The Journey is an original U.S. Soccer series which follows U.S. Women’s National Team players on and off the field as they work toward earning their place in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France. In this episode of The Journey, Sponsored by Motrin, we catch up with Mallory Pugh, who made history when she decided to turn pro at 18. While the rising star is enjoying her unique journey on a path she hopes will lead to the 2019 Women’s World Cup, there has been an adjustment period for the teenager who until a few months ago had never lived on her own.
… Many athletes fear a torn A.C.L. more than any other injury. It is not as visibly painful, or as gruesome, as a broken bone, but it is much more menacing. Not so long ago, it was more often than not the end of a career; even now, many who suffer it find they are never quite the same.
Deep down, as Gundogan watched the second half of that December game against Watford on a laptop in silence, his knee packed in ice, he knew what was coming. He tried to be optimistic.
“People know what to do now,” he thought. “They know how to operate, how to do rehab, how long you are out.”
He had steeled himself for the worst. Now he just had to face it.
To borrow a phrase from the Chelsea banners which idolised their former talisman, John Terry, Jamaal Lascelles is a captain, leader and could just be a Newcastle United legend in the making.
Lascelles is not only the youngest captain in the Premier League, leading the youngest team, based on the average age of the starting XI this season, he is also a defender learning how to play at the highest level.
When Lascelles was handed the armband last summer, he was just 22. He was neither a senior player or a proven one, yet still manager Rafa Benitez chose him. The Spaniard needed to build a new team, with a better attitude and stronger self-motivation after relegation. Lascelles was his cement, helping to bind the players together as they returned to the top flight after just one season.
Ben Roethlisberger got a preview of what has Bears fans salivating for the debut of Mitch Trubisky back before the NFL scouting combine.
The two-time Super Bowl champion met Trubisky in Irvine, Calif., and they worked out together. The veteran was quickly struck by the youngster’s ability to make plays outside the pocket, which is the first thing offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains had Trubisky do during the preseason.
Inside FC Dallas’s enormous effort to build better U.S. soccer players from the ground up, and how owners like Mark Cuban are gearing up to bring it to American basketball
The history of resistance training research began with anecdotal ideas and a slow growth of research from the late 1890s through the 1970s. The mid-1970s were a nexus point when resistance training studies evolved from just strength assessments to importance in physiological systems, physical health, and physical performance capabilities for individuals interested in physical fitness through to those seeking elite athletic performances. The pursuit of understanding program design and what mediated successful programs continues today as new findings, replication of old concepts, and new visions with the latest technologies fuel both our understanding and interest in this modality. This brief review highlights some of the important scientific contributions to the evolution of our scientific study of resistance training and provides a literature base analysis for greater quantification of the origins and expanse of such investigations.
Which would you rather: a 50 per cent pay rise or a good night’s sleep? Anyone who puts their happiness first should choose the latter, research suggests.
An analysis has revealed that quality of sleep has by far the strongest association with wellbeing among elements of our lifestyle that we can control.
There’s a common misconception that education must be a formal process that involves a content-based curriculum and teacher-led instruction. But learning takes place all around us and, many times, kids are their own teachers.
“I believe that students learn best when they pursue their own interests,” said Ty Hollett, assistant professor of learning, design and technology in Penn State’s College of Education. “With interest-driven learning, kids are doing their own thing, teaching themselves and teaching others.”
Hollett, whose research focuses on the learning sciences, said it is important for educators, administrators and researchers to understand how students learn. Every student is different and those differences lead to different ways of learning. Informal learning is just one of the many components of the learning sciences that give educators a glimpse at how students’ individual differences cultivate learning and an education.
Objective Athletes anticipating sport competition regularly experience distinct emotional and physiological responses as a result of the expected psychosocial and physical stress. Specifically, cortisol, an indicator of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation, prepares the athlete for the psychological and physiological demands of competition. The objective of this meta-analysis is to analyse the magnitude of the anticipatory cortisol response in athletes preparing to participate in sport competition and to examine the influence of gender, level of competition and data collection time.
Design Systematic review with meta-analysis.
Data sources Four electronic databases were searched to March 2017: PubMed, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus and Scopus.
Eligibility criteria for selecting studies (1) Athletes participating in real sport competition;(2) salivary cortisol concentration collected before competition in addition to baseline sample(s);(3) original research article published in English language.
Results Data from 25 studies provided 27 effect sizes. A significant anticipatory cortisol response of g=0.85, p<0.001 was identified. Males had a stronger trend for greater cortisol reactivity (g=1.07) than females (g=0.56, p=0.07). Females and athletes competing at international level did not demonstrate a significant anticipatory stress response. There were no significant differences between level of competition, type of sport or time of competition. Meta-regression indicated that the anticipatory cortisol response is greater when assessed closer to the start of competition (Q=6.85, p=0.009).
Summary/conclusion The anticipatory cortisol response before sport competition reflects moderate cortisol reactivity that prepares athletes optimally for the demands of sport competition via the influence on cognitive processes and attentional control. However, both female athletes and international competitors did not demonstrate a significant anticipatory cortisol response, possibly due to differences in appraisal of the stress of sport competition. [full text]
Wearable gadgets hit the consumer market with a bang in in 1979, when the first Sony Walkman was introduced. The portable cassette player revolutionized the way people listened to music, and cost US$150. On the business and communication side, another seminal technology emerged at the turn of the 21st century: Nokia’s bluetooth headsets.
Notable wearables today include Fitbit wristbands, the Apple watch, Google Glass, and Playstation VR — all of which have gained great market shares. As the data-collecting portal to the IoT, wearables hold many future possibilities. Big tech, university spinoffs, and startups continue to compete for market shares in a rapidly growing industry. There is a 4×4 matrix for wearable applications: gadgets can be worn on the head, wrist, body, or stand alone; and be applied to fitness, healthcare, gaming & entertainment, or multi-functional uses.
Nature News & Comment; Bryant Chu, William Burnett, Jong Won Chung & Zhenan Bao from
Electronics are set to merge with our bodies to extend our perceptions. Smartphones and watches will give way to the bodyNET1: a network of sensors, screens and smart devices woven into our clothing, worn on our skin and implanted in our bodies (see ‘Superhuman powers’). A pregnant woman might wear tiny biometric sensors to monitor her baby’s heartbeat, displayed on a film attached to her skin. She could transmit its kicks to the father wirelessly, so that he can experience the vibrations recreated by ‘haptics’ — interfaces that provide tactile feedback — on his stomach.
The bodyNET is not yet complete, and labs around the world are developing its components. The core technology is electronics that stretch — elastronics — made from soft plastic circuits thinner than paper that can deform without tearing, biodegrade and even heal themselves (see go.nature.com/2vtutzz). Elastronic sensors respond to touch, pressure, temperature, humidity and light, as well as to chemical and biological signals2–10.
There is much still to do. Researchers must improve the technical performance of elastronic materials, design innovative architectures for stretchable circuits and drive down costs through mass production. There are also social and cultural concerns. These include widespread fears of merging technology intimately with the body, as well as anxieties about privacy and data security.
Shot boundary detection (SBD) is an important component of video analysis, as it is used in many video applications such as automatic highlight detection, action recognition and assisting in manual video editing. As such, its something our team at gifs.com cares deeply about.
The goal of SBD is to split an edited video into consecutive frames which show a continuous progression of video.
Cells secrete nanoscale packets called exosomes that carry important messages from one part of the body to another. Scientists from MIT and other institutions have now devised a way to intercept these messages, which could be used to diagnose problems such as cancer or fetal abnormalities.
Their new device uses a combination of microfluidics and sound waves to isolate these exosomes from blood. The researchers hope to incorporate this technology into a portable device that could analyze patient blood samples for rapid diagnosis, without involving the cumbersome and time-consuming ultracentrifugation method commonly used today.
“These exosomes often contain specific molecules that are a signature of certain abnormalities. If you isolate them from blood, you can do biological analysis and see what they reveal,” says Ming Dao, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and a senior author of the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Sept. 18.
A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that the incidence of osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee is twice today what it was in the mid-1940s. The study concluded that this is not due to people being fatter and living longer, and it certainly isn’t caused by Americans being too physically active. Is there a reasonable explanation? Yes, but first some background.
OA is caused by the loss of articular cartilage (AC). AC is the Teflon-like coating on the ends of bones where they come together to form joints, allowing them to move freely and with reduced friction. When AC is worn away, bone rubs on bone, causing very painful OA. AC gradually is lost due to everyday wear and tear over the years, but injury can accelerate the loss.
In the present day, since we move our bodies only when we absolutely have to, you would think the AC in knee joints would last forever. Thus, there must be an alternative explanation for OA other than normal wear and tear.
It really all started June 29, 2016, when the Edmonton Oilers dealt All-Star Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Adam Larsson, who had barely established himself since being drafted fourth overall in 2011. Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli was mostly savaged for the trade, which was immediately overshadowed by the blockbuster deal the same day that swapped franchise defensemen P.K. Subban and Shea Weber.
A year later, between Subban and the Nashville Predators’ run to the Stanley Cup Final and the Vegas Golden Knights’ stockpiling blueliners in the expansion draft, defensemen have never been more valuable. If you want to acquire even a serviceable D-man, it’ll cost you.
“I don’t know if it’s just the way that the league is going or the style of play that teams are having success with, but defensemen are at a premium,” Hall said. “You have to draft them. If not, then you have to give up good players to get them.”