Skill Acquisition and Development Issues with Predictable Badminton Feeding Routines

Badminton practice designs contain feeding routines that allow players to practice technical skills. Optimal skill acquisition and development is gained through practice simulating competitive match play rather than approaches centred around mass repetition with low levels of uncertainty. This study aimed to evaluate the biomechanical differences in twelve youth elite UK badminton players in activities with varying levels of predictability. The three experimental trials were handfeed, multifeed and match play trials. Motion capture cameras were used to record participant biomechanical data. Data analysis revealed several significant biomechanical differences between trials. Results showed that an increase in trial unpredictability led to increased depth of the forward lunge shot and a lower racket shuttlecock strike position with greater forward trunk bend. This study showed that visual search behaviour in badminton is a key component of the forward lunge shot. Predictable practice feeding routines may cause poor skill acquisition and development through maladaptive learning behaviours. Coaches are recommended to implement unpredictable feeding practice routines to simulate the visual search behaviour of competitive badminton match play to enhance skill acquisition and development in youth elite badminton players

Letting the cat out of the bag: The impact of respondent multitasking on disclosure of socially undesirable information and answers to knowledge questions

Previous research shows that a high proportion of respondents engage in other activities while answering surveys. In this study, we examine the effect of multitasking in reporting sensitive information and socially undesirable behavior (e.g., substance use, mental health, gambling) along with reporting of knowledge/awareness of publicly funded programs. The dataset comes from a dual-frame random digit dial telephone survey of adults in a Midwestern state (N = 1,761) who were asked about their attitudes and behaviors toward gambling and health-related behaviors. The results of the study reveal that nearly half of the respondents engaged in multitasking activities (46.9%). In addition, it was found that multitaskers disclosed more socially undesirable information and reported lower levels of knowledge than non-multitaskers. The implications of these findings and how they fit in with previous work are discussed

Investigating Respondent Multitasking and Distraction Using Self-reports and Interviewers’ Observations in a Dual-frame Telephone Survey

Previous research has shown that people often engage in other activities while responding to surveys and that respondents’ multitasking generally has no effect on indicators of data quality (e.g., item nonresponse, non-differentiation). One of the limitations of these studies is that they have mostly used selfreported measures of respondents’ multitasking. We build on prior research by combining self-reported measures of multitasking with interviewers' observations of respondents' distractions recorded after each interview. The dataset comes from a statewide dual-frame random digit dial telephone survey of adults in a Midwestern state (n = 1,006) who were queried on topics related to awareness of and attitudes toward STEM education. We found that multitasking was frequent (45.6%) and that respondents who reported engaging in other activities were described as distracted twice as often as those who did not report multitasking (38.3% versus 19.0%). In terms of data quality, respondents who were multitasking provided less accurate responses to a knowledge question. However, we found no evidence that distractions, assessed by interviewers, compromised data quality. The implications of the results for survey practices are discussed

Predictors of Multitasking and its Impact on Data Quality: Lessons from a Statewide Dual-frame Telephone Survey

Previous research shows that people often multitask while talking on the phone. This raises concerns about the quality of data yielded by telephone surveys as multitasking might distract respondents, inducing satisficing behaviors. Although respondents’ multitasking behavior has aroused great interest in the literature, most studies are based on online surveys. In this study, we expand on prior research by analyzing data from a random dual-frame telephone survey of adults in a Midwestern state regarding their perceptions and experiences with healthcare (N = 2,132; of which 245 are from landlines and 1,887 from cellphones). We found that multitasking was frequent (53.3%), especially among older respondents, parents with children in the household, less educated individuals, and those interviewed at night. Despite having over half of respondents report multitasking, we found no evidence that self-reported multitasking reduced the quality of the responses. The implications of the results for survey practices are discussed

Internal avalanches in a pile of superconducting vortices

Using an array of miniature Hall probes, we monitored the spatiotemporal variation of the internal magnetic induction in a superconducting niobium sample during a slow sweep of external magnetic field. We found that a sizable fraction of the increase in the local vortex population occurs in abrupt jumps. The size distribution of these avalanches presents a power-law collapse on a limited range. In contrast, at low temperatures and low fields, huge avalanches with a typical size occur and the system does not display a well-defined macroscopic critical current.Comment: 5 pages including 5 figure

Atherosclerotic plaque destabilization in Mice: A comparative study

Atherosclerosis-Associated diseases are the main cause ofmortality and morbidity in western societies. The progression of atherosclerosis is a dynamic process evolving from early to advanced lesions thatmay become rupture-prone vulnerable plaques. Acute coronary syndromes are the clinical manifestation of life-Threatening thrombotic events associated with high-risk vulnerable plaques. Hyperlipidemic mouse models have been extensively used in studying the mechanisms controlling initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. However, the understanding of mechanisms leading to atherosclerotic plaque destabilization has been hampered by the lack of proper animalmodelsmimicking this process. Although various mouse models generate atherosclerotic plaques with histological features of human advanced lesions, a consensus model to study atherosclerotic plaque destabilization is still lacking. Hence, we studied the degree and features of plaque vulnerability in different mouse models of atherosclerotic plaque destabilization and find that the model based on the placement of a shear stress modifier in combination with hypercholesterolemia represent with high incidence the most human like lesions compared to the other models

Molecular crowding defines a common origin for the Warburg effect in proliferating cells and the lactate threshold in muscle physiology

Aerobic glycolysis is a seemingly wasteful mode of ATP production that is seen both in rapidly proliferating mammalian cells and highly active contracting muscles, but whether there is a common origin for its presence in these widely different systems is unknown. To study this issue, here we develop a model of human central metabolism that incorporates a solvent capacity constraint of metabolic enzymes and mitochondria, accounting for their occupied volume densities, while assuming glucose and/or fatty acid utilization. The model demonstrates that activation of aerobic glycolysis is favored above a threshold metabolic rate in both rapidly proliferating cells and heavily contracting muscles, because it provides higher ATP yield per volume density than mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. In the case of muscle physiology, the model also predicts that before the lactate switch, fatty acid oxidation increases, reaches a maximum, and then decreases to zero with concomitant increase in glucose utilization, in agreement with the empirical evidence. These results are further corroborated by a larger scale model, including biosynthesis of major cell biomass components. The larger scale model also predicts that in proliferating cells the lactate switch is accompanied by activation of glutaminolysis, another distinctive feature of the Warburg effect. In conclusion, intracellular molecular crowding is a fundamental constraint for cell metabolism in both rapidly proliferating- and non-proliferating cells with high metabolic demand. Addition of this constraint to metabolic flux balance models can explain several observations of mammalian cell metabolism under steady state conditions

Altered metabolism in cancer

Cancer cells have different metabolic requirements from their normal counterparts. Understanding the consequences of this differential metabolism requires a detailed understanding of glucose metabolism and its relation to energy production in cancer cells. A recent study in BMC Systems Biology by Vasquez et al. developed a mathematical model to assess some features of this altered metabolism. Here, we take a broader look at the regulation of energy metabolism in cancer cells, considering their anabolic as well as catabolic needs

Treatment Response Assessment in IDH-Mutant Glioma Patients by Noninvasive 3D Functional Spectroscopic Mapping of 2-Hydroxyglutarate

Purpose: Measurements of objective response rates are critical to evaluate new glioma therapies. The hallmark metabolic alteration in gliomas with mutant isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) is the overproduction of oncometabolite 2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG), which plays a key role in malignant transformation. 2HG represents an ideal biomarker to probe treatment response in IDH-mutant glioma patients, and we hypothesized a decrease in 2HG levels would be measureable by in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) as a result of antitumor therapy. Experimental Design: We report a prospective longitudinal imaging study performed in 25 IDH-mutant glioma patients receiving adjuvant radiation and chemotherapy. A newly developed 3D MRS imaging was used to noninvasively image 2HG. Paired Student t test was used to compare pre- and posttreatment tumor 2HG values. Test-retest measurements were performed to determine the threshold for 2HG functional spectroscopic maps (fSM). Univariate and multivariate regression were performed to correlate 2HG changes with Karnofsky performance score (KPS). Results: We found that mean 2HG (2HG/Cre) levels decreased significantly (median=48.1%; 95% confidence interval=27.3%-56.5%; P=0.007) in the posttreatment scan. The volume of decreased 2HG correlates (R2=0.88, P=0.002) with clinical status evaluated by KPS. Conclusions: We demonstrate that dynamic measurements of 2HG are feasible by 3D fSM, and the decrease of 2HG levels can monitor treatment response in patients with IDH-mutant gliomas. Our results indicate that quantitative in vivo 2HG imaging maybe used for precision medicine and early response assessment in clinical trials of therapies targeting IDH-mutant gliomas

Direct constraint on the distance of y2 Velorum from AMBER/VLTI observations

In this work, we present the first AMBER observations, of the Wolf-Rayet and O (WR+O) star binary system y2 Velorum. The AMBER instrument was used with the telescopes UT2, UT3, and UT4 on baselines ranging from 46m to 85m. It delivered spectrally dispersed visibilities, as well as differential and closure phases, with a resolution R = 1500 in the spectral band 1.95-2.17 micron. We interpret these data in the context of a binary system with unresolved components, neglecting in a first approximation the wind-wind collision zone flux contribution. We show that the AMBER observables result primarily from the contribution of the individual components of the WR+O binary system. We discuss several interpretations of the residuals, and speculate on the detection of an additional continuum component, originating from the free-free emission associated with the wind-wind collision zone (WWCZ), and contributing at most to the observed K-band flux at the 5% level. The expected absolute separation and position angle at the time of observations were 5.1±0.9mas and 66±15° respectively. However, we infer a separation of 3.62+0.11-0.30 mas and a position angle of 73+9-11°. Our analysis thus implies that the binary system lies at a distance of 368+38-13 pc, in agreement with recent spectrophotometric estimates, but significantly larger than the Hipparcos value of 258+41-31 pc