Assessing Hitting Skill in Baseball using Simulated and Representative Tasks

Previous research has demonstrated that the ability to accurately anticipate the outcome of dynamic and representative situations under standardized conditions is an effective predictor of skill-level in many complex domains, including sport (for a review, see Suss & Ward, 2015). Moreover, skill at anticipating the outcome as early as possible, in addition to making the correct anticipatory decision, and skill at recognizing the play are equally important (e.g., Fadde, 2006; Jones & Miles, 1978; Savelsbergh, Williams, Van Der Kamp, & Ward, 2002). The current research aims to leverage this body of research in developing and evaluating a commercially available software tool designed for the assessment of such sports skills developed by Axon Sports. In this research we use the Axon Sports Baseball Hitting Assessment tool to measure anticipation and recognition skill in an NCAA baseball team. The results provide support that recognition and anticipation accuracy are useful indicators of skill in sport and extend the application of this body of work into a real-world settin

Building Student\u27s Interest In Writing By Describe And Identify Game

Absract: The classroom action research of building students\u27 interest aims to reveal the problem of students writing and their involvement in learning activities. Triangulation approach was administered as the technique of data analysis. The use of student and teacher observation sheet, field note, focus group interviews and questionnaire are instruments of data collection. By conducting three cycles of action research, the researcher found out that the improvement from cycle to cycle did not only occur to the teaching practice but also to the students\u27 involvement and the increasing students\u27 interest. Describe and Identify game facilitated students to be interest in learning writing. The activities of the game did not only encourage the students to write the descriptive text but also changed the students\u27 perception of learning writing

Teaching Descriptive Text Writing By Using Attribute Listing To Smk

The aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of teaching descriptive text writing by using attribute listing technique to the tenth grade students of Marketing program of SMK Negeri 3 Pontianak in academic year 2014/2015. This research was done by conducting a pre experimental study which consists of pretest, posttest and three times of treatments. The sample of this research is class X Marketing 2 and the total of the students is 34. The data had been collected by measurements techniques. The tool of data collecting was writing test. The finding of the research showed that the mean score of students' pretest was 51.12 while the posttest was 76.18. The students' achievement was increased by the different score between pretest and posttest was 25.03. The was higher than the (16.69>2.042 at α 5%). The result of the effect size (ES) was 2.86. It means that teaching descriptive text writing by using attribute listing technique to the tenth grade students of Marketing Program of SMK Negeri 3 Pontianak is categorized as highly effective with the Effect Size (ES) > 0.8 (2.86 > 0.8)

Using 3-2-1 Strategy in Reading Comprehension to Improve Students' Involvement in Active Learning

The classroom action research of using 3-2-1 strategy aims to reveal the problem of students reading comprehension and their involvement in learning activities. Triangulation approach was administered as the technique of data analysis. The used of field note, student and teacher observation sheet, focus group interviews and student achievement test are instruments of data collection.Having conductedthree cycles of action research, the researcher found out that the improvement from cycle to cycle did not only occur to teaching practice but also to the students' involvement and the students' ability. 3-2-1 strategy facilitated students to be active learners to do inquiry and constructor of understanding the reading through teacher directed task and activities.Students did not only find information and engage their own interest and knowledge from the readingbut alsothey constructed their understandingby linking their current knowledge with their background knowledge

Complexity Dynamics of Gumowski-Mira Map

In the context of nonlinear dynamics, interesting dynamic behavior of Gumowski-Mira Map has been noted under various feasible circumstances. Evolutionary phenomena are discussed through the study of bifurcation analysis leading to period-doubling and chaos. The appearance of chaos in the method is identified by plotting Lyapunov characteristic exponents (LCE) and Topological Entropy within certain parameter range. Dynamic Lyapunov Indicator (DLI) has been procured for further identification of regular and chaotic motions of the Gumowski-Mira Map. The numerical results through the indicator DLI clearly demonstrate the behavior of our map. The correlation dimension has been calculated numerically for the dimension of the chaotic attractor

The Application of Taguchi Technique in Mild Steel Weld Prediction and Optimization

Welding is a key joining operation in many production and manufacturing industries, and it requires a scientific approach in obtaining a weld of high quality. This study focuses on the prediction and optimization of the weld parameters of a mild steel plate using Taguchi technique. For experimental examination, a mild steel plate of 10mm thickness, along with input process parameters such as weld current, arc voltage, gas flow rate, and output process parameter such as hardness were studied.  With the statistical tool, ANOVA, further analysis performed to determine the significance of the data obtained shows that for all the responses, a Model F-value of between 64 and 129.85 was obtained, along with a P-value less than 0.05, implying that the model is significant. Furthermore, based on statistical evidence using P-values, all the model terms; welding current, arc voltage and gas flow rate recorded significant contribution to the outcome of the welding experiment, with the weld current having the most significant effect. The optimal result for the responses was obtained 192BHN for the hardness, at a combined process parameters as follows; 200amps, 20v and 20lt/min for the weld current, arc voltage and gas flow rate respectively

Broad-band spectrophotometry of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-12b from the near-UV to the near-IR

The detection of trends or gradients in the transmission spectrum of extrasolar planets is possible with observations at very low spectral resolution. Transit measurements of sufficient accuracy using selected broad-band filters allow for an initial characterization of the atmosphere of the planet. We obtained time series photometry of 20 transit events and analyzed them homogeneously, along with eight light curves obtained from the literature. In total, the light curves span a range from 0.35 to 1.25 microns. During two observing seasons over four months each, we monitored the host star to constrain the potential influence of starspots on the derived transit parameters. We rule out the presence of a Rayleigh slope extending over the entire optical wavelength range, a flat spectrum is favored for HAT-P-12b with respect to a cloud-free atmosphere model spectrum. A potential cause of such gray absorption is the presence of a cloud layer at the probed latitudes. Furthermore, in this work we refine the transit parameters, the ephemeris and perform a TTV analysis in which we found no indication for an unseen companion. The host star showed a mild non-periodic variability of up to 1%. However, no stellar rotation period could be detected to high confidence.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in A&

Extrasolar Planet Transits Observed at Kitt Peak National Observatory

We obtained J-, H- and JH-band photometry of known extrasolar planet transiting systems at the 2.1-m Kitt Peak National Observatory Telescope using the FLAMINGOS infrared camera between October 2008 and October 2011. From the derived lightcurves we have extracted the mid-transit times, transit depths and transit durations for these events. The precise mid-transit times obtained help improve the orbital periods and also constrain transit-time variations of the systems. For most cases the published system parameters successfully accounted for our observed lightcurves, but in some instances we derive improved planetary radii and orbital periods. We complemented our 2.1-m infrared observations using CCD z'-band and B-band photometry (plus two Hydrogen Alpha filter observations) obtained with the Kitt Peak Visitor's Center telescope, and with four H-band transits observed in October 2007 with the NSO's 1.6-m McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. The principal highlights of our results are: 1) our ensemble of J-band planetary radii agree with optical radii, with the best-fit relation being: (Rp/R*)J = 0.0017 + 0.979 (Rp/R*)optical, 2) We observe star spot crossings during the transit of WASP-11/HAT-P-10, 3) we detect star spot crossings by HAT-P-11b (Kepler-3b), thus confirming that the magnetic evolution of the stellar active regions can be monitored even after the Kepler mission has ended, and 4) we confirm a grazing transit for HAT-P-27/WASP-40. In total we present 57 individual transits of 32 known exoplanet systems.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures, accepted in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacifi

A Uniform Algorithm for All-Speed Shock-Capturing Schemes

There are many ideas for developing shock-capturing schemes and their extension for all-speed flow. The representatives of them are Roe, HLL and AUSM families. In this paper, a uniform algorithm is proposed, which expresses three families in the same framework. The algorithm has explicit physical meaning, provides a new angel of understanding and comparing the mechanism of schemes, and may play a great role in the further research. As an example of applying the uniform algorithm, the low-Mach number behaviour of the schemes is analyzed. Then, a very clear and simple explanation is given based on the wall boundary, and a concise rule is proposed to judge whether a scheme has satisfied low-Mach number behaviour