Texas economy to ride higher in the saddle in 2011

The Texas economy grew moderately in 2010, outperforming most other states. Jobs increased by 209,000, a growth rate of about 2 percent—near the state’s average pace since 1980. Strength in the high-tech and energy sectors was an important source of Texas’ economic might relative to other parts of the country. The state also suffered less from housing price declines. ; Leading indicators, generally positive at the end of 2010, suggest an improving outlook in 2011 as consumers and businesses regain confidence in the economy. The Dallas Fed forecasting model projects Texas job growth of 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent this year.>Economic conditions - Texas ; Economic indicators

Spotlight: Farm real estate values: Texas holds steady in 2008, bucking U.S. trend

The value of Texas agricultural land has followed national trends since the early 1990s. Last year, however, the state's average price per acre remained unchanged, a sharp contrast to the nation's first decline in 17 years. Texas was one of only eight states that didn't see falling farm values in 2008.Farms - Valuation ; Agriculture - Economic aspects

Freedom with Chinese Characteristics

The following “note from the field” is based off of first-hand observations and experiences had while living and working as an affiliated professor at a Chinese university. Noting the well-known political restrictions existing in China, the piece argues that against dominant Western narratives depicting a lack of freedom within China, there ostensibly appear spaces offering levels of emotional and interactional freedoms greater than what one can experience in the West. This argument is framed within the thought of Western intellectuals such as David Riesman, Erich Fromm, C. Wright Mills and Stjepan Mestrovic, and is advanced by considering the vast historical and cultural changes in recent Chinese history that have created an anomic condition in regards to newly emerging spaces made possible by vast wealth acquisition in the last several decades

Meeting NCATE Standard 4: One University’s Plan to Help Preservice Teachers Develop Knowledge, Skills, and Professional Dispositions to Ensure that All Students Learn

Standard 4-Diversity of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) requires that preservice teachers, or candidates, demonstrate and apply proficiencies related to diversity

The Binary Nature of PSR J2032+4127

PSR J2032+4127 is a gamma-ray and radio-emitting pulsar which has been regarded as a young luminous isolated neutron star. However, its recent spin-down rate has extraordinarily increased by a factor of two. We present evidence that this is due to its motion as a member of a highly-eccentric binary system with a 15-solar-mass Be star, MT91~213. Timing observations show that, not only are the positions of the two stars coincident within 0.4 arcsec, but timing models of binary motion of the pulsar fit the data much better than a model of a young isolated pulsar. MT91~213, and hence the pulsar, lie in the Cyg~OB2 stellar association, which is at a distance of only 1.4-1.7 kpc. The pulsar is currently on the near side of, and accelerating towards, the Be star, with an orbital period of 20-30 years. The next periastron is well-constrained to occur in early 2018, providing an opportunity to observe enhanced high-energy emission as seen in other Be-star binary systems.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Compression and texture in socks enhance football kicking performance

The purpose of this study was to observe effects of wearing textured insoles and clinical compression socks on organisation of lower limb interceptive actions in developing athletes of different skill levels in association football. Six advanced learners and six completely novice football players (15.4±0.9years) performed 20 instep kicks with maximum velocity, in four randomly organised insoles and socks conditions, (a) Smooth Socks with Smooth Insoles (SSSI); (b) Smooth Socks with Textured Insoles (SSTI); (c) Compression Socks with Smooth Insoles (CSSI) and (d), Compression Socks with Textured Insoles (CSTI). Reflective markers were placed on key anatomical locations and the ball to facilitate three-dimensional (3D) movement recording and analysis. Data on 3D kinematic variables and initial ball velocity were analysed using one-way mixed model ANOVAs. Results revealed that wearing textured and compression materials enhanced performance in key variables, such as the maximum velocity of the instep kick and increased initial ball velocity, among advanced learners compared to the use of non-textured and compression materials. Adding texture to football boot insoles appeared to interact with compression materials to improve kicking performance, captured by these important measures. This improvement in kicking performance is likely to have occurred through enhanced somatosensory system feedback utilised for foot placement and movement organisation of the lower limbs. Data suggested that advanced learners were better at harnessing the augmented feedback information from compression and texture to regulate emerging movement patterns compared to novices

Sociologically imagined: the decentering of C. Wright Mills, the postmodern cowboy

Examining early biographical events in C. Wright Mills’ life, along with his relationships to his family, some of whom he denied as even being family later in his life, the following study demonstrates a link between the early psychological traumas of a young Mills and the strong impact these had on his later intellectual thought. Such an approach looms as potentially important and beneficial in gaining insight into Mills’ theoretical positions when we turn to academics such as Alice Miller, Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung who demonstrate the lasting and shaping impact that early psychological development has on the thoughts, ideas and expressions of older adults. Even for empirical-based sociologists who may be hesitant to accept psychoanalytic explanations, it is difficult to reject this position outright. Even within sociology’s own house, Max Weber, Talcott Parsons, David Riesman and C. Wright Mills also utilize basic psychoanalytic insights in their sociological writings. Using Mills’ psychological development as an entry point, this work demonstrates the similarities between Mills’ early biographical trajectory and its psychological impact on his later life as compared to very similar developments in the lives of Friedrich Nietzsche, Thorstein Veblen and Weber. Ultimately, we come to see that not only is Mills’ early psychological development similar to these earlier thinkers, but his intellectual thought later in his life is similar as well

Changes in organisation of instep kicking as a function of wearing compression and textured materials.

This study investigated effects of wearing compression garments and textured insoles on modes of movement organisation emerging during performance of lower limb interceptive actions in association football. Participants were six skilled (age = 15.67 ± 0.74 years) and six less-skilled (age = 15.17 ± 1.1 years) football players. All participants performed 20 instep kicks with maximum velocity in four randomly organised insoles and socks conditions, (a) Smooth Socks with Smooth Insoles (SSSI); (b) Smooth Socks with Textured Insoles (SSTI); (c) Compression Socks with Smooth Insoles (CSSI); and (d), Compression Socks with Textured Insoles (CSTI). Results showed that, when wearing textured and compression materials (CSSI condition), less-skilled participants displayed significantly greater hip extension and flexion towards the ball contact phase, indicating larger ranges of motion in the kicking limb than in other conditions. Less-skilled participants also demonstrated greater variability in knee–ankle intralimb (angle–angle plots) coordination modes in the CSTI condition. Findings suggested that use of textured and compression materials increased attunement to somatosensory information from lower limb movement, to regulate performance of dynamic interceptive actions like kicking, especially in less-skilled individuals

Levelling the playing field: lessons from sport on re-framing science engagement as a benefit to the individual

The workforces of the Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) industries suffer from skills gaps and lack diversity. Science engagement activities e.g. science festivals, often try to solve these problems through targeting audiences under-represented in the STEM workforces. There is limited data, however, to suggest that these engagement efforts are successful in translating into more diverse workforces. We draw upon Unicef’s ‘Sport for Development’ model and propose a new conceptual framework: ‘Science Engagement for Good’. This frames science engagement activities around the benefits to individuals, families and communities, rather than the benefits to STEM industries, the economy or society at large