Monitoring Performance in Show Jumping Horses: Validity of Non-specific and Discipline-specific Field Exercise Tests for a Practicable Assessment of Aerobic Performance

Show jumping is a highly specialized equestrian discipline that requires technical skill but also power and fitness. Monitoring the horses’ aerobic performance is therefore essential in order to verify whether the training has induced the desired cardiovascular and muscular adaptations. This study therefore aimed at evaluating the validity of non-specific and discipline-specific field exercise tests for objective evaluation of aerobic performance in show jumpers. For this purpose, data obtained from horses competing at Junior and Young Rider level during show jumping competitions as well as field exercise tests were retrospectively analyzed. The effect of the level of difficulty, the horses’ age, the penalty score and the horses’ previous level of performance on blood lactate concentrations after show jumping competitions (100 observations in 49 horses) was evaluated by linear mixed effects models (horse as random effect). Estimated marginal means significantly increased from 140 (4.1 mmol/L) to 150 cm (5.2 mmol/L) classes (P = 0.02). Furthermore, post-exercise lactate values significantly increased with the horses’ age (P = 0.001). Another group of 12 horses performed a standardized incremental field exercise test on a track (SETtrack), a standardized show jumping course (SETcourse) and a standardized grid exercise (SETgrid) each on three consecutive days. Indices of aerobic performance, derived from the SETtrack [velocity at a heart rate of 140 bpm (V140) and at a lactate concentration of 2 mmol/L (VLa2)] were highly correlated with heart rate (V140: r = −0.75, P = 0.005; VLa2: r =−0.66, P = 0.02) and lactate (V140: r = −0.73, P = 0.02; VLa2: r = −0.72, P = 0.02) in response to SETcourse as well as heart rate during SETgrid (V140: r = −0.73, P = 0.02; VLa2: r = −0.76, P = 0.01). Subjective rating of muscular fatigue was significantly correlated to the mean heart rate during SETcourse (r = −0.64, P = 0.05) and SETgrid (r = −0.74, P = 0.02) but not to the aerobic indices calculated from SETtrack. Besides non-specific incremental field tests, performance monitoring in show jumpers should therefore also include discipline-specific tests that more closely reflect the internal load induced by show jumping competitions.

Application of flammability testing methods for conveyor belts intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres in order to select suitable types for field application

The conveyor belts are widely used and can be found, for example, in the underground and surface mining industry as well as in other industries involving the transport of various products, materials, etc. The need to ensure the transport of various products, materials, involves the use of conveyor belts in normal environments as well as in environments with a potentially explosive atmosphere. When used in potentially explosive atmospheres, conveyor belts shall not be sources of ignition for the explosive atmospheres generated by gases, vapors, flammable mists and/or combustible dusts in the mixture with the air. This involves the use of conveyor belts in a particular construction, compliance with the applicable essential safety and health requirements as well as granting a special attention to the identification/selection of types suitable for the specific field application. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the importance of testing by accredited laboratory tests, the flammability properties of conveyor belts intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres, in order to easily identify/select, by end users, the types of conveyor belts adequate for specific application.

Problems and Prospects of Implementing MOOCs Massive Open Online Courses in North East India in LIS Perspective

The paper intends to explore MOOC that has attained considerable attention in attracting the academic intellectuals of different disciplines across the globe. The purpose of the paper is to analyse, evaluate and understand the barriers followed by the scope of implementing MOOC courses especially the LIS perspective in northeast India. The paper also tends to study the significance of MOOCs in the NE region. A comprehensive conceptual model has been put forward by reviewing the existing literature related to the specific field of study. The model shall be beneficial to the team members designing and developing the framework for the MOOC courses (LIS) in North-East India.

Dyspozycje aksjologiczne nauczyciela – perspektywa ucznia

The articles justifies the need for constant care for the axiological dimension of education. The habitus of the modern teacher was analyzed in the perspective of axiological dispositions. The author’s reconstructions of the respondents’ views concerning their preferences regarding observable and repetitive teachers’ behavior were categorized. These behaviors were indicators of the values which guided teachers in their work with students. An attempt was made to determine which axiological properties of teachers, expressed in the praxiological dimension, are particularly valued by today’s youth. Analysis of the frequency of indications of the preferred teachers’ behaviors helped to establish the hierarchy of these properties. The results of the diagnosis carried out on a sample of 903 respondents showed that teachers’ pedagogical tactfulness, subject knowledge and good organization of work are mostly appreciated and expected by young people. In addition, attempts were made to identify differences in the respondents’ preferences due to their interest profile, expressed in the choice of a specific field of academic studies. It has been established that it is the factor which differentiates students’ preferences in relation to the teacher’s axiological attributes. Significant relationships have been observed and the conclusions made valuable implications for pedeutology.

Cartilage Repair and Regeneration: Focus on Multi-Disciplinary Strategies—Highlight on Magneto-Responsive Techniques

This editorial focuses on the interesting studies published within the present Special Issue and dealing with the innovative multi-disciplinary therapeutic approaches for musculoskeletal diseases. Moreover, it highlights the noteworthy magneto-responsive technique for a cartilage regeneration scope and reports some interesting studies and their outcomes in this specific field.

Resilienz durch Muße? Ethnografische Befunde zu einer ambivalenten Relation

Resilience has recently become an expansive concept in political, economic and scientific fields. The normative and ideological dimensions underlying this concept and the resulting cultural effects have hardly been the subject of empirically grounded research in cultural studies so far, although resilience discourses have long been materialising in everyday and living environments. Using the example of courses that promise actors a life with more leisure, this article asks how ideas of resilience are communicated, made plausible and also critically negotiated in this specific field. To what extent is the increased attractiveness of the concept of leisure as a specific form of the qualification of temporal experience related to ideas of a resilient self? How are ideas of a fundamentally deficient self in need of optimisation expressed here and for which social problems are what kind of solutions being sought? The article assumes that both the concept of leisure and the concept of resilience co-create, on a discursive level, the problems, challenges and crises to which they respond.

Home Spirits in the Udmurt Mythology

Udmurt spirits had a clear hierarchy, with each one of them functioning in their own specific field. The article investigates the spirits of domesticated space, including korkamurt, korkakuz’o, s’us’etka (lit: ‘man from/of the house, the master of the house, sus’etka’), bannik (‘bathhouse spirit’) / munchomurt, munchokuz’o (lit: ‘man from/of the bathhouse, master of the bathhouse’) and the master of the cowshed / gidmurt, gidkuz’o (lit: ‘man from/of the cowshed’).

Influence of Spirituality in the Career and STEM-Based Research Approach of Scientists for Sustainable Development: A Study on the Perspective of Scientists from a Public Research University in Malaysia

This explanatory case study aims to formulate a framework of spiritual influence on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-based research for sustainable development from the perspective of university scientists. This single-site case qualitative study involves seven participants from a Malaysian public research university with a variety of specific research fields. Questions regarding the driving factors of their research strategy for sustainable technology developments were asked. Consequently, the main driving factors on using STEM approaches for sustainable developments are career competency enhancements. This theme can be proven with elements, such as STEM for enhancing the ability to expand a specific field contribution, improving interdisciplinary management, obtaining outsource support, and enhancing innovative capability. Meanwhile, spiritual influence on sustainable development is a part of the philosophy of participants and can be proven through the elements of moral and ethical beliefs with respect to religious values in their scientific career and STEM-based research practice. Therefore, the influence of spirituality is a crucial concept, which can ensure social, emotional, economic, and environmental sustainability development. This framework is built among limited participants. Thus, confirming this framework by using a wide range of samples is encouraged. Moreover, this study generally has implications for sustainable development using STEM-based practice for specific field expertise. The concept aims to provide remarkable contributions to the growth of comprehensive, holistic, and sustainable development and to extend the current literature on STEM research approaches by inculcating spiritual elements.

Why I Review Unimpressive Books

Unimpressive books fail to make effective, distinctive, or otherwise substantive contributions. Yet their reviews can be useful to potential readers (as caveats), to publishers (as quality-control checks), to authors working on similar book projects (as models of what to avoid), and even to the reviewers themselves (as exercises for developing connoisseurship within a specific field). By articulating the implications and transferability of evaluative criteria, this essay explores the value and utility of such reviews.