Perceived Message Effectiveness Predicts Information-Seeking Behavior

This study examined whether perceived message effectiveness (PE) predicted information-seeking behavior in the topical domain of colon cancer. Participants (N = 277) viewed one of three video messages (news, testimonial, and animation) that advocated screening for colon cancer. Information-seeking behavior was operationalized as reading time for a subsequent message about colon cancer. The proposed mediation model successfully reproduced the pattern of data, thereby providing evidence that PE predicts behavior via intention.     

Chinese middle school teachers’ preferences regarding performance evaluation measures

Teacher performance evaluation currently is receiving unprecedented attention from policy makers, scholars, and practitioners worldwide. This study is one of the few studies of teacher perceptions regarding teacher performance measures that focus on China. We employed a quantitative dominant mixed research design to investigate Chinese teachers’ preferences for teacher performance measures and the possible reasons for their preferences. Considering the quantitative results, the surveyed Chinese teachers identified fulfillment of additional roles, collaboration with faculty and staff, and students’ test scores as the most important measures for performance evaluation. Qualitatively, the most important measures that the surveyed teachers reported were the teacher’s morality, workload, and students’ test scores.     

Multivariate analyses of individual variation in soccer skill as a tool for talent identification and development: utilising evolutionary theory in sports science

The development of a comprehensive protocol for quantifying soccer-specific skill could markedly improve both talent identification and development. Surprisingly, most protocols for talent identification in soccer still focus on the more generic athletic attributes of team sports, such as speed, strength, agility and endurance, rather than on a player’s technical skills. We used a multivariate methodology borrowed from evolutionary analyses of adaptation to develop our quantitative assessment of individual soccer-specific skill. We tested the performance of 40 individual academy-level players in eight different soccer-specific tasks across an age range of 13–18 years old. We first quantified the repeatability of each skill performance then explored the effects of age on soccer-specific skill, correlations between each of the pairs of skill tasks independent of age, and finally developed an individual metric of overall skill performance that could be easily used by coaches. All of our measured traits were highly repeatable when assessed over a short period and we found that an individual’s overall skill – as well as their performance in their best task – was strongly positively correlated with age. Most importantly, our study established a simple but comprehensive methodology for assessing skill performance in soccer players, thus allowing coaches to rapidly assess the relative abilities of their players, identify promising youths and work on eliminating skill deficits in players.     

Historical Frameworks and Sporting Research

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a wealth of research into how the game of association football developed. However, rather than establishing a common theme this research has led to competing theories with the debate dividing opinion on how the game of football was developed and propagated. While debate is healthy, the approach taken by some could lead to fellow academics looking to those engaged in sport history as unprofessional. This paper seeks to propose a way forward with academics working towards an all-encompassing history of the sport, by suggesting the adoption of a framework based on the work of Fernand Braudel, where indepth analysis of individual events is combined with the identification of transformational cycles. The paper concludes by suggesting that historians interested in soccer’s early history work together within the framework to develop a more detailed and all-encompassing early history of the sport. This framework will not claim that either the orthodox or revisionist view is accurate, instead it will determine how best to work those debates into an all-encompassing approach while searching for detailed evidence on what was actually occurring at local levels.     

标记系统及学术文本处理的未来（一）

标记事务影响着学者们对思考与写作系统的采纳使用。程序性标记和表示性标记会阻碍这一进程的发展,描述性标记则通过简化机械性任务,让学者们将注意力集中于内容上的做法,以加快这一进程。     

In Search of Staff Development: A study of academic staff appraisal

The academic award restructuring of 1991 established a trial period for academic staff appraisal for the purposes of staff development. The trend in Australia towards more formal performance management for academics has occurred during a period of substantial change to the structure of higher education and institutional management, and brought debate on whether appraisal, for either summative purposes (where performance assessment is for remuneration or promotion purposes) or formative purposes (where the emphasis is on planning personal development), is appropriate for academic staff. Arguments have been put forward for the benefits of appraisal processes with primarily developmental intent. Thus far there have been reports of the characteristics and processes of appraisal schemes, but less data on outcomes; in particular, little evidence to indicate the extent to which schemes lead to worthwhile staff development. This paper reports selected findings of a study of the evolving appraisal scheme of The University of Melbourne. The study was conducted after the scheme's second year of operation by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education which played an advisory role in an internal review of the scheme. The findings reveal some uncertainty among staff about the intentions of the scheme, and tensions between summative and formative purposes, perhaps not surprising given the contentious issue which staff appraisal has been in higher education. Nevertheless, positive outcomes were identified, but possibly too few to claim that the scheme was fully achieving a developmental objective. These findings raise questions about the effectiveness of academic staff appraisal nationally and suggest that it is time to reconsider the policy linkage between appraisal and staff development.     

A dynamic decision model for portfolio investment and assets management

This paper addresses a dynamic portfolio investment problem. It discusses how we can dynamically choose candidate assets, achieve the possible maximum revenue and reduce the risk to the minimum level. The paper generalizes Markowitz's portfolio selection theory and Sharpe's rule for investment decision. An analytical solution is presented to show how an institutional or individual investor can combine Markowitz's portfolio selection theory, generalized Sharpe's rule and Value-at-Risk(VaR) to find candidate assets and optimal level of position sizes for investment (dis-investment). The result shows that the generalized Markowitz's portfolio selection theory and generalized Sharpe's rule improve decision making for investment.     

Design of technology-based information-referenced grouping systems for use in large urban schools

There are many subtle but extremely important differences between grouping students and tracking students for purposes of designing appropriate instructional interventions. Unfortunately, in many inner-city urban settings, the policy of grouping students eventually becomes a policy ofde facto tracking of students. While grouping students seems to be an educationally justifiable policy in many school situations, tracking students raises serious concerns with regard to its educational value, social desirability, and complicity with the legal notions of due process and equal protection. This study examines the use of a specific form ofshort-term grouping of students that is based on an information-referenced criterion for selection. Using a large sample of ninth- and eleventh-grade students, an information-referenced grouping procedure was designed for the areas of language arts and mathematics. The study finds that grouping selections, using an information-referenced criterion, are strongly associated with teachers perceptions of these students' actual educational and information needs. In addition, the information-referenced grouping design provides important specific educational feedback to both students and teachers to help low-attaining students move to mainstream classes. Finally, many of the due process concerns raised by educational researchers with regard to abuses and shortcomings of presently used ability or standardized test-driven grouping efforts are addressed.