High Performance Group Research Articles

Full-Squat as a Determinant of Performance in CrossFit

This study analyzed the relationship between CrossFit performance and power and strength variables measured in the full-squat exercise. Twenty male trained subjects (33±7 years) performed an incremental load full-squat test for assessment of the 1-repetition maximum (1RM) and the mean (Pmean) and peak (Ppeak) power. Performance in 5 different Workouts of the Day (WODs) was measured on different days, and overall CrossFit performance was determined as the sum of the scores obtained in these WODs. Athletes were then assigned to a high (HP) or low (LP) performance group based on the median score for overall performance. Correlation analysis between squat variables and performance was performed and between-group differences were assessed. Moderate to strong (r=0.47-0.69, p<0.05) positive correlations were found between squat variables and performance in the different WODs. Overall CrossFit performance was strongly and positively associated with absolute (r=0.62, p=0.01) and relative 1RM (r=0.65, p=0.07), and relative Pmean (r=0.56, p=0.02) and Ppeak (r=0.53, p=0.03). Large differences (effect sizes ranging 1.1-1.7, all p<0.05) were observed between HP and LP for absolute and relative 1RM, relative Pmean, and absolute and relative Ppeak. In summary, strength and power indexes measured in a squat test are positively associated with CrossFit performance.

Social anxiety and negative symptoms as the characteristics of patients with schizophrenia who show competence-performance discrepancy in social functioning.

Although competence and performance in relation to social functioning usually go hand in hand, it is not uncommon to observe a discrepancy between the two in patients with schizophrenia. The present study was aimed at examining the characteristics of patient groups showing such discrepancy. A total of 205 outpatients with schizophrenia aged ≤40 years old were enrolled. The symptomatology and social functioning were widely assessed. The patients were divided into four groups by the cut-off scores for competence and performance in relation to social functioning calculated using a comprehensive dataset. The subjects were divided according to their level of competence and performance as follows: high competence and high performance (CP) group, 108 (52.7%) patients; high competence, but low performance (Cp) group, 40 (19.5%) patients; low competence, but high performance (cP) group, 13 (6.3%) patients; low competence and low performance (cp) group, 44 (21.5%) patients. One-way analysis of variance and post-hoc comparisons revealed significantly worse negative symptoms, general psychopathology scores, global functioning, and quality of life in the Cp group than in the CP group, and significantly better social anxiety symptoms, global functioning, and quality of life in the cP group than in the cp group. In patients who are capable, but do not perform well, negative symptoms may be involved in the discrepancy. Patients who are able to maintain themselves well despite low social competence appear to have milder social anxiety symptoms as compared to patients who are neither competent nor perform well.

Landing-Takeoff Asymmetries Applied to Running Mechanics: A New Perspective for Performance.

Background:Elastic bouncing is a physio-mechanical model that can elucidate running behavior in different situations, including landing and takeoff patterns and the characteristics of the muscle-tendon units during stretch and recoil in running. An increase in running speed improves the body’s elastic mechanisms. Although some measures of elastic bouncing are usually carried out, a general description of the elastic mechanism has not been explored in running performance. This study aimed to compare elastic bouncing parameters between the higher- and lower-performing athletes in a 3000 m test.Methods:Thirty-eight endurance runners (men) were divided into two groups based on 3000 m performance: the high-performance group (Phigh; n = 19; age: 29 ± 5 years; mass: 72.9 ± 10 kg; stature: 177 ± 8 cm; 3000time: 656 ± 32 s) and the low-performance group (Plow; n = 19; age: 32 ± 6 years; mass: 73.9 ± 7 kg; stature: 175 ± 5 cm; 3000time: 751 ± 29 s). They performed three tests on different days: (i) 3000 m on a track; (ii) incremental running test; and (iii) a running biomechanical test on a treadmill at 13 different speeds from 8 to 20 km h−1. Performance was evaluated using the race time of the 3000 m test. The biomechanics variables included effective contact time (tce), aerial time (tae), positive work time (tpush), negative work time (tbreak), step frequency (fstep), and elastic system frequency (fsist), vertical displacement (Sv) in tce and tae (Sce and Sae), vertical force, and vertical stiffness were evaluated in a biomechanical submaximal test on treadmill.Results:The tae, fsist, vertical force and stiffness were higher (p < 0.05) and tce and fstep were lower (p < 0.05) in Phigh, with no differences between groups in tpush and tbreak.Conclusion:The elastic bouncing was optimized in runners of the best performance level, demonstrating a better use of elastic components.

Productive Disciplinary Engagement in High- and Low-Outcome Student Groups: Observations From Three Collaborative Science Learning Contexts

This study explored how productive disciplinary engagement (PDE) is associated with the level of cognitive activity and collective group outcome in collaborative learning across multiple contexts. Traditionally, PDE has been studied in a single collaborative learning environment, without analysis of how these environments fulfill the supporting conditions for PDE. In addition, research on the quality of a collective learning outcome and product in relation to the extent of the group’s PDE during actual collaborative learning processes is scarce. In this study, the learning processes of low- and high-outcome small groups were compared within three collaborative learning contexts: high school general science, second year university veterinary science, and fourth year university engineering. Two meaningful and self-contained phases from each context were selected for analysis. The same theory-based analytical methods were used across contexts. The findings revealed similar patterns in the high school science and second year university veterinary science data sets, where high-outcome groups displayed a greater proportion of high-level cognitive activity while working on the task. Thus, they could be distinctively perceived as high- and low-performing groups. These high-performing groups’ interactions also reflected more of the supporting conditions associated with PDE than the low-performing groups. An opposite pattern was found in the fourth year university engineering data set, calling for interpretation grounded in the literature on the nature and development of expertise. This study reveals the criticality of using comparable analytical methods across different contexts to enable discrepancies to emerge, thus refining our contextualized understanding of PDE in collaborative science learning.

Physical performance indicators in traditional rowing championships.

Traditional rowing is a very popular discipline practiced worldwide through sliding and fixed seat modalities with little scientific evidence. The aim of this study is to analyze high and low-performance rowers' profile of traditional rowing modalities in order to establish performance reference values. One hundred and fifteen male rowers were split into high and low performance groups, competing in the Spanish National Championships, volunteered to participate. Anthropometric measurements, body composition, and strength and power of lower extremities were evaluated by a jump height protocol. In the high-performance group, sliding seat rowers were characterized by longer lower extremities (97.5±3.5 cm), whereas fixed seat rowers resulted in higher countermovement jump values (36.8±5.0 cm). Also, sliding seat rowers showed a resistance index to fast strength significantly higher (0.8±0.1) than fixed seat rowers (0.8±0.0). On the other hand, group comparison within modality indicated that high-performance rowers of both modalities were significantly taller than lower performance rowers (184.3±6.8 and 181.2±4.9 cm vs. 179.3±6.4 and 177.9±5.9 cm for sliding and fixed seat rowers, respectively). Furthermore, leg length (97.5±3.5 cm) and resistance index to fast strength (0.8±0.1) for sliding seat modality, and arm span (187.3±5.7 cm), trunk length (87.4±3.7 cm) and repeat jump height (28.6±4.2 cm) for fixed seat modality were found as performance factors in traditional rowing. This study facilitates talent detection and selection of athletes to form competitive traditional rowing teams based on measurable physical characteristics.

Differences Between High vs. Low Performance Chess Players in Heart Rate Variability During Chess Problems.

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) has been considered as a measure of heart-brain interaction and autonomic modulation, and it is modified by cognitive and attentional tasks. In cognitive tasks, HRV was reduced in participants who achieved worse results. This could indicate the possibility of HRV predicting cognitive performance, but this association is still unclear in a high cognitive load sport such as chess.Objective: To analyze modifications on HRV and subjective perception of stress, difficulty and complexity in different chess problem tasks.Design: HRV was assessed at baseline. During the chess problems, HRV was also monitored, and immediately after chess problems the subjective stress, difficulty and complexity were also registered.Methods: A total of 16 male chess players, age: 35.19 (13.44) and ELO: 1927.69 (167.78) were analyzed while six chess problem solving tasks with different level of difficulty were conducted (two low level, two medium level and two high level chess problems). Participants were classified according to their results into two groups: high performance or low performance.Results: Friedman test showed a significant effect of tasks in HRV indexes and perceived difficulty, stress and complexity in both high and low performance groups. A decrease in HRV was observed in both groups when chess problems difficulty increased. In addition, HRV was significantly higher in the high performance group than in the low performance group during chess problems.Conclusion: An increase in autonomic modulation was observed to meet the cognitive demands of the problems, being higher while the difficulty of the tasks increased. Non-linear HRV indexes seem to be more reactive to tasks difficulty, being an interesting and useful tool in chess training.

The Association between Corporate Tax Avoidance and Consistency of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Evidence from South Korea

We investigate the association between corporate tax avoidance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance as well as the moderation effect of CSR performance consistency, using samples from South Korea. The baseline regression result suggests that there is a negative association between corporate tax avoidance and CSR performance among South Korean firms. However, as extant empirical studies find inconsistent evidence on the relationship and also the corporate culture theory suggests that the relationship could be non-monotonic and consistency is a important element to be considered in the model, we separated samples into two groups based on CSR performance, and re-examined the relationship with interaction term of CSR performance and CSR consistency as explanatory variable. Our empirical evidence suggests that tax avoidance is negatively associated with CSR performance for a high CSR performance group, whereas tax avoidance is positively associated with CSR performance for a low CSR performance group. Furthermore, our regression results indicate that a firm’s tax avoidance is negatively associated with the firm’s consistently high CSR performance, while a firm’s tax avoidance is positively associated with consistently low CSR performance.

Independent and combined influence of healthy lifestyle factors on academic performance in adolescents: DADOS Study.

Few studies have analyzed the combined effect of lifestyle factors on academic performance (AP) in adolescents. The aim of this study was to analyze the independent and combined effects of weight status, screen time, sleep quality, daily meal frequency, cardiorespiratory fitness, and physical activity (PA) on AP in adolescents. A total of 262 adolescents (13.9 ± 0.3 years) from the DADOS study were included in the analysis. Weight status was assessed through body mass index (kg/m2). Participants completed questionnaires to evaluate screen time, sleep quality, and daily meal frequency. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by the 20-m shuttle run test. PA was evaluated by a wrist-worn GENEActiv accelerometer. AP was assessed through the final academic grades and a validated questionnaire. Non-overweight status, low screen time, good sleep quality, and proper meal frequency showed independent, positive influence on AP. Moreover, adolescents achieving at least three healthy lifestyles were more likely to be in the high-performance group for academic grades than those achieving ≤1 (math OR: 3.02-9.51, language OR: 3.51-6.76, and grade point average OR: 4.22-9.36). Although individual healthy lifestyles are independently and positively associated with AP, the cumulative effect of multiple healthy lifestyles have a stronger impact.

Voicing One’s Ideas: Intragroup Respect as an Antecedent of Assertive Behavior

In this research, we tested equality-based respect from ingroup members as a social antecedent of positive assertiveness (i.e., voicing one’s opinions) and group performance. A pretest with employees at the workplace supported that the variables of interest were indeed correlated. The main experimental study then confirmed that participants who had received high as compared with low intragroup respect displayed more assertive behavior and yielded higher group performance in dyadic intragroup discussions. In contrast, high intergroup respect (i.e., from outgroup members) lowered assertiveness and performance levels in intergroup interactions relative to low respect. We discuss implications for social interactions and discourses.

Development of a Mobile Game Application to Boost Students’ Motivation in Learning English Vocabulary

Currently, the power to master the English language has become prominent in academia, research, and business. Therefore, many non-English speaking countries, including Arab countries, are striving to improve their education systems in teaching English as a foreign language, and English vocabulary is an important factor to boost English proficiency among Arab students. Moreover, in Arab countries, there is a lack of motivation among learners of English as a foreign language which affects the learning process of students. As such, digital gaming technologies, especially mobile games, are emerging as the best way to create enthusiasm for learning new languages. Therefore, a mobile application named VocabGame was developed based on a set of persuasive guidelines, and it was launched in the Google Play Store. This paper investigated whether the developed VocabGame can motivate native Arab students learning the English language to achieve better performance. Sixty-four students were divided equally into two groups: the control group (high-performance group) and the experimental group (low-performance group). Students in the experimental group improved their motivation level significantly after the mobile learning intervention. Our findings showed that mobile game application is helpful for those students who had poor performance initially while studying English and improves their confidence. There was also an association between the pre-test and the post-test scores according to the motivation to learn based on the analysis of the covariate analysis with η_p^2 being 0.148. A mobile application game was successfully developed to motivate Arab native students to learn English as a secondary language.

Render Farm for Highly Realistic Images in a Beowulf Cluster using Distributed Programming Techniques

Now-a-days, photorealistic images are demanded for the realization of scientific models, so we use rendering tools that convert three-dimensional models into highly realistic images. The problem of generating photorealistic images occurs when the three-dimensional model becomes larger and more complex, so the time to generate an image is much greater due to the limitations of hardware resources, about this problem is implemented the render farm, which consists in a set of computers interconnected by a high-speed network that provides a strip of the global image distributed in each participating computers with the intention of reducing the processing time of highly complex computational images. The research was implemented in a high-performance Beowulf group of the Universidad de Ciencias y Humanidades using a total of 18 computers. To demonstrate the efficiency of a rendering farm implementation, scalability tests were performed using a 360° equirrectangular model with a total of 67 million pixels, the work is carried out to achieve highly complex renderings in less time to benefit the direction of the research.

High-Performance Group Transfer Catalysis by Copper Complex with Redox-Active Ligand in an Entatic State

High-Performance Group Transfer Catalysis by Copper Complex with Redox-Active Ligand in an Entatic State

Comparative analysis of the correlation between anxiety, salivary alpha amylase, cortisol levels, and athletes' performance in archery competitions.

[Purpose]This study aimed to analyze the correlation between anxiety, salivary alpha amylase (sAA), and salivary cortisol (sC) changes in athletes showing a high or low level performance in an actual archery competition.[Methods]The participants were female university athletes who participated in the individual 50 m archery competition at the 21st Korean National Archery Team Trials, in July 2018. Based on their game record in the competition, 9 athletes were allocated to the high-performance group (HPG) and another 9 to the low-performance group (LPG). Anxiety caused by the competition was rated on a 1–10 point Likert scale at 30 min before competition (pre-30), 3 min before competition (pre-3), and 30 min after competition (post-30). This assessment method directly measured their cognitive anxiety. Saliva samples were collected in a tube by having the athletes chew on an absorber swab. For data analysis, two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was performed and Pearson’s correlation method was applied to correlate the variables.[Results]In the actual competition, significant difference between the game records of the HPG (mean score 339.5±4.1) and the LPG (mean score 323.3±3.4) was observed. Competitive anxiety showed a significant decrease in the HPG compared to the LPG. Due to the competition, sAA and sC were significantly decreased in the HPG compared to the LPG. Analysis of correlations between competition scores, anxiety, sAA, and sC, revealed that lower anxiety was associated with higher scores in the HPG. Pre-3 anxiety positively correlated with pre-3 sAA and sC. In the LPG, lower scores were associated with persistent anxiety until the completion of the competition. Positive correlations were observed for pre-3 anxiety with post-30 sC, pre-3 sAA with post-30 sAA and sC, and pre-3 cortisol with post-30 sAA.[Conclusion]Increased anxiety in the actual archery competition was associated with significant increase in sAA and sC. Elevated sAA and sC from prior-competition to post-competition stage were associated with reduced performance. Significant correlations between the measured variables (game records, anxiety, sAA, and sC) were associated with worse performance.

EFL Writing Development through Repetition of a Literature-Reading-Writing Task

Our study focused on the effects of input frequency through reading-writing connections on students’ emerging accurate use of specific English forms. Taking a dynamic usage based (DUB) perspective, we investigated whether any changes occurs through repeating reading-to-writing tasks over one semester. We also traced writing development of students individually over time from a dynamic systems theory (DST) approach. All four participants in this study were EFL college students enrolled in an English reading and writing course at a Korean university. To repeat the same reading-to-writing tasks, students read an assigned picture book at home in advance. In class, students were asked to write a narrative for 30 minutes. The four students developed their writing skills in terms of syntactic complexity, lexical diversity, cohesion, and fluency as they repeated the same type of writing tasks over one semester. Particularly, task repetition had a marked effect on the fluency of the written texts. Another conclusion was that both high and low performance groups non-linearly developed their writing and showed different developmental trajectories.

The biomechanical characteristics of high-performance endurance running

ABSTRACTThe biomechanical profile of high-level endurance runners may represent a useful model that could be used for developing training programmes designed to improve running style. This study, therefore, sought to compare the biomechanical characteristics of high-performance and recreational runners. Kinematic and kinetic measurements were taken during overground running from a cohort of 14 high-performance (8 male) and 14 recreational (8 male) runners, at four speeds ranging from 3.3 to 5.6 m s−1. Two-way ANOVA analysis was then used to explore group and speed effects and principal component analysis used to explore the interdependence of the tested variables. The data showed the high-performance runners to have a gait style characterised by an increased vertical velocity of the centre of mass and a flight time that was 11% longer than the recreational group. The high-performance group were also observed to adopt a forefoot strike pattern, to contact the ground with their foot closer to their body and to have a larger ankle moment. Importantly, although observed group differences were mostly independent of speed, the tested variables showed a high degree of interdependence suggesting an underlying unitary phenomenon. This is the first study to compare high-performance and recreational runners across a full range of kinematic and kinetic variables. The results suggest that high-performance runners maintain stride length with a prolonged aerial phase, rather than by landing with a more extended knee. These findings motivate future intervention studies that should investigate whether recreational runners could benefit from instruction to decrease shank inclination at foot contact.

The Development of Athlete Performance Capabilities Index (APCI) Model for Male U12 Player Selection using Multivariate Analysis

This study develops an Athlete Performance Capabilities Index (APCI) model using multivariate analysis for selecting the best player of under twelve (U12). Measurement of anthropometrics and physical fitness were evaluated among 178 male players aged 12±0.52 years. Factor score derived by Principal Component Analysis were used to obtain a model for APCI and Discriminant Analysis (DA) were conducted to validate the correctness of group classification by APCI. Result was found two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were extracted which accounted for 62.00% of the variations present in the original variables. The two factors were used to obtain the factor score coefficients explained by 35.72% and 26.67% of the variations in athlete performance respectively. Factor 1 revealed high factor loading on fitness compared to Factor 2 as it was significantly related to anthropometrics. A model was obtained using standardized coefficient of factor 1. Three clusters of performance were shaped in view by categorizing APCI ≥ 75%, 25% ≤ APCI &lt; 75% and APCI &lt; 25% as high, moderate and low performance group respectively. Three discriminated variables out of thirteen variables were obtained using Forward and Backward stepwise mode of DA, which were weight, standing broad jump, and 40 meters’ speed. Such variables were established as essential indicator for selecting the best player among male U12.

SPATIAL ABILITY AND CHILDHOOD TOYS: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL ENQUIRY FROM CHILDREN'S PERSPECTIVE

The present phenomenological study explores how school students see their childhood toys as facilitator or inhibitor of spatial ability in learning science in the school. Specifically, the aim was to elicit, describe, and analyze the background, perspectives and experiences of the students that contributed in developing their spatial ability. For this purpose, twenty-four students of Grade X who have compulsory science were selected. Upon identifying two groups of high spatial performers and low spatial performers, qualitative techniques were used to gather data. The tools and techniques included personal in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, observations, and think aloud task performances. Data was analyzed through the data explicitation processes suggested by Giorgi, providing textural and structural descriptions from every participant. Quality of engagement with childhood toys emerged as a major themes that marked out the differences between both the groups. This may help stakeholders such as educators, teachers, parents, students, and curriculum developers in understanding the lasting role of childhood toys on development of spatial abilities which influence the learning of school science. Article visualizations:

Process Mining and Interaction Data Analytics in a Web-Based Multi-Tabletop Collaborative Learning and Teaching Environment

This article builds on the intersection of educational process mining and the automatic analysis of student's collaborative interaction data previously collected from a web-based multi-tabletop learning environment. The main focus of the article was to analyze and interpret the data using several process mining techniques in order to increase the instructor's awareness (knowledge) about the students' collaboration process and group progress in terms of specific quantitative indicators as follows: participation (consisting of participation density, participation rate and participation dynamics metrics), interaction (consisting of interaction density and interaction dynamics metrics), time performance (including the number of time intervals between the activities as well as the duration of idle/inactive periods), similarity of tasks (or symmetry of actions) and division of labor (or symmetry of roles). The empirical findings showed that there are substantial differences between the high and low performance groups.

When Group Work Doesn't Work: Insights from Students.

Introducing group work in college science classrooms can lead to noticeable gains in student achievement, reasoning ability, and motivation. To realize these gains, students must all contribute. Strategies like assigning roles, group contracts, anonymous peer evaluations, and peer ratings all encourage student participation. In a class using these strategies, we conducted in-depth interviews to uncover student perceptions of group work in general and the utility of these support strategies. Students in both high- and low-performance groups still complained of unequal contributions while praising the social support provided by groups. Students who scored highly on tests were more likely to recognize the benefits of group work, regardless of their groups’ overall performance levels, while lower-scoring students perceived group work as time-consuming “busy work” with little cognitive benefit. Comments from anonymous peer evaluations differed only subtly between high- and low-performance groups. Numerical ratings on these evaluations did correlate with overall group performance. However, students in lower-performance groups assigned harsh ratings to their low-scoring members, while students in higher-performance groups were more generous in their ratings for low-scoring members. We discuss implications of relying on support strategies for promoting productive group work.

Higher use of techniques studied and performance in melee combat produce a higher psychophysiological stress response.

We aimed to analyse the effectiveness of an operative training in soldiers' psychophysiological and melee combat performance. Nineteen soldiers performed a 50-hr training for 10weeks. After training, they were divided into two groups: higher performance group (HPG) and lower performance group (LPG), then they conducted a realistic melee simulation where psychophysiological response, task performance, and the utilization of techniques learned were measured. HPG presented a significantly (p<0.05) higher heart rate, blood lactate, and jump height; a lower blood oxygen saturation, task performance mark, use of studied techniques than LPG after the simulation; and a higher low frequency/high frequency ratio of heart rate variability previous the simulation than LPG. Independent of performance and the use of studied techniques by the participants, the melee simulation produced an increase in fight or flight response, increasing rated of stress and perceived exertion, sympathetic modulation, and physiological response. A specific melee combat training program induced different modifications in psychophysiological and task performance depending on the level of studied technique used. HPG presented a significantly higher cardiovascular response than LPG and time perception, and memory presented no differences between groups; also HPG presented a significantly higher use of studied techniques.