Information-governing dynamics of attacker–defender interactions in youth rugby union

Abstract

Previous work on dynamics of interpersonal interactions in 1 vs. 1 sub-phases of basketball has identified changes in interpersonal distance between an attacker and defender as a potential control parameter for influencing organizational states of attacker–defender dyads. Other studies have reported the constraining effect of relative velocity between an attacker and defender in 1 vs. 1 dyads. To evaluate the relationship between these candidate control parameters, we compared the impact of both interpersonal distance and relative velocity on the pattern-forming dynamics of attacker–defender dyads in the sport of rugby union. Results revealed that when interpersonal distance achieved a critical value of less than 4 m, and relative velocity values increased or were maintained above 1 m · s^?1, a successful outcome (i.e. clean attempt) for an attacker was predicted. Alternatively, when values of relative velocity suddenly decreased below this threshold, at the same critical value of interpersonal distance, a successful outcome for the defender was predicted. Data demonstrated how the coupling of these two potential, nested control parameters moved the dyadic system to phase transitions, characterized as a try or a tackle. Observations suggested that relative velocity increased its influence on the organization of attacker–defender dyads in rugby union over time as spatial proximity to the try line increased.     

Designing minimal computer manuals from scratch

We designed from scratch a minimal manual of the kind proposed by Carroll (1990) for Unix e-mail. The design process involved acquiring from a set of experts information about e-mail use that would be helpful to novices, and acquiring from novices information that guided subsequent versions of the manual. The seventh version of the minimal manual was tested against a commercial manual, in a comparative performance experiment, with 30 naive subjects. It had approximately 13% of the pages of the commercial manual; it resulted in 30% faster learning and more effective use of the e-mail system overall, and significantly better performance on individual subtasks; including the recovery from errors. Significantly more users were satisfied with it than with the conventional manual. Carroll's general principles of manual design for minimal manuals were found to be a good basis for design, and we suggest these guidelines are suitable for the design of such manuals from scratch.     

“‘I Was Gonna Go Off,but My Best Friend is White.”: Hispanic Students’ Co-Cultural Reasoning in a Hispanic Serving Institution

The researchers engaged in a qualitative analysis (using journaling and focus group methodology) of the communicative behaviors of Hispanic students with White institutional members at a medium-sized, Southwest HSI. Utilizing Co-Cultural Theory and Elaborative Coding analysis, the authors mapped how Hispanic students narrated their co-cultural communication and reasoning (i.e., why they engage in one strategy rather than another). The findings show that, although Hispanic students used almost all co-cultural strategies, their responses were clustered primarily around assimilationist strategies – indicating that they engage in a high degree of self-monitoring and self-censorship when interacting with White institutional members in an HSI. These results suggest that even when Hispanic students constitute a large or majority part of the institution’s population, they still feel the need to engage in behaviors that navigate White norms. The study concludes by examining the findings for co-cultural theorizing as well as providing insights for instructors who wish to engage in inclusive teaching practices.     

Validation of the elementary social behaviour assessment: teacher ratings of students’ social skills adapted to Norwegian,grades 1–6

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Elementary Social Behaviour Assessment (ESBA), a teacher-report measure of students’ social skills and academic engagement adapted for use in Norwegian schools. At two times, 8 weeks apart, 151 teachers rated 793 students in Grades 1–6 on the ESBA and the Social Skills Rating System Teacher’s form (SSRS-T). Exploratory factor analysis with the first assessment suggested one or possibly two factors. Confirmatory factor analysis with the second assessment confirmed the one- or two-factor models but did not offer strong evidence for one over the other. The ESBA demonstrated good to excellent reliability. Strong concurrent and predictive correlations with the SSRS-T established criterion validity. The school and teacher levels explained only a limited amount of the total variance in ESBA scores, suggesting that teachers rate students quite similarly. The Norwegian-adapted ESBA paralleled the reliability and validity evidence from US samples.     

The Role of the Year Leader: an Analysis of the Perceptions of Year Leaders and Deputy Heads in 8‐12 Middle Schools

Today's school leaders are searching for a way to give value to and effectively manage a school's intangible assets to create a more holistic picture of student success. Schools establish partnerships with community organizations towards this end and to ultimately impact student learning. Utilizing the framework of principals as knowledge managers, this paper describes how school principals involved in a university partnership developed a tool to manage and intentionally utilize the intangible assets of the school–university partnership to increase student learning. Included are examples of how the tool was applied and suggestions for adapting the tool to any school partnership.     

Shifting sands: a case study of conceptual development as competition between alternative conceptions

Conceptual change may be considered as a process of coming to view one theory or model as having more explanatory power than others. Various theorists have described how an individual's understanding of a concept may be multifaceted; how conceptual frameworks develop in a cognitive ecology, and are subject to selection pressures; and how alternative frameworks compete in terms of their explanatory coherence. The present paper applies these ideas to a case study of learning in science. It is argued that conceptual development may be described in terms of a gradual shift in which of several alternative explanatory principles is the learners' preferred choice. The case study illustrates the long-term nature of conceptual change, as a learner comes to see the limitations of one explanatory framework, and the scope for exploring and developing another.     

Examination of a Group Counseling Model of Career Decision Making With College Students

The authors examined the effectiveness of a group career counseling model (Pyle, 2007 ) on college students’ career decision‐making abilities. They used a Solomon 4‐group design and found that students who participated in the career counseling groups had significantly greater increases in career decision‐making abilities than those who did not participate in the groups. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.     

The construction of an interfacial valve-based microfluidic chip for thermotaxis evaluation of human sperm

Thermotaxis has been demonstrated to be an important criterion for sperm evaluation, yet clinical assessment of thermotaxis capacity is currently lacking. In this article, the on-chip thermotaxis evaluation of human sperm is presented for the first time using an interfacial valve-facilitated microfluidic device. The temperature gradient was established and accurately controlled by an external temperature gradient control system. The temperature gradient responsive sperm population was enriched into one of the branch channels with higher temperature setting and the non-responsive ones were evenly distributed into the two branch channels. We employed air-liquid interfacial valves to ensure stable isolation of the two branches, facilitating convenient manipulation of the entrapped sperm. With this device, thermotactic responses were observed in 5.7%-10.6% of the motile sperm moving through four temperature ranges (34.0-35.3 °C, 35.0-36.3 °C, 36.0-37.3 °C, and 37.0-38.3 °C, respectively). In conclusion, we have developed a new method for high throughput clinical evaluation of sperm thermotaxis and this method may allow other researchers to derive better IVF procedure.