Academic integrity policies at 200 institutions of higher education (IHE's) were examined for the presence of academic prohibitions against the nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NMUPS) or any other cognitive enhancing drug (CED). Researchers used online search tools to locate policy handbooks in a stratified random sample of IHE's drawn…

Writing instruments, such as pens, are ubiquitous in the classroom, but their functionality is largely for one purpose: they are used to represent ideas and record information on paper. However, by replacing the conventional ink in a pen with easy-to-synthesize conducting polymer-based inks, it is possible to change a simple writing utensil into a…

Drugs may be used by athletes for a number of reasons, including performance enhancement. The role of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is vital to ensure a winning performance has been achieved by fair means. Substances and methods that are included on the WADA Prohibited List are described. The procedures for testing banned substances are…

The 1990-2010 period in professional cycling is labeled by some as the epo epidemic. Surprisingly, performance enhancement by epo and blood doping is not that clear-cut for endurance athletes, leading to the question whether doping indeed strongly influenced cyclists' performances from the 1990s onwards. We examined the records (1947-2008) of the…

The GlaxoSmithKline Scientists in Sport team have worked with 4science to provide resources and offer activities for use by schools to show the relevance of science in sport. Much of the content looks at anti-doping and the science involved with detecting the misuse of banned substances. Through the development of a website, this work can continue…

Study aim: To assess the degree of acceptance of risk by experienced and inexperienced athletes. Material and methods: Two male teams participated in the study: juniors (football; n = 9) aged 16-18 years and seniors (volleyball; n = 13) aged 20-32 years. The subjects were requested to assess the doping-related risk of losing every of 6 values:…

The practice of enhancing athletic performance through the use of ergogenic aids or by extraneous artificial means is as old as competitive sport itself. Although the abuse of such substances has been historically problematic, very little research assessing the attitudes of strength/power athletes concerning ergogenic aids exists. As national…

Using retrospective self-reporting, rates of illegal and legal performance-enhancing substance (PES) use in the past three months among more than 3,400 Italian high school adolescents were obtained and estimated. The study focused on the extent to which these sociodemographic characteristics and illegal PES use were associated with adolescents'…

Socio-scientific issue-based science education has been suggested for promoting general educational skills development in science classes. However, there is a lack of operationalized criteria, which can be used to reflect upon societal issues to whether turning them into issues for science classroom instruction. This paper describes a case study…

We propose a simple and fascinating experiment for studying diffusion in gels using a pH-sensitive dye. By doping agar with methyl red, we obtain a gel which rapidly reacts to changes in pH by changing its absorption spectrum. The pH gradients can be followed using a digital camera, and we demonstrate here that the pH-sensitive colour changes can…

This article derives the power curves for a Wald test that can be applied to randomized response models when small prevalence rates must be assessed (e.g., detecting doping behavior among elite athletes). These curves enable the assessment of the statistical power that is associated with each model (e.g., Warner's model, crosswise model, unrelated…

The electrochemical polymerization of aniline and pyrrole, and demonstrations of electrochromism and the polymer battery effect, are presented as demonstrations suitable for high school and introductory chemistry at the university level. These demonstrations promote student interest in the electrochemical preparation of conducting polymers, where…

A real-time, labeled-free and nanogram-sensitive mass sensor, electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) is used to monitor a cyclic voltammetric deposition of polyaniline (PANI). The results determined that the efficiency for PANI deposition and the anion-doping ratio is calculated in one single cyclic voltammetric.

This article reviews research on blood doping, the transfusion of red blood cells to improve oxygen delivery and, thereby, endurance. The use and rationale for blood doping are explained. (Author/MT)

The efficacy of blood doping (infusion of blood into an athlete's circulatory system) has not been established and merits further research. (JD)