1,720,968 research outputs found
The Effects of Exergames on Physical Fitness, Body Composition and Enjoyment in Children: A Six-Month Intervention Study
Full text linkBackground/Objectives: Physical inactivity in children can lead to decreased physical fitness and reduced enjoyment of physical activity. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of exergaming on physical fitness, body composition and perceived enjoyment in elementary school children. Methods: Sixty-four male students (mean age 9.5 years) were randomly assigned to an exergaming group (EG, n = 32), engaging in Kinect Adventures three times a week for six months, or a control group (CG, n = 32), which continued standard physical education. Assessments were conducted pre- and post-intervention, including anthropometric measures, physical fitness tests (standing long jump, countermovement jump, sit-and-reach, 20-m sprint), aerobic fitness (20-m shuttle run), and perceived enjoyment measured with the PACES scale. Results: The EG demonstrated significant reductions in body weight, BMI, and relative fat mass compared to the CG (p < 0.01). Improvements in physical fitness were evident in EG, with increases in standing long jump distance (+12.8%; p < 0.0001), countermovement jump height (+65%, p < 0.0001), and flexibility (+75%; p < 0.0001). Aerobic fitness improved significantly in EG (+87.8m) compared to CG. Perceived enjoyment was notably higher in EG, especially at week three, compared to CG (69.3 +/- 5.8 vs. 44.2 +/- 11.6; p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Exergaming offers benefits for physical fitness and body composition in children, while also enhancing enjoyment. Incorporating exergames into physical education programs could be an effective strategy for addressing childhood obesity, improving physical skills, and increasing student enjoyment, encouraging long-term physical activity adherence
Analysis of the COVID-19 Lockdown Impact on Biological Parameters and Physical Performance in Football Players
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in global sustainability, but specifically, this study analyses the impact of lockdown on health and behavior in the game of football. The 2020/2021 Italian football competitive season (indicated as “post-COVID”), taking place following an obliged lockdown and longer than the normal summary season break, was characterized by very short recovery times and was compared to the 2018–2019 “pre-COVID” season, which had a regular course. The comparisons were about anthropometric and hormonal responses, muscle damage, and the physical performance of players in the major league (Serie A), and were made considering two extreme points of the competitive seasons: before the preparatory period (T0) and at the end of the season (T1). Turning to the results, it is significant to note the following: (1) body fat percentage was lower at the start (T0) of the post-COVID season than at the start of the pre-COVID season. During both seasons, serum CK and LDH increased in T1 and were significantly higher in both T0 and T1 of the post-COVID season. (2) Cortisol and testosterone concentrations increased in both seasons from T0 to T1; however, in the post-COVID season, concentrations of both were higher than in the previous season. The testosterone to cortisol ratio increased at the end of the pre-COVID season, whilst strongly decreasing at T1 of the post-COVID season. (3) Blood lactate concentrations significantly decreased during the pre-COVID season but remained unchanged during the post-COVID season. We may conclude that the enforced suspension period and the consequent rapid resumption of all activities influenced the physical and physiological state of professional footballers
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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