Parents’ Motivations for Enrolling their Children in Recreational Sports

 Extensive literature covers reasons for participation in sports from the perspective of youth athletes. However, athletic involvement starts early and is determined in part by parental support. The purpose of this study was to learn more about parents’ motivations for enrolling their children in sports. A 49-item parent motivational scale of reasons for enrolling child(ren) in sports was created as part of the study first as a pilot and later tested with 84 parent participants who had school-aged children enrolled in recreational sports. An open-ended question on primary reasons why parents enrolled their child in sports was also included in the study. Exploratory factor analysis of the motivational scale indicated a four-component solution for types of reasons parents enrolled their children in sports: 1. Extrinsic/parent-focused; 2. Child growth and development; 3. Social benefits; and 4. Health/well-being.  Parents rated the latter three types of beneficial reasons for enrolling children in sports more highly than extrinsic/parent-focused ones and were more likely to list beneficial than extrinsic reasons in the open-ended question. Scores on several individual motivational items varied by child’s, not parent’s, gender and parent’s marital status. Implications for use of self-determination and expectancy-value theoretical perspectives, understanding parents’ motivations to encourage children’s sports participation while considering family structure and gender of child, and study limitations with ideas for future research are discussed.  &nbsp

Static vs Dynamic SAGAs

SAGAs calculi (or simply SAGAs) have been proposed by Bruni et al. as a model for long-running transactions. The approach therein can be considered static, while a dynamic approach has been proposed by Lanese and Zavattaro. In this paper we first extend both static SAGAs (in the centralized interruption policy) and dynamic SAGAs to deal with nesting, then we compare the two approaches

Fictional pagans, imaginary sorcerers, literary alterities: Icelandic sagas as historiographical sources and their representation of the pre-Christian world

Mi objetivo aquí es indagar cómo debemos entender la literatura de las sagas, textos en prosa islandeses de la Edad Media; el cénit de la producción de las sagas ocurrió entre la segunda mitad del siglo XIII y la primera mitad del XIV. Estoy interesado de modo general en la representación que esas sagas produjeron respecto al período alto medieval de los vikingos (o anterior), donde frecuentemente ocurre la acción contenida en sus relatos; y puntualmente, en la figura de los paganos y los magos del período pre cristiano allí presentada.Meu objetivo aqui é indagar como devemos entender a literatura das sagas, textos em prosa islandeses da Idade Média; O ápice da produção de sagas ocorreu entre a segunda metade do século XIII e a primeira metade do XIV. Estou interessado de modo geral na representação que essas sagas produziram a respeito do período alto-medieval dos “vikings” (ou anterior), onde frequentemente sucede a ação contida em seus relatos; e pontualmente, na figura dos pagãos e dos magos do período pré-cristão ali apresentada.My aim here is to inquire how we can understand the sagas, texts written in Icelandic prose of the Middle Ages. The highest production of sagas was between the second half of the thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth century. I am interested in general in the representation that these sagas produced in the high-medieval period of the "vikings" (or before), where the action frequently takes place in their accounts, and, concisely, in the figure of pagans and magicians of the Pre-Christian period there presented.Fil: Barreiro, Santiago Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas; Argentin

Autonomous Power and Profound Agency: Women and Magic in the Icelandic Legendary Sagas

The Icelandic Legendary Sagas contain within them a unique representation of women’s autonomy and agency, seen strongly in the ways women use magic. Scholars such as Jochens and Friðriksdóttir discuss women’s representations most prominently in the Family Sagas, often brushing over the Legendary Sagas due to their fantastical and mythological nature which makes cultural analysis based on the texts difficult. The fantastical nature of the Legendary Sagas, however, presents the opportunity to thoroughly explore unique representations of women’s autonomy. Other female archetypes often analyzed in the sagas are represented influencing male action, such as the inciter or whetter who encourages men to fight to regain family honor. However, I will argue in this thesis that the magical archetypes of seeress and sorceress act not as influences on male action but as mostly independent women. This thesis will describe the representation of female autonomy in the Legendary Sagas not just as an extension of the portrayal of women in the Family Sagas, but as a vision of new possibilities of thinking about women enabled by ancient ideas of magic

THROUGHPUT OPTIMIZATION AND ENERGY ENHANCEMENT IN MASSIVE MIMO SYSTEMS

For the last few decades mobile technologies have undergone enormous transformation. Mobile broadband for cellular networks has been exponentially evolving with time and in order to meet the future expectation for this high demand newer and better technologies have to be invented. The enormous success of smart electronics such as tablets, smart phones and other hand held devices that use the Internet have generated a lot of Internet traffic therefore, diving LTE to its limit. LTE (4G) which is a high speed wireless communication standard for mobile phones and data terminals is a significant upgrade of GSM and UMTS network technologies. The Technology has downlink peak rates of 300Mbits/s and Uplink peak rates of 75Mbits/s with transfer latency rate of less than 5ms. Power Consumption level for LTE is of significant concern as well as the energy consumption in cellular networks. To solve the limitations in LTE, one great candidate is 5G radio standard. 5G relies heavily on massive MIMO to achieve its targets. This thesis looked into significance of Multi-antenna (Massive MIMO) at the BS as a solution for energy efficiency, increased data rates and the reduction of latency rates in wireless broadband communication. And the simulation results proved that Massive MIMO has better performance compared to conventional MIMO.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

An Examination of African American NCAA DI-FBS Football Coaches: A Five-Year Update

Past studies have concluded that institutional and access discrimination remain potential deterrents in achieving a more diverse and equal representation of racial minority head coaches in college football. This study sought to examine and compare the career paths of all DI-FBS coaches to determine the potential continued existence of discrimination and its impact. Findings revealed an overall positive shift in the representation of African American coaches, particularly at the assistant coach level. Thus, the coaching career paths of current head coaches and coordinators appear to be paving a more equitable path for assistant and future coaches. However, the data also portray the existence of both institutional and access discrimination. Such biases facilitate and maintain an underrepresentation of African American coaches; and while the increased acceptance of upper-level coaches with diverse racial, playing, and coaching backgrounds suggests a positive shift toward racial equality among coaches, the movement for a balanced representation perseveres

Hierarchical models for service-oriented systems

We present our approach to the denotation and representation of hierarchical graphs: a suitable algebra of hierarchical graphs and two domains of interpretations. Each domain of interpretation focuses on a particular perspective of the graph hierarchy: the top view (nested boxes) is based on a notion of embedded graphs while the side view (tree hierarchy) is based on gs-graphs. Our algebra can be understood as a high-level language for describing such graphical models, which are well suited for defining graphical representations of service-oriented systems where nesting (e.g. sessions, transactions, locations) and linking (e.g. shared channels, resources, names) are key aspects

Bounds on gravitational wave backgrounds from large distance clock comparisons

Our spacetime is filled with gravitational wave backgrounds that constitute a fluctuating environment created by astrophysical and cosmological sources. Bounds on these backgrounds are obtained from cosmological and astrophysical data but also by analysis of ranging and Doppler signals from distant spacecraft. We propose here a new way to set bounds on those backgrounds by performing clock comparisons between a ground clock and a remote spacecraft equipped with an ultra-stable clock, rather than only ranging to an onboard transponder. This technique can then be optimized as a function of the signal to be measured and the dominant noise sources, leading to significant improvements on present bounds in a promising frequency range where different theoretical models are competing. We illustrate our approach using the SAGAS project which aims to fly an ultra stable optical clock in the outer solar system.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, minor amendment