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Previous mastery motivational climate (MMC) movement interventions have enhanced fundamental motor skill (FMS) competence across diverse groups of preschool-age children. Yet, an adequate intervention length has not been established. Our purposes in this study were to (i) compare FMS competence in preschool children across two doses of MMC interventions, and (ii) describe changes in children’s FMS ‘mastery’ across doses. We used secondary data analysis from a larger MMC intervention study in which 32 children ( M age = 4.4) received FMS testing (TGMD-3) at the mid-point of intervention and at post-intervention. A two-way mixed ANOVA with Group as the independent variable and FMS competence across three Time points as the repeated measure was significant for both Group and Time main effects for locomotor and ball skill competences separately. There was a statistically significant interaction between Group and Time on locomotor ( p = .02) and ball skills ( p < .001). Both groups showed significant improvements in their locomotor skills at each time point, but the intervention group improved faster than the comparison group. For ball skills, only the MMC group significantly improved by mid-intervention, and the comparison group showed significant improvements from pre-to post-intervention only. Children in this study were most likely to show mastery in running first, followed by sliding at mid-intervention. Few children mastered skipping, galloping, and hopping across the study. For ball skills, overhand and underhand throwing were more likely to be mastered, and few children mastered one and two-hand striking across the study. Collectively, these findings suggest that duration of instructional minutes may not be the most effective proxy for identifying a dose-response relationship of MMC intervention. Moreover, focusing on the patterns of skill mastery can help inform researchers and practitioners as to how to allocate instructional time during MMC interventions to optimize FMS competence for young children.

Bezoars are concrete masses found within the gastrointestinal tract that can lead to obstructions. One of the most common forms of bezoars is trichobezoar, composed of swallowed hair. Many bezoars are confined to the stomach; however, a small occurrence of trichobezoars extends past the pylorus and into the duodenum, or small bowel, termed Rapunzel syndrome. In the literature, there have been few cases of recurrent Rapunzel syndrome. Our case is a 13-year-old female with recurrent Rapunzel syndrome requiring three operative interventions.

Published online: 22 August 2016 Pressure on evaluators has been investigated recently by surveys in the USA, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. This study compares the results of those studies regarding pressure on evaluators in different countries. The findings suggest that independence of evaluations does not exist for many respondents. Moreover, the person who commissioned the evaluator for evaluation is identified by all studies as the primary influencing stakeholder in the evaluation process. In terms of differences, Germany seems to be more prone to pressure on evaluators. However, German evaluators do not show stronger tendencies to surrender to pressure than the other countries’ respondents. We suggest that this pattern may be explained by the strong state tradition in Germany as opposed to the U.S. and Switzerland, in conjunction with evaluators’ profession-based, principled resistance to such pressure.

This essay explores the implications of the zeitgeist that emerged in the United States during the 1960s for the conceptualization of ethical issues in evaluation and community psychology, and how perspectives from the latter field might enhance ethical practice in the former. Special attention is paid to articulations of social justice, professional standards, and cultural competence, and how general exhortations for ethical, just behavior in evaluation can be translated into more specific, actionable analyses through the application of frameworks such as Prilleltensky’s “wellness as fairness” orientation and Kelly’s ecological model.

Evaluators' experiences with being pressured by a key stakeholder to misrepresent findings were investigated in an anonymous survey of a random sample of over 2500 American Evaluation Association members; a response rate of 37% was obtained. Overall, 42% of the respondents had encountered misrepresentation pressure, with 70% of this subgroup having faced it on more than one occasion. Misrepresentation pressure usually focused on making evaluation results look more positive or less negative than the evaluator thought was warranted. In nearly 40% of all pressuring episodes, respondents believed that the stakeholder in question knew that he/she was requesting misrepresentation. Respondents' ethical satisfaction with how pressuring episodes were resolved varied widely, with satisfaction lowest when changes were made to a report without the respondent's consent. In the opinion of respondents, stakeholder pressure led to actual misrepresentation in 16% of all episodes, a finding that, in conjunction with the study's other results, suggests that most pressuring incidents are handled in a fashion that produces reasonably satisfactory, if not ideal, outcomes when viewed from the perspective of professional ethics. Just under one-third of all pressured respondents believed that something could have been done to prevent the influence attempt they encountered, and offered a variety of suggestions for preventive action. Viewed as a whole, these recommendations provide the foundation for a comprehensive approach to preventing and responding to misrepresentation pressure and related ethical challenges in evaluation.

This essay explores the contributions of Evaluation Practice and the American Journal of Evaluation to our understanding of evaluation ethics. The review is organized according to the five Guiding Principles for Evaluators (Systematic Inquiry, Competence, Integrity/Honesty, Respect for People, and Responsibilities for General and Public Welfare) and identifies key themes within each domain. The value of case-based ethical analysis is highlighted, as is the need for increased empirical research on ethical dimensions of evaluation, especially as these dimensions are perceived by stakeholders with whom evaluators interact. Over the past 25 years, evaluators have learned a great deal about the ethical challenges they are likely to encounter during any given stage of an evaluation, even as they continue to engage in debate over the roles through which evaluators can best serve the public interest.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether rabbit anti-bovine prothrombin/thrombin immunoglobulin Gs (IgGs) would cross-react with bovine factor V/Va-related antigens. Bovine prothrombin, crude thrombin, as well as 2 purified versions of thrombin, that is, thrombin 4A (the previous version of Thrombin-JMI marketed prior to 2008) and 4B (the currently marketed version of Thrombin-JMI), were administrated to individual groups of rabbits on days 0, 21, 42, 91, 123, and 151 using standard immunologic methods. Blood was drawn from each rabbit on days 30, 50, 105, 137, and 165 and the pooled antisera from individual groups were purified to obtain the IgGs using protein G affinity columns. By probing bovine factor V/Va samples, the possible cross-reactivity of each IgG collected at different time points (from day 30 to day 165) was explored using Western blotting techniques. The results indicated that rabbit anti-bovine prothrombin and crude thrombin IgGs could cross-react strongly with bovine factor V/Va in an immunization time-dependent manner. However, antibodies generated in thrombin 4A-treated rabbits presented much weaker cross-reactivity with bovine factor V/Va. Furthermore, no cross-reactivity with bovine factor V/Va-related antigens was observed when the anti-bovine thrombin 4B IgG collected at any time point was used. The results suggest that thrombin 4B preparation contains the least bovine factor V/Va contaminants among the bovine prothrombin/thrombin preparations studied and the amount of bovine factor V/Va contaminants in bovine thrombin 4B is too small to elicit the generation of antibodies against bovine factor V/Va in rabbits.

Objective To undertake an in-depth analysis of all complaints over a 12-month period in an orthopaedic department in the NHS. Setting Department of Orthopaedics in a UK NHS Trust. Methods Sixteen complaints files and associated patient case-notes were retrospectively reviewed by an independent consultant orthopaedic surgeon and members of the research team. Results There were some common themes in the adverse events reported. For example, failure to obtain adequately informed consent and lack of information given to patients were the most common adverse events that were identified by the review process. There were 36 adverse events/complications in the sample, 30 were adverse events and six were complications. Half of the complaints reviewed (18/36) related directly to adverse events. The majority of the adverse events that were identified by this study and review of complaints (27/36) were covered by the adverse event list and should have triggered an incident report. Conclusion Adverse events are not being acknowledged and there is a need for more openness with patients. As such, a larger study is needed to explore the extent of these issues.

Background/Context Little research to date has examined the honors foreign language classroom or how it differs from its non-honors counterpart. This study examines possible differences between the two kinds of classrooms and what factors may affect these differences. Purpose The researcher observed a total of 54 honors and non-honors French and Spanish classes at all levels at a high school in a Midwestern state to ascertain the instructional practices used therein. He also administered questionnaires to and interviewed the seven teachers of these classes regarding the classroom practices he observed and the factors that may have influenced these practices, focusing particularly on any differences between the high-and low-tier classes. Setting A high school of 1,900 students in a small town in a Midwestern state. Subjects Seven high school teachers of French and Spanish. Research Design This study incorporates analysis of the lesson content of the two kinds of classes using the chi-square technique and qualitative techniques to analyze the data yielded by questionnaires and open-ended interviews with each teacher. Findings A highly significant statistical relationship exists between the tier of class (honors v. non-honors) and the type of language activity (form-focused v. communicative). Analysis of teachers’ narratives also reveals several factors that enter into play in shaping their instructional practices. These include: (1) students’ preferences for specific teaching styles and instructional emphases; (2) honors students’ desire for the prestige that comes from enrollment in high-tier classes; (3) students’ level of motivation for language learning; and (4) students’ level of engagement in their language learning. Conclusions The researcher concludes that foreign language educators must address the issue of reserving communicative teaching for elite students for the profession's future viability.

This paper develops an approach for analyzing how restricting rest (sleep) locations for long-haul truckers may affect operational productivity, given hours-of-service regulations. Productivity is measured by the minimum number of unique drivers required to execute a set of load requests feasibly over a known planning horizon. When drivers may stop for rest at any location, they should be able to maximize utilization under regulated driving hours. When drivers may stop for rest only at certain discrete locations, drivers may suffer decreased utilization. The framework and results developed in this paper should be especially useful in the analysis of truck transportation of security-sensitive commodities, such as food products and hazardous materials, for which there exists strong external pressure to ensure that drivers rest only in secure locations to reduce risks of tampering. The analysis considers the simplest case, in which all loads to be transported move along a single lane. The paper presents an optimal tree search algorithm for determining the minimum number of drivers required to cover a set of loads given a set of allowed rest locations. Because the optimal approach is often computationally burdensome, the paper also presents and analyzes a set of simple heuristics for determining feasible load-to-driver assignments that can augment the search for the true minimum. Analysis of a sample data set demonstrates the approach and indicates that for lanes of realistic length, the productivity impact of restricting rest to a small number of discrete locations is likely to be small.

The Internet is becoming a very important new technology in all organizations, including universities. Many in academia are adopting this innovative technology to aid in their teaching, research, and consulting. In this study, using the learning organization theoretical framework, the effects of learning organization characteristics, other organizational factors, and individual variables on the use of the Internet by a random sample of 245 business school faculty members in the United States were examined and analyzed. Some support for learning organization characteristics, as well as support for individual and other organizational factors, was found.

A random sample of American Evaluation Association members was surveyed concerning the ethical challenges they encountered in their evaluation work Respondents who indicated that they had faced such challenges differed significantly (in amount and type of evaluation experi ence, as well as professional discipline) from those who said that they had never encountered an ethical conflict. Ethical problems associated with the reporting of findings by the evaluator were, by far, the most frequently mentioned. Also frequently described were conflicts involving the misinterpretation/misuse of results by stakeholders, contracting with stakeholders, and adherence to disclosure agreements. Aframeworkfor interpreting the study's findings, based on understanding the subjective commitment of evaluators to the roles of scientist and/or helping professional, is proposed.

Despite the growing attention that has been directed in recent years to the politics of evaluation, there has been little detailed analysis of the implications of this discussion for the design and supervision of students' field experiences in program evaluation. This article uses a case study of one such experience to examine some of the political issues and decisions that instructors face in this area. It is concluded that a more fully developed analytical framework is needed to address the political dynamics involved in evaluations that serve as training experiences for students.

Muscle activity about the elbow during tennis strokes in nine professional and collegiate level players was studied using indwelling EMG and high speed photog raphy. Eight muscles were evaluated for the serve, forehand, and backhand strokes. The serve was di vided into six stages and the ground strokes into four stages. EMG tracings were subjected to analog-to- digital conversion and a relative measure of quantity was obtained. Analysis of variance and Tukey tests were then done to assess statistical significance (P < 0.05). The ground strokes showed low activity in all muscles tested during the preparation phase. During the accel eration phase, both the backhand and forehand showed a generalized increase in all muscle activity. Both strokes showed marked activity of the wrist extensors and, in addition, the forehand showed high activity in the brachialis and biceps. In the follow-through phase, there was a generalized decrease in muscle activity. The serve showed low activity in all muscles tested during the wind-up phase. The wrist extensors in creased their activity in the cocking phase, with marked activity in late cocking. The pronator teres and the triceps showed increased activity in the acceleration phase. Follow-through phase showed low muscle activ ity except for the biceps, which increased in late follow- through. In conclusion, the muscles of the elbow help stabilize the elbow as a unit during the ground strokes in these high level players. Power in the serve comes from increased activity in the triceps and pronator teres. The predominant activity of the wrist extensors in all strokes may be one explanation for predisposition to injury.