Impelling research productivity and impact through collaboration: a scientometric case study of knowledge management

A case study for impelling university research productivity and impact through collaboration is presented. Scientometric results support the hypothesis that a knowledge management model increased research collaboration and thereby boosted a university’s number of publications and citations. Results come from fifteen years of data at a Mexican university with 2400 researchers who produced 24,000 works in fifteen research disciplines. These data are treated with social network visualizations and algorithms to identify patterns of collaboration and clustering, as well as with normalizations to make disciplines comparable and to verify increasing citation impact. The knowledge management model implemented in the study may be a cost-effective way for universities to intensify collaboration and improve research performance.     

Relations Between Effective Emotional Self-Regulation, Attentional Control, and Low-Income Preschoolers' Social Competence with Peers

Relations between children's emotional self-regulation, attentional control, and peer social competence (as reported by both teachers and peers) were examined for 51 low-income, preschool-aged children enrolled in Head Start. Using a short delay-of-gratification task administered at Head Start sites, children's use of self- distraction was found to be positively associated with their success in handling the delay, replicating previous, laboratory-based research. Contrary to our expectations, children's use of self-distraction was found to be unrelated to their attentional control, as assessed during a computer task. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that children's use of self-distraction predicted significant variance in both peer- and teacher-reports of childrem's competence with peers, even after children's attentional control was statistically taken into account. These findings are discussed in light of current models of reactivity and regulation in predicting young children's social behavior, as well as in the context of early intervention efforts for children facing socioeconomic risk.     

Predicting Spelling Behaviour in 7 to 11 Year-olds

There is an increasing number of studies which demonstrate that readers in more transparent orthographies than English, such as Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Greek and German have little difficulty in decoding written words, while English children have many more problems. Increasingly, lack of orthographic transparency in English is seen as having a powerful negative effect on the development of reading skills in English-speaking children. There is evidence that English-speaking children who fail to acquire reading skills may fall into two distinct categories: those who would succeed in languages, other than English, that have greater orthographic consistency; and, those who would still have problems even with perfect orthographic transparency. The first, larger, group are let down by the interaction of poor teaching methods and an incomprehensible system of orthography. At Hull University’s Institute for Learning, word factors associated with poor spelling and reading have been identified. We have found three factors which account for the relative ease with which pupils can spell words: frequency of the word in the English language, length of the word, and the presence of “tricky” letters or letter combinations. Data is presented illustrating our predictive model of spelling which enables word difficulty to be calculated from the characteristics of English words. The implications the model has for teaching and learning English is elaborated, with particular reference to the most common 150 words in the English language.     

Physical,physiological, and technical demands of national netball umpires at different competition levels

ABSTRACT

To compare demands of national netball umpires between levels of competition, 22 Netball New Zealand high-performance umpires participated in this investigation. These included from highest to lowest standard: 9 × semi-professional ANZ Championships (ANZC); 6 × National A Squad (NZA); and 7 × National Development Squad (DEV). Physical (global positioning system tri-axial accelerometry), physiological (heart rate) and technical (video analysis) demands were determined for 48 (16 per group) umpire match performances. Level of competition had no significant effect on physical or mean physiological demands. However, ANZC umpires spent a lower proportion of time at low heart rates compared to DEV, and a greater proportion of time at high, rather than moderate, heart rates compared to NZA. Compared to lower standard umpires, ANZC spent lesser proportions of time standing but greater proportions of time walking backwards and sideways, and turning to change direction. Furthermore, ANZC umpires spent lower proportions of time jogging, but greater proportions of time sprinting compared to DEV. Finally, ANZC umpires spent longer mean durations than DEV on the goal third side line. As such, the difference in demands experienced by national netball umpires between levels of competition is more technical than physical or physiological.     

Light distribution from rectangular sources

The rectangular light source is more frequently encountered in engineering practice than any other form. Thus, both for artificial lighting and natural lighting, it is desirable to have convenient methods of obtaining the light distributions produced by rectangular sources. We have attempted to supply this need by calculating pharosage from sources of uniform helios and also for the non-uniform sources representing average overcast skies. Figures 5 to io are found to be particularly convenient in the visualization of light distributions.The results of these graphs are readily extended to any point and to surfaces tilted at any angle, provided that the plane of the illuminated surface does not cut the source.In conclusion, we wish to express our appreciation of the careful work of the computers: Messrs. L. S. Castlemann M. S. Cettei, J. C. Gibbs, A. L. Keller, G. J. Laurent, V. Lippitt, J. M. Margolskee, L. Mautner, J. Topalian.     

Radiant Flux Through Apertures— II

Equations for the radiant flux through apertures are well-known. But the exact equations are cumbersome and give little direct insight into the behavior of aperture systems. The present paper considers simple approximate equations for rectangular apertures in parallel planes and in perpendicular planes. It extends the previous work (square apertures) to the general case of rectangular apertures.