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The Effect of Dietary Nitrate on the Contractile Properties of Human Skeletal Muscle: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Get PDFPurpose: To systematically review the current literature and meta-analyze the effects of dietary nitrate (NO3−) supplementation on the contractile properties of skeletal muscle.
Method: A literature search of three databases was conducted in June 2021, with 19 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Studies were included if a placebo versus dietary NO3−-only supplementation protocol was used in healthy human, assessed muscle contraction or activities that was < 3 minutes in duration and focused on the lower-body. For the meta-analysis, a pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) was determined for maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) (n = 11), cycling, running and inertial load squad peak power output (PPO) (n = 8), mean power output (MPO) (n = 6) and time to PPO (n = 4).
Results: NO3− supplementation demonstrated a small improvement in PPO (SMD = 0.25, P = 0.030) and MPO (SMD = 0.28, P = 0.034) when compared to the placebo. NO3− also resulted in an enhanced time to PPO (SMD = −0.78, P < 0.001). There was no clear effect of NO3− on isometric MVC (SMD = 0.03, P = 0.758).
Conclusion: This review reports that NO3− supplementation may have potential to enhance PPO, MPO and time to PPO during dynamic exercise, which may transfer to brief explosive actions commonly observed in sporting activities. Due to the variability in studies, we encourage researchers to use this work to explore areas where evidence in lacking and standardize the study design and procedures
A global study on applicability of ISO 18404:2015 for SMEs: an exploratory qualitative study
Get PDFPurpose – ISO18404:2015 standard defines the proficiencies to the attainment of distinct competency levels with either Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma or separately combined strategy Lean Six Sigma (LSS). The purpose of this paper is to perform a detailed investigation of the applicability of current Lean Six Sigma (LSS) competency standard in SMEs and examine the need for further improvement.
Design/Methodology/Approach – A qualitative-based semi-structured interview method was utilized globally by interviewing a group of LSS professionals with knowledge about the LSS implementation working in different leading organizations. All participants were asked to review the standard before the interview process to ensure that they are familiar with the standard.
Findings – The results reveal that the current ISO 18404:2015 standard does not fit SMEs to implement the LSS approach as it has several shortfalls that need to be fixed before its adoption or an urgent need to develop a more customised LSS standard for SMEs. The outcome further helps organizations understand theoretical knowledge about ISO18404:2015, its role in operational excellence implementation, pros, cons, critical success factors and required changes for further improvement within the standard.
Research limitations/implications –There were very limited baseline studies in the literature. A mixed method strategy that includes qualitative and quantitative data would yield better data so that more robust outcomes can be derived from the research.
Originality/value – To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical research on the applicability of ISO 18404:2015 for SMEs, which encapsulate opinions of LSS professionals working in several SMEs
Wheelchair service provision education for healthcare professional students, healthcare personnel and educators across low- to high-resourced settings: a scoping review protocol
Get PDFAppropriate wheelchair provision is necessary for addressing participation barriers experienced by individuals with mobility impairments. Health care professionals involved in the wheelchair service provision process require a specific set of skills and knowledge to enable wheelchair use that meets individual posture, mobility and daily living requirements. However, inconsistencies exist in academic programmes globally about providing comprehensive education and training programmes. The planned scoping review aims to review and synthesize the global literature on wheelchair service provision education for healthcare professional students, healthcare personnel and educators offered by universities, organizations and industries
High-performance flexible all-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors based on binder-free MXene/cellulose nanofiber anode and carbon cloth/polyaniline cathode
Get PDFThe search for wearable electronics has been attracted great efforts, and there is an ever-growing demand for all-solid-state flexible energy storage devices. However, it is a challenge to obtain both positive and negative electrodes with excellent mechanical strength and matching positive and negative charges to achieve high energy densities and operating voltages to satisfy practical application requirements. Here, flexible MXene (Ti3C2Tx)/cellulose nanofiber (CNF) composite film negative electrodes (MCNF) were fabricated with a vacuum filtration method, as well as positive electrodes (CP) by combining polyaniline (PANI) with carbon cloth (CC) using an in-situ polymerization method. Both positive and negative free-standing electrodes exhibited excellent electrochemical behavior and bendable/foldable flexibility. As a result, the all-pseudocapacitance asymmetric device of MCNF//CP assembled with charge-matched between anode and cathode achieves an extended voltage window of 1.5 V, high energy density of 30.6 WhKg-1 (1211 WKg-1), and 86 capacitance retention after 5000 cycles, and the device maintains excellent bendability, simultaneously. This work will pave the way for the development of all-pseudocapacitive asymmetric supercapacitors (ASC) with simultaneously preeminent mechanical properties, high energy density, and wide operating voltage window
Remote collection of physical performance measures for older people: a systematic review
Get PDFRemotely collected physical performance measures could improve inclusion of under-served groups in clinical research as well as enabling continuation of research in pandemic conditions. It is unclear whether remote collection is feasible and acceptable to older patients, or whether results are comparable to face-to-face measures. We conducted a systematic review according to a prespecified protocol. We included studies with mean participant age ≥ 60 years, with no language restriction. Studies examining the gait speed, Short Physical Performance Battery, distance walk tests, grip strength, Tinetti score, Berg balance test, sit-to-stand test and timed up and go were included. Reports of feasibility, acceptability, correlation between remote and face-to-face assessments and absolute differences between remote and face-to-face assessments were sought. Data were synthesised using Synthesis Without Meta-analysis methodology; 30 analyses from 17 publications were included. Study size ranged from 10 to 300 participants, with a mean age ranging from 61 to >80 years. Studies included a broad range of participants and conditions. Most studies had a moderate or high risk of bias. Only two studies undertook assessment of acceptability or feasibility, reporting good results. Correlation between face-to-face and remote measures was variable across studies, with no measure showing consistently good correlation. Only nine studies examined the accuracy of remote measures; in six studies, accuracy was rated as good (<5% mean difference between face-to-face and remote measures). There is a lack of robust evidence that remote collection of physical performance measures is acceptable to patients, feasible or provides comparable results to face-to-face measures
Walking alone or walking together: A spatial evaluation of children’s travel behavior to school
Get PDFThe purpose of this research is to extend our understanding of children’s walking behavior to school in an understudied region of the world, Istanbul, Turkey. Children (aged 11-17) and their parents were surveyed to comprehend subjective and objective factors on walking behavior to school when alone or with someone. Using participatory mapping and GIS, a route detour index was first created to highlight differences in walking behaviors. A robust spatial analysis, consisting of spatial statistics and a hierarchical spatial error model, then signified important survey responses, urban design factors from space syntax, and neighborhood composition and contextual variables on between-group route choices. Empirical and geovisual analysis confirmed that accompanied children deviated more from GIS shortest routes to school than their unaccompanied peers and “hot-spot” analysis showed it was dependent on where children reside. The spatial error models exhibited notable relations among route choice, children’s age, health, and gender. Parent attitudes concerning greenspace positively affected children’s longer route choices, while street connectivity had the opposite influence. Surprisingly, neighborhood walkability did not impact children’s route choice decisions for either group. The results provide new insights on how to encourage additional walking trips to school
Understanding the implementation of ‘Making Every Contact Count’ (MECC) delivered by healthcare professionals in a mental health hospital: protocol for a pragmatic formative process evaluation
Get PDFBackground
‘Making Every Contact Count’ (MECC) is a public health strategy supporting public-facing workers to use opportunities during routine contacts to enable health behaviour change. A mental health hospital in the North East of England is currently implementing a programme to embed MECC across the hospital supporting weight management (‘A Weight Off Your Mind’). Bespoke MECC training has been developed to improve staff confidence in discussing physical activity, healthy eating, and related behaviour change with service users. This article describes the protocol for a pragmatic formative process evaluation to inform the implementation plan for MECC and facilitate successful implementation of the bespoke MECC training at scale.
Methods/Design
An 18-month, mixed method pragmatic formative process evaluation, including qualitative research, surveys, document review and stakeholder engagement. This project is conducted within a mental health inpatient setting in the North East of England. Programme documents will be reviewed, mapped against MECC national guidelines, Behaviour Change Techniques (BCTs) and intervention functions within the Behaviour Change Wheel. A cross-sectional survey (n = 365) and qualitative semi-structured interviews (n = 30) will be conducted with healthcare practitioners delivering MECC to assess capability, opportunity and motivation. Data collection and fidelity procedures will be examined, including design, training and delivery dimensions of fidelity. Interviews with service users (n = 20) will also be conducted.
Discussion
Anticipated outcomes include developing recommendations to overcome barriers to delivery of and access to MECC, including whether to either support the use of the existing MECC protocol or tailor the MECC training programme. The findings are anticipated to improve fidelity of MECC training within mental health inpatient settings as well as provide evidence for MECC training at a national level. We also expect findings to influence strategic plans, policy, and practice specific to MECC and inform best practice in implementing wider brief intervention programmes
Cognition and Freezing of Gait in Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Get PDFFreezing of gait (FOG) is a common and disabling symptom in people with Parkinson's Disease (PwPD). Although cognition is thought to be worse in PwPD who freeze, a comprehensive analysis of this relationship will inform future research and clinical care. This systematic review and meta-analysis compared cognition between PwPD who do and do not exhibit FOG across a range of cognitive domains and assessed the impact of disease severity and medication status on this relationship. 145 papers (n=9010 participants) were included in the analysis, with 144 and 138 articles meeting the criteria to assess moderating effects of disease severity and medication status, respectively. PwPD who freeze exhibited worse cognition than PwPD without FOG across global cognition, executive function/attention, language, memory, and visuospatial domains. Greater disease severity and "ON" levodopa medication status moderated the FOG status-cognition relationship in global cognitive performance but not in other cognitive domains. This meta-analysis confirmed that cognition is worse in PwPD with FOG and highlights the importance of disease severity and medication status in this relationship
High temperature equilibrium of 3D and 2D chalcogenide perovskites
Get PDFChalcogenide perovskites have been recently proposed as novel absorber materials for photovoltaic applications. BaZrS3, the most investigated compound of this family, shows a high absorption coefficient, a bandgap of around 1.8 eV, and excellent stability. In addition to the 3D perovskite BaZrS3, the Ba–Zr–S compositional space contains various 2D Ruddlesden–Popper phases Ban + 1ZrnS3n + 1 (with n = 1, 2, 3) which have recently been reported. Herein, it is shown that at high temperature the Gibbs free energies of 3D and 2D perovskites are very close, suggesting that 2D phases can be easily formed at high temperatures. The product of the BaS and ZrS2 solid-state reaction, in different stoichiometric conditions, presents a mixture of BaZrS3 and Ba4Zr3S10. To carefully resolve the composition, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis are complemented with Raman spectroscopy. For this purpose, the phonon dispersions, and the consequent Raman spectra, are calculated for the 3D and 2D chalcogenide perovskites, as well as for the binary precursors. This thorough characterization demonstrates the thermodynamic limitations and experimental difficulties in forming phase-pure chalcogenide perovskites through solid-state synthesis and the importance of using multiple techniques to soundly resolve the composition of these materials
“Patriot bros”, the fascist creep, and the spatial fantasies of white nationalist masculinity
Get PDFThe radical-right and fascistic eruptions are (re)surgent in many global contexts. But the relationship between space, ideology, digital representation and rhetoric, identity and the body is underexplored, especially with regard to networked masculinities. Place, the body, hyper-nationalism and white supremacism, and expressions of militarism and exaggerated masculinity (or the “heroic man”), emerge in the form of photos, memes and #hashtags, and are negotiated and reconstituted via social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. But these virtual constructions are also spatialised through produced territories, taking the forms of autonomous compounds of recreation (e.g. gym), capital accumulation (warehouses, products, crypto-mines) and local community infrastructures (homes, churches, schools). The patriot-bro, in other words, moves from online personality to spatial fixture, with implications (and perils) for democracy and community cohesion.This chapter explores the online and offline spatial fantasies of American post-industrial white masculinity through a media analysis of the case of “Patriot Labs”, a bodybuilding and fitness supplement company with a vibrant social media presence. Through short, humorous films advertising products; Instagram “stories” and YouTube clips, and an aesthetic of hyper-patriotism, hyper-masculinity and radical-right political signifiers, the company constructs a reactionary, white, muscular space online (media) and offline (its warehouses, gyms and community infrastructures). The merger of online silly content, corporate values, radical-right ideologies and physical territory, therefore, represents a dangerous “creep” of fascistic formation with radicalising potential and ripple effects that reverberate elsewhere globally.However, through an alternative reading informed by queer theory, this chapter suggests, somewhat paradoxically, that beyond the projections, representations and veneer of exaggerated white masculinity and hyper-patriotism, there is a more dynamic, empathetic and potentially (de)radicalising space of male vulnerability, bonding, softness, homo-sociality and homoeroticism. Through this more complex reading, the new “heroic man” is an unstable, cartoonish, self-reflective and satirical figure, with yes, fascistic and dangerous tendencies, but also, other, less essential, dynamic, playful possibilities and alternative trajectories and stories-yet-unfolding