CIRLab: A groupware framework for collaborative information retrieval research

In this paper we describe the design of a groupware framework, CIRLab, for experimenting with collaborative information retrieval (CIR) techniques in different search scenarios. This framework has been designed applying design patterns and an object-oriented middleware platform to maximize its reusability and adaptability in new contexts with a minimum of programming efforts. Our collaborative search application comprises three main modules: the Core, which supports various modern state-of-the-art CIR techniques that can be reused or extended in a distributed collaborative environment; the Facades Mediator, an event-driven notification service which allows easy integration between the Core and front-end applications; and finally, the Actions Tracker, which allows researchers to perform experiments on the different elements involved in the collaborative search sessions. The applying of this framework is illustrated through the analysis of the collaborative search-driven development case study.     

Social summarization in collaborative web search

A critical challenge for Web search engines concerns how they present relevant results to searchers. The traditional approach is to produce a ranked list of results with title and summary (snippet) information, and these snippets are usually chosen based on the current query. Snippets play a vital sensemaking role, helping searchers to efficiently make sense of a collection of search results, as well as determine the likely relevance of individual results. Recently researchers have begun to explore how snippets might also be adapted based on searcher preferences as a way to better highlight relevant results to the searcher. In this paper we focus on the role of snippets in collaborative web search and describe a technique for summarizing search results that harnesses the collaborative search behaviour of communities of like-minded searchers to produce snippets that are more focused on the preferences of the searchers. We go on to show how this so-called social summarization technique can generate summaries that are significantly better adapted to searcher preferences and describe a novel personalized search interface that combines result recommendation with social summarization.     

Changes in peak leg power induced by successive judo bouts and their relationship to lactate production

Eleven male judoka, who compete at national level, were recruited with the aim of investigating changes in peak leg power as a result of successive judo bouts and their relationship with lactate production. The participants executed a force-velocity curve to determine peak power in a 908 squat exercise in concentric work. The group then participated in four 5-min judo bouts each separated by 15 min of passive rest. The power developed as a result of the load associated with the maximum peak power reached in the preliminary test was determined, for the same movement, before and after each bout. Finger capillary blood samples were taken after each bout to determine the maximum lactate concentration achieved and lactate clearance. The results showed no effect of successive bouts on peak leg power (P > 0.05) and no difference when comparing the power measured before and after each bout (P > 0.05). Maximum lactate concentration of the fourth bout was lower than that of the first (12.6 + 3.5 and 14.6+4 mmol · l(-1) respectively; P < 0.05), although there was no difference in their clearance dynamics (P > 0.05). On the basis of the results obtained, we conclude that successive judo bouts, with the structure proposed in this study, produce high acidosis levels, which have no effect on the peak power developed in the legs.     

Valuations of experimental designs in proteomic biomarker experiments and traditional randomised controlled trials

This article examines the shifting conditions for biomedical knowledge production by studying trends in the design of biomedical experiments. The basic premise of the study is that the very act of establishing a research design entails a process involving a series of valuations where different values are evoked, ordered, and displaced. In focus is the articulation and ordering of what counts as central values in research design for two kinds of biomedical treatment trials, namely the traditional randomised controlled trial (RCT) and the emerging new form of biomarker trials used to assess biomarker/treatment combinations (BTTs). The empirical material consists of textbooks (RCTs) and journal articles (BTTs). We ask how these materials articulate the various scientific, medical, and economic values at play. Among the differences uncovered are a difference in relation to what counts as ethical in relation to prior knowledge, differences in the flexibility in design as well as the valuation of the risk for false positives and false negatives. More broadly, the study shows how textual accounts of different ways of producing knowledge are linked to partly different valuations of ethics, flexibility, and risk as part of establishing the research design of biomedical experiments.     

Maternal Depressive Symptoms During the Pre- and Postnatal Periods and Infant Attention to Emotional Faces

We examined how infants’ attentional disengagement from happy, fearful, neutral, and phase-scrambled faces at 8 months, as assessed by eye tracking, is associated with trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms from early pregnancy to 6 months postpartum (decreasing n = 48, increasing n = 34, and consistently low symptom levels n = 280). The sample (mother–infant dyads belonging to a larger FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study) was collected between 5/2013–6/2016. The overall disengagement probability from faces to distractors was not related to maternal depressive symptoms, but fear bias was heightened in infants whose mothers reported decreasing or increasing depressive symptoms. Exacerbated attention to fearful faces in infants of mothers with depressive symptoms may be independent of the timing of the symptoms in the pre- and postnatal stages.     

Art Education for the Development of Complex Thinking Metacompetence: A Theoretical Approach

This article proposes to explore the relationships between art education and the development of complex thinking (proposed as metacompetence in this study) from a theoretical perspective. This is an approach that arises from contemporary conceptions about art, which is an intrinsic relationship between the artwork and the creative and critical character towards representation systems. Emphasising the definition of complex thinking proposed by Mathew Lipman serves as a guiding axis to try to establish the cognitive processes that compose it. Among the main findings is that the development of complex thinking and cognition occurs through action and interaction with the environment, thus linking to the notions of ‘situated competence’ and the ‘complex approach to competences’. By including cognitive and metacognitive processes, it allows us to postulate complex thinking as metacompetence. In addition, it is proposed that the use of learning methodologies (under a competence‐based approach) could contribute to an art education where students produce artistic works that involve critical, creative processes or divergent results. It is also necessary that both the curriculum and the teachers encourage an expanded and interdisciplinary vision, understanding that art is not circumscribed to a specific discipline.     

Fundamental Movement Skill Proficiency and Health Among a Cohort of Irish Primary School Children

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between fundamental movement skills (FMS) and markers of health among a cohort of Irish primary school children. Methods: Participants (N = 296, mean age: 7.99 ± 2.02 years) were senior infant (n = 149, mean age: 6.02 ± 0.39 years) and 4th class (n = 147, mean age: 9.97 ± 0.40 years) students from three primary schools in Cork, Ireland. FMS proficiency (TGMD-2) and markers of health (BMI percentile, waist circumference percentile, blood pressure percentiles, resting heart rate, cardiorespiratory fitness, objectively measured physical activity; PA) measurements were recorded. Correlation and hierarchical stepwise multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between FMS and markers of health. Results: A small, positive relationship was found between FMS (Gross Motor Quotient; GMQ) and cardiorespiratory fitness with small negative correlations between GMQ and 550 m time SDS among 6-year-olds (r(129) = ?.286, p < .05) and 10-year-olds (r(132) = ?.340, p < .05). A moderate, positive correlation was found between GMQ and light PA (r(71) = .400, p < .05). Small positive correlations were revealed between GMQ and moderate PA (r(71) = .259, p < .05) and between GMQ and total PA (r(71) = .355, p < .05). After adjusting for age, sex, the interaction effect of age and sex, and school attended, FMS explained 15.9% and 24.8% of the variance in 550 m time SDS among 6- and 10-year-olds, respectively, and 6% and 6.5% of the variance in light PA and moderate PA, respectively. After adjusting for age and sex, FMS explained 11.6% of the variance in total PA. Conclusion: A wide range of FMS is important for children’s cardiorespiratory fitness and PA.     

Validity of equations for estimating aerobic fitness in Mexican youth

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of prediction equations for estimating maximal oxygen uptake (VO_2peak) based on the PACER test and different adiposity indicators in Mexican youth. A convenience sample of youth aged 9–18 years from schools in Mexico City was recruited. VO_2peak was evaluated with a laboratory exercise test on a treadmill and using a gas analyser and with the 20-m PACER test guidelines. The sample was randomly divided to develop new equations (n = 220) and to evaluate their validity (n = 106). Prediction equations of VO_2peak were developed using multiple linear regression models. The adiposity indicators were BMI, waist circumference and body fat. The validity of the new and previously published equations was evaluated based on linear regression models, intra-class coefficient, Akaike’s information criterion, mean absolute percentage error and Bland-Altman graphs. Equations with waist circumference and body fat performed better than those with BMI and without any anthropometric indicator. The accuracy of the developed equations (R² = 57.0%–59.50%) was higher than that of previously published equations (R² = 24.1%–56.0%). The new equations had lower bias in estimating VO_2peak. In Mexican youth, the estimation of VO_2peak from the 20-m PACER test is more accurate after including waist circumference or body fat than with BMI.     

The Validity and Reliability of the MyJump2 Application to Assess Vertical Jumps in Trained Junior Athletes

This study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of jump assessments using the MyJump2 application. Eleven junior athletes (15 ± 1.4 years) performed five countermovement (CMJ) and drop jumps (DJ) measured simultaneously by a force platform and MyJump2. Additionally, intra- and inter-day reliability was assessed over two sessions, 7 days apart. Extremely high agreement between MyJump2 and the force platform (intra-class correlation coefficient, ICC ≥ 0.99) and the intra- and inter-operator agreement (ICC = 0.98–0.99) confirmed the validity and reliability of MyJump2. Mean typical errors (coefficient of variation percentage, CV%) within the first and second sessions were 4.9% and 4.5% respectively for CMJs, and 8.0% to 11.8% for DJ outcomes. CMJ height held acceptable inter-day reliability (CV < 10%; ICC > 0.8), while DJ did not. Results supported MyJump2 to be a valid and reliable tool for assessing jumps; however, with variability in DJs in this cohort, appropriate caution should be taken if including in a junior assessment battery.     

Norms and materialities in physical education and health- ‘I feel that i cannot contribute enough in sport’

Many understandings about norms and norm criticism are based on imaginations of inclusion and exclusion as if values about right and wrong, and acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors belong to a world of relations that can be separated from embodied and physical things and practices. This preparatory study is based on interviews conducted with children with and without varied forms of disabilities. The aim of the study was to investigate how children describe their ability in relation to collaboration, identity, materialities, disability and norms within Physical Education and Health (PEH). The results from this study show that embodied and collaborative goal-oriented practices generate imaginations of community and belonging through a notion of contributing. The results indicate that informing, teaching, and learning about inclusion and exclusion do not naturally produce physical and embodied practices.