The influence of heterogeneous exposure and pre-deliberation queries on pretrial publicity effects

Prior research on pretrial publicity has produced mixed results and a roughly equal number of studies show an effect, show no effect, or show mixed results. We explored the effects of (a) homogenous vs. heterogeneous exposure (whether deliberating jurors were all exposed to the same publicity or not) and (b) pre-deliberation queries as potential contributors to mixed results. We found an effect for positive but not negative publicity on conviction rates but not evidence ratings. Exposure heterogeneity appears to explain these differences and pre-deliberation queries did appear to play some role in the obtained outcomes. Overall these findings do not replicate a robust publicity effect and future research should consider how homogeneous exposure and pre-deliberation opinion queries influence results.     

Quality of life perception of basketball master athletes: association with physical activity level and sports injuries

This study aimed to verify the prevalence and characteristics of sports injuries (SI) and determine the association between the physical activity level (PA) and SI with perception of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Brazilian basketball master athletes. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 410 male master athletes, between 35 and 85 years of age (mean 52.26, SD ±11.83). The HRQoL was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study – Short Form-36. The PA was evaluated using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Information regarding SI was collected using the Reported Morbidity Survey. Poisson regression, as estimated by the prevalence ratio (PR), was used as a measure of the association of PA and SI with HRQoL. The majority of athletes showed a high SI prevalence (58.3%) and reported one injury (67.8%) that occurred during training (61.1%) and primarily affected a lower limb (74.6%). The adjusted regression models showed a positive association of PA with the Functional Capacity (PR = 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.12–1.90) and Physical Component (PR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.03–1.70) of HRQoL. Furthermore, the SI were negatively associated with HRQoL in Functional Capacity (PR = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.51–2.27), Physical Aspects (PR = 3.99, 95% CI = 3.08–5.18), Pain (PR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.26–2.16), Social Functioning (PR = 1.79, 95% CI = 1.41–2.27), Emotional Aspects (PR = 4.40, 95% CI = 3.35–5.78), Mental Health domains (PR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.06–1.68), Physical Component (PR = 2.35, 95% CI = 1.90–2.90) and Mental Component (PR = 2.65, 95% CI = 2.14–3.29). These results highlighted that master athletes showed a high SI prevalence, primarily in the lower limbs. PA positively correlates with the physical HRQoL domain, whereas SI may decrease the HRQoL levels of both physical and mental domains.     

Motorische Leistungsfähigkeit von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Deutschland

Motor performance is an important health resource. Review articles revealed a decline of motor performance of approximately 10?% between 1975 and 2006. In the past most of the data available for such comparisons came from ad hoc studies with non-standardized methods. Within the framework of the ”Motorik-Modul“ (MoMo) study as part of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS), it is possible for the first time to directly compare two cohorts in the ages of 4–17 years in a nationally representative database for Germany. The aim of this article is to report changes in motor performance of children and adolescents in the time period 2003–2006 (cohort baseline n = 4528) compared to 2009–2012 (cohort wave 1, n = 2820). Overall, it is clearly shown that the motor performance of children and adolescents in Germany did not decrease within the observational period of 6 years. The comparison of mean values of the baseline cohort compared to those of wave 1 showed that 28 out of 52 mean values of the two cohorts with a high probability did not differ based on 95?% confidence intervals (CI). In 24 out of the 52 mean values positive changes could be noted based on the individual 95?% CI values. There were more positive changes in primary school aged children than in other age groups. Within these positive changes, most effect sizes were small to medium. The results indicate that recent activities aiming at elevating motor performance levels may have started to make an impact and should be expanded, also in secondary schools. The comparative cohort study presented in this article is currently being checked by the ongoing MoMo wave 2 survey of 2014–2017.     

Rats remember not wisely but too well

Rats were trained in a three-alternative spatial delayed matching-to-sample task in a starburst maze. Samples consisted of rewarded forced choices of one arm, and retention was indicated by rats’ returning to that arm after a 90-sec delay. If a rat made an error on its first choice, it was returned to the start compartment and allowed a second choice. Unlike in previous experiments with this task, all three arms were available during the animals’ second choices. The rats tended to perseverate in their second choices by returning to the arm that they had erroneously visited on their first choice. In Experiment 1, the accuracy of second choices following first-choice errors was below chance during the first block of sessions, when a 90-sec delay intervened between the first choice and the second choice, and at chance during the second block of sessions, when a short (5–6 see) delay intervened between first and second choices. In Experiment 2, long-delay and short-delay sessions were randomly presented to naive subjects. Similar results were obtained. In both experiments, the tendency to repeat the erroneous first choice was greater when long delays separated the two choices than when short delays were used. The results suggest that rats make their first-choice errors because they erroneously encode or remember the location of the sample and that they base their second choices on the same erroneous-memory. The increase in perseveration at long delays implies some kind of rehearsal-like mechanism that slows forgetting of the memory controlling the first choice.     

Legacies in Black and White: The Racial Composition of the Legacy Pool

Selective universities regularly employ policies that favor children of alumni (known as legacies) in undergraduate admissions. Since alumni from selective colleges and universities historically have been disproportionately white, admissions policies that favor legacies have disproportionately benefited white students. For this reason, legacy policies lead to additional costs in terms of reductions in racial diversity. As larger numbers of minority students graduate from colleges and universities and have children, however, the potential pool of legacy applicants will change markedly in racial composition. This analysis begins with a review of the history and objectives of the preference for children of alumni in undergraduate admissions. We then consider the specific case of the University of Virginia and employ demographic techniques to predict the racial composition of the pool of potential legacy applicants to the university. Significant changes in the racial composition of classes that graduated from the University of Virginia from the late 1960s through the 1970s foreshadow similar changes in the characteristics of alumni children maturing through the next two decades.     

Relationship between R&D expenditures and publication output for U.S. colleges and universities

Two large independent sources of data, NSF's University Science Statistics Program Integrated Data Base and CHI Research's bibliometric data base, are brought together in a comprehensive study of the relationships among research resources, as measured by R&D expenditures, and research output, as measured by the quantity and visibility of scientific journal articles. The study is based on approximately 500 U.S. colleges and universities. For each of 11 fields of science, there is strong indication of a linear relationship between R&D expenditures and number of papers. The evidence also indicates a positive relationship between number of cites received per paper and number of papers published, but only for papers published in the basic research journals of the fields of chemistry, physics, and biology.