Re-thinking Middle Eastern democracy : lessons from ancient Mesopotamia

The issue of Middle Eastern democracy has long inspired lively academic debate and research from across the ideological and political spectrum. Despite their differences, much of this work measures the successes and failures of Middle Eastern democracy against the Western model, with its antecedents in the political machinations found in Athens during the 5th century B.C. However, there is growing evidence to suggest that the history of democracy began on the other side of the Occidental/Oriental line and can be traced as far back as the early Mesopotamian myths of Enuma Elish, through to the grand empires of the Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians and Phoenicians. In the interest of fostering a liberal, democratic and egalitarian Middle East, this paper concludes by suggesting that one strategy for re-thinking the Middle East’s democratisation is to engage the powerful discourses of the Middle East’s ancient, and democratic, past.

Student views of computer based-mathematics in the middle years : does gender make a difference?

How the use of computers in mathematics classrooms was viewed by students in two middle years mathematics classrooms was the focus of the research described in this paper. The primary data sources consisted of questionnaires, classroom observations supported by videotaping of mathematics lessons, and interviews with two girls and two boys from each class. Thus both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Girls viewed the computer-based lessons less favourably than did boys. In general, the boys were likely to believe that computers contributed to their experiencing pleasure in these lessons, and to making mathematics more relevant to them. Girls were typically more concerned about whether computers facilitated learning and enabled success in mathematics. The attitudes of students to computer-based mathematics were related to their views of computers.

Investigation of population heterogeneity of diet use among middle-aged Australians

The purpose of the study was to determine patterns of diet use among middle-aged Australian men and women and the relationships between these different usage patterns and demographic characteristics, health status and health habits. A cross-sectional mail survey was conducted among a random sample of 2975 people aged 40–71 years in Victoria, Australia. A total of 1031 usable questionnaires were obtained which included information about the use of diets (e.g. low-fat and low-salt) during the past 3 months along with demographic information, health status and health habits. Based on the responses about the use of thirteen diets for both sexes, latent class analysis was employed to identify the optimal number of use of diets and the assignment of participants to particular groups. Three types of diet uses were identified and provisionally named: diet use, selected diet use and non-diet use. This classification was associated with demographics, health status and health habits, and these associations differed between men and women. The findings suggest that nutrition education programmes should be tailored to the different needs of the diet use groups.

Explaining the effects of a 1-year intervention promoting physical activity in middle schools: a mediation analysis

Objective : The aim of the present study was to examine the mediation effects of changes in psychosocial determinants of physical activity (attitude, social support, self-efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers) on changes in physical activity.

Design : One-year intervention study with baseline and 1-year post measures of physical activity habits and psychosocial correlates.

Setting : Fifteen middle schools. Subjects : Boys and girls (n = 2840) aged 11–15 years completed the validated questionnaires during class hours.

Results : The product-of-coefficients test was used to asses the mediating effects. Self-efficacy for physical activity at school was found to be the only significant mediator of physical activity change. Specifically, self-efficacy for physical activity at school partly mediated the effect of the intervention on total and school-related physical activity change in the intervention group with parental support (P < 0.05). None of the other potential mediators, attitudes, social support, perceived benefits and perceived barriers, seemed to have had a positive effect. Even a suppressor effect was found for attitudes. Given that the effects of self-efficacy and attitudes were of opposite direction, the total mediated/suppressed effects of the intervention were not statistically significant.

Conclusions : Positive changes in total and school-related physical activity in adolescents could be partly explained by increases in self-efficacy for physical activity at school through a physical activity intervention in middle schools with parental support. However, the suppressor effect of attitudes decreased this effect. As this is one of the first true mediation analyses in this age group, further research is needed to replicate the importance of these mediators.

American democracy promotion in the changing Middle East: from Bush to Obama

The recent "Arab spring", with its popular uprisings in many Arab countries, has exposed the ambiguity at the heart of American promotion of democracy in the Middle East. The US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were packaged as democracy promotion, as heralding the beginning of a new phase in the politics of the Middle East when democracy would replace authoritarian regimes. Many of these authoritarian regimes, however, were sustained by US support. The recent popular uprisings threaten to bring democracy without promotion by the US, and threaten to overthrow regimes previously supported by the US and important for US strategy in the region – hence an initial hesitant response by the US to some of the uprisings. This book explores the contradictions in American democracy promotion in the Middle East. It discusses the principles underlying US democracy promotion, and the debates surrounding US policy formation, and examines the application of US democracy promotion in specific cases. It concludes by assessing the likely future patterns of US engagement with democratic reform in the Middle East.

The Middle Ages in Children's Literature

In this book Clare Bradford shows that medievalism for the young both provides moments of enchantment and also serves as a distancing strategy which enables texts to address contentious and difficult topics.

Fast one-class support vector machine for novelty detection

Novelty detection arises as an important learning task in several applications. Kernel-based approach to novelty detection has been widely used due to its theoretical rigor and elegance of geometric interpretation. However, computational complexity is a major obstacle in this approach. In this paper, leveraging on the cutting-plane framework with the well-known One-Class Support Vector Machine, we present a new solution that can scale up seamlessly with data. The first solution is exact and linear when viewed through the cutting-plane; the second employed a sampling strategy that remarkably has a constant computational complexity defined relatively to the probability of approximation accuracy. Several datasets are benchmarked to demonstrate the credibility of our framework.

Influence of pacing on reliability of middle-distance cycling performance

The purpose of the present study was to examine the reliability of middle distance cycling time trials using fast-, even-, and slow-starts. Eighteen endurance-trained male cyclists [mean ± standard deviation; VO2peak 63.1 ± 6.1 mL⋅kg-1⋅min-1] performed nine cycling time trials where the total external work (96.5 ± 11.2 kJ) was identical to the better of two, 5-minute habituation time trials. Power output during the first quarter of the time-trials (24.1 ± 2.8 kJ) was fixed to induce fast-, even- or slow-starting strategies (60, 75 and 90 s, respectively). In consecutive sessions, participants performed three trials of each pacing condition although the order of these pacing conditions was counterbalanced. Average power output and performance time were unaffected by trial number in the fast- (P = 0.60), even- (P = 0.18) and slow-start (P = 0.53) trials. In all three pacing conditions, average power output was highly reliable and similar between trial 1 to 2 and trial 2 to 3 in fast- (standard error of measurement; SEM=8.3 and 8.2W), even (coefficient of variation; CV=2.8 and 2.4%) and slow-start (CV=2.4 and 1.5%) trials. In conclusion, the reproducibility of 5-min cycling time trials is unaffected by starting strategy and is acceptable following two selfpaced habituation trials. Research examining the influence of pacing strategies may therefore be conducted without the need for familiarisation trials using each individual pacing condition.

Relationship of the perceived social and physical environment with mental health-related quality of life in middle-aged and older adults: mediating effects of physical activity

BACKGROUND: Mental health conditions are among the leading non-fatal diseases in middle-aged and older adults in Australia. Proximal and distal social environmental factors and physical environmental factors have been associated with mental health, but the underlying mechanisms explaining these associations remain unclear. The study objective was to examine the contribution of different types of physical activity in mediating the relationship of social and physical environmental factors with mental health-related quality of life in middle-aged and older adults. METHODS: Baseline data from the Wellbeing, Eating and Exercise for a Long Life (WELL) study were used. WELL is a prospective cohort study, conducted in Victoria, Australia. Baseline data collection took place in 2010. In total, 3,965 middle-aged and older adults (55-65 years, 47.4% males) completed the SF-36 Health Survey, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, and a questionnaire on socio-demographic, social and physical environmental attributes. Mediation analyses were conducted using the MacKinnon product-of-coefficients test. RESULTS: Personal safety, the neighbourhood physical activity environment, social support for physical activity from family or friends, and neighbourhood social cohesion were positively associated with mental health-related quality of life. Active transportation and leisure-time physical activity mediated 32.9% of the association between social support for physical activity from family or friends and mental health-related quality of life. These physical activity behaviours also mediated 11.0%, 3.4% and 2.3% respectively, of the relationship between the neighbourhood physical activity environment, personal safety and neighbourhood social cohesion and mental health-related quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: If these results are replicated in future longitudinal studies, tailored interventions to improve mental health-related quality of life in middle-aged and older adults should use a combined strategy, focusing on increasing physical activity as well as social and physical environmental attributes.