Changes in mechanical properties of sprinting during repeated sprint in elite rugby sevens athletes

This study aimed to analyse fatigue-induced changes in mechanical sprinting properties during a specific repeated-sprint test in elite rugby sevens athletes. Twenty elite rugby sevens players performed ten 40?m sprints on a 30?s cycle with participant’s running back and forth in a marked lane. Radar was used to assess maximal overground sprint performance over each 40?m. Macroscopic mechanical properties (maximal horizontal force (F₀), maximal horizontal power (P_max), maximal ratio of horizontal force (RF_peak), decrease in the ratio of horizontal-to-total force (D_RF), total force and maximal sprinting velocity (v₀)) were drawn from horizontal force velocity relationships, using a validated method applied to the speed–time data. Fatigue-induced changes were analysed comparing the first sprint to an average of 2^nd-4^th, 5^th-7^th and 8^th-10^th. Repeated-sprint ability (RSA) testing induced substantial changes in the maximal velocity component, with a decrease (–15%) in v₀ (effect size (ES)?=?–2.46 to –4.98), and to a lower extent (–5.9%) in the maximal force component F₀ (ES?=?–0.59). D_RF moderately decreased (14%; ES=–0.76–1.11), and RF_peak largely decreased in the later sprints (ES?=?–0.32 to –1.27). Fatigue observed in this RSA test appeared to have a greater effect on the technical ability to produce horizontal force at high velocities, likely due to an alteration in the ability to maintain horizontally oriented force application when velocity increases rather than during the initial acceleration phase, but also the overall force production capacity. The ability to maintain forward-oriented force at high velocities is of central importance for identifying fatigue and monitoring load.     

“It's in Your Heart”: How the California Mini-Corps Program and Hispanic Serving Institutions are Transforming Migrant Student Education

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a deep dive case study of the California Mini-Corps Program within the context of an Hispanic Serving Institution.     

A longitudinal study of state government homepage accessibility in Maryland and the role of web page templates for improving accessibility

It is well documented that government agencies, at all levels, continue to have problems ensuring that government web sites follow laws related to web accessibility for people with disabilities. Although there are a number of published studies on government web accessibility that are point-in-time, there are no published studies consisting of a longitudinal analysis of state-level government web site accessibility. This paper contributes to the research literature in three ways: 1) an accessibility inspection of 25 Maryland state government homepages in 2012 which involved 150 human inspections of web pages, 2) a comparison of the results from 2012 to a similar accessibility evaluation in 2009, and 3) a discussion of the role of a web page template, which was introduced in Maryland state government shortly after the 2009 evaluation. The data from this longitudinal evaluation leads to the conclusion that web page templates do tend to result in more accessible sites within state government.     

Testing Factorial Invariance of the Amotivation Inventory-Physical Education Across Gender for Urban Adolescents

Lack of motivation, or amotiation, is emerging as a critical issue in high school physical education. The Amotivation Inventory-Physical Education (Shen, Winger, Li, Sun, & Rukavina, 2010) was developed to measure the multidimensional nature of amotivation construct in physical education. This study was designed to examine the consistency of the metric properties of Amotivation Inventory-Physical Education scores by evaluating their factorial structure for invariance across gender in a sample of 985 urban inner-city high school adolescents. Latent mean invariance was also tested. Results revealed that constraining factor loadings and intercepts in sequential configural, metric, and scalar invariances had no meaningful impact on model fit. However, gender might play a role in the magnitude of factor scores. Findings suggest that the four-factor structure of the Amotivation Inventory-Physical Education is a satisfactory representation of motivational deficits for urban inner-city adolescents and provide significant validity evidence for the scale scores in urban high school settings.     

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.     

Women,torture, & spectacle on Chilean television

ABSTRACT

In the years since the fall of the civil–military dictatorships in the Southern Cone, considerable attention has been paid to first-person testimonies of human rights victims. A great number of these have been by women who narrated sexual political violence. However, while there has been work done on the relation between terror, trauma, and spectacle in postdictatorial television shows, rarely has this also included a gendered perspective. In this article we seek to open this area of discussion by evaluating the manner in which women’s televised testimonies of political sexual violence have been constructed on late night talk shows in Chile, using recent history and memory theory, as well as feminist theory on the representation of sexual violence in mass media.     

Biomechanical analyses of synchronised swimming standard and contra-standard sculling

Synchronised swimming involves a variety of sculling movements essential for body support and propulsion but its study is scarce. We aimed to biomechanically compare standard and contra-standard sculling techniques, and to observe the relationship between measures. Six synchronised swimmers performed two, 30 s maximal intensity, fully tethered standard and contra-standard sculling motions. Kinetic and kinematic data were obtained using a load-cell and underwater cameras, respectively. Force decreased along both techniques’ bouts, but no differences in-between techniques were noted for any kinetic variables. Standard sculling presented a higher cycle rate and a lower elbow mean angle than the contra-standard sculling (2.4 ± 0.3 vs. 2.0 ± 0.2 cycles/s and 134.1 ± 5.8 and 141.5 ± 4.7°, p < 0.05). In the standard sculling, by removing and maintaining the variation between participants (r _w and r, respectively), the absolute mean force was directly related with cycle rate (r _w  = 0.60) and wrist angular velocity during flexion (r = 0.82), while in the contra-standard condition the force was inversely associated with wrist mean angle (r = ?0.95) and directly with hand speed (r _w  = 0.76), and elbow angular velocity (r _w  ≈ 0.60). Therefore, technique learning and training require different attention by coaches and swimmers.