Circadian variation and soccer performance: implications for training and match-play during Ramadan

Ramadan results in a number of behavioural alterations in individuals when compared to their normal habits outside of this holy month. These changes in behaviour could impact upon the effectiveness of the activity of an elite athlete who has high daily activity levels and energy expenditures. Understanding the true impact of Ramadan on human physiology will also require an awareness of the key aspects of circadian rhythms. This article will present theoretical background content on circadian rhythms along with data on the potential influence of circadian variation on soccer performance. It will also attempt to provide an insight into the problems of partial sleep deprivation and travel for the elite player. The contents will suggest that there is a basis for the within-day variation in physiological and psychological function to impact soccer performance if games are played early in the day or very late at night. As competitive fixtures are uncommon at these times these influences may be more relevant to the timing and organisation of training sessions. It is also likely that a lack of sleep and excessive travel will provide conditions that are not conducive to optimal performance. This would indicate that teams should think carefully about their preparation strategies for important tournaments and games.     

Sleep in athletes and the effects of Ramadan

Sleep is now considered as a new frontier in performance enhancement. This article presents background content on sleep function, sleep needs and methods of sleep investigation along with data on the potential effects of Ramadan fasting on sleep in normal individuals and athletes. Accumulated sleep loss has negative impacts on cognitive function, mood, daytime sleepiness and performance. Sleep studies in athletes fasting during Ramadan are very rare. Most of them have demonstrated that during this month, sleep duration decreased and sleep timing shifted. But the direct relation between sleep changes and performance during Ramadan is not yet elucidated. Objective sleep patterns can be investigated using polysomnography, actigraphy, and standardised questionnaires and recorded in daily journals or sleep logs. The available data on sleep indicate that team doctors and coaches should consider planning sleep schedule and napping; implementing educational programmes focusing on the need for healthy sleep; and consider routine screening for sleep loss in athletes of all age groups and genders.     

Experienced EFL teachers’ professional practical knowledge,reasoning and classroom decision making in Egypt: views from the inside out

This study aimed to investigate the areas that constituted the professional practical knowledge of experienced English as a Foreign Language teachers in Egypt and how their knowledge informed their classroom practice. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 236 preparatory and secondary school teachers in 38 schools through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and stimulated recall following classroom observation. Six areas of knowledge were revealed and rationalized from the participants’ responses. In addition, the teachers made decisions while teaching informed by what they knew and viewed. The findings of the study call for a knowledge-based practical approach to teacher learning and professional development.     

A new pedagogical design for geo-informatics courses using an e-training support system

The current study seeks to introduce a new pedagogical design for geo-informatics courses using an e-training support system. Laurillard’s conversational approach based on conceptual representation for both instructor and learner was used to form the framework. As the current study specifically interested in training as a special form for learning, so, we sought methods and strategies to integrate requirements of both company and employee into the design of training programs. Therefore, a competency perspective was adopted into the conversational framework to use learning design that leads to learning activities tightly related to the needs of the company and employee. The above framework has been developed with special consideration to the underpinning pedagogical principles and the needs of lifelong learning that continues after the training has been completed. The implementation of the developed framework needs a special computerized system, so an e-training support system (ETSS) was developed to realize the framework. ETSS is an open source and standard-based infrastructure to enable and foster competence development and exchange of learning activities and learning units. Although the domain of the current study focuses on geo-informatics, ETSS is applicable to any other domain. The developed framework through its ETSS implementation were evaluated in a typical training environment. The results indicated that the best method in training was the training with the developed system with 91.5 % in comparison with the traditional training method with 81.4 %.     

养护制度对超高性能纤维增强水泥基复合材料微观结构及宏观性能的影响(英文)

研究了不同养护制度对超高性能纤维增强水泥基复合材料(UHPFRCC)微观结构和宏观性能的影响,并揭示了用不同的养护制度制备性能符合要求的超高性能纤维增强水泥基复合材料的可能性.制备了一种基准的UHPFRCC,研究了3种养护制度下UHPFRCC的力学性能及短期耐久性能.此外,通过结合运用电子扫描电镜(SEM)和压汞法(MIP),测试了3种养护制度下UHPFRCC的微观结果.研究结果揭示了不同的养护制度对UHPFRCC微观结构的影响以及微观结构对材料宏观性能的影响机制.热养护和蒸汽养护3d与标准养护90 d的UHPFRCC具有相近的力学性能和耐久性.但是,热养护的UHPFRCC具有相对较差的抗氯离子渗透性能.     

Application of machine learning in higher education to assess student academic performance,at-risk,and attrition: A meta-analysis of literature

Education and Information Technologies - Recently, machine learning (ML) has evolved and finds its application in higher education (HE) for various data analysis. Studies have shown that such an...     

Expansion of special education and promotion of inclusive education in China: conflict or cooperation? Stakeholders' views

A key objective of inclusive education is to provide learners with special educational needs with an environment that fosters a sense of belonging. They lose the sense of belonging when they feel being separated from the rest of society. Segregation is, however, a logically necessary method and means of the pursuit of inclusion. The focus of this study was to uncover the experiences and views of Chinese stakeholders regarding the possible conflict between expansion of special education (i.e., segregation, exclusion) and promotion of inclusive education (i.e., inclusion, mainstreaming). We conducted in-depth interviews with nine academics, administrators, and practitioners to better understand the possible impact of inclusive education on regular education. The main finding is that special education can be provided in four forms which the participants argued is an advantage to meet the needs of all learners. They argued that giving home education for learners with high severity, attending special education schools and mainstreaming schools are rehabilitation methods to prepare learners for full integration should they prove successful. The study contributes to a broader understanding of how special education is provided in China and its potential effects on regular education (e.g., challenges in teacher preparation, lack of resources).     

Serving our colleagues: reference and history of medicine services from the National Library of Medicine

Most biomedical librarians are frequent users of the major online services provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. These services include MEDLINE/PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed Central, document delivery, and other key biomedical resources. This article highlights less well-known services from reference, to historical information, to training and other services which librarians may not be aware the NLM offers to them. NLM encourages librarians to consider that NLM's unique and unsurpassed collection can help when local resources may be too limited to serve the needs of their patrons. doi:10.1300/J115v26n01_07.     

Exploring the scholarly communication styles of Arab social science and humanities scholars

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study of scholarly communication behaviour among Arab scholars. The main objective of this study is to determine how Egyptian and Saudi Arabian social sciences and humanities scholars engage in scholarly communication practices. The study used a mixed‐methods approach. A questionnaire was answered by a sample of 104 participants, followed by interviews with 36 participants to gain insight into the scholarly communication behaviour of the Arab scholars. The analysis demonstrated that participants use different styles of scholarly communication approaches. Most of the participants do use informal (social media) channels to communicate their research findings (particularly ResearchGate and Facebook), although priority is given to formal over informal publication in peer reviewed journals. Responses showed that the promotional systems of both countries dictate publication choices of scholars, reducing the amount of collaboration by ranking co‐publications lower than sole publications and favouring printed journals over online‐only journals.     

The Relation of Knowledge-Text Integration Processes and Reading Comprehension in 7th- to 12th-Grade Students

The integration of knowledge during reading was tested in 1,109 secondary school students. Reading times for the second sentence in a pair (Jane’s headache went away) were compared in conditions where the first sentence was either causally or temporally related to the first sentence (Jane took an aspirin vs. Jane looked for an aspirin). Mixed-effects explanatory item response models revealed that at higher comprehension levels, sentences were read more quickly in the causal condition. There were no condition-related reading time differences at lower comprehension levels. This interaction held with comprehension- and inference-related factors (working memory, word and world knowledge, and word reading efficiency) in the models. Less skilled comprehenders have difficulty in knowledge-text integration processes that facilitate sentence processing during reading.