'Learning Styles' and 'Approaches to Studying' in Sports-Related Programmes: Relationships to Academic Achievement and Implications for Successful Learning, Teaching and Assessment: Project Report Summary

There are relatively few recent investigations that have addressed the issues of preferred learning styles and approaches to studying in sports-related disciplines such as: Sports Studies; Sports and Exercise Science; Coaching Science; Sport and Leisure Management and Outdoor Recreation Management. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine student learning across a range of sport-related programmes at a UK University College. It applied tools from two related, but different, educational research paradigms: approaches to learning and learning styles analysis. Thus, these differing means of researching student learning were tested against the same student group. Results were compared to students’ perceptions of their own developing autonomy of learning and achieved grades; insights were generated into the particular learning approaches and styles of sports students; and tentative recommendations are made on the implications of the findings for higher education teachers seeking to promote improvements in the learning of sports subjects

CCL19-sorted mature dendritic cells have enhanced lymph node migratory capacity and function

No abstract available

The effect of acute fatigue on countermovement jump performance in rugby union players during preseason training

This study aims to capture and explore my personal experiences of trust whilst working as a performance analyst. I began working as a PhD research student and a high performance Paralympic sport performance analyst in April 2014. To critically analyse my role within the team as the sole sports performance analyst, an autoethnographic approach was adopted. Following ethical approval, I maintained a self-reflective diary drawing on my thoughts, opinions and experiences during a fifteen-month period between April 2014 and June 2015. I conducted an inductive thematic content analysis on the recorded reflections whereby the phenomenon of trust emerged as a key theme. To explore the importance of trust, I engage with key theoretical concepts (Hoy and Tschannen-Moran, 1999, Journal of School Leadership, 9, 184-208; Day, 2009, Journal of Educational Administration, 47 (6), 719-730; Sztompka, 2000, Trust: A sociological theory, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; Hardin, 2002, Trust and Trustworthiness, New York: Russell Sage Foundation) and draw upon the key personality traits and characteristics identified for effective sport science practitioner to excel within their respected discipline (Partington and Orlick, 1987, The Sport Psychologist, 1, 309-317; Lubker et al., 2008, Journal of Sport Behaviour, 31 (2), 147-165). Four essential components for establishing trust between myself, and the athletes and staff were identified: appearance and visibility, confidence, honesty and integrity, and self-care. Stronger athlete-coach-analyst relationships were established once each team member articulated the four components. Athletes and coaches became attuned to the importance of performance analysis and a greater utilisation of the discipline was observed within the team’s practice. Trust therefore must be established by a performance analyst between athletes and coaches in order to advance the provision of performance analysis within a high performance sport system

Key Determinants of Team Success in Elite Men’s Wheelchair Basketball

Performance Analysis has become an integral part of the coaching process within elite wheelchair basketball, assisting staff with the delivery of augmented feedback (Fliess-Douer et al. 2016). Whilst previous attempts to explore the key determinants of success within wheelchair basketball have identified that stronger teams accumulate a greater number of assists, turnovers, free-throw and field goal shooting attempts (Gómez et al. 2015; Molik et al. 2009), the use of secondary box score data in such studies has been questioned for both its validity and reliability (Ziv et al. 2010). The purpose of this study, therefore, was to explore the key determinants of team success within elite men’s wheelchair basketball using a valid and reliable wheelchair basketball data collection system using primary data collected from match notation (see Francis et al., 2015). Following University ethical approval, footage from 31 men’s games at the 2015 European Wheelchair Basketball Championships was coded using a developed template in SportsCode (V10, SportsTec Inc.) that included 108 action variables grouped into 19 categorical variables: Time, Home Team, Away Team, Offensive Unit (3.0/3.5), Offensive Unit (4.0/4.5), Defensive Unit (3.0/3.5), Defensive Unit (4.0/4.5), Match Status, Start of Possession, Man Out Offence, Shot Taken, Shot Point, Shot Outcome, Shot Location, Shot Clock Remaining, End of Possession, Defensive System, Defensive Outcome and Possession. The template’s reliability had been assessed by Francis et al. (2015) (inter-observer reliability: 0-5% error; intra-observer reliability 0-5% error). The data was subjected to a two-stage statistical analysis procedure in R (R Core Team 2015). Stage 1: Chi-squared tests highlighted 15 categorical variables that were significantly (p<0.05) associated with final game outcome (winning versus losing). The category with the highest level of statistical significance was Match Status (p<0.001). Stage 2: The multicollinearity between explanatory categories were explored. Categories that demonstrated perfect collinearity were removed. Using a 70% sample of the data (4,288 possessions), a forward and backwards stepwise elimination approach was used to build a final model, which included seven categories comprising of 37 action variables: Match Status, Defensive Unit (3.0/3.5), Offensive Unit (3.0/3.5), Offensive Unit (4.0/4.5), Stage, Defensive System and Start of Possession. When tested against the remaining 30% data set an area under the curve value of 0.749 was achieved which suggests the model has ‘fair’ predictive qualities. The final model indicates the importance of maintaining a winning state throughout the game, selecting a unit which predominately comprises of three point players and countering when the defence are pressing. Coaches, players and support staff can utilise the findings from the study to assist with the planning of offensive and defensive game strategies by identifying areas for development within training sessions, supporting selection and line-up combinations and informing the decision-making process of coaches and players during performances

SLIP4EX- a program for routine slope stability analysis to include the effects of vegetation, reinforcement and hydrological changes

SLIP4EX is a straightforward computer program developed in connection with the EU funded ECOSLOPES project for routine stability analysis and the assessment of the contribution of vegetation to slope stability. The slope section is drawn up and dimensions and parameters are fed in to the Microsoft Excel based program for stability calculations and comparisons of Factors of Safety using different methods of analysis (Bishop, Janbu, Fellenius, Simple, Greenwood). The background and assumptions involved in the derivation of each of the methods is briefly described. The simplicity of the program enables the user to understand the nature of the analysis, explore the parameter assumptions made and compare the different methods of analysis. Soil reinforcement by geosynthetic layers or anchors, and vegetation effects of enhanced cohesion, changed water pressures, mass of vegetation, wind forces and root reinforcement forces are readily included in the analysis. The program is freely available on request from the author

A microscopic model for d-wave charge carrier pairing and non-Fermi-liquid behavior in a purely repulsive 2D electron system

We investigate a microscopic model for strongly correlated electrons with both on-site and nearest neighbor Coulomb repulsion on a 2D square lattice. This exhibits a state in which electrons undergo a ``somersault'' in their internal spin-space (spin-flux) as they traverse a closed loop in external coordinate space. When this spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulator is doped, the ground state is a liquid of charged, bosonic meron-vortices, which for topological reasons are created in vortex-antivortex pairs. The magnetic exchange energy of the distorted AFM background leads to a logarithmic vortex-antivortex attraction which overcomes the direct Coulomb repulsion between holes localized on the vortex cores. This leads to the appearance of pre-formed charged pairs. We use the Configuration Interaction (CI) Method to study the quantum translational and rotational motion of various charged magnetic solitons and soliton pairs. The CI method systematically describes fluctuation and quantum tunneling corrections to the Hartree-Fock Approximation (HFA). We find that the lowest energy charged meron-antimeron pairs exhibit d-wave rotational symmetry, consistent with the symmetry of the cuprate superconducting order parameter. For a single hole in the 2D AFM plane, we find a precursor to spin-charge separation in which a conventional charged spin-polaron dissociates into a singly charged meron-antimeron pair. This model provides a unified microscopic basis for (i) non-Fermi-liquid transport properties, (ii) d-wave preformed charged carrier pairs, (iii) mid-infrared optical absorption, (iv) destruction of AFM long range order with doping and other magnetic properties, and (v) certain aspects of angled resolved photo-emission spectroscopy (ARPES).Comment: 14 pages, 17 figure

MaPS: Movement and planning support for navigation in an immersive VRML browser

This paper describes the design and implementation of the user interface for a prototype immersive VRML2 browser, with particular reference to the planning and viewpoint movement aspects of navigation in the virtual environment. Rather than being hard-coded in the browser, the user interface objects are part of the virtual environment itself (i.e. stored in the VRML scene graph). Advantages of this "first-class user interface" are described, and implications for an open, extensible approach to user interface evolution and browser implementation are considered

The Free Will Theorem

On the basis of three physical axioms, we prove that if the choice of a particular type of spin 1 experiment is not a function of the information accessible to the experimenters, then its outcome is equally not a function of the information accessible to the particles. We show that this result is robust, and deduce that neither hidden variable theories nor mechanisms of the GRW type for wave function collapse can be made relativistic. We also establish the consistency of our axioms and discuss the philosophical implications.Comment: 31 pages, 6figure

Implementing a participatory model of micro health insurance among rural poor with evidence from Nepal

This paper reports on two voluntary, contributory, contextualised, community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes, launched in Dhading and Banke (Nepal) in 2011. The implementation followed a four-stage process: initiating (baseline survey), involving (awareness generation and engaging community in benefit-package-design), launch (enrolment and training of selected community members) and post-launch (viable claims ratio, settled within satisfactory time, sustainable affiliation). Both schemes were successful on four key parameters: effective planning; affiliation (grew from 0 to ∼10,000) and renewals (>65 per cent); claims ratio (∼50 per cent); and promptness of claim settlement (∼23 days). This model succeeded in implementing CBHI with zero premium subsidies or subsidised health-care costs. The successful operation relied in large part on the fact that members trust that they can enforce this contract. Considerable insurance education and capacity development is necessary before the launch of the CBHI, and for sustainable operations as well as for scaling