Laboratory Assessment of Choice between Exercise or Sedentary Behaviors

The purpose of this study was to compare cardiovascular fitness between obese and nonobese children. Based on body mass index, 118 were classified as obese (boys [OB] = 62, girls [OG] = 56), while 421 were nonobese (boys [NOB] = 196, girls [NOG] = 225). Cardiovascular fitness was determined by a 1-mile [1.6 km] run/walk (MRW) and estimated peak oxygen uptake (VO₂peak) and analyzed using two-way analyses of variance (Gender x Obese/Nonobese). MRW times were significantly faster (p < .05) for the NOB (10 min 34 s) compared to the OB (13 min 8 s) and the NOG (13 min 15 s.) compared to the OG (14 min 44 s.). Predicted VO₂peak values (mL·kg^-1·min^-1) were significantly higher (p < .05) for the NOB (48.29) compared to the OB (41.56) and the NOG (45.99) compared to the OG (42.13). MRW was compared between obese and nonobese participants on the President's Challenge (2005), the National Children and Youth Fitness Study, and FITNESSGRAM® HFZ standards. The nonobese boys and girls scored higher on all three, exhibiting better cardiovascular fitness as compared to obese counterparts.     

Demographics of mass market consumers

The ranks of people between the ages of 35 and 49 are swelling, and this cohort will be imposing its purchasing preferences on the market for books by the end of the century. Future patterns of book buying may therefore show increases for nonfiction at the expense of fiction as well as increases and decreases for specific nonfiction and fiction subcategories. Leonard A. Wood, vice chairman and joint chief executive officer of the Gallup Organization, is publisher of the Gallup Annual Report on Book Buying     

Labouring to Learn: Students'Debt and Term Time Employment in Belfast

This paper presents the results of a survey into the labour market experiences of 363 undergraduate students in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at Queen's University, Belfast. The first pan of the paper will look at the debate surrounding the introduction of the Student Loans Scheme and the associated abolition of welfare benefit entitlements. The second pan of the paper will present the findings of the survey. Particular reference will be made to the financial situation facing undergraduate students and the extent to which term-time employment presents a solution to their monetary problems.     

Now is the time: Book publishing in Russia

A unique combination of circumstances has created opportunities for foreign publishers to invest in Russia. A hunger for books, an unsettled distribution system, availability of publishing personnel, and low costs have created a good environment for entering the marketplace. But it is not a chance for quick profits. Leonard Shatzkin has been involved in the production and manufacture of books since 1945. He is the author ofIn Cold Type: Overcoming the Book Crisis and since 1979 has been a consultant to publishers throughout the world.     

Issues of Equity in Special Needs Education from a Gender Perspective

This article is concerned with gender issues in resource allocation for special needs in mainstream schools. The ways in which categories operate in academic life and professional practice in schools raise dilemmas for the development of the concept and practice of equality of opportunity. Data are drawn from a recent ESRC study (R000237346) and used to illustrate some of the ways in which significant problems for the management of special needs services are revealed from the perspective of gender.     

JEWISH EDUCATION IN IRAN

Introduction

Historically, two periods are discernible in the development of the system of extra-curricular activities in the Israeli schools — the first period, from the founding of the first Israeli high school around the beginning of the twentieth century to the establishment of the State of Israel (1948), and the second period, from 1948 to the present. The main difference between the two stages lies in the degree of local autonomy in the administration of the activity program.