Personal trainer - occupational choices determinants

Fitness service market is currently dynamically growing in Poland. As a result fitness services portfolio is rapidly broadening and clients interest in that matter escalates as well, therefore personal trainers profession seemed to be a great opportunity of employment for fitness enthusiasts nowadays. The main purpose of this study was to identify personal trainers occupational choices as there is very little publications in the field. For that purpose diagnostic survey with individual in-depth interviews among working personal trainers was conducted. Respondents stated that among many determinants the most important were: highly profitable job, easy access to the profession in Poland, independence and flexibility, interpersonal relations with clients, work as a passion and further professional opportunities

Application of multidetector computed tomography in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and new directions of development

Introduction: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a condition involving the mechanical part of the closure of the pulmonary arterial thrombus or other embolic material. Is the third the most typical cardiovascular disease - vascular, immediately after a heart attack and stroke. Clinical symptoms are often nonspecific and may result in an incorrect diagnosis. The most common complications of PE include: attack the lungs, impaired heart function, superinfection and development of pulmonary hypertension. Objective: The purpose of the work was to discuss of the technical aspects and the use of multi-slice computed tomography in the diagnosis of PE. The presentation emphasized new directions of development of tomographic methods in imaging thromboembolic events of pulmonary arteries, including multi-energy CT and low-dose techniques. Description of the state of knowledge: Angiography-CT is currently the gold standard in the diagnosis of PE, especially in patients with high and indirect clinical risk. It is characterized by high sensitivity and specificity in contrast enhancement imaging defects within the pulmonary vasculature and blood changes in the pulmonary parenchyma, which may accompany the EP. It also allows to assess the features of right heart overload in the course of massive PE or radiological symptoms associated with the development of chronic PE. Summary: Nowadays, the greatest challenges of CT diagnostics in PE are the improvement of image quality, minimization of artifacts and reduction of the radiation dose to which the patient is exposed. Effective diagnosis of PE is not only good quality CT imaging, but also the efficiency of the process of diagnosis. Hence the development of new applications of CT - called. computer aided diagnosis (CAD)

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE POLISH SPORT FEDERATIONS IN ATHLETES’ OPINION

Purpose: The main aim of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of how Polish Sport Federations (PSF) function in the opinion of athletes who represent the country in various sporting disciplines. The following research questions were posed: in what way do PSFs support athletes representing the country in selected sporting disciplines? Do members of national teams have an influence on the activity of PSFs and what is their satisfaction in that matter?Methodology: The research consisted of two parts: individual in-depth interviews (N=10) and a diagnostic survey based on a questionnaire study (N=102). The research included athletes in both individual and team Olympic sporting disciplines. Findings: PSFs strive to support their athletes mainly in terms of providing them with sport equipment, organizing and coordinating competitions and training camps, as well as health care, however the low level of engagement of PSFs was noted in marketing and providing information, as well as in financial support for athletes. Athletes declared high expectations regarding the transparency of their federations as well as better decision-making and access to informationImplications: Polish Olympic athletes expect from the PSFs that represent them an approach based on partnership as well as consideration of their strategic position as a group of key stakeholders. PSFs thus seem to face a serious challenge to transform their approach in how they relate and communicate with their key stakeholders and to recognize that it is essential to ensure their satisfaction with their cooperation

Towards coopetition in sport. Challenges for the market of high competition

One of the most important aspects of leading service organizations is searching for advantages and creative solutions. Organizations look for new qualitative assets, create new values for their clients and create processes on the basis of their key competences. That kind of approach enable to improve organizational effectiveness and economic efficiency but more important to gain competitive advantages. Sport and recreational services develops extremely dynamically. Changes of lifestyle and social norms impose on clients non-standard actions and looking for individualized services. Personal training became a response for specific client’s needs. Personal trainers help not only to shape bodies and build fitness for clients, but also provide professional and individualized services by their competency complementarity. To achieve this personal trainers need to look for support and cooperation with other specialists and trainers in the whole customer service process. Building competitive advantages by cooperation with competitors cause a situation where personal trainers have to cooperate and compete with them at the same time - this phenomenon is called co-opetition and becomes more often a standard in recreational services

COMPETENCES OF PROFESSIONAL VOLLEYBALL TEAM COACHES IN THE OPINION OF EXPERTS

Purpose: The paper presents a theoretical model of vocational competencies of professional team-sports coaches. The model is a theoretical background for a wider research project of which the main aim is to improve standards of professional competences for volleyball coaches in Poland. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify vocational competences through reviewing opinions of experts.Methodology: Theoretical model of vocational competencies of professional team-sports coaches was built and verified on the ground of the literature review method and afterwards compared and verified with four expert opinions gained through individual in-depth interviews.Findings: The model consists of three components: knowledge, skills and behaviour, as well as three levels of competencies: basic, complementary and leadership. It has been stated that there is no advantage for any of three levels of competences in a group of the most successful volleyball coaches in Poland, and that a relatively strong impact of behaviour among other competencies’ components was observed. Therefore, all significant conclusions of the theoretical model and research outcomes are discussed

Personal trainers professional qualifications - demands of the labour market

Fitness has been a growth industry over the past years and seems not to be saturated on the polish ground. Fitness clubs offer a wide range of services to their clients from group classes to individual trainings such as personal training. However, personal trainers in Poland have conducive and effortless way to access to their profession, they still struggle with the lack of professional standards and incoherent education; system. The main purpose of this article was to define what are the demands of the labour market in terms of required qualifications and competences for personal trainers who are taking part in recruitment process.

Coopetition between organizations in the sports services market

Research interest in the issues of building the relational capital, relational resources and cooperation between organizations, especially those that compete with each other, is recently seen in the literature of the subject, especially in the sciences of management. Concepts of building a competitive advantage specify various factors, tools, methods and ways of creating them. The aim of the article is to present the results of own research on the identification of cooperation and coopetition with competitors on the market of commercial sports services. The phenomenon of simultaneous cooperation and competition is noticed in the research mainly in the production sectors, while poorly is recognized in the service industries, and especially in sport and recreation. The specifics of cooperation relations and network of relationships leads to different functioning from other partners, which may contribute to the creation of a new quality of functioning, increased innovation supported by creativity, as well as cost reduction. Organizations that provide their services in the sports environment also fit into the phenomenon of resource use, in order to multiply the advantages and create new values for their clients

The Fate of the Interstellar Medium in Early-type Galaxies. II. Observational Evidence for Morphological Quenching

The mechanism by which galaxies stop forming stars and get rid of their interstellar medium (ISM) remains elusive. Here, we study a sample of more than two thousand elliptical galaxies in which dust emission has been detected. This is the largest sample of such galaxies ever analysed. We infer the timescale for removal of dust in these galaxies and investigate its dependency on physical and environmental properties. We obtain a dust removal timescale in elliptical galaxies of $\tau$ = 2.26 $\pm$ 0.18 Gyr, corresponding to a half-life time of 1.57 $\pm$ 0.12 Gyr. This timescale does not depend on environment, stellar mass or redshift. We observe a departure of dusty elliptical galaxies from the star formation rate vs. dust mass relation. This is caused by the star-formation rates declining faster than the dust masses and indicates that there exists an internal mechanism, which affects star formation, but leaves the ISM intact. Morphological quenching together with ionisation or outflows caused by older stellar populations (supernova type Ia or planetary nebulae) are consistent with these observations.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Influence of soil contaminated with cadmium on cell death in the digestive epithelium of soil centipede Lithobius forficatus (Myriapoda, Chilopoda)

Cadmium is a heavy metal that is treated as an environmental pollutant (air, water, soil). In order to understand the potential effects of cadmium in soil and soil invertebrates, it is important to describe all alterations which appear at different levels in organisms. The main aim of this study was to investigate, analyze and describe the alterations caused by cadmium short- and long-term intoxication at different levels in the organisms: from tissues to cells and organelles. In addition, the activation of cell deathmechanisms that take part in homeostasismaintenance according to cadmium has been studied. Therefore, as the species for this project, a terrestrial and well-known widespread European species – the centipede Lithobius forficatus (Myriapoda, Chilopoda, Lithobiomorpha) – was chosen. This omnivorous species lives under upper layers of soil, under stones, litter, rocks, and leaves, and it is also commonly found in human habitats. The animals were divided into three groups: C – the control group, animals cultured in a horticultural soil; Cd1 – animals cultured in a horticultural soil supplemented with 80 mg/kg (dry weight) of CdCl2, 12 days – short-term exposure; Cd2 – animals cultured in a horticultural soil supplemented with 80 mg/kg (dry weight) of CdCl2, 45 days – long-term exposure. The midgut was isolated from each specimen and it was prepared for analysis using some histological, histochemical and immunohistochemical methods. Our studies showed that short-term intoxication causes intensification of autophagy and digestion of reserve material, while long-term exposure to this heavy metal causes activation of cell death processes together with inhibition of autophagy connected with the lack of reserve material. Additionally, we can infer that autophagy and cell death are nutrient deprivation-induced processes. Finally, we can conclude that short- and long-term exposure of soil centipede to cadmium affects different mechanisms and processes of cell death