Unstable footwear as a speed-dependent noise-based training gear to exercise inverted pendulum motion during walking

ABSTRACT

Previous research on unstable footwear has suggested that it may induce mechanical noise during walking. The purpose of this study was to explore whether unstable footwear could be considered as a noise-based training gear to exercise body center of mass (CoM) motion during walking. Ground reaction forces were collected among 24 healthy young women walking at speeds between 3 and 6 km h^?1 with control running shoes and unstable rocker-bottom shoes. The external mechanical work, the recovery of mechanical energy of the CoM during and within the step cycles, and the phase shift between potential and kinetic energy curves of the CoM were computed. Our findings support the idea that unstable rocker-bottom footwear could serve as a speed-dependent noise-based training gear to exercise CoM motion during walking. At slow speed, it acts as a stochastic resonance or facilitator that reduces external mechanical work; whereas at brisk speed it acts as a constraint that increases external mechanical work and could mimic a downhill slope.     

From Marin County's Seventies Clunker to the Durango World Championship 1990: A History of Mountain Biking in the USA

Between the 1970s, during which several enthusiastic cyclists rode off-road, and the 1990s, during which the first Union Cycliste Internationale World Championship took place in Durango (Colorado), different steps contributed to the success of mountain bike in the US. Inventions took place throughout the period from Gary Fisher's mechanical improvements in 1975 to Joe Breeze's first specialized frames made in 1977. In the same fashion, the ‘Stumpjumper’ was sold on a large scale in 1982, making it the first industrially-produced mountain bike, which led to a new stage in terms of commercialization. The mountain bike opened a new market in the cycling industry and certainly became more financially accessible to a large number of people. This sport, which began in the US, became a worldwide outdoor sport in the last decade of the twentieth century when the Olympics welcomed it with open arms at the Atlanta Olympic Games.     

Dynamic Management of Digital Rights for Long-term Preservation:the Expert System Approach

This presentation focuses on the complex issue of managing digital rights for long-term preservation. It describes the strategy and the methodology adopted within the SPAR project (French National Library), which rely on a special kind of knowledge-based system.     

Research on mathematics teachers as partners in task design

Mathematical tasks and tools, including tasks in the form of digital tools, are key resources in mathematics teaching and in mathematics teacher education. Even so, the ‘design’ of mathematical tasks is perceived in different ways: sometimes seen as something distinct from the teaching and learning process, and sometimes as integral to it. Whilst task design has often been carried out by designers or mathematicians (perhaps as textbook authors), the focus for this review article is research that has involved mathematics teachers as partners in the design of tasks. The article provides a state-of-the-art review of relevant literature and is presented under three headings that consider, in turn, the role of mathematical ‘tasks’; the nature of ‘task design’; and the notion of ‘partnerships for task design’ in mathematics education. Subsequently, we present current research that is providing new insights into tasks, task design, and task design partnership. Based on this, we argue that ‘task design’ needs to pay particular attention to what to design, which tools are necessary or beneficial, and under what conditions; digital tools and task resources offer particular affordances that traditional resources cannot provide; and not only do teachers benefit from being partners in task design (in terms of their professional learning) but without their involvement some aspects of task design would most likely be neglected.     

COVID-19 causes unprecedented educational disruption: Is there a road towards a new normal?

PROSPECTS - COVID-19 confronts the education system with a new and massive crisis. What should a “new normal” look like for future generations? How can countries use the innovativeness...     

Gestaltungsmerkmale und Effekte ganztägiger Angebote im Grundschulbereich

Zusammenfassung Ganzt?gige schulische Angebote spielen in der aktuellen Debatte um eine Bildungsreform eine zentrale Rolle. Erwartungen an ihre erzieherischen und leistungsbezogenen Wirkungen werden hier zun?chst theoretisch auf dem Hintergrund der Schuleffektivit?tsforschung diskutiert. Empirisch werden — erstmals repr?sentativ für Deutschland — p?dagogische Angebote und Schülerleistungen an Grundschulen mit und ohne Ganztagsangebot verglichen. Basis ist eine Sekund?ranalyse von Daten der internationalen Grundschul-Leseuntersuchung IGLU in Verbindung mit einer nachtr?glichen Schulleiterbefragung. Schulen mit ganzt?gigen Angeboten verfügten demnach über ein breites Spektrum von p?dagogischen Ma?nahmen, wobei in Ganztagsschulen mit systematischem Konzept die kognitive F?rderung relativ stark gewichtet war. Effekte auf das Niveau des Leseverst?ndnisses oder dessen Zusammenhang mit der sozialen Herkunft fanden sich nicht.      

魏晋南北朝时期的<诗经>审视

魏晋南北朝时期是《诗经》研究史上一个成果繁夥的时期，不仅在经学方面有所进展，更为重要的是在文学方面的审视已进入了一个自觉阶段，特别注重其文学上的抒情特点．而不再过分地强调秦汉时的“诗言志”，从而揭开《诗经》研究的新的一页。本文是从经学家、文学批评家以及其他三个方面人群的审视角度进行论述的。     

Exploring French adolescents’ and adults’ comprehension of the greenhouse effect

The aim of the present study was to gain an insight into French young people’s conceptual development regarding the greenhouse effect. Because this effect cannot be directly manipulated, we can assume that its conceptualization is mainly shaped through the sharing of information. Eighty French students from Grade Seven through to adulthood responded to statements in a questionnaire on the greenhouse effect’s causes, consequences and solutions. Unlike in previous studies, participants were asked to justify their choices, as some of the statements were quite complex. Results showed that performances improved with grade, mainly between Grade Nine and adulthood, although participants continued to have a weaker grasp of the causes of the greenhouse effect than of its consequences and solutions. Participants’ justifications also showed that they misunderstood some of the statements.     

Mental Models of Text and Film: a multidimensional scaling analysis

Abstract Following a brief review of research using multidimensional scaling as a measure of literary perception, it is proposed that the technique provides one possible route to an illumination of Bransford & Johnson's (1973) idea that when people understand a text they create a model within which events described in the text might reasonably occur. Two hypotheses are proposed and tested. First, that models are constructed, in memory, of the inter‐relationships and cross‐relationships of character attributions made in accordance with those themes understood in reading a piece of work of novel length. Secondly, that similar models are constructed from viewing a feature length film. Orwell's (1945) Animal Farm, the book and the film (Halas & Bachelor, 1955), were selected as content because of their known distinctive structures. Results support both hypotheses. They also support the earlier work of Bisanz (Bisanz, La Porte, Vesonder & Voss, 1978) concerning the validity of multidimensional scaling for representing mental organisations of the thematic structure of short stories, extending their results to the reading and viewing, respectively, of a novel length book and film. Two related issues concerning the possible effects of medium of communication on modelling and the educational implications of modelling are discussed.