Kinetic and kinematic analysis of stamping impacts during simulated rucking in rugby union

Laceration injuries account for up to 23% of injuries in rugby union. They are frequently caused by studded footwear as a result of a player stamping onto another player during the ruck. Little is known about the kinetics and kinematics of rugby stamping impacts; current test methods assessing laceration injury risk of stud designs therefore lack informed test parameters. In this study, twelve participants stamped on an anthropomorphic test device in a one-on-one simulated ruck setting. Velocity and inclination angle of the foot prior to impact was determined from high-speed video footage. Total stamping force and individual stud force were measured using pressure sensors. Mean foot inbound velocity was 4.3 m ? s^?1 (range 2.1–6.3 m ? s^?1). Mean peak total force was 1246 N and mean peak stud force was 214 N. The total mean effective mass during stamping was 6.6 kg (range: 1.6–13.5 kg) and stud effective mass was 1.2 kg (range: 0.5–2.9 kg). These results provide representative test parameters for mechanical test devices designed to assess laceration injury risk of studded footwear for rugby union.     

Preadolescent Peer Status, Aggression, and School Adjustment as Predictors of Externalizing Problems in Adolescence

The comparative effectiveness of preadolescent aggressive behavior, peer rejection, and school functioning were evaluated in the prediction of adolescent delinquency and school maladjustment. Fifth-grade children (n = 112, 69% white, 53% male, M = 11 years old) were followed forward for 7 years until the end of high school. Rejected children were more likely to have a nonspecific negative outcome and more types of negative outcomes than average, popular, or neglected children, particularly among the white students. However, in regression models containing sex, race, aggression, frequent school absences, low grades, and rejection, the only significant predictor of juvenile delinquency or of a nonspecific negative outcome was aggression toward peers. Both aggression and frequent school absences were significant predictors of early school withdrawal. Analyses for the white children in the sample revealed that both rejection and aggression best predicted to the nonspecific negative outcome, whereas aggression alone best predicted to school dropout and to having one or more police contacts. Implications for future longitudinal outcome research and for risk-group identification in racially heterogeneous samples are discussed.     

Children's Academic and Behavioral Adjustment as a Function of the Chronicity and Proximity of Peer Rejection

The experience of peer rejection is associated with a number of concurrent and later problems for children. However, we know very little about differences in risk relative to different experiences of rejection over time. This study examined later academic and behavioral problems as a function of two dimensions by which rejection may vary over time: chronicity and temporal proximity. 622 second- through fourth-grade children (ages 7–12) were tested in the spring of 4 consecutive years. The results indicated that both chronicity and proximity directly influenced later adjustment. Taken together, the findings suggest that all levels of rejection were associated with greater absenteeism from school, and more chronic and proximal experiences of rejection were associated with elevated externalizing behavior problems and teacher-rated internalizing behavior problems. There was evidence that initial level of adjustment, gender, and development moderated the relation among these dimensions of rejection and later adjustment.     

Making it happen: Possibilities and pitfalls of Cunningham's educational semiotic

In fundamental agreement with Cunningham's overall thesis, we attempt in this paper to articulate what an educational semiotic might look like on a practical level. For educational psychologists, it should mean an increased awareness of the limited, localized world views offered by current models of cognition and an increased attentiveness to alternate models. For teachers, an educational semiotic offers integration of cognition and affect and instructional strategies that depend upon and facilitate many ways of knowing. For an educational semiotic to be realized, however, there must be much greater attention paid to the roles of motivation and metacognition in semiotic pedagogy.     

Dominance relationships in femaleHerotilapia multispinosa (Pisces: Cichlidae)

Agonistic interactions between all possible pairings of 10 adult female rainbow cichlids (Herotilapia multispinosa) were observed in three round-robin tournaments. Specific behaviors and color patterns were found to characterize winning and losing fish. The outcomes of agonistic encounters were used to construct a hypothetical dominance hierarchy. This hierarchy was consistent over the three tournaments in that (1) the order of animals in the hierarchy remained relatively unchanged and (2) the relationship between the members of a particular dyad tended to remain stable. The latter was especially true for fish of widely different dominance rank.     

Parent–youth discordance about youth-witnessed violence: Associations with trauma symptoms and service use in an at-risk sample

ObjectiveStudies have consistently demonstrated a lack of agreement between youth and parent reports regarding youth-witnessed violence. However, little is known about whether disagreement is associated with poorer outcomes and less utilization of mental health services. The purpose of the current study was to examine disagreement among youth and parents about youth witnessed violence, and determine whether concordance predicted trauma symptoms and recognition of need and receipt of counseling services.MethodsConcordance about youth-witnessed violence was examined in 766 dyads from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Youth participants self-reported trauma symptoms, caregivers indicated youth need for and receipt of services. Both youth and parents provided information about youth-witnessed violence exposure in the last year.ResultsResults showed youth and caregivers differed significantly about youth-witnessed violence. Specifically, 42% of youth reported youth-witnessed violence, compared to only 15% of parents. For those parents who reported youth-witnessed violence, only 29% reported an identified need for services and only 17% reported the youth had received any mental health services. Concordance between parent–youth dyads was associated with greater identified need for services but was not associated with the use of counseling services or trauma symptoms.ConclusionsYouth who reported witnessing violence reported more frequent trauma symptoms regardless of concordance. Parents from dyads in which both informants reported youth-witnessed violence were more likely to endorse need for, but not receipt of counseling services. Given this association between youth-witnessed violence and mental health problems, more work is needed to identify barriers to concordance as well as service utilization.     

Visual Literacy and Visual Politics: Photojournalism and the 2004 Presidential Debates

While newspapers use conventional images to accompany reporting on presidential debates, the rhetorical aspect of these images is illustrated through an examination of the 2004 debates. In this essay, the author first establishes oppositional positioning and mirroring as visual literacy conventions that augment those previously identified by Paul Messaris in his examination of advertising images. Second, a critical analysis of the photographs depicting the first 2004 debate, in particular, demonstrates how photo editors deployed visual conventions that either intensified clash or neutralized candidate performance fragments to produce a false symmetry despite a discordant reality. In subsequent debates, however, many editors employed alternate visual conventions that provided an improved visual balance between fairness and accuracy.