Movement demands and perceived wellness associated with preseason training camp in NCAA Division I college football players

The aims of this study were to examine the movement demands of preseason practice in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college football players using portable global positioning system (GPS) technology and to assess perceived wellness associated with preseason practice to determine whether GPS-derived variables from the preceding day influence perceived wellness the following day. Twenty-nine players were monitored using GPS receivers (Catapult Innovations, Melbourne, Australia) during 20 preseason practices. Individual observations (n = 550) were divided into offensive and defensive position groups. Movement variables including low-, medium-, high-intensity, and sprint distance, player load, and acceleration and deceleration distance were assessed. Perceived wellness ratings (n = 469) were examined using a questionnaire which assessed fatigue, soreness, sleep quality, sleep quantity, stress, and mood. A 1-way analysis of variance for positional movement demands and multilevel regressions for wellness measures were used, followed by post hoc testing to evaluate the relational significance between categorical outcomes of perceived wellness scores and movement variables. Results demonstrated significantly (p ≤ 0.05) greater total, high-intensity, and sprint distance, along with greater acceleration and deceleration distances for the defensive back and wide receiver position groups compared with their respective offensive and defensive counterparts. Significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in movement variables were demonstrated for individuals who responded more or less favorably on each of the 6 factors of perceived wellness. Data from this study provide novel quantification of the position-specific physical demands and perceived wellness associated with college football preseason practice. Results support the use of position-specific training and individual monitoring of college football players

Immigration Enforcement and Fairness to Would-Be Immigrants

This chapter argues that governments have a duty to take reasonably effective and humane steps to minimize the occurrence of unauthorized migration and stay. While the effects of unauthorized migration on a country’s citizens and institutions have been vigorously debated, the literature has largely ignored duties of fairness to would-be immigrants. It is argued here that failing to take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorized migration and stay is deeply unfair to would-be immigrants who are not in a position to bypass visa regulations. Importantly, the argument here is orthogonal to the debate as to how much and what kinds of immigration ought to be allowed

Outlaw Community Innovations

Recent studies of outlaw communities provide qualitative evidence of their existence and the organisation of the underlying innovation processes. We provide descriptive results from a large scale survey of two online outlaw communities focussing on Microsoft's XBox. In line with previous findings, we identify two types of participants in outlaw communities - user innovators and adopters. Based on 2,256 responses, we find that users modify their XBox mainly to be able to increase the set of available functions of their XBox. Users are also motivated to modify their XBox for the sake of having fun and to conduct pirate behaviour. Finally, the results from our survey suggest that user innovators are largely intrinsically motivated by fun and the intellectual stimulation of writing code for homebrew software

Does \u2018bigger\u2019mean \u2018better\u2019? Pitfalls and shortcuts associated with big data for social research

\u2018Big data is here to stay.\u2019 This key statement has a double value: is an assumption as well as the reason why a theoretical reflection is needed. Furthermore, Big data is something that is gaining visibility and success in social sciences even, overcoming the division between humanities and computer sciences. In this contribution some considerations on the presence and the certain persistence of Big data as a socio-technical assemblage will be outlined. Therefore, the intriguing opportunities for social research linked to such interaction between practices and technological development will be developed. However, despite a promissory rhetoric, fostered by several scholars since the birth of Big data as a labelled concept, some risks are just around the corner. The claims for the methodological power of bigger and bigger datasets, as well as increasing speed in analysis and data collection, are creating a real hype in social research. Peculiar attention is needed in order to avoid some pitfalls. These risks will be analysed for what concerns the validity of the research results \u2018obtained through Big data. After a pars distruens, this contribution will conclude with a pars construens; assuming the previous critiques, a mixed methods research design approach will be described as a general proposal with the objective of stimulating a debate on the integration of Big data in complex research projecting

The question of EU legitimacy in the Social OMC peer review process

This paper examines the structural kand relational factors that affect perceptions of legitimacy in the EU's Social Open Method of Coordination, particularly in its peer review process. Using multi-level governance as its analytical framework, the paper uses network analysis to examine the actor networks and relations within the peer review process over time, and links this with different conceptions of input and throughput legitimacy, and the findings show that the peer reviews do not significantly feed into either input or throughput legitimacy. While input legitimacy is improved somewhat by the inclusion of additional actors in the policy process, these actors do not have a clear role to play and the peer reviews remain driven by traditional actors. In terms of throughput, the process does positively address issues of transparency, procedure and information provision, there is no clear path for translating these processes into an increase in perceptions of legitimacy

The Object Coordination Class Applied to Wavepulses: Analysing Student Reasoning in Wave Physics

Detailed investigations of student reasoning show that students approach the topic of wave physics using both event-like and object-like descriptions of wavepulses, but primarily focus on object properties in their reasoning. Student responses to interview and written questions are analysed using diSessa and Sherin's coordination class model which suggests that student use of specific reasoning resources is guided by possibly unconscious cues. Here, the term reasoning resources is used in a general fashion to describe any of the smaller grain size models of reasoning (p-prims, facets of knowledge, intuitive rules, etc) rather than theoretically ambiguous (mis)conceptions. Student applications of reasoning resources, including one previously undocumented, are described. Though the coordination class model is extremely helpful in organising the research data, problematic aspects of the model are also discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 27 reference

On the correspondence between surface UV observations and TOMS determinations of surface UV: a potential method for quality evaluating world surface UV observations

A comparison of erythemally weighted surface UV irradiance observations with similar NASA TOMS surface UV determinations is described. Comparisons are made for two observation periods: the Robertson-Berger (R-B) meter period from 1974 to the late 1980s and the current period from 1996 to the present when more sophisticated UVB-1 instruments were used. The more primitive R-B meter observations that comprised the fi rst U.S. UV network are seen to drift downward with respect to those of the TOMS. While the UVB-1 observations did not appear to drift, a substantial bias is noted to exist between the TOMS and the UVB-1 stations collecting observations; the TOMS estimations tend to be higher. A portion of the bias may be attributed to errors in calibration, total ozone, and cosine response of the surface instrumentation. Unaccounted aerosol effects, although not considered to be large in the TOMS estimations, present another source of error. Comparisons are fi rst done for all sky conditions and then for clear sky conditions. The biases typically agree for all sky conditions within the uncertainties of the surface instruments' calibrations, liberally defi ned as ± 5%, implying that the TOMS cloud correction scheme performs reasonably well. Snow cover severely impacts the TOMS observations, giving considerably higher estimations. The biases for clear sky conditions ranged from 15% to 19% with no obvious drifts between the satellite and surface observations. The variation in the biases among stations is within the calibration uncertainties of the instruments, but the absolute bias is unexpectedly large. The standard deviations of the clear sky comparisons among all stations are steady at 4.8% ± 0.7%. A plot of the TOMS/UVB-1 ratio versus TOMS cloud refl ectivity observations is noisy, but qualitatively suggestive of a possible slight increase (~ 5% or greater) over the range of clear to overcast skies. The results from these comparisons is believed to be relevant to a WMO goal of uniformly assuring the quality of UV observations made by networks in many countries. The results for clear sky comparisons suggest that a satellite observing system such as TOMS, which provides global coverage daily, might partially serve as a fi rst-order check to quality assure UV observations being made by networks worldwide. Future research should concentrate on determining the causes of the large differences seen between the UVB-1 and TOMS and the range of uncertainties, using a larger array of stations

Trouble in Paradise - A disabled person's right to the satisfaction of a self-defined need:Some conceptual and practical problems

This paper questions the usefulness of the rights-based approach to ameliorating the social situation of disabled people in Britain and advances two criticisms. First, that rights and self-de? ned needs have been under-theorised by disability theorists to the extent that they have insuf? ciently appreciated the problems that these approaches pose. The paper suggests that rights to appropriate resources to satisfy self-de? ned needs will generate vast numbers of competing rights claims and that the resulting tendency of rights to con? ict has been under-appreciated. Secondly, that there has been little consideration of how these con? icts might be reconciled. The ? rst two sections of the paper look at the concepts of ascribed and self-de? ned needs, respectively, whilst the ? nal one looks at some of the problems of the rights approach and some of the dif? culties of making self-de? ned need the basis of rights claims