Crafting the message: Controlling content on agency Web sites

While much research has focused on the new opportunities that government Web sites offer for greater citizen involvement and improved agency efficiency, less attention has been given to agency decisions about what to post on these Web sites. Here we use interviews with content managers in seven federal agencies to investigate the political and institutional influences behind decisions about Web content. We analyze the approval processes for new content and the emerging governance structures for evidence of greater centralization and political control or greater decentralization and autonomy for Web posters. In the end, it appears that institutional factors persist to influence content governance.     

Social behavior and brand devotion among iPhone innovators

Convergence of communication technologies and innovative product features are expanding the markets for technological products and services. Prior literature on technology acceptance and use has focused on utilitarian belief factors as predictors of rational adoption decisions and subsequent user behavior. This presupposes that consumers’ intentions to use technology are based on functional or utilitarian needs. Using netnographic evidence on iPhone usage, this study suggests that innovative consumers adopt and use new technology for not just utilitarian but also for experiential outcomes. The study presents an interpretive analysis of the consumption behavior of very early iPhone users. Apple introduced iPhone as a revolutionary mobile handset offering integrated features and converged services—a handheld computer-cum-phone with a touch-screen web browser, a music player, an organizer, a note-taker, and a camera. This revolutionary product opened up new possibilities to meld functional tasks, hedonism, and social signaling. The study suggests that even utilitarian users have hedonic and social factors present in their consumption patterns.     

Dynamic sitting: Measurement and associations with metabolic health

Dynamic sitting, such as fidgeting and desk work, might be associated with health, but remains difficult to identify out of accelerometry data. We examined, in a laboratory study, whether dynamic sitting can be identified out of triaxial activity counts. Among 18 participants (56% men, 27.3 ± 6.5 years), up to 236 counts per minute were recorded in the anteroposterior and mediolateral axes during dynamic sitting using a hip-worn accelerometer. Subsequently, we examined in 621 participants (38% men, 80.0 ± 4.7 years) from the AGES-Reykjavik Study whether dynamic sitting was associated with cardio-metabolic health. Compared to participants who recorded the fewest dynamic sitting minutes (Q₁), those with more dynamic sitting minutes had a lower BMI (Q₂ = ?1.39 (95%CI = ?2.33;–0.46); Q₃ = ?1.87 (?2.82;–0.92); Q₄ = ?3.38 (?4.32;–2.45)), a smaller waist circumference (Q₂ = ?2.95 (?5.44;–0.46); Q₃ = ?3.47 (?6.01;–0.93); Q₄ = ?8.21 (?10.72;–5.71)), and a lower odds for the metabolic syndrome (Q₂ = 0.74 [0.45;1.20] Q₃ = 0.58 [0.36;0.95]; Q₄ = 0.36 [0.22;0.59]). Our findings suggest that dynamic sitting might be identified using accelerometry and that this behaviour was associated with health. This might be important given the large amounts of time people spend sitting. Future studies with a focus on validation, causation and physiological pathways are needed to further examine the possible relevance of dynamic sitting.     

The Anatomy of Academic Rigor: The Story of One Institutional Journey

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) draws from student feedback to gauge the level of academic challenge at particular institutions (Kuh 2009). Inspired by attempts to understand the implications of NSSE data on other campuses (Payne et al. 2005), a cross-disciplinary research group at our institution developed a multidimensional model of academic rigor. We argue that learning is most rigorous when students are actively learning meaningful content with higher-order thinking at the appropriate level of expectation within a given context. The model allows instructors and institutional decision-makers to aim towards increased levels of academic rigor in classrooms, departments, and across campus.     

Stride Adjustments during a Running Approach toward a Force Plate

Purpose

Previous research demonstrating that specific performance outcome goals can be achieved in different ways is functionally significant for springboard divers whose performance environment can vary extensively. This body of work raises questions about the traditional approach of balking (terminating the takeoff) by elite divers aiming to perform only identical, invariant movement patterns during practice.

Method

A 12-week training program (2 times per day; 6.5 hr per day) was implemented with 4 elite female springboard divers to encourage them to adapt movement patterns under variable takeoff conditions and complete intended dives, rather than balk.

Results

Intraindividual analyses revealed small increases in variability in the board-work component of each diver's pretraining and posttraining program reverse-dive takeoffs. No topological differences were observed between movement patterns of dives completed pretraining and posttraining. Differences were noted in the amount of movement variability under different training conditions (evidenced by higher normalized root mean square error indexes posttraining). An increase in the number of completed dives (from 78.91%–86.84% to 95.59%–99.29%) and a decrease in the frequency of balked takeoffs (from 13.16%–19.41% to 0.63%–4.41%) showed that the elite athletes were able to adapt their behaviors during the training program. These findings coincided with greater consistency in the divers' performance during practice as scored by qualified judges.

Conclusion

Results suggested that on completion of training, athletes were capable of successfully adapting their movement patterns under more varied takeoff conditions to achieve greater consistency and stability of performance outcomes.     

A Framework for Scientific Inquiry in Preschool

Early Childhood Education Journal - Preschool children have the capacity to engage in scientific practices and inquiry and develop understanding at a conceptual level. While engaging in inquiry...     

Getting to know my teacher: Does the relation between perceived mastery goal structures and perceived teacher support change across the school year?

We investigated the relation of students’ perceptions of mastery goal structure and of teacher support. Original formulations of achievement goal theory proposed that social–relational aspects of classrooms were integral to perceptions of a mastery goal structure, but these components have not survived in current conceptions of goal theory. Recent studies have found that student perceptions of mastery goal structure and of teacher support are highly interrelated, if not identical constructs. We propose that the interrelations between these perceptions may, in fact, emerge over time, as suggested by Tharp, Estrada, Dalton, and Yamauchi’s (2000) four stage model of the development of intersubjectivity between students and teachers. Students in grade 6 (N = 1197, 65 classrooms) and in grade 7 (N = 1036, 37 classrooms) reported perceptions of the mastery goal structure and of teacher support in the fall and the spring. Structural equation models with maximum likelihood estimation were used to test two competing models. We hypothesized that student perceptions of mastery goal structures and of teacher support were separate constructs in the fall, but converged by spring. The hypothesized model fit the data better than the alternative model for 6th and 7th grade students. Our findings both replicated those of others, and suggest that students’ perceptions of classroom environments develop over time. Theoretical implications include the reexamination of current conceptualizations of mastery goal structure and the stability of motivational constructs. Methodological implications include timing measurement occasions to assess possible changes in perceptions during the school year.