Academic buoyancy, student's achievement, and the linking role of control: A cross-lagged analysis of high school students

Background Previous research has indicated that although academic buoyancy and student's achievement are associated, the relationship is relatively modest. Aims We sought to determine whether another construct might link academic buoyancy and student's achievement. Based on prior theoretical and empirical work, we examined a sense of control as one possible linking mechanism. Sample The study analysed data from 2,971 students attending 21 Australian high schools. Methods We conducted a cross-lagged panel design as a first means of disentangling the relative salience of academic buoyancy, control, and achievement (Phase 1). Based upon these results, we proceeded with follow-up analyses of an ordered process model linking the constructs over time (Phase 2). Results Findings showed that buoyancy and achievement were associated with control over time, but not with one another (Phase 1). In addition, control appeared to play a role in how buoyancy influenced achievement and that a cyclical process may operate among the three factors over time (Phase 2). Conclusion The findings suggest that control may play an important role in linking past experiences of academic buoyancy and achievement to subsequent academic buoyancy and achievement.The authors would like to thank the Australian Research Council for funding this research

Bailouts in a common market: a strategic approach

Governments in the EU grant Rescue and Restructure Subsidies to bail out ailing firms. In an international asymmetric Cournot duopoly we study effects of such subsidies on market structure and welfare. We adopt a common market setting, where consumers from the two countries form one market. We show that the subsidy is positive also when it fails to prevent the exit. The reason is a strategic effect, which forces the more efficient firm to make additional cost-reducing effort. When the exit is prevented, allocative and productive efficiencies are lower and the only gaining player is the rescued firm

The New Political Economy of EU State Aid Policy

Despite its importance and singularity, the EU’s state aid policy has attracted less scholarly attention than other elements of EU competition policy. Introducing the themes addressed by the special issue, this article briefly reviews the development of EU policy and highlights why the control of state aid matters. The Commission’s response to the current economic crisis notably in banking and the car industry is a key concern, but the interests of the special issue go far beyond. They include: the role of the European Commission in the development of EU policy, the politics of state aid, and a clash between models of capitalism. The special issue also examines the impact of EU policy. It investigates how EU state aid decisions affect not only industrial policy at the national level (and therefore at the EU level), but the welfare state and territorial relations within federal member states, the external implications of EU action and the strategies pursued by the Commission to limit any potential disadvantage to European firms, and the conflict between the EU’s expanding legal order and national

Dyonic Non-Abelian Vortices

We study three-dimensional Yang-Mills-Higgs theories with and without a Chern-Simons interaction. We find that these theories admit a rich spectrum of vortex solitons carrying both a topological charge and a global flavour charge. We further derive a low-energy description of the vortex dynamics from a gauged linear sigma model on the vortex worldline.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures; references added in section

Disentangling motivation and engagement: Exploring the role of effort in promoting greater conceptual and methodological clarity

Conflation over motivation and engagement has historically impeded research and practice. One reason for this is because definition and measurement have often been too general or diffuse—especially in the case of engagement. Recently conceptual advances aimed at disentangling facets of engagement and motivation have highlighted a need for better psychometric precision—particularly in the case of engagement. To the extent that engagement is inadequately assessed, motivation research involving engagement continues to be hampered. The present study investigates multidimensional effort (a specific facet of engagement) and how it relates to motivation. In particular, we examine the associations between specific positive and negative motivation factors and dimensions of effort, thereby shedding further insight into how different types of motivation interplay with different types of engagement. Drawing on data from a sample of 946 Australian high school students in 59 mathematics classrooms at five schools, this study hypothesized a tripartite model of academic effort in terms of operative, cognitive, and social–emotional dimensions. A novel nine-item self-report Effort Scale measuring each of the three factors was developed and tested for internal and external validity—including its relationship with multidimensional motivation. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test the factor structure and validity of multidimensional effort. Additionally, doubly-latent multilevel structural equation models were conducted to explore the hypothesized motivation → engagement (effort) process, and the role of student- and classroom-level background attributes as predictors of both motivation and effort. Results supported the hypothesized model of tripartite effort and its distinctiveness from motivation, and showed that key dimensions of motivation predicted effort at student- and classroom-levels. This study provides implications and suggestions for future motivation research and theorizing by (1) establishing evidence for the validity of a novel engagement framework (multidimensional effort), and (2) supporting future measurement and practice in academic engagement juxtaposed with multidimensional motivation—critical for better understanding engagement, and motivation itself

Traumatic injury survivors’ perceptions of their future: a longitudinal qualitative study

AIM: Persistent disability following traumatic injuries can disrupt future plans and create uncertainty about how to mitigate future impacts. It is unknown how or whether perceptions of the future change in the years after injury. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore trauma survivors’ perceptions of their future over time. METHODS: A longitudinal qualitative study, nested within a population-based longitudinal cohort study, was undertaken in Victoria, Australia with survivors of serious injury. Sixty-six seriously injured adults (≥16 years) without severe neurotrauma were interviewed at 3 years post-injury (n = 66), and re-interviewed at 4 (n = 63) and 5 years (n = 57) post-injury. A longitudinal thematic analysis was performed. RESULTS: Many traumatically injured people had persistent physical and mental impacts. Participants reported being anxious about pain, mobility, work, housing and accommodation, social activities, and finances in their future. Others were hopeful and optimistic regarding their future and developed coping strategies and adopted new viewpoints. CONCLUSION: ver time, most seriously injured people’s perceptions of the future remained consistent. Some had enduring anxiety and others sustained hopeful approaches. Personalised and targeted interventions that address specific concerns could reduce anxiety and support positive adjustment following traumatic injury

Variability of the sheep lung microbiota

Sequencing technologies have recently facilitated the characterisation of bacterial communities present in lungs during health and disease. However, there is currently a dearth of information concerning the variability of such data in health both between and within subjects. This study seeks to examine such variability using healthy adult sheep as our model system. Protected specimen brush samples were collected from three spatially disparate segmental bronchi of six adult sheep (age 20 months) on three occasions (day 0, one month and three months). To further explore the spatial variability of the microbiota, more extensive brushings (n=16) and a throat swab were taken from a separate sheep. The V2-V3 hypervariable regions of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene were amplified and sequenced via Illumina MiSeq. DNA sequences were analysed using the MOTHUR software package. Quantitative PCR was performed to quantify total bacterial DNA. Some sheep lungs contained dramatically different bacterial communities at different sampling sites whereas in others airway microbiota appeared similar across the lung. In our spatial variability study, clustering was observed related to the depth within the lung from which samples were taken. Lung depth refers to increasing distance from the glottis progressing in a caudal direction. We conclude that both host influence and local factors have an impact on the composition of the sheep lung microbiota

Mirror Matter as Self Interacting Dark Matter

It has been argued that the observed core density profile of galaxies is inconsistent with having a dark matter particle that is collisionless and alternative dark matter candidates which are self interacting may explain observations better. One new class of self interacting dark matter that has been proposed in the context mirror universe models of particle physics is the mirror hydrogen atom whose stability is guaranteed by the conservation of mirror baryon number. We show that the effective transport cross section for mirror hydrogen atoms, has the right order of magnitude for solving the ``cuspy'' halo problem. Furthermore, the suppression of dissipation effects for mirror atoms due to higher mirror mass scale prevents the mirror halo matter from collapsing into a disk strengthening the argument for mirror matter as galactic dark matter.Comment: 6 pages; some references adde