Development and validation of a method to directly measure the cable force during the hammer throw

The development of cable force during hammer-throw turns is crucial to the throw distance. In this paper, we present a method that is capable of measuring cable force in real time and, as it does not interfere with technique, it is capable of providing immediate feedback to coaches and athletes during training. A strain gauge was mounted on the wires of three hammers to measure the tension in the wire and an elite male hammer thrower executed three throws with each hammer. The output from the gauges was recorded by a data logger positioned on the lower back of the thrower. The throws were captured by three high-speed video cameras and the three-dimensional position of the hammer's head was determined by digitizing the images manually. The five best throws were analysed. The force acting on the hammer's head was calculated from Newton's second law of motion and this was compared with the force measured via the strain gauge. Qualitatively the time dependence of the two forces was essentially the same, although the measured force showed more detail in the troughs of the force–time curves. Quantitatively the average difference between the measured and calculated forces over the five throws was 76 N, which corresponds to a difference of 3.8% for a cable force of 2000 N.     

Heart Rate Variability

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of two exercise intensities (moderate and severe) on heart rate variability (HRV) response in 16 runners 1 hr prior to (-1 hr) and at +1 hr, +24 hr, +48 hr, and +72 hr following each exercise session. Time domain indexes and a high frequency component showed a significant decrease (p < .001) between -1 hr and +1 hr for severe intensity. The low frequency component in normalized units significantly increased (p <.01) for severe intensity at +1 hr. Only severe exercise elicited a change in HRV outcomes postexercise, resulting in a reduction in the parasympathetic influence on the heart at +1 hr; however, values returned to baseline levels by +24 hr.     

Medical students and patient-centred clinical practice: the case for more critical work in medical schools

In the last two decades, undergraduate medical education in the United Kingdom has undergone several important changes. Many of these have revolved around a paradigmatic shift from ‘paternalistic’ to ‘patient-centred’ approaches to healthcare. Adopting a Foucauldian understanding of power and borrowing from Freire’s critical pedagogy, in this paper I draw upon ethnographic data from one UK medical school to illustrate the recurrence among medical students of narrow and uncritical understandings of patient-centred practices. These understandings highlight a tension between the ideals and frameworks of medical education policy and students’ conceptualisations of professional learning and practice. I explore this tension by tracing some possible links between students’ views of patient-centredness and the teaching practices at the medical school. I argue that more critical approaches to medical learning are sorely needed and suggest some directions for medical education that would help support the personal and professional development of more critically aware practitioners.     

Immigrant–Native Differences in Child Health: Does Maternal Education Narrow or Widen the Gap?

Abundant U.S. research documents an “immigrant advantage” in children’s physical health. This article extends consideration to the United Kingdom, permitting examination of a broader group of immigrants from disparate regions of the world and different socioeconomic backgrounds. Drawing on birth cohort data (ages 0–5) from both countries (n = 4,139 and n = 13,381), the analysis considers whether the children of immigrants have a physical and mental health advantage around the beginning of elementary school, and whether advantage is more pronounced among low‐educated populations. Findings indicate that the children of immigrants are not uniformly healthier than those in native‐born families. Rather, there is heterogeneity in the immigrant advantage across outcomes, and evidence of both greater advantage and disadvantage among children in low‐educated immigrant families.     

Parents' Child Care Arrangements and their Ecological Correlates

Young children rely on their parents for making decisions about their child care experiences. Parents' child care arrangements are affected by the information they gather, their values and childrearing beliefs, their knowledge of child care quality, and the extent to which they are satisfied with their child care choices. Parents' decisions about child care are also influenced by ecological correlates, such as child age, maternal education and hours of employment, family ethnicity and income, and state and federal child care policies. This review addresses each of these elements and their role in parents' child care arrangements and concludes with recommendations for honoring parents' child care ideals through better child care quality information and higher professional standards for child care providers.     

Scaffolding English language learners' mathematical talk in the context of Calendar Math

Teachers of elementary mathematics face multiple, convergent demands. These demands include supporting the growing population of English language learners (ELLs) and facilitating mathematical discussions across relevant curricular contexts. The authors used a comparative case study to examine how two teachers attempt to facilitate discussions while enacting a Calendar Math curriculum, in Grade 4 classrooms with high concentrations (>50%) of ELLs. The authors found that these teachers' use of Calendar Math did not provide a supportive context for conceptually based discussions. However, teachers did support ELLs in mathematical discussions by including display questions, elaborating student responses, modeling the use of mathematical vocabulary use, and use of self-talk. Teachers differed with regard to how often they elaborated responses, used vocabulary, the amount of teacher speech and the length of lessons. We discuss what these practices may mean for ELLs.     

Family-School Communication in Preschool and Kindergarten in the Context of a Relationship-Enhancing Intervention

The present study is a longitudinal examination of family-school communication in preschool and kindergarten. Preschool and kindergarten teachers and family workers of 75 children from families with low SES logged the frequency and characteristics of family-school communication, resulting in over 22,000 contacts. Data were collected during a period of implementation of an intervention designed to enhance relationships upon the transition to school. Family demographic information and information about family support for academics at home were assessed through parent interviews and children's behavior problems were measured through teacher questionnaires in preschool and kindergarten. Familyteacher communication decreased between preschool and kindergarten and there was a shift from shorter to longer types of communication between the two years. Communication differed as a function of program. Counter to expectation, few family factors and experiences predicted frequency of family-school communication, and more frequent communication in preschool was unrelated to more frequent communication in kindergarten. Findings have several implications for practice. Families experience a great decrease in communication between preschool and kindergarten and interventions designed to ease the transition to kindergarten need to either ameliorate the decrease or acknowledge its existence to prepare families. Otherwise, this contrast may be interpreted negatively. Given that our findings show no relation between a family's communication in preschool and kindergarten, it appears that it is not enough to support communication in preschool to ensure frequent communication in kindergarten.