency of R&D activities across countries. R&D capital stocks and manpower are treated as inputs while patents and academic publications are considered as outputs. A three-stage approach, which involves using DEA for evaluating efficiency and using Tobit regressions for controlling the external environment, is applied to 30 countries in recent years. The results show that less than one-half of the countries are fully efficient in R&D activities and that more than two-thirds are at the stage of increasing returns to scale. Most countries have a more significant advantage in producing SCI cum EI publications than in generating patents.     

Marital conflict and conduct problems in Children of Twins

The Children-of-Twins design was used to test whether associations between marital conflict frequency and conduct problems can be replicated within the children of discordant twin pairs. A sample of 2,051 children (age 14-39 years) of 1,045 twins was used to estimate the genetic and environmental influences on marital conflict and determine whether genetic or environmental selection processes underlie the observed association between marital conflict and conduct problems. Results indicate that genetic and nonshared environmental factors influence the risk of marital conflict. Furthermore, genetic influences mediated the association between marital conflict frequency and conduct problems. These results highlight the need for quasiexperimental designs in investigations of intergenerational associations.     

Lifelong learning and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Probing the implications and the effects

International Review of Education -     

The oxygen-conserving potential of the diving response: A kinetic-based analysis

We investigated the oxygen-conserving potential of the human diving response by comparing trained breath-hold divers (BHDs) to non-divers (NDs) during simulated dynamic breath-holding (BH). Changes in haemodynamics [heart rate (HR), stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO)] and peripheral muscle oxygenation [oxyhaemoglobin ([HbO₂]), deoxyhaemoglobin ([HHb]), total haemoglobin ([tHb]), tissue saturation index (TSI)] and peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO₂) were continuously recorded during simulated dynamic BH. BHDs showed a breaking point in HR kinetics at mid-BH immediately preceding a more pronounced drop in HR (?0.86 bpm.%^?1) while HR kinetics in NDs steadily decreased throughout BH (?0.47 bpm.%^?1). By contrast, SV remained unchanged during BH in both groups (all P > 0.05). Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) results (mean ± SD) expressed as percentage changes from the initial values showed a lower [HHb] increase for BHDs than for NDs at the cessation of BH (+24.0 ± 10.1 vs. +39.2 ± 9.6%, respectively; P < 0.05). As a result, BHDs showed a [tHb] drop that NDs did not at the end of BH (?7.3 ± 3.2 vs. ?3.0 ± 4.7%, respectively; P < 0.05). The most striking finding of the present study was that BHDs presented an increase in oxygen-conserving efficiency due to substantial shifts in both cardiac and peripheral haemodynamics during simulated BH. In addition, the kinetic-based approach we used provides further credence to the concept of an “oxygen-conserving breaking point” in the human diving response.     

Emotional energy and sub-cultural politics: alternative bands in post-1997 Hong Kong

The paper attempts to work out the link between the structuring of the public domain and hegemonic masculinities in contemporary Kerala, South India. Using the debates around an incident of sexual harassment that happened in 1999, it argues for a conjunctural understanding of the contemporary where various events and moments in history are replayed through narrativization and popular memory. The paper goes on to analyse the debates around the incident that produce a ‘narrative public domain’, to foreground the various notions of masculinity that construct and structure it in relation to notions of female sexuality and changing structures of family. These notions of masculinity could be, the paper argues, a starting point for a historical inquiry into Kerala's modernity – an inquiry that would throw light on the past and the ways in which the contemporary is produced through its historical legacies.     

Understanding the role of shaft stiffness in the golf swing

Theoretically, shaft stiffness can alter shot distance by increasing clubhead speed or altering clubhead orientation at impact. A 3D forward dynamics model of a golfer and flexible club simulated the downswing. A genetic algorithm optimized the coordination of the model’s muscles (four torque generators) to maximize clubhead speed. The maximum torque output and maximum rate of torque development from the torque generators were varied to simulate the swing of golfers that generate different clubhead speeds. Four shafts of varying stiffness (flexible, regular, stiff, and completely rigid) were entered into these simulations to examine the role that shaft flexibility had on clubhead speed and orientation at impact. Shaft stiffness was found to have a meaningful effect only on clubhead orientation (dynamic loft and dynamic close) at impact. There was no evidence to support the premise that matching the stiffness properties of the shaft with the golfer would improve clubhead speed.