Assessing adolescents 'appraisal of significant adults' goal-involving criteria for judging their success in physical education and sport settings: a missing link in the socialization process

This study examined psychometric properties of a measure of adolescents' appraisal of criteria used for judging their sport and physical education success by their significant adults (PACEDOS). To facilitate coherent comparisons among significant adults in achievement settings, the same measure was used for the four of them (mother, father, and coach or PE teacher). Participants were 505 Spanish adolescents (M=13.85 years of age, SD = .76). Support for two dimensions, namely a task-involving criteria and ego-involving criteria, emerged across the four administrations via CFA, as well as evidence for internal consistency. Predictive validity findings suggested that the PACEDOS was distinct from perceptions of the motivational climate. Results revealed differences in gender, between athletes/non-athletes, and among the adolescents' appraisals of the four social agents' ego and task-involving criteria. Particularly, parents played a gendered role and sport leaders (coach/PE teacher) played a performative/educational role in adolescents' appraisal of the criteria used for judging their success in sport and PE contexts. The PACEDOS appeared to be a valid and reliable instrument, which allows coherent comparisons among different significant adults and it may help for understanding adolescents' sport and PE socialization

Strain-driven elastic and orbital-ordering effects on thickness-dependent properties of manganite thin films

We report on the structural and magnetic characterization of (110) and (001) La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 (LCMO) epitaxial thin films simultaneously grown on (110) and (001)SrTiO3 substrates, with thicknesses t varying between 8 nm and 150 nm. It is found that while the in-plane interplanar distances of the (001) films are strongly clamped to those of the substrate and the films remain strained up to well above t=100 nm, the (110) films relax much earlier. Accurate determination of the in-plane and out-of-plane interplanar distances has allowed concluding that in all cases the unit cell volume of the manganite reduces gradually when increasing thickness, approaching the bulk value. It is observed that the magnetic properties (Curie temperature and saturation magnetization) of the (110) films are significantly improved compared to those of (001) films. These observations, combined with 55Mn-nuclear magnetic resonance data and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, signal that the depression of the magnetic properties of the more strained (001)LCMO films is not caused by an elastic deformation of the perovskite lattice but rather due to the electronic and chemical phase separation caused by the substrate-induced strain. On the contrary, the thickness dependence of the magnetic properties of the less strained (110)LCMO films are simply described by the elastic deformation of the manganite lattice. We will argue that the different behavior of (001) and (110)LCMO films is a consequence of the dissimilar electronic structure of these interfaces.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure

Actividades intersectoriales en la prevención de accidentes de tráfico

ResumenSe describen las líneas de trabajo priorizadas y algunos resultados obtenidos en la implantación del programa de prevención y reducción de lesiones por accidentes de tráfico en un área de salud. A partir de 1999 el Centro de Salud Pública priorizó la identificación y búsqueda de aliados en otros sectores (Asociación de policías locales y educación), la construcción de la capacidad de trabajo conjunta y la formación de un grupo intersectorial. Se llevaron a cabo actividades docentes y jornadas. Se formó una red de personas en 17 de un total de 39 ayuntamientos que participan con actividades en el grupo intersectorial. Un total de 10 de estos ayuntamientos participaron con actividades educativas y siete, además, exigieron al cumplimiento de la legislación.El grupo intersectorial potenció la visibilidad de sus actividades a través de los medios de comunicación local. Estas actividades no están dirigidas a reducir las lesiones por tráfico, sino a crear un marco de trabajo para la movilización de los sectores implicados. Se pretende potenciar más el compromiso entre los niveles políticos, técnicos y civiles incidiendo en valores sociales de respeto para una vida más saludable.AbstractWe describe priority issues and some of the results obtained from the implementation of the «Prevention and Reduction of Traffic Accident Injuries» program in a health area. Since 1999 the public health center has made a priority of identifying and recruiting partners from other sectors (the local police association and the local education authority), increasing its capacity for working together, and setting up an intersectorial working group. Teaching activities and meetings were held. A network of people was created from 17 of a total of 39 town halls that participate in activities supported by the intersectorial group. Ten are involved in educational activities and a further seven focus on ensuring compliance with the law. The intersectorial group promoted their visibility through the local media. These activities are not aimed at reducing injuries from road traffic accidents, but rather at creating an action framework through which all the sectors involved can be mobilized. The aim is to strengthen commitment among political, technical and civil sectors by focussing on social values of respect for a healthier life

Professionalization of Sport Educators in European Prisons

Actualmente, las actividades físicas y deportivas forman parte del paisaje de las prisiones y se les adjudica un papel (re)educativo. Sin embargo, se desconoce cómo se desarrollan dichas actividades y la profesionalización del personal encargado de las mismas. En este estudio se administró un cuestionario a 341 profesionales de prisiones, ubicadas en cinco países europeos, con el objetivo de indagar en el rol que juega la formación especializada en deportes y el diseño instruccional en la profesionalización de estos educadores. Los resultados indican que la formación deportiva especializada es mayor en los profesionales con menos años de experiencia y, especialmente, en aquellos con estudios superiores. Un gran porcentaje de los educadores planifican los principales elementos del diseño instruccional, aunque la mitad aún mantiene los objetivos en mente. Utilizan principalmente la estrategia metodológica de instrucción directa y formas verbales de evaluación. Se concluye que los educadores noveles con mayor nivel de estudios muestran mayor grado de profesionalizaciónSport is nowadays part of the prison landscape and it receives a (re)educational role. Nevertheless, it is unknown how are they developed and the professionalization features of the staff in charge of these activities. Therefore, a sample of 341 professionals from prisons located in five European countries responded to a survey conducted to explore the role that specialized sportive training and instructional design play in the professionalization of sport educators. The results indicate that the specialized sports training is higher among professionals with less years of experience and, especially, among those with higher-university studies. Larger percentage of educators plan the main elements of design, however, half of them still kept in mind the objectives. They mainly use direct instruction methodological strategies and oral forms of assessment. The paper concludes that those educators with less years of experience and more level of education show higher degree of professionalizationEste artículo deriva del proyecto "Prisoners on the move. Move into sport, move through sport", que fue financiado por la Unión Europea (EAC/22/2010). Los miembros del equipo de investigación pertenecen a De Rode Antraciet de Bélgica (Coordinador del proyecto), Kriminal Forsorgen de Dinamarca, Sport et Citoyenneté de Francia, CRED de Rumania, Sport for Solidarity del Reino Unido y la Universitat de València de España. El estudio del cual deriva este artículo lo diseñaron y desarrollaron los autores de este trabajo

Spatial eigensolution analysis of discontinuous Galerkin schemes with practical insights for under-resolved computations and implicit LES

The study focusses on the dispersion and diffusion characteristics of discontinuous spectral element methods - specifically discontinuous Galerkin (DG) - via the spatial eigensolution analysis framework built around a one-dimensional linear problem, namely the linear advection equation. Dispersion and diffusion characteristics are of critical importance when dealing with under-resolved computations, as they affect both the numerical stability of the simulation and the solution accuracy. The spatial eigensolution analysis carried out in this paper complements previous analyses based on the temporal approach, which are more commonly found in the literature. While the latter assumes periodic boundary conditions, the spatial approach assumes inflow/outflow type boundary conditions and is therefore better suited for the investigation of open flows typical of aerodynamic problems, including transitional and fully turbulent flows and aeroacoustics. The influence of spurious/reflected eigenmodes is assessed with regard to the presence of upwind dissipation, naturally present in DG methods. This provides insights into the accuracy and robustness of these schemes for under-resolved computations, including under-resolved direct numerical simulation (uDNS) and implicit large-eddy simulation (iLES). The results estimated from the spatial eigensolution analysis are verified using the one-dimensional linear advection equation and successively by performing two-dimensional compressible Euler simulations that mimic (spatially developing) grid turbulence

Modelling Long-Term Urban Temperatures with Less Training Data: A Comparative Study Using Neural Networks in the City of Madrid

In the last decades, urban climate researchers have highlighted the need for a reliable provision of meteorological data in the local urban context. Several efforts have been made in this direction using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), demonstrating that they are an accurate alternative to numerical approaches when modelling large time series. However, existing approaches are varied, and it is unclear how much data are needed to train them. This study explores whether the need for training data can be reduced without overly compromising model accuracy, and if model reliability can be increased by selecting the UHI intensity as the main model output instead of air temperature. These two approaches were compared using a common ANN configuration and under different data availability scenarios. Results show that reducing the training dataset from 12 to 9 or even 6 months would still produce reliable results, particularly if the UHI intensity is used. The latter proved to be more effective than the temperature approach under most training scenarios, with an average RMSE improvement of 16.4% when using only 3 months of data. These findings have important implications for urban climate research as they can potentially reduce the duration and cost of field measurement campaigns