Prenatal Yoga and Childbirth Education: A Response to Tracy Posner's Birth Story

In this letter to the editor, the author responds to a birth story published in a previous issue of The Journal of Perinatal Education and discusses the relationship between practicing prenatal yoga and childbirth education.     

Single landmark feedback-based time optimal navigation for a differential drive robot

In this paper, we propose a feedback-based control approach to execute the time optimal motion trajectories for a differential drive robot. These trajectories are composed of straight lines and rotations in place. We show that the evolution of the position of a single landmark over time, in a local reference frame, makes it possible to track a prescribed time-optimal robot’s trajectory, based on feedback of the landmark’s position. We also show that the closed-loop system is an exponentially stable one with a nonvanishing perturbation, and that globally uniformly ultimately boundedness of the tracking errors can be achieved. The two main results of this work are: 1) Our approach leverages visual servo control type of methods with tools from optimal control for executing time-optimal trajectories in the state space based on feedback information. 2) The approach is able to work with the minimum number of landmarks–only one–this represents a necessary and sufficientcondition for landmark-based navigation. Experiments in a physical robot, a nonholonomic differential drive system equipped with an omnidirectional laser sensor, are shown, which validate the proposed theoretical modelling.     

Time for Law: Legal Literacy and Gerontological Education

ABSTRACT

In the past, the law has not been considered as an important part of gerontological science. Historically, different sciences such as medicine, biology, psychology, and sociology have played far more important roles in the creation and crystallization of gerontological knowledge. This state of affairs is reflected in academic education and field research, which ascribes little weight to legal aspects of aging. This article maintains that the time is ripe for gerontological education to recognize the importance of exposing students of gerontology in academic institutions to the study and research of law and ageing. Though this claim could be defended on the simple ground that the law is no different, in principle, from a wide range of other scientific disciplines—each of which makes a particular contribution to gerontology—in this article we shall go one step further. This article attempts to demonstrate special elements which make it particularly important to add the study of legal matters to the curriculum of gerontological education. They are the result of 5 aspects of the encounter between the law and old age: (a) the law as a tool for sociological research; (b) the law as a tool for social change; (c) the law as a tool for planning and undertaking care of the old; (d) the weaknesses of the legal discipline in the field of law and aging; and (e) the potential value of legal education for the practice of gerontology, and collaboration between gerontologists and lawyers.     

Predicting academic achievement by class‐level emotions and perceived homeroom teachers’ emotional support

Using a multilevel approach, this study examined the role of classroom emotional climate on students' academic achievement. Positive and negative emotions and homeroom teachers' support were used to assess the classroom emotional climate on the individual and class levels. To our knowledge, no study to date has investigated these specific aspects of the classroom emotional climate in relation to students' GPA. Data were collected from 73 classrooms in grades 7‐12 (N = 1,641, students; 53% female) across three schools in Israel. Findings revealed that aggregated levels of both positive affect and perceived homeroom teacher support were positively tied to GPA and that aggregated levels of negative affect were negatively tied to GPA. The final model included gender, teacher support, individual and class emotions and explained 14% of within‐class GPA. A central implication of this study is the relevance of having an emotionally supportive homeroom teacher for students' academic achievement.     

Supporting Child Welfare and Parent Involvement in Preschool Programs

This article discusses the findings from a mixed-method study examining the relationship between social resources and levels of parent involvement in state-funded preschool programs in Illinois. Using survey data from the Illinois Birth to Five Evaluation (n = 843) and interviews with ten preschool administrators who completed the survey, the study found the number of social resources provided by a program was positively associated with levels of parent involvement. The correlation analysis (r = −0.22, p = .0001) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) F(2,708) = 23.19, p = .0001 findings both demonstrated positive relationships wherein high numbers of social resources were associated with higher levels of parent involvement in programs. Administrator interviews confirmed survey findings and suggested additional influences on parent involvement levels and use of social resources in programs. Implications for supporting child welfare and policy recommendations for early childhood programs are provided.     

Response Time Comparisons among Four Base Running Starting Techniques in Slow Pitch Softball

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare response times among four starting techniques—cross-over step, jab-step, standing sprinter's start, and the momentum start—to determine the fastest start for optimum speed in base running in slow pitch softball. The subjects were 30 adult male amateur softball players. Response time was recorded to the nearest 1/100 second using a Dekan Automatic Performance Analyzer arranged with two starting lights and a stop gate. A one way repeated measures ANOVA indicated that the momentum start was significantly (p < .01) faster than the other starts compared while there were no significant differences among the other starts. Reliability coefficients ranging from .90 to .95, obtained using the intraclass correlation coefficient for multiple trial data, signified no trends among trials and high reliability of the testing procedures and equipment. The results suggested that the momentum start was the fastest starting technique for optimum speed for running bases in slow pitch softball.     

Philosophy and the curriculum

This paper is reprinted from Israel Scheffler's Reason and Teaching (Bobbs-Merrill, 1973). It is the first of a number of classic paper which Science & Education will reprint in forthcoming volumes. These are being reprinted because their arguments still warrant attention and they are increasingly inaccessible to a good number of subscribers.