Family education, child-parent interactions and child development

We examine the influence of family educational practices on the interaction and communication competencies of four-year-old children. The child, as an active player in its own development, has to manage intra- and inter-personal conflicts in the socio-cognitive and socio-affective registers. We postulate that parental educational practices orient the relationship which each child develops with the world and with itself. Family educational practices were evaluated by means of two questionnaires (general education, specific education). The child’s communication competence was assessed on the following levels: intrapsychic dynamics (projective, tests, social competence and self-representation scales); oral and written communication competence (typological analysis (250 children and their parents). The results show that sociocultural contexts interact with family educational concepts and practices to influence the development of self-representations and the capacity for oral and written communication. General family education modulates the intrapsychic personal dynamics of young children, while specific family education is more responsible for influencing behaviours linked to school activities. A top-down hierarchical analysis was used to differentiate between these two forms of communication competence and the patterns adopted by the child within the diversity of family educational contexts.     

The impact of significant others’ actual appraisals on children’s self-perceptions: What about Cooley’s assumption for children?

The aim of this paper was to study the construction of children’s self-perception relying on Cooley’s hypothesis. More precisely, we were interested in the mediation effect of significant others’ actual appraisal on self-perception by the perception of others’ actual appraisal (i.e., reflected appraisal). First, we argued that this mediation effect would occur in the domains where children have feedback from significant others (here teacher or parents). Second, we took into account two measures of reflected appraisal: reflected appraisal assessed in a classic fashion and appraisal social support assessed with Harter’s scale (1985b). We argued that reflected appraisal assessed in a classic fashion would be a better mediator of the effect of actual appraisal on self-perception by reflected appraisal in comparison to appraisal social support. In order to test these hypotheses, we conducted a study with 126 children (age 8–9), 106 parents and six teachers. The results, taken as a whole, support these hypotheses.     

The effect of elevating the heels on spinal kinematics and kinetics during the back squat in trained and novice weight trainers

ABSTRACT

This research assessed the influence of various heel elevation conditions on spinal kinematic and kinetic data during loaded (25% and 50% of body weight) high-bar back squats. Ten novice (mass 67.6 ± 12.4 kg, height 1.73 ± 0.10 m) and ten regular weight trainers (mass 66.0 ± 10.7 kg, height 1.71 ± 0.09 m) completed eight repetitions at each load wearing conventional training shoes standing on the flat level floor (LF) and on an inclined board (EH). The regular weight training group performed an additional eight repetitions wearing weightlifting shoes (WS). Statistical parametric mapping (SPM1D) and repeated measures analysis of variance were used to assess differences in spinal curvature and kinetics across the shoe/floor conditions and loads. SPM1D analyses indicated that during the LF condition the novice weight trainers had greater moments around L4/L5 than the regular weight trainers during the last 20% of the lift (P < 0.05), with this difference becoming non-significant during the EH condition. This study indicates that from a perspective of spinal safety, it appears advantageous for novice weight trainers to perform back squats with their heels slightly elevated, while regular weight trainers appear to realize only limited benefits performing back squats with either EH or WS.     

Hydrodynamic characteristics of sea kayak traditional paddles

We present a study of the hydrodynamic characteristics of sea kayak paddles without taking into account the kayaker. We focus on traditional paddles used in the Arctic, one from Greenland and one from the Aleutian Islands. A basic modern European paddle is included in the study for comparison. First the paddle stroke parameters specific to sea kayaking are identified because previous studies were devoted to a competition context. The hydrodynamic force generated by the blade motion is detailed: two terms are identified, one involving the inertia of the water surrounding the blade at the beginning of its motion, and the second term is the classical drag/lift force. Drag and lift force coefficients were measured in a wind tunnel. The data allow computation of the hydrodynamic force during a paddle stroke. The European paddle was shown to be more efficient than the traditional paddles because of its shorter length to width ratio which contributed to a larger inertia effect. However, the force obtained with the traditional paddles better follows the imposed motion by the kayaker so that they are more comfortable and less tiring in the context of long distance trips, as those practiced in sea kayaking.     

Learning the norm of internality: NetNorm,a connectionist model

The objective of the present article is to show that connectionist simulations can be used to model some of the socio-cognitive processes underlying the learning of the norm of internality. For our simulations, we developed a connectionist model which we called NetNorm (based on Dual-Network formalism). This model is capable of simulating the implicit learning of this social norm through a simple process of situation/reinforcement association. In a second simulation, we simulated a non-linear learning in order to reproduce the triple inflexion in the internality learning curve that has been observed for children entering high school. The results support those previously reported in the literature. Moreover, our simulations could be used to develop new experimental predictions.     

一种实时模拟血管中引导线变形的有限元模型

为了实时仿真微创介入手术过程中引导线在外力作用下的变形,提出了一种适合于描述纤细物体力学特性的模型.通过对引导线的仿真,医生可以在术前预演手术,并选择最佳的手术方案.模型采用多体结构离散化引导线,根据弹性理论推导出引导线的弹性能是节点位移的多项式函数,病人的血管四面体网格模型可从血管的三角面网格模型拓广得到,并将共轭梯度法能量下降的过程应用于引导线变形过程的模拟.实验结果表明:由于模型的弹性能和节点位移呈多项式函数关系,共轭梯度法的求解得到了有效的简化,模型的效率有显著提高.与目前广泛采用的显式计算模型相比不仅稳定且更快速.模型可应用于血管中引导线变形的实时仿真.