EFFECTS ON POSTURAL CONSTRAINTS ON OVERARM THROWING

This study explored the effects of postural constraints on overarm throwing. 10 participants were required to perform an overarm throwing movement by 3 tasks which under postural constraints. Tasks were including trunk-fixed, sitting, and standing. 10 pieces of 3D motion capture system were used to record the maximum velocity of body segments as data and one-way repeated measures ANOVA (a=.05) with HSD post-hoc tests was conducted to analysis the data. Therefore, the results indicated that the performance of overarm throwing by 3 tasks were different significantly, which proved the kinetic chain formed by links connected in series gave body segments more velocities. Moreover, it meat trunk and lower limbs played the roles to transport velocity as performing overarm throwing

I worship, so I download? Idol worship, music purchase and piracy by young consumers in Taiwan

Design/methodology/approach – A stratified, two-stage, cluster sampling procedure was applied to a list of high schools obtained from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. A return rate of 80 per cent yielded 723 usable questionnaires, the data from which were analysed by the LISREL structural equation modelling software. Findings – The results suggest that both social worship and personal worship have a significant and positive impact on the intention to purchase music. However, personal worship has a negative impact on the intention to pirate music while social worship appears to strengthen it. Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest that idol worship is more complex than previously understood. The constructs chosen in this research should be seen only as a snapshot but other variables such as vanity trait, autonomy, romanticism or involvement are not taken into account. Future studies would benefit from inclusion of these variables and a wider geographical scope. Practical implications – The findings contain many implications to help marketing executives and planners better revise their existing marketing and communication strategies to increase their revenue. Originality/value – Existing research has tended to examine the impact of idol worship as a whole on the reduction of music piracy, but overlook the two-dimensional aspects of idol worship, hence ignoring the fact that many music firms have not properly utilised idol worship to deal with the challenges associated with music piracy. The findings broaden existing understanding about the causes of two different dimensions of idol worship and their different impacts on the intention to music piracy

Mothers and mother tongue : their role in promoting Foochow to their children

Research in settings where the Foochow population is small relative to other ethnic groups has indicated a shift away from Foochow towards Mandarin and English and the question raised is whether the same phenomenon is happening in Foochow-dominant settings. The study examined whether Foochow mothers promote use of the mother tongue by their children in Foochow-dominant towns in Sarawak. Interview data were collected from 30 participants from seven families, of which 14 were mothers. The results showed that the children's language use was in the hands ofthe mother more than the father although some Foochow mothers allowed the family situation to dictate the children's first language. Others took on a more active role in deciding the language(s) their children should learn, some going with and others going against the tide of social change. The demographic profiles ofthe families were examined to find out the factors influencing Foochow mothers to promote or demote their ethnic language in the family

Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystals for Engineering Atom-Light Interactions

We present a two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal system for interacting with cold cesium (Cs) atoms. The band structures of the 2D photonic crystals are predicted to produce unconventional atom-light interaction behaviors, including anisotropic emission, suppressed spontaneous decay and photon mediated atom-atom interactions controlled by the position of the atomic array relative to the photonic crystal. An optical conveyor technique is presented for continuously loading atoms into the desired trapping positions with optimal coupling to the photonic crystal. The device configuration also enables application of optical tweezers for controlled placement of atoms. Devices can be fabricated reliably from a 200nm silicon nitride device layer using a lithography-based process, producing predicted optical properties in transmission and reflection measurements. These 2D photonic crystal devices can be readily deployed to experiments for many-body physics with neutral atoms, and engineering of exotic quantum matter

Reliability and Validity of Widely Used International Surveys on the Environment

Do existing public opinion surveys provide valid and reliable measures of attitudes towards environmental sustainability? This question is critical given the importance of public support for achieving sustainability. Starting with 28 survey items about the environment drawn from the World Values Survey Waves 5 and 6 and the 2010 International Social Survey Program, we assessed reliability by checking for significant correlations between similar or identical items on different surveys. Next, to assess validity, we evaluated correlations between survey items and 22 objective environmental indicators drawn from the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). As the level of economic development is a likely confound, we also performed partial correlation analyses controlling for GDP per capita. From the initial 28 items, we identified 23 sufficiently reliable items, but many of these were found to have low predictive power in the validity analysis. Items about air and water pollution were valid predictors of objective environmental conditions in these areas. Items asking about the relative importance of environmental problems compared to other social issues were also good positive predictors of progress on perceptible environmental issues. Items asking about general sentiment with no clear referent performed poorly. When controlling for GDP, country-level attitudes were more aligned with country-specific environmental conditions. Finally, nearly half of all EPI indicators were associated with few or no survey items, indicating the existence of 'blind spots' in public awareness. Our findings should offer guidance to both survey developers and users, as well as to policy makers responsible for conveying information about environmental sustainability to the wider public