On fundamental mechanisms in dye sensitized solar cells through the behaviour of different mesoporous titanium dioxide films

Understanding mechanisms in DSSCs is fundamental for their improvement; this includes the nanocrystalline semiconducting layer behaviour. Different mesoporous TiO2 layers are fabricated and analyzed for possible use in DSSC solar cells. The preparations included the addition of P123 triblock copolymer as structuring agent to the synthesized anatase sol. This preparation was also mixed with Degussa P25 nanoparticles in one case and polystyrene latex in another. Mesoporous mixed TiO2-SiO2 thin layers were also analyzed. The diverse morphology and features are studied by microscopic techniques and by means of spectral quantum efficiency of a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) that uses as photoelectrode the unsensitized porous TiO\_2 layer. Contact angle measurements are also performed. We have found that a very high specific area due to very small nanocrystals and small pores can hinder electrolyte penetration in the pores formed by TiO\_2 nanograins, affecting photoelectrodes efficiency

Rita ou Fé nos reveses da vida : Biografias e autobiografias e os (des)limites entre ficção e não ficção

Esta tese está vinculada à área de concentração Estudos de Literatura, linha de pesquisa Estudos literários aplicados – Literatura, Ensino e Escrita Criativa, pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), e divide-se em duas partes: uma ensaística e outra ficcional. Na primeira parte, são abordados conceitos e definições de memória, biografias e autobiografias, e aborda-se ainda o que a teoria literária tem chamado de “autobiografias de pessoas que não escrevem”. O cerne da pesquisa está no debate acerca da possibilidade ou não de se reconstruir uma vida a partir do texto, e para isso busca-se analisar duas vertentes principais, uma jornalística e historiográfica, e outra mais literária. Interessam ainda os estudos a respeito do fazer autobiográfico a partir do outro. A segunda parte da tese é constituída por um romance baseado na vida de uma pessoa real, texto que começou a ser escrito como biografia antes de ser categorizado como ficção.This paper owes to the field of Applied Literary Studies – Literature, Teaching and Creative Writing, part of the Literature Studies concentration area, developed at the Graduate Program in Languages from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), and it has two parts: a theoretical and a fictional one. The first part addresses concepts and definitions of memory, biographies and autobiographies, as well as a topic that literary theory has called “autobiographies of people who do not write”. The core of the paper is a debate about the possibility of a life being reconstructed from a text, and, for that, two main strands were analyzed: one journalistic and historiographical, and the other, literary. Studies in which the autobiography is written by someone else are also of interest to this paper. The second part consists of a novel based on the life of a real person, along with a text that began as a biography before being categorized as fiction

Developmental activities that contribute to creative decision making in skilled soccer players

The ability to produce creative decisions during match-play is a key attribute of team sports players (Memmert & Roca, 2019). Yet, very few researchers have studied how this type of creative behavior is acquired and developed in the sporting domain. The aim of this study was to assess the link between sport-specific creative decision making and prior engagement in developmental activities in skilled adult soccer players. Players were classified as either high- or low-creative decision makers based on their performance on an established soccer-specific video-based creativity test. Their decisions on the test were measured using the three observation criteria for creativity of originality, flexibility, and fluency. We used retrospective recall questionnaires to collect participation history data on their engagement in soccer and other sport development activities. Results showed that the high-creative decision-making group accumulated significantly more hours per year (M = 345 h · year – 1) in free, unstructured soccer-specific play activity during childhood and early adolescence (6-15 years of age) when compared to those classified as low-creative (M = 192 h · year – 1). No differences were reported for hours per year in soccer-specific formal practice or competition between the two groups throughout their development. Moreover, hours accumulated in other sports and milestones achieved did not differentiate groups. Our findings suggest that informal unorganized, free play in the primary sport is positively associated with and necessary for the development of superior levels of creative decision making in this sport

Does decision making transfer across similar and dissimilar sports?

Objectives: The ability to make decisions under time pressure is crucial to performance in sport. However, there remains a paucity of research that examines whether the skills underpinning decision-making transfer across similar or dissimilar sports. We examine whether decision making transfers from soccer to other sports that may be deemed to be either similar (basketball) or dissimilar (tennis) based on sports taxonomy. Methods: Skilled soccer players (N = 20) completed a video-based temporal occlusion test designed to measure decision-making involving offensive sequences of play from soccer, basketball, and tennis. Participants were required to decide on an appropriate action to execute for each situation presented. Results: Response accuracy was higher in the soccer decision-making task compared to the basketball and tennis tasks. Furthermore, accuracy scores were higher on the basketball compared to the tennis task. Conclusions: There appears to be some positive transfer of decision-making between sports that share similar elements, supporting the importance both of specificity and generality in expert performance

Developmental activities that contribute to creativity in soccer players

Introduction: The most skilled soccer players create excitement for spectators when they touch the ball because they often produce unique, creative actions during match-play. The ability to produce creative decisions in game situations is a key attribute of team sports players (Memmert & Roca, 2019). Yet very few researchers have studied how this type of creative behavior is acquired and developed in the sporting domain. The aim of this study was to assess the link between sport-specific creative decision making and prior engagement in developmental activities in skilled adult soccer players. Methods: Players were classified as either high- or low-creative decision makers based on their performance on an established soccer-specific video-based creativity test. Their solutions on the test were measured using the three observation criteria for creativity of originality, flexibility, and fluency of decisions. We used retrospective recall questionnaires to collect participation history data on their engagement in soccer and other sport development activities. Results: The high-creative group spent significantly more average hours per year (M = 345 h · year – 1) in free, unstructured soccer-specific play activity during childhood and early adolescence (i.e., 6-15 years of age) when compared with their low-creative counterparts (M = 192 h · year – 1). No differences were reported for hours per year in soccer-specific formal practice or competition between the two groups throughout their development. Moreover, hours accumulated in other sports, as well as milestones achieved, did not differentiate groups. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that informal unorganized, free play in the primary sport is positively associated with and necessary for the development of superior levels of creative decision making in this sport

The effects of anxiety and situation-specific context on perceptual–motor skill: a multi-level investigation

We examined the effects of anxiety and situation- specific contextual information on attentional, interpretational, and behavioural processes underpinning perceptual– motor performance as proposed by Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans (2012) using an in situ task. Twelve skilled cricket batsmen played against a skilled spin bowler under conditions manipulated to induce low and high levels of anxiety and the presence of low and high levels of situation-specific context. High anxiety decreased the number of good bat– ball contacts, while high levels of situation-specific context increased the number of times the ball was missed. When under high anxiety, participants employed significantly more fixations of shorter duration to more locations, but the effects of anxiety were restricted to the attentional level only. Situation-specific context affected performance and behavioural measures but not anxiety, cognitive load or perceptual–cognitive processes, suggesting that performance is influenced through different mechanisms from anxiety that are independent of working memory load

An investigation of the cognitive processes underlying soccer coaches’ decision-making during competition

The ability of coaches to make effective decisions that can impact positively on a team’s performance during competition is a fundamental skill in coaching, especially in fast, dynamic team sports such as soccer. Yet, there has been little research attention given to exploring the thought processes underpinning coaches’ decision-making during soccer match-play. We used a think aloud protocol analysis to explore the cognitions of skilled (n = 10) and less-skilled (n = 10) adult soccer coaches while required to watch and coach one of the teams during a sequence of representative videos clips of a soccer match first-half. The clips offered a perspective view from the dugout and were played in chronological order to provide a realistic representation of the match context. At the end of the first-half, coaches were also asked to verbalize their thoughts about what they would say to the team at half-time. During first-half match-play, skilled coaches verbalized a greater percentage of thoughts related to performance and tactical evaluations, and the planning of actions, whereas less-skilled coaches mostly monitored the ongoing game actions or events (all ps < .05). Moreover, during half-time skilled soccer coaches generated a greater proportion of relevant planning strategies that aimed to improve team performance for the second half than less-skilled participants (p < .05). Our findings suggest that skilled soccer coaches’ more advanced memory representations of the game enable them to easily retrieve task-specific information in order to make more relevant evaluations and plan better strategic decisions compared with their less skilled counterparts

Cognitive processes underpinning soccer coaches’ decision-making during competition

The ability of coaches to make effective decisions that can impact positively on a team’s performance during competition is a fundamental skill in coaching, especially in fast, dynamic team sports such as soccer. Yet, there has been little research attention given to exploring the thought processes underpinning coaches’ decision-making during soccer match-play. We used a think aloud protocol analysis to explore the cognitions of skilled and less-skilled soccer coaches who were required to watch and coach a team during representative video clips of a soccer match first half. At the end of the first half of the match, coaches were also asked to verbalise their thoughts of what they would do or say to the team at half-time. We further assessed the quality of decisions made at half-time. During first-half match-play, skilled coaches verbalised more thoughts related to performance and tactical evaluations, and the planning of actions than less-skilled coaches, who mostly monitored the ongoing game actions or events. Moreover, during half-time skilled coaches made more appropriate decisions which were underpinned by more relevant planning strategies aimed at improving team performance for the second half than less-skilled participants. Findings enhance our understanding of cognitive expertise in coaches’ decision-making performance during competition

BDNF-Gene Transfected Schwann Cell-Assisted Axonal Extension and Sprouting on New PLA-PPy Microfiber Substrates

[EN] The work here reported analyzes the effect of increased efficiency of brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) production by electroporated Schwann cells (SCs) on the axonal extension in a coculture system on a biomaterial platform that can be of interest for the treatment of injuries of the nervous system, both central and peripheral. Rat SCs are electrotransfected with a plasmid coding for the BDNF protein in order to achieve an increased expression and release of this protein into the culture medium of the cells, performing the best balance between the level of transfection and the number of living cells. Gene-transfected SCs show an about 100-fold increase in the release of BDNF into the culture medium, compared to nonelectroporated SCs. Cocultivation of electroporated SCs with rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) is performed on highly aligned substrates of polylactic acid (PLA) microfibers coated with the electroconductive polymer polypyrrol (PPy). The coculture of DRG with electrotransfected SCs increase both the axonal extension and the axonal sprouting from DRG neurons compared to the coculture of DRG with nonelectroporated SCs. Therefore, the use of PLA¿PPy highly aligned microfiber substrates preseeded with electrotransfected SCs with an increased BDNF secretion is capable of both guiding and accelerating axonal growth.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Government's State Research Agency (AEI) through projects DPI2015-72863-EXP and RTI2018-095872-B-C22/ERDF. F.G.R. acknowledges the scholarship FPU16/01833 and the short stay mobility aid EST18/00524 of the Spanish Ministry of Universities. F.G.R. also acknowledges the hosting at the Vectorology and Anti-cancer Therapies Centre (UMR 8203 CNRS). The authors thank the Electron Microscopy Service at the UPV, where the FESEM images were obtained.Gisbert-Roca, F.; André, FM.; Más Estellés, J.; Monleón Pradas, M.; Mir, LM.; Martínez-Ramos, C. (2021). BDNF-Gene Transfected Schwann Cell-Assisted Axonal Extension and Sprouting on New PLA-PPy Microfiber Substrates. Macromolecular Bioscience (Online). 21(5):1-13. https://doi.org/10.1002/mabi.202000391S11321