Monitoring of immunological parameters in adolescent basketball athletes during and after a sports season

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to monitor the immunological and hormonal responses and the occurrence of upper respiratory symptoms in adolescent basketball athletes during the different stages of a sports season. Anthropometric measures, biochemical analyses (interleukin-6, interleukin-10, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, C-reactive protein, testosterone and cortisol), neuromuscular evaluations (standing vertical jumping ability, agility and estimated VO_2max) and leukocyte counts were performed at four moments: 72 h before the season (?72 h); before the season (Pre-season); after six weeks, at the end of the preparatory period (Preparatory); and after 20 weeks, at the end of the competitive period (Competitive). Also, the occurrence of upper respiratory symptoms was collected weekly during all stages of the season. There were significant increases in monocytes, cortisol, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and C-reactive protein at the Competitive moment as compared to the Pre-season. In addition, interleukin-10 decreased at the Competitive moment as compared to the Pre-season. Occurrence of upper respiratory symptoms demonstrated increases (38%) during the competitive period as compared to the preparatory. These results suggest that periods of training and competition could increase the occurrence of upper respiratory symptoms in adolescent athletes and this may be due to the unwanted effects of an inflammatory process in response to the excessive stress of training and competition.     

Perceived distributed effort in team ball sports

Abstract

In this study, we explored the multifaceted concept of perceived mental and physical effort in team sport contexts where athletes must invest individual and shared efforts to reach a common goal. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 15 Catalan professional coaches (3 women and 12 men, 3 each from the following sports: volleyball, basketball, handball, soccer, and water polo) to gain their views of three perceived effort-related dimensions: physical, psychological, and tactical. From a theoretical thematic analysis, it was found that the perception of effort is closely related to how effort is distributed within the team. Moreover, coaches viewed physical effort in relation to the frequency and intensity of the players’ involvement in the game. They identified psychological effort in situations where players pay attention to proper cues, and manage emotions under difficult circumstances. Tactical effort addressed the decision-making process of players and how they fulfilled their roles while taking into account the actions of their teammates and opponents. Based on these findings, a model of perceived distributed effort was developed, which delineates the elements that compose each of the aforementioned dimensions. Implications of perceived distributed effort in team coordination and shared mental models are discussed.     

High Schools That Work and college preparedness: Measuring the model's impact on mathematics and science pipeline progression

The High Schools That Work school improvement initiative is the nation's largest comprehensive school reform model with over a thousand schools adopting its framework. The initiative's premise is that all students can meet the demands of a college preparatory curriculum if provided the right supports. Analyzing over a decade of data on student course taking and performance, we employ a rigorous comparative interrupted time series strategy to assess the extent to which HSTW meets its goal by increasing students’ successful progression through the mathematics and science pipelines. Each pipeline consists of three college preparatory courses: algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2 in mathematics and biology plus two physical science courses in science. The results show no effect on pipeline progression for the average student and some evidence of increased gaps in course taking between more advantaged and disadvantaged students.     

Surveillance,documentation and privacy: an international comparative analysis of state intelligence records

The annals of modern history are replete with examples of how state agencies have constructed mechanisms to observe and document the subversive activities of internal parties or individuals as well as perceived foreign influences or threats. While the definition of “subversive” changes with governing parties, the documentation of previous systems persists in the custody of archival repositories. These files represent the lives and work of individuals, and archivists face significant moral and ethical challenges regarding their disposition. This comparative study examines cases from across the globe and throughout the twentieth century to reveal the dispositions of surveillance records. More specifically, the study identifies the main variables that impact how these files are handled. This study begins with a theoretical framework that identifies common trends in the archival literature regarding surveillance files and their place in recovery and reconciliation efforts. Definitions are provided to establish the boundaries of this work within a broad categorization of levels of access that emerged from the case studies. Each level of access is then explored more deeply using specific examples to illustrate the complexities of custody and access encountered with these records. Ultimately, the study of the disposition and access to surveillance files uncovers three interrelated themes: the power of records, the impact of archival practice and the need to fully explore the context in which those files are created and retained.     

Correction to: Biology Undergraduate Students’ Graphing Practice in Digital Versus Pen and Paper Graphing Environments

Journal of Science Education and Technology - The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The name of “Susan Maruca” is now corrected in the author group.     

Justice and cultural conflict: Racism,sexism, and instructional materials

Conclusions This paper has sought to raise questions about the limits we have imposed on ourselves as we discuss the relationship between racism, sexism, and instructional materials. In addition to attempting to outline the historical evolution of concerns about the content of curricular materials, and the manner in which this issue is currently being debated, I have tried to demonstrate that the ground rules and definitions we have accepted have limited our ability to apprehend the real complexity of the issue (e.g., a definition of censorship which omits the notion of covert censorship). Perhaps the most important belief which I have sought to question is that the content of literary and curricular materials can be discussed in isolation from the ideologies which they consciously or unconsciously manifest. There is a relationship between these ideologies and the wider distribution of power and resources in society. To discuss challenges to racially or sexually biased instructional materials exclusively in terms of a perceived threat to intellectual freedom and in absence of a discussion of the role such materials play in the continuation and re-creation of racial and sexual discrimination in society is, as has been stated, to ignore matters which demand consideration. It is my conviction that the debate surrounding this question has, for too long, been abstracted from the concrete historical concerns of those directly involved, and has ignored the appeals to justice and fairness which adhere to the claims of those demanding redress of past grievances.Furthermore, the debate has been too often guided by assumptions (e.g., the existence of schools as an open and free marketplace for the exchange of all ideas) which simply cannot withstand close scrutiny. It is clear to me that the perspectives offered by the sociology of school knowledge offer the means to make possible a fuller disclosure of the serious issues raised by this controversy.     

Preschoolers’ learning when pictures do not tell the whole story

Preschool children heard two ten-sentence stories. Each sentence was accompanied by two pictures (one of the subject and one of the object of the sentence), by a picture of the sentence’s subject, by a picture of the sentence’s object, or by no pictures. After presentation of the stories, the children answered questions requiring recall of the sentence objects. Only the two-picture illustration variation produced significantly beffer learning relative to no-picture control performance. This finding held both when children were instructed to make mental images representing the prose and when they simply listened to the text. The results are relevant both to theories of children’s imagery and to practical issues about how to illustrate children’s texts. This research was supported by a grant to the second author from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

Impact of a Computer-Based Physics Instruction Program on Pupils' Understanding of Measurement Concepts and Methods Associated with School Science

A set of instructional materials was developed for the teaching of measurement, as part of a classroom innovation for science instruction. This project involved collaborative groupings with the computer as an instructional tool for learners to interact with. A computer-based physics instruction module was developed from a physics course dealing with the concept of measurement. This paper presents the results of an empirical evaluation undertaken over a 6-week period with 118 subjects (ages 12–17) randomly selected Form I pupils in Nakuru district, Kenya. Analysis of the quantitative data showed that the intervention promoted pupils' understanding of measurement concepts and skills, in that the subjects in the treatment groups demonstrated better at the posttests than their counterparts in the true control group. Also, the learning protocols differed markedly in favor of the subjects exposed to the treatment.     

Values and work environment: Mapping 32 occupations

The study addresses the relationship between values and occupations. Israeli workers (N=652; mean age=47; 43% male) in 32 occupations reported their values using the Portrait Value Questionnaire (Schwartz, Melech, Lehmann, Burgess, Harris, &; Owens, 2001), and value scores were aggregated within occupations. Occupations were classified according to the Holland (1985) typology. Enterprising work environments correlated negatively with universalism values. Social environments correlated positively with benevolence and universalism values and negatively with power and achievement. The artistic environment correlated negatively with conformity values. Investigative environments correlated positively with self-direction values and negatively with tradition. A COPLOT analysis of occupational value priorities yielded meaningful clusters of occupations, each characterized by a distinct value profile, and fitting the Holland typology. The findings point to the importance of values in vocational behavior.     

Blocking and enhancement of fear conditioning by appetitive CSs

Prior research on Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer has shown that when a CS previously associated with shock (AvCS+) is presented contingent upon a choice response to a discriminative stimulus for food reinforcement, it facilitates discrimination learning. Conversely, a response-contingent CS previously associated with the absence of shock (AvCS?) retards discrimination learning. To evaluate whether these findings reflect across-reinforcement blocking and enhancement effects, two experiments investigated the effects of appetitively conditioned stimuli on fear conditioning to a novel stimulus that was serially compounded with the appetitive CS during conditioned-emotional-response (CER) training. Although there were no differential effects of the appetitive CSs in CER acquisition, Experiment 1, using a relatively weak shock US, showed that a CS previously associated with food (ApCS+) retarded CER extinction to the novel stimulus, in evidence of enhanced fear conditioning to that stimulus. In addition, Experiment 2, using a stronger shock US, showed that a CS previously associated with the absence of food (ApCS?) facilitated CER extinction to the novel stimulus, in evidence of weaker fear conditioning to that stimulus. These results parallel traditional blocking effects and indicate not only that an ApCS+ and an ApCS? are functionally similar to AvCSs of opposite sign, but that their functional similarity is mediated by common central emotional states.