Evening electronic device use and sleep patterns in athletes

The present study aimed to investigate pre-sleep behaviours (including evening electronic device use) and sleep quantity in well-trained athletes. Seventy well-trained athletes (44 females, 26 males) aged 21 ± 4 y from a range of team and individual sports were asked to complete an online sleep diary for 7 days. The sleep diary included questions about pre-sleep behaviours (e.g. napping, caffeine intake), electronic device use in the 2 h prior to bedtime (e.g. type of device and duration of use) and sleep (e.g. time in bed, sleep onset latency). On average, athletes spent 8:20 ± 1:21 h in bed each night. Associations between age, time in bed and sleepiness suggested that younger athletes spent more time in bed (B = -0.05, p = 0.001) but felt sleepier (r = -0.32, p < 0.01) than older athletes. On average, athletes mostly used electronic devices for 0–30 min prior to sleep. The use of multiple devices in the evening was associated with more perceived difficulty in falling asleep (B = 0.22, p = 0.03), but no associations existed with other sleep variables. In summary, younger athletes may require later start times or improved sleep quality to resolve excessive sleepiness.     

Effect of a pedometer-based intervention on daily step counts of community-dwelling older adults

This study investigated the effect of a 12-week pedometer-based intervention on daily step counts of 147 older adults randomly assigned to an intervention or wait-list control group (M age = 72.9 years, SD = 8.8). The intervention group significantly increased their daily step counts after 12 weeks (M=639, SD=2239) and continued to significantly increase during a 12-week maintenance period (M=680, SD=1721). The control group exhibited no change during the control period (M = -393, SD=2050) but had a significant increase in daily step counts (M=1580, SD=2305) when enrolled in the intervention. The pedometer-based intervention was effective in increasing participants' daily step counts.     

An objective method for depicting team performance in elite professional rugby union

Using a two-study approach, we examined a methodology for objectively depicting team performance and form in a professional rugby union side. Study 1 developed standardized indicators to examine a team's performance in a single match relative to their previous matches over a domestic season via a performance report and form chart. This resulted in standardized performance indicators that provided instant and coherent feedback on the team's performance relative to previous standards. Study 2 then utilized this methodology to compare a match between two professional sides, played the following season, to assess the extent to which the performance by one team affected that of the other. Comparison of the two teams' performances, for the match they played against each other, identified a drop in relative performance (against previous standards) for both teams on the same performance indicators. This appeared to be due to the match being a close, hard-fought contest particularly in the tackle and around the gain-line. The findings of the two studies suggest an accurate and viable methodology for depicting team performance that is superior to the global measures previously adopted. Presenting teams' current standardized performances (i.e. form) on a single visual scale also has utility for coaches within an applied setting. Future research should further investigate the effect of one team's performance on another through both individual and team outcomes.     

Humility & Humiliation: The Transformation of Franciscan Humour,c.1210–1310

Humiliation and self-ridicule worked as surprisingly important tools of evangelical outreach in the first decades of the Franciscan Order (c.1210–50). According to early Franciscan texts such as the Assisi Compilation (c.1240s) and Jordan of Giano’s Chronica (c.1260), St Francis and his earliest followers sought to win supporters by stripping naked in public, mocking learned preachers and ludicrously imitating animals. Yet within a few decades of the founder’s death this type of humour had been erased from Franciscan texts. Chronicles now omitted references to Francis’s laughter, while humiliating behaviour came to be condemned by Franciscan preachers, chroniclers and theologians alike. From being a means of undermining dignity and reason, joking was now instead celebrated as a tool of upholding these very same values. Describing the nature of this shift, and contextualising it within the evolving institutional priorities of the Franciscans under the leadership of Bonaventure (d.1274), this article will complicate debates about the development of medieval humour, while also reflecting on laughter’s role as a means of resistance to the significant social and cultural upheavals of the 1200s.     

A survey on the light-fastness properties of organic-based Alaska Native artifacts

A series of light-fastness tests were conducted on a group of ethnographic objects that will be on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution Arctic Studies Center, a recent addition to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center in Alaska. The objects surveyed belong to the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. This work was designed as a feasibility study on the use of a micro-fading tester as a non-contact and non-destructive technique to evaluate the light-stability of materials present in ethnographic collections. A broad range of objects containing a wide variety of materials were selected for the study. The materials investigated included a variety of dyes applied on silk, cotton, and wool substrates along with some unusual materials such as tanned skin and seal gut skin. The results from this investigation have allowed establishing exhibition recommendations taking into consideration the sensitivity of each object, light levels in the museum building, and estimated light exposures based on the duration of the exhibit. The micro-fading tester has proven to be a very useful tool for determining the light-stability of ethnographic materials without causing any harm to the objects. Objects containing equivalent materials are usually classified under a general category based on their probable sensitivity to light. However, micro-fading test results have permitted the detection of dissimilarities among some of these objects, which could be associated to variations in prior fading histories, the quality of raw materials, and different preparation methods.     

Reflections on “teaching discrete skills to students with moderate mental retardation in small‐group instructional arrangements”

Several response‐prompting strategies exist for teaching students with disabilities (Wolery, Ault, & Doyle, 1992). With these strategies, prompts are provided to ensure that students perform the target behaviors in the presence of the target stimuli. However, to transfer stimulus control from the prompts to the target stimuli (i.e., to establish independent and appropriate responding), the prompts must be faded. Often, the various strategies differ on the manner in which prompts are faded.