Impacts of the Game-Centered Approach on Cognitive Learning of Game Play and Game Performance during 5-week of Spring Season with Intercollegiate Female Soccer Players

Game-centered approaches have been increasingly recognized for their features and the impacts in coaching profession. Research with the game-centered approach is still underdeveloped in coaching sports and physical activities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to describe the impacts of the game-centered approach on cognitive learning of game play and game performance during 5-week of spring season with intercollegiate female soccer players. Game performances at beginning, mid, and end of the season were examined through Game Performance Assessment Inventory (GPAI) with seventeen participants. Cognitive learning of game play was also assessed with instant recalls and practice journals with all participants as well as simulated recall with three target players. Results indicated the potential to improve the players’ game performance with the game-centered approach through reinforcing the recognition of more quality game information in larger scale and the adjustments on and off the ball movements. In the complex and dynamic game learning situation, the players were seemed to identify the key tactical/technical components of the soccer game. The learning process supported the cognitive learning of game play by interacting mind and body as well as building different domains of game knowledge through the game-centered approach. The players used the game information to make adaptations through the complex game situation, and then constructed and built the cognitive representation which became more meaningful knowledge in the game. Additionally, this study positively supported the game learning through social interaction. The players were encouraged to communicate with each other, construct the tactical meaning through the interaction with other players, and reflect on their learning in the game situation. In conclusion, the players’ cognitive learning with and without the ball was enhanced by being able to analyze more quality game information and linking different domain-specific knowledge. There were also some positive components which could have indicated the potential improvement of actual game performance. Additionally, the players seemed to be encouraged to carefully observe the game situation, analyze them, make tactical decisions, and construct game knowledge through the collaboration of body and mind as well as the social interaction with other players

Citrullinated fibrinogen shows defects in FPA and FPB release and fibrin polymerization catalyzed by thrombin

ArticleClinica Chimica Acta. 401(1-2):119-123 (2009)journal articl

Real-time and interactive tools for vocal training based on an analytic signal with a cosine series envelope

We introduce real-time and interactive tools for assisting vocal training. In this presentation, we demonstrate mainly a tool based on real-time visualizer of fundamental frequency candidates to provide information-rich feedback to learners. The visualizer uses an efficient algorithm using analytic signals for deriving phase-based attributes. We start using these tools in vocal training for assisting learners to acquire the awareness of appropriate vocalization. The first author made the MATLAB implementation of the tools open-source. The code and associated video materials are accessible in the first author's GitHub repository.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, APSIPA ASC 201

The competitiveness of domestic rice production in East Africa: A domestic resource cost approach in Uganda

The rapid increase of rice imports in sub-Saharan Africa under the unstable situation in the world rice market during the 2000s has made it an important policy target for the countries in the region to increase self-sufficiency in rice in order to enhance food security. Whether domestic rice production can be competitive with imported rice is a serious question in East African countries that lie close, just across the Arabian Sea, to major rice exporting countries in South Asia. This study investigates the international competitiveness of domestic rice production in Uganda in terms of the domestic resource cost ratio. The results show that rainfed rice cultivation, which accounts for 95% of domestic rice production, does not have a comparative advantage with respect to rice imported from Pakistan, the largest supplier of imported rice to Uganda. However, the degree of non-competitiveness is not serious, and a high possibility exists for Uganda’s rainfed rice cultivation to become internationally competitive by improving yield levels by applying more modern inputs and enhancing labour productivity. Irrigated rice cultivation, though very limited in area, is competitive even under the present input-output structure when the cost of irrigation infrastructure is treated as a sunk cost. If the cost of installing irrigation infrastructure and its operation and maintenance is taken into account, the types of irrigation development that are economically feasible are not large-scale irrigation projects, but are small- and microscale projects for lowland rice cultivation and rain-water harvesting for upland rice cultivation

Recombinant variant fibrinogens substituted at residues γ326Cys and γ339Cys demonstrated markedly impaired secretion of assembled fibrinogen

ArticleThrombosis Research. 124(3):368-372 (2009)journal articl

Syntheses of several cyclopentano-monoterpene lactones using 1,3-dioxin vinylogous ester

Formal syntheses of (±)-boschnialactone (5) and three cyclopentano-monoterpene lactones [i.e., (±)-(iridomyrmecin (6), (±)-isoiridomyrmecin (7), and (±)-allodolicholactone (8)] have been accomplished in the form of the syntheses of 2-(methoxymethyl)-3-methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one (11) and (±)-(4aα,7α,7aα)-hexahydro-7-methylcyclopenta[c]pyran-3(1H)-one (19), respectively, starting from 6,7-dihyd;ocyclopenta-1,3-dioxin-5(4H)-one (2). A synthesis of (±)-isodehydroiridomyrmecin (9) has also been achieved through a route including direct substitution of the hydroxy group of 2-(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxymethyl)-3- methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-ol (22) with 1-(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-1-methoxyethene (23) as a key step

A C-terminal amino acid substitution in the gamma-chain caused by a novel heterozygous frameshift mutation (Fibrinogen Matsumoto VII) results in hypofibrinogenemia

This article is not an exact copy of the original published article in THROMBOSIS AND HAEMOSTASIS. The definitive publisher-authenticated version of THROMBOSIS AND HAEMOSTASIS. 104(2):213-223 (2010) is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1160/TH09-08-0540 .We found a novel hypofibrinogenemia designated as Matsumoto VII (M-VII), which is caused by a heterozygous nucleotide deletion at position g.7651 in FGG and a subsequent frameshift mutation in codon 387 of the γ-chain. This frameshift results in 25 amino acid substitutions, late termination of translation with elongation by 15 amino acids, and the introduction of a canonical glycosylation site. Western blot analysis of the patient’s plasma fibrinogen visualized with anti-γ-chain antibody revealed the presence of two extra bands. To identify the extra bands and determine which of the above-mentioned alterations caused the assembly and/or secretion defects in the patient, 11 variant vectors that introduced mutations into the cDNA of the γ-chain orγ’-chain were transfected into CHO cells. In vitro expression of transfectants containingγΔ7651A and γΔ7651A/399T (γΔ7651A with an amino acid substitution of 399Asn by Thr and a variant lacking the canonical glycosylation site) demonstrated a reduction in secretion to approximately 20% of the level seen in the transfectants carrying the normal γ-chain. Furthermore, results from other transfectants demonstrated that 8 aberrant residues between 391 and 398 of the M-VII variant, rather than the 15 amino acid extension or the additional glycosylation, are responsible for the reduced levels of assembly and secretion of M-VII variant fibrinogen. Finally, the results of this study and our previous reports demonstrate that the fibrinogen γ-chain C-terminal tail (388-411) is not necessary for protein assembly or secretion, but the aberrant amino acid sequence observed in the M-VII variant (especially 391-398) disturbs these functions.ArticleTHROMBOSIS AND HAEMOSTASIS. 104(2):213-223 (2010)journal articl

Synthesis of (±)-(4aα,6α,7α,7aα)-hexahydro-6-hydroxy-7- methylcyclopenta[c]pyran-3(1H)-one, a structure common to abelialactone, Aglykon A1, and isoboonein

Synthesis of (±)-(4aα,6α,7α,7aα)-hexahydro-6-hydroxy-7- methylcyclopenta[c]pyran-3(1h)-one [(±)-1] has been achieved through an 8- step route starting from 6,7-dihydrocyclopenta-1,3-dioxin-5(4H)-one (4). The identities of synthetic (±)-1 with abelialactone, Aglykon A1, and isoboonein permitted the unequivocal assignment of this common structure and the relative stereochemistry to these cyclopentano-monoterpene lactones