Effective conditioning of female soccer players

We compared the efficacy of three physical conditioning programmes provided over a 12 week period (24 h in total) on selected anthropometric and physical fitness parameters in female soccer players. Two of the groups received physical conditioning training in accordance with speed, agility and quickness (SAQ); one group used specialized resistance and speed development SAQ equipment (equipment group; n = 12), while the other group used traditional soccer coaching equipment (non-equipment group; n = 12). A third group received their regular fitness sessions (active control group; n = 12). All three interventions decreased (P < 0.001) the participants' body mass index (-3.7%) and fat percentage (-1.7%), and increased their flexibility (+14.7%) and maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max) (+18.4%). The participants in the equipment and non-equipment conditioning groups showed significantly (P < 0.005) greater benefits from their training programme than those in the active control group by performing significantly better on the sprint to fatigue (-11.6% for both the equipment and non-equipment groups versus -6.2% for the active control group), 25 m sprint (-4.4% vs -0.7%), left (-4.5% vs -1.0%) and right (-4.0% vs -1.4%) side agility, and vertical (+18.5% vs +4.8%) and horizontal (+7.7% vs +1.6%) power tests. Some of these differences in improvements in physical fitness between the equipment and non-equipment conditioning groups on the one hand and the active control group on the other hand were probably due to the specificity of the training programmes. It was concluded that SAQ training principles appear to be effective in the physical conditioning of female soccer players. Moreover, these principles can be implemented during whole team training sessions without the need for specialized SAQ equipment. Finally, more research is required to establish the relationship between physical fitness and soccer performance as well as the principles underlying the improvements seen through the implementation of SAQ training programmes.     

Age-related differences in vision and proprioception in a lower limb interceptive task: the effects of skill level and practice

This study examined age-related differences in the role of visual proprioception during a lower limb interceptive action and how this varies as a function of skill and practice. In Experiment 1, skilled and less-skilled 8-, 10-, and 12-year-old boys controlled a soccer ball using their preferred foot under full vision and when sight of the effector was occluded. With the exception of the high-skilled 12-year-olds and low-skilled 8-year-olds, participants showed a decrement in peformance when denied access to visual proprioception. In Experiment 2, the effect of practicing under different informational constraints was examined for 12 year-old boys. Children performed varying amounts of practice under full vision, or in a condition where sight of the foot was occluded, before being transferred to the alternative viewing condition. Participants who practiced under occluded viewing conditions showed greater relative improvement in performance over practice and transfer sessions compared with a full vision control group. Some support is provided for the manipulation of visual informational constraints as an effective pedagogical approach to motor learning.     

Ethical leadership and ethical decision making: A meta-analysis of research related to ethics education

Ethical leadership and ethical decision making in organizations have been the focus of many concerns related to ethics, especially in light of high-profile corporate scandals. The importance of educational preparation for ethical leadership has been highlighted in the general literature and the library and information science literature. This article is based on a meta-analysis of research related to ethics education in business. The meta-analysis considers issues of research design, methodologies used, populations studied and other data analyzed, the nature of the researchers, and the dissemination of the research in the journal literature. It is intended to inform the study of ethics and ethics education in general and in other professional disciplines, such as library and information science. The research results indicate the limited number of research methodologies that have been used in the study of ethics education. Past research has largely focused on undergraduates, particularly in relation to the impact of ethics curricula on their learning/cognitive development and on measures of perceptions and changes in perceptions of ethical issues.     

Journal publishing systems: outsource or in‐house?

This article describes a framework to help publishers decide whether they should develop and host their own proprietary online journal system, or whether they should outsource this activity. We also suggest a practical high‐level checklist for comparing journal systems.     

Becoming More Reflective about the Role of Design in Communication

Robert Craig's constitutive meta-model of communication reminds us that while communication scholarship may feel like discovery of communication's natural properties, it is also often (if not always) on a path to invention of new possibilities and reconstitution. The constitutive meta-model suggests that every theory of communication is also a design language for communication, and that design itself may be a path to theory development. Design inquiry can be conducted in all subdisciplines of communication, incorporating and contributing to widely disparate communication theories. Design work itself takes many forms, producing artifacts as diverse as individual messages, persuasive campaigns, interaction protocols, large-scale participation frameworks for public decision-making, and more. This special issue explores design scholarship in the field of communication, with five original essays representing different subfields and different theoretical approaches. In this introduction, we argue that design work is more than application of theory; design itself is a theory-building enterprise. It is a distinct form of inquiry that builds new knowledge, complementary to, but different in kind from, empirical and critical scholarship.     

Seeing Library Data: A Prototype Data Visualization Application for Librarians

Visualizations can add value to raw library data. Tools that programmatically make such visualizations interactive can further increase the value of these data by giving librarians visual tools to analyze their datasets. To demonstrate these benefits, Kingsborough Community College Library built SeeCollections (http://b7jl.org/seecollections), a Web application that visualizes the libraries’ collections of books and e-books. This article discusses the how SeeCollections gathers data from Kingsborough's discovery layer API (Application Programming Interface) and transforms these data to create visualizations for the Web. SeeCollections is a lightweight, proof-of-concept data application based on a vendor API. API data are often accessible in academic libraries but are frequently underutilized. SeeCollections was built to demonstrate the immediate value of these API data sources to Kingsborough librarians by providing a visual interface to discovery layer data. Keeping in mind the broader literature on data visualization, this article will explore how SeeCollections was built.     

网球运动中的科技产品

科技能帮助运动员迅速提升训练水平.在网球运动中.教练员和相关工作人员(医务、力量师、体能师和理疗师)将一些新技术运用于训练、测试和监测中,优化运动员技术,降低运动损伤的发生.心率表、3D加速计、水合测试设备和雷达枪是网球运动员训练和监控的主要设备.