GENIUS BODYBUILDER – a tool for the avaLUTION of EVOtars

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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GENIUS BODYBUILDER – a tool for the avaLUTION of EVOtars

     

Practising what we preach: working together to further scientific collaboration

The recent shift in Internet usage – from content being simply consumed by users, to content that users create, interact with, and share – has challenged traditional publishing values and processes. This has, in turn, brought opportunities to explore and experiment with new technologies in the publishing industry. Elsevier's social bookmarking and collaboration tool for researchers, 2collab, was launched in November 2007 to address this shift. This article reviews how 2collab was built in close partnership with researchers, and how traditional processes had to be adapted to facilitate this. It outlines the current use of social applications among scientists and shows that nearly 50% of researchers anticipate that social tools like 2collab will have at least some impact on all areas of their research in the next five years.     

Physical activity - an important preanalytical variable

The concentration of several biochemical and hematological biomarkers is strongly influenced by a number of preanalytical variables. Several lines of evidence attest that short, middle, and long-term exercise, as well as the relative intensity of physical effort (from mild to strenuous), may influence a broad array of laboratory variables. The amount of extracellular release and clearance from blood of most of these biomarkers is markedly influenced by the biological characteristics of the molecule(s), level of training, type, intensity and duration of exercise, and time of recovery after training. It is hence noteworthy that test results that fall outside the conventional reference ranges in athletes not only may reflect the presence of a given disease, but may frequently mirror an adaptation to regular training or changes that have occurred during and/or following strenuous exercise, and which should be clearly acknowledged to prevent misinterpretation of laboratory data. The aim of this narrative review is to provide an update about the most significant changes of some biochemical and hematological biomarkers in response to physical exercise, for appropriate interpretation of these changes in the context of physically active subjects.     

To Score or Not to Score: Factors Influencing Performance and Feasibility of Automatic Content Scoring of Text Responses

In this article, we systematize the factors influencing performance and feasibility of automatic content scoring methods for short text responses. We argue that performance (i.e., how well an automatic system agrees with human judgments) mainly depends on the linguistic variance seen in the responses and that this variance is indirectly influenced by other factors such as target population or input modality. Extending previous work, we distinguish conceptual, realization, and nonconformity variance, which are differentially impacted by the various factors. While conceptual variance relates to different concepts embedded in the text responses, realization variance refers to their diverse manifestation through natural language. Nonconformity variance is added by aberrant response behavior. Furthermore, besides its performance, the feasibility of using an automatic scoring system depends on external factors, such as ethical or computational constraints, which influence whether a system with a given performance is accepted by stakeholders. Our work provides (i) a framework for assessment practitioners to decide a priori whether automatic content scoring can be successfully applied in a given setup as well as (ii) new empirical findings and the integration of empirical findings from the literature on factors that influence automatic systems' performance.     

Using mobile technologies for mathematics: effects on student attitudes and achievement

The ubiquity of mobile devices together with its potential to bridge classroom learning to real-world has added a new angle to contextualising mathematics learning. This study investigated the effects of using mobile technologies to students’ attitudes and achievement. A quasi-experimental mixed method design was adopted. Participants were 52 Primary 6 and 7 students. The experimental group participated in a weekly mobile-supported, collaborative learning activities spanning over three months. A no treatment control group was adopted. The experimental group have positive perception of the activities evidenced by student interviews and end activity evaluations. Students’ attitude to mathematics, as assessed by a mathematics attitude inventory, found no significant change for both groups except for the significant decline in enjoyment for the control group. A t test of the gain score between group showed a significant difference, t(43) = 4.57, p = 0.005, ES = 0.89 which indicates that the experimental group had higher gains than the control group. These results indicate that the use of mobile technologies elicit positive responses from students both in terms of how they perceive the mobile activities and how it improved their performance but its’ effect on students attitudes towards mathematics will need to be further investigated. Some implications of the findings are discussed.     

Conditioning exercises in ski jumping: biomechanical relationship of squat jumps,imitation jumps,and hill jumps

As hill jumps are very time-consuming, ski jumping athletes often perform various imitation jumps during training. The performed jumps should be similar to hill jumps, but a direct comparison of the kinetic and kinematic parameters has not been performed yet. Therefore, this study aimed to correlate 11 common parameters during hill jumps (Oberstdorf Germany), squat jumps (wearing indoor shoes), and various imitation jumps (rolling 4°, rolling flat, static; jumping equipment or indoor shoes) on a custom-built instrumented vehicle with a catch by the coach. During the performed jumps, force and video data of the take-off of 10 athletes were measured. The imitation and squat jumps were then ranked. The main difference between the hill jumps and the imitation and squat jumps is the higher maximal force loading rate during the hill jumps. Imitation jumps performed on a rolling platform, on flat ground were the most similar to hill jumps in terms of the force–time, and leg joint kinematic properties. Thus, non-hill jumps with a technical focus should be performed from a rolling platform with a flat inrun with normal indoor shoes or jumping equipment, and high normal force loading rates should be the main focus of imitation training.     

Structural optimization for heat detection of DNA thermosequencing platform using finite element analysis

For the past three decades, Sanger’s method has been the primary DNA sequencing technology; however, inherent limitations in cost and complexity have limited its usage in personalized medicine and ecological studies. A new technology called “thermosequencing” can potentially reduce both the cost and complexity of DNA sequencing by using a microfluidic platform [Esfandyarpour, Pease, and Davis, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B26, 661 (2008)]. To optimize the efficiency of the technology, finite element analysis was used to model the thermosequencing system by simulating the DNA incorporation reaction series and the resulting product concentration and heat production. Different models of the thermosequencing platform were created to simulate the effects of the materials surrounding the system, to optimize the geometry of the system, and to concentrate reaction heat into specific regions for detection in the real system. The resulting concentrations of reaction products were used to calibrate the reaction speed and to design the heat sensors in the thermosequencing technology. We recommend a modified gated structure for the microfluidic detection platform by using control valves and show how this new platform could dramatically improve the detection efficiency.