Creating Stress-free Learning Environments for Sport and Physical Education

Exercise participation is usually recognised for its anxiolytic properties. However, performance anxiety in physical education and sport may also be faced by those students perceiving a negative difference between their degree of competence or self-worth in terms of sporting skill, and the perceived demands of a class activity, sporting competition, or training situation. While the response to feeling anxious is not always negative, anxiety usually results in a “fight or flight” response creating an elevated heart rate and a release of adrenaline preparing the body for action. Anxiety may serve as an in-built warning system for an individual student of their personal vulnerability in an upcoming activity, drill, or game situation. An inability to manage sporting performance anxiety can negatively impact a student's participation, enjoyment, and positive skill development, even deterring future exercise and sporting activities. The key to managing sport and exercise-related anxiety is achieving an optimal level. The teacher or coach needs to challenge students sufficiently to prepare mind and body for exercise, without an individual overextending into anxiety levels that create negative performance. Bringing together the disciplines of sport and physical education, we explore the nature of anxiety, and practical sports psychology techniques the teacher or sports coach can introduce to help students manage sports anxiety and create supportive learning environments. Helping students overcome sporting performance anxiety will assist them in performing at their best and will teach important skills they can apply for the rest of their future sporting and exercise activities

The inference of gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) historical population attributes from whole-genome sequences

Commercial whaling caused extensive demographic declines in many great whale species, including gray whales that were extirpated from the Atlantic Ocean and dramatically reduced in the Pacific Ocean. The Eastern Pacific gray whale has recovered since the 1982 ban on commercial whaling, but the Western Pacific gray whale-once considered possibly extinct-consists of only about 200 individuals and is considered critically endangered by some international authorities. Herein, we use whole-genome sequencing to investigate the demographic history of gray whales from the Pacific and use environmental niche modelling to make predictions about future gene flow.Our sequencing efforts and habitat niche modelling indicate that: i) western gray whale effective population sizes have declined since the last glacial maximum; ii) contemporary gray whale genomes, both eastern and western, harbor less autosomal nucleotide diversity than most other marine mammals and megafauna; iii) the extent of inbreeding, as measured by autozygosity, is greater in the Western Pacific than in the Eastern Pacific populations; and iv) future climate change is expected to open new migratory routes for gray whales.Our results indicate that gray whale genomes contain low nucleotide diversity and have been subject to both historical and recent inbreeding. Population sizes over the last million years likely peaked about 25,000 years before present and have declined since then. Our niche modelling suggests that novel migratory routes may develop within the next century and if so this could help retain overall genetic diversity, which is essential for adaption and successful recovery in light of global environmental change and past exploitation

Managing student performance anxiety in Sport and Physical Education environments.

Bringing together the disciplines of sport and physical education, we explore the nature of anxiety, and practical sports psychology techniques the teacher or sports coach can introduce to help students manage sports anxiety, and create supportive learning environments

Leben im Pelagial

Das Pelagial ist der Lebensraum des freien Wassers mit allem, was darin schwimmt und driftet, vom winzigen Bakterioplankton über Phyto-, Zooplankton und Fische bis hin zu den den riesigen Walen. In welchen Bereichen und Tiefen leben die unterschiedlichen Organismen? Horizontale und vertikale, tages- und jahreszeitliche Wanderungen sowie die Wechselwirkungen zwischen den unterschiedlichen Organismengruppen und ihre Rolle im Nahrungsgefüge werden erläutert

Migratory behavior of eastern North Pacific gray whales tracked using a hydrophone array

<div><p>Eastern North Pacific gray whales make one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, traveling from their summer feeding areas in the Bering and Chukchi Seas to their wintering areas in the lagoons of Baja California, Mexico. Although a significant body of knowledge on gray whale biology and behavior exists, little is known about their vocal behavior while migrating. In this study, we used a sparse hydrophone array deployed offshore of central California to investigate how gray whales behave and use sound while migrating. We detected, localized, and tracked whales for one full migration season, a first for gray whales. We verified and localized 10,644 gray whale M3 calls and grouped them into 280 tracks. Results confirm that gray whales are acoustically active while migrating and their swimming and acoustic behavior changes on daily and seasonal time scales. The seasonal timing of the calls verifies the gray whale migration timing determined using other methods such as counts conducted by visual observers. The total number of calls and the percentage of calls that were part of a track changed significantly over both seasonal and daily time scales. An average calling rate of 5.7 calls/whale/day was observed, which is significantly greater than previously reported migration calling rates. We measured a mean speed of 1.6 m/s and quantified heading, direction, and water depth where tracks were located. Mean speed and water depth remained constant between night and day, but these quantities had greater variation at night. Gray whales produce M3 calls with a root mean square source level of 156.9 dB re 1 <i>μ</i>Pa at 1 m. Quantities describing call characteristics were variable and dependent on site-specific propagation characteristics.</p></div