University of Bedfordshire

About: University of Bedfordshire is a education organization based out in Luton, Bedford, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Social work. The organization has 3860 authors who have published 6079 publications receiving 143448 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Luton.

An investigation into the effects of different warm-up modalities on specific motor skills related to soccer performance.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different warm-up stretch modalities on specific high-speed motor capabilities important to soccer performance. Twenty-seven male soccer players performed 3 warm-up conditions, active warm-up (WU), WU with static stretching (SPS), and WU with dynamic stretching (ADS). Heart rate, countermovement jump, 20-m sprint, and Balsom agility tests were performed after each intervention. Vertical jump heights were significantly greater (p < 0.01) in the WU and ADS conditions compared to those in the SPS trial. The 20-m sprint and agility times showed that the SPS condition was significantly slower (p < 0.01) than the WU and ADS conditions, with the ADS trial being significantly faster (p < 0.05) than the WU condition. Heart rate was significantly higher (p < 0.01) for participants post-WU and -ADS trials compared to the SPS condition. These findings suggest that the superior performance of the dynamic stretch and warm-up-only conditions compared to the static stretch condition may be linked to increases in heart rate. The reasons for the dynamic stretch trial superiority compared to the warm-up condition are less clear and as yet to be established. We recommend for optimal performance, specific dynamic stretches be employed as part of a warm-up, rather than the traditional static stretches.

The clinical relevance of heat-stable, short-term sensitizing anaphylactic IgG antibodies (IgG S-TS) and of related activities of IgG4 and IgG2.

Abstract: Most anaphylactic disorders, allergic rhinitis, asthma, allergic urticaria and angio-oedema, and anaphylactic gastro-enteritis, are mediated by IgE reaginic antibodies. An antibody mediating anaphylactic sensitivity binds to specific receptors on mast cell and basophil membranes by the Fc portion of the molecule, leaving the Fab portion free to react with antigen. IgE is the classic example of an anaphylactic antibody i its properties are well known.

Food colorants: their past, present and future

Abstract: Whether we are purchasing fresh vegetables from a market stall, ready meals from the supermarket, eating at home or in a five‐star restaurant, we use colour to tell us what to expect in terms of taste, nutrition and safety. This review considers the techniques that have, over the years, been employed to modify the colour of our food, and the interactions of these techniques with issues of safety and nutrition. The demand for brightly coloured food resulted in the incorporation of some questionable inorganic and organic chemistry being used in food products. A limited number of synthetic dyes are still used in food today, but health concerns and the consumer‐driven demand for natural colorants has brought about a change in the way food is coloured. The proliferation of products with labels that state they contain “No artificial colours” on supermarket shelves suggests that the future of azo dyes and their various derivatives is strictly limited. Nature produces an abundance of colours and many of these are extracted and used as natural food colorants; however, they are subject to application limitations and stability problems. Significant research by academia and industry into methods to stabilise and expand the application possibilities for the various approved natural food colorants is ongoing, but most developments that food colour manufacturers proclaim are enhanced vehicles for delivering established natural pigments into food products.

Overcoming the novelty effect in online gamified learning systems: an empirical evaluation of student engagement and performance

Abstract: Learners in the Higher Education context who engage with computer-based gamified learning systems often experience the novelty effect: a pattern of high activity during the gamified system’s introduction followed by a drop in activity a few weeks later, once its novelty has worn off. We applied a two-tiered motivational, online gamified learning system over two years to a total number of 333 students. In a mixed methods research design, we used three-years’ worth of longitudinal data (333 students for the treatment group and 175 in the control group) to assess students’ engagement and performance in that period. Quantitative results established that students engaged and performed better in the gamified condition vis-a-vis the non- gamified. Furthermore, students exhibited higher levels of engagement in the second year compared to the first year of the gamified condition. Our qualitative data suggests that students in the second year of the gamified delivery exhibited sustained engagement, overcoming the novelty effect. Thus, our main contribution is in suggesting ways of making the engagement meaningful and useful for the students thus sustaining their engagement with computer-based gamified learning systems and overcoming the novelty effect.

Confident Interpretation of Bayesian Decision Tree Ensembles for Clinical Applications

Abstract: Bayesian averaging (BA) over ensembles of decision models allows evaluation of the uncertainty of decisions that is of crucial importance for safety-critical applications such as medical diagnostics. The interpretability of the ensemble can also give useful information for experts responsible for making reliable decisions. For this reason, decision trees (DTs) are attractive decision models for experts. However, BA over such models makes an ensemble of DTs uninterpretable. In this paper, we present a new approach to probabilistic interpretation of Bayesian DT ensembles. This approach is based on the quantitative evaluation of uncertainty of the DTs, and allows experts to find a DT that provides a high predictive accuracy and confident outcomes. To make the BA over DTs feasible in our experiments, we use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique with a reversible jump extension. The results obtained from clinical data show that in terms of predictive accuracy, the proposed method outperforms the maximum a posteriori (MAP) method that has been suggested for interpretation of DT ensembles