Dynamic behaviour of soils used for natural turf sports surfaces

The modulus and damping properties of soils in compression are a function of soil type, water content, stress history and loading rate. To model human–surface interaction with natural turf sports surfaces, stiffness and damping properties must be determined at dynamic loading rates. Two contrasting soil types, a Sand and a Clay Loam, commonly used in sports surfaces were loaded uniaxially to 2 kN at loading rates between 0.6 and 6 kN s⁻¹ in modified dynamic soil testing apparatus. Soils were compacted prior to loading but initial cycles resulted in viscoplastic deformation, with strain accumulation with repeated cycles of loading. Ultimately a resilient, viscoelastic steady-state equilibrium with loading was established. Resilient modulus and damping ratio varied with soil type, water content, stress history and increased significantly with loading rate. The resilient modulus of the Sand soil, typical of modern free-draining sand construction natural turf sports surfaces, was significantly greater than that of a Clay Loam soil more characteristic of traditional natural turf surfaces; reducing water content caused an increase in modulus and a decrease in damping ratio in the Clay Loam soil. Determination of these properties provides initial data for the modelling natural turf surface behaviour in terms of both ball and human interactions, with further research required to determine the effect of both grass roots and leaves on mechanical behaviour.     

Differences in technique between sprinters and distance runners at equal and maximal speeds

In the finishing kick of a distance race, maximizing speed becomes the focus even if economy may be sacrificed. If distance runners knew how to alter their technique to become more sprint-like, this process could be more successful. In this study, we compared the differences in technique between sprinters and distance runners while running at equal and maximal speeds. Athletes consisted of 10 Division I distance runners, 10 Division I sprinters, and 10 healthy non-runners. They performed two tests, each consisting of a 60-m run on the track: Test 1 at a set pace of 5.81 m/s, while Test 2 was maximal speed. Video was collected at 180 Hz. Significant differences (P < 0.05) between the sprint and distance groups at maximal speeds were found in the following areas: speed, minimum hip angle, knee extension at toe-off, stride length, contact time, and recovery knee at touchdown. In Test 1, sprinters and distance runners displayed many of the same significant differences. The control group was similar to the distance group in both trials. As distance runners attempt to sprint, the desired adjustments do not necessarily occur. Distance runners may benefit from biomechanical interventions to improve running speed near the end of a race.     

Rigour in moderation processes is more important than the choice of method

Processes for moderating assessments are much debated in higher education. The myriad approaches to the task vary in their demands on staff time and expertise, and also in how valid, reliable and fair to students they appear. Medical education, with its diverse range of assessments and assessors across clinical and academic domains presents additional challenges to moderation. The current review focuses on medical education, considering double-marking and benchmarking as two broad classes of moderation procedure, and argues that it is the process more than the type of procedure which is crucial for successful moderation. The advantages and disadvantages of each class of procedure are discussed in the light of our medical school’s current practices, and with respect to the limited empirical evidence within medical education assessment. Consideration of implementation is central to ensuring valid and reliable moderation. The reliability of assessor judgements depends more on the consistency of assessment formats and the application of clear and agreed assessment criteria than on the moderation process itself. This article considers these factors in relation to their impact on the reliability of moderation, and aims to help assessors and students appreciate the diversity of these factors by facilitating their consideration in the assessment process.     

Preferences toward the constructivist smart classroom learning environment: examining pre-service teachers’ connectedness

The constructivist smart classroom learning environment is quickly emerging as an alternative classroom model that integrates active learning with advanced technology to improve learners’ socialization and achievement. This research examines pre-service teachers’ (n?=?462) preferences toward this learning environment, as well as the predictive association between connectedness and other critical learning environment features. All pre-service teachers had at least one semester of actual experience as participants learning in this environment. The data was collected through a questionnaire, and a series of linear regressions were conducted to examine the hypothesized relationships. Connectedness was positive and significantly associated with all smart classroom features examined: inquiry learning, student negotiation, reflective thinking, functional design, multiple sources, usefulness, and ease of use. Pre-service teachers who preferred constructivist smart classroom learning environments tended to be those in their first year of post-secondary education, as well as those with higher levels of technology self-efficacy. Gender was not observed to significantly influence preferences. The findings show connectedness to be a central and critical feature that can be used to cultivate more appropriate environments from the participants’ perspective.     

Reluctant entrepreneurs: patents and state patronage in new technosciences, circa 1870-1930

At a time when neoliberalism and financial austerity are together encouraging academic scientists to seek market alternatives to state funding, this essay investigates why, a century ago, their predecessors explicitly rejected private enterprise and the private ownership of ideas and inventions available to them through the patent system. The early twentieth century witnessed the success of a long campaign by British scientists to persuade the state to assume responsibility for the funding of basic research ("pure science"): their findings would enter the intellectual commons; their rewards would be primarily reputational (financial only secondarily, through consequent career advancement). The essay summarizes recent research in three separate fields of British techno-science--electricity, aviation, and agricultural botany--all of which were laying claim, at this time, to a heightened commercial or military importance that raised new questions about the ownership of scientific ideas. It suggests that each of the three established an idiosyncratic relationship with the patent system or with other forms of "intellectual property," which would both influence their emergent disciplines and affect the extent to which commercial enterprise could remain a viable funding strategy.     

Wyndham Halswelle and the 1908 Olympic 400 metres final,the most controversial race in Olympic history?

One of the central narratives of the 1908 Olympic Games is the intense Anglo-American acrimony which culminated in the nadir of their sporting relations. One of the major controversies involved the 400 metres final which featured Halswelle, a British athlete, and three Americans – Carpenter, Robbins and Taylor. The final was declared void after Carpenter obstructed Halswelle and was disqualified. In protest the Americans withdrew Robbins and Taylor from the re-run and Halswelle won the gold medal unopposed. This paper explores the 400 metres final from the perspective of the British athlete Wyndham Halswelle utilising his diaries, photo albums, scrapbooks and the papers of his elder brother, Gordon. Serendipitously, the continual digitisation of newspapers also gave further insight into allegations of illegal team tactics by Carpenter and Robbins in the initial race. The article then further exploits these resources to develop a case study of Halswelle as an elite early-twentieth-century British amateur athlete. Differences in ideas of the amateur athlete ideal are often identified as an underpinning cause of international squabbling at the IV Olympiad and may have led to Halswelle’s decision to retire after the games at the age of 26 while still improving his performances.     

Harry Potter,Riding the Bullet and the Future of Books: Key Issues in the Anglophone Book Business

This paper reviews the current status of the Anglophone (Anglo-American) publishing business and draws some comparisons with publishing in other languages. It then critically reviews the impact of the Harry Potter phenomenon and the questionable progress of e-books in the trade sector, using the example of Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet. It also comments on Amazon’s introduction of the Kindle e-book reader.     

Examining movement variability in the basketball free-throw action at different skill levels

The analysis of variability both within and between performers can reveal important information about how athletes satisfy situational constraints. Transitory changes in the basketball free-throw shot were examined across different stages in skill development. Six female basketball players were selected, representing a range of playing expertise (pretest: 0-90% baskets scored). Each participant was video recorded performing 30 shots. Contrary to predictions, there was not a clear pattern of a reduction in trajectory variability with increasing skill level. However, improvements in skill level were associated with an increasing amount of intertrial movement consistency from the elbow and wrist joints. It is suggested that the angular motions of the elbow and wrist joints were compensated for each other toward the end of each throw to adapt to subtle changes in release parameters of the ball.     

Within-Document Retrieval: A User-Centred Evaluation of Relevance Profiling

We present a user-centred, task-oriented, comparative evaluation of two within-document retrieval tools. ProfileSkim computes a relevance profile for a document with respect to a query, and presents the profile as an interactive bar graph. FindSkim provides similar functionality to the web browser “Find” command. A novel simulated work task was devised, where participants are asked to identify (index) relevant pages of an electronic book, given topics from the existing book index. The original book index provides the ground truth, against which the indexing results of the participants can be compared. We confirmed a major hypothesis, namely ProfileSkim proved significantly more efficient than Find-Skim, as measured by time for task. The study indicates that ProfileSkim was as least as effective as FindSkim in identifying relevant pages, as measured by traditional information retrieval measures, and there is some evidence that ProfileSkim is a precision-enhancing tool. Based on qualitative data from questionnaires, we also provide strong evidence to support our conjecture that the participants would be more satisfied when using ProfileSkim than FindSkim. The experimental study confirmed the potential of relevance profiling for improving within-document retrieval. Relevance profiling should prove highly beneficial for users trying to identify relevant information within long documents.