Learning Disabilities in Guatemala and Spain: A Cross‐National Study of the Prevalence and Cognitive Processes Associated with Reading and Spelling Disabilities

The main purposes of this research were twofold. We examined the samenesses about learning disabilities (LD) in Guatemala and Spain, two countries with the same language but cultural, political, and educational differences, first analyzing data about the prevalence of reading and spelling disabilities in Guatemala City and the Spanish region of the Canary Islands. The focus of the second study was to determine whether there are cross‐national patterns of significant differences in cognitive processes associated with reading and spelling disabilities from a developmental approach in these two cultural contexts. We found some differences in the prevalence of specific LD in reading between both countries but we did not find significant differences between Guatemalan and Spanish reading‐disabled children in cognitive processes that are involved in reading and spelling acquisition in spite of the cultural and educational differences between the two countries.     

(Dis)located Olympic patriots: sporting connections,administrative communications and imperial ether in interwar New Zealand

During the interwar period (1919–1939), protagonists of the early New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) worked to renegotiate and improve the country's international sporting participation and involvement in the International Olympic Committee. To this end, NZOC effectively used its locally based administrators and well-placed expatriates in Britain to variously assert the organization's nascent autonomy, independence and political power, progress Antipodean athlete's causes and counter any potential doubt about the nation's peripheral position in imperial sporting dialogues. Adding to the corpus of scholarship on New Zealand's ties and tribulations with imperial Britain, both in and beyond sport (e.g. Beilharz and Cox, 2007, “Settler Capitalism Revisited,” Thesis Eleven 88: 112–124; Belich, 2001, Paradise Reforged: A History of the New Zealanders from the 1880s to the Year 2000, Auckland: Allen Lane; Belich, 2007, Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders from Polynesian Settlement to the End of the Nineteenth Century, Auckland: The Penguin Group; Coombes, 2006, Rethinking Settler Colonialism: History and Memory in Australia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and South Africa, Manchester: Manchester University Press; MacLean, 2010, “New Zealand (Aotearoa),” In Routledge Companion to Sports History, edited by Steve W. Pope and John Nauright, 510–525, London: Routledge; Phillips, 1984, “Rugby, War and the Mythology of the New Zealand Male,” The New Zealand Journal of History 18 (1): 83–103; Phillips, 1987, A Man's Country: The Image of the Pakeha Male, Auckland: Penguin Books; Ryan, 2004, The Making of New Zealand Cricket, 1832–1914, London: Frank Cass; Ryan, 2005, Tackling Rugby Myths: Rugby and New Zealand Society 1854–2004, Dunedin: University of Otago Press; Ryan, 2007, “Sport in 19th-Century Aotearoa/New Zealand: Opportunities and Constraints,” In Sport in Aotearoa/New Zealand Society, edited by Chris Collins and Steve Jackson, 96–111, Auckland: Thomson), I will examine how the political actions and strategic location of three key NZOC agents (specifically, administrator Harry Amos and expatriates Arthur Porritt and Jack Lovelock) worked in their own particular ways to assert the position of the organization within the global Olympic fraternity. I argue that the efforts of Amos, Porritt and Lovelock also concomitantly served to remind Commonwealth sporting colleagues (namely Britain and Australia) that New Zealand could not be characterized as, or relegated to being, a distal, subdued or subservient colonial sporting partner. Subsequently, I contend that NZOC's development during the interwar period, and particularly the utility of expatriate agents, can be contextualized against historiographical shifts that encourage us to rethink, reimagine and rework narratives of empire, colonization, national identity, commonwealth and belonging.     

Wearable inertial sensors in swimming motion analysis: a systematic review

The use of contemporary technology is widely recognised as a key tool for enhancing competitive performance in swimming. Video analysis is traditionally used by coaches to acquire reliable biomechanical data about swimming performance; however, this approach requires a huge computational effort, thus introducing a delay in providing quantitative information. Inertial and magnetic sensors, including accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers, have been recently introduced to assess the biomechanics of swimming performance. Research in this field has attracted a great deal of interest in the last decade due to the gradual improvement of the performance of sensors and the decreasing cost of miniaturised wearable devices. With the aim of describing the state of the art of current developments in this area, a systematic review of the existing methods was performed using the following databases: PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge, IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar, Scopus and Science Direct. Twenty-seven articles published in indexed journals and conference proceedings, focusing on the biomechanical analysis of swimming by means of inertial sensors were reviewed. The articles were categorised according to sensor’s specification, anatomical sites where the sensors were attached, experimental design and applications for the analysis of swimming performance. Results indicate that inertial sensors are reliable tools for swimming biomechanical analyses.     

Effects of changing speed on knee and ankle joint load during walking and running

Joint moments can be used as an indicator of joint loading and have potential application for sports performance and injury prevention. The effects of changing walking and running speeds on joint moments for the different planes of motion still are debatable. Here, we compared knee and ankle moments during walking and running at different speeds. Data were collected from 11 recreational male runners to determine knee and ankle joint moments during different conditions. Conditions include walking at a comfortable speed (self-selected pacing), fast walking (fastest speed possible), slow running (speed corresponding to 30% slower than running) and running (at 4 m · s^?1 ± 10%). A different joint moment pattern was observed between walking and running. We observed a general increase in joint load for sagittal and frontal planes as speed increased, while the effects of speed were not clear in the transverse plane moments. Although differences tend to be more pronounced when gait changed from walking to running, the peak moments, in general, increased when speed increased from comfortable walking to fast walking and from slow running to running mainly in the sagittal and frontal planes. Knee flexion moment was higher in walking than in running due to larger knee extension. Results suggest caution when recommending walking over running in an attempt to reduce knee joint loading. The different effects of speed increments during walking and running should be considered with regard to the prevention of injuries and for rehabilitation purposes.     

User experience of government documents: A framework for informing design decisions

People still use documents in many everyday government processes. From tax payments to passport requests, citizens have to interact with low-interactivity information artifacts such as reports, maps and datasets, among many others. Despite efforts to improve information delivery in the public sector, effective information usage remains a critical topic of action and research. The user experience of government documents has rarely been assessed, despite them being regularly published and frequently used. Considering this, the two following research questions arise: 1) How can government documents be classified (or grouped) in terms of user experience? 2) How can the user experience of government documents be monitored over time in order to inform design decisions? Working with a public agency in Chile, we develop and test a classification and monitoring framework based on two online surveys (N?=?338 and N?=?298). We then propose a framework for understanding user experience of government documents in these three dimensions: interaction goal, volume of information and ease of understanding. Using a graphical representation to classify user experience provides greater visibility of the current status of information produced by a public organization. Furthermore, by monitoring the user experience of a government document at different times, organizations can understand the effect of their design decisions and improve their service quality by implementing user-centered processes.     

Red pigment production by Penicillium purpurogenum GH2 is influenced by pH and temperature

The combined effects of pH and temperature on red pigment production and fungal morphology were evaluated in a submerged culture of Penicillium purpurogenum GH2, using Czapek-Dox media with d-xylose as a carbon source. An experimental design with a factorial fix was used: three pH values (5, 7, and 9) and two temperature levels (24 and 34 °C) were evaluated. The highest production of red pigment (2.46 g/L) was reached with a pH value of 5 and a temperature of 24 °C. Biomass and red pigment production were not directly associated. This study demonstrates that P. purpurogenum GH2 produces a pigment of potential interest to the food industry. It also shows the feasibility of producing and obtaining natural water-soluble pigments for potential use in food industries. A strong combined effect (p<0.05) of pH and temperature was associated with maximal red pigment production (2.46 g/L).