Comparing the pre- and post-impact ball and racquet kinematics of elite tennis players' first and second serves: a preliminary study

The aim of this study was to compare the pre- and post-impact three-dimensional kinematics of the ball and racquet during first and second serves performed by elite tennis players. Data were collected from four male and four female right-handed professional players during competition using two high-speed cameras (200 Hz). For each player, one first serve and one second serve from the 'deuce' or right service court that landed within the specified target area were analysed. To test for significant differences between the first and second serves, Wilcoxon tests (P < or = 0.05) were performed on selected parameters. The results indicate that the ball travelled forward and to the left during the flight phase of the toss in all but one trial. The average pre-impact ball forward location for the first serve was significantly more in front and had a higher associated forward ball velocity than the corresponding values for the second serve. On average, the decrease in post-impact ball speed from the first to the second serve was 24.1%. No significant differences between the first and second serves were found in the pre-impact racquet head speed and orientation, which was represented as a unit vector perpendicular to the racquet face. The major adjustments made by the players when going from the first to second serve were a decrease in pre-impact ball forward location (P < or = 0.01) and an increase in the pre-impact racquet vertical and lateral velocities (both P < or = 0.05). This implies that the players tossed the ball closer to the body and imparted topspin and sidespin on the ball by changing the racquet vertical and lateral velocities when going from the first to the second serve.     

Caregiving as refusal in the academy*

Abstract

Literature on American Indian student support in postsecondary education illustrates the importance of relationality in creating a positive college experience for Native students. That said, much of the literature examining ‘care relationships’ in Indian education focuses on student outcomes, with less attention given to the experiences of practitioners. Thus, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the author examines where and how American Indian higher education practitioners learned principles of communal care for supporting Indigenous students in non-Native postsecondary institutions. Second, she explores how these principles act as homesteads of mutuality to love, transform, resist, and enact refusal within the academy. She draws upon the literature on American Indian student support in postsecondary education, which illustrates the importance of relationality in creating a positive college experience for Native students.     

Supporting new school leaders: findings from a university‐based leadership coaching program for new administrators

Administrators need intense support in their early years in their jobs to master the demands of the position and to emerge as effective leaders for their schools. This article reports on a leadership coaching program offered by a university to support graduates as they transition to new school leadership roles. First year research results of the Program for New Principals indicate that all of the program participants felt that the coaching program was a positive addition to the induction experience for new administrators. New principals viewed coaching positively and emphasized that it is both a valuable and unique form of professional development. Both coaches and new principals cited personalized support as one of the coaching model's most significant assets. The results should inform the development of a model of leadership coaching for new administrators.     

The development of children's ideas about others' difficulties in learning

In this paper, Professor Ann Lewis, of the School of Education, University of Birmingham, reviews the literature and current research on pupils' perceptions of others' difficulties in learning. She focuses, in particular, on three strands: children's perceptions about other people and their traits; children as 'naïve' biologists, attempting to explain growth and development in others; and children's responses to and use of cues based on achievement and ideas about ability. In a wide-ranging discussion, this article explores work on theory of mind and notes the different ways in which children explain learning difficulties in others at various ages. In her conclusion, Professor Lewis makes three key points: there is a need to supplement experimental work in this area with good quality, classroom-based studies; more effort should be devoted to finding ways of accessing children's views and perceptions in authentic and reliable ways; and staff working in inclusive classrooms are ideally placed to contribute to the development of research in this area.     

Exploring Trajectories of Young Mothers’ Parenting Stress in Early Childhood: Associations with Protective Factors and Psychological Vulnerabilities

SYNOPSIS

Objective . Most parents manage some degree of parenting stress without serious concerns, but young mothers experience parenting stress at higher levels than adult mothers; high parenting stress is problematic due to its association with children’s socioemotional and behavior problems and the increased likelihood of maltreatment. Understanding the circumstances that precipitate or mitigate parents’ stress can have lasting impacts for child well-being. Extant research fails to account for both longitudinal and individual variation in young mothers’ parenting stress, leading to equivocal findings about the nature of mothers’ parenting stress trajectories across early childhood. Design . The present study used growth mixture modeling (GMM) to model the trajectories of 544 first-time young mothers’ parenting stress from children’s infancy to school-age. We considered how protective factors (i.e., social support) and psychological vulnerabilities (i.e., depression) experienced during the transition to parenthood were associated with parenting stress trajectories and variation within trajectories when children were of school-age. Results . GMM identified three trajectories of parenting stress: “low stable”, “high increasing”, and “high decreasing.” Protective factors were related to low and decreasing patterns of parenting stress, whereas psychological vulnerabilities were associated with higher parenting stress patterns. Conclusions . This study has implications for programs and services that help young mothers cope with the demands of parenting and reduce parenting stress.     

X marks the spot: Creating and managing a single service point to improve customer service and maximize resources

ABSTRACT

This article will describe how merging service points in an academic library is an opportunity to improve customer service and utilize staffing resources more efficiently. Combining service points provides libraries with the ability to create a more positive library experience for patrons by minimizing the ping-pong effect for assistance. The Access Services Department at the University of North Texas Libraries was charged with management of the circulation and reference services offered at the service desk. Streamlined planning and modernized management of the desk and its impact on customer service in a changing library environment will be discussed.     

Fast-Paced,Romantic, Set in Savannah: A Comparison of Results from Readers' Advisory Databases in the Public Library

Readers' advisory databases are used by public librarians to assist patrons in finding books based on the facts of the plot, the factors used to describe the appeal of the book, or read titles similar to another book they have read. Librarians depend on these databases to give a complete view of the titles available given these limiters, and may assume that identical searches in each database would give similar results. This study compares search results from four databases to see the extent of crossover within those results, using fact-based searches, appeal factor searches, and read-alike searches.     

Implications of legal and organizational issues for urban digital government development

This paper discusses implications of the convergence of legal and organizational issues in the context of developing and implementing digital government projects in large urban settings. By the convergence of legal and organizational issues we refer to two important aspects of urban government: (1) the close relationship between legal/policy structures and the way government is organized and functions, and (2) the way the legal/policy elements interact with organizational dynamics and work cultures to influence digital government projects (and government activities generally). It is our contention that convergence in the organizational and legal/policy context is a powerful determinant of how these projects develop and how likely they are to succeed. Therefore the understanding of this convergence and related dynamics is critically important to planning and designing both policy to promote digital government and particular digital government projects themselves. Illustrations of this convergence and its consequences are presented. They are based on research involving two digital government projects in urban settings: development of a management information system for homeless shelter administration and a developing a system for sharing information among New York City agencies.     

The teacher's role when pupils work on task using ICT in project work

The present study examined possible changes in the computer experience and attitudes of 11-12-year-old and 15-16-year-old students following a period in which ICT has become much more widely used in the school curriculum. In comparison with findings from a similar study undertaken in the early 1990s, there was some evidence of a reduced gender gap, particularly in the use of computers for applications such as word-processing, graphics, programming and maths. In addition, more recently introduced applications such as e-mail, accessing the internet and using CD-ROMs showed no overall gender difference in frequency of use. However, some gender differences remained, particularly in attitudes. Boys still liked computers more, were more self-confident in their use and, unlike previously, sex-typed them less than girls. They also used computers more frequently out of school, particularly for playing games. There was some evidence that, as found previously, older girls held the least positive attitudes, and it is suggested that their approach to computers may be influenced by the cultural pressures of gender stereotyping. More general age differences in use and attitudes were also found, and these may result from the different computing applications used by Year 7 and Year 11 pupils at school. In summary, although we found evidence of some change since the early 1990s, increased exposure to computes has not closed the gender gap.