Comparison of accelerometer and pedometer measures of physical activity in boys and girls, ages 8-10 years

Accelerometers record total physical activity and time spent at different intensities. Pedometers indicate total activity only. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between pedometer counts and attainment of > or = 60 min of moderate activity. Thirty-four children, ages 8-10 years, wore a Tritrac accelerometer and Yamax pedometer. Published recommendations of steps per day were compared to attainment of > or = 60 min moderate activity. Boys who accumulated 13,000 steps.d(-1) and girls who accumulated 12,000 steps.d(-1) engaged in > or = 60 min moderate activity. However, 23% of boys and 15% of girls did not reach the pedometer thresholds but did engage in > or = 60 min moderate activity. In conclusion, these pedometer thresholds provide a reasonable estimation when assessment of physical activity intensity is not possible.     

Learning at any time: Supporting student learning wherever it happens

A new residential college and a faculty-in-residence program demonstrate how student affairs educators and academic faculty at one institution have collaborated to create transformational learning experiences for their students.     

Cognitive models: The missing link to learning fraction multiplication and division

This quasi-experimental study aims to streamline cognitive models on fraction multiplication and division that contain the most worthwhile features of other existing models. Its exploratory nature and its approach to proof elicitation can be used to help establish its effectiveness in building students’ understanding of fractions as compared to the traditional algorithmic way of teaching, vis-à-vis the students’ negative notions about learning fractions. Interestingly, the study showed the benefits and drawbacks of using these cognitive models in the teaching and learning of mathematics.     

Development of a test device for testing soccer boots under gamerelevant highrisk loading conditions

Soccer boots are the most important piece of equipment used by a soccer player. They have been improved from heavy bold leather shoes to lightweight aerodynamic designer objects. As traction is one of the key factors of performance, industry experiments with new stud designs, hoping to improve traction behaviour in the different directions. However, excessive traction may contribute to the occurrence of non-contact injuries of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Therefore, many researchers have investigated the shoe-surface interaction of studded boots with mechanical test devices. As yet, a final conclusion regarding correlation between stud design and ACL injuries has not been obtained. Most of the current test devices do not test the soccer boots under game-relevant loading conditions. A new approach has been taken in order to overcome this limitation. In the first step, real ACL injury situations were analysed in detail. The results of this analysis were then used as input data for a multi-body computer model of the human body, to calculate internal forces at the injured leg. Based on this data, a new test device, the TrakTester, was developed including an artificial lower leg with a replica human ankle joint. This paper presents details of the development of the new traction test device and gives an overview of the research options the TrakTester may provide for the future.     

Publishing activity of Russian scientists according to SCI and SCOPUS databases

This paper cites statistical data describing the tendencies in Russian scientists’ publishing activity in the period from 1993 to 2006 according to the DB Web of Science (WOS). An important result of the research is the fact that about 50% of the papers written by Russian authors were published in foreign scientific journals used to prepare the WOS. This is a demonstration that Russian science is highly integrated into international science. To conduct a comparative analysis of the scientific productivity of the Russian scientists we used statistics obtained from the SCOPUS information system and presented in the SJR portal.     

Overshadowing in the spatial domain

In Experiments 1 and 2, rats were trained in a Morris water maze to locate a hidden platform, the location of which in the circular pool was defined by four visual landmarks (A, B, C, and D), spaced at equal intervals around the edge of the pool. Control animals were trained with these four visual landmarks only. But for animals in the overshadowing groups, an auditory component, X, was added to Landmark D. Test trials, given at the end of training, consisted of placing the rat in the pool with no platform present and recording the time rats spent in the platform quadrant. In Experiment 1, the overshadowing group spent less time in the platform quadrant than controls when tested with D, but the two groups performed equally well on test trials that did not use D. We conclude that the auditory Component X overshadowed the visual Landmark D. In Experiment 2, we obtained evidence of reciprocal overshadowing, of D by X and of X by D. The results of Experiment 3 suggested that an appeal to generalization decrement might not be sufficient to explain these overshadowing effects.