National youth team football players between the conflicting priorities of sports success and vocational training

In view of the risks involved in relying on a professional career in football as a way of making a future living, most players on Swiss National Youth Football Teams pursue some form of vocational training at the same time. This paper investigates the question under what conditions a successful football career is possible when faced with such a dual burden. In order to examine the development process as holistically as possible, a person-oriented approach was chosen. 159 former Swiss National Youth Team players were retrospectively interviewed about their careers, and the data were analysed using the LICUR method (Bergman, Magnusson, & El-Khouri, 2003). This involves identifying certain patterns in the relevant variables of sports career, vocational career and family support, and then comparing these with the performance at the age of peak performance. Through this, it was possible to identify promising patterns of development. It turns out that the critical transition, at the age of about 15–16 years, is characterised overall by stability. The most successful patterns display above-average family support accompanied by above-average professional talent promotion in the clubs. In this constellation, the football players who are later successful pursue vocational training courses leading to low levels of educational qualification.

Sublethal neonicotinoid insecticide exposure reduces solitary bee reproductive success

1.Pollinating insects provide crucial and economically important ecosystem services to crops and wild plants, but pollinators, particularly bees, are globally declining as a result of various driving factors, including the prevalent use of pesticides for crop protection. Sublethal pesticide exposure negatively impacts numerous pollinator life-history traits, but its influence on reproductive success remains largely unknown. Such information is pivotal, however, to our understanding of the long-term effects on population dynamics. 2.We investigated the influence of field-realistic trace residues of the routinely used neonicotinoid insecticides thiamethoxam and clothianidin in nectar substitutes on the entire life-time fitness performance of the red mason bee Osmia bicornis. 3.We show that chronic, dietary neonicotinoid exposure has severe detrimental effects on solitary bee reproductive output. Neonicotinoids did not affect adult bee mortality; however, monitoring of fully controlled experimental populations revealed that sublethal exposure resulted in almost 50% reduced total offspring production and a significantly male-biased offspring sex ratio. 4.Our data add to the accumulating evidence indicating that sublethal neonicotinoid effects on non-Apis pollinators are expressed most strongly in a rather complex, fitness-related context. Consequently, to fully mitigate long-term impacts on pollinator population dynamics, present pesticide risk assessments need to be expanded to include whole life-cycle fitness estimates, as demonstrated in the present study using O. bicornis as a model.

Psychological, Educational and Sociological Perspectives on Success and Well-Being in Career Development

Back Cover Text This collection covers how success and well-being relate to each other in early career development in the domains of employment and education. It gives a conceptual overview of success and well-being as established in the psychological research tradition, complemented by educational and sociological approaches. The volume presents articles on success and well-being in applied contexts, such as well-being as an individual resource during school-to-work transition, or well-being and success at the workplace. Work psychologists, social psychologists, educational researchers, and sociologists will find this book valuable, as it provides unique insights into social and psychological processes afforded by the combination of disciplines, concepts, and a diversity of approaches. Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1. Introduction Robin Samuel, Manfred Max Bergman, Anita C. Keller and Norbert K. Semmer 2. The Influence of Career Success on Subjective Well-Being Andrea E. Abele-Brehm 3. Upper-Secondary Educational Trajectories and Young Men’s and Women’s Self-Esteem Development in Switzerland Sybille Bayard, Monika Staffelbach, Phillip Fischer and Marlies Buchmann. 4. Young People’s Progress after Dropout from Vocational Edu-cation and Training: Transitions and Occupational Integration at Stake. Longitudinal Qualitative Perspective Barbara Duc and Nadia Lamamra 5. Success, Well-Being and Social Recognition: An Interactional Perspective on Vocational Training Practices Stefano A. Losa, Barbara Duc and Laurent Filliettaz. 6. Agentic Pathways toward Fulfillment in Work Jeylan T. Mortimer, Mike Vuolo and Jeremy Staff 7. The How and Why of the Relationship between Job Insecuri-ty, Subjective Career Success, and Turnover Intention Cécile Tschopp and Gudela Grote 8. Work Experiences and Well-Being in the First Years of Professional Work in Switzerland: A Ten-Year Follow-up Study Wolfgang Kälin, Anita C. Keller, Franziska Tschan, Achim Elfering and Norbert K. Semmer 9. The Meaning and Measurement of Well-Being as an Indicator of Success Anita C. Keller, Norbert K. Semmer, Robin Samuel and Manfred Max Bergman

How immigrant adolescents' self-views in school and family context relate to academic success in Germany

Immigrants' sense of self can be derived both from being members of their ethnic in-group and their country of residence. We examined how the ways in which immigrant adolescents integrate these self-views in relation to academic success in German schools. Students describe themselves at school and when with family. Using a standardized literacy performance test, analyses revealed that immigrants whose school-related self-view did not include Germany were less successful: Students who described their self as including both aspects of their ethnic group and Germany, and students who saw themselves predominantly as German, outperformed students with purely ethnic school-related selves. As expected, though, an ethnic family-related self-view did not have a negative impact on scholastic achievements.

Strategies to the success of Online Course Development

Introduction Online courses provide flexible access to education from a distance. However, learners may encounter frustration and disappointment in the learning process for various reasons. Faculties might not be familiar with adult learning principles. The online course developer may have no knowledge, experience, or the skills necessary for developing online courseware. Online course development can take longer time and more resources. It can also take longer time to deliver the course. It is, therefore, important that online course development be made efficient and effective for best student learning. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Locomotor activity of two sympatric slugs: implication for the invasion success of terrestrial invertebrates.

A central focus of invasion biology is to identify the traits that predict which introduced species will become invasive. Behavioral traits related to locomotor activity most likely play a pivotal role in determining a species’invasion success but have rarely been studied, particularly in terrestrial invertebrates. Here, we experimentally investigated the small-scale locomotor activity of two slug species with divergent invasion success in Europe, the highly invasive slug, Arion lusitanicus, and the closely related, non-invasive and native slug, Arion rufus. To do so, we used a multi-state capture-mark-recapture approach, and hypothesized that the invasive slug has a higher moving rate (keeps on moving) and leaving rate (leaves more frequently known places). A total of 221 invasive and 241 non-invasive slugs were individually marked using magnetic transponders and released in three study sites differing in habitat type. The slugs were recaptured using shelter traps, and moving and leaving rates were estimated. Both rates were significantly higher for the invasive slug, demonstrating a higher locomotor activity which might partly explain its invasion success. Our results provide evidence for the recently suggested idea that locomotor activity might be an important trait underlying animal invasions using for the first time terrestrial invertebrates.

A functional collagen adhesin gene, acm, in clinical isolates of Enterococcus faecium correlates with the recent success of this emerging nosocomial pathogen.

Enterococcus faecium recently evolved from a generally avirulent commensal into a multidrug-resistant health care-associated pathogen causing difficult-to-treat infections, but little is known about the factors responsible for this change. We previously showed that some E. faecium strains express a cell wall-anchored collagen adhesin, Acm. Here we analyzed 90 E. faecium isolates (99% acm(+)) and found that the Acm protein was detected predominantly in clinically derived isolates, while the acm gene was present as a transposon-interrupted pseudogene in 12 of 47 isolates of nonclinical origin. A highly significant association between clinical (versus fecal or food) origin and collagen adherence (P

Temperature and Resource Availability May Interactively Affect Over-Wintering Success of Juvenile Fish in a Changing Climate

The predicted global warming may affect freshwater systems at several organizational levels, from organism to ecosystem. Specifically, in temperate regions, the projected increase of winter temperatures may have important effects on the over-winter biology of a range of organisms and especially for fish and other ectothermic animals. However, temperature effects on organisms may be directed strongly by resource availability. Here, we investigated whether over-winter loss of biomass and lipid content of juvenile roach (Rutilus rutilus) was affected by the physiologically relatively small (2-5°C) changes of winter temperatures predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), under both natural and experimental conditions. This was investigated in combination with the effects of food availability. Finally, we explored the potential for a correlation between lake temperature and resource levels for planktivorous fish, i.e., zooplankton biomass, during five consecutive winters in a south Swedish lake. We show that small increases in temperature (+2°C) affected fish biomass loss in both presence and absence of food, but negatively and positively respectively. Temperature alone explained only a minor part of the variation when food availability was not taken into account. In contrast to other studies, lipid analyses of experimental fish suggest that critical somatic condition rather than critical lipid content determined starvation induced mortality. Our results illustrate the importance of considering not only changes in temperature when predicting organism response to climate change but also food-web interactions, such as resource availability and predation. However, as exemplified by our finding that zooplankton over-winter biomass in the lake was not related to over-winter temperature, this may not be a straightforward task.

More than just Good Luck. How to Explain the Success of Monte Carlo Simulations

Monte Carlo simulation is a powerful method in many natural and social sciences. But what sort of method is it? And where does its power come from? Are Monte Carlo simulations experiments, theories or something else? The aim of this talk is to answer these questions and to explain the power of Monte Carlo simulations. I provide a classification of Monte Carlo techniques and defend the claim that Monte Carlo simulation is a sort of inference.

Does the educational success of children growing up in stepfamilies differ from children growing up in single parent households?

Within the framework of research into educational inequality, this paper focuses on the educational success of children who experience parental separation prior to the transition from primary into secondary education. Related to this, the first education passage following primary school is observed. The question arises as to whether children growing up in single parent households after parental separation and whether children in this category who in addition experienced the formation of a stepfamily differ from one another and from children growing up in “nuclear families” in regard to their scholastic performance and transition success. For that reason, not only scholastic performance (grades) but also the type of school attended following primary school are of particular interest. Furthermore, differences regarding parental educational decision-making are examined (vgl. Stocké 2007). The analyses are based on data from the longitudinal study "BIKS 8-14" (educational processes, competence development and selection decisions in preschool- and school age) that has been undertaken at the Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg.

Hybridization increases invasive knotweed success

Hybridization is one of the fundamental mechanisms by which rapid evolution can occur in exotic species. If hybrids show increased vigour, this could significantly contribute to invasion success. Here, we compared the success of the two invasive knotweeds, Fallopia japonica and F.sachalinensis, and their hybrid, F.x bohemica, in competing against experimental communities of native plants. Using plant material from multiple clones of each taxon collected across a latitudinal gradient in Central Europe, we found that knotweed hybrids performed significantly better in competition with a native community and that they more strongly reduced the growth of the native plants. One of the parental species, F.sachalinensis, regenerated significantly less well from rhizomes, and this difference disappeared if activated carbon was added to the substrate, which suggests allelopathic inhibition of F.sachalinensis regeneration by native plants. We found substantial within-taxon variation in competitive success in all knotweed taxa, but variation was generally greatest in the hybrid. Interestingly, there was also significant variation within the genetically uniform F.japonica, possibly reflecting epigenetic differences. Our study shows that invasive knotweed hybrids are indeed more competitive than their parents and that hybridization increased the invasiveness of the exotic knotweed complex.

Motivational patterns as an instrument for predicting success in promising young football players

Psychological characteristics are crucial to identifying talents, which is why these are being incorporated in today’s multidimensional talent models. In addition to multidimensionality, talent studies are increasingly drawing on holistic theories of development, leading to the use of person-oriented approaches. The present study adopts such an approach by looking at the influence that motivational characteristics have on the development of performance, in a person-oriented way. For this purpose, it looks at how the constructs achievement motive, achievement goal orientation and self-determination interact with one another, what patterns they form and how these patterns are linked to subsequent sports success. 97 top young football players were questioned twice. Another year later, it was enquired which of these players had been selected for the U15 national team. At both measuring points, four patterns were identified, which displayed a high degree of structural and individual stability. As expected, the highly intrinsically achievement-oriented players were significantly more likely to move up into the U15 national team. The results point to the importance of favourable patterns of motivational variables in the form of specific types, for medium-term performance development among promising football talents, and thus provide valuable clues for the selection and promotion of those.

Gender in Theology and Religion: a Success Story?! Report from a Conference

In January 2011 some fifty scholars from different parts of Europe met in Groningen, the Netherlands for an expert meeting entitled Gender in theology and religion: a success story?! to analyze the factors that contribute to the successful mainstreaming of gender in a theological discipline and to reflect on the future of gender studies in theology and religious studies. Different speakers highlighted the many successes of gender studies in theology and religious studies: its power to 'trouble' the disciplines and their heuristic categories; its contribution to the development of other disciplines such as queer studies and postcolonial studies; the many PhD studies produced; the number of significant publications that had appeared over the last years. All indicate that gender studies in theology and religious studies have matured. But the participants also pointed towards the ambiguity of the success of gender studies in the academy: the indeterminacy of the institutional position and positions of gender studies in the theological disciplines in seminaries, departments faculties and universities; the lack of male scholars’ engagement in gender studies, which is expressed by their absence in these studies and/or the low reception of gender studies publications in their disciplines. Both ambiguities represent a danger for the future of gender studies, according to the participants in the meeting. In order to further the success of gender in theology and religion they formulated the following recommendations: to analyze the position of these studies in their institutions from the perspective of the implied audience (church, academy, ordinary theologians); engage men in gender studies; embrace the cultural turn in religious studies; develop interdisciplinary cooperations with gender studies in the humanities; engage creatively with the changing role of religion in contemporary society; analyze whose perspective one follows and authorizes in the perception of theology, religious studies and gender studies themselves; record the history of women’s and gender studies in theology and religion, and honor and celebrate the successes.