Emergence of Global Shape Processing Continues Through Adolescence

The developmental trajectory of perceptual organization in humans is unclear. This study investigated perceptual grouping abilities across a wide age range (8–30 years) using a classic compound letter global/local (GL) task and a more fine-grained microgenetic prime paradigm (MPP) with both few- and many-element hierarchical displays. In the GL task, contrary to adults, both children and adolescents exhibited a classic local bias. In the MPP, all 3 age groups evinced a bias to individuate the few-element displays; however, the ability to encode the global shape of the many-element displays at the short prime durations increased with age. These results indicate that the full process of garnering shape information from perceptual grouping, which is essential for the ability to do fast and efficient object recognition and identification, develops late into adolescence.     

Education Quality in the Middle East

Some of the most dramatic growth in the provision of primary and secondary education over the last decade has occurred across countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Yet student achievement across MENA is lagging compared to many other parts of the world. Low quality of education is a primary concern and one of the greatest challenges facing education and government leaders across the region. This paper summarises recent evidence regarding student learning in the MENA region and draws on Galal’s model of policy formulation in considering ways that governments across the Middle East might address this problem.     

Consonance and dissonance in a study abroad program as a catalyst for professional development of pre-service teachers

This research examines the experiences of elementary and early childhood pre-service teachers from the U.S. engaged in a month long study abroad internship program in England. Using data from participants written journals, we use a hermeneutic approach to interrogate their evolving sense of professional development and their understanding of cultural differences in the internship in England. Informed by a theoretical framework of consonance and dissonance (Cochran-Smith, M. (1991). Reinventing student teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 42(2), 104–118), the emerging themes were related to the school context, the teacher's role, the learners, the buildings, and the community. Implications are for planning and facilitation of pre-service teachers study abroad experiences are discussed.     

Does variability within natural turfgrass sports fields influence ground-derived injuries?

Natural turfgrass sports fields exhibit within-field variations due to climatic conditions, field construction, field management, and foot traffic patterns from field usage. Variations within a field could influence the playing surface predictability and require athletes to make abrupt or frequent adjustments that lead to increased ground-derived injury occurrence. This study introduces a new methodology aimed at evaluating the potential relationship between within-field variations of turfgrass sports field properties and ground-derived athlete injuries. Collegiate Club Sport athletes self-reported ground-derived injuries over two years. Soil moisture, turfgrass quality, surface hardness, and turfgrass shear strength were quantified from their two home fields. Hot spot analysis identified significantly high (hot spots) and low (cold spots) values within the fields. Injury locations were compared to hot spot maps each month. Binomial proportion tests determined if there were differences between observed injury proportions and expected proportions. Twenty-three ground-derived injuries were reported overall. The observed injury proportions occurring in turfgrass quality cold spots [0.52 (95% CI 0.29–0.76)] and soil moisture hot spots [0.43 (95% CI 0.22–0.66)] was significantly higher than expected [0.20 (p?p?相似文献   

Cellular activation of selected signaling proteins through resistance training—a training methodological perspective

The Akt-mTOR-p70^S6k-4E-BP1 signaling pathway is a well-considered regulator of protein synthesis in the context of strength training. This process is essential for exercise-induced skeletal muscle growth. The objective of this review article was to analyze the design of acute resistance training protocols and evaluate the possible impact of different loading conditions on the activation of growth-related signaling cascades in human skeletal muscle. In all, 12 human studies were included in this review. The training intensity in the studies varied between 30% 1RM (one repetition maximum) and maximal load. The signaling proteins were measured in a time range between immediately and 24?h after training.The phosphorylation of all signaling proteins increased to different levels after resistance training, tending to baseline more than 6?h post training. In particular, the hypertrophic associated p70^S6k showed the highest phosphorylation acutely after the load and decreased consistently after 6?h. Training intensity and volume seemed to have an influence on the extent of protein phosphorylation, which, however, was not systematic or consistent. An obvious training methodological consequence (load and volume) for hypertrophic resistance training regime could not be devised. Further research is required to systematically vary training parameters to determine the influence of a certain stress zone on the signaling activation. Future research should aim to identify the ideal level of training intensity necessary to achieve the greatest possible extent of intramuscular anabolic signaling through intense activation of the signaling cascade to induce growth in human skeletal muscle.