Fetal heart rate and variability: stability and prediction to developmental outcomes in early childhood

Stability in cardiac indicators before birth and their utility in predicting variation in postnatal development were examined. Fetal heart rate and variability were measured longitudinally from 20 through 38 weeks gestation (n = 137) and again at age 2 (n = 79). Significant within-individual stability during the prenatal period and into childhood was demonstrated. Fetal heart rate variability at or after 28 weeks gestation and steeper developmental trajectories were significantly associated with mental and psychomotor development at 2 years (n = 82) and language ability at 2.5 years (n = 61). These data suggest that the foundations of individual differences in autonomic control originate during gestation and the developmental momentum of the fetal period continues after birth.     

We teach as we are taught: exploring the potential for emotional climate to enhance elementary science preservice teacher education

Bellocchi, Ritchie, Tobin, Sandhu and Sandhu’s (2013) study highlights the crucial role that emotions play in learning at the university level in a preservice secondary science teacher education class. They examine the classroom structures that tended to lead to both a positive valence and a high level of intensity of the emotional climate (EC). This article explores the implications of their study for better understanding how to foster a positive classroom emotional climate for elementary level preservice teachers, given the specifics of elementary school environments. Drawing on theories of interactional solidarity. I explore the implications of EC for increasing pre-service teachers’ capacity to avoid order-giving rituals and to create science-centered communities in their classrooms. I also suggest possible areas for future research, such as the role of expectations in EC, the different EC outcomes of lectures, EC and the development of confidence in science, and the ways in which teacher candidates are positioned within interaction rituals in elementary science methods classes.     

Rapid Prototyping a Collections-based Mobile Wayfinding Application

This research presents the results of a project that investigated how students use a library developed mobile app to locate books in the library. The study employed a methodology of formative evaluation so that the development of the mobile app would be informed by user preferences for next generation wayfinding systems. A key finding is the importance of gathering ongoing user feedback for designing useful and used mobile academic library applications. Elements and data points to include in future mobile interfaces are discussed.     

‘The Product of the Town Itself’: Community Representation and the Stanley Cup Hockey Challenges of the Kenora Thistles, 1903–1907

This case study of community representation in Canadian hockey analyzes media accounts of four Stanley Cup hockey series played by the Kenora Thistles between 1903 and 1907. It examines newspaper coverage of the Thistles hockey club as it moved from an amateur team represented by players with roots in their home community to a professional aggregation that included paid imports from outside the town. The essay explores the relationship between sport and civic identity during a key time of change in top-level hockey. The dominant narrative surrounding the Thistles portrayed players as true ‘members’ of the town of Kenora. Even after the turn to professionalism, narratives of small-town, amateur purity and close connections to the community characterized coverage of the Thistles as they pursued the Stanley Cup. At the same time, however, a growing emphasis on securing the personnel that could ensure victory led to praise for the club’s efforts to please its supporters, or ‘customers’. As a result, this study of notions of civic representation in early hockey provides insight into the process by which sports teams came to be viewed as symbolic representatives of their communities.