Agility Assessment Research Articles

WITHDRAWN: Agility assessment framework for hypermarkets using multi-grade fuzzy and importance performance analysis

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Assessment of Agility in Elderly Population of Islamabad

Background: Agility is considered as one of the important components of physical fitness. In older adults, it is of utmost importance in response to any stimulus. The objective of this study was to determine normative values of agility in elderly population of Islamabad.
 Methods: A Cross-Sectional Survey was conducted in community settings of Islamabad from February–July 2019 after approval by the Ethical Review Committee of Foundation University Islamabad. The calculated sample size was found to be 267, but due to missing data, analysis was done on 250(100 females and 150 males). Participants were selected by convenient sampling. Physically independent participants were included and diseased population (severe musculoskeletal, neurological, and cardiopulmonary disorders), decreased functional status affecting hearing, vision, memory recall was excluded from the study. PAR-Q was utilized in uncovering any possible health risks linked to exercise. For evaluation of agility, the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD) Agility Test was performed. Agility scoring is based on time in seconds, with higher score representing less agility, and agility score of less than 62 represents good agility. Data were analyzed through SPSS version 21.
 Results: The mean age, BMI and agility score of participants were 60.7±5.81 years, 26±4.30 kg/m² and 22.42±5.2 respectively. There was significant difference (P<0.001) in agility between males and females, with the mean agility score higher in females as compared to males. Similarly, Agility score was significantly high in females as compared to males in BMI range of 18.5 to >30 and all age categories.
 Conclusion: Elderly population of Pakistan has good agility score

A systematic review of the literature on supply chain agility

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to critically examine the scholarly articles associated with the diverse aspects of supply chain agility (SCA). The review highlights research insights, existing gaps and future research directions that can help academicians and practitioners gain a comprehensive understanding of SCA.Design/methodology/approachThe present study has adopted author co-citation analysis as the research methodology, with a view to thoroughly investigating the good-quality articles related to SCA that have been published over a period of 22 years (1999-2020). In this study, 126 research papers on SCA – featuring diverse aspects of agility – from various reputed journals have been examined, analysed and assimilated.FindingsThe salient findings of this research are, namely, agility is different from other similar concepts, such as flexibility, leanness, adaptability and resilience; of the 13 dimensions of agility discussed in the literature, the prominent ones are quickness, responsiveness, competency and flexibility; literature related to SCA can be categorised as related to modelling the enablers, agility assessment, agility implementation, leagility and agility maximisation. This research proposes a more practical definition and framework for SCA. The probable areas for future research are, namely, impediments to agility, effective approaches to agility assessment, cost-benefit trade-offs to be considered whilst implementing agility, empirical research to validate the framework and SCA in the domain of healthcare and disaster relief supply chains.Practical implicationsThis paper provides substantial insights to practitioners who primarily focus on measuring and implementing agility in the supply chain. The findings of this study will help the supply chain manager gain a better idea about how to become competitive in today’s dynamic and turbulent business environment.Originality/valueThe originality of this study is in: comprehensively identifying the various issues related to SCA, such as related concepts, definitions, dimensions and different categories of studies covered in literature, proposing a new definition and framework for SCA and identifying potential areas for future research, to provide deeper insights into the subject and highlight areas for future research.

Multicomponent Physical Exercise Training in Multimorbid and Palliative Oldest Adults.

Exercise counteracts aging and pathology symptoms, but there is still scarce research on exercise programs for multimorbid and/or palliative old patients (MPO-Ps). In order to analyze whether the multicomponent physical–cognitive training is beneficial for this population, 17 MPO-Ps (81.59 ± 5.63 years) completed a >26 weeks home-based intervention (20–50 min/session, three sessions/week). Twenty-eight supervised and thirty-two autonomous sessions were gradually distributed along three phases: supervised training (ST), reduced supervision training (RST), and autonomous training (AT). Physical function (gait speed, hand grip and lower-limb strength, balance, and agility), mental status (MMSE), and autonomy in daily living (the Barthel Index) were assessed. Categorical analyses regarding the changes in the walking aids used in the test were added to improve the assessment of strength and agility along the intervention. Despite important study limitations, such as the small sample size and lack of a control group, and despite the MPO-Ps’ very low baseline fitness and initial exercise intolerance, they benefited from the dual-tasking approach, especially in autonomy, lower-limb strength, and balance. Agility improvements were shown only by categorical analyses. As expected, most benefits increased the supervision (ST phase). Gait speed and cognitive status maintained despite the total autonomy in training in the last phase. Further research with larger samples should confirm if multicomponent physical–cognitive exercise, individualized and tailored on daily-basis, together with technical assistance and medical supervision, benefits this MPO-Ps population, and if it can be prescribed to them with security, in spite some of them already being palliative patients.

Assessment of organizational agility in response to disruptive innovation: a case of an engineering services firm

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to manage the strategy to counter disruptive innovation by identifying stronger attributes and key strategic areas for improvements in an engineering services context with less freedom to orchestrate product innovation. The authors also validate the combined use of multi-grade fuzzy, Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) and gap analysis in developing the strategy to mitigate turbulence.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a framework using a combination of Dynamic Capabilities and Organizational Agility to develop the strategy. The study uses data gathered from a 60-member engineering project team working on an Aircraft Engine Controller design to identify 50 attributes and the related importance and performance ratings. The research study is designed using a three-tier approach. First, multi-grade fuzzy is utilized to measure the overall firm response agility index. In the second step, the IPA is used to analyze the strength and weaknesses of the firm and to identify the attributes where the firm needs to focus. In the past step, gap analysis is used to prioritize the identified attributes. The findings are validated by panel discussions with a different group of experts from the project team and action points were arrived at.FindingsThis research work finds that the firms’ response agility index of 6.97 is comparable to that of the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) from previous literature, but still needs a better agility score to effectively counter turbulence from disruptive innovations. It also identifies seven key areas for improvement and their relative priority to effectively improve the response agility by utilizing the least number of resources, the reasons for the gap and the mitigation strategy to close the gap. The findings highlight a few key differences between an engineering services firm in comparison to OEMs and Software Services firms.Practical implicationsThe findings help the practitioners with a comparative agility score of an engineering services firm, and an effective way of measuring agility, identify key focus areas and prioritize the actions using a simple set of data that could be collected regularly to keep track of the improvements. The provided strategic framework to improve the agility score can be used for continuous improvement.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the existing literature by developing a framework for outsourcing services companies to cope with the turbulence by using dynamic capabilities and organizational agility. It also adds to the literature by extending the validity of IPA and gap analysis in making strategic decisions in an industrial set-up.

Relationships between Muscle Architecture and Performance in Division I Male Italian Field Hockey Players

Muscle architecture has been proposed as one of the most important determinants of muscle strength and power performance. The purpose of the present investigation was to correlate the muscle architecture with power, agility and maximal strength in Italian division I Field Hockey (FH) players. Twenty players (age = 25.4 ± 5.2 y; body mass = 78.5 ± 9.0 kg; body height = 179.6 ± 7.8 cm) were assessed for body composition, agility, sprint and maximal isometric force in squat (ISQ). The pro-agility test (PRO) and 30-m sprint (SPRINT) were used for agility and speed assessments, respectively. In addition, the pennation angle (PA), fascicle length (FL) and muscle thickness (MT) of the vastus lateralis were assessed via B-mode ultrasound. Large positive correlations were found between PRO and both PA and MT (r = 0.62; p = 0.006 and r = 0.51; p = 0.032, respectively). Moreover, SPRINT was positively correlated with PA and negatively correlated with FL (r = 0.50, p = 0.046; and r = −0.50; p = 0.034, respectively). Large positive correlations were also detected between body fat and both PRO and SPRINT (r = 0.58; p = 0.012 and r = 0.61; p = 0.009, respectively), indicating detrimental effects of the body fat on specific performances. The present findings showed the existence of large relationships between the muscle architecture of the vastus lateralis and physical characteristics related to elite performance in FH. Low PA and long FL of the vastus lateralis appear important parameters for agility and sprint performances.

Assessment of Team Agility in Internet of Things Projects

Internet of Things (IoT) projects are special kind of Research and Development (R&D) projects. Team agility plays an important role in determining the agility of IoT project organizations. Thus the paper aims to evaluate the team agility level of IoT projects using multi-grade fuzzy and Importance Performance Analysis (IPA).The team agility index is computed using multi-grade fuzzy for the case IoT project is 7.63 which is between the ranges (6-8) which specifies as ‘Highly Agile’. The IPA is applied to identify the weaker attributes to improve the team agility of case IoT project. The framework can be used on a periodic basis to help IoT project managers to improve continuously their team agility level.

Assessment of Organizational Agility in Software Projects

In the current context of business, agility refers to the dynamic capability of an organization to adapt itself to market and industry demands in a productive and cost-effective manner. Organizational Agility focuses on both stability and dynamism, is more people centric in its approach towards efficient output through faster decision cycles and leveraging technology to manage risks and produce the desired output for its customers. This paper aims at evaluating the organizational agility level from the perspective of people and culture in a software project organization using the multi-grade fuzzy approach. Findings from the case study indicate that the case organization agility index is 6.79 which specifies as ‘agile’. Importance Performance Analysis is used to identify the weaker attributes of case organization. Furthermore, recommendations for the improvisation of weaker attributes of the case organization are discussed.

Satisfaction and Quality of Life of Families Participating in Two Different Early Intervention Models in the Same Context: A Mixed Methods Study.

Early intervention is developed following different types of service organization, which in turn require different professional and family roles. The aim of this study was to compare the perceived satisfaction and family quality of life amongst families receiving early intervention developed at centers in comparison to those receiving the routines-based early intervention in families’ homes, that is a family centered intervention in ecological environments. Under a transformative paradigm, a mixed methods design was used, using the Consumer Report Effectiveness Scale (CRES-4) and the Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale (FQOLS) and two focus groups as data collection instruments. The sample comprised 166 parents in the quantitative phase and 16 parents in the qualitative phase. Results showed that families receiving routines-based early intervention had greater satisfaction with the service although both groups showed similar scores for family quality of life in most of the analyzed domains. Three dimensions were identified throughout the qualitative phase: problem solving, professional team and service organization. Both the models analyzed have an impact on family quality of life and parents are in general satisfied. Strengths and weaknesses were found related to the problem-solving process, the role of the professional team, family empowerment and the service’s organization. The areas requiring further development are the effective training of professionals focused on family practices, the exchange of information with the family and a more participatory organization that takes parent’s perspectives into consideration. The value given to a combined model is another aspect highlighted in this study, as well as the need for a more agile assessment period to avoid unnecessary delays.

The Effect of Reactive Strength Index on Some Parameters of Young Elite Football Players

Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the reactive strength index of young athletes and the parameters of agility, sprint and eccentric usage rate. The current research is expected to raise awareness for trainers, conditioners and researchers working in this field in terms of reactive power. Methods: A total of 21 players from the Beşiktaş Football Team's U15 team participated in the study in the 2019-2020 season. While height, weight and body mass index measurements were used to determine the physical parameters of the players, reactive strength index-drop jump test, pro agility test and maximal sprint speed-acceleration test were used as performance tests. SPSS 24.0 licensed package program was used for statistical analysis of the obtained data. Data; presented as the arithmetic mean, standard deviation, minimum value and maximum value. Pearson correlation test was used to control the relationship between variables. Results: While a significant relationship was found between young football players' reactive strength index and their changing direction performance (r = 0.619; p 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of this study show that there is a high correlation between reactive strength and agility in young football players. According to these results, it can be suggested to consider the reactive force index parameter in the strength and agility assessment process of young football players. Also, it was seen in the study that reactive force was not related to sprint performance components. This is thought to be because speed and agility are different physical qualities.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: An effective agile development process by a hybrid intelligent effort estimation protocol

The Development of Software becomes complicated as the size or complexity of software increases, it is difficult to estimate resource consumption or development costs. Evaluating computer weight is part of the development that can be used to assess resources before development. Scoring is a quantitative assessment of the effort required to complete a particular developmental task, most often expressed in terms of duration. Employee estimates are performed to capture individual assessments and determination of time, the capacity or total cost of the software project. Work is calculated as effort, and all-time period required to complete a task is calculated as an estimate of the effort, generally indicated as measurement categories (man–day, man–month, and man–year). Many other issues depend on these estimates. B. Total cost or time spent on software development. Also, the algorithms used to measure software development effort can be right also. Therefore, conflict assessment is critical to software development in project planning and monitoring. Agility is the latest form of software development. Agility assessment is based on several factors. Inaccurate information is written using the most efficient methods possible lead to inaccurate estimates. Precise estimates are therefore needed immediately. It is difficult to find a method that works well in all situations. Therefore, this article aims to evaluate the dynamic development activities using the integration method based on the features and user information. The results of the distributed method show that the energy expenditures derived from the user information are useful.

Sport-Specific Agility and Change of Direction in Water Polo: The Reliability and Validity of Two Newly Developed Tests.

Dong, L, Paradelo, D, Delorme, A, Oliveira, J, Parillo, B, Croteau, F, Romeas, T, Dubé, E, Bieuzen, F, Billaut, F, and Berryman, N. Sport-specific agility and change of direction in water polo: The reliability and validity of two newly developed tests. J Strength Cond Res 35(12S): S111-S118, 2021-There is a gap in water-based agility testing that considers both the change-of-direction (COD) and perceptive-reactive components of agility. This study sought to develop easily implementable, sport-specific in-water agility tests for water polo and to verify the reliability and validity of these new tests: the in-water Stop and Go (SG) and Jump and Go (JG). Female water polo athletes at the Senior (n = 12, age = 22.1 ± 2.1 years), Junior (n = 19, age = 18.5 ± 1.0 years), and Youth (n = 11, age = 16.5 ± 0.8 years) national levels performed 3 trials of each of the SG, JG, and the existing Functional Test for Agility Performance (FTAP). Senior athletes performed an additional experimental session to assess reliability parameters. Relative reliability for agility and COD versions of the SG and JG was high or very high (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.76-0.95). For construct validity analyses, significant between-group differences for each of the new tests (p < 0.05) were found. In contrast, the FTAP was moderately reliable (ICC = 0.57) and was unsuccessful in discriminating between playing levels. Considering the favorable metrological properties of the SG and JG, their fidelity to in-game demands, and their accessible setups, these new tests represent viable options to implement at grassroots and elite levels for the assessment and training of water polo-specific agility.

Performance comparison of non-adaptive and adaptive optimization algorithms for artificial neural network training applied to damage diagnosis in civil structures

The structural health monitoring of civil structures has been highlighted by the perception that the cost involved in the prevention of structural accidents is lower than the cost of correcting them. In addition, in the case of large structures (e.g. bridges, dams and industrial sheds), it is desired that the damage diagnosis should occur quickly from real-time monitoring without interrupting the use of the structure. The structural diagnosis may be performed based on vibration measurements, considering that the structural damages modify modal parameters of the structure (e.g. frequencies and mode shapes). With these dynamic responses, the application of appropriate computational tools to recognize and classify structural damage is intended, and artificial neural networks (ANN) have gained a lot of attention in achieving these goals. In this work, the methodology of diagnosing structures by real-time monitoring is originally developed and based on initial definition of the optimal topology, avoiding both the use of multiple hidden layers and the combination of several neural networks, and by applying of non-adaptive and adaptive first-order algorithms for agile network training, in order to be mathematically suitable for continuous and real-time monitoring, which allows updating both the dataset and neural parameters without greater computational effort. As some of these algorithms were not addressed in the diagnosis of civil structures with the aforementioned hypotheses, until this research, the performance of each algorithm was verified in case studies that simulate classic structural systems adopted in most civil buildings. Finally, the results endorse the feasibility of improving the structural diagnosis based on the training of a simple neural network, with one hidden layer, associated with non-adaptive or adaptive first-order optimizers that guarantee the agile assessment of structural integrity in real time.

WITHDRAWN: Agility assessment in retail store environment using multi-grade fuzzy

Abstract Agility in store environment inside the mall is characterized by the ease with which the retail stores are able to anticipate the market changes and proactively restructures its interior environment, their practices, technological capability and process to compete the market. Assessing the agility would help the retail stores to understand their current position and capabilities. This study focuses on assessing retail store agility using multi-grade fuzzy approach. The overall agility index was calculated 7.29 which indicate that the case retail store is agile and has areas for improvement. To identify the weaker attributes for improvement an Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) was conducted. The results found that the weaker attributes of the case retail store were merchandise, seasonal offers, ease of access to the location and zoning inside the store. The proposed framework helps for retail store managers to evaluate their agility level and focus on weak attributes to improve agility level.

A Constructivist Approach to Visualise Organisational Agility

The research question we would like to answer with this article is if agile related constructs or personal assessment criteria can be elicited from a personal construct system of employees and leaders by carrying out a repertory grid study in an organisation. The methodology of personal construct psychology was chosen to get an unbiased view of the corporate culture. In a plannable world an organisational structure with a hierarchy of executives and managers following a vertical top-down approach makes sense. A world that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) requires a different model to organisational design. Horizontal integration that fosters involvement and empowerment has proven to be an agile response to this new environment. Consequently, agile management methods are a key instrument for an organisation to prepare for future challenges in a competitive industry. But how can an organisation assess its own agile status quo? This research uses personal construct psychology (PCP) to visualize the agility status of an organisation. A range of recent empirical and practical research articles were studied to filter the most relevant practices and critical factors of organisational agility. The findings are compared to a data basis generated by 61 repertory grid interviews carried out in a SME to evaluate whether personal construct theory is a suitable approach to assess the agility status of an organisation. The findings are visualised with a repertory grid software using Generalised Procrustes Analysis (GPA). This methodology creates a 3D visualisation of the agile assessment criteria derived from the interviews. By comparing the spatial distances between construct clusters and elements the researcher and reader able to assess whether an organisation has incorporated agile practices and traits or can further advance to react more agile and flexible to external forces. Repertory grid structured interviews based on PCP generate simultaneously quantitative and qualitative results. As these are compared to the literature-based findings, it reflects a triangulation research approach.

Sensor Based Agility Assessment in Sport

Agility is the ability of a person to change direction quickly. Measuring the basic and sport-specific physical abilities of athletes is important in sport and recreation. To assess agility, various tests are regularly included in physical abilities test batteries. This paper presents a state-of-the-art approach to measuring human movement in agility tests using infrared optical gates and kinematic sensors. The combination of precise time measurement, position detection and motion measurement enables the acquisition of previously inaccessible kinematic and spatiotemporal variables. This makes the assessment of agility more accurate and provides the athletes and coaches with additional information. With the system presented in this paper, the assessment of the athletes’ agility can be recorded more objectively and with greater accuracy than would be possible with conventional equipment and methods. The athletes’ performance is assessed with a combination of different sensors, all of which are synchronized with our sensor-based system. This combination provides the athletes with new information about their movement, which is not possible with traditional professional timing devices used to measure time in agility tests. The presented sensor system can be used in various sports and test types, including the frequently used T-test. We present summarized results from a pilot study conducted in cooperation with the Slovenian youth volleyball team.

Comparative assessment of agility in girls aged 11–13 years who practise or do not practise sports

The aim of the study was to test and assess agility of young girls aged 11–13 years and to find whether agility differs in girls who practise sports and in those who do not. The subjects of the study were 60 girls 30 of whom practised sports or attended workouts and 30 did not. To conduct the study, six agility tests taken from J. Dawes and M. Roozen’s book Developing Agility and Quickness were used. The study revealed differences in agility between the girls who practised sports and who did not. The comparison of mean results showed that in all six agility tests statistically significant differences existed between athletes and nonathletes. The mean results of girls who practised sports were statistically significantly better than those of the girls who did not. The greatest differences in comparison of the mean results of nonathletes and athletes were revealed in T-test and four corners jump test. Therefore, we recommend using them for assessment of agility in different physical ability test complexes, as they were the most informative among the tests studied. Based on our results, we can recommend to young people and their coaches that, although agility is believed to be an inborn ability, it should be developed by means of sports, motion and workouts. The results show that the girls who practise sports are more agile than those who do not.

Assessment and Comparison of Speed and Agility between College level Male attackers and Liberos in Volleyball

The aim of this study was to assess and compare speed and agility among attackers and liberos of volleyball game. Fifteen (n=15) attackers and liberos (n=15) were selected randomly with age ranging between 18-25 years. The subjects who participated in St. Joseph’s inter collegiate tournament, Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India during the academic year 2012-2013 were only selected. Speed and agility was measured by using 50 meters dash and shuttle run tests respectively.The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent sample ‘t’ test. There was a significant difference in speed and agility between attackers and liberos. It was concluded that in volleyball the liberos have better speed and agility than attackers. The level of significance was set at 0.05.

Sparse Adaptive Graph Convolutional Network for Leg Agility Assessment in Parkinson's Disease.

Motor disorder is a typical symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). Neurologists assess the severity of PD motor symptoms using the clinical rating scale, i.e., MDS-UPDRS. However, this assessment method is time-consuming and easily affected by the perception difference of assessors. In the recent outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019, telemedicine for PD has become extremely urgent for clinical practice. To solve these problems, we developed an automated and objective assessment method of the leg agility task in the MDS-UPDRS using videos and a graph neural network. In this study, a sparse adaptive graph convolutional network (SA-GCN) was proposed to achieve fine-grained quantitative assessment of skeleton sequences extracted from videos. Specifically, the sparse adaptive graph convolutional unit with a prior knowledge constraint was proposed to perform adaptive spatial modeling of physical and logical dependency for skeleton sequences, thus achieving the sparse modeling of the discriminative spatial relationships. Subsequently, a temporal context module was introduced to construct the remote context dependency in the temporal dimension, hence determining the global changes of the task. A multi-domain attention learning module was also developed to integrate the static spatial features and dynamic temporal features, and then to emphasize the salient feature selection in the channel domain, thereby capturing the multi-domain fine-grained information. Finally, the evaluation results using a dataset with 148 patients and 870 samples confirmed the effectiveness and reliability of our scheme, and the method outperformed other related state-of-the-art methods. Our contactless method provides a new potential tool for automated PD assessment and telemedicine.

Evaluation of a Reactive Agility Assessment Device in Youth Football Players.

Hoffman, JR. Evaluation of a reactive agility assessment device in youth football players. J Strength Cond Res 34(12): 3311-3315, 2020-The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Blazepod reactive agility device on sport-specific movements in competitive youth football players. Thirty-one male athletes (16.7 ± 1.5 years; 179.4 ± 7.0 cm; 75.0 ± 21.0 kg), all members of a youth tackle football team, volunteered to participate in this study. Subjects performed 3 reactive agility drills (side shuffle reactive agility, 1-m reactive agility, and 3-m reactive agility) at least 72 hours apart. In addition, all subjects also performed 3 traditional agility exercises: proagility, T drill, and L drill. These sessions were part of the offseason conditioning program for the football team that involved sport-specific drills. All assessments occurred following a warm-up and conducted in the same order on each occasion. To assess the validity of the reactive agility drills, the head coach was asked to rank the football playing and agility ability of the players participating in the study. The intraclass correlation coefficient values indicated that all 3 reactive agility drills displayed excellent reliability (r's ranging from 0.833 to 0.884). The measurement error was smaller than the individual variability, indicating that measurement error had a very limited effect on the results. Subjective rankings for agility significantly correlated with each of the agility and reactive agility measurements. Results of this study indicate that the Blazepod reactive agility device is a reliable measure of reactive agility performance and are consistent with the coach's perception of the athlete's agility performance, thus demonstrating construct validity.