Considerations for the use of functional principal components analysis in sports biomechanics: examples from on-water rowing

The proliferation of new biomechanical technology in laboratory and field settings facilitates the capture of data-sets consisting of complex time-series. An understanding of the appropriate statistical approaches for analysing and interpreting these data-sets is required and the functional data analysis (FDA) family of statistical techniques has emerged in the biomechanical literature. Given the use of FDA is currently in its infancy with biomechanical data, this paper will form the first of a two part series aiming to address practical issues surrounding the application of FDA techniques in biomechanics. This work focuses on functional principal components analysis (fPCA), which is explored using existing literature and sample data from an on-water rowing database. In particular methodological considerations for the implementation of fPCA such as temporal normalisation of data, removal of unwanted forms of variation in a data-set and documented methods for preserving the original temporal properties within a set of curves are explored in detail as a part of this review. Limitations and strengths of the technique are outlined and recommendations are provided to encourage the appropriate use of fPCA within the field of applied sports biomechanics.     

Deboning the Fish: Hosting a Future Creating Workshop with Undergraduate Women in STEM

Innovative Higher Education - Despite the broad scope of literature on the topic of women in STEM, women in male-dominated spaces within academia are rarely given the opportunity to speak openly...     

Science and the British Empire

The last few decades have witnessed a flowering of interest in the history of science in the British Empire. This essay aims to provide an overview of some of the most important work in this area, identifying interpretative shifts and emerging themes. In so doing, it raises some questions about the analytical framework in which colonial science has traditionally been viewed, highlighting interactions with indigenous scientific traditions and the use of network-based models to understand scientific relations within and beyond colonial contexts.     

Virtuous reality: moral theory and research into cyber-bullying

This article draws on a study investigating how 11–14 year olds growing up in England understand cyber-bullying as a moral concern. Three prominent moral theories: deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics, informed the development of a semi-structured interview schedule which enabled young people, in their own words, to describe their experiences of online and offline bullying. Sixty 11–14 year olds from six schools across England were involved with the research. Themes emerging from the interviews included anonymity; the absence of rules, monitoring and guidance and, the challenges associated with determining the consequences of online actions. The findings demonstrate the advantages of adopting a character-based moral theory to compliment rules and/or consequence based moral theories as the basis for future research into cyber-bullying. The findings evoke some wider implications for future research into cyber-bullying that might equally be applied to investigations into other Internet related moral concerns.     

Short-term reliability of inflammatory mediators and response to exercise in the heat

Prospective application of serum cytokines, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and heat shock proteins (eHSPs) requires reliable measurement of these biomarkers that can signify exercise-induced heat stress in hot conditions. To accomplish this, both short-term (7 day) reliability (at rest, n = 12) and the acute responsiveness of each biomarker to exercise in the heat (pre and post 60-min cycling, 34.5°C and 70% RH, n = 20) were evaluated. Serum was analysed for the concentration of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), heat shock protein 72 (eHSP72), immunoglobulin M (IgM) and LPS. Test–retest reliability was determined as the coefficient of variation (CV). Biomarkers with the least short-term within-participant variation were IL-6 (19%, ±20%; CV, ±95% confidence limits (CL)) and LPS (23%, ±13%). Greater variability was observed for IgM, eHSP72 and CRP (CV range 28–38%). IL-6 exhibited the largest increase in response to acute exercise (95%, ±11%, P = < 0.001) and although CRP had a modest CV (12%, ±7%), it increased substantially post-exercise (P = 0.02, ES; 0.78). In contrast, eHSP72 and LPS exhibited trivial changes post-exercise. It appears variation of common inflammatory markers after exercise in the heat is not always discernible from short-term (weekly) variation.     

Speech education in secondary schools— a bibliography

Public broadcasting's development in the United States should be viewed with an eye towards Canada's experience. Despite tranquil appearances, the CBC has been caught between the widely professed independence of the Corporation and the realities of the situation. There is ample evidence of control through political appointments, financial restraints, directives on programming, and incessant investigations.     

'Accreditation' of engineering studies: Formal systems versus individual responsibility

The globalization of the world's economy (and its labour market) reveals a growing need for graduate mobility. In this free global market, educational institutions are under increased pressure to show their intrinsic value, to define and guarantee their quality and to show continually their relevance to their communities and national governments (often the main financial stakeholder). Accreditation of degrees (and institutions) by a recognized international authority (or by an international network of recognized national authorities) is often quoted as the solution to address the needs of mobility and quality assurance. I believe that the process of accreditation is not the fundamental answer to these needs. Accreditation in education can be a stabilizing factor in a small-scale economical system, but it fails on a large (global) scale. The reason for this is that any accreditation scheme judges quality in an arbitrary way. The key to opening up free mobility of competencies and to leveraging quality education is to develop a system to measure objectively an individual's competence. A system that makes the abstract notion of 'competence' tangible to anyone, but that leaves the judgement open to the ones who need to judge…