Plyometric Training Improves Power and Agility in Jamaica’s National Netball Team

Objective: Plyometric training is widely used in conditioning, power training and in prevention and rehabilitation of injuries in some sports. This study sought to investigate the effect of a three-week plyometric training programme on jump performance and agility in Jamaican national netball players. Method: Eighteen national netballers participated in a Plyometric training programme. Subjects were evaluated using the Vertical Jump Test, the Broad Jump Test and the Illinois Agility Test prior to the start of the programme and at week 3. Data Analysis: The data were analysed using SPSS version 12 for Windows. A One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test showed normal distribution of data and a paired samples t-test was used to determine whether the mean change in jump performance and agility was significant. Results: All eighteen subjects completed the three weeks of training. Three subjects were shown to be outliers at week 3 and this resulted in data from 15 subjects being analysed. At the end of the three weeks, there were significant improvements in Vertical Jump Scores (p = 0.023), Broad Jump Scores (p = 0.002) and Agility scores (p = 0.045). Conclusion: Three weeks of Plyometric training can lead to significant improvements in jump performance and agility and should be integrated into the national training programme at intervals yet to be determined. Keywords: Illinois Agility Test, netballers, plyometric training "El Entrenamiento Pliométrico Mejora la Fuerza y Agilidad del Equipo Nacional de Netball de Jamaica" RESUMEN Objetivo: El entrenamiento pliométrico se usa ampliamente para el acondicionamiento, y entrenamiento de fuerza, así como para la prevención y rehabilitación de lesiones en algunos deportes. Este estudio buscó investigar el efecto de un programa de entrenamiento pliométrico de tres semanas sobre el rendimiento en salto alto y la agilidad de las jugadoras del Equipo Nacional de Netball de Jamaica. Método: Dieciocho jugadoras nacionales de netball participaron en un programa de entrenamiento pliométrico. Las sujetos fueron evaluadas usando la prueba de salto vertical, la prueba de salto largo y la prueba de agilidad de Illinois, antes del comienzo del programa y a la semana 3. Análisis de datos: Los datos fueron analizados usando la versión 12 de SPSS para Windows. La Prueba de Kolmogorov-Smirnov para una muestra mostró una distribución normal de los datos y una prueba t de muestras pareadas fue usada para determinar si el cambio promedio en el rendimiento del salto y la agilidad fue significativo. Resultados: Las dieciocho sujetos completaron las tres semanas de entrenamiento. Tres sujetos mostraron tener valores atípicos en la semana 3, y esto trajo por resultado que se analizaran datos de 15 sujetos. Al final de las tres semanas, se produjeron mejoras significativas en las puntuaciones del salto vertical (p = 0.023), las puntuaciones del salto largo (p = 0.002) y las puntuaciones de la agilidad (p = 0.045). Conclusión: Tres semanas de entrenamiento pliométrico pueden llevar a mejoras significativas en el rendimiento y agilidad, y deben integrarse en el programa de entrenamiento nacional a intervalos aún por determinar. Palabras claves: Prueba de agilidad de Illinois, jugadoras de netball, entrenamiento pliométric

An Intelligent Listening Framework for Capturing Encounter Notes from a Doctor-Patient Dialog

Background: Capturing accurate and machine-interpretable primary data from clinical encounters is a challenging task, yet critical to the integrity of the practice of medicine. We explore the intriguing possibility that technology can help accurately capture structured data from the clinical encounter using a combination of automated speech recognition (ASR) systems and tools for extraction of clinical meaning from narrative medical text. Our goal is to produce a displayed evolving encounter note, visible and editable (using speech) during the encounter. Results: This is very ambitious, and so far we have taken only the most preliminary steps. We report a simple proof-of-concept system and the design of the more comprehensive one we are building, discussing both the engineering design and challenges encountered. Without a formal evaluation, we were encouraged by our initial results. The proof-of-concept, despite a few false positives, correctly recognized the proper category of single-and multi-word phrases in uncorrected ASR output. The more comprehensive system captures and transcribes speech and stores alternative phrase interpretations in an XML-based format used by a text-engineering framework. It does not yet use the framework to perform the language processing present in the proof-of-concept. Conclusion: The work here encouraged us that the goal is reachable, so we conclude with proposed next steps. Some challenging steps include acquiring a corpus of doctor-patient conversations, exploring a workable microphone setup, performing user interface research, and developing a multi-speaker version of our tools.National Library of Medicine (U.S.) (grant T15 LM07117)National Library of Medicine (U.S.) (grant R01 LM009723-01A1