Special educators' perceptions of parental participation in the individual education plan process

Special educators were queried about their perceptions of parent involvement in the individual education plan (IEP) process. Specific research questions focused on parents' participation level and their role in the IEP process. One hundred forty-five special education teachers, of all disability categories and from 6 states, were surveyed. Results showed a diversity of opinion over practices, processes, and attitudes regarding the IEP process, despite their purported familiarity since the inception of PL 94-142.     

Biomechanical pole and leg characteristics during uphill diagonal roller skiing

Diagonal skiing as a major classical technique has hardly been investigated over the last two decades, although technique and racing velocities have developed substantially. The aims of the present study were to 1) analyse pole and leg kinetics and kinematics during submaximal uphill diagonal roller skiing and 2) identify biomechanical factors related to performance. Twelve elite skiers performed a time to exhaustion (performance) test on a treadmill. Joint kinematics and pole/plantar forces were recorded separately during diagonal roller skiing (9°; 11 km/h). Performance was correlated to cycle length (r = 0.77; P < 0.05), relative leg swing (r = 0.71), and gliding time (r = 0.74), hip flexion range of motion (ROM) during swing (r = 0.73) and knee extension ROM during gliding (r = 0.71). Push-off demonstrated performance correlations for impulse of leg force (r = 0.84), relative duration (r = ? 0.76) and knee flexion (r = 0.73) and extension ROM (r = 0.74). Relative time to peak pole force was associated with performance (r = 0.73). In summary, diagonal roller skiing performance was linked to 1) longer cycle length, 2) greater impulse of force during a shorter push-off with larger flexion/extension ROMs in leg joints, 3) longer leg swing, and 4) later peak pole force, demonstrating the major key characteristics to be emphasised in training.     

The impact of IT on supply chain agility and firm performance: An empirical investigation

This study investigates the impact of information technology (IT) on supply chain agility measured by the ability to sense and respond to market changes, and the impact supply chain agility has on firm performance. Data were collected from supply chain executives at 193 U.S. manufacturing firms. The results suggest that IT improves the supply chain's ability to sense market changes by improving the adequacy, accuracy, accessibility, and timeliness of the information flows among members of the supply chain. IT also increases the supply chain's ability to respond to market changes by reducing the cost, and improving the quality and timeliness of developing and executing coordinated plans to respond to market changes throughout the supply chain. Importantly, the results indicate that enhanced supply chain agility has positive impacts on the firm's sales, market share, profitability, speed to market, and customer satisfaction.     

Circles on pommel horse with a suspended aid: Spatio-temporal characteristics

Abstract

We investigated the associations of anthropometry, training, and pre-race experience with race time in 93 recreational male ultra-marathoners (mean age 44.6 years, s = 10.0; body mass 74.0 kg, s = 9.0; height 1.77 m, s = 0.06; body mass index 23.4 kg · m^?2, s = 2.0) in a 100-km ultra-marathon using bivariate and multivariate analysis. In the bivariate analysis, body mass index (r = 0.24), the sum of eight skinfolds (r = 0.55), percent body fat (r = 0.57), weekly running hours (r = ?0.29), weekly running kilometres (r = ?0.49), running speed during training (r = ?0.50), and personal best time in a marathon (r = 0.72) were associated with race time. Results of the multiple regression analysis revealed an independent and negative association of weekly running kilometres and average speed in training with race time, as well as a significant positive association between the sum of eight skinfold thicknesses and race time. There was a significant positive association between 100-km race time and personal best time in a marathon. We conclude that both training and anthropometry were independently associated with race performance. These characteristics remained relevant even when controlling for personal best time in a marathon.     

Why is medical software so hard?

Medical software is regarded as both a success and a risk factor for quality and efficiency of medical care. First, reasons are given in what respects the medical industry is special: it is highly complex and variable, exposed to risks of privacy/confidentiality but also of denied access to authorized personnel, and medical users are a highly qualified and demanding population. Then some software technology and engineering approaches are presented that partially master these challenges. They include various divide and conquer strategies, process and change management approaches and quality assurance approaches. Benchmark institutions and comprehensive solutions are also presented. Finally, some challenges are presented that call for approaches other than technical to achieve user “buy in”, handle the outer limits of complexity, variability and change. Here, methods from psychology, economics and game theory complement domain knowledge and exploratory experimentation with new technologies.

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Zusammenfassung  Medizinische Software wird sowohl als Erfolgs- als auch als Risikofaktor für die Qualit?t und Effizienz medizinischer Versorgung gesehen. In diesem Artikel werden zun?chst Gründe aufgeführt, inwiefern der medizinische Sektor sich von anderen abhebt: Er ist hoch komplex und variantenreich und den Risiken stark ausgesetzt, die sich aus Vertraulichkeit und Schutzbedürftigkeit der Daten einerseits und andereseits aus deren Nicht-Verfügbarkeit für autorisiertes Personal ergeben. Auch sind medizinische Nutzer hoch und vielf?ltig qualifiziert und entsprechend anspruchsvoll. Es werden dann Verfahren aus Software-Technologie und -Engineering vorgestellt, welche diese Herausforderungen z.T. meistern. Darunter befinden sich „Teile-und-Herrsche“-artige Partitionierungsverfahren, Prozess- und ?nderungsmanagement- sowie Qualit?tssicherungsmethoden. Einige richtungweisend erfolgreiche Institutionen und L?sungen werden erl?utert. Schlie?lich wird auf Herausforderungen hingewiesen, bei denen andere als technische Zug?nge naheliegen, damit anspruchsvolle Nutzer „einsteigen“ und grenzwertig schwierige Anforderungen an Komplexit?t, Variabilit?t und ?nderungsintensit?t handhabbar werden. Dabei erg?nzen Methoden aus Psychologie, Wirtschaftswissenschaften und Spieltheorie ein vertieftes Wissen über den medizinischen Gegenstandsbereich und das Experimentieren mit neuen Technologien.

CR subject classification  D.2.1; D.2.2; D.2.7; D.2.8; D.2.9; D.2.11; D.2.12; D.4.6; H.1.2; H.2.7; H.4.1; H.5.3; J.3; K.1; K.4.1; K.4.3; K.5.2     

“Is This a Boy or a Girl?”: Rethinking Sex-Role Representation in Caldecott Medal-Winning Picturebooks, 1938–2011

A number of previous studies have addressed gender role-stereotyping in Caldecott Award-winning picturebooks. Building upon the extensive scholarship examining representations of females in Caldecott books, this current study offers a critical investigation of how gender is represented in Caldecott Medal-winning literature from 1938 to 2011 by exploring the ways in which “femininity” and “masculinity,” biological sex, and gender are constructed in these texts. The investigators briefly address author and illustrator gender and the representations of males and females as characters or images in pictures and text before departing from previous scholarship to offer a rereading of books that feature “ungendered” leading characters, those that are not identified in the text as being either “male” or “female” and are therefore open to the interpretation of individual readers. By resisting cultural cues and normative constructions of gender and biological sex, these ungendered depictions extend the range of possible ways in which readers may see themselves or those in their lives represented in Caldecott Medal-winning picturebooks.     

学校效能的增值评价——对河北省保定市普通高中学校的实证研究

学校评价在教育评价体系中处于核心地位,它直接影响着对教师评价和学生评价的原则以及学校的发展方向。运用增值评价学校效能是当前学校评价研究的重要内容。对河北省保定市普通高中学校效能进行实证研究结果表明60%~80%的高考成绩校际差距都不是学校本身所导致的,在提高学生进步幅度方面,不同学校间存在明显差异。增值评价结果与高考分数评价结果存在较大差异;学校效能在不同学科间没有显著差异;学校对不同学生群体的效能无差异。学校效能的增值评价对于创新学校评价体系具有重要的参考价值。     

Childhood emotional invalidation and adult psychological distress: the mediating role of emotional inhibition

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a model in which chronic emotional inhibition mediates the relationship between a history of childhood emotional invalidation or abuse and adult psychological distress. METHOD: One hundred and twenty-seven participants completed a series of self-report questionnaires, and a subset of this group (n=88) completed an additional measure of current avoidant coping in response to a laboratory stressor. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate and compare a full and partial mediational model. RESULTS: Findings strongly supported a model in which a history of childhood emotional invalidation (i.e., psychological abuse and parental punishment, minimization, and distress in response to negative emotion) was associated with chronic emotional inhibition in adulthood (i.e., ambivalence over emotional expression, thought suppression, and avoidant stress responses). In turn, emotional inhibition significantly predicted psychological distress, including depression and anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSION: This study found support for a model in which the relation between recollected negative emotion socialization in childhood and adult psychological distress was fully mediated by a style of inhibiting emotional experience and expression. Although it is likely that childhood emotional inhibition is functional (e.g., reduces parental distress and rejection), results suggest that chronic emotional inhibition may have long-term negative consequences for the inhibitor.     

Equating Minimum-Competency Tests: Comparisons of Methods

The 1986 scores from Florida's Statewide Student Assessment Test, Part II (SSAT-II), a minimum-competency test required for high school graduation in Florida, were placed on the scale of the 1984 scores from that test using five different equating procedures. For the highest scoring 84 % of the students, four of the five methods yielded results within 1.5 raw-score points of each other. They would be essentially equally satisfactory in this situation, in which the tests were made parallel item by item in difficulty and content and the groups of examinees were population cohorts separated by only 2 years. Also, the results from six different lengths of anchor items were compared. Anchors of 25, 20, 15, or 10 randomly selected items provided equatings as effective as 30 items using the concurrent IRT equating method, but an anchor of 5 randomly selected items did not