Lower leg and foot contributions to turnout in female pre-professional dancers: A 3D kinematic analysis

Turnout is a central element of classical ballet which involves sustained external rotation of the lower limbs during dance movements. Lower leg and foot compensation mechanisms which are often used to increase turnout have been attributed to the high incidence of lower limb injury in dancers. Evaluation of dancers’ leg posture is needed to provide insight into the lower limb kinematic strategies used to achieve turnout. The primary purpose of this study was to use 3D kinematic analyses to determine the lower leg and foot compensations that are incorporated by female university dancers to accentuate their turnout. Active and passive external tibiofemoral rotation (TFR) was also measured. A moderate-strong negative relationship was observed between hip external rotation (HER) and foot abduction in the three first position conditions. A moderate negative relationship was found between passive TFR and foot abduction in all first position conditions. Our findings suggest dancers are more likely to pronate, than rotate the knee to compensate for limited HER. Dancers with a limited capacity to pronate may force additional rotation via the knee. Ongoing research would benefit from more in-depth analyses of the foot/ankle complex using a multi-segment foot model.     

Inflammatory and apoptotic signalling pathways and concussion severity: a genetic association study

The objective was to investigate the relationship between IL-1B rs16944, IL-6 rs1800795, and CASP8 rs3834129 genetic polymorphisms and concussion severity. Rugby players from high school, senior amateur, and professional teams completed a concussion severity questionnaire and donated a DNA sample. Participants (n = 163) were split into symptom severity groups around the median number and duration of symptoms. The frequency of participants with high symptom counts (more than five symptoms) increased across the IL-1B (C/C: 35%; C/T: 51%; T/T: 56%; P = 0.047) and the IL-6 (C/C: 31%; C/G: 44%; G/G: 58%; P = 0.027) genotypes. The C–C inferred interleukin allele construct frequency, created from combining the IL-1B and IL-6 genotype data, was lower in participants reporting a high symptom count (18%), compared to those with a low symptom count (fewer than six symptoms, 36%, P = 0.002). Similarly, the C–C inferred interleukin allele construct frequency was lower in those reporting prolonged symptom duration (more than one week, 16%), as opposed to short symptom duration (less than one week, 34%, P = 0.015). This study provides evidence of novel inflammatory pathway genetic associations with concussion severity, which supports the hypothesis implicating neuroinflammation in the development of concussion symptoms.     

Cycling performance is superior for time-to-exhaustion versus time-trial in endurance laboratory tests

Time-to-exhaustion (TTE) trials are used in a laboratory setting to measure endurance performance. However, there is some concern with their ecological validity compared with time-trials (TT). Consequently, we aimed to compare cycling performance in TTE and TT where the duration of the trials was matched. Seventeen trained male cyclists completed three TTE trials at 80, 100 and 105% of maximal aerobic power (MAP). On a subsequent visit they performed three TT over the same duration as the TTE. Participants were blinded to elapsed time, power output, cadence and heart rate (HR). Average TTE was 865 ± 345 s, 165 ± 98 s and 117 ± 45 s for the 80, 100 and 105% trials respectively. Average power output was higher for TTE (294 ± 44 W) compared to TT (282 ± 43 W) at 80% MAP (P < 0.01), but not at 100 and 105% MAP (P > 0.05). There was no difference in cadence, HR, or RPE for any trial (P > 0.05). Critical power (CP) was also higher when derived from TTE compared to TT (P < 0.01). It is concluded that TTE results in a higher average power output compared to TT at 80% MAP. When determining CP, TTE rather than TT protocols appear superior.     

Can alcohol sponsorship be diluted by health messaging?

Concerns surround the association between alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption amongst audiences. Research has examined the link in broadcast sports, yet limited attention is directed towards newer media. This paper examines whether there is a link between alcohol sponsorship in sports games and alcohol brand recall, recognition and choice, and whether in-game health messages moderate this association. Simulated games designed specifically for this study are used to observe whether in-game alcohol sponsorship combined with embedded health messages affect the player’s brand awareness. Findings highlight the influence of in-game alcohol sponsorship placement on brand awareness, yet embedded health messages do not impact consumer behaviours. This research provides evidence suggesting regulations in games may be warranted and further examination of health messaging in sponsor brand placement necessary.     

Pre-service teachers in an after school program: increasing understanding of students,communities, and teaching

The purpose of the After School Creative Expression Program (ASCEP) was to provide a short-term afterschool program focusing on the visual and written creative arts to a group of elementary school children attending a Title 1 school. Pre-service teachers attending a liberal arts university within the same geographic region developed lessons in writing and photography and served as afterschool educators for ASCEP. The program provided pre-service teachers a valuable experience outside the classroom. Findings demonstrate pre-service educators gained new insights from ASCEP that will impact their teaching practices during school. Overall, results show ASCEP provided future educators with valuable learning experiences and opportunities to connect more deeply with their students and their community.     

Validating a shortened form of the ARC for special populations

Autonomy describes cognition or behavior that is self-directed, according to personal interests, and free from external influence. This construct is of importance to students who are deaf because it has been shown to be positively related to their post-school transition outcomes, and this population faces unique challenges in this area. To conduct research with this construct, it is necessary to use measures that are valid and reliable for the population of interest. Therefore, a set of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses validated the unidimensionality of a shortened form of the ARC Self-Determination Scale’s autonomy dimension. A three-factor solution, including a social skills dimension, was measurement-invariant across many groups of students, including those with learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, speech and language impairments, and other health impairments. Although the shortened form of this scale was not unidimensional, as hypothesized, the generalizability of its measurement properties may prove useful. Discussion highlights the differences between these three dimensions and Wehmeyer's theory of self-determination.     

How Community Colleges in Texas Prioritize Resources for Latino Men

This study explored how administrators at community colleges conceptualized change related to resource allocation and managing competing priorities to support targeted programming for Latino men. The study included the perspectives of 39 administrators from seven community colleges across Texas using concepts associated with institutional change to ground our analysis. Findings revealed that state and national initiatives, particularly those concerned with enhancing success for students of color, influenced how community college administrators approached change on their campuses. In addition, community college institutional mission, leadership, and a desire for data-informed resource management influenced the approach to resource allocation for Latino men.     

Preparing beginning teachers for inclusion: designing and assessing supplementary fieldwork experiences

Inclusive education requires restructuring educational provision so that mainstream schools are able to provide for the needs of all students in their communities. To help realise this goal, initial teacher education programmes need to better prepare new graduates for teaching students with complex special education needs, including students with intellectual disability. Concerns about the capacity of current school-based placements to prepare new teachers for inclusive classrooms have led some teacher education institutions to develop supplementary fieldwork experiences. The current study involved an investigation into such an experience and looked at the benefits to pre-service teachers (PSTs) of tutoring a young adult with intellectual disability. The findings indicate that PSTs learned effective strategies for differentiating a programme of work and, in their first year of study, were developing a teacher identity. The importance of aligning experiences with coursework units is highlighted and the need for valid assessments of how well initial teacher education programmes are preparing beginning teachers for inclusion, and what these assessments may look like, is discussed.     

Competing Activation During Fantasy Text Comprehension

During comprehension, readers’ general world knowledge and contextual information compete for influence during integration and validation. Fantasy narratives, in which general world knowledge often conflicts with fantastical events, provide a setting to examine this competition. Experiment 1 showed that with sufficient elaboration, contextual information can dominate the integration and validation of fantastical information. In Experiments 2a and 2b, contextual support was diminished and general world knowledge dominated integration and validation and disrupted fantasy comprehension. Experiment 3 demonstrated that skilled readers make better use of contextual elaborations during integration and validation than less skilled readers, leading to different consequences for comprehension.     

Learning opportunities in the outdoor school–empirical findings on outdoor school in Germany from the children’s perspective

This article examines learning processes and learning opportunities in the outdoor school based on 13 focus-group interviews with children (ages 8–9) at three German elementary schools. For 1 year, cross-curricular teaching had taken place once a week outside the classroom—in natural settings, at cultural sites or on school grounds. The article discusses the learning potential of the outdoor school in terms of activities that the children perceive as dominant, i.e. playing, moving and social cooperation. It will discuss and reflect upon the learning opportunities that arise as well as on the limitations of learning in out-of-school settings and the role of learning in the children’s perception. The study reveals that the outdoor school as a place of teaching, play, exploration and experience offers formal and informal learning opportunities and encourages children to engage among themselves and within their social and inanimate surroundings by challenging them physically, cognitively, perceptually and socially. Learning processes initiated through play, activity and social cooperation are often not perceived by the children as ‘learning’ in the formal sense. Apparently, a significant proportion of the outdoor school’s potential lies in the combination of teacher-structured and informal learning processes that arise spontaneously.