Does Taekwondo improve children's self-regulation? If so, how? A randomized field experiment

Emerging evidence suggests interventions can improve childhood self-regulation. One intervention approach that has shown promise is Taekwondo martial arts instruction, though little is known about its acceptability among stakeholders or its mechanisms of effect. We extend evidence on Taekwondo interventions in three ways: (a) testing the efficacy of a standard introductory course of Taekwondo, (b) assessing the acceptability of Taekwondo instruction among school children, and (c) investigating two self-regulatory mechanisms by which Taekwondo may operate (executive functions and motivation). This article reports findings from a randomized control trial implementing a standard 11-week beginners’ course of Taekwondo. Participants were from a mixed-sex, nonselective U.K. primary school (N = 240, age range 7 to 11 years). Measures of self-regulation included teacher-rated effortful control, impulsivity, prosocial behavior, and conduct problems; computer-based assessments of executive functions; and child self-reported expectancies and values to use self-regulation. Postintervention, children in the Taekwondo condition were rated by teachers as having fewer symptoms of conduct problems and better effortful control (specifically attentional control), and they also had better executive attention assessed by a flanker task. Effects were not found for teacher-rated inhibitory control, activation control, impulsivity, and prosocial behavior or for assessments of response inhibition, verbal working memory, and switching. Taekwondo was rated very positively by children. Finally, there was evidence that children who completed Taekwondo classes reported higher expectancies and values to use self-regulation and that expectancies and values mediated intervention effects on self-regulation. We conclude that short standard Taekwondo courses are well received by pupils, improve attentional self-regulation, and reduce symptoms of conduct problems

Data from an International Multi-Centre Study of Statistics and Mathematics Anxieties and Related Variables in University Students (the SMARVUS Dataset)

This large, international dataset contains survey responses from N = 12,570 students from 100 universities in 35 countries, collected in 21 languages. We measured anxieties (statistics, mathematics, test, trait, social interaction, performance, creativity, intolerance of uncertainty, and fear of negative evaluation), self-efficacy, persistence, and the cognitive reflection test, and collected demographics, previous mathematics grades, self-reported and official statistics grades, and statistics module details. Data reuse potential is broad, including testing links between anxieties and statistics/mathematics education factors, and examining instruments’ psychometric properties across different languages and contexts

Evaluating the pedagogical effectiveness of study preregistration in the undergraduate dissertation: A Registered Report

Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Research shows that questionable research practices (QRPs) are present in undergraduate final-year dissertation projects. One entry-level Open Science practice proposed to mitigate QRPs is ‘study preregistration’, through which researchers outline their research questions, design, method and analysis plans prior to data collection and/or analysis. In this study, we aimed to empirically test the effectiveness of preregistration as a pedagogic tool in undergraduate dissertations using a quasi-experimental design. A total of 89 UK psychology students were recruited, including students who preregistered their empirical quantitative dissertation (n = 52; experimental group) and those who did not (n = 37; control group). Attitudes towards statistics, acceptance of QRPs, and perceived understanding of Open Science were measured both pre- and post-dissertation. Exploratory measures included capability, opportunity and motivation (COM-B) to engage with preregistration, measured at Time 1 only. This study was conducted as a Registered Report; Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/9hjbw (date of in-principle acceptance: 21/09/2021). Contrary to hypotheses, study preregistration did not significantly impact attitudes towards statistics or acceptance of QRPs. However, students who preregistered reported greater perceived understanding of Open Science concepts from Time 1 to Time 2, compared with students who did not preregister. Exploratory analyses indicated that students who preregistered reported significantly greater capability, opportunity, and motivation to preregister. Qualitative responses revealed that preregistration was perceived to improve clarity and organisation of the dissertation, prevent QRPs, and promote rigour. Disadvantages and barriers included time, perceived rigidity, and need for training. These results contribute to timely discussions surrounding the utility of embedding Open Science principles into research training

The effect of legislature size on public spending: evidence from a regression discontinuity design

What is the effect of legislature size on public spending? An answer to this question is provided by Weingast et al. (J Polit Econ 89(4):642–664, 1981), whose “law of 1/n” posits that an increase in the number of elected representatives always leads to an increase in public spending. Because elected politicians regard the tax base as a common pool from which they can finance specific projects for their constituencies, and these specific constituencies internalize the full benefits of the projects, but only bear a fraction of the costs (projects are financed from the common tax base), fiscal inefficiency will increase with the number of representatives. In this paper, I test the validity of the “law of 1/n” using a dataset of 9325 German municipalities between 2008 and 2010. Through the application of a regression discontinuity design, many of the methodological pitfalls of previous studies can be avoided and a valid estimation of the causal effect of legislature size on public spending for German municipalities can be determined. The results do not corroborate the positive findings of previous studies, which generally supported the implications of the “law of 1/n”. For the years 2008–2010, I find a negative effect of legislature size on public spending in German municipal councils

Emerging Roles of Small Epstein-Barr Virus Derived Non-Coding RNAs in Epithelial Malignancy

Latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection is an etiological factor in the progression of several human epithelial malignancies such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and a subset of gastric carcinoma. Reports have shown that EBV produces several viral oncoproteins, yet their pathological roles in carcinogenesis are not fully elucidated. Studies on the recently discovered of EBV-encoded microRNAs (ebv-miRNAs) showed that these small molecules function as post-transcriptional gene regulators and may play a role in the carcinogenesis process. In NPC and EBV positive gastric carcinoma (EBVaGC), 22 viral miRNAs which are located in the long alternative splicing EBV transcripts, named BamH1 A rightward transcripts (BARTs), are abundantly expressed. The importance of several miR-BARTs in carcinogenesis has recently been demonstrated. These novel findings enhance our understanding of the oncogenic properties of EBV and may lead to a more effective design of therapeutic regimens to combat EBV-associated malignancies. This article will review the pathological roles of miR-BARTs in modulating the expression of cancer-related genes in both host and viral genomes. The expression of other small non-coding RNAs in NPC and the expression pattern of miR-BARTs in rare EBV-associated epithelial cancers will also be discussed