This investigation examined the development of young children's behaviors on swings in the outdoor play environment and their emerging understanding of the physics principles associated with those behaviors. The children's language interactions were also examined in an effort to determine the relationship between language and cognitive development in their construction of physical knowledge. The procedures involved observing the children's behaviors and collecting samples of their spontaneous language interactions during their swinging activities. Informal interviews were also conducted with individual and groups of children. The findings indicate that young children's swinging behaviors develop in eight hierarchical stages. As these behaviors develop, children experiment with the physics principles of balance, gravity, force, resistance, and resonance. Children's swinging behaviors develop in a social context. Many early behaviors are acquired through observing and modeling other children. Language provides the medium for more-experienced peers to assist novice swingers through encouragement and direct instruction. The stage development of swinging behaviors is compared to Cratty's Theory of Perceptual-Motor Development and Harrow's Taxonomy of the Psychomotor Domain. Children's cognitive processing and language interactions are discussed in the context of Piagetian and Vygotskian theories of development. Implications for instruction and suggestions for further research are discussed.

The purpose of the study was to examine selected mechanical factors involved in hitting a baseball to the same and opposite fields. Special emphasis was placed on an identification of those factors which distinguish players of different hitting abilities. Twenty male college level baseball players, ten in each of two groups, hit six pitched baseballs, three each to two assigned areas of the playing field. The movement patterns for the opposite field and same field batting swings appeared to be similar in form with differences between the two swings due to (a) differences in the angular displacements at the left wrist and left elbow joints and (b) differences in the temporal characteristics.

Due to faults and switching, transmission lines encounter power oscillations referred as power swings. Although in most cases they do not lead to an eventual instability, severe changes in power flows on the lines may cause the operation of impedance relays incorrectly, leading to cascaded tripping of other lines. Out-of-Step tripping function is employed in modern distance relays to distinguish such an unstable swing but setting the parameters and deciding lines to be tripped require detailed dynamic power system modelling and analysis. The proposed method aims to determine possible out-of-step (OOS) locations on a power system without performing detailed dynamic simulations. Method presented here, is based on grouping of the buses by statistical clustering analysis of the network impedance matrix. Inter-cluster lines are shown to be more vulnerable to give rise to OOS as proven with dynamic simulations on IEEE 39 bus test system.

Background/Aims: Temperament and mood swings are promising indicators for the characterization of mood spectrum vulnerability. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between affective temperament and mood swings in bipolar disorder. We explored these clinical features retrospectively. Methods: Patients who met the criteria for bipolar I disorder were enrolled in the study. Exclusion criteria were partial remittance and a full affective or psychotic episode. Data concerning illness and family history, mood swings (semistructured interview for mood swings) and depression (Beck, Depression Inventory) were obtained. We examined premorbid temperament with the validated German version Temps-M of the original version Temps-A. Patients with and without mood swings were compared with respect to the dominant temperament. Results: Out of 20 bipolar patients, 6 subjects reported mood swings prior to the onset of affective disorder. Subjects with mood swings prior to the onset of bipolar disorder significantly correlated with a positive family history of affective disorders. Concerning cyclothymic and irritable temperament, bipolar affective patients with mood swings had higher scores. No differences were found between males and females. Conclusion: Our findings go in line with previous results that mood swings, as represented by the cyclothymic temperament, are present prior to the first onset of bipolar disorder in a subset of patients. These traits may represent vulnerability markers and could presumably be used to identify individuals at high risk for developing bipolar disorder in order to prevent this illness. Further studies are indicated to clarify the correlation with genetic risk factors.

Majoriteten av barn i Sverige tillbringar en stor del av sin vardag i förskolans kontext med dess struktur och ramar. Vår studie belyser hur barn kommunicerar, samspelar och leker i den strukturerade utemiljön med fokus på förskolegårdens gungplats. Syftet var att göra en jämförelse mellan hur barn upplever gungplatsen och hur vuxna tolkar barns sociala interaktioner i den fria leken. Studien vilar lika mycket på våra observationer av vad barnen gör, som vad barnen själva förmedlar i fokusgruppsamtalen. Vi lyfter fram den tillrättalagda förskolans utemiljö och dess betydelse, dels ur ett barnperspektiv och dels ur ett barns perspektiv. Ett barnperspektiv förutsätter att pedagogen ser barns perspektiv, men det går aldrig att bortse från pedagogens tolkningar (Halldén, 2007). När vi jämförde resultaten av våra metoder upptäckte vi att barnen ansåg att vi leker inte, vi bara gungar. I våra observationer tolkade vi att barn inte bara gungar utan även leker på gungorna och gungplatsen. .

Background/Aims: Temperament and mood swings are promising indicators for the characterization of mood spectrum vulnerability. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between affective temperament and mood swings in bipolar disorder. We explored these clinical features retrospectively. Methods: Patients who met the criteria for bipolar I disorder were enrolled in the study. Exclusion criteria were partial remittance and a full affective or psychotic episode. Data concerning illness and family history, mood swings (semistructured interview for mood swings) and depression (Beck, Depression Inventory) were obtained. We examined premorbid temperament with the validated German version Temps-M of the original version Temps-A. Patients with and without mood swings were compared with respect to the dominant temperament. Results: Out of 20 bipolar patients, 6 subjects reported mood swings prior to the onset of affective disorder. Subjects with mood swings prior to the onset of bipolar disorder significantly correlated with a positive family history of affective disorders. Concerning cyclothymic and irritable temperament, bipolar affective patients with mood swings had higher scores. No differences were found between males and females. Conclusion: Our findings go in line with previous results that mood swings, as represented by the cyclothymic temperament, are present prior to the first onset of bipolar disorder in a subset of patients. These traits may represent vulnerability markers and could presumably be used to identify individuals at high risk for developing bipolar disorder in order to prevent this illness. Further studies are indicated to clarify the correlation with genetic risk factors.

No description available.