Different visual stimuli affect muscle activation at the knee during sidestepping

Increasing knee stability via appropriate muscle activation could reduce anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk during unplanned sidestepping. High-level athletes may activate their knee muscles differently from low-level athletes when responding to quasi-game realistic versus non game-realistic stimuli. Eleven high-level and 10 low-level soccer players responded to a non game-realistic arrow-planned condition (AP), a quasi game-realistic one-defender scenario (1DS) and two-defender scenario (2DS), and an arrow-unplanned condition (AUNP), that imposed increasing time constraints to sidestep. Activation from eight knee muscles during sidestepping was measured during pre-contact and weight-acceptance. Knee flexor-extensor co-activation ratios were established. Muscle activation levels increased by approximately 27% solely in the 1DS in both sidestepping phases. In the 2DS, the shift from a flexor dominant co-activation strategy in pre-contact toward extensor dominance in weight-acceptance commenced earlier for the high-level players. Quasi game-realistic information allowed for anticipatory increases in knee muscle activation regardless of expertise levels but only when the time demands to respond were low (1DS). High-level players were better at interpreting complex game-realistic information (2DS) to activate their knee extensors earlier in preparation for single-leg landing during weight-acceptance.     

Kinematic analyses of seated throwing activities with and without an assistive pole

In Paralympic seated throwing events, the athlete can throw with and without an assistive pole. This study aimed to identify and compare performance-related kinematic variables associated with both seated throwing techniques. Twenty-nine non-disabled males (21.9 ± 2.6 years) performed 12 maximal throws using a 1-kg ball in two conditions (no-pole and pole). Automatic 3D-kinematic tracking (150 Hz) and temporal data were acquired. There was no significant difference between ball speeds at the point of release between conditions (no-pole = 12.8 ± 1.6 m/s vs. pole = 12.9 ± 1.5 m/s). There were four kinematic variables that were strongly correlated with ball speed when throwing with or without an assistive pole. These variables were elbow flexion at the start phase (pole r = .39 and no-pole r = .41), maximum shoulder external rotation angular velocity during the arm cocking phase (pole r = .42), maximum shoulder internal rotation angular velocity during the arm acceleration phase (pole r = .47), and should internal rotation angular velocity at the instant of ball release (pole r = .40). The pole clearly influenced the throwing technique with all four strongly correlated variables identified in this condition, compared to only one during the no-pole condition. When using the pole, participants produced significantly higher shoulder internal rotation angular velocities during the arm acceleration phase (pole = 367 ± 183°/s vs. no-pole = 275 ± 178°/s, p < .05) and at the instant of ball release (pole = 355 ± 115°/s vs. no-pole = 264 ± 120°/s, p < .05), compared to throwing without the pole. These findings have implications for the development of evidence-based classification systems in Paralympic seated throwing, and facilitate research that investigates the impact of impairment on seated throwing performance.     

New languages of possibility: early experiments in education as dissent

This paper reviews the work of four early radical educators: the cultural nationalist Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), Asia’s first Nobel Laureate; Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), Cambridge mathematician and philosopher; the Irish educationalist and insurgent Patrick Pearse (1879–1916) and Leonard Elmhirst (1893–1975), co-founder of Dartington Hall school in England. Each represents a type of radicalism that is particular to his own era but resonates in twentieth-century educational provision and policy. Each articulated his political vision through the establishment of a school and all contributed to modern pedagogical practice. The paper argues that ideological and methodological similarities not only compel us to consider them as radical founders, whose ideas are in many ways identical, but to identify them as pivotal theorists in early conceptualisations of education as dissent and disengagement, as a means of decoupling thought and habit from the mainstream of educational practice, colonial imposition or curricular conservatism. In particular, the paper concentrates upon the work of the Irish educationalist and political radical Patrick Pearse and, employing his educational writings and practice as a template for dissension, demonstrates that it was both typical of and reflected the wider tone of early formulations of education as dissent.     

To Encourage,Inspire and Guide

This article examines the promotion of civil defence or ‘national service’ in interwar Britain. Analysing a recruitment campaign organised by the Chamberlain government in 1938–1939, it explores how civil defence was promoted in newspapers, posters, leaflets, guides, radio broadcasts, speeches and rallies, and how recruiters planned and executed the campaign. Existing literature has tended to focus on the role of national servicemen and servicewomen in wartime, but little is known about how these individuals were persuaded to join up before the war began or how national service was itself presented in the media. Through an analysis of official files, correspondence, advertisements and public relations, this article argues that the campaign for national service was not simply intended to attract new recruits, but to cement in Britain the notion that any future conflict would represent a ‘people’s war’ in which each citizen would contribute an equal share towards victory.     

Coordination and variability in the elite female tennis serve

Enhancing the understanding of coordination and variability in the tennis serve may be of interest to coaches as they work with players to improve performance. The current study examined coordinated joint rotations and variability in the lower limbs, trunk, serving arm and ball location in the elite female tennis serve. Pre-pubescent, pubescent and adult players performed maximal effort flat serves while a 22-camera 500 Hz motion analysis system captured three-dimensional body kinematics. Coordinated joint rotations in the lower limbs and trunk appeared most consistent at the time players left the ground, suggesting that they coordinate the proximal elements of the kinematic chain to ensure that they leave the ground at a consistent time, in a consistent posture. Variability in the two degrees of freedom at the elbow became significantly greater closer to impact in adults, possibly illustrating the mechanical adjustments (compensation) these players employed to manage the changing impact location from serve to serve. Despite the variable ball toss, the temporal composition of the serve was highly consistent and supports previous assertions that players use the location of the ball to regulate their movement. Future work should consider these associations in other populations, while coaches may use the current findings to improve female serve performance.     

Adopting evidence-based practice in clinical decision making: nurses' perceptions, knowledge, and barriers

Objective:

Evidence-based practice (EBP) provides nurses with a method to use critically appraised and scientifically proven evidence for delivering quality health care to a specific population. The objective of this study was to explore nurses'' awareness of, knowledge of, and attitude toward EBP and factors likely to encourage or create barriers to adoption. In addition, information sources used by nurses and their literature searching skills were also investigated.

Method:

A total of 2,100 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to registered nurses in 2 public hospitals in Singapore, and 1,486 completed forms were returned, resulting in a response rate of 70.8%.

Results:

More than 64% of the nurses expressed a positive attitude toward EBP. However, they pointed out that due to heavy workload, they cannot keep up to date with new evidence. Regarding self-efficacy of EBP-related abilities, the nurses perceived themselves to possess moderate levels of skills. The nurses also felt that EBP training, time availability, and mentoring by nurses with EBP experience would encourage them to implement EBP. The top three barriers to adopting EBP were lack of time, inability to understand statistical terms, and inadequate understanding of the jargon used in research articles. For literature searching, nurses were using basic search features and less than one-quarter of them were familiar with Boolean and proximity operators.

Conclusion:

Although nurses showed a positive attitude toward EBP, certain barriers were hindering their smooth adoption. It is, therefore, desirable that hospital management in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, develop a comprehensive strategy for building EBP competencies through proper training. Moreover, hospital libraries should also play an active role in developing adequate information literacy skills among the nurses.

Highlights

• Nurses in Singapore, as in other countries, support the idea of evidence-based practice (EBP) but have limited skills in the area of literature searching and understanding evidence, which limits their use of evidence-based practice.
• Only a small number of nurses were able to pick an appropriate search strategy for a given topic, indicating a lack of basic literature searching skills.
• Sufficient literature searching knowledge is essential to retrieve current, relevant, and accurate evidence. However, a majority of nurses do not know how to properly use Boolean and proximity operators, indexing, truncation, or limits.

Implications

• Librarians need to be part of providing ongoing training for clinical nurses in searching the evidence, especially in hospitals promoting EBP or seeking Magnet status.
• Training is needed for clinical nurses to be able to achieve the use of EBP, and librarians can support this goal by teaching the search strategies portion of an EBP skills course.
• This study''s instrument could be used by librarians as a needs assessment tool to measure their own clinical nurses'' information literacy skills, if justification is needed locally.

     

Some Ideas Concerning the Semantic Web

1998年,WWW协会发起了-个创新性研究,该研究致力于:为WEB提供语义和从WEB实施知识抽取.语义Web是WEB创始人Tim Berners-Lee对WEB发展的愿景.在可扩展标记语言XML、资源描述框架RDF、本体互换语言OIL和其他新出现的标准的帮助下,语义Web有可能对已经存在的Web数据提供更多的结构和意义.这将会引导WWW发展到-个新的全球性网络:语义Web在这个网络上可以发现很多有效的信息.很明显,语义Web的实现将会对下-代的数字图书馆产生巨大的影响.     

Securitisation and/or Westernisation: dominant discourses of Australian values and the implications for teacher education

Debates concerning the nature, purpose and importance of Australian values have resurfaced in Australia following the election of the Liberal-led Coalition Government in September 2013. Two dominant discourses on Australian values have emerged within recent government rhetoric and public policy, both of which have included a demand for changes to how Australian values are taught and encountered within Australian education and schooling. In our analysis, we suggest that the two dominant discourses, one focusing on securitisation and one on Westernisation, have to this point operated separately, but have both focused on narrow, fixed and forced understandings of Australian values. Exploring the key themes of these two discourses, some important issues for teacher educators are set out, including the need to mediate these discourses against research evidence which suggests the importance of holistic and co-operative pedagogical relationships based on trust and humility for effective values education. Though our analysis focuses on the Australian context, the arguments made are likely to be of interest elsewhere given current debates about national values in education across a range of jurisdictions.