13,236 research outputs found
Inter-rater reliability and validity of the Australian Football League\u27s kicking and handball tests
Talent identification tests used at the Australian Football League’s National Draft Combine assess the capacities of athletes to compete at a professional level. Tests created for the National Draft Combine are also commonly used for talent identification and athlete development in development pathways. The skills tests created by the Australian Football League required players to either handball (striking the ball with the hand) or kick to a series of 6 randomly generated targets. Assessors subjectively rate each skill execution giving a 0-5 score for each disposal. This study aimed to investigate the inter-rater reliability and validity of the skills tests at an adolescent sub-elite level. Male Australian footballers were recruited from sub-elite adolescent teams (n=121, age=15.7 ± 0.3 years, height=1.77 ± 0.07 m, mass=69.17 ± 8.08 kg). The coaches (n=7) of each team were also recruited. Inter-rater reliability was assessed using Inter-class correlations (ICC) and Limits of Agreement analysis. Both the kicking (ICC=0.96, P\u3c0.01) and handball tests (ICC=0.89, P\u3c0.01) demonstrated strong reliability and acceptable levels of absolute agreement. Content validity was determined by examining test scores sensitivity to laterality and distance. Concurrent validity was assessed by comparing coaches’ perceptions of skill to actual test outcomes. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) examined the main effect of laterality, with scores on the dominant hand (P=0.04) and foot (P\u3c0.01) significantly higher compared to the non-dominant side. Follow-up univariate analysis showing significant differences at every distance in the kicking test. A poor correlation was found between coaches’ perceptions of skill and testing outcomes. The results of this study demonstrate both skill tests demonstrate acceptable inter-rater reliable. Partial content validity was confirmed for the kicking test, however further research is required to confirm validity of the handball test
A Graph Model for Imperative Computation
Scott's graph model is a lambda-algebra based on the observation that
continuous endofunctions on the lattice of sets of natural numbers can be
represented via their graphs. A graph is a relation mapping finite sets of
input values to output values.
We consider a similar model based on relations whose input values are finite
sequences rather than sets. This alteration means that we are taking into
account the order in which observations are made. This new notion of graph
gives rise to a model of affine lambda-calculus that admits an interpretation
of imperative constructs including variable assignment, dereferencing and
allocation.
Extending this untyped model, we construct a category that provides a model
of typed higher-order imperative computation with an affine type system. An
appropriate language of this kind is Reynolds's Syntactic Control of
Interference. Our model turns out to be fully abstract for this language. At a
concrete level, it is the same as Reddy's object spaces model, which was the
first "state-free" model of a higher-order imperative programming language and
an important precursor of games models. The graph model can therefore be seen
as a universal domain for Reddy's model
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