Home advantage in Greek football

Abstract

Home advantage as it relates to team performance at football was examined in Superleague Greece using nine seasons of game-by-game performance data, a total of 2160 matches. After adjusting for team ability and annual fluctuations in home advantage, there were significant differences between teams. Previous findings regarding the role of territorial protection were strengthened by the fact that home advantage was above average for the team from Xanthi (P =0.015), while lower for teams from the capital city Athens (P =0.008). There were differences between home and away teams in the incidence of most of the 13 within-game match variables, but associated effect sizes were only moderate. In contrast, outcome ratios derived from these variables, and measuring shot success, had negligible effect sizes. This supported a previous finding that home and away teams differed in the incidence of on-the-ball behaviours, but not in their outcomes. By far the most important predictor of home advantage, as measured by goal difference, was the difference between home and away teams in terms of kicked shots from inside the penalty area. Other types of shots had little effect on the final score. The absence of a running track between spectators and the playing field was also a significant predictor of goal difference, worth an average of 0.102 goals per game to the home team. Travel distance did not affect home advantage.     

Effects of starting score-line,game location,and quality of opposition in basketball quarter score

Abstract

In several team sports, the game starting score-line may be understood as a measure of performance accomplishment and hence might have an effect on players' subsequent efforts. The aim of this study was to identify the effect of the starting score-line, game location, and quality of opposition on basketball game quarter final score. The sample comprised 504 game quarters from the Spanish Basketball Professional League and these were classified as balanced (difference in scores equal of 8 points or less, n=194) and unbalanced (difference in scores of more than 8 points, n=310) using k-means cluster procedures. The effects of the predictor variables on game quarter outcome (difference between points scored and points received) in the whole game and in the second, third, and fourth game quarters were analysed using linear regression analysis. The starting game quarter score-line was only significant in unbalanced situations with very similar effects among different game quarters. The greater the difference in accumulated score at the beginning of each quarter, the more points recovered by the teams who were losing. A small effect from the quality of the opponent was found in the second and third quarters, whereas game location only had an effect when analysing the whole game and second quarter using balanced and unbalanced game quarters combined.     

Differential Effects of Three Teachers Over a Unit of Instruction

The purpose of this study was to describe the effects of three teachers on psychomotor, affective, and cognitive outcomes over a 15-lesson volleyball unit. Three intact middle school physical education classes were used. Pre- and posttests were administered for the overhead set, forearm pass, and serve psychomotor skills. A semantic differential test with four affective dimensions and a written test on the rules, strategies, and mechanics of volleyball were also administered pre- and posttest. Data on instructional characteristics were obtained using academic learning time (ALT-PE); observation system for content development (OSCD-PE), and a content analysis of lessons.

The following were key aspects of the results: (a) Teachers differed in their approaches to the content of the unit more than in the characteristics of their instruction as determined through observational data; (b) teachers differed in respect to the psychomotor skills for which they were able to produce statistically significant student gain; (c) the skill level of students played a major role in psychomotor outcomes; (d) affective measures started high and remained high from pre- to posttest with significant change occurring positively with the low-skilled in one measure; (d) cognitive learning was significant from pre- to posttest in rules and mechanics but not in strategies. Instructional characteristics, as described in this study, did not change from skill to skill, but student learning did. This led the authors to conclude that the instrumentation for instructional variables was not sensitive to differences in the way individual skills were handled by individual teachers.     

离散大系统关于部分变元指数稳定性

本文利用向量Л(?)ПУНОВ函数讨论了一类离散大系统关于部分变元的指数稳定和关联指数稳定。获得了一些新的代数判据改进了文[ ]等的工作。     

新课改下的生物实验教学

生物学作为一门以实验为基础的科学,课程倡导以观察、调查和实验为主的探究性学习方式。生物实验是探究性学习的主要内容,它既是过程、又是方法,有助于培养学生的各种能力,提高学生的科学素养。因此生物实验教学的成功是生物教学有效性的核心内容之一。本文重点分析了在新课改下如何有效的开展生物实验教学,如何使实验教学能最大限度的调动学生学习的学习主动性,激发学生的求知欲望。     

指导下习得在外语教学中的应用

外语(即第二语言)能力的获得途径长久以来一直是语言学家和语言教学者长期以来争论的焦点。本文结合外语教学实践把外语习得和学习有机地结合起来,生成第三条途径,也就是指导下学习,并进行了可行性论证。     

Participant characteristics and process variables predict attrition from a home-based early intervention program

Although advocates of home visits claim that they improve access to preventive interventions for socially disadvantaged families, home visiting programs often report high dropout rates. This study investigated factors predicting attrition in a sample of 434 low-income, first-time mothers in a German program modeled on the Nurse–Family Partnership program. Both participant characteristics and process variables associated with attrition were examined. The results indicated that 38.5% of the mothers left the program before completing 75% of the enrollment time; 62% of those left for addressable reasons (e.g., losing interest in program participation). Arguably, these participants might be retained through program modifications. Almost half of the dropouts left the program before completing 25% of the enrollment time. Program dropouts were younger and did not experience pregnancy-related risks. With regard to process variables, a high frequency of unsuccessful visit attempts and low maternal engagement during the home visits increased the risk for attrition. Self-referral, a high percentage of time spent on parenting issues as well as a high percentage of grandmother participation during visits contributed to participant retention. Among mothers with a high number of risk factors for child abuse and neglect, partner (husband or boyfriend) participation during visits positively influenced the retention rate. Since process variables explained a larger amount of variance in attrition compared to participant characteristics, it is reasonable to focus on the intervention processes when trying to reduce attrition.     

Predicting On-Line Catalog Terminal Needs

Abstract

To determine if research findings from large academic, research libraries on the number of public access terminals needed apply to smaller libraries, the author compared results of a study done at a large research institution to one done at a mid-sized university. The data were different. This is important because the active automation market is currently thriving at smaller libraries, not larger ones, and because environment/size does seem to be critical to the consideration of automation parameters. Thus, smaller libraries should establish their own parameters and employ models generated at large institutions only as a general recipe.     

改进的H—r可积下随机变量的弱大数定律

本文将Cesaro α一致可积进一步弱化,给出一种H—r一致可积概念．并利用一些重要的概率不等式,给出了H—r一致可积下随机变量序列的弱大数定律．     

La educación bilingüe y el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua: sus características y principios fundamentales

Resumen

Dada la importancia que están adquiriendo en nuestro país y en el mundo entero las investigaciones sobre educación bilingüe y enseñanza de una L2, en este articulo, que sirve de introducción para el tema monográfico sobre la segunda lengua en la escuela, se pretende, en primer lugar, ofrecer una revisión de los términos fundamentales relacionados con estos temas, intentando precisar la significación de algunos de ellos para evitar ciertas confusiones que se producen con frecuencia.

En segundo lugar, se hace referencia a las características del sujeto, del ambiente y del programa que es necesario tomar en consideración para elaborar y evaluar un programa de educación bilingüe y de enseñanza de una L2.

En tercer lugar, se insiste en la importancia de realizar una evaluación correcta y completa de estos programas, para lo cual han de tenerse en cuenta todos los factores analizados previamente.