One-on-one situation decision-making according to equipment in youth basketball

The goal was to verify with which ball participants improved the attackers' decisions in one-on-one game situations during youth basketball. Participants were 88 9- to 11-year-old boys from eight teams. We organized a three-day tournament consisting of 12 games, in which four games were played with each ball among all the teams. The balls differed only in their weight (440 g, 485 g, 540 g). The videos filmed were observed by two observers trained. The dependent variables were number of decisions, appropriate decisions, inappropriate decisions and ratio of correct to incorrect decisions, in the one-on-one situation. Participants made more decisions, and more correct (but not incorrect) decisions, when using the 440 -g rather than the regulation and 540 -g ball. This view requires that youth coaches act as a facilitator of learning, designing practice context according the objective evidence.This research was supported by Fundación Séneca: Agencia Regional de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia: 15349/PHCS/1

Recent Advances in the Surface Functionalization of PLGA-Based Nanomedicines

Therapeutics are habitually characterized by short plasma half-lives and little affinity for targeted cells. To overcome these challenges, nanoparticulate systems have entered into the disease arena. Poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) is one of the most relevant biocompatible materials to construct drug nanocarriers. Understanding the physical chemistry of this copolymer and current knowledge of its biological fate will help in engineering efficient PLGA-based nanomedicines. Surface modification of the nanoparticle structure has been proposed as a required functionalization to optimize the performance in biological systems and to localize the PLGA colloid into the site of action. In this review, a background is provided on the properties and biodegradation of the copolymer. Methods to formulate PLGA nanoparticles, as well as their in vitro performance and in vivo fate, are briefly discussed. In addition, a special focus is placed on the analysis of current research in the use of surface modification strategies to engineer PLGA nanoparticles, i.e., PEGylation and the use of PEG alternatives, surfactants and lipids to improve in vitro and in vivo stability and to create hydrophilic shells or stealth protection for the nanoparticle. Finally, an update on the use of ligands to decorate the surface of PLGA nanomedicines is included in the review

Distances and shooting zones as a function of mass of basketball among 9- to 11- year-old male players

The goal of this study was to analyse with which ball the participants attempted a greater number of shots and achieved more successful shots from distances greater than four meters and from positions outside the free throw lane. The 54 participants included 9 to 11-year-old children from six basketball teams. Three situations were established in which the participants played four games with each of the following balls: a regulation ball (485g, 69-71cm); a ball of smaller mass (440g, 69-71cm); and a ball of greater mass (540g, 69-71cm). The procedures that followed included: defining the variables; instructing the observers and obtaining reliability; monitoring the properties of the ball and filming the games; and recording the data from the observation. Kruskal-Wallis H was applied to determine in which categories there were significant differences. Then, post-hoc comparisons were performed with Mann-Whitney’s U to determine with which balls these differences occurred. The results did not reflect any statistically significant differences for attempted and successful shots from any distance and shooting zone with any ball. Shots were attempted with greatest frequency from a distance of less than four meters and from inside the free throw lane with all three balls

White paper on the future of plasma science and technology in plastics and textiles

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: “Uros, C., Walsh, J., Cernák, M., Labay, C., Canal, J.M., Canal, C. (2019) White paper on the future of plasma science and technology in plastics and textiles. Plasma processes and polymers, 16 1 which has been published in final form at [doi: 10.1002/ppap.201700228]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving."This white paper considers the future of plasma science and technology related to the manufacturing and modifications of plastics and textiles, summarizing existing efforts and the current state‐of‐art for major topics related to plasma processing techniques. It draws on the frontier of plasma technologies in order to see beyond and identify the grand challenges which we face in the following 5–10 years. To progress and move the frontier forward, the paper highlights the major enabling technologies and topics related to the design of surfaces, coatings and materials with non‐equilibrium plasmas. The aim is to progress the field of plastics and textile production using advanced plasma processing as the key enabling technology which is environmentally friendly, cost efficient, and offers high‐speed processingPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Effect of Teaching Races for Understanding in Youth Sailing on Performance, Knowledge, and Adherence

©. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This document is the Accepted, version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in [Research quarterly for exercise and sport]. To access the final edited and published work see[https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2017.137603]Purpose: The purpose of this study was to know whether an intervention using an adaptation of the teaching games for understanding approach (named teaching races for understanding [TRfU]) led participants to improve skill execution, decision making, race performance, race involvement, race knowledge, enjoyment, intention to continue practicing sailing, and perceived competence. Method: Participants were 67 children from a randomly selected sailing school (Mage = 9.32 years, SD = 2.60 years) and 2 coaches. We designed and validated the TRfU lessons, and 1 coach was trained in the approach. The TRfU group participated in 11 lessons. This study followed a mixed- methods data approach. Quantitative data were evaluated using a quasiexperimental pretest– posttest design with a control group. The intervention consisted of teaching sailing using the TRfU approach. Children and coaches’ perceptions were evaluated through an interview on completion of the study. Data were collected using an adaptation of the Game Performance Assessment Instrument, a knowledge questionnaire, 2 psychological scales, and interviews with children and coaches. Results: The TRfU group showed statistically significant improvements in skill execution, decision making, and race performance compared with the control group, as well as significant improvements in race involvement, race knowledge, and enjoyment (ES = 0.64–2.63). Conclusion: Teaching races for understanding can be used in sailing to improve students’ capacity to reflect and connect theoretical knowledge with their motor performance in the race

Testing collinear factorization and nuclear parton distributions with pA collisions at the LHC

Global perturbative QCD analyses, based on large data sets from electron-proton and hadron collider experiments, provide tight constraints on the parton distribution function (PDF) in the proton. The extension of these analyses to nuclear parton distributions (nPDF) has attracted much interest in recent years. nPDFs are needed as benchmarks for the characterization of hot QCD matter in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and attract further interest since they may show novel signatures of non- linear density-dependent QCD evolution. However, it is not known from first principles whether the factorization of long-range phenomena into process-independent parton distribution, which underlies global PDF extractions for the proton, extends to nuclear effects. As a consequence, assessing the reliability of nPDFs for benchmark calculations goes beyond testing the numerical accuracy of their extraction and requires phenomenological tests of the factorization assumption. Here we argue that a proton-nucleus collision program at the LHC would provide a set of measurements allowing for unprecedented tests of the factorization assumption underlying global nPDF fits.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Directed Irradiation Synthesis as an Advanced Plasma Technology for Surface Modification to Activate Porous and “as-received” Titanium Surfaces

For the design of smart titanium implants, it is essential to balance the surface properties without any detrimental effect on the bulk properties of the material. Therefore, in this study, an irradiation-driven surface modification called directed irradiation synthesis (DIS) has been developed to nanopattern porousand“as-received”c.p. Tisur faces with the aim of improving cellular viability. Nano features were developed using singly-charged argon ions at 0.5 and 1.0 keV energies, incident angles from 0◦ to 75◦ degrees, and fluences up to 5.0×1017 cm−2. Irradiated surfaces were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and contact angle, observing an increased hydrophilicity (a contact angle reduction of 73.4% and 49.3%) and a higher roughness on both surfaces except for higher incident angles, which showed the smoothest surface. In-vitro studies demonstrated the biocompatibility of directed irradiation synthesis (DIS) reaching 84% and 87% cell viability levels at 1 and 7 days respectively, and a lower percentage of damaged DNA in tail compared to the control c.p. Ti. All these results confirm the potential of the DIS technique to modify complex surfaces at the nanoscale level promoting their biological performance.Department of Defense (Spain) contract W81XWH-11-2-0067Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain grant MAT2015-71284-

Shape phase transitions in odd-A nuclei

We investigate shape phase transitions in odd nuclei within the Interacting Boson Fermion Model. Special attention is given to the case of the transition from the vibrational behaviour to the stable axial deformation. The odd particle is assumed to be moving in the three single particle orbitals j=l/2,3/2,5/2 with a boson-fermion Hamiltonian that leads to the occurrence of the SU^^(3) boson-fermion symmetry when the boson part approaches the SU{3) condition. Both energy spectra and electromagnetic transitions show characteristic patterns similar to those displayed by the even nuclei at the corresponding critical point. The role of the additional particle in characterizing the properties of the critical points in finite quantal systems is investigated by resorting to the formalism based on the intrinsic frame