Response Time Comparisons among Four Base Running Starting Techniques in Slow Pitch Softball

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare response times among four starting techniques—cross-over step, jab-step, standing sprinter's start, and the momentum start—to determine the fastest start for optimum speed in base running in slow pitch softball. The subjects were 30 adult male amateur softball players. Response time was recorded to the nearest 1/100 second using a Dekan Automatic Performance Analyzer arranged with two starting lights and a stop gate. A one way repeated measures ANOVA indicated that the momentum start was significantly (p < .01) faster than the other starts compared while there were no significant differences among the other starts. Reliability coefficients ranging from .90 to .95, obtained using the intraclass correlation coefficient for multiple trial data, signified no trends among trials and high reliability of the testing procedures and equipment. The results suggested that the momentum start was the fastest starting technique for optimum speed for running bases in slow pitch softball.     

Musculoskeletal anatomy knowledge in Australian chiropractors

Anatomy is a key knowledge area in chiropractic and is formally offered in the undergraduate component of chiropractic education. There is the potential for loss of anatomy knowledge before the opportunity to apply it in a clinical setting. This study aimed to determine whether chiropractic clinicians retain a level of anatomy knowledge comparable to that of chiropractic students and to compare chiropractors' self-rating of their anatomical knowledge against an objective knowledge assessment tool. A previously validated multiple-choice test was utilized to measure retention of limb musculoskeletal (MSK) knowledge in Australian chiropractors. One hundred and one registered chiropractors completed the questionnaire and responses were scored, analyzed, and compared to scores attained by undergraduate and postgraduate chiropractic students who had previously completed the same questionnaire. The results indicated that practitioners retained their anatomy knowledge, with a significantly higher total mean score than the undergraduate group [total mean score = 36.5% (±SD 13.6%); P < 0.01] but not significantly different to the postgraduate group [total mean score = 52.2% (±SD 14.1%); P = 0.74]. There was a weak positive correlation between chiropractors' self-rated knowledge and test performance scores indicating the effectiveness of this Australian chiropractic group in self-assessing their anatomy knowledge. This study found that Australian chiropractors' knowledge of MSK anatomy was retained during the transition from university to clinical practice and they accurately evaluated their own test performance.     

Welcoming mobile children at school: institutional responses and new questions

Switzerland, like other countries in Europe, has long depended on migration and mobility for its economy. Facilitating the integration of migrant children in school, primarily through the acquisition of the local language, has therefore been a priority for policymakers. In recent years, mobility has been on the increase and mobility trajectories have become more diverse. A growing percentage of families arriving in the country have experienced repeated mobility and may not plan to settle in Switzerland for good. This paper examines institutional responses to the increasing number of mobile children in Swiss public schools, in particular, the manner in which such children are welcomed. It presents the main findings of an exploratory research project focused on children in repeated mobility, defined as having lived in multiple countries before their arrival in Switzerland, regardless of family background or legal status. Adopting a sociocultural psychological approach, the paper examines the macro-social level of cantonal educational policies regarding welcome processes, the meso-social level of local school policies, and the microsocial level of teachers’ practices and interactions in classrooms that welcome mobile children. Data include documentary analysis, interviews, and observations. Our analysis shows that a deficit view of mobile children and the preoccupation with language proficiency dominate policies and practices, resulting in the diversion of mobile children into special integration classes (so called “classes d’accueil” in the French speaking region, and “Integrationsklasse” in the Swiss German-speaking region). Mobility is conceptualized by Swiss policymakers, school directors, and teachers in terms of its challenges. In particular, school directors and teachers conceptualize mobility as increasing heterogeneity of the classroom. However, the situation varies greatly according to the personal orientations of school directors and teachers’ personal engagement. The paper emphasizes the ambiguous role of the integration classes: while they may impair the long-term chances of educational success by reducing academic expectations for non-native-speaking mobile children, they may also be used as “third spaces” which afford pedagogical freedom for dedicated teachers, potentially of benefit for children. The paper examines these propositions in the light of sociocultural educational literature and draws upon the case of welcoming mobile children to question a series of assumptions about the ultimate purposes of public schooling in Europe today.

     

Time for Law: Legal Literacy and Gerontological Education

ABSTRACT

In the past, the law has not been considered as an important part of gerontological science. Historically, different sciences such as medicine, biology, psychology, and sociology have played far more important roles in the creation and crystallization of gerontological knowledge. This state of affairs is reflected in academic education and field research, which ascribes little weight to legal aspects of aging. This article maintains that the time is ripe for gerontological education to recognize the importance of exposing students of gerontology in academic institutions to the study and research of law and ageing. Though this claim could be defended on the simple ground that the law is no different, in principle, from a wide range of other scientific disciplines—each of which makes a particular contribution to gerontology—in this article we shall go one step further. This article attempts to demonstrate special elements which make it particularly important to add the study of legal matters to the curriculum of gerontological education. They are the result of 5 aspects of the encounter between the law and old age: (a) the law as a tool for sociological research; (b) the law as a tool for social change; (c) the law as a tool for planning and undertaking care of the old; (d) the weaknesses of the legal discipline in the field of law and aging; and (e) the potential value of legal education for the practice of gerontology, and collaboration between gerontologists and lawyers.     

The Network University? Technology,Culture and Organisational Complexity in Contemporary Higher Education

This paper discusses the concept of the network organisation in relation to the technologised university. Drawing upon the early findings of a study that examines the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on both organisational and teaching and learning issues in five Australian universities, the authors discuss the way in which discourses of network technology have become articulated to a range of at times paradoxical agendas within higher education. The introduction of new technologies into organisations tends to be portrayed in either transformative or oppressive terms. The complexity of the university experience foregrounds the important role played by pre‐existing organisational practices and narratives in determining the uses and meanings of ICTs in the organisational setting. These observations place into question the notion that the network organisation is a single coherent entity driven by a particular technological logic. Instead, it suggests that network technologies are socially embedded and therefore highly variable in their expression.     

Single landmark feedback-based time optimal navigation for a differential drive robot

In this paper, we propose a feedback-based control approach to execute the time optimal motion trajectories for a differential drive robot. These trajectories are composed of straight lines and rotations in place. We show that the evolution of the position of a single landmark over time, in a local reference frame, makes it possible to track a prescribed time-optimal robot’s trajectory, based on feedback of the landmark’s position. We also show that the closed-loop system is an exponentially stable one with a nonvanishing perturbation, and that globally uniformly ultimately boundedness of the tracking errors can be achieved. The two main results of this work are: 1) Our approach leverages visual servo control type of methods with tools from optimal control for executing time-optimal trajectories in the state space based on feedback information. 2) The approach is able to work with the minimum number of landmarks–only one–this represents a necessary and sufficientcondition for landmark-based navigation. Experiments in a physical robot, a nonholonomic differential drive system equipped with an omnidirectional laser sensor, are shown, which validate the proposed theoretical modelling.