Ability beliefs, achievement goals and intrinsic motivation in physical education

This thesis examined the relationships of the conceptions of sport ability, achievement goals, and intrinsic motivation in Physical Education. Studies 1 and 2 investigated the psychometric properties of the Conceptions of the Nature of Athletic Ability Questionnaire (CNAAQ), a measure of sport ability beliefs. Results showed that the revised version of the scale possesses sound psychometric properties in assessing sport ability beliefs among children and youth. In addition, the relationships between ability beliefs, goal orientations, perceived competence, and behavioural indicators (intentions and amotivation) were also examined in the first two studies. An incremental belief predicted task orientation, whereas an entity belief predicted ego orientation. Intentions to be physically active were predicted by goal orientations indirectly through perceived competence, and directly by task orientation. In addition, amotivation was predicted directly and indirectly by ability beliefs and directly by achievement goals. Specifically, entity beliefs directly predicted amotivation, task orientation negatively predicted amotivation. Study 3 examined the interrelationships between ability beliefs, achievement goals, perceived competence, behavioural regulation, and arnotivation using cluster analysis. Five distinct clusters were identified based on these motivational constructs and these profiles were found to be related to perceived physical self-worth and levels of sport participation. Study 4 experimentally manipulated sport ability beliefs and examined their causal influence on achievement goals and motivation patterns when faced with failure. The causal link between ability beliefs and goals was supported. Ability attributions for failure were stronger for entity theorists compared to incremental theorists. However, hypotheses predicting differences on effort attributions, affective reactions, and behavioural markers were not supported. Study 5 examined the effects of goal involvement on enjoyment and intrinsic motivation under positive feedback. The results suggested that task-involved and ego-involved participants did not differ in self-reported enjoyment and free-choice behaviour measure. However, the free-choice behaviour of the ego-involved participants may not be fully intrinsically motivated. In addition, autonomous communication increased the positive effects of task and ego involvement on intrinsic motivation and enjoyment, whereas controlling communication had an undermining effect. Overall, results show that high incremental beliefs and high task orientation facilitate adaptive motivational patterns. Autonomy-supportive contexts also enhanced students' task motivation compared to controlling contexts

Quantum Entanglement in Heisenberg Antiferromagnets

Entanglement sharing among pairs of spins in Heisenberg antiferromagnets is investigated using the concurrence measure. For a nondegenerate S=0 ground state, a simple formula relates the concurrence to the diagonal correlation function. The concurrence length is seen to be extremely short. A few finite clusters are studied numerically, to see the trend in higher dimensions. It is argued that nearest-neighbour concurrence is zero for triangular and Kagome lattices. The concurrences in the maximal-spin states are explicitly calculated, where the concurrence averaged over all pairs is larger than the S=0 states.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Extension of Ambarzumyan's Theorem to General Boundary Conditions

AbstractWe extend the classical Ambarzumyan's theorem for the Sturm–Liouville equation (which is concerned only with Neumann boundary conditions) to the general boundary conditions, by imposing an additional condition on the potential function. Our result supplements the Pöschel–Trubowitz inverse spectral theory. We also have parallel results for vectorial Sturm–Liouville systems

In-Plane Magnetic Anisotropy In RF Sputtered Fe-N Thin Films

We have fabricated Fe(N) thin films with varied N2 partial pressure and studied the microstructure, morphology, magnetic properties and resistivity by using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, vibrating-sample magnetometer and angle-resolved M-H hysteresis Loop tracer and standard four-point probe method. In the presence of low N2 partial pressure, Fe(N) films showed a basic bcc a-Fe structure with a preferred (110) texture. A variation of in-plane magnetic anisotropy of the Fe(N) films was observed with the changing of N component. The evolution of in-plane anisotropy in the films was attributed to the directional order mechanism. Nitrogen atoms play an important role in refining the a-Fe grains and inducing uniaxial anisotropy.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Further improvement of fluidized bed models by incorporating zone method with Aspen Plus interface

While providing a fast and accurate tool of simulating fluidized beds, the major limitation of classical zero-dimensional ideal reactor models used in process simulators, such as models built into commercial software (e.g. Aspen Plus®), has been the difficulties of involving thermal reciprocity between each reactor model and incorporating heat absorption by the water wall and super-heaters which is usually specified as model inputs rather than predicted by the models themselves. This aspect is of particular importance to the geometry design and evaluation of operating conditions and flexibility of fluidized beds. This paper proposes a novel modelling approach to resolve this limitation by incorporating an external model that marries the advantages of zone method and Aspen Plus in a robust manner. The improved model has a relatively modest computing demand and hence may be incorporated feasibly into dynamic simulations of a whole power plant

Impacts of talent development environments on athlete burnout: a self-determination perspective

Guided by Deci and Ryan’s (2000) self-determination theory, this survey study aimed to examine the effects of the talent development environmental factors on athlete burnout. Talented adolescent athletes (N = 691) filled out a survey form measuring the talent development environmental factors, needs satisfaction, and burnout. The findings showed that three talent environmental factors (i.e., long-term development focus, holistic quality preparation, and communication) were negative predictors of burnout via needs satisfaction. It was concluded that the three talent development environmental factors may be important for facilitating athletes’ needs satisfaction and preventing burnout

Undecidable properties of self-affine sets and multi-tape automata

We study the decidability of the topological properties of some objects coming from fractal geometry. We prove that having empty interior is undecidable for the sets defined by two-dimensional graph-directed iterated function systems. These results are obtained by studying a particular class of self-affine sets associated with multi-tape automata. We first establish the undecidability of some language-theoretical properties of such automata, which then translate into undecidability results about their associated self-affine sets.Comment: 10 pages, v2 includes some corrections to match the published versio

Quasi-Interpolation Functionals on Spline Spaces

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the structure of quasi-interpolation functionals on the space spanned by exponential polynomial splines and their translates. The existence of these function is guaranteed by certain conditions which are derived, using the notion of commutators, and shown to be equivalent to some generalization of the Strang-Fix conditions. Characterizations of quasi-interpolation functionals are also formulated, and admissible sets for these functionals are given. Several interpolation schemes are obtained through the quasi-interpolation functionals

The roles of the talent development environment on athlete burnout: a qualitative study

Grounded on basic psychological needs theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), this qualitative study investigated the impacts of the talent development environmental factors on athlete burnout. Talented youth athletes with high and low burnout levels (n = 38; each group had 19 participants) were recruited to attend focus-group interviews. Thematic analysis led to five environmental themes: long-term development focus, holistic quality preparation, support network, communication, and alignment of expectations. Athletes with high burnout levels were likely to experience more detrimental and less conducive talent development environmental antecedents compared to those who were with low burnout levels. It was concluded that the talent development environmental factors are important antecedents for burnout prevention