Manpower needs in rural school psychology

The majority of unserved and underserved handicapped children live in rural America (Sher, 1978). One obstacle to serving these children is a lack of qualified staff (Helge, 1981). The turnover rates for rural and urban school psychologists in Virginia were determined for the years 1977–78 through 1979–80: the rate for rurai school psychologists is four times the rate for urban school psychologists (p<.001). Rural school psychologists who terminated employment and rural school psychologists who remained were surveyed on selected background variables in 1981. School psychologists who remained were much more likely than those who left to have been raised in a nonurban community. Implications for training programs are discussed.     

Parents as cotherapists in think aloud

Results of two case studies in which parents served as cotherapists in a social cognitive problem-solving program are presented. Larry, nine years old, was referred due to distractibility, immaturity, and impulsivity. Robert, eight years old, was referred for aggressive behaviors. Training occurred once a week for 50 minutes for 17 weeks for Larry and for 15 weeks for Robert. Parents were included in training in an effort to promote generalization and transfer of training outcomes. The parents' role included cognitive modeling, reinforcing, providing problem situations from the prior week, and extending training through generalization tasks at home. The following dependent measures were obtained in a pre-post design: Conners Teacher and Parent Rating Scales, Sociometric measures, WISC-R Mazes and Block Design, tests of consequential and means-end thinking, and observations of task-relevant and irrelevant self-verbalizations during Mazes and Block Design: Treatment effects were found for both boys on the parent and teacher versions of the Conners questionnaire. Larry improved in task relevant self-verbalizations, Mazes performance, and consequential and means-end thinking, but he did not improve on the sociometric measures. Robert improved on the sociometric measures, but not on task-relevant self-verbalizations, Mazes, Block Design, or consequential or means-end thinking. While these results are encouraging, limitations of the study limit generalizability of findings. Studies of the long-term benefits of training are needed to determine the cost effectiveness of incorporating parents as cotherapists in social cognitive problem-solving therapy.     

Using Workflow for Projects in Higher Education

The WWW is increasingly used as a medium to support education and training. A course at the University of Twente in which groups of students collaborate in the design and production of multimedia instructional materials has now been supported by a website since 1995. Workflow was integrated with other components in the website to investigate whether workflow can help instructors and students to have a better overview of group progress. Our evaluation shows that the introduction of workflow does provide added value. Another outcome of the experiment is that the transfer of a business application (workflow) into the educational domain has highlighted some differences and similarities between educational and business processes. This article explores some of these issues as highlighted by the application of workflow in education.     

Integrierte Entwicklung von Automotive-Software mit AutoFocus

Zur Beherrschung der komplexen vernetzten und verteilten Funktionen von Automotive-Software ist eine Beschreibung des zu erstellenden Systems auf verschiedenen Abstraktionsebenen und schrittweise überg?nge zwischen diesen Ebenen notwendig. Neben der Definition geeigneter Ebenen werden zur Unterstützung echtzeitkritischer Systemanteile ein einheitliches Berechnungsmodell, ebenenspezifische Beschreibungstechniken, sowie methodische Regeln für diese Abstraktionsebenen eingeführt und in den Werkzeugprototypen AutoFocus integriert.     

The effect of ball carrying method on sprint speed in rugby union football players

Different methods of ball carrying can be used when a player runs with the ball in rugby union. We examined how three methods of ball carrying influenced sprinting speed: using both hands, under the left arm and under the right arm. These methods were compared with running without the ball. Our aim was to determine which method of ball carrying optimizes sprinting speed. Altogether, 48 rugby union players (age 21 +/- 2 years, height 1.83 +/- 0.1 m, body mass 85.3 +/- 12 kg, body fat 14 +/- 5%; mean +/- s) were recruited. The players performed twelve 30-m sprints in total (each player performed three trials under each of three methods of carrying the ball and sprinting without the ball). The design of the study was a form of Latin rectangle, balanced across the trial order for each of the methods and for pairwise combinations of the methods in blocks of four per trial. Each sprint consisted of a 10-m rolling start, followed by a 20-m timed section using electronic timing gates. Compared with sprinting 20 m without the ball (2.58 +/- 0.16 s), using both hands (2.62 +/- 0.16 s) led to a significantly slower time (P < 0.05). Sprinting 20 m with the ball under the left arm (2.61 +/- 0.15 s) or under the right arm (2.60 +/- 0.17 s) was significantly quicker than when using 'both hands' (P < 0.05), and both these methods were significantly slower than when running without the ball (P < 0.05). Accordingly, running with the ball in both hands led to the greatest decrement in sprinting performance, although carrying the ball under one arm also reduced the players' sprinting ability. Our results indicate that to gain a speed advantage players should carry the ball under one arm.