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"Williams, Mark A."
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Science and soccer : developing elite performers
\"Now in a fully revised and updated third edition, Science and Soccer is still the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to the physiology, biomechanics and psychology behind the world's most popular sport. Offering important guidance on how science translates into practice, the book examines every key facet of the sport, with a particular focus on the development of elite performers. The topics covered include: - anatomy, physiology, psychology and biomechanics; - principles of training; - nutrition; - physical and mental preparation; - playing surfaces and equipment; - decision-making and skill acquisition; - coaching and coach education; - performance analysis; - talent identification and youth development. Science and Soccer: Developing Elite Performers is a unique resource for students and academics working in sports science. It is essential reading for all professional support staff working in the game, including coaches at all levels, physiotherapists, conditioning specialists, performance analysts, club doctors and sport psychologists\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Expertise differences in anticipatory judgements during a temporally and spatially occluded task
There is contradictory evidence surrounding the role of critical cues in the successful anticipation of penalty kicks in soccer. In the current study, skilled and less-skilled soccer goalkeepers were required to anticipate when viewing penalty kicks that were both spatially (full body; hip region) and temporally (-160 ms, -80 ms before, foot-ball contact) occluded. The skilled group outperformed the less-skilled group in all conditions. Participants performed better in the full body condition when compared to hip region condition. Performance in the hip only condition was significantly better than chance for the skilled group across all occlusion conditions. However, the less-skilled group were no better than chance in the hip condition for the early occlusion points when predicting direction and height. Later temporal occlusion conditions were associated with increased performance both in the correct response and correct direction analyses, but not for correct height. These data suggest that postural information solely from the hip region may be used by skilled goalkeepers to make accurate predictions of penalty kick direction, however, information from other sources are needed in order to make predictions of height. Findings demonstrate how the importance of anticipation cues evolve over time, which has implications for the design of training programs to enhance perceptual-cognitive skill.
Journal Article
Skill acquisition in sport : research, theory and practice
\"Success in sport depends upon the athlete's ability to develop and perfect a specific set of perceptual, cognitive and motor skills. Now in a fully revised and updated new edition, Skill Acquisition in Sport examines how we learn such skills and, in particular, considers the crucial role of practice and instruction in the skill acquisition process. Containing thirteen completely new chapters, and engaging with the significant advances in neurophysiological techniques that have profoundly shaped our understanding of motor control and development, the book provides a comprehensive review of current research and theory on skill acquisition. Leading international experts explore key topics such as: attentional focus augmented Feedback observational practice and learning implicit motor learning mental imagery training physical guidance motivation and motor learning neurophysiology development of skill joint action. Throughout, the book addresses the implications of current research for instruction and practice in sport, making explicit connections between core science and sporting performance. No other book covers this fundamental topic in such breadth or depth, making this book important reading for any student, scholar or practitioner working in sport science, cognitive science, kinesiology, clinical and rehabilitation sciences, neurophysiology, psychology, ergonomics or robotics\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Global ecological predictors of the soil priming effect
Identifying the global drivers of soil priming is essential to understanding C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We conducted a survey of soils across 86 globally-distributed locations, spanning a wide range of climates, biotic communities, and soil conditions, and evaluated the apparent soil priming effect using
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C-glucose labeling. Here we show that the magnitude of the positive apparent priming effect (increase in CO
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release through accelerated microbial biomass turnover) was negatively associated with SOC content and microbial respiration rates. Our statistical modeling suggests that apparent priming effects tend to be negative in more mesic sites associated with higher SOC contents. In contrast, a single-input of labile C causes positive apparent priming effects in more arid locations with low SOC contents. Our results provide solid evidence that SOC content plays a critical role in regulating apparent priming effects, with important implications for the improvement of C cycling models under global change scenarios.
The global ecological predictors of soil priming remain unclear. Here the authors conducted a global survey of soils from 86 global locations using an isotopic approach and find that in more mesic sites with high SOC concentrations, soil priming effects are more likely to be negative.
Journal Article
The role of cortical sensorimotor oscillations in action anticipation
The human mirror neuron system is believed to play an important role in facilitating the ability of athletes to anticipate the actions of an opponent. This system is often assessed with EEG by measuring event-related changes in mu (8–13Hz) sensorimotor oscillations. However, traditional channel-based analyses of this measure are flawed in that due to volume conduction effects mu and non-mu alpha activity can become mixed. This flaw means it is unclear the extent to which mu activity indexes the mirror system, as opposed to other processes such as attentional demand. As a solution to this problem, we use independent component analysis to separate out the underlying brain processes during a tennis-related action observation and anticipation task. We investigated expertise-related differences in independent component activity. Experienced tennis players (N=18) were significantly more accurate than unexperienced novices (N=21) on the anticipation task. EEG results found significant group differences in both the mu and beta (15–25Hz) frequency bands in sensorimotor components, with earlier and greater desynchronisation in the experienced tennis players. In particular, only experienced players showed desynchronisation in the high mu (11–13Hz) band. No group differences were found in posterior alpha components. These results show for the first time that expertise differences during action observation and anticipation are unique to sensorimotor sources, and that no expertise-related differences exist in attention modulated, posterior alpha sources. As such, this paper provides a much cleaner measure of the human mirror system during action observation, and its modulation by motor expertise, than has been possible in previous work.
•Investigated the role of the human mirror system in skilled action anticipation.•Experienced and unexperienced tennis players performed a tennis anticipation task.•Used ICA to separate sensorimotor mu processes from non-mu alpha activity.•Results show group differences were unique to sensorimotor mu activity.•Non-mu alpha activity, that are modulated by attention, did not differ between groups.
Journal Article
Fibronectin: a multidomain host adhesin targeted by bacterial fibronectin-binding proteins
Fibronectin, a large and essential multidomain glycoprotein, with multiple adhesive properties, functioning as a key link between cells and their extracellular matrices, is now recognized to be the target for a large number of bacterial proteins, which are generally considered to function as bacterial adhesins. In the last decade, an avalanche of bacterial fibronectin-binding proteins (FnBPs) has been identified, and the bioinformatics, structural biology, biological function and role in the virulence of a growing number of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative proteins have begun to emerge. The evidence suggests that fibronectin has a wider biological remit than was previously thought and that bacterial FnBPs have actions over and above that of simple adhesion. This article provides an update on our current understanding of FnBPs from both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and their proposed roles in bacterial colonization, bacterial virulence and bacteria-host interactions.
Journal Article
Changes in belowground biodiversity during ecosystem development
Belowground organisms play critical roles in maintaining multiple ecosystem processes, including plant productivity, decomposition, and nutrient cycling. Despite their importance, however, we have a limited understanding of how and why belowground biodiversity (bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates) may change as soils develop over centuries to millennia (pedogenesis). Moreover, it is unclear whether belowground biodiversity changes during pedogenesis are similar to the patterns observed for aboveground plant diversity. Here we evaluated the roles of resource availability, nutrient stoichiometry, and soil abiotic factors in driving belowground biodiversity across 16 soil chronosequences (from centuries to millennia) spanning a wide range of globally distributed ecosystem types. Changes in belowground biodiversity during pedogenesis followed two main patterns. In lower-productivity ecosystems (i.e., drier and colder), increases in belowground biodiversity tracked increases in plant cover. In more productive ecosystems (i.e., wetter and warmer), increased acidification during pedogenesis was associated with declines in belowground biodiversity. Changes in the diversity of bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates with pedogenesis were strongly and positively correlated worldwide, highlighting that belowground biodiversity shares similar ecological drivers as soils and ecosystems develop. In general, temporal changes in aboveground plant diversity and belowground biodiversity were not correlated, challenging the common perception that belowground biodiversity should follow similar patterns to those of plant diversity during ecosystem development. Taken together, our findings provide evidence that ecological patterns in belowground biodiversity are predictable across major globally distributed ecosystem types and suggest that shifts in plant cover and soil acidification during ecosystem development are associated with changes in belowground biodiversity over centuries tomillennia.
Journal Article