Aragonese Tiles in a Flemish Castle: A Chivalric Gift-Exchange Network in Fifteenth-Century Europe

Excavation of the mid-fifteenth-century castle of Pieter Bladelin, a high-ranking Burgundian official, in the village of Middelburg-in-Flanders, near Bruges (Belgium), has unearthed a remarkable series of blue and white painted and glazed floor tiles. Post-excavation archival and heraldic inquiries into the tiles has led to a deeper understanding of the role that gift exchange of luxury objects played within the diplomatic network of Alfonso V “the Magnanimous”, King of Aragon, and Philip “the Good”, Duke of Burgundy, in shaping a shared chivalric and crusading culture between Burgundy and Aragon. The study demonstrates the added value of the integration of archaeological and historical data in studying economic, political and cultural processes for the later medieval or early modern period.     

Collective effectiveness in the XV de France: selections and time matter

The aim of this study was to quantify the impact of selections and shared selections in the rugby union. Players’ names, positions, and number of selections were collected for all XV de France’s games (1906–2014). Every team’s percentage of renewal of workforce was calculated for backs and forwards. During the 1987–2014 period, all second row forwards (locks), halfbacks, and centres’ shared selections (number of times when two players have competed together) were recreated. The Best vs. Rest method was applied to these remodelled dyads. They were analysed and compared with surrounding teammates as well as opponents. Head coaches similarly change their workforce for upcoming matches after winning or losing (around 30%), but losing teams renew significantly more positions in their line-ups. The recreated halfbacks, locks, and centres reveal a common pattern. Whether victorious or not, the ‘renewed couples’ victory percentage will congregate towards the XV de France’s victory percentage. For all the best recreated couples, the cumulated number of selections for forwards’ is always higher than the ones part of less efficient teams: 231.3?±?80 vs. 212.9?±?91 selections for locks’ teammates (Effect sizes (ES) small, possibly positive, 54.8%). In best recreated couples, number 8’s are significantly more experienced than their counterparts in less efficient pairs (ES small, likely positive, 76.3%). The XV de France’s collective effectiveness relies on a balance between stability and workforce renewal, which allows the building of specific position interactions and builds on experimented forwards packs. Selections and shared selections are serious collective performance parameters associated with performance.     

Reliability of unipodal and bipodal counter movement jump landings in a recreational male population

Movement patterns during landing have been suggested to be related to injury risk. The purpose of this study was to determine the inter-session reliability of kinematic variables and ground reaction forces during landing in a population of male recreational athletes after a counter movement jump. Both unipodal and bipodal landings were evaluated. Furthermore, the possibility to improve landing reliability with a verbal instruction was also studied. Twenty-four male volunteers with no history of lower extremity trauma were randomly assigned to two groups (with and without verbal landing instruction). An optoelectronic 3D system and force plates were used to measure the lower limb joint angles and the ground reaction forces during landing. Intraclass correlation values show moderate to excellent inter-session reliability for the bipodal task (ICC average: 0.80, range: 0.46–0.97) and poor to excellent reliability for the unipodal task (ICC average: >0.75, range: 0.20–0.95). However, large standard errors of measurement values at the ankle joint at impact (27.6?±?11.5°) and for the vertical ground reaction forces (394?±?1091 N) show that some variables may not be usable in practice. The verbal instruction had a negative effect on the reliability of unipodal landing but improved the reliability of bipodal landing. These findings show that the reliability of a landing task is influenced by its motor complexity as well as the instruction given to the subject.     

Strategies d'orientation scolaire et insertion sociale: Contexte general et cas des jeunes marocains en belgique francophone

Résumé L'insertion scolaire est un facteur qui conditionne les différentes formes d'intégration. Elle est mesurée par la qualité, la quantité et le contenu des études suivies. Les structures de formation et leur accessibilité aux familles immigrées sont la base d'une insertion réussie ou, selon les cas, d'une relégation sociale. Des données récentes démontrent qu'en Belgique francophone, l'école est plus un lieu d'échec qu'un lieu de réussite pour les jeunes issus de l'immigration: les imperfections du système scolaire et en particulier, son incapacité à gérer la pluralité éthnique et sociale produisent un échec massif avec tous les risques de marginalisation socio-économique que cette situation comporte. Notons cependant que l'hypothèse principale de l'enquête présentée ici porte sur l'environnement socio-culturel, le niveau de vie du ménage, l'histoire migratoire de la famille d'origine et l'histoire individuelle, fruits d'une multi-détermination sociale et pouvant influencer la scolarisation, l'orientation des jeunes lors de ce processus et, enfin, la réussite. Il apparaît que l'hypothèse se vérifie à travers quatre facteurs globaux expliquant la réussite et l'insertion à l'école. Il s'agit du niveau de formation scolaire des parents, de la catégorie socio-professionnelle de ceux-ci, du niveau de la pratique de la langue française au sein de la famille et de la nationalité des parents. Dans ce compte rendu, certains points touchant la formation scolaire des étrangers sont développés; une analyse plus détaillée du cas des Marocains de Belgique est tentée.

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Successful schooling is a factor which significantly influences integration in its various forms. It is measured by the quality, quantity and content of what is studied. Educational structures and their accessibility to immigrant families are at the heart of successful schooling, or social failure. Recent data show that in French-speaking Belgium, school is more a place of failure than of success for immigrants. The imperfections of the school system and, in particular, its inability to manage ethnic and social plurality, produce massive failure, with all the attendant risks of socio-economic marginalisation. However, the main hypothesis of the study presented here concerns the socio-cultural environment, the standard of living of the home, the migration history of the family of origin, and the history of the individual. These are determined by many social factors, and can in turn influence school performance, young people's attitudes to school, and ultimately their success. It appears that the hypothesis is true, there being four global factors which explain school performance and success. These are the level of the parents' schooling, their socio-professional class, the level of use of the French language in the family, and the nationality of the parents. In this report, certain points relevant to the schooling of foreigners are touched on, and a more detailed analysis of the case of Moroccans in Belgian is attempted.

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Zusammenfassung Die schulische Eingliederung ist ein Faktor, der die unterschiedlichen Arten von Integration bedingt. Sie wird nach Qualität, Quantität und Inhalt der absolvierten Studien bemessen. Bildungsstrukturen und ihre Zugänglichkeit für Immigrantenfamilien sind die Basis einer erfolgreichen Eingliederung bzw. eines sozialen Mißerfolgs. Kürzlich zusammengetragene Daten zeigen, daß Immigranten im französischsprachigen Belgien die Schule eher als einen Ort des Mißerfolgs als des Erfolgs empfinden. Die Unzulänglichkeiten des Schulsystems und insbesondere dessen Unfähigkeit, ethnische und soziale Pluralität zu meistern, führen zu massivem Mißerfolg und den dazugehörigen Risiken sozialer Ausgrenzung. Die Haupthypothese der hier präsentierten Studie betrifft jedoch die sozialkulturelle Umgebung, den Lebensstandard und die Migrationsgeschichte der Familie, sowie die persönliche Geschichte des individuellen Familienmitglieds. Diese werden durch viele soziale Faktoren bestimmt und können umgekehrt die schulischen Leistungen, die Einstellung junger Menschen zur Schule und schließlich ihren Erfolg beeinflussen. Es scheint, daß die Hypothese über die Existenz vier globaler Faktoren, die Schulleistungen und den Erfolg bestimmen, zutrifft. Zu diesen Faktoren gehören der Grad der elterlichen Schulbildung und deren sozialer und beruflicher Status, der Grad der Anwendung der französischen Sprache in der Familie und die Nationalität der Eltern. Dieser Bericht zeigt gewisse, für die Schulbildung von Ausländern relevante Kriterien auf, und versucht eine detaillierte Analyse über die Situation von Marokkanern in Belgien.

     

Augmenting Caregiver Responsiveness: An Intervention Proposal for Youngsters with Autism in Brazil

Language disorders that affect children with autism spectrum disorder can bring significant damage to their overall development. Research shows that the best treatment practices for this population are those that start early, have active parental collaboration and are held in natural milieu. In Brazil, early intervention programs are typically held in clinical environments and rarely involve parents as intervention agents. With autism becoming a high-incidence disability, diagnosed early in life, it is paramount that alternative forms of treatment be introduced in the country. The general purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using a parent-guided intervention model with Brazilian families. The participants included two mothers and their 3 year old sons, who were diagnosed with autism. Outcome measures included estimates of caregiver responsive language input and children’s communication turns evaluated during home interactions. The results indicated that both dyads increased their levels of responsiveness in, at least, one routine following treatment. Implications of the findings are discussed considering cultural variables.     

Impacts of a university–school partnership on middle school students' fractional knowledge: A quasiexperimental study

In this quasiexperimental study, the authors investigated the effects of university within school partnership model, within which faculty members acted as teacher-researchers to improve fractional knowledge among middle school (Grades 5–8) students. Students in nine Grade 6 mathematics classes from two public middle schools in Turkey were assigned to two conditions: University within school model instruction and traditional instruction. Pre- and posttest data showed that the students exposed to instruction through the university within school partnership model significantly outperformed their traditional instruction peers on the fractions test. Results indicated that students made significant gains in fractional knowledge in the experimental classrooms and in different subgroup populations. It was suggested that a substantial amount of mathematical infusion through partnership could have a positive impact on middle school students' fractional knowledge. The educational implications of the study were also discussed.     

Video games vs. reading and school/cognitive performances: a study on 27000 middle school teenagers

Video games are a very common leisure activity among teenagers and the aim of this study is to analyse their relations with cognitive and school performances. This study is part of a broad survey, conducted on 27,000 French teenagers (14.5?years old) in middle school (9th grade). The survey contained both a questionnaire on leisure activities practised by teenagers and school/cognitive tests: Comprehension tests, Math, School Knowledge, and Reasoning. The activity frequency (‘never’ to ‘every day or almost’) is studied on five kinds of video games (i.e. action/fighting) vs. seven reading activities (i.e. crime/thriller/fantasy). Results show that there are no correlations or very slight ones between Video Games and cognitive/school tests. Reading activities have potentially important associations with cognition and especially school tests. To conclude, video games are primarily recreational activities and the cognitive stimulation they produce is very different from the one involved in specialised academic subjects     

Improving vocational students’ consideration of source information when deciding about science controversies

We present an empirical investigation of a classroom training fostering vocational students’ consideration of source information when deciding about science-based controversies. The training was specifically aimed at raising students’ awareness of the division of cognitive labor and the resulting need to take a source’s competence into account when deciding whom to trust. Data were collected from a training group and a waiting list control group in a pretest–posttest design. The results show that students benefitted from the training in terms of their inclination to agree with pertinent expert sources rather than low-pertinent experts and to refer to the source of information to justify their judgment. Source memory was not affected by the training.