Perceptual-cognitive expertise when refereeing the scrum in rugby union

Compared to sports performers, relatively little is known about how sports officials make decisions at a perceptual-cognitive level. Thus, this study examined the decision-making accuracy and gaze behaviour of rugby union referees of varying skill levels while reviewing scrum scenarios. Elite (n = 9) and trainee (n = 9) referees, as well as experienced players (n = 9), made decisions while watching ten projected scrum clips and wearing a mobile eye-tracker. Decision-making accuracy and gaze behaviour were recorded for each scrum. The elite and trainee referees made more accurate decisions than the players, and differences in gaze behavior were observed. The elite and trainee referees displayed lower search rates, spent more time fixating central-pack (i.e., front rows, binds, and contact point) and less time fixating outer-pack (e.g., second rows) and non-pack (e.g., other) locations, and exhibited lower entropy than the players. While search rate failed to predict decision-making accuracy, the time spent fixating central-, outer-, and non-pack locations, as well as entropy, were significant predictors. The findings have implications for training perceptual-cognitive skill among sports officials.     

Training rugby athletes with an external attentional focus promotes more automatic adaptions in landing forces

Training to reduce landing forces is a common component of anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention programmes. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of training incorporating instructions promoting an internal versus external attentional focus on landing forces in adolescent rugby athletes. Twenty-two rugby athletes were randomly allocated to groups that received instructions promoting an internal versus an external focus during a two week training programme. Landing forces were recorded before and after completion of the programme. During follow-up testing, landings were performed with and without a secondary cognitive task. Both groups exhibited a similar reduction in landing forces following training for trials performed without the secondary cognitive task. However, the groups responded differently when the secondary cognitive task was imposed. Athletes who were trained with an internal focus demonstrated a prominent increase in landing forces for trials that included the secondary cognitive task (vs. trials performed without the secondary cognitive task), whereas the secondary cognitive task had minimal influence for athletes who were trained with an external focus. It appears that training with an external focus may promote adaptations in landing mechanics that can be implemented more automatically.     

Potential benefits of dietary nitrate ingestion in healthy and clinical populations: A brief review

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the current literature relating to the efficacy of dietary nitrate (NO₃^?) ingestion in altering aspects of cardiovascular and metabolic health and exercise capacity in healthy and diseased individuals. The consumption of NO₃^?-rich vegetables, such as spinach and beetroot, have been variously shown to promote nitric oxide bioavailability, reduce systemic blood pressure, enhance tissue blood flow, modulate muscle O₂ utilisation and improve exercise tolerance both in normoxia and in hypoxia, as is commonly observed in a number of disease states. NO₃^? ingestion may, therefore, act as a natural means for augmenting performance and attenuating complications associated with limited O₂ availability or transport, hypertension and the metabolic syndrome. Recent studies indicate that dietary NO₃^? might also augment intrinsic skeletal muscle contractility and improve the speed and power of muscle contraction. Moreover, several investigations suggest that NO₃^? supplementation may improve aspects of cognitive performance both at rest and during exercise. Collectively, these observations position NO₃^? as more than a putative ergogenic aid and suggest that increasing natural dietary NO₃^? intake may act as a prophylactic in countering the predations of senescence and certain cardiovascular-metabolic diseases.     

Exercise Training in Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: A Case Report

Purpose: To describe the benefits of a feasible, outpatient exercise training program on exercise tolerance and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in individuals with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Methods: Case report on two subjects recruited from a tertiary care pulmonary hypertension clinic. Subject 1 was a 50-year-old male with idiopathic PAH. Subject 2 was a 54-year-old female with a 20+ year history of scleroderma and 6-year history of PAH. Both subjects underwent exercise training 3 times per week for 6 weeks using a cycle ergometer at workloads progressing from 50% to 80% of peak workload. Outcomes were assessed using cardiopulmonary exercise testing, six-minute walk test (6MWT), and HRQL using the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (CRQ) and the Cambridge Pulmonary Hypertension Outcome Review (CAMPHOR). Results: Both subjects made substantial improvements in oxygen consumption and workload at anaerobic threshold (improvements of 3.8 and 4.2 mL·kg⁻¹·min,⁻¹ 26 and 18 W, respectively) and 6MWT distance (from 496 to 586m and 416 to 517m, respectively). Only Subject 1 made substantial improvements in peak oxygen consumption (from 16.0 to 18.3 mL·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹and from 15.0 to 15.6 mL·kg⁻¹·min,⁻¹ respectively) and peak work rate (from 112 to 130W and 66 to 69W, respectively). Both subjects demonstrated improved HRQL. No adverse events were noted. CONCLUSIONS: A short and practical exercise training program can improve measures of workload, aerobic capacity, and HRQL in individuals with PAH with no adverse effects shown in these two case studies.Key Words: pulmonary arterial hypertension, exercise training     

Play in the house of order: The Necessary Stage's BrainStorm

Abstract

This article opens up the question of modernity in relation to Yan’an woodcuts by recounting the Matisse debate among artists in Yan’an circa 1942, during the War of Resistance against Japanese occupation. Yan’an woodcuts did not move in a direction akin to the stylistic reform engaged by Western modernism; instead they pushed modern Chinese woodcuts to develop according to the requirements of ‘national form.’ Yan’an woodcut artists’ exploration of ‘national form’ involved a synthesis of folk aesthetics and woodcut techniques with the creation of modern‐style woodcuts, and a synthesis of revolutionary content with the artistic expression of national form. In this way a new kind of artistic ideal was realized. Compared with contemporary artistic questions in the West, the formal questions of Chinese revolutionary art surpassed the artistic as such to support rich social content and revolutionary discourse. The establishment of national language in art accords with the desire and imagination to construct of a new kind of modern nation‐state.     

Gendered nationalism and otherization: transnational prostitutes in South Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand how masculine ideologies become (re)produced in the trope around transnational prostitution, by examining a lawsuit case concerning Filipina prostitutes in Korea. While several actors, including nation‐states, journalists, and activists engaged in constructing the images of Filipina prostitutes as ‘sex slaves,’ as ‘deceived or exploited victims’, or as ‘abused poor women,’ the actual economic, political and cultural processes that contribute to the complex process of women crossing borders are elided. Such homogeneous images of transnational prostitutes function to symbolically demarcate and maintain the boundaries of the nation, gender, and sexuality, and to neglect actual women’s agency and experiences as workers. This paper demonstrates how, complicit in the representations of the transnational prostitutes as victims, are ideologies of traditional gender norms, nationalism, and colonialism. Ultimately, I argue that this case will enable us to re‐examine contemporary discourses on trafficking and transnational prostitution in a more critical and subversive feminist perspective.     

The concurrent validity of the peabody individual achievement test relative to the KeyMath diagnostic arithmetic test among adolescents

To investigate the concurrent validity of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test and the KeyMath Diagnostic Arithmetic Test, both instruments were administered to 171 adolescents. Math scores on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test were correlated with all scores on the KeyMath Diagnostic Arithmetic Test. Partial correlation coefficients were computed according to age, sex, race, IQ, and total group. The presence of relatively high and positive partial correlations between the scores supported the concurrent validity of the instruments.     

Effect of a prolonged altitude expedition on glucose tolerance and abdominal fatness

In the present study, we investigated the effect of a long-term mountain expedition on glucose tolerance and insulin action. Twelve registered mountaineers ages 31 years (SD = 1.1) participated in a 25-day expedition at a 2,200-3,800-m altitude with an average duration of 8 hr per day. Arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) was substantially reduced during hiking. Glucose tolerance and insulin responses were measured prior to and twice during the expedition period. Maximal oxygen consumption increased from 43.0 +/- 2.7 to 49.1 +/- 2.2 mL/kg/min. Percentage of body fat decreased from 19.4 +/- 6.8% to 16.9 +/- 5.9%. The area under the curves for insulin and glucose during the oral glucose tolerance test were also reduced in Days 3 and 25. The present study demonstrated that altitude hiking activity is an effective lifestyle intervention to improve insulin action.     

Science teachers' social conscience and the role of controversial issues in the teaching of science

The increasing number and variety of controversial scientific and technological issues with which citizens are confronted has led, in recent years, to calls for a schooling of science which prepares future citizens for participation in resolving such issues. We examined the social conscience of science teachers as it bears on the teaching of controversial issues. The study was conducted by interviewing teachers in two widely different English-speaking locations, Scotland and the United States. The research explores the perceptions of teachers with regard to the teaching of controversial issues, the problem of handling personal value positions when dealing with issues, and the tension that exists between the teaching of controversial issues and traditional value-free science curricula. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.