Search

Background: Executive functions, notably inhibition, significantly influence decision-making and behavioral regulation in team sports. However, more research must be conducted on individual player characteristics such as experience and motor skills. This study assessed how accumulated practical experience moderates inhibition in response to varying task difficulty levels. Methods: Forty-four university students (age: 20.36 ± 3.13 years) participated in this study with two sessions: one followed standard 1 × 1 basketball rules (“Regular Practice”), while the other imposed motor, temporal, and spatial restrictions (“Restriction Practice”). Functional difficulty was controlled by grouping pairs with similar skill levels. Flanker and Go-Nogo tasks were used. Results: Increasing complexity worsened cognitive performance (inhibition). “Restriction Practice” showed a significantly slower and less accurate performance in both tests than “Regular Practice” (p < 0.001). Experience positively impacted test speed and accuracy (p < 0.001). Conclusion: In sports, acute cognitive impacts are intrinsically linked to the task’s complexity and the athlete’s cognitive resources. In this sense, it is essential to adjust individually the cognitive demands of the tasks, considering each athlete’s specific cognitive abilities and capacities.

Cold expansion technology is an extended method used in aeronautics to increase fatigue life of holes and hence extending inspection intervals. During the cold expansion process, a mechanical mandrel is forced to pass along the hole generating compressive residual hoop stresses. The most widely accepted geometry for this mandrel is the tapered one and simpler options like balls have generally been rejected based on the non-conforming residual hoop stresses derived from their use. In this investigation a novelty process using multiple balls with incremental interference, instead of a single one, was simulated. Experimental tests were performed to validate the finite element method (FEM) models and residual hoop stresses from multiple balls simulation were compared with one ball and tapered mandrel simulations. Results showed that the use of three incremental balls significantly reduced the magnitude of non-conforming residual hoop stresses and the extension of these detrimental zone.

Neurocognitive function, especially executive functioning, is positively associated with better fitness or higher levels of physical activity (PA). Previous research suggests that combined endurance and resistance (AER+R) training leads to greater improvements than training in either modality separately. Dynamic team sports with cognitive dimensions, such as basketball (BAS), may be an excellent context for improving cognition. This study compared the effects of following a four-month PA training program in BAS versus AER+R on executive functions along with a control group with low PA. Fifty participants completed the training period and were randomly distributed into three groups: BAS (16 participants), AER+R (18), and control (16). Participants in the BAS group showed improved inhibition and working memory and those in the AER+R group showed improved inhibition and cognitive flexibility, while inhibition deteriorated in the control group. There were significant differences between groups only in inhibition. It appears that following a four-month PA training program is enough to enhance executive functioning, and improvements in inhibition are more evident when the program includes an open sport such as BAS.

Background: Attentional resource allocation during sports practice is associated with the players’ perceived mental load. However, few ecological studies address this problem by considering the players’ characteristics (e.g., practice experience, skill and cognition). Therefore, this study aimed to analyse the dose-response effect of two different types of practice, each with different learning objectives, on mental load and motor performance by using a linear mixed model analysis. Method: Forty-four university students (age 20.36 ± 3.13 years) participated in this study. Two sessions were conducted, one based on a standard rules 1 × 1 basketball situation (“practice to maintain”) and one with motor, temporal and spatial restrictions in 1 × 1 tasks (“practice to learn”). Results: “Practice to learn” produced a higher perceived mental load (NASA-TLX scale) and a worse performance than “practice to maintain”, but was moderated by experience and inhibition (p = 0.001). The same happens in the most demanding restriction (i.e., temporal, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: The results showed that increasing the difficulty of 1 × 1 situations through restrictions harmed the player’s performance and increased their perceived mental load. These effects were moderated by previous basketball experience and the player’s inhibition capacity, so the difficulty adjustment should be based on the athletes themselves.

Este artículo presenta los resultados de investigación sobre la forma en la que el Programa de Alimentación Escolar se desarrolla e incide en una institución pública de Colombia. El objetivo principal es establecer si el PAE ha permitido generar o modificar hábitos alimentarios en los niños y las niñas del CED rural de Mochuelo Alto. Su desarrollo se dio bajo un enfoque cualitativo, apoyado de entrevistas a estudiantes, docentes y directivos, las cuales se analizaron en AtlasTi para observar la relación y contrastar la realidad del programa con lo propuesto en los documentos oficiales. Los resultados demuestran que la formación en hábitos alimenticios no se lleva a cabo y lo que se genera a través de esta alimentación escolar es desperdicio, además de robustecer los malos hábitos ya adquiridos.

El objetivo del presente estudio es entrenar a algunos padres como facilitadores de las interacciones comunicativas con sus hijos, usuarios de implantes cocleares que impulsan el desarrollo del lenguaje verbal en entornos naturales. Esto se hace a través de una orientación pedagógica no tradicional como la teleasistencia híbrida, que se entreteje finamente con la educación para la salud y el bienestar familiar. El planteamiento metodológico es exploratorio y descriptivo: en sesiones híbridas y sesiones sincrónicas de hora y media con los padres y muestras videograbadas de sus interacciones comunicativas durante el habla espontanea con los niños en su hogar. Con los padres se consigue como resultado de la intervención el restablecimiento del circuito comunicativo y un cambio positivo en la “nutrición lingüística” en sus prácticas de intervención participativa durante el diálogo con sus hijos. Se disminuyen a futuro los costos intangibles que se deben asumir como consecuencia de la llegada inesperada de un hijo con pérdida auditiva en una situación inusual como la epidemia de COVID-19, que impide el trabajo presencial con el fonoaudiólogo. Paralelamente, se crea el espacio para la reflexión entre profesionales respecto a una propuesta pedagógica e investigativa sólida que visibilice la transdisciplinariedad como primeros respondientes en salud con proyección en la educación familiar, social y escolar.

Background: Researchers in the field of sport pedagogy have highlighted questioning as a behaviour that facilitates athletes’ high-order thinking and problem-solving. However, previous studies have suggested that coaches ask a reduced number of questions during training that are typically convergent and lead players to predetermined responses. Formal coach development programmes (CDPs), intended to encourage the use of questioning, have been scrutinised for their limited impact on coaches’ practice. These criticisms have been made without consideration of the instances and situations during training that might present a better opportunity for asking different question types. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore coaches’ perceptions concerning potential ‘teachable moments’ to ask convergent and divergent questions during training at three data collection points, and to associate changes between knowledge and behaviour after a work-based CDP. Method: Six Spanish youth football coaches working for an elite academy were recruited to a longitudinal study. The study involved a six-week CDP delivered by a coach developer, in collaboration with the club’s Academy Management Team, and an experienced research team. Data collection occurred throughout 24-months interspersed by a workshop and two directed tasks organised in several stages: (1) Pre-systematic observations (Sep–Dec 2018) and (2) pre-interviews (Jan 2019), to identify coaches’ baseline behaviours and knowledge; (3) a workshop & directed task 1 (Feb 2019), encouraging coaches to experiment and self-discover how to implement questioning within their training contexts; (4) a directed task 2 (Feb–Mar 2019), facilitating coaches’ video-based and dialogic reflections about their questions; (5) post-systematic observations (Mar–May 2019) and (6) post-interviews (May 2019), capturing changes in knowledge and questioning after the intervention; and (7) consolidation interviews (May 2020), recording coaches’ kn