Does skate sharpening affect individual skating performance in an agility course in ice hockey?

When sharpening ice hockey blades a hollow is created at the running surface of the blade. This study aimed to quantify the effect of different blade hollows on (a) blade–ice friction, (b) skating performance in an agility course, and (c) players’ perception of blade sharpness, performance, and comfort. Friction was quantified by measuring the deceleration of a sled running on the blades. Skating performance was tested with 15 volunteers performing a total of 9 trials on 3 different hollow radii. Perception was assessed using a questionnaire. Friction increased with decreasing hollow radius. Skating performance was significantly impeded at a hollow radius of 3.18 mm. Within the range of 9.53–22.23 mm performance differences were subject specific and several subjects showed no differences. Players appeared to be not sensitive enough to identify hollow radii, and only half of the subjects ranked their performance correctly.     

Impact ‘fingerprints’ and preliminary implications for an ‘intelligent mouthguard’ head impact dosimeter

An in vivo head impact dosimeter, termed the ??intelligent mouthguard??, is under development at the Cleveland Clinic. The intelligent mouthguard facilitates correlation of acute and accumulative impact dosage with injury risk. As part of intelligent mouthguard dosimetry development for boxing and mixed martial arts participants, head and neck impact dosage was quantified in the laboratory for seven (7) punch types. Impact dosage data for punches were collected, which generated unique ??fingerprints?? for use with the intelligent mouthguard computational algorithm. Additional calculations were made on parameters based on each punch ??fingerprint?? and injury risk. Each of the punches had a unique ??fingerprint??. The hook imparted the most severe impact dosage, with the cross and oblique hook inducing the next most severe impact dosages, respectively. The impact dosage ??fingerprints?? determined here will be used to identify punch types during intelligent mouthguard human trials in 2012. Intelligent mouthguard dosimetry will be available soon for other contact sports (American Football, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse) to monitor head?Cneck impact dosage for correlation to acute or accumulative injury risk.     

The early developmental competencies and school readiness of low-income,immigrant children: Influences of generation,race/ethnicity,and national origins

Though much valuable research has been conducted on the academic achievement of school-age immigrant youth, less is known about the early developmental competencies of immigrant children during the preschool years. This study describes the school readiness of 2194 low-income children receiving subsidies to attend child care with emphasis on how nativity status (generation), race/ethnicity, and national origins might be related to children's preparedness for kindergarten. The Learning Accomplishment Profile–Diagnostic (LAP-D) was used to measure cognitive and language skills, while teacher-report on the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) measured socio-emotional protective factors and behavior concerns. Results demonstrate that variation does exist in school readiness according to nativity-based factors. First- and second-generation immigrants lagged behind children in non-immigrant families in cognitive and language skills but excelled by comparison in socio-emotional skills and behavior. In many cases, first-generation immigrant children showed more advanced development than second-generation immigrant children, providing some evidence in the early years for an immigrant advantage. The present study raises awareness regarding some of the strengths immigrant children demonstrate from a very young age—strengths that can be built upon to encourage their later success and academic achievement.     

A Pan‐European Credit Accumulation Framework – Dream or Disaster?

This article seeks to examine credit accumulation and transfer from a European perspective, which involves four interlocking elements. Firstly, it analyses the current potential for rapid change within European education systems. Secondly, it considers the current nature, strengths and limitations of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) inspired by the European Commission. Thirdly, it seeks to identify the technical obstacles that need to be overcome to enable ECTS to evolve into something much more powerful, namely, a pan-European credit accumulation and transfer framework. Finally, it considers whether such a development is a dream or a disaster and if one or the other, then for whom.     

Navigating Windows Into Past Human Minds: A Framework of Shifting Selves in Historical Perspective Taking

This article presents a framework for understanding historical perspective taking (HPT), the effort to use historical material to explore the internal states of past people. It addresses gaps in HPT research by (a) linking HPT to theories and research from the social science disciplines on perspective taking and the self and (b) proposing a way to analyze how different tasks may elicit different kinds of HPT. The framework is grounded in a study in which 4 young adults thought aloud while taking the perspective of a victim or a perpetrator at the Salem Witch Trials and in a Holocaust-era massacre. Four shifting self perspectives were identified, whereby participants thought as their present-day selves, constructed hypothetical and imagined past selves, and made timeless generalizations about humans. To demonstrate the utility of the framework, I then use it to consider how task characteristics may elicit differential use of the self perspectives. It is argued that close attention to these self perspectives is a novel and crucial way to bring nuance to the concept of HPT, and implications for multiple learning environments are discussed.