Basketball shooting strategies — the free throw,direct shot and layup

A rationale and geometric parameters for optimal basketball shooting are provided. The premise is that shots requiring the least energy are the easiest to control and thus have the greatest probability of success. The kinematics of the ball movement are modelled and simulated for the free throw, for the direct shot, and for the bank shot off the backboard (the ‘layup’). For the layup, the analysis includes the effects of friction, ball inertia, ball spin and impact restitution. The results provide a means for shot planning and for coaching to improve shooting technique. The advantage of the layup for close-in shooting is demonstrated. Results of numerical parameter studies are also presented, demonstrating the ranges of allowable shooting error for the various shots, and thus also identifying the shots with highest probability of success.     

Have the poor found their own appropriate

Correspondence schools in Brazil are entirely in the hands of private entrepreneurs and ignored, even despised, by official educators. Yet, as this paper shows, they can, —in many cases, do—, provide helpful education for those who have no other access to educational opportunity. Indeed, they appear to offer the most equal form of opportunity. Accompanying their benefits, however, are many imperfections and abuses. The paper identifies five areas where government intervention could help both the public and the correspondence schools, without stifling their current vitality.     

Enhancing the Popularity and the Relevance of Science Teaching in Portuguese Science Classes

PARSEL Project emerged from the urgent need to overcome the problem of lack of scientific literacy in the population, which should be a priority in a society where science occupies a central place. Indeed, nowadays for any citizen to participate in a responsible and informed way in society he has to be scientifically acknowledgeable. Nevertheless, not only are scientific levels low in the general population, but also there is an increasing number of students who avoid science and technology courses and related professions. Within this context, PARSEL aims at raising science and scientific courses’ popularity and relevancy as well as at enacting teachers’ professional development. In order to achieve these goals, the PARSEL group developed 54 pan-European modules, which were tested and evaluated by several teachers in several European countries and Israel. Teachers maintained a close relationship with the university, were highly encouraged to appropriate the modules and to adapt them to their local conditions and, also to discuss and share their experiences. In Portugal, modules were tested by a group of eight teachers, and their students. This paper presents data concerning teachers’ evaluation. Data was collected by means of interviews, observation and written documents and reveals that teachers positively evaluated PARSEL’s impact on their own professional development. Furthermore, they considered modules as well as the teaching-learning approach essential for making science learning relevant and popular for their students.     

Teaching Social Justice Research to Undergraduate Students in Puerto Rico: Using Personal Experiences to Inform Research

This article explores the process of teaching undergraduate students to conduct social justice research. We were interested in understanding how to develop a social justice perspective among students while training them in conventional research methods. The following questions guided our research activities. How can the principles of social justice inform undergraduate research projects? What pedagogical strategies prepare students to conduct social justice-based research? What are the challenges and opportunities in teaching social justice research? We documented the lessons and activities during the field school and collected students’ comments in journals, extensive observations, focus groups, and interviews to understand the influence of social justice on the students’ approach to research. We identify three lessons in teaching social justice. First, teaching social justice requires that students develop meaningful relationships with the community understudy. Second, gender dynamics can prohibit or promote meaningful student engagement and learning. Third, it is important to consider how to integrate, rather than “add on,” social justice activities and discussions into research lessons.     

Foreign direct investment and technological capabilities in Brazilian industry

The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to a further understanding of the implications of the growing presence of foreign affiliates for deepening technological capabilities (TCs) in Brazilian industry. It proposes a TC classification that emphasises the distinction between the use and generation of knowledge and presents a methodology for composing TC proxies by means of an innovation survey database. The findings suggest that both foreign and domestics firms have accumulated substantial capabilities for using existing technology, but only shallow capabilities for locally generating technologies. However, foreign affiliates score higher than their local counterparts in more complex capabilities, confirming their centrality in the Brazilian learning system. This gives ground for urging the elaboration of strategic foreign direct investment (FDI) policies that strengthen and deepen local TCs.     

Aqueous extracts from Tenebrio molitor larval and pupal stages inhibit early hepatocarcinogenesis in vivo

Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B - 肝细胞癌 (HCC) 具有复杂的肿瘤内异质性,...     

CIRLab: A groupware framework for collaborative information retrieval research

In this paper we describe the design of a groupware framework, CIRLab, for experimenting with collaborative information retrieval (CIR) techniques in different search scenarios. This framework has been designed applying design patterns and an object-oriented middleware platform to maximize its reusability and adaptability in new contexts with a minimum of programming efforts. Our collaborative search application comprises three main modules: the Core, which supports various modern state-of-the-art CIR techniques that can be reused or extended in a distributed collaborative environment; the Facades Mediator, an event-driven notification service which allows easy integration between the Core and front-end applications; and finally, the Actions Tracker, which allows researchers to perform experiments on the different elements involved in the collaborative search sessions. The applying of this framework is illustrated through the analysis of the collaborative search-driven development case study.