Perceived health problems in swimmers according to the chemical treatment of water in swimming pools

The objective of this study was to determine which chemical treatment used for disinfecting water in indoor swimming pools had the least impact on users' perceptions of health problems, and which generated the greatest satisfaction with the quality of the water. A survey on satisfaction and perceived health problems was given to 1001 users at 20 indoor swimming pools which used different water treatment methods [chlorine, bromine, ozone, ultraviolet lamps (UV) and salt electrolysis]. The findings suggest that there is a greater probability of perceived health problems, such as eye and skin irritation, respiratory problems and skin dryness, in swimming pools treated with chlorine than in swimming pools using other chemical treatment methods. Pools treated with bromine have similar, although slightly better, results. Other factors, such as age, gender, time of day of use (morning and afternoon) and type of user (competitive and recreational), can also affect the probability of suffering health problems. For all of the above, using combined treatment methods as ozone and UV, or salt electrolysis produces a lower probability of perceived health problems and greater satisfaction.     

Suitability of school textbooks for 5 to 7 year old children with colour vision deficiencies

Purpose

The aim of the present study was to determine, through colorimetric analysis, whether school textbooks for children aged 5 to 7 years contained tasks requiring normal colour vision discrimination for their resolution. In addition, the performance of a group of observers with diverse colour vision deficiencies was evaluated while conducting the tasks under analysis.

Results

Textbooks of mathematics were found to include 10% of tasks which, to an observer with colour vision deficiency, would be very difficult or impossible to solve. The level of difficulty of each task was influenced by the type and degree of colour vision deficiency and by the actual ambient illumination under which it was observed.

Conclusions

Some school textbooks need to be redesigned through an alternative use of colours and textures to take into consideration colour vision deficiencies. In view of the present findings, many Spanish editorial boards have committed to undertake these changes.     

Evaluation and publication delay in Ibero-American scientific journals

This article analyses the review, acceptance and publication dates of a sample of 21,890 articles from 326 Ibero-American scientific journals from all subject areas and countries included in the Latindex Catalogue 2.0 and published between 2018 and 2020 (freely available as an open access dataset). The aim is to discover evaluation and publication times. The evaluation process takes a median of 110 days, the publication process, a median of 82 days, and the whole process, a median of 224 days. Statistical differences are found according to periodicity, subject areas, countries, existence of a printed version and article type (Call for Papers or General articles). From the data we find that the delay in publication is longer than publishers themselves report to the DOAJ. STEM areas present the most similarity in publication patterns, having a higher number of evaluation days (Ed) than publication days (Pd); Arts and Humanities present the opposite pattern, with a higher Pd than Ed. In the case of Social Sciences, the times are similar. General articles and Call for Papers articles differ in terms of Ed, but not Pd, indicating that Call for Papers revisions are faster.     

Association of different types of playing surfaces with bone mass in growing girls

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to compare bone mass in young female athletes playing ball games on different types of playing surfaces. About 120 girls, 9–13 years of age (10.6 ± 1.5 years old Tanner I–III) were recruited and divided into prepubertal and pubertal groups. The sample represented 3 groups of athletes: soccer (N = 40), basketball (N = 40), and handball (N = 40); and 6 different playing surfaces (soccer – ground, soccer – artificial turf, basketball – synthetic, basketball – parquet, handball – synthetic, and handball – smooth concrete). Total and regional body composition (bone mass, fat mass, and lean mass) were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The mechanical properties of the surfaces (force reduction, vertical deformation, and energy return) were measured with the Advanced Artificial Athlete (Triple A) method. The degree of sexual development was determined using Tanner test. The pubertal group showed that soccer players on the ground, basketball players on synthetic, and handball players on smooth concrete had higher values of bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) (P < 0.05) than the soccer players on the artificial turf, basketball players on parquet, and handball players on synthetic. In conclusion, a hard playing surface, with less vertical deformation and force reduction, and greater energy return, is associated with higher levels of BMD and BMC in growing girls, regardless of the sport they practice.     

Topic discovery based on text mining techniques

In this paper, we present a topic discovery system aimed to reveal the implicit knowledge present in news streams. This knowledge is expressed as a hierarchy of topic/subtopics, where each topic contains the set of documents that are related to it and a summary extracted from these documents. Summaries so built are useful to browse and select topics of interest from the generated hierarchies. Our proposal consists of a new incremental hierarchical clustering algorithm, which combines both partitional and agglomerative approaches, taking the main benefits from them. Finally, a new summarization method based on Testor Theory has been proposed to build the topic summaries. Experimental results in the TDT2 collection demonstrate its usefulness and effectiveness not only as a topic detection system, but also as a classification and summarization tool.     

Analyzing the impact of knowledge management on CRM success: The mediating effects of organizational factors

Customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) have become key strategic tool for all companies, especially in the current competitive environment. Moreover, customer knowledge is an important issue for CRM implementation. Reviewing the literature, we found many studies that analyze the crucial role played by KM initiatives as determinants of the success of CRM. Moreover, we found also diverse studies that show high rates of failure when implementing that strategy, so there is still no integrated conceptual framework to guide companies to their successful implementation. In this paper, with data of 153 Spanish hotels, we examine the relationships between KM and CRM success using a structural equation model. The main contribution is that having knowledge management capabilities is not sufficient for the success of CRM, but there are other factors to consider. In particular, organizational factors indeed impact CRM success and they appear to be intermediaries of the impact of other factors (KM capabilities/technological/customer orientation factors) in the success of CRM (in financial and marketing terms).     

Case Study: Improving Customer Satisfaction,Quality, and Performance Using Performance‐Centered Solutions at ADDS Communications

A team of performance consultants looks closely at the operations of a cable services provider to identify existing performance gaps, barriers to performance, declining customer satisfaction ratings, and increased call volumes. The team used performance‐centered design (PCD) solutions in order to overcome technical support challenges through increased first‐call resolution. This article summarizes the root cause analysis, process, and the application of PCD solutions to close performance gaps, along with lessons learned from this case study.     

Parental involvement in schooling, classroom environment and student outcomes

We investigated relationships between students’ perceptions of parental involvement in schooling, their Spanish classroom environment and student outcomes (attitudes and achievement). Modified Spanish versions of the What Is Happening In this Class?, Test of Spanish-Related Attitudes-L₁, a parental involvement questionnaire and a Spanish achievement test were administered to 223 Hispanic Grade 4–6 students in South Florida. The factor structure and internal consistency reliability of the questionnaires was supported. Strong associations were found for parental involvement with students’ learning environment perceptions and student outcomes, and for Spanish classroom environment with student outcomes. When the unique and common variances in student outcomes explained by the classroom environment and the home environment were examined, the home environment was more influential than the classroom environment in terms of students’ attitudes, but the classroom environment was more influential than the home environment in terms of achievement.     

NOW. THEN. TOMORROW. In Memory of Grace Lee Boggs

A poem that highlights the life of Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese American philosopher, activist, author, and feminist that passed away in Detroit, Michigan at the age of 100 years old on October 5, 2015. Now. Then. Tomorrow was written 2 days before Ms. Boggs’ memorial service. The poem contains the poet's memories of Ms. Boggs and community struggles related to race and class in Detroit, Michigan.