Football,Recruitment, and Retention at U.S. Christian Colleges

An increasing number of Christian colleges are adding football programs as a way to boost enrollment among men and ethnic minorities. No systematic study has attempted to measure these outcomes. We tested the relationship of football to percent male, percent non-White, and first-year retention at 125 U.S. colleges and universities affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU). Our findings revealed that football at Christian colleges is associated with more men on campus, but not with more ethnic diversity. In addition, Christian colleges with football retained fewer students from first-year to second-year than did Christian colleges without football. We discuss the implications of our findings and offer suggestions for further research.     

Adipose tissue lipolytic inhibition enhances the glucoregulatory properties of exercise in type 2 diabetes patients

Aims: Exercise combined with adipose tissue lipolytic inhibition augments intramuscular lipid and glycogen use in type 2 diabetes patients. The present study investigates the impact of adipose tissue lipolytic inhibition during exercise on subsequent postprandial glycemic control in type 2 diabetes patients.

Methods: Fourteen male type 2 diabetes patients (age 65?±?2 years, HbA_1c 6.7?±?0.1% (50?±?2?mmol/mol)) participated in a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized cross-over study in which subjects performed endurance-type exercise after being administered 250?mg of a nicotinic acid analogue (acipimox; ACP) or a placebo (PLA). A control experiment was included in which no exercise was performed (CON).

Results: Sixty minutes of endurance-type exercise (at 45% W_peak) did not significantly lower circulating plasma glucose and insulin excursions in PLA when compared with CON (P?=?.300). Acipimox administration strongly reduced circulating plasma FFA concentrations during exercise (P?i.e. postprandial) in ACP when compared with either CON (P?=?.041 and P?=?.002, respectively) or PLA (P?=?.009 and P?=?.001, respectively).

Conclusions: Collectively, exercise with adipose tissue lipolytic inhibition reduces postprandial blood glucose and insulin excursions and, as such, further improves glycemic control in male type 2 diabetes patients.     

Females exposed to 24 h of sleep deprivation do not experience greater physiological strain,but do perceive heat illness symptoms more severely,during exercise-heat stress

There is limited and inconclusive evidence surrounding the physiological and perceptual responses to heat stress while sleep deprived, especially for females. This study aimed to quantify the effect of 24 h sleep deprivation on physiological strain and perceptual markers of heat-related illness in females. Nine females completed two 30-min heat stress tests (HST) separated by 48 h in 39°C, 41% relative humidity at a metabolic heat production of 10 W · kg^?1. The non-sleep deprived HST was followed by the sleep deprivation (SDHST) trial for all participants during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. Physiological and perceptual measures were recorded at 5 min intervals during the HSTs. On the cessation of the HSTs, heat illness symptom index (HISI) was completed. HISI scores increased after sleep deprivation by 28 ± 16 versus 20 ± 16 (P = 0.01). Peak (39.40 ± 0.35°C vs. 39.35 ± 0.33°C) and change in rectal temperature (1.91 ± 0.21 vs. 1.93 ± 0.34°C), and whole body sweat rate (1.08 ± 0.31 vs. 1.15 ± 0.36 L · h^?1) did not differ (P > 0.05) between tests. No difference was observed in peak, nor rise in: heart rate, mean skin temperature, perceived exertion or thermal sensation during the HSTs. Twenty-four hours sleep deprivation increased perceptual symptoms associated with heat-related illness; however, no thermoregulatory alterations were observed.     

The psychomotor vigilance test: a comparison of different test durations in elite athletes

The 10-min Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT-10) is regarded as the gold-standard for assessing vigilant attention following sleep loss; however, other studies have investigated whether shorter versions of the test elicit similar results to the PVT-10. The present study compared the PVT-10 with 3-min (PVT-3) and 5-min (PVT-5) versions of the test in elite female basketball players. Athletes performed all three tests in the morning and evening for seven consecutive days. Response speed (mean reciprocal reaction time; mean 1/RT), number of errors and number of lapses were determined for each test and time point. The PVT-3 elicited significantly faster response speeds than the other two tests (p < 0.01), while the PVT-5 and PVT-10 were not different. The PVT-10 resulted in more lapses than the PVT-5, followed by the PVT-3, with all tests being significantly different to each other (p < 0.01). In conclusion, while the PVT-5 and PVT-10 were generally similar for response speed, the PVT-3 did not produce results comparable with the PVT-10 for response speed, lapses or errors, and should therefore not be used interchangeably. Further research is required to determine whether the shorter tests are a suitable replacement for the PVT-10 in professional basketball players.     

An audit of injuries in six english professional soccer academies

Regulations now state that professional academies in the United Kingdom are required to substantially increase the volume of soccer training. This study assessed the current injury occurrence, providing an update to reports published prior to the introduction of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). 608 soccer players aged 11–18 years from six professional soccer clubs were prospectively monitored, recording injuries during the 2014–2015 season. An injury rate of 1.32 injuries per player/season was indicated with a mean time loss of 21.9 days per injury. The greatest time loss per injury was in the U14s-U15s, and the highest rate of severe injuries in the U15s. Strains and sprains were the most common injury type, with the knee and ankle the most frequently injured anatomical sites. Seasonal variation indicated two peaks in injury incidence, occurring in September and January. In comparison to a published audit prior to the inception of the EPPP, this study indicates that academy soccer players are three-times more likely to experience an injury. Given that time loss and injury severity also increased during periods that typically follow rapid growth, these players should be considered an important group for training load monitoring and injury prevention strategies.     

Opportunities for all the Team: Entrepreneurship and the 1966 and 1994 Soccer World Cups

Abstract

Little research has been published as to the ways in which the commercial aspects of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA) World Cups are organized. Extant literature has instead tended to focus upon infrastructure issues, economic geography, and cultural aspects. Drawing upon ‘swarm theory’ and historian Wray Vamplew’s typologies of entrepreneurial activity in sport, we compare and contrast the commercial aspects of two World Cups; first, the 1966 tournament held in England, the first time that a serious attempt had been made to produce and licence a mascot character (‘World Cup Willie’) to exploit merchandizing opportunities. This approach became an important part of World Cups thereafter; Second, the 1994 tournament in the USA, the most commercially successful World Cup ever, realizing record profits and catalyzing the re-launch of elite professional soccer in the USA. These cases enrich understanding of the networks and entrepreneurial activity of the World Cup, one of the most significant sporting and cultural mega-event projects in the world.     

Inverse function: Pre-service teachers’ techniques and meanings

Researchers have argued teachers and students are not developing connected meanings for function inverse, thus calling for a closer examination of teachers’ and students’ inverse function meanings. Responding to this call, we characterize 25 pre-service teachers’ inverse function meanings as inferred from our analysis of clinical interviews. After summarizing relevant research, we describe the methodology and theoretical framework we used to interpret the pre-service teachers’ activities. We then present data highlighting the techniques the pre-service teachers used when responding to tasks that involved analytical and graphical representations of functions and inverse functions in both decontextualized and contextualized situations and discuss our inferences of their meanings based on their activities. We conclude with implications for the teaching and learning of inverse function and areas for future research.