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Physiological and perceptual responses to sprint interval exercise using arm versus leg cycling ergometry
Get PDFIncreases in power output and maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) occur in response to sprint interval exercise (SIE), but common use of “all-out” intensities presents a barrier for many adults. Furthermore, lower-body SIE is not feasible for all adults. We compared physiological and perceptual responses to supramaximal, but “non-all-out” SIE between leg and arm cycling exercise. Twenty-four active adults (mean ± SD age: [25 ± 7] y; cycling VO2max: [39 ± 7] mL·kg−1·min−1) performed incremental exercise using leg (LCE) and arm cycle ergometry (ACE) to determine VO2max and maximal work capacity (Wmax). Subsequently, they performed four 20 s (s) bouts of SIE at 130 % Wmax on the LCE or ACE at cadence = 120–130 rev/min, with 2 min (min) recovery between intervals. Gas exchange data, heart rate (HR), blood lactate concentration (BLa), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and affective valence were acquired. Data showed significantly lower (p 0.42), and lowest affective valence recorded (2.0 ± 1.8) was considered “good to fairly good”. Data show that non “all-out” ACE elicits lower absolute but higher relative HR and VO2 compared to LCE. Less aversive perceptual responses could make this non-all-out modality feasible for inactive adults
Complex Interventions for a Complex System? Using Systems Thinking to Explore Ways to Address Unhealthy Commodity Industry Influence on Public Health Policy
Get PDFBackground Interventions are needed to prevent and mitigate unhealthy commodity industry (UCI) influence on public health policy. Whilst literature on interventions is emerging, current conceptualisations remain incomplete as they lack considerations of the wider systemic complexities surrounding UCI influence, which may limit intervention effectiveness. This study applies systems thinking as a theoretical lens to help identify and explore how possible interventions relate to one another in the systems in which they are embedded. Related challenges to addressing UCI influence on policy, and actions to support interventions, were also explored. Methods Online participatory workshops were conducted with stakeholders with expertise in UCIs. A systems map, depicting five pathways to UCI influence, and the Action Scales Model were used to help participants identify interventions and guide discussions. Codebook thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results Fifty-two stakeholders participated in 23 workshops. Participants identified 27 diverse, interconnected and interdependent interventions corresponding to the systems map’s pathways that reduce the ability of UCIs to influence policy, e.g., reform policy financing; regulate public-private partnerships; reform science governance and funding; frame and reframe the narrative, challenge neoliberalism and GDP growth; leverage human rights; change practices on multistakeholder governance; and reform policy consultation and deliberation processes. Participants also identified four potential key challenges to interventions (i.e., difficult to implement or achieve; partially formulated; exploited or misused; requires tailoring for context), and four key actions to help support intervention delivery (i.e., coordinate and cooperate with stakeholders; invest in civil society; create a social movement; nurture leadership). Conclusion A systems thinking lens revealed the theoretical interdependence between disparate and heterogenous interventions. This suggests that to be effective, interventions need to align, work collectively, and be applied to different parts of the system synchronously. Importantly, these interventions need to be supported by intermediary actions to be achieved. Urgent action is now required to strengthen healthy alliances and implement interventions.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin
British elite swimmers’ experiences and perspectives on life skill development
Get PDFThis study explores the experiences of British elite swimmers in developing life skills during and throughout their athletic careers, examining the factors that influence their perspectives on this skill development. Six high-profile British swimmers, who have competed at the Commonwealth and/or Olympic Games, were recruited for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and thematic analysis was applied. Through the analysis, two key themes were identified from the thematic analysis: (a) Implicit life skill development through athletic and educational experience, and (b) Understanding the influence of swimming on life skill development. The first theme includes three sub-themes: (a) Establishment of athletic identity, (b) Prioritization of athletic identity, and (c) Navigating life skills through athletic challenges. The findings show that the swimming careers of participants and their associated identities contributed to the development of a wide range of implicit life skills. This growth was facilitated by both educational and sporting experiences, with all participants reporting positive personal development from their time in competitive swimming. The findings in this study enhance our understanding of life skill development and provide insights into how to more effectively support high-performance athletes in both their athletic careers and educational endeavors
Assessment of perinatal anxiety: diagnostic accuracy of five measures
Get PDFBackground Anxiety in pregnancy and after giving birth (the perinatal period) is highly prevalent but under-recognised. Robust methods of assessing perinatal anxiety are essential for services to identify and treat women appropriately. Aims To determine which assessment measures are most psychometrically robust and effective at identifying women with perinatal anxiety (primary objective) and depression (secondary objective). Method We conducted a prospective longitudinal cohort study of 2243 women who completed five measures of anxiety and depression (Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD) two- and seven-item versions; Whooley questions; Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-10); and Stirling Antenatal Anxiety Scale (SAAS)) during pregnancy (15 weeks, 22 weeks and 31 weeks) and after birth (6 weeks). To assess diagnostic accuracy a sample of 403 participants completed modules of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Results The best diagnostic accuracy for anxiety was shown by the CORE-10 and SAAS. The best diagnostic accuracy for depression was shown by the CORE-10, SAAS and Whooley questions, although the SAAS had lower specificity. The same cut-off scores for each measure were optimal for identifying anxiety or depression (SAAS ≥9; CORE-10 ≥9; Whooley ≥1). All measures were psychometrically robust, with good internal consistency, convergent validity and unidimensional factor structure. Conclusions This study identified robust and effective methods of assessing perinatal anxiety and depression. We recommend using the CORE-10 or SAAS to assess perinatal anxiety and the CORE-10 or Whooley questions to assess depression. The GAD-2 and GAD-7 did not perform as well as other measures and optimal cut-offs were lower than currently recommended.Additional authors: the MAP study Tea
A scoping review of methods and measures used to capture children's play during school breaktimes
Get PDFPlay is linked to healthy child development and is recognised in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. School breaktimes provide regular opportunities for children to play, and as such, they have been the context of a large and interdisciplinary body of research on play. Play research has diverse aims and cuts across many academic disciplines, resulting in a wide range of methods and measurement tools being used in research to capture children’s play. In this scoping review, 105 studies of play during school breaktimes were identified and we describe, synthesise and compare methods used to assess play during school breaktimes, bringing together methodologies from different fields for the first time. Specifically, we captured: the aspects of play that have been measured and described; established tools and coding schemes that have been used; what the measures of play have been used for; and what the quality of reporting of play measures has been. In this way, we anticipate that the review will facilitate future play research and support, where appropriate, more consistent use and transparent reporting of methods and measures
Books and Borrowing: Agents, Access and Accountability, c. 1600-1850
Get PDFFirst paragraph: This is the first of a pair of special issues of this journal, both deriving from a conference on reading and book circulation, organised by the AHRC-funded project Books and Borrowing 1750-1830: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers (Books and Borrowing 1750-1830 (stir.ac.uk); AH/T003960/1) and held at the University of Stirling in April 2023. The two special issues have slightly different remits, this one dealing primarily with books, readers, and agents of different kinds, and the second with libraries, books, and borrowers, although there is inevitably a great deal of overlap between the two. The key themes that emerge across both special issues are the importance of books as forms of capital, both symbolic and actual, and the importance of place and space in our understanding of book circulation
The Role of e-Cigarette Packaging as a Health Communications Tool: A Focus Group Study With Adolescents and Adults in England and Scotland
Get PDFIntroduction In the United Kingdom, e-cigarette and refill packaging must display a nicotine addiction warning. This study explored how this message is perceived, responses to alternative on-pack messages, and other options for using e-cigarette packaging to discourage youth and people who neither smoke nor use e-cigarettes while encouraging smokers to switch. Aims and Methods Between August and September 2022, 16 focus groups (n = 70) were conducted to explore these topics with adolescents (n = 31, aged 11–17 years) and adults (n = 39, nonsmokers, smokers that use e-cigarettes, smokers that do not use e-cigarettes) in England and Scotland. Results While several participants thought the current nicotine addiction warning could help increase awareness of nicotine addiction, most reported that it failed to capture attention and was not a deterrent. Alternative messages shown on packs (about harm, toxicity, wellness, litter, or relative risk) received mixed responses. Relative risk messages were perceived as most beneficial for smokers switching but also thought to potentially encourage uptake among nonsmokers. Some participants considered certain harm and toxicity messages to potentially dissuade uptake. Participants proposed several ideas to reduce the appeal of e-cigarette packaging and devices to deter youth uptake, including more prominent warnings, standardized packaging, and devices that are plain or include health messages. Conclusions Packaging can play a crucial role in communicating product and health messages to different consumer groups. Further consideration of how packaging and labeling can meet the needs of non-nicotine users while simultaneously reaching those who may benefit from using e-cigarettes to stop smoking is warranted. Implications While some viewed the nicotine addiction warning required on e-cigarettes and refill packaging in the United Kingdom as helpful in raising awareness of nicotine addiction, it did not resonate with most of our sample of adolescents and adults. The findings suggest that e-cigarette packaging could be better used to encourage smokers to switch to a less harmful alternative, with relative risk messages showing promise. Furthermore, strengthening on-pack messaging (eg increasing salience and rotating messages) and reducing the appeal of packaging (eg drab colors) and devices (eg including warnings) may help increase awareness of e-cigarette harms while deterring use among adolescents and nonsmokers
Forecasting the Realized Volatility of Stock Markets: The Roles of Jumps and Asymmetric Spillovers
No full textShould Have Known
Get PDFFirst paragraph: When the Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski arrived in the Trobriand Islands in 1915, he was an Austro-Hungarian subject in a British territory at risk of internment. Stranded there, he stayed put and turned this long-term presence into the instrument that defines social anthropology even today. But World War I was not the only war that shaped his work in a profound manner: from archaeological work coming out recently we know that the kula, the intricate ceremonial exchange system he described as proof of the universality of rational human thought, was in fact a colonial phenomenon, the result of a decades-long pacification process
Mental health and weight loss in men: an exploratory mixed methods study of the Game of Stones trial
Get PDFObjective: Weight management interventions can affect mental health. Mental health can affect engagement with weight loss interventions or services. This study explored mental health and wellbeing outcomes, retention and participant experiences of mental health within the Game of Stones trial. Methods: Mixed methods process evaluation within a 3-group randomised controlled trial: behavioural text messages with financial incentives, texts alone, and waiting list control, for 585 men with obesity. Secondary outcomes analysed descriptively included: Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, Weight Self-Stigma Questionnaire, EQ-5D-5L, EQ-5D-5L anxiety and depression subscale, Patient Health Questionniare-4, and retention. Three categories of participants were compared: ever diagnosed with a mental health condition (n=146; 25.0%), latent mental health condition (n=142; 24.3%) no mental health condition (n=295; 50.6%). Semi-structured interviews (n=54) were conducted after 12 months and analysed using Framework method. Results: A higher proportion of men who self-reported ever having a mental health condition had a disability, multiple long-term conditions, were under financial strain and were single compared to those with those with a latent mental health condition and no mental health condition. Improvements from baseline were shown for weight stigma, wellbeing and PHQ-4 at 12 months for men in intervention groups with a mental health condition and latent mental health condition. EQ-5D-5L Visual Analogue Scale scores improved across all mental health categories and trial groups, but EQ-5D-5L and EQ-5D-5L-AD scores were inconsistent. Retention at 12 months was 76.0% (mental health condition), 70.4% (latent mental health condition) and 72.5% (no mental health condition). The qualitative evidence indicated that stress, anxiety and depression were experienced in different ways by men during the programme. Mental health difficulties were unique to the individual, could be episodic, recurrent, cyclical or ongoing and were a barrier to behaviour change for some but not for others. Conclusion: The trial was able to engage and retain men regardless of mental health category. Behavioural text messages with or without incentives helped some men lose weight, but not others. Observed heterogeneity for mental health and wellbeing measures is problematic for weight management trials with men
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