Flexible housing: opportunities and limits

Flexibility in housing design has social, economic and environmental advantages and yet is currently often ignored. The first of two papers sets out the history of this issue

Do physical qualities influence the attainment of professional status within elite 16-19 year old rugby league players?

OBJECTIVES The current study retrospectively compared the physical qualities of elite academy rugby league players (aged 16-19 years) by career attainment level (i.e., academy or professional). DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional and longitudinal design. METHODS: Eighty-one academy rugby league players were assessed for physical qualities (height, body mass, skinfolds, speed, momentum, vertical jump, Yo-Yo Level 1 and 1-RM squat, bench press and prone row) at the Under 17-19 age categories between 2007 and 2012. Player's career attainment level was determined in 2014. Longitudinal changes in physical qualities between Under 17 and 19s were compared by career attainment level. RESULTS: Professional players demonstrated moderate significant advantages for height (d=0.98) and 1-RM squat (d=0.66) at the Under 17s, 1-RM bench press (d=0.76) at the Under 18s and 1-RM prone row (d=0.73) at the Under 19s age categories when compared to academy players. When assessed longitudinally (Under 17s-19s), professional players significantly outperformed academy players for 1-RM squat (η2=0.20). Professional players also demonstrated greater increases in body mass (8.2 vs. 2.9kg) and 10m momentum (47 vs. 17kgs-1) than academy players between the Under 17s and 19s. CONCLUSIONS: Advanced physical qualities, particularly height and absolute strength, within 16-19 year old players may contribute to attaining professional status in rugby league. Further, the development of body mass and momentum for players within an academy is an important consideration in the progress towards professional rugby league. Therefore, practitioners should aim to identify and develop the physical qualities, especially size and strength, within academy rugby league players

The within-participant Correlation between s-RPE and Heart Rate in Youth Sport

The monitoring of training load is important to ensure athletes are adapting optimally to a training stimulus. Before quanti ca- tion of training load can take place, coaches must be con dent that the tools available are accurate. We aimed to quantify the within-participant correlation between the session rating of perceived exertion (s-RPE) and summated heart rate zone (sHRz) methods of monitoring internal training load. Training load (s-RPE and heart rate) data were collected for rugby, soc- cer and eld hockey eld-based training sessions over a 14- week in-season period. A total of 397 sessions were monitored (rugby n = 170, soccer n = 114 and eld hockey n = 113). With- in-subject correlations between s-RPE and sHRz were quanti- ed for each sport using a general linear model. Large correla- tions between s-RPE and the sHRz method were found for rugby (r = 0.68; 95 % CI 0.59–0.75) and eld hockey (r = 0.60; 95 % CI 0.47–0.71) with a very large correlation found for soccer (r = 0.72; 95 % CI 0.62–0.80). No signi cant di erences were found between the correlations for each sport. The very large and large correlations found between s-RPE and the sHRz meth- ods support the use of s-RPE in quantifying internal training load in youth sport

Strength and conditioning in schools: a strategy to optimise health, fitness and physical activity in youths

Editoria

Cloud-Services in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen:Nutzen, Vorgehen, Kosten

Bereits heute ist die hohe und zukünftig weiter wachsende Relevanz des Themas Cloud-Sourcing, also des Bezugs von IT-Services oder Software von einem externen Dienstleister über das Internet, erkennbar. Kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) nutzen allerdings entsprechende Angebote bisher kaum – trotz attraktiver Chancen. In der vorliegenden Dissertation werden daher zunächst die spezifischen Aspekte eines Cloud-Sourcings für KMU sowie bestehende Problemfelder herausgearbeitet. Darauf aufbauend werden Vorgehensweisen und Ansätze beschrieben, die KMU eine effektive Nutzung von Cloud-Services unter Berücksichtigung ihrer besonderen Situation erlauben. Zentrale Inhalte der Arbeit sind erstens die Beschreibung eines strategischen Cloud-Managements für KMU, zweitens die Untersuchung von Kooperationsmöglichkeiten mittels sogenannter Cloud-Sourcing-Zweckgemeinschaften, insbesondere Cloud-Intermediären, und drittens eine Analyse der wirtschaftlichen Aspekte eines Cloud-Sourcings für KMU. <br/