User-centered evaluation of a virtual environment training system : utility of user perception measures

This study assessed the utility of measures of Self-efficacy (SelfEfficacy) and Perceived VE efficacy (PVEefficacy) for quantifying how effective VEs are in procedural task training. SelfEfficacy and PVEefficacy have been identified as affective construct potentially underlying VE efficacy that is not evident from user task performance. The motivation for this study is to establish subjective measures of VE efficacy and investigate the relationship between PVEefficacy, SelfEfficacy and User task performance. Results demonstrated different levels of prior experience in manipulating 3D objects in gaming or computer environment (LOE3D) effects on task performance and user perception of VE efficacy. Regression analysis revealed LOE3D, SelfEfficacy,
PVEefficacy explain significant portions of the variance in VE efficacy. Results of the study provide further evidence that task performance may share relationships with PVEefficacy and SelfEfficacy, and that affective constructs, such as PVEefficacy, and SelfEfficacy may serve as alternative, subjective measures of task performance that account for VE efficacy.

Relationships between measures of fitness, physical activity, body composition and vascular function in children

Background : The prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity in Western countries has increased rapidly. Both are modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerosis begins in childhood and endothelial dysfunction is its earliest detectable manifestation.

Methods : We assessed flow-mediated dilation (FMD) in 129 children (75 female; 10.3 + 0.3 yrs; 54 male; 10.4; 0.3 yrs). FMD was normalised for differences in the eliciting shear rate stimulus between subjects (SR_AUC). Fitness was assessed as peak oxygen uptake during an incremental treadmill exercise test (VO₂peak). Body composition was measured using a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. Physical activity (PA) was assessed using Actigraph accelerometers. The cohort was split into tertiles according to FMD% and also FMD% corrected for SR_AUC to gain insight into the determinants of vascular function.

Results : Across the cohort, significant correlations were observed between FMD%/SR_AUC and DEXA percentage fat (r = −0.23, p = 0.009) and percentage lean mass (r = 0.21, p = 0.008), and also with PA performed at moderate-to-high intensity (r = 0.363, p = 0.001). For children in the lowest FMD%/SR_AUC tertile, a stronger relationship with all PA measures was observed, particularly with high intensity PA (r = 0.572, P = 0.003). Regression analysis revealed that high intensity PA was the only predictor of impaired FMD%/SR_AUC.

Conclusions : These data suggest that traditional risk factors for CHD in adult populations impact upon vascular function in young people. Furthermore, it appears that individuals with impaired FMD may benefit from performing high intensity PA, whereas no relationships exist between FMD and lower intensities of PA or between PA and FMD in those subjects who possess preserved vascular function a priori.

Relationship between inflammatory cytokines and self-report measures of training overload

It has been purported that inflammatory cytokines may be responsible for the aetiology of overtraining. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between self-reported measures of overtraining and inflammatory cytokines. Eight elite male rowers were monitored in their natural training environment for 8 weeks prior to the 2007 Rowing World Championships. During this period of intense endurance training, self-report measures of overtraining and inflammatory cytokines (Interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-) were assessed fortnightly. Consistent with previous findings, proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNF- were significantly associated (p ≤ 0.05) with measures of depressed mood, sleep disturbances, and stress. Similarly, IL-6 was significantly associated (p ≤ 0.01) with measures of depressed mood, sleep disturbances, and fatigue. These results are consistent with previous hypotheses describing how overtraining may be caused by excessive cytokine release, and lend further support for a cytokine hypothesis of overtraining.

Shared parenting : adding children's voices and their measures of adjustment to the evaluation

Shared parenting has been advocated to be a better arrangement for children than sole residence and access arrangements after parental separation. Although there is some research on this issue, studies have been restricted in their reliance on the reports of others. In this paper, we report on a study in Australia, in which children in each of these arrangements were compared with children in intact families on a range of adjustment measures and with each other in relation to their responses to their parents' separation, using both self- and parent-reporting. We found that there was little difference between children in the three family configurations, suggesting that shared parenting is not necessarily associated with better outcomes for the child. On other aspects of adjustment, the children in shared parenting and sole residence/access families did not differ. We also found that parents in all groups underestimated the emotional problems reported by children. In separated families, they also overestimated the children's desire for parents to re-unite. Finally, we found that parents in shared parenting families are more satisfied with their situation than are their children, and fathers are particularly so. The findings suggest that the promotion of shared parenting as the best post-separation family structure is contestable.

Fuzzy entropy from weak fuzzy subsethood measures

In this paper, we propose a new construction method for fuzzy and weak fuzzy subsethood measures based on the aggregation of implication operators. We study the desired properties of the implication operators in order to construct these measures. We also show the relationship between fuzzy entropy and weak fuzzy subsethood measures constructed by our method.

Reliability and variability of day-to-day vault training measures in artistic gymnastics

Inter-day training reliability and variability in artistic gymnastics vaulting was determined using a customised infra-red timing gate and contact mat timing system. Thirteen Australian high performance gymnasts (eight males and five females) aged 11-23 years were assessed during two consecutive days of normal training. Each gymnast completed a number of vault repetitions per daily session. Inter-day variability of vault run-up velocities (at -18 to -12 m, -12 to -6 m, -6 to -2 m, and -2 to 0 m from the nearest edge of the beat board), and board contact, pre-flight, and table contact times were determined using mixed modelling statistics to account for random (within-subject variability) and fixed effects (gender, number of subjects, number of trials). The difference in the mean (Mdiff) and Cohen's effect sizes for reliability assessment and intra-class correlation coefficients, and the coefficient of variation percentage (CV%) were calculated for variability assessment. Approach velocity (-18 to -2 m, CV = 2.4-7.8%) and board contact time (CV = 3.5%) were less variable measures when accounting for day-to-day performance differences, than pre-flight time (CV = 17.7%) and table contact time (CV = 20.5%). While pre-flight and table contact times are relevant training measures, approach velocity and board contact time are more reliable when quantifying vaulting performance.

Outcome measures in assertive outreach : one team's journey towards a system of implementation

The article describes a team's efforts to develop a workable system of outcome measures as a means of supporting good practice and fostering meaningful therapeutic relationships with clients. The team identified their reasons for using outcome measures. Then, they considered what they wanted to measure. The Health of the Nation Outcome Scale was identified as the only compulsory outcome measure. Throughout the process, team members often expressed the need for the system to be workable.

Hagia Sofia (532–537AD) : a study of centrality, interiority and transcendence in architecture

The study by Robin Evans of the centralised churches of the Renaissance explores the idea of centrality, and argues that architecture does not simply invest in one geometric centre. Evans’s analysis makes detours into the histories of theology, geometry and mathematics attempting to find how architecture participates with these fields. In a footnote, he suggests that architecture in its singular artistic physicality ‘suspends our disbelief in the ideal’, offering a world that does not reflect culture, in all its fullness, but rather supplements culture’s incompleteness. This idea reiterates psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Kristeva that qualify the notion of transcendence with the psychoanalytic concept of transference. Architecture, like art, is able to resolve that which in society and in other fields remains a contradiction, giving a picture (albeit fictional) of a harmonious and unified order and wholeness. In this essay, I turn to Hagia Sofia (532–537AD) in present-day Istanbul, a church that marks the beginning of a Christian empire relocated to Constantinople, East of Rome, and built one thousand years before the Renaissance churches discussed by Evans. Hagia Sofia is a building that symbolises the shift towards a domed centralised form, away from a basilica form, and a building that develops an innovative interior. Hagia Sofia is usually observed and described in a devotional manner, as though addressing the architecture of the church is equivalent to a pious person addressing the church itself, and more significantly, addressing the Divine figure of God, through the architecture of the church. Its influence on Islamic mosque design has been noted. What rôle does Hagia Sofia play in the kind of artistic mastery that Evans is proposing, and what other dimensions of centrality and transcendence in architecture are offered by a study of Hagia Sofia?

Different personality measures for different business outcomes : a comparison of selection criteria used for a management training program

Reports a study in which the MBTI, FIRO-B and PP measures were correlated with employee performance indicators of high potential candidates for management development. The participants were 37 middle level managers in a large trans-national company. Results indicate a disturbing disconnect between measures used in training and development and actual business outcomes that can be presumed to express organisational priorities and goals.

A study on the accuracy of frequency measures and its impact on knowledge discovery in single sequences

In knowledge discovery in single sequences, different results could be discovered from the same sequence when different frequency measures are adopted. It is natural to raise such questions as (1) do these frequency measures reflect actual frequencies accurately? (2) what impacts do frequency measures have on discovered knowledge? (3) are discovered results accurate and reliable? and (4) which measures are appropriate for reflecting frequencies accurately? In this paper, taking three major factors (anti-monotonicity, maximum-frequency and window-width restriction) into account, we identify inaccuracies inherent in seven existing frequency measures, and investigate their impacts on the soundness and completeness of two kinds of knowledge, frequent episodes and episode rules, discovered from single sequences. In order to obtain more accurate frequencies and knowledge, we provide three recommendations for defining appropriate frequency measures. Following the recommendations, we introduce a more appropriate frequency measure. Empirical evaluation reveals the inaccuracies and verifies our findings.