The effect of warm up on single and intermittent-sprint performance

Lack of benefit of warm up on prolonged intermittent-sprint performance has been proposed to be due to use of a pacing strategy by participants. To investigate this, twelve participants performed four cycle trials that consisted of either prolonged intermittent-sprint performance (80 min) or single-sprint performance (4 s), with or without a warm up. The first-sprint of intermittent-sprint performance was also assessed. No interaction effects (P > 0.05) were found between trials for intermittent-sprint performance for total work (J · kg(-1)), or percentage work and power decrement. Work done during the first-sprint of intermittent-sprint performance (no warm up) was less (P < 0.001) than the first-sprint of intermittent-sprint performance (warm up; effect size (ES) = 0.59) and both single-sprint trials (warm up and no warm up; ES = 0.91, 0.75, respectively). Peak power (W · kg(-1)) for single-sprint (warm up) was greater (P < 0.05) than single-sprint (no warm up), and the first-sprint of intermittent-sprint performance (warm up and no warm up). Warm up improved single-sprint performance and the first sprint of intermittent-sprint performance. Use of a pacing strategy probably resulted in similar intermittent-sprint performance between trials. These results suggest that team-sport players should perform a warm up at the start of a game or before substitution during a game.     

Web technologies applied to virtual heritage: An example of an Iberian Art Museum

Nowadays, some virtual museums include 3D room scenes to show the models of its pieces, just like in real museums. Nevertheless, the generation and maintenance of this kind of scenes is generally difficult and should be done by an expert. For example, any change such as including a new piece or modifying the position of an existing fragment usually requires a different design and the creation of a new scene. In this paper we present a case study on the development of a web-based application to automatize this process. To this end, a database to store both graphic and non-graphic information about the pieces, and some 3D rooms to show them has been created. The designed scenes only contain some pieces of furniture to exhibit the fragments, which will be subsequently included. Thus, when a room is loaded in the web page, its associated pieces are obtained through a query in the database and its models are dynamically included in the original scene. Therefore, the position changes or the inclusion of new pieces are not performed in the 3D model, but in the database. Our application makes the transmission of the knowledge to the general public easier because any new discovered piece can be included in a existing museum effortlessly.     

The Staff Conference: A Medium for Staff Development

Solihull's development of delegated budgets began in 1981. The experiences of schools and Centre led to the acceptance by Council in 1987 of a scheme for general implementation. The detailed scheme is included in an Appendix to the article, together with examples of vital financial management systems. In his article, the Director of Education explores the effects of delegation of the budget, and with it, the decision‐making process. The school heads’ role gains the natural extension of facility to implement management decisions, but what of the role of the Centre?     

The influence of personality in determining farmer responsiveness to risk

Abstract

Rural landholders are undergoing extended economic hardship, manifested in a range of social and ecological problems that limit the capacity of local areas to recover to economic levels necessary to sustain settlement. The uncertain influence of climate on production represents just one of the range of risk factors that landholders must face. Survival depends on the capacity of landholders to respond strategically to the stress which these risk factors generate. Our research indicates landholders’ capacity to modify land‐management practices, are dictated by their underlying personality traits and by presence or absence of other psychiatric morbidity. Where stresses exist, the capacity of people to respond actively to a planned problem solution diminishes. The psychological profiles of people tend to fall into three groups ‐ those who can generally cope; those who can usually cope but undergo dysfunctional episodes under acute stresses, and those who generally cannot cope.

In the grazing lands of central western Queensland, our findings suggest a predominant personality profile consistent with an ability to cope with isolation and the other particular challenges that characterise this way of life. There are two important implications in these results. The first relates to land stewardship and has significant lessons for government intervention in terms of rural policy and approaches to extension. In particular, there are lessons pertinent to the success of Landcare and associated community based initiatives. The second relates to the broad area of rural health as highlighted by the alarming rates of suicide found in rural Australia. In previous decades, those with personality styles less well‐suited to this industry, found employment in nearby rural towns. This option has declined as government policy has favoured the withdrawal of services and resources, hastening depopulation of rural areas. The resultant weakening of the social fabric of rural society is a cause of tension and stress with serious health implications. Previous approaches to rural sociology have not emphasised individual personality traits in seeking to understand the complexity of the human‐environment relationships which determine land use. Nor has personality been invoked is assessing the potential of landholders to adopt ecologically sustainable practices. Further research is planned to consolidate our findings through comparative investigations in other branches of rural industry. JAgr Educ Ext (2001, 7, 3, pp 167–178)     

De la ciudad aislada a la aldea global: El microordenador como catalizador del aprendizaje cooperativo y del intercambio cultural

Hace ya algunos años Cole y Scribner, con una investigación transcultural que se ha hecho clásica, establecían una distinción clave entre la lecto-escritura como código por una parte y los usos concretos que de ella se hace, por otra. Con el ordenador en la educación ha llegado también el momento de hablar quizá menos del aparato en sí y más de los usos psico-educativos que hacemos de él. En este artículo se analizan los usos del ordenador en la escuela y las implicaciones psicopedagógicas de esos usos, y se plantea también la materialización de la profecía McLuhiana de la aldea global y del aula sin muros. Por primera vez el aula puede cubrir todo el globo y conectar telemáticamente a niños de todas las culturas.     

LEARNING COMMUNITIES AND COMMUNITY COLLEGES: A CASE STUDY

Learning communities have been present in community college settings for more than a decade. The literature suggests that they are generally effective for both participating students and faculty. As economic development increasingly demands greater technological sophistication, and community colleges are faced with increasing numbers of developmentally challenged students, learning communities may be one means to effectively resolve this paradox. This article is directed to those faculty and staff who may be considering the initiation of a learning community. It provides a review of literature, and presents a set of issues currently being addressed at one small community college in Louisiana where a learning community is in the design stage.     

Vocabulary Is Important for Some,but Not All Reading Skills

Although there is evidence for a close link between the development of oral vocabulary and reading comprehension, less clear is whether oral vocabulary skills relate to the development of word-level reading skills. This study investigated vocabulary and literacy in 81 children aged 8 to 10 years. In regression analyses, vocabulary accounted for unique variance in exception word reading and reading comprehension, but not text reading accuracy, decoding, or regular word reading. Consistent with these data, children with poor reading comprehension exhibited oral vocabulary weaknesses and read fewer exception words correctly. These findings demonstrate that oral vocabulary is associated with some, but not all, reading skills. Results are discussed in terms of current models of reading development.     

Adaptation and evaluation of a learning analytics dashboard to improve academic support at three Latin American universities

Despite the success of academic advising dashboards in several higher educational institutions (HEI), these dashboards are still under-explored in Latin American HEI's. To close this gap, three different Latin American universities adapted an existing advising dashboard, originally deployed at the KU Leuven to their own context. In all three cases, the context was the main ruling factor to these adaptations. In this paper, we describe these adaptions using a framework that focuses on four different elements of the context: Objectives, Stakeholders, Key moment and Interactions. Evaluation of the adapted dashboards in the three different Latin American universities is conducted through pilots. This evaluation shows the value of the dashboard approach in different contexts in terms of satisfaction, usefulness and impact in academic decision-making and advising tasks. The main contribution of this paper is the systematic reporting of the adaptations to an academic advising dashboard and showing the value of an academic advising dashboard on academic decision-making and advising tasks.