The shoe can be thought of as a powerful tool for controlling human movement. A well-designed shoe can assist in reducing the number of lower limb injuries arising from sport and training activities. The purpose of this paper is to present a summary of the main thrusts of research in this field by means of a digest of current thinking and practice. The paper initially presents a survey of work in the biomechanical field with particular reference to the design of footwear. A review of the types of injury acquired by sportsmen in both training and playing is then followed by a discussion of aspects of footwear design and their role in both contributing to and preventing lower limb injury. Finally, the paper considers support and shock absorption techniques in the context of footwear design. It is concluded that research has been wide-ranging and thorough. However, the complexity of the biomechanical system being studied has prevented definitive recommendations for the prevention of injury being made in every case. Nonetheless, it is clear that a number of guiding principles have been established which should be the basis for future developments in footwear design to minimize the chance of lower limb injury.
This investigation was a case study to measure the retention and persistence effects of a learning community in developmental English at an urban community college. The study used student demographic and course outcome data to quantify the extent to which learning community participation could contribute toward remedying the historically low retention and persistence rates among a diverse student population in community colleges. The learning communities in this study consisted of developmental reading and writing courses linked in pairs at the same level, considered to be either one or two levels below college level English. Findings revealed a relationship between learning communities and improved retention in developmental writing courses for all ethnic groups. In addition, retention and persistence was improved for Latino students. The study also revealed that learning communities were most effective when utilized at the higher developmental English level courses compared to the lower level courses.
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