School self-efficacy is affected by gender and motor skills: findings from an Italian study

Background: Perceived school self-efficacy (SE) is an important variable in students' activities as it affects their motivation and learning. Further, self-efficacy might represent a good predictor of performance, persistence and perseverance. Motor skills and other physical health determinants are extensively debated and linked to cognitive function in children of developmental age. However, inconclusive evidence supports a definitive relationship between perceived school SE and motor skills among schoolchildren. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 6-11-year-old schoolchildren to evaluate the extent by which perceived school SE and physical health determinants were related. Methods: A SE questionnaire and motor performance battery tests were administered to primary school pupils recruited from 154 sampled schools of northwest Italy. Perceived SE at school was assessed via 12 items from the Caprara's questionnaire. Motor performance scores were obtained from motor skill tests: 4 × 10 m shuttle run test, SRT; standing broad jump, SBJ; six-minute walking test, 6MWT. Results: A total of 3,962 children (M = 2,019; F = 1943) were studied and 68% were normal weight. Overall, a 58% of the sample perceived a high SE, while, as to gender differences, a greater percentage of females perceived high levels of school SE with respect to any other level (χ2 = 38.93, p < 0.0001). Results from multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that: (i) females perceived higher SE compared to males; (ii) children who performed better in SRT and 6MWT showed higher levels of perceived school SE; (iii) no significant effect was registered for the body weight. Alternative strategies are encouraged to enhance SE through physical education: structured interventions might enhance both complex motor skills and high-order cognitive skills, like SE, in young children

School self-efficacy is affected by gender and motor skills: findings from an Italian study

Background: Perceived school self-efficacy (SE) is an important variable in students' activities as it affects their motivation and learning. Further, self-efficacy might represent a good predictor of performance, persistence and perseverance. Motor skills and other physical health determinants are extensively debated and linked to cognitive function in children of developmental age. However, inconclusive evidence supports a definitive relationship between perceived school SE and motor skills among schoolchildren. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 6-11-year-old schoolchildren to evaluate the extent by which perceived school SE and physical health determinants were related. Methods: A SE questionnaire and motor performance battery tests were administered to primary school pupils recruited from 154 sampled schools of northwest Italy. Perceived SE at school was assessed via 12 items from the Caprara's questionnaire. Motor performance scores were obtained from motor skill tests: 4 7 10 m shuttle run test, SRT; standing broad jump, SBJ; six-minute walking test, 6MWT. Results: A total of 3,962 children (M = 2,019; F = 1943) were studied and 68% were normal weight. Overall, a 58% of the sample perceived a high SE, while, as to gender differences, a greater percentage of females perceived high levels of school SE with respect to any other level (\u3c72 = 38.93, p < 0.0001). Results from multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that: (i) females perceived higher SE compared to males; (ii) children who performed better in SRT and 6MWT showed higher levels of perceived school SE; (iii) no significant effect was registered for the body weight. Alternative strategies are encouraged to enhance SE through physical education: structured interventions might enhance both complex motor skills and high-order cognitive skills, like SE, in young children

Group-IV graphene- and graphane-like nanosheets

We performed a first principles investigation on the structural and electronic properties of group-IV (C, SiC, Si, Ge, and Sn) graphene-like sheets in flat and buckled configurations and the respective hydrogenated or fluorinated graphane-like ones. The analysis on the energetics, associated with the formation of those structures, showed that fluorinated graphane-like sheets are very stable, and should be easily synthesized in laboratory. We also studied the changes on the properties of the graphene-like sheets, as result of hydrogenation or fluorination. The interatomic distances in those graphane-like sheets are consistent with the respective crystalline ones, a property that may facilitate integration of those sheets within three-dimensional nanodevices

Image resampling and discretization effect on the estimate of myocardial radiomic features from T1 and T2 mapping in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Radiomics is emerging as a promising and useful tool in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging applications. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate, for the first time, the effect of image resampling/discretization and filtering on radiomic features estimation from quantitative CMR T1 and T2 mapping. Specifically, T1 and T2 maps of 26 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) were used to estimate 98 radiomic features for 7 different resampling voxel sizes (at fixed bin width), 9 different bin widths (at fixed resampling voxel size), and 7 different spatial filters (at fixed resampling voxel size/bin width). While we found a remarkable dependence of myocardial radiomic features from T1 and T2 mapping on image filters, many radiomic features showed a limited sensitivity to resampling voxel size/bin width, in terms of intraclass correlation coefficient (> 0.75) and coefficient of variation (< 30%). The estimate of most textural radiomic features showed a linear significant (p < 0.05) correlation with resampling voxel size/bin width. Overall, radiomic features from T2 maps have proven to be less sensitive to image preprocessing than those from T1 maps, especially when varying bin width. Our results might corroborate the potential of radiomics from T1/T2 mapping in HCM and hopefully in other myocardial diseases

Class sizes of prime-power order p'-elements and normal subgroups

We prove an extension of the renowned Itô’s theorem on groups having two class sizes in three different directions at the same time: normal subgroups, p′p′-elements and prime-power order elements. Let NN be a normal subgroup of a finite group GG and let pp be a fixed prime. Suppose that |xG|=1|xG|=1 or mm for every qq-element of NN and for every prime q≠pq≠p. Then, NN has nilpotent pp-complements.We are very grateful to the referee, who provided us a significant simplification of the last step of the proof of the main theorem and for many comments which have contributed to improve the paper. C. G. Shao wants to express his deep gratitude for the warm hospitality he has received in the Departamento de Matematicas of the Universidad Jaume I in Castellon, Spain. This research is supported by the Valencian Government, Proyecto PROMETEO/2011/30, by the Spanish Government, Proyecto MTM2010-19938-C03-02. The third author is supported by the research Project NNSF of China (Grant Nos. 11201401 and 11301218) and University of Jinan Research Funds for Doctors (XBS1335 and XBS1336).Beltrán, A.; Felipe Román, MJ.; Shao, C. (2015). Class sizes of prime-power order p'-elements and normal subgroups. Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata. 194(5):1527-1533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10231-014-0432-4S152715331945Akhlaghi, Z., Beltrán, A., Felipe, M.J.: The influence of $$p$$ p -regular class sizes on normal subgroups. J. Group Theory. 16, 585–593 (2013)Alemany, E., Beltrán, A., Felipe, M.J.: Nilpotency of normal subgroups having two $$G$$ G -class sizes. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 139, 2663–2669 (2011)Alemany, E., Beltrán, A., Felipe, M.J.: Finite groups with two $$p$$ p -regular conjugacy class lengths II. Bull. Aust. Math. Soc. 797, 419–425 (2009)Beltrán, A., Felipe, M.J.: Normal subgroups and class sizes elements of prime-power order. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 140, 4105–4109 (2012)Beltrán, A.: Action with nilpotent fixed point subgroup. Arch. Math. (Basel) 69, 177–184 (1997)Camina, A.R.: Finite groups of conjugate rank 2. Nagoya Math. J. 53, 47–57 (1974)Casolo, C., Dolfi, S., Jabara, E.: Finite groups whose noncentral class sizes have the same $$p$$ p -part for some prime $$p$$ p . Isr. J. Math. 192, 197–219 (2012)Huppert, B.: Character Theory of Finite groups, vol. 25. De Gruyter Expositions in Mathemathics, Berlin, New York (1998)Kleidman, P., Liebeck, M.: The Subgroup Structure of The Finite Classical Groups. London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, 129. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1990)Kurzweil, K., Stellmacher, B.: The Theory of Finite Groups. An Introduction. Springer, New York (2004)The GAP Group, GAP—Groups, Algorithms and Programming, Vers. 4.4.12 (2008). http://www.gap-system.orgVasiliev, A.V., Vdovin, E.P.: An adjacency criterion for the prime graph of a finite simple group. Algebra Logic 44(6), 381–406 (2005