Airborne culturable fungi in naturally ventilated primary school environments in a subtropical climate

There is currently a lack of reference values for indoor air fungal concentrations to allow for the interpretation of measurement results in subtropical school settings. Analysis of the results of this work established that, in the majority of properly maintained subtropical school buildings, without any major affecting events such as floods or visible mould or moisture contamination, indoor culturable fungi levels were driven by outdoor concentration. The results also allowed us to benchmark the “baseline range” concentrations for total culturable fungi, Penicillium spp., Cladosporium spp. and Aspergillus spp. in such school settings. The measured concentration of total culturable fungi and three individual fungal genera were estimated using Bayesian hierarchical modelling. Pooling of these estimates provided a predictive distribution for concentrations at an unobserved school. The results indicated that “baseline” indoor concentration levels for indoor total fungi, Penicillium spp., Cladosporium spp. and Aspergillus spp. in such school settings were generally ≤ 1450, ≤ 680, ≤ 480 and ≤ 90 cfu/m3, respectively, and elevated levels would indicate mould damage in building structures. The indoor/outdoor ratio for most classrooms had 95% credible intervals containing 1, indicating that fungi concentrations are generally the same indoors and outdoors at each school. Bayesian fixed effects regression modeling showed that increasing both temperature and humidity resulted in higher levels of fungi concentration.

Inhaled particle surface area dose: Stationary vs personal monitoring

The aim of this paper is to determine the suitability of solely stationary measurements for exposure assessment and management applications. For this purpose, quantified inhaled particle surface area (IPSA) doses using both stationary and personal particle exposure monitors were evaluated and compared.

Characterisation and sources of ultrafine particles in an inner city urban area

Exposure to atmospheric ultrafine particles (UFPs, D<100 nm) has been an increasingly concern because of their potential impact one health. Motor vehicle emissions are considered as one of the major source of UFPin urban airshed, as the combustion of both petrol and diesel engine leads to emission of particles which are predominantly in this size range (Ban-Weiss et al, 2010; Morawska et al, 2008). New particle formations (NPFs) and major facilities such as airport or seaport has also been identified as major sources of UFPs in urban airshed (Cheung et al, 2010; González et al, 2011; Mazaheri et al, 2013). However, contribution of those urban sources to ambient UFP concentrations has not been comprehensively characterized.

A right of resale? Indigenous art under the hammer

This week, Sotheby's sold the late Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri's painting, Warlugulong. The auction-house's spokesman, Tim Klingender, was enthusiastic about the high price commanded by the art work: "The painting was a really great painting and it deserved to make a really fantastic price, and it made that price."

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in dust from primary schools in South East Queensland, Australia

PBDE concentrations are higher in children compared to adults with exposure suggested to include dust ingestion. Besides the home environment, children spend a great deal of time in school classrooms which may be a source of exposure. As part of the “Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions and Children's Health (UPTECH)” project, dust samples (n=28) were obtained in 2011/12 from 10 Brisbane, Australia metropolitan schools and analysed using GC and LC–MS for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) -17, -28, -47, -49, -66, -85, -99, -100, -154, -183, and -209. Σ11PBDEs ranged from 11–2163 ng/g dust; with a mean and median of 600 and 469 ng/g dust, respectively. BDE-209 (range n.d. −2034 ng/g dust; mean (median) 402 (217) ng/g dust) was the dominant congener in most classrooms. Frequencies of detection were 96%, 96%, 39% and 93% for BDE-47, -99, -100 and -209, respectively. No seasonal variations were apparent and from each of the two schools where XRF measurements were carried out, only two classroom items had detectable bromine. PBDE intake for 8–11 year olds can be estimated at 0.094 ng/day BDE-47; 0.187 ng/day BDE-99 and 0.522 ng/day BDE-209 as a result of ingestion of classroom dust, based on mean PBDE concentrations. The 97.5% percentile intake is estimated to be 0.62, 1.03 and 2.14 ng/day for BDEs-47, -99 and -209, respectively. These PBDE concentrations in dust from classrooms, which are higher than in Australian homes, may explain some of the higher body burden of PBDEs in children compared to adults when taking into consideration age-dependant behaviours which increase dust ingestion.

Autonomy-supportive pedagogical approach to sports coaching: Research, challenges and opportunities

There has been an increasing body of research on autonomy- or need-support specific to a coaching context that warrants some review of what we know and don't know, and what might be generative for future research. The previous studies reviewed within this article have shown consistent support for Self-determination theory with autonomy-supportive environments linked with adaptive outcomes, such as superior performance, enhanced self-worth, increased effort, and self-determined motivation; while controlling environments have been linked with increased attrition and extrinsic motivation or amotivation. In this way, much of the research in autonomy-supportive coaching has focused on the impact of coaching behaviours on athlete outcomes. While this is an important focus of inquiry, there has been a dearth of research examining those causal factors that impact coaches' pedagogical behaviours in the first case. This review underscores the need for future research to examine the antecedents to coaching behaviours, which is central to understanding the complexity and challenges in promoting an autonomy-supportive approach to sport coaching.

An eigenproblem approach to classical screw theory

This paper presents a novel algebraic formulation of the central problem of screw theory, namely the determination of the principal screws of a given system. Using the algebra of dual numbers, it shows that the principal screws can be determined via the solution of a generalised eigenproblem of two real, symmetric matrices. This approach allows the study of the principal screws of the general two-, three-systems associated with a manipulator of arbitrary geometry in terms of closed-form expressions of its architecture and configuration parameters. We also present novel methods for the determination of the principal screws for four-, five-systems which do not require the explicit computation of the reciprocal systems. Principal screws of the systems of different orders are identified from one uniform criterion, namely that the pitches of the principal screws are the extreme values of the pitch.The classical results of screw theory, namely the equations for the cylindroid and the pitch-hyperboloid associated with the two-and three-systems, respectively have been derived within the proposed framework. Algebraic conditions have been derived for some of the special screw systems. The formulation is also illustrated with several examples including two spatial manipulators of serial and parallel architecture, respectively.

Australian journalism students’ professional views and news consumption: Results from a representative study

Journalism education’s role in shaping students’ professional views has been a topic of interest among scholars for the past decade in particular. Increasing numbers of studies are concerned with examining students’ backgrounds and views in order to identify what role exposure to the tertiary environment may play in socializing them into the industry. This study reports on the results of the largest survey of Australian journalism students undertaken to date, with a sample size of 1884 students. The study finds that time spent studying journalism appears to be related to changes in role perceptions and news consumption. Final-year students are significantly more likely to support journalism’s watchdog role and to reject consumer-oriented and ‘loyal’ roles. They also consume more news than first-year students. On the other hand, journalism education appears to have little impact on views of controversial practices, with only marginal differences between final- and first-year students.

Algebraic characterization of decentralized fixed modes

An input-output, frequency-domain characterization of decentralized fixed modes is given in this paper, using only standard block-diagram algebra, well-known determinantal expansions and the Binet-Cauchy formula.

Kansallisvaltion teräsmiehestä valtakunnan sovittelijaksi : Poliisikulttuurin psykohistorialliset solmukohdat 1930-1997

From Steely Nation-State Superman to Conciliator of Economical Global Empire – A Psychohistory of Finnish Police Culture 1930-1997 My study concerns the way police culture has changed within the societal changes in Finnish society between 1930 and 1997. The method of my study was psycho-historical and post-structural analysis. The research was conducted by examining the psycho-historical plateaus traceable within Finnish police culture. I made a social diagnosis of the autopoietic relationship between the power-holders of Finnish society and the police (at various levels of hierarchical organization). According to police researcher John P. Crank, police culture should be understood as the cognitive processes behind the actions of the police. Among these processes are the values, beliefs, rituals, customs and advice which standardize their work and the common sense of policemen. According to Crank, police culture is defined by a mindset which thinks, judges and acts according to its evaluations filtered by its own preliminary comprehension. Police culture consists of all the unsaid assumptions of being a policeman, the organizational structures of police, official policies, unofficial ways of behaviour, forms of arrest, procedures of practice and different kinds of training habits, attitudes towards suspects and citizens, and also possible corruption. Police culture channels its members’ feelings and emotions. Crank says that police culture can be seen in how policemen express their feelings. He advises police researchers to ask themselves how it feels to be a member of the police. Ethos has been described as a communal frame for thought that guides one’s actions. According to sociologist Martti Grönfors, the Finnish mentality of the Protestant ethic is accentuated among Finnish policemen. The concept of ethos expresses very well the self-made mentality as an ethical tension which prevails in police work between communal belonging and individual freedom of choice. However, it is significant that it is a matter of the quality of relationships, and that the relationship is always tied to the context of the cultural history of dealing with one’s anxiety. According to criminologist Clifford Shearing, the values of police culture act as subterranean processes of the maintenance of social power in society. Policemen have been called microcosmic mediators, or street corner politicians. Robert Reiner argues that at the level of self-comprehension, policemen disparage the dimension of politics in their work. Reiner points out that all relationships which hold a dimension of power are political. Police culture has also been called a canteen culture. This idea expresses the day-to-day basis of the mentality of taking care of business which policing produces as a necessity for dealing with everyday hardships. According to police researcher Timo Korander, this figurative expression embodies the nature of police culture as a crew culture which is partly hidden from police chiefs who are at a different level. This multitude of standpoints depicts the diversity of police cultures. According to Reiner, one should not see police culture as one monolithic whole; instead one should assess it as the interplay of individuals negotiating with their environment and societal power networks. The cases analyzed formed different plateaus of study. The first plateau was the so-called ‘Rovaniemi arson’ case in the summer of 1930. The second plateau consisted of the examinations of alleged police assaults towards the Communists during the Finnish Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 and the threats that societal change after the war posed to Finnish Society. The third plateau was thematic. Here I investigated how using force towards police clients has changed culturally from the 1930s to the 1980s. The fourth plateau concerned with the material produced by the Security Police detectives traced the interaction between Soviet KGB agents and Finnish politicians during the long 1970s. The fifth plateau of larger changes in Finnish police culture then occurred during the 1980s as an aftermath of the former decade. The last, sixth plateau of changing relationships between policing and the national logic of action can be seen in the murder of two policemen in the autumn of 1997. My study shows that police culture has transformed from a “stone cold” steely fixed identity towards a more relational identity that tries to solve problems by negotiating with clients instead of using excessive force. However, in this process of change there is a traceable paradox in Finnish policing and police culture. On the one hand, policemen have, at the practical level, constructed their policing identity by protecting their inner self in their organizational role at work against the projections of anger and fear in society. On the other hand, however, they have had to safeguard themselves at the emotional level against the predominance of this same organizational role. Because of this dilemma they must simultaneously construct both a distance from their own role as police officers and the role of the police itself. This makes the task of policing susceptible to the political pressures of society. In an era of globalization, and after the heyday of the welfare state, this can produce heightened challenges for Finnish police culture.

A subculture of mental toughness in an Australian Football League club

Objective The current study aimed to provide a subcultural analysis of mental toughness in a high-performance context in sport. Design Using Schein's (1990) framework of organisational culture, an exploratory qualitative analysis, employing focus group and individual interviews, was used to investigate mental toughness in an Australian Football League club. Method Nine senior coaches and players participated in focus group and individual interviews. Photo elicitation was used as a method to capture mental toughness through the identification of prominent club artefacts. Participants were considered to have significant subcultural knowledge of their football club and were willing to describe personal experiences and perceptions of mental toughness through this cultural lens. Deductive and inductive analyses were conducted to capture the core themes of mental toughness across the disparate levels of Schein's organisational framework. Results Mental toughness was found to be a socially derived term marked by unrelenting standards and sacrificial displays. These acts were underpinned by subcultural values emphasising a desire for constant improvement, a team first ethos, relentless effort, and the maintenance of an infallible image. At its core, mental toughness was assumed to be an internal concept, epitomised an idealised form of masculinity, elitist values, and was rhetorically depicted through metaphors of war. Conclusions It may be difficult to understand mental toughness without giving attention to the contextual norms related to the term. Appreciating how people promote, instil, and internalise prized ideals coveted as mental toughness could be intriguing for future research in sport psychology.

Representations and properties of para-Bose oscillator operators. I. Energy position and momentum eigenstates

Para-Bose commutation relations are related to the SL(2,R) Lie algebra. The irreducible representation [script D]alpha of the para-Bose system is obtained as the direct sum Dbeta[direct-sum]Dbeta+1/2 of the representations of the SL(2,R) Lie algebra. The position and momentum eigenstates are then obtained in this representation [script D]alpha, using the matrix mechanical method. The orthogonality, completeness, and the overlap of these eigenstates are derived. The momentum eigenstates are also derived using the wave mechanical method by specifying the domain of the definition of the momentum operator in addition to giving it a formal differential expression. By a careful consideration in this manner we find that the two apparently different solutions obtained by Ohnuki and Kamefuchi in this context are actually unitarily equivalent. Journal of Mathematical Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.

Children’s personal exposure to air pollution in rural villages in Bhutan

Exposure assessment studies conducted in developing countries have been based on fixed-site monitoring to date. This is a major deficiency, leading to errors in estimating the actual exposures, which are a function of time spent and pollutant concentrations in different microenvironments. This study quantified school children’s daily personal exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) using real-time monitoring, as well as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and NO2 using passive sampling in rural Bhutan in order to determine the factors driving the exposures. An activity diary was used to track children’s time activity patterns, and difference in mean exposure levels across sex and indoor/outdoor were investigated with ANOVA. 82 children, attending three primary schools participated in this study; S1 and S2 during the wet season and S3 during the dry season. Mean daily UFP exposure (cm-3) was 1.08 × 104 for children attending S1, 9.81 × 103 for S2, and 4.19 × 104 for S3. The mean daily NO2 exposure (µg m-3) was 4.27 for S1, 3.33 for S2 and 5.38 for S3 children. Likewise, children attending S3 also experienced higher daily exposure to a majority of the VOCs than those attending S1 and S2. Time-series of UFP personal exposures provided detailed information on identifying sources of these particles and quantifying their contributions to the total daily exposures for each microenvironment. The highest UFP exposure resulted from cooking/eating, contributing to 64% of the daily exposure, due to firewood combustion in houses using traditional mud cookstoves. The lowest UFP exposures were during the hours that children spent outdoors at school. The outcomes of this study highlight the significant contributions of lifestyle and socio-economic factors in personal exposures and have applications in environmental risk assessment and household air pollution mitigation in Bhutan.

Atmospheric visibility and PM10 as indicators of new particle formation in an urban environment

It is well-known that new particle formation (NPF) in the atmosphere is inhibited by pre-existing particles in the air that act as condensation sinks to decrease the concentration and, thus, the supersaturation of precursor gases. In this study, we investigate the effects of two parameters - atmospheric visibility, expressed as the particle back-scatter coefficient (BSP), and PM10 particulate mass concentration, on the occurrences of NPF events in an urban environment where the majority of precursor gases originate from motor vehicle and industrial sources. This is the first attempt to derive direct relationships between each of these two parameters and the occurrence of NPF. NPF events were identified from data obtained with a neutral cluster and air ion spectrometer over 245 days within a calendar year. Bayesian logistic regression was used to determine the probability of observing NPF as functions of BSP and PM10. We show that the BSP at 08 h on a given day is a reliable indicator of an NPF event later that day. The posterior median probability of observing an NPF event was greater than 0.5 (95%) when the BSP at 08 h was less than 6.8 Mm-1.

Personality in sport and exercise psychology: Integrating a whole person perspective

This paper draws on contemporary views in personality psychology as a means for understanding people participating in sport and physical activity. Specifically, we focus on McAdams’ integrative framework [McAdams (2013). The psychological self as actor, agent, and author. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8, 272–295; McAdams & Pals (2006). A new big five: Fundamental principles for an integrative science of personality. American Psychologist, 61, 204–217] and suggest this framework as potentially generative in the field of sport and exercise psychology. McAdams indicates that people can be defined through three layers of understanding, incorporating (a) dispositional traits, (b) characteristic adaptations, and (c) narrative identities. Together these layers provide a vision of the whole person – a perspective of personality rarely adopted by the sport and exercise community. The aim of this paper is to introduce scholars and practitioners to the potential benefits of embracing this whole person outlook, and to discuss the opportunities and challenges McAdams’ framework may have for advancing scholarship in sport and exercise psychology.