kick

Small watercourses are essential contributors to catchment water quality, but they continue to suffer degradation across Europe. A results-based agri-environment scheme, aimed at improving watercourse quality in Ireland, developed a rapid drainage assessment to identify point source risks. The assessment uses a scoring system based on visual indicators of nutrient and sediment risk, linking the outcomes to farmer payments. To understand how this novel drainage risk assessment relates to instream watercourse quality, we used three macroinvertebrate-based biotic indices (Q-value, Small Stream Impact Score and Proportion of Sediment Sensitive Invertebrates)...

BACKGROUND: Complex contrast training (CCT) is potentially an efficient method to improve physical abilities such as muscle strength, power output, speed, agility, are extremely important in developing soccer players of different age categories. AIM: This study aimed to analyze the effects of 6 weeks of CCT program applied in different training frequency (sessions per week) on youth soccer players performance. METHODS: Twenty-one youth soccer players (age: 15...

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to (1) estimate the relationship between physical fitness (PF) and object control fundamental movement skills (FMS), (2) identify child characteristics that relate with PF and FMS, and (3) examine associations between the school environment, PF, and FMS. METHODS: The sample included 1014 Portuguese children aged 6-10 years from the REACT project. PF was assessed via running speed, shuttle run, standing long jump, handgrip, and the PACER test...

Amputation dehorning (AD) is a common practice performed on calves, causing harmful effects such as pain, distress, anxiety, and fear. These effects extend to behavioral, physiological, and hematological responses, prompting serious ethical concerns regarding animal welfare, even when performed with local anesthesia. Meloxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, has been widely used to mitigate the side effects of dehorning and disbudding in calves. However, there is a notable gap in research regarding the effects of meloxicam on calves aged 6 weeks to 6 mo undergoing AD procedures...

The ability to make sense of and predict others' actions is foundational for many socio-cognitive abilities. Dogs (Canis familiaris) constitute interesting comparative models for the study of action perception due to their marked sensitivity to human actions. We tested companion dogs (N = 21) in two screen-based eye-tracking experiments, adopting a task previously used with human infants and apes, to assess which aspects of an agent's action dogs consider relevant to the agent's underlying intentions...

We investigate both theoretically and numerically the dynamics of out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) in quantum resonance conditions for a kicked rotor model. We employ various operators to construct OTOCs in order to thoroughly quantify their commutation relation at different times, therefore unveiling the process of quantum scrambling. With the help of quantum resonance condition, we have deduced the exact expressions of quantum states during both forward evolution and time reversal, which enables us to establish the laws governing OTOCs' time dependence...

INTRODUCTION: The advent of therapeutic recombinant factor VIII (FVIII) and factor IX (FIX) protein infusions revolutionized the care of persons with haemophilia in the 1990s. It kicked off an era with the increasing use of prophylactic factor infusions for patients and transformed conversations around the ideal trough activity levels as well as the ultimate goals in tailored, individualized care. Our knowledge surrounding the immunologic basis of inhibitor development and treatment derives from a time when patients were receiving frequent factor infusions and focused on immune tolerance induction following inhibitor development...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a dynamic warm-up either with weighted vests (WVs) or with resistance bands (RBs) may enhance the physical fitness and combat ability of kumite karate athletes. Nine male athletes (age range from 16 to 30 years), participated in this study. Athletes followed three different warm-up programs in a randomized order: (a) with their body mass only (C), (b) with a WV of 10% load of their body mass and (c) with a wearable RB of 10% tension of their body mass. Following the warm-up, athletes performed the following tests: countermovement jump (CMJ), standing long jump (LJ), punch and kick reaction time, bench press throws, T-Half test and the kick frequency test...

Kicking strikes are fundamental in combat sports such as Taekwondo, karate, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and mixed martial arts. This review aimed to explore the measurement methods, kinematics such as velocities, kinetics such as impact force, determinants, and injury potential of kicking strikes in combat sports. Searches of Academic Search Premier, The Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, CINAHL Plus, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were conducted for studies that measured kicking velocity and impact force...

Introduction: It is crucial to identify neurodevelopmental disorders in infants early on for timely intervention to improve their long-term outcomes. Combining natural play with quantitative measurements of developmental milestones can be an effective way to swiftly and efficiently detect infants who are at risk of neurodevelopmental delays. Clinical studies have established differences in toy interaction behaviors between full-term infants and pre-term infants who are at risk for cerebral palsy and other developmental disorders...

BACKGROUND: People with disabilities and chronic medical conditions are known to be at higher risk of sexual abuse (SA) and intimate partner violence (IPV). People with spina bifida (SB) are vulnerable, but little is known about the prevalence of abuse in this population. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of SA and IPV in adults with SB. METHODS: An anonymous international cross-sectional online survey of adults with SB asked about history of SA ("sexual contact that you did not want") and IPV ("hit, slapped, kicked, punched or hurt physically by a partner")...

Researchers investigating expertise in soccer goalkeepers have overwhelmingly focused on anticipating penalty kicks and identifying kinematic cues that are used to anticipate action outcomes. In this study, we took a novel approach to exploring 'game reading' skills in soccer goalkeepers. Specifically, we investigated whether and by what point during an attacking sequence in open play, elite goalkeepers can identify the opposition shot taker, a skill that is likely to facilitate organisation of the defensive line and interception of forward creative attacking passes...

Bilateral skill symmetry in sport refers to an individual's ability to successfully perform sporting actions with both sides of the body. Two scarcely researched areas in relation to bilateral skills are the effects of opposition proximity on skill execution and bilateral skill in high-performance female athletes. In this study, we used Nacsport to code all skill executions (hand pass, kick pass, hop, solo and shot) during 121 games by both male and female participants (76 male, 45 female), classified as Tier 1 ( n = 181, 134) and Tier 2 ( n = 238, 115) high performance, adult Gaelic Football players...

OBJECTIVE: To compare the exercise intensity of walking football (WF) with walking (WA) and to describe specific movement characteristics of WF. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Sports facilities Saarland University, Germany. PATIENTS: Eighteen patients with cardiovascular risk factors CVRFs and diseases (13 men and 5 women, age: 69 ± 10 years). INDEPENDENT VARIABLES: Patients completed a WF match and WA session of 2 x 10 min each...

Identifying key patterns of tactics implemented by rival teams, and developing effective responses, lies at the heart of modern football. However, doing so algorithmically remains an open research challenge. To address this unmet need, we propose TacticAI, an AI football tactics assistant developed and evaluated in close collaboration with domain experts from Liverpool FC. We focus on analysing corner kicks, as they offer coaches the most direct opportunities for interventions and improvements. TacticAI incorporates both a predictive and a generative component, allowing the coaches to effectively sample and explore alternative player setups for each corner kick routine and to select those with the highest predicted likelihood of success...

This study (a) examined the associations among different performance metrics derived from different strategies (i.e., maximum and average scores) and trials from product-oriented measures of motor skills, and (b) explored how different performance metrics from product-oriented assessments of motor skills change in young children with typical development. Children ( N = 279; 156 girls; M age = 4.44 years) completed a battery of product-oriented assessments for throwing (in meters per second, five trials); kicking (in meters per second, five trials); jumping (in centimeters, five trials); running (in meters per second, two trials); and hopping (in meters per second, four trials-two preferred foot, two nonpreferred foot)...

The aim was to investigate the effect of breathing conditions and swimming pace on the relationships between the impairment, the breathing laterality and motor coordination symmetry in elite front crawl Para swimmers. Fifteen elite Para swimmers with unilateral physical impairment or with visual impairment and unilateral breathing preference performed eight 25 m using four breathing conditions (every three strokes, every two strokes on preferred and non-preferred breathing side and apnea) at slow and fast paces in a randomized order...

OBJECTIVES: To understand the historical context of and relationships between, the characteristics of shots at goal and match outcome in the Australian Football League. DESIGN: Observational. METHODS: Descriptive statistics of shots at goal were calculated and compared across 20 seasons. The location, type, and outcome of all shots at goal (n = 43,254), by all teams (2017-19 & 21), were compared with match outcome. RESULTS: The total number of shots per match and the accuracy of shots haven't changed in two decades...

INTRODUCTION: Cigarette smoking continues to decline in the U.S., but cannabis use is increasing. Many people who smoke cigarettes also use cannabis. This study examines characteristics of persons who co-use and those who do not co-use, and the likelihood of quitting cigarettes for callers to Kick It California (KIC), a large state tobacco quitline. METHODS: Data were examined from KIC callers from January 2020 through December 2023 (N=45,151) including those from a sub-group randomly sampled and reached for evaluation at 7 months after quitline enrollment (N=3,545)...

BACKGROUND: The present study was carried out to assess the awareness of the adverse consequences of tobacco use in the semi-urban school population in Wardha district because tobacco use in schools is a significant concern and is rising at an alarming rate. The purpose of the current study was to assess the prevalence of tobacco use among students and teachers as well as their knowledge of the negative effects of tobacco use. It also aimed to educate students and teachers about these effects and assess the effectiveness of the intervention...