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Instruction during lifting: How analogy and explicit instruction influence performance and motor control
Get PDFThis study aimed to examine the effects of analogy (ANA) and explicit (EXP) verbal instruction on motor performance and muscle activation during a weightlifting task. Traditional coaching strategies often rely on explicit cues; however, recent research suggests that analogy-based instructions may offer a more efficient route to motor learning by promoting implicit control. Twenty novice participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (ANA, EXP, or control), with the sequence of conditions counterbalanced across three consecutive days. Day 1 involved familiarization; Day 2 included the control and first experimental condition; and Day 3 completed the second experimental condition. Participants performed both isometric and dynamic lifting tasks while muscle activity (EMG), force production, and declarative knowledge were assessed using a within-participant design. Results revealed significant alterations in lower limb EMG activity following both instructional strategies (p < 0.05), indicating a reorganization of motor control. Moreover, the EXP group exhibited significantly lower rate of force development within the first 200 ms compared to the control (p < 0.05). Overall force output was also higher in the control group. These findings suggest that avoiding verbal instruction may benefit maximal force production. However, analogy instructions appear to maintain performance levels while altering neuromuscular strategies. Clinical trial register number ANZCTR (code: 386738). [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2026. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
An AI ethics framework for a trustworthy autonomous drone system to support battlefield casualty triage
Get PDFAI-enabled capabilities in war provide new ethical challenges, even for nonlethal support tools such as the battlefield casualty triage drones that are the focus of this paper. We address an important and underexplored problem: how to embed ethical considerations into military AI systems that are designed to save lives rather than take them. The paper examines the ‘ATRACT’ project, which is developing an AI-powered drone as a trustworthy robotic autonomous system (RAS) to help frontline medics prioritise casualties in the critical post-trauma minutes that shape survival chances. As a position paper written while development is still underway, it includes the bespoke ethics framework created in the course of the project to date and offers real-time insights for other defence and security projects seeking to operationalise abstract AI ethics principles into concrete design and assurance guidance. We examine and draw upon approaches to operationalizing abstract principles in adjacent domains, to show how high-level principles can be translated into implementable requirements for technical robustness, ethical compliance, safety, and legal conformity, actively shaping system architecture, data, and human–machine interaction. We argue that trustworthiness is a socio-technical property that emerges from governance, documentation, and oversight rather than code alone, and that ethical assurance for triage drones must be designed in from inception and verified through ongoing testing, audit, and transparent evidence of due diligence
"Currently Listening to…"::Curating Artist Playlists and Authenticity on Spotify
Get PDFThis article examines music curation and authenticity through Artist Playlists on Spotify. It charts the ways that English-speaking popular music artists based in Europe and the United States curate music through three types of Artist Playlists—Catalog Artist Playlists (CAPs), Catalog Plus Artist Playlists (CPAPs), and Non-Catalog Artist Playlists (NCAPs)—before considering how the labor and knowledge on show in this curation shapes spaces on Spotify in which to consider and assess the artists’ authenticity of expression, experience, and execution
Embedding the Arts into Healthcare Settings:Create+ - an arts referral program for NHS staff
No full textThe chapter explores the setting up of Create+, Lime's NHS staff arts referral programme, and how it successfully ran
Dog walking landscapes
No full textThe emergence of private dog walking fields in the UK reflects a growing trend in response to changing societal attitudes towards human-canine relationships, urbanisation, diversification in the use of farmland, and the desire for secure, controlled environments for dogs to exercise and socialise. While the concept of spaces for dog recreation has a long history, the formalisation and commercialisation of private dog fields has gained significant traction in the last decade with the number of fields estimated to have increased from a few hundred to around 1,200.This chapter explores how private dog fields represent a shift in anthropocentric landscape design, creating managed landscapes that cater specifically to the needs of dogs and their humans. These landscapes blend natural elements with human-designed features such as secure fencing and ‘poo bins’, fusing natural and artificial elements in the creation of purpose-driven spaces that are actively designed, managed and monetised as commercial ventures. Private dog parks are a form of neoliberal spatial reappropriation whereby areas previously designated for conventional land uses- often farmland- are repurposed to cater for explicitly private activities. At the same time, these spaces can centralise dog agency and offer an opportunity for some, particularly reactive dogs or banned breeds, to go ‘off-lead’, enabling them to make choices, navigate, and interact with greater levels of autonomy than would otherwise be possible in public or common spaces. Accompanied by photographs that document and explore the use of a private dog field over the course of a year, this chapter combines a critical animal studies analysis of private dog fields with an account of their use. The chapter concludes with an exploration of the ways in which private dog fields are reshaping the emotional and experiential aspects of the landscape through the lens of human-canine relationships
Exploring Challenges and Co-developing a Nutritional Resource for Antenatal Care: A Participatory Stakeholder Engagement Study with Midwives and Public Involvement
Get PDFBackgroundIt is important that midwives discuss good nutrition and optimal weight during antenatal appointments, yet this rarely happens. Earlier research suggests that limited time, plus insufficient knowledge and skills are barriers to this.AimTo engage antenatal midwives in stakeholder discussions to explore their perspectives on the design and delivery of a nutrition resource.MethodsThis qualitative study used a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach. Twenty-six midwives (19 community-based; 7 hospital-based) were purposely recruited from four NHS sites in Northwest England. Four stakeholder workshops were co-designed and facilitated by researchers. In Phase 1, midwives reflected on current practice and challenges in delivering diet and weight advice. In Phase 2, they co-developed ideas for practical, acceptable nutrition resources. Data collection included participant-generated artefacts, post-it notes, visual maps, field notes, and verbatim reflections. Data were analysed inductively using Reflexive Thematic Analysis, and reflexivity was maintained throughout, recognising researchers' influence within this participatory design.ResultsTwo master themes were developed: (1) “We Want to Help, But We're Not Trained for This”, highlighting systemic, professional, and emotional barriers to providing support and (2) “Make It Real and Make It Work”, midwives' co-produced recommendations for inclusive tools and training that are realistic, culturally sensitive, and integrated into existing workflows.Discussion and ConclusionMidwives expressed a clear need for improved education and resource support. Despite systemic constraints, they co-produced practical and implementable solutions. Supporting midwives through evidence-based, context-specific tools and training may enhance nutrition conversations in antenatal care and improve maternal and infant health outcomes.Patient or Public ContributionThree culturally diverse Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) representatives were recruited to assist with the validation of the analytical findings. One was a midwife working in antenatal care; the second was a recent service user (a postnatal woman) with an Eastern European background, and the third was a midwife (currently on maternity leave) with a South American background. Commentary from these PPI representatives was used to validate the analysis and support the interpretation of the data. Additionally, they were invited to provide commentary on the draft manuscript and have been included as co-authors
Weeds in the Cultural Garden: Exploring Roots and Tracing Lineages
No full textThis chapter develops an extended horticultural metaphor to theorise popular entertainment as a persistent, adaptive, and frequently marginalised force within the cultural landscape. Framed through the figure of the ‘weed’, popular performance is examined as a form that repeatedly emerges across historical periods, thrives in moments of social and political transformation, and survives despite sustained efforts to regulate, aestheticise, or exclude it. Drawing on examples ranging from medieval itinerant entertainers to twentieth-century variety, vaudeville, circus, film, and contemporary outdoor arts, the chapter argues that popular entertainment is best understood not as a peripheral or debased cultural category, but as a vital and historically continuous mode of cultural production shaped by power relations, exclusion, and improvisatory resistance.The theoretical framework is informed primarily by Michel de Certeau’s distinction between strategies and tactics, reframing cultural authority as the ‘gardener’ that seeks to organise, curate, and legitimate cultural space, and popular performers as ‘weeds’ who exploit cracks within institutional structures. While engaging critically with Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the rhizome, the chapter rejects rhizomatic reproduction as an adequate model for popular entertainment, arguing instead for a process of cross-pollination and hybridisation that generates new forms rather than clones. This emphasis on heterosis, or hybrid vigour, enables a rethinking of creative lineage as dynamic, adaptive, and historically situated rather than linear or canonical.Methodologically, the chapter employs autoethnography grounded in over three decades of professional practice in outdoor and popular performance. A detailed case study of Syrovy (2001-2024), the author’s longest-running outdoor show, provides an embodied exploration of how popular traditions are transmitted, reworked, and recontextualised through practice. By tracing creative lineages connecting figures such as Buster Keaton, Harpo Marx, and Gene Kelly to contemporary outdoor performance, the chapter demonstrates how popular forms persist through reuse, recombination, and adaptation to new spaces, audiences, and technologies. The analysis foregrounds the importance of live, physical co-presence and the reciprocal performer–audience relationship as defining features of popular performance.The chapter also interrogates the processes through which popular entertainment is marginalised in contemporary cultural policy and funding structures, particularly through curatorial practices that favour aestheticised or ‘legitimate’ work. Drawing parallels between historical booking circuits and modern commissioning consortia, it argues that collective curation can function as an intensified form of cultural ‘weeding’, narrowing the conditions under which popular forms can survive. In contrast, the chapter highlights the effectiveness of modest, unconditional support structures, such as artist residencies and developmental funding, in enabling popular practices to flourish.Ultimately, the chapter positions popular entertainment as an enduring, regenerative cultural force whose vitality lies in its illegitimacy, adaptability, and close connection to audiences. By reclaiming the weed as a productive metaphor, it offers a critical framework for understanding how popular performance traditions persist, mutate, and resist incorporation, while posing urgent questions about how cultural ecosystems might better support their continued growth.<br/
Uncoupling TGFβ1 signalling from collagen protein synthesis in Dupuytren's disease
Get PDFDupuytren's disease is a fibroproliferative disorder of the palmer fascia (PF) characterised by flexion contractures in the hand. Dupuytren's disease can be treated surgically, but disease recurrence rates are high, potentially due to continual production of matrisomal proteins. Here, metabolic labelling and proteomics identified differences in the new synthesis and composition of matrisomal proteins between Dupuytren's tissue and normal PF. Dupuytren's tissue actively synthesised type I collagen, fibronectin (FN1), matrix metalloproteinases-2 and -3 (MMP2, MMP3) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP2). Both tissues actively synthesised insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7). Label-free analysis implicated the transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) pathway in the matrisomal profile of Dupuytren's tissue. The effect of TGFβ isoforms on COL1 mRNA expression was first tested in cultured young and aged equine tenocytes. COL1A1 mRNA responded to treatment with all TGFβ isoforms and was more highly expressed in cells from aged samples. In aged human cells, COL1A1 and COL1A2 mRNA was higher in cells derived from Dupuytren's tissue than normal PF and in response to TGFβ1, but no changes in COL1A1 or COL1A2 CpG methylation were detected. TGFβ1 treatment only resulted in increased type I collagen protein accumulation in the media of Dupuytren's nodule cells. In three-dimensional cultures, COL1A1 mRNA was lower in normal PF than in Dupuytren's cells, but TGFβ1 treatment only increased type I collagen accumulation in the media of normal PF cultures, and TGFβ1 inhibition did not alter new collagen protein synthesis. TGFβ1 inhibition in Dupuytren's tissue explants did not alter the proportion of homotrimeric type I collagen, nor was this changed in skin or tendon of the tight-skin (TSK) mouse, a naturally occurring model of indirect TGFβ1 activation. Therefore, the role of TGFβ in Dupuytren's disease may be predominantly related to myofibroblast phenoconversion and contractility rather than directly altering collagen protein synthesis
