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ACCRESCIMENTO CORPOREO E CAPACITÀ COORDINATIVE NEI BAMBINI DELLA SCUOLA PRIMARIA
Full text linkBODY GROWTH AND COORDINATION SKILLS IN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN.
A longitudinal investigation on body growth in primary school children was performed during a 2yr life span. Body sway and eye-hand coordination were also studied in cross-sectional investigations.
On October 2009, weights and standing heights of 261 (116 girls; 145 boys), 261 (116; 145), and 253 (108; 145) respectively 6, 7, and 8yr-old primary school-children were measured in Voghera (Pavia, Italy). Body Mass Indices (BMI) were calculated. The measurements were repeated 1 and 2 years later. For each age group, descriptive statistics of each parameter were computed within age, sex and session of measurements. Comparisons were performed by ANOVA (F1, factor 1, sex; F2, factor 2, age; F1×F2 interaction). Statistical significance was set at 5% for all comparisons. Frequencies and percentages of school-children relatively under (97th percentile) were computed, while comparing BMI to reference data for Italian children (1, 2).
On average, weight, height, and BMI were larger in boys than in girls. Differences between sexes were significant (F1, p<0.001) in 8yr-old group. Boys and girls significantly grew with age (F2, p<0.001 for all comparisons). In 6yr-old group, the effects of age on height increments were larger in boys than in girls (F1×F2 interaction, p=0.017). In the 6 and 8yr-old groups, overweight was more frequent in boys than in girls. In the 6yr-old group, underweight was more frequent in girls than in boys, and increased with age. In the 7 and 8yr-old groups, this distribution decreased with age in both boys and girls.
School-based anthropometric investigations represent a useful approach to address children and their families to correct life habits. Further investigations on this matter should be extended to adolescents, and prolonged as much as possible.
The postural sways of 337 boys and 355 girls in bipedal standing position were measured. All participants had normal or corrected to normal vision. On week-days, they performed a standardized 30sec postural test (PT) on a portable baropodometrical platform (Winpod, Medicapteurs, Toulouse, F). Length and area variations of the center of foot pressure (COP) position during time were measured. Latero-lateral (LLV) and antero-posterior (APV) velocities of COP were also assessed. PT was performed with open and closed eyes. Descriptive statistics of each postural parameter were computed within sex, age, and visual conditions (open, closed eyes). Comparisons were performed by ANOVA.
In both sexes, body sways were larger with closed than with open eyes, and decreased with age (p 0.05 for all comparisons).
The ability to maintain balance in standing position significantly improved with age. Postural control should be particularly pursued to favor the learning of several motor skills. The sex related differences should be studied more in detail, investigating also the effects of physical and sport activities. The detection of balance impairments could contribute to the diagnostic evaluation of neuromotor disorders in children, and could allow the intervention of a proper rehabilitation program. Further investigations into this matter could be performed in children younger than those participating in the present study.
The accuracy of underhand ball-throwing task was studied in 538 girls and 583 boys with normal or corrected-to-normal vision aged 6-10 yr. A standardized underhand ball-throwing test (UBT), consisting in 10 underhand tennis ball throws into the floor area delimited by a 40 cm radius wooden hoop lying on the floor 9 m apart the standing pupil, was performed and scored. Descriptive statistics of UBT scores were calculated within age and sex group. Correlation coefficients were calculated between UBT scores and anthropometric variables (body mass, standing height, BMI). The effects of age and sex on UBT scores were compared by ANOVA (factor 1, sex; factor 2, age; sex x age interaction). UBT scores significantly increased with age (p=0.003). Boys obtained larger UBT scores than girls of the same age (p=0.002). The age-related differences of UBT scores were similar in boys and girls (p>0.05). In both sexes, UBT scores were significantly related to body mass (p0.05)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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