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The effect of dietary anthocyanins on biochemical, physiological, and subjective exercise recovery: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFAnthocyanins (ACN), the sub-class of (poly)phenols responsible for the red-blue-purple pigmentation of fruit and vegetables, have gained considerable interest in sport and exercise research due to their potential to facilitate exercise recovery. A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed, The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus and CINAHL. Thirty nine studies were included and the standardized mean difference (Hedges g) for creatine kinase (CK), anti-oxidative and inflammatory markers, strength, power and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) indices were pooled in separate meta-analyses; meta-regression was also performed on reported ACN dose. Immediately post-exercise there was an increase in antioxidant capacity (g: 0.56) and reduced C reactive protein (g: −0.24) and tumor necrosis factor α (g: −40); p ≤ 0.02. Strength was improved with ACN at all time points (g: 0.45–0.67). DOMS (g: −0.23) was lower 24 hours post-exercise and power was improved 24 hours (g: 0.62) and 48 hours (g: 0.57) post exercise. The CK was lower 48 hours post-exercise (g: −0.31) and there was a trend for a positive association with ACN dose (p = 0.057). This systematic review provides new data showing ACN-rich foods promote functional and subjective recovery likely due to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of ACN
Manganese in groundwater in South Asia needs attention
Get PDFThe frequent occurrence of manganese (Mn) at elevated concentrations in groundwater adds a new dimension to the already precarious safe water supply scenario in the alluvial plains and deltas of South Asia (SA). An essential micronutrient, Mn may co-occur with iron (Fe) and/or arsenic (As) and can impart a color, odor, or taste to the water at concentrations of >0.02 mg/L. (1) Adverse effects on neurological development of children from prolonged exposure to Mn in water (∼0.1 mg/L) have been documented (1,2) (also see Table SI-1). Currently, awareness of Mn among scientists, policy actors, and exposed communities remains low. Despite the growing evidence that Mn in drinking water needs close attention and regular monitoring to avoid excessive intake, in 2011 the World Health Organization (WHO) discontinued the health-based value (HbV) of 0.4 mg/L Mn in drinking water. (3) Subsequently in 2021, as part of the second addendum to the fourth Guidelines for drinking-water quality (GDWQ), WHO established a new provisional guideline value (pGV) of 0.08 mg/L. (1) Millions of people in SA are already exposed to Mn above the WHO’s former health-based value (HbV) of 0.4 mg/L. If wells with Mn concentrations above the pGV are considered, then the population exposed to unsafe water would increase significantly
Embracing ‘Abolition Ecology’: A Green Criminological Rejoinder
Get PDFRecent debates in political ecology have sought to highlight and excavate the complex connectivity between ecological and carceral harms (e.g. Heynen and Ybarra in Antipode 53:21–35, 2021; Pellow 2021; Pulido and De Lara in Environ Plan E Nat Space 1:76–98, 2018; AAA = Brock and Stephens-Griffin, IDS Bulletin, 2017). ‘Abolition ecology’ presents an approach through which to explore, unravel and resist racial capitalism and environmental racism as interlocking and mutually generative systems (Heynen in Abolit A J Insurg Polit 1:240–247, 2018a; Pulido in Prog Hum Geogr 41:524–533, 2017). Green criminology is a field well-placed to explore such radical possibilities (Bradshaw in Crit Criminol 26:407–422, 2018). This paper offers a green criminological rejoinder to the bourgeoning project of ‘abolition ecology’. The paper works to bring together these linked perspectives, asking how green criminology might contribute to abolition ecology. The paper outlines its abolitionist theoretical framework, and then identifies some benefits of a green criminological orientation. It goes on to suggest three possible points of unity between green criminology and abolition ecology. In embracing these points of unity, and abolitionist principles more broadly, green criminology can better work towards more racially and ecologically just futures
Youth participation in environmental action in Vietnam: learning citizenship in liminal spaces
Get PDFYouth participation has become an important element of environmental governance and is also a way that young people learn about the expectations of citizenship. In the Global South, young people are confronted with multiple understandings of citizenship as international development organisations may introduce citizenship in a liberal, democratic framing which may differ from national citizenship norms. In Vietnam, state agencies have a history of supporting youth participation linked to nation building and community service. These activities create an imaginary which highlights citizenship as a status and the national scale as being central. More recently, liberalisation policies have opened the door for activities of international organisations which extend imaginaries of citizenship to the global scale and beyond status to a process centred on creating a sense of belonging. Other forms of participation are also flourishing, thanks to the increasing reach of social media. This paper explores how the diversity of this landscape creates liminal spaces of citizenship which young people navigate, working within and between different scales and imaginaries
Biome stability and fragmentation under critical environmental temperature change
Get PDFCritical phenomena in the climate system can cause drastic changes in the state of planetary ecosystems as well the entire biosphere. There also are mechanisms through which the biosphere can make an effect on climate. In this manuscript, we study the nonlinear dynamics of the interaction of the climate system with the biosphere by linking an energy balance climate model to different species competition models. We develop an asymptotic approach to these models and investigate how migration strengthens biome stability and biodiversity. Moreover, we derive relations describing biome boundary shifts under global warming (or cooling) and check those relations against paleo data on plant biome location. Finally, the models demonstrate that critical rates of changes in the environmental temperature dynamics may shift biome stability
Shared Positions on Divisive Beliefs Explain Interorganizational Collaboration: Evidence from Climate Change Policy Subsystems in 11 Countries
Get PDFCollaboration between public administration organizations and various stakeholders is often prescribed as a potential solution to the current complex problems of governance, such as climate change. According to the Advocacy Coalition Framework, shared beliefs are one of the most important drivers of collaboration. However, studies investigating the role of beliefs in collaboration show mixed results. Some argue that similarity of general normative and empirical policy beliefs elicits collaboration, while others focus on beliefs concerning policy instruments. Proposing a new divisive beliefs hypothesis, we suggest that agreeing on those beliefs over which there is substantial disagreement in the policy subsystem is what matters for collaboration. Testing our hypotheses using policy network analysis and data on climate policy subsystems in 11 countries (Australia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Sweden, and Taiwan), we find belief similarity to be a stronger predictor of collaboration when the focus is divisive beliefs rather than normative and empirical policy beliefs or beliefs concerning policy instruments. This knowledge can be useful for managing collaborative governance networks because it helps to identify potential competing coalitions and to broker compromises between them
Wasting time? The politics and poetics of feminist waiting
Get PDFIn this article I analyse the politics and poetics of waiting, as it is represented in feminist fictions of the 1970s, through reference to relevant philosophies of time. Focusing on examples drawn from American literary culture, I trace how writers including Lisa Alther and Marilyn French have envisioned the role of waiting in women’s oppression and liberation, and ask why feminist fictions so routinely explore the issue of gender inequality through the experiences of those who wait. Extrapolating Henri Bergson’s claim in Creative Evolution (1907) that waiting sharpens the individual’s consciousness of time, I investigate the emotional valences of waiting and its literary articulations, arguing that the agitated feelings associated with waiting – from excitement and anticipation to impatience and dread – work to establish an affective temporality of waiting that comes to characterise the feminist novel in the 1970s. More pressingly, perhaps, as depictions of waiting acquire currency as salient animations of women’s asynchronous temporality, I explore the extent to which attempts to represent women’s fears and desires in time might, for certain subjects, model new forms of ethical engagement and political action
Multifunctional and Wearable Patches Based on Flexible Piezoelectric Acoustics for Integrated Sensing, Localization and Underwater Communication
Get PDFFlexible and wearable sensors are highly desired for applications in health monitoring, agriculture, sport and indoor positioning systems. However, the currently developed wireless wearable sensors which are communicated through radio signals could only provide a limited positioning accuracy and are often ineffective in underwater conditions. In this paper, a wireless platform based on flexible piezoelectric acoustics is developed with multiple functions of sensing, communication and positioning. Under a high frequency (~13 MHz) stimulation using this flexible platform, Lamb waves are generated for respiratory monitoring. Whereas under a low-frequency stimulation (~20 kHz), this device is agitated as a vibrating membrane, which can be implemented for communication and positioning applications. Indoor communication has been demonstrated within 2.8 m at 200 bps or within 4.2 m at 25 bps. In combination with the sensing function, real-time respiratory monitoring and wireless communication are achieved simultaneously. The distance measurement is achieved based on the phase differences of transmitted and received acoustic signals within a range of 100 cm, with a maximum error of 3 cm. Based on a trilateration method, the coordinate of a flexible device serving as a receiver can be estimated by measuring the distances from the receiver to three flexible devices which are served as transmitters with known coordinates. This study offers new insights into the communication and positioning applications using flexible acoustic wave devices, which are promising for wireless and wearable sensor networks
Designing for the Embedding of Employee Voice
Get PDFPrevious research on employee voice has sought to design technological solutions that address the challenges of speaking up in the workplace. However, effectively embedding employee voice systems in organisations requires designers to engage with the social processes, power relations and contextual factors of individual workplaces. We explore this process within a university workplace through a research project responding to a crisis in educational service delivery arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Within a successful three-month staff-led engagement, we examined the intricacies of embedding employee voice, exploring how the interactions between existing actors impacted the effectiveness of the process. We sought to identify specific actions to promote employee voice and overcome barriers to its successful establishment in organisational decision-making. We highlight design considerations for an effective employee voice system that facilitates embedding employee voice, including assurance, bounded accountability and bias reflexivity
Quantified Sleep: Self-Tracking Technologies and the Reshaping of 21st-Century Subjectivity
Get PDFTaking sleep-tracking as its case study, this article seeks to theorise the understandings of the self that are at stake in the the Quantified Self (QS) movement and everyday self-tracking practices by bringing together a cultural theorist’s and a philosopher’s perspectives. We situate the rise of sleep-tracking practices within the sleep crisis discourse, namely, the sense that in today’s society sleep disorders are on the rise and sleep deprivation is rife. Through analyses of self-trackers’ blogs about sleep, sleep-tracking technologies’ marketing information, and the functionalities of these devices and apps, we argue that the drive to self-improve at the heart of self- and sleep-tracking props up an understanding of the self centred around achievement. This understanding ends up devaluing sleep and risks contributing to the sleep crisis. We show how these paradoxes can be further understood from an epistemological perspective. Self- and sleep-tracking are arguably practices that seek to obtain knowledge by trading referential expert knowledge for self-referential nonexpert knowledge and that strive for self-optimisation by self-sabotaging achievement subjectivity. We conclude that the use of self-tracking technologies magnifies what is essentially a crisis of subjectivity