One-year endurance training: Effects on lung function and airway inflammation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether endurance training in athletes induces airway inflammation and pulmonary function disorders. Respiratory pattern and function were analysed in ten healthy endurance runners at rest, during sub-maximal exercise, and during the recovery. Inflammatory cells and metabolites (histamine, interleukin-8, and leukotriene E₄) were measured in sputum at rest and after exercise. The experiments were conducted on three different occasions (basic endurance training, pre-competitive and competitive periods). In spite of the absence of post-exercise spirometric changes and respiratory symptoms, airway cells counts and inflammatory markers changed significantly. At the beginning of the experiment, athletes' induced sputum showed an abundance of macrophages compared with neutrophils. We found a high percentage of neutrophils during the pre-competitive and competitive periods of the sport season (41% and 37%), a significant increase in macrophage counts during the pre-competitive period (51%), and a significant rise in total cells, interleukin-8, leukotriene E₄, and histamine during the competitive period. In conclusion, one year's training increased markers of inflammation in the airways of endurance runners without symptoms or changes in pulmonary function, suggesting that airway inflammation is of insufficient magnitude to markedly impact lung function in healthy athletes.     

基于Moodle平台的学习活动设计

Moodle是一款开源免费的课程管理系统(CMS),它能够为教师提供支持建构主义教学设计理念的十几种课程活动。该文从Moodle平台中设计学习活动存在的问题出发,结合Moodle平台的特点和教学功能,在活动理论和以学习活动为中心的教学设计理论的指导下,探讨了在Moodle平台中设计学习活动的原则与方法,为广大教学设计者在Moodle平台中更好地设计学习活动提供了一定的理论依据。     

High School Teachers’ Attitudes towards the School Library

One hundred and eighty‐nine Israeli high school teachers filled in questionnaires in which they were asked about their philosophy of education and their attitudes toward and the use of their school library. When asked about their philosophy of education many answers reflected the progressive approach, although most of them gave undecisive answers. When asked about their practical work different answers were given. Only 26% of the teachers regularly give their students individual assignments, and only 14% see the contribution of the library to the learning process as very important. There were significant differences among the different departments’ teachers. More social sciences and humanities teachers view the library as an important part of the educational process and use it than the science teachers. The smallest use is made by languages, mathematics, and technical and vocational teachers.     

Interdisciplinary and intercultural differences in learning strategy use: implications for language processing, curriculum and instruction

This investigation examines English as foreign language college interdisciplinary and intercultural differences in learning strategy use and their implications for language processing. Positivism underpins this research at the levels of ontology (standardized variables), epistemology (detachment from the subjects) and methodology, using nomothetic research strategy (survey), instruments (questionnaires) and data analysis techniques (multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variance). Main findings show interdisciplinary differences between the Humanities and Science majors in student use of compensation strategies in favour of the Science major while finding no intermajor differences in student use of other strategies. The findings indicate no ethnic differences in learning strategy use, since European, American and Eastern ethnicities almost use typical strategies. Therefore, disagreements on alleged unmediated deterministic relationships between ethnicity and cognitive processing remain in place. Instead, curriculum and instructional designs, strategy training and individual differences rather than cultural stereotypes influence language processing. For curriculum and instructional designs to facilitate language processing and pedagogy, effective strategies should underlie national, classroom-level and school-level curriculum developments.