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Do Playgrounds Help Develop Children’s Fundamental Movement Skills? Using Direct Video Observations to Investigate
Get PDFPlaygrounds are global environments that are purpose made for children and can offer a variety of opportunities for children to be physically active and practice their fundamental movement skills (FMS), which can lead to future physical activity and sport participation. Previous research highlighted that children engage in different types of physical activity (PA) depending on playgrounds apparatus and area. However, there is a paucity of research that investigates the link between playground features, structures, PA, and FMS. This study sought to assess the impact of different playgrounds on PA type PA intensity and the types of FMS completed. This observational study examined 29 (M = 10, F = 19) children’s behaviours on three different playgrounds. Video cameras were placed strategically across the three playgrounds to allow for footage to be captured and analysed using the Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children (OSRAC). One-way ANOVA was used to examine the different OSRAC categories across the three playgrounds. Climbing equipment (average 1217.10 s) was the frequently used type of apparatus, standing was the most commonly performed type of activity (average 377.60 s) and stationary movements whilst moving limbs were the most regularly (average 605.13 s) performed type of PA intensity. There were no instances of any throwing, catching, or kicking activities performed across the three playgrounds. Results suggest that public playgrounds do not facilitate more intense types of PA, nor object control skills due to a lack of suitable equipment
Testing the feasibility of citizen science to record impacts of invasive alien plants
Get PDF1. Evidence of impacts of invasive alien species is necessary to inform risk assessments and management decisions but is lacking for many species. Citizen science has become increasingly popular to record invasive species occurrences, but so far has not been applied to the recording of impacts. 2. We conducted an innovative pilot study in Great Britain to explore if citizen scientists could be involved in the recording of vegetation impacts of invasive alien plants. We designed a sampling protocol asking participants to count species numbers and record coverage of the target invasive plant and non-target plants in 3 m2 invaded and non-invaded control plots. We implemented the protocol in a paper version and in a smartphone recording application and provided training in a series of six workshops. 3. The project attracted 37 participants to the workshops, of whom 19 conducted surveys with a clear preference for the smartphone application. Our analysis of the survey data found reduced species richness, Shannon and Simpson diversity and lower coverage of non-target vegetation in invaded plots compared to the control plots. Citizen scientists were most engaged when they attended the workshops. The project was limited by the low participation, the resulting small sample size, the short project duration and problems with plant identifications to species level. 4. Practical implication. The citizen science approach for impact recording has the potential to support invasive species management by providing evidence useful for prioritisation of further research, horizon-scanning activities and management. We recommend continued engagement with citizen scientists beyond an introductory event and a simplified sampling protocol focused on species counts and vegetation coverage rather than identification to species level by inexperienced participants.<br/
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Used at Home for People with a Diagnosis of Depression: Sleep Quality Outcomes
Get PDFBackground: There is a high prevalence of sleep quality problems and insomnia in people with depression. Insomnia is a common, distressing, and impairing sleep disorder and is linked to poor mental and physical health. Research evidence indicates that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can reduce symptoms of insomnia and improve sleep quality. Flow FL-100 is a tDCS device self-administered at home. Purpose/aim: To investigate the impact of up to 10 weeks of Flow Neuroscience AB FL-100 tDCS use on sleep quality in people with depression, using the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale Self (MADRS-S) sleep quality question. Methods: A retrospective analysis of MADRS-S self-report data collected between 2020 and 2024. Results: 6229 datasets of people who received tDCS and who self-reported insomnia were analysed. The MADRS-S sleep quality remission rates in people who adhered to the tDCS protocol were 36.1% at one week, 43.1% at two weeks, 50.2% at three weeks, 59.3% at six weeks and 63.2% at ten weeks. Conclusion: The results show that tDCS may improve sleep quality in those with depression and insomnia. Due to problems with existing insomnia treatment options, it is important to be able to offer additional evidence-based insomnia treatments. Appropriately designed and powered randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and testing of feasibility in healthcare settings are warrante
The re-emergence of the peripatetic educator in general practice
Get PDFPeripatetic nursing roles have evolved due to need of flexibility to manage a workforce which aligns with any form or need for organisational change that involves a people strategy. Background Recently, the re-emergence of the peripatetic educator role in primary care has appeared through funding from NHS England to address the gap of practice assessors, particularly in primary care in accordance with The Ten Point Plan for General Nurse Practitioners (2021) has been applied at scale across the Humber and Yorkshire regions. Long standing evidence has justified that student nurses and staff can develop their knowledge and skills utilising the supervisory mechanisms to enable quality supervision and assessment within clinical environments ( Knight et al 2021 ). Methods A reflection on action process was utilised from peripatetic educators' reflections to investigate the quality and value of introducing a peripatetic educator to support and engage with student nurses and their supervisors and assessors in primary care networks (PCNs). Outcomes and Effectiveness The introduction of the peripatetic educator in general practice has had a positive impact in addressing general practice placements, specifically to enhance skill acquisition through nurse led clinics addressing key Quality and Outcomes Frameworks (QOF's); broaden placement capacity and complete proficiency assessments in a timely and successful way, by applying the long arm supervision process ( Karban 1999 ). Implications and Summary Peripatetic educators can cement the required consistency and proficiency in clinical placement learning and assessments by bridging gaps between primary care networks and universities; maximise the student tariff and provide high quality clinical placements within general practice
Covariate-adjusted construction of gene regulatory networks using a combination of generalized linear model and penalized maximum likelihood
Get PDFMany machine learning techniques have been used to construct gene regulatory networks (GRNs) through precision matrix that considers conditional independence among genes, and finally produces sparse version of GRNs. This construction can be improved using the auxiliary information like gene expression profile of the related species or gene markers. To reach out this goal, we apply a generalized linear model (GLM) in first step and later a penalized maximum likelihood to construct the gene regulatory network using Glasso technique for the residuals of a multi-level multivariate GLM among the gene expressions of one species as a multi-levels response variable and the gene expression of related species as a multivariate covariates. By considering the intrinsic property of the gene data which the number of variables is much greater than the number of available samples, a bootstrap version of multi-response multivariate GLM is used. To find most appropriate related species, a cross-validation technique has been used to compute the minimum square error of the fitted GLM under different regularization. The penalized maximum likelihood under a lasso or elastic net penalty is applied on the residual of fitted GLM to find the sparse precision matrix. Finally, we show that the presented algorithm which is a combination of fitted GLM and applying the penalized maximum likelihood on the residual of the model is extremely fast, and can exploit sparsity in the constructed GRNs. Also, we exhibit flexibility of the proposed method presented in this paper by comparing with the other methods to demonstrate the super validity of our approach
Numerical Simulation of Self-Sustained Roll Oscillations of an 80-Degree Delta Wing Caused by Leading-Edge Vortices †
Get PDFNumerical simulations of an 80-degree delta wing in free-to-roll motion are performed by applying the dynamic fluid–body interaction (DFBI) model and the overlap/chimera method using the URANS equations. The capabilities of modern computational fluid dynamics methods for predicting wing-rock phenomena over a wide range of angles of attack at low Mach numbers and strong wing–vortex interaction, including the vortex breakdown phenomenon, were investigated by comparing simulation results with wind tunnel test data. At low angles of attack, delays in the strength and position of the leading-edge vortices above the wing have a destabilizing effect on it, leading to the emergence of self-sustained limit-cycle oscillations. At high angles of attack, where vortex breakdown occurs, the available wind tunnel data show that there are two modes of wing self-oscillations in free-to-roll motion, namely, regular large-amplitude oscillations and irregular small-amplitude oscillations, where the excitation of the latter mode depends on the angle of attack and the initial roll angle of the wing motion. The performed numerical simulation also shows the existence of these two self-oscillatory modes in roll, qualitatively and quantitatively matching the experimental data
Effect of Heat Treatments on the Microstructure, Corrosion Resistance and Wear Behaviour of Bainitic/Martensitic Ductile Iron Under Dry Sliding Friction
Get PDFThe development of high-strength cast irons with multiphase metal matrix structures is one of the new areas of modern materials science and mechanical engineering. This is so because of the high dissipative properties of such materials, which, in turn, ensure an improvement in their functional characteristics. It is known that one of the effective methods for obtaining alloys with a heterogeneous structure is a multi-stage heat treatment. Therefore, this study aimed to enhance the corrosion and friction properties of high-strength cast irons by combining different processing methods to create a bainite-martensitic matrix. High-strength cast irons with high ductility micro-alloyed with boron were chosen as the object for research. The experiments studied the effect of various types of multi-stage heat treatment on the structural features, tribological properties, hardness and corrosion resistance. The cast irons were quenched in water or liquid nitrogen after a controlled duration of isothermal exposure at different temperatures. It was established that cooling of isothermally hardened samples in liquid nitrogen makes it possible to effectively engineer the morphology and amount of the formed martensitic phase. It was observed that the high-strength cast irons with 10–15% lower bainite, residual austenite and martensite have the best frictional characteristics. This innovative method allowed the quenching of cast iron directly into liquid nitrogen without violent cracking
Virucidal and Bactericidal Properties of Biocompatible Copper Textiles
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic highlights the global threat posed by emerging viruses, emphasizing the critical need for effective strategies to combat pathogen transmission. Moreover, alongside emerging viruses, the increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance further reinforces the need to develop novel methods for infection control. Anti-pathogenic coatings on textiles offer a promising solution; in this study, three electroless copper-plated fabrics are evaluated for their antipathogenic properties following International Standards Organisation (ISO) standards. Prior to electroless plating, materials are activated either by immersion in a Pd catalyst solution (material A) or by ink-jet printing Cu/Ag catalyst along the weft (material B) or warp thread (material C). This study demonstrates that activation method influences the materials antipathogenic performance, with all materials achieving complete bactericidal/fungicidal neutralization within 30 min of incubation. Material B exhibits up to 4-log virucidal effects within 1 h against viruses such as coronavirus (OC43, 229E), Influenza A (H1N1), and Rotavirus A. Furthermore, biocompatibility testing indicates that material B exhibited low in vitro cytotoxicity. Textile B demonstrates strong antibacterial results even after one year of accelerated aging with no significant difference (P = 0.74) in efficiency against MRSA, highlighting promising applications for infection control in clinical settings reducing pathogen transmission, nosocomial infections and the associated economic burden.</p
Stories of #EndSARS: Applying Social Network Analysis through a Postcolonial Framework
Get PDFSocial media has become central to contemporary activism, transforming how movements worldwide mobilise and organise around shared goals. The #EndSARS movement in Nigeria started in 2017 as a citizen-led effort that confronted police brutality, especially from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian Police. Facilitated primarily by social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, data shows that more than 8 million unique authors participated in creating content that commented on or provided support to the offline protests (NENDO 2020). Much like other contemporary social media activism efforts, #EndSARS lacked established and movement-recognised spokespersons; instead, networked microcelebrities and influential voices emerged intermittently, each with varied social capital, reflecting the movement's decentralised nature. This paper presents research into the lived experiences of #EndSARS activists on Instagram, utilising a modified social network analysis to identify these individuals without relying on popularity metrics alone. Adopting a postcolonial lens, this research centred on inclusive representation to disrupt traditional hierarchies where dominant voices speak over, or on behalf of, marginalised communities. This approach was implemented through Richardson's (2000) crystallisation and by operationalising Tufekci's (2013) concept of the "networked microcelebrity". Standard social network analysis metrics were adapted to recognise diverse voices and multifaceted connections among activists. The resulting visualisation platform highlights interactions among 117 information-rich participants, offering multidirectional perspectives on the movement's narrative. This approach enhanced the visibility of less-prominent activists and provided a nuanced, visually engaging map of the networked narratives driving #EndSARS. In a broader context, this approach initiates the conversation on decolonising social network analysis to incorporate more diverse and representative voices