Search Results (9)

Evaluating player actions in football is essential for understanding match dynamics and optimizing team strategies. Traditional models, such as the widely adopted Expected Threat (xT) model, assign static threat values to pitch zones without considering real-time player positioning, leading to a limited representation of the evolving tactical context. To address this limitation, we introduce the Dynamic Expected Threat (DxT) model, which adjusts threat values dynamically by integrating off-ball player positions. DxT refines the probability of shooting and ball movement using an Expected Goals (xG) model that incorporates off-ball player positioning. Built on event data from professional football matches, which encompasses over 335,000 actions, our results demonstrate that DxT significantly improves upon traditional xT models by offering a more accurate and dynamic evaluation of action threats. This framework enhances tactical analysis, providing valuable insights for coaches, analysts, and scouting professionals seeking a more realistic approach to performance evaluation. Full article

Robert Baden-Powell is well known as the founder of Scouting, an educational movement that spread rapidly around the world after 1907. This article aims to analyse an aspect of his writings that has been little studied: the religious dimension. A deeply religious man, Baden-Powell recognised the presence of God not only in the Bible but also in nature. It is interesting that some of his convictions are now, almost a hundred years later, topical educational insights. Baden-Powell encourages all Scouts in the world to cultivate religious practice by saying: “There can be no atheist Scout”. He offers concrete insights that commit the scout educator to take on the innate religious need that many young people express in a personal search for faith motivation. Full article

Background: This research project examining the moderating role of the Scout Movement in supporting mental health through the shaping of personal competence is based on Bandura’s conception of social development (social cognitive theory) in terms of generating a sense of general self-efficacy. Methods: This research examined the moderating value of Scouting with regard to the connection between self-esteem and a sense of efficacy and styles of coping with stress in a group of 683 volunteers. Results: The results suggest that Scouting is a moderator of the relationship between the intensity of an emotion-focused stress coping style and a sense of self-efficacy—being a Scout intensifies the blocking effect of self-esteem on emotions in stressful situations, which can positively influence emotion regulation. Conclusions: The features described suggest the need to research Scouting as a non-formal education strategy to support the development of young people’s mental health in different theoretical and methodological contexts. This work provides conclusions regarding understanding the role of Scouting as a moderator in coping with stress and, consequently, ensuring good mental health. It detailed the knowledge pertaining to specific mechanisms thanks to which Scouting can influence the development of emotional regulation and adaptive response to stressful situations. Full article

The Portuguese educational system aims at nurturing the holistic development of individuals and societal progress, surpassing the mere transmission of curriculum-based knowledge. While considerable advancements have been made, the need for ongoing innovation and equal educational opportunities remains evident, so that all children can have not only equal access to education, but also equal chances of success. This study investigates the largest Portuguese Scout movement, the CNE, exploring its organisational and pedagogical approaches, potentially applicable in formal education settings. This research surveyed participants aged 18–22, having completed approximately 12 years in the Scout movement. Data collection via focus group followed a semi-structured script, before a thorough content analysis was carried. Findings are organised as follows: Pedagogical organisation in learning cycles; Patrol system; The four stages of the Project Method; Characterization of the Scout Game and other learning process dimensions; Other competencies and values developed throughout the Scout learning course; and Comparisons with formal education contexts. The discourse of participants strongly suggests the Scout movement’s potential to inspire educational change, displaying consistent indicators of pedagogical innovation. The study advocates for further exploration of the CNE’s pedagogical functioning and its potential to serve as an inspiration for transformative changes in educational systems worldwide, as evidenced by the learners’ reflections. Full article

The tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Hemiptera: Miridae), has a wide host range of over 700 plant species, including 130 crops of economic importance. During early spring, managing the field edges with weeds and other wild hosts is important in preventing early-season infestations of L. lineolaris in cotton to prevent damage to the squares and other fruiting structures. Scouting fields for L. lineolaris is time- and labor-intensive, and end-user variability associated with field sampling can lead to inaccuracies. Insect traps that combine visual cues and pheromones are more accurate, sustainable, and economically feasible in contrast to traditional insect detection methods. In this study, we investigated the application of red or white sticky cards baited with the female-produced sex pheromone to monitor overwintering L. lineolaris populations in early spring. Field experiments demonstrated that the red sticky cards baited with a pheromone blend containing hexyl butyrate, (E)-2-hexenyl butyrate, and (E)-4-oxo-2-hexenal in 4:10:7 ratio are highly effective in trapping L. lineolaris adults in early spring before the row crops are planted, and in monitoring their movement into a cotton crop. The monitoring of L. lineolaris should help growers to make judicious decisions on insecticide applications to control early pest infestations, thereby reducing economic damage to cotton. Full article

Urban agriculture can be shortly defined as the growing of plants and/or the livestock husbandry in and around cities. Although it has been a common occupation for the urban population all along, recently there is a growing interest in it both from public bodies and researchers, as well as from ordinary citizens who want to engage in self-cultivation. The modern citizen, though, will hardly find the free time to grow his own vegetables as it is a process that requires, in addition to knowledge and disposition, consistency. Given the above considerations, the purpose of this work was to develop an economic robotic system for the automatic monitoring and management of an urban garden. The robotic system was designed and built entirely from scratch. It had to have suitable dimensions so that it could be placed in a balcony or a terrace, and be able to scout vegetables from planting to harvest and primarily conduct precision irrigation based on the growth stage of each plant. Fertigation and weed control will also follow. For its development, a number of technologies were combined, such as Cartesian robots’ motion, machine vision, deep learning for the identification and detection of plants, irrigation dosage and scheduling based on plants’ growth stage, and cloud storage. The complete process of software and hardware development to a robust robotic platform is described in detail in the respective sections. The experimental procedure was performed for lettuce plants, with the robotic system providing precise movement of its actuator and applying precision irrigation based on the specific needs of the plants. Full article

Virtual Reality (VR) can play a key role in automotive marketing research, lowering costs and shortening the time to launch a new product. However, few VR applications support automotive customers’ experiences during the early stages of product design. This study aims to identify and characterize into attributes the challenges and opportunities for the application of Virtual Reality in car clinics through a systematic review of the literature and patents. We searched PatentScout, ScienceDirect, Springer, and IEEEXplore for studies published between the databases’ inception and July 2020. Of the 77,383 patents and 336,785 articles identified, 72 and 13 were eligible, respectively. We discovered that patents are strongly concentrated by a few inventors, that the United States has the most records, and that the most prevalent applications relate to devices for automatically reading responders’ emotions in virtual environments. The articles revealed sixteen categories of challenges and opportunities: cost, location to customers, flexibility in interactions, model transportation, depth perception, haptic perception, motion, movement perception/physical collision, color and texture, sound feedback, product interaction/manipulation, visual–spatial, graphic quality, intuitiveness, cybersecurity, and cybersickness. Virtual Reality may be used for automotive marketing research but key factors such as hardware and software specification, stimulus quality, and survey objectives must be considered. Full article

The word scouting refers to the Scout movement, born more than a hundred years ago, which educates millions of young people between the ages of six and twenty-one in their leisure time. We aimed to study the effects of scouting on the academic results, social skills, and self-esteem of high school youths compared to a non-scout sample. The selected sample consisted of 430 secondary students aged between thirteen and seventeen. Self-esteem and social skills were measured, and the average mark of the total sample was analysed. After the study, it was shown that belonging to the scout movement significantly influences the improvement of academic results in formal education and conflict resolution; however, there are no statistically significant differences in self-esteem and other social skills. Full article

This paper presents an ethnographic study on the global learning practice of teachers and students in a Chinese internal migrant school. Rural children have relocated to urban centers with their parents on a massive scale over the past decades, as China undergoes rapid economic changes. Many migrant children have to attend privately run migrant schools which often function within limited budgets. Drawing on various types of data, this study investigates informal learning in a global context. In particular, the research focuses on a Scout program that is modeled on world Scouting movements and that is tailored for the migrant pupils’ educational demands. The data collection tools include participant observation, in-depth interview and document collection. The research finds that, with limited educational resources, the informants learn globally to improve the sustainable development of the migrant pupils, to fight against educational inequality, and to facilitate mutual understanding between the migrant and the urban communities. This paper concludes that global learning plays an important role in the informants’ ‘’up-scaling” progress facilitated by their linguistic capacity, computer literacy, and social network. Full article