Effects of replica running shoes upon external forces and muscle activity during running

Twelve participants ran (9 km · h(-1)) to test two types of running shoes: replica and original shoes. Ground reaction force, plantar pressure and electromyographic activity were recorded. The shoes were tested randomly and on different days. Comparisons between the two experimental conditions were made by analysis of variance (ANOVA) test (P ≤ 0.05). The time to first peak, loading rate of the first peak and impulse of the first 75 ms of stance were significantly different between the shoes (P ≤ 0.05), revealing an increase of impact forces for the replica shoes. The peak plantar pressure values were significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) when wearing replica shoes. During running, the contact area was significantly smaller (P ≤ 0.05) for the replica shoe. The electromyographic activity of the analysed muscles did not show changes between the two shoes in running. These findings suggest that the use of replica running shoes can increase the external load applied to the human body, but may not change the muscle activity pattern during locomotion. This new mechanical situation may increase the risk of injuries in these movements.     

The association of child abuse and neglect with adult disability in schizophrenia and the prominent role of physical neglect

ObjectiveTo assess long-lasting effects of childhood trauma on the functional outcome of adult patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.MethodNinety-nine stable patients with schizophrenia followed in an outpatient program at a public university hospital in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, were investigated for childhood traumatic experiences by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and for functional impairment by the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHO/DAS). The schizophrenia diagnosis was assessed by ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria according to the Operational Criteria Checklist for Psychotic Illness (OPCRIT).ResultsChildhood trauma in general was associated with increased disability in adulthood, reflected by impaired Overall Behavior (p = .023) and Global Evaluation (p = .032). Analysis of specific traumatic domains revealed that increased childhood physical neglect was associated with functional impairment in Overall Behavior (p < .000), Social Role Performance (p = .037) and Global Evaluation (p = .014). Higher emotional abuse was associated with impaired Overall Behavior (p = .026), and higher emotional neglect with poor Global Evaluation (p = .047). Additionally, earlier onset of illness was associated with lower level of functioning evidenced by impairment in Overall Behavior (p = .042). Linear regression using WHO/DAS sections (Overall Behavior, Social Role Performance and Global Evaluation) as dependent variables and CTQ subscales indicated that only physical neglect had an effect on adult functionality.ConclusionsChildhood trauma was associated with functional and social impairment in adult patients with schizophrenia. Specific types of abuse and neglect, such as physical neglect and emotional abuse and neglect, influenced disability, and the most robust association was physical neglect. Studies involving more patients, with normal controls and additional measurements of biological liability, should be conducted to confirm this association and to increase the understanding of gene-environment relationship in schizophrenia and pathways to disability.Practice implicationsFurther investigation is warranted to clarify the association between childhood trauma and disability in schizophrenia, as well as to develop standardized instruments for the assessment of trauma and earlier detection of risk along with education of patients and families about adequate care, in an effort to reduce the incidence of disability in schizophrenia.     

Self-directed professional development – Hope for teachers working in deprived environments?

Self-direction has been identified as a potential key to the success of professional development of teachers, especially those working in deprived environments. This paper develops a model for self-directed professional development using interview data from 55 Zimbabwean A-level Science and Mathematics teachers. It focuses on teachers' decisions about using ICT in their own professional development. Grounded theory analysis suggests seven themes underlying such decisions making, in turn representing two major attractors of self-directed professional development. These were identified as classroom efficacy, i.e. the ability to teach effectively, and professional efficacy, i.e. the ability to relate effectively within the teaching profession. This paper explores the potential of using these attractors to stimulate self-directed professional development within formal professional development programmes especially in disadvantaged communities.     

Using matrix norms to estimate the direction of arrival of planar waves on an ULA

SEAD method estimates the direction-of-arrival angles on an uniform linear array based on the difference between the two largest singular values, what is called differential spectrum. Although it presented an outstanding performance, the ability to indicate the source positions was not elucidated yet. Inspired by the differential spectrum formulation we derived a total differential spectrum and found out that the matrix norm induced by the vector 2-norm of a modified spatial covariance matrix can be used to estimate the direction-of-arrival of multiple plane waves. Indeed we show that matrix norms are estimators and we propose their use instead of the singular value decomposition in SEAD-based methods. We present a general mathematical expression in order to explicit the operating principles of the proposed methods. Consequently, we were able to explain how the relation between the arriving and the search angles produces the larger peaks on the differential spectrum. To evaluate the important role played by matrix norms, a thousand experiments were carried out. They showed that the proposed approach proved to be as accurate as the previous SEAD-based methods, while providing a significant reduction on runtime. It also outperformed well-established methods like MODEX regarding the estimation error.     

SIMULATION OF IN-CYLINDER RADIATIVE HEAT TRANSFER OF DIESEL ENGINE WITH MONTE-CARLO METHOD

ＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮＦｏｌｌｏｗｉｎｇｔｈｅｐｒｏｇｒｅｓｓｉｎｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈｏｎｉｎ ｃｙｌｉｎｄｅｒｈｅａｔｔｒａｎｓｆｅｒｐｒｏｃｅｓｓｅｓｏｆｄｉｅｓｅｌｅｎ ｇｉｎｅｓ,ｔｈｅａｎａｌｙｔｉｃａｌｅｖａｌｕａｔｉｏｎｏｆｔｈｅｒａｄｉａｔｉｖｅｈｅａｔｔｒａｎｓｆｅｒｉｓｂｅｃｏｍｉｎｇｍｏｒｅａｎｄｍｏｒｅｉｍｐｏｒ ｔａｎｔ.Ｍａｎｙｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈｅｒｓｐｒｏｐｏｓｅｄｍｏｄｅｌｓａｎｄｄｅ ｖｅｌｏｐｅｄｃｏｒｒｅｓｐｏｎｄｉｎｇａｐｐｒｏａｃｈｅｓｆｏｒｅｖａｌｕａｔｉｎｇｔ…     

Are intensified physical education sessions able to elicit heart rate at a sufficient level to promote aerobic fitness in adolescents?

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of intensified physical education sessions on adolescents ages 11-16 years. They were divided into two experimental groups--high-intensity running group (HIRG) and high-intensity jumping group (HlJG)--and a control group (C). During the sessions, heart rate (HR) was monitored. There was no significant difference between mean HR for HIRG and HIJG, while the mean HR was significantly lower for C (p < .001). For both HIRG and HIJG, the mean HR was significantly higher for girls than for boys (p < .001). Our results suggested that these intensified physical education lessons require a high percentage of maximal HR in adolescents and can be used to improve aerobic fitness.     

论云南清代彝族教育家文论家李云程

云南清代彝族李云程编著的《古文笔法百篇》,不遵成法,独辟蹊径,而取文章的笔法作 为选编的依据。从编辑学角度看,他以人为本,把教学法则运用到编纂此书中;从文章学角度看,其评论 广集众家之言,不少真知灼见,往往发他人所未发。该书成就他成为优秀的教育家、文论家。