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Low frequency electrical muscle stimulation and endothelial function in advanced heart failure patients
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Obtain initial estimates of the change in brachial artery endothelial function and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2peak) with 8 weeks of low‐frequency electrical muscle stimulation (LF‐EMS) or sham in patients with advanced chronic heart failure.
Methods and results
Using a double blind, randomized design, 35 patients with chronic heart failure (New York Heart Association class III–IV) were assigned to 8 weeks (5 × 60 min per week) of either LF‐EMS (4 Hz, continuous) or sham (skin level stimulation only) of the quadriceps and hamstrings muscles. Four of the five sessions were at home and one under supervision. Ultrasound images of resting brachial artery diameter and post 5 min occlusion to determine flow‐mediated dilation (FMD), a marker of vascular function and peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) during cardiopulmonary exercise test, were measured before and after LF‐EMS (n = 20) and sham (n = 15) interventions. FMD improved by 2.56% (95% confidence interval: 0.69 to 3.80) with LF‐EMS compared with sham (P = 0.07). There were no notable changes in VO2peak.
Conclusions
Improvements in FMD with LF‐EMS may have a clinically meaningful effect as higher FMD is associated with better prognosis. This is a preliminary finding, and a larger trial is warranted
Results From Wales’ 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth
Get PDFThis is the third Active Healthy Kids Wales (AHK-Wales) Report Card following the inaugural and second report card published in 2014 and 2016 respectively.1,2 The 2018 report card (Figure 1) consolidates and translates research related to physical activity among children and young people in Wales. The report card aimed to raise the awareness of children and young people’s engagement in physical activity behaviours and influences, and advocate for children’s right to be active and healthy
Don't Make Me Angry! A Psychophysiological Examination of the Anger–Performance Relationship in Intermediate and Elite Fencers
Get PDFWe aimed to identify the effect of state-anger on precision, speed, and power components of performance during fencing attacks. We conducted a laboratory-based, single-case research experiment to test the fine motor task performance of two experienced and two elite-level fencers under two emotional states: anger and emotion-neutral. We assessed anger via psychophysiological and self-report measures, and we induced anger via a brief imagery intervention. Through the use of an innovative design, which included multiple measures of change, we showed that anger had a consistent negative effect on precision but an inconsistent relationship with response time and muscle activity. The current research design and protocol offer a novel and in-depth method for examining the specific relationships between affective states, emotions, and the complexities that underpin performance. The specific effects of anger on performance were multifarious, complex, and inconsistent. Nonetheless, the results tend to indicate that anger facilitates reaction time and debilitates performance, and these effects were clearer for the most elite performers. The effects of anger on performance are clearly complex, so it would be rather premature to make any suggestions for future practice at this point. Nonetheless, the clearer findings with the elite fencers indicate that researchers will likely yield the most fruitful insights by examining the effects of emotion of performance in elite performers
“Flipping or flapping?” Investigating engineering students’ experience in flipped classrooms
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This study has explored the flipped classroom model in a private university in Malaysia. It aims to present a flipped classroom intervention for engineering education innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The research (1) revisited prominent educational theories for a flipping or flapping pedagogy, (2) implemented and explored the flipped classroom experiences in one engineering subject using the action inquiry method with thematic analysis and (3) reflectively evaluated both students’ and educators’ “flipping or flapping experience”.
Findings
The responses of the research participants are analysed and used to develop the flipping or flapping classroom principles and an ideal flipped classroom model. From passive lectures to active learning with collaborative discourse and reflective communication, flipping the classroom can offer a seamless learning experience.
Research limitations/implications
The flipped classroom model can provide good reference for other educational researchers who intended to conduct a flipped classroom. However, the small sample size with qualitative method and thematic analysis useds led to considerable theoretical development, but it may not achieve the validity standards to generalise the findings. Further empirical investigation with a systematic controlled group is recommended for future work across disciplines for extrapolation.
Originality/value
This is a genuine case study with an identified innovative teaching need to investigate how flipped classrooms can be enabled and enhanced in engineering education innovation
Individual Responses to an 8-Week Neuromuscular Training Intervention in Trained Pre-Pubescent Female Artistic Gymnasts
Get PDFThis study examined individual responses in leg stiffness, reactive strength index (RSI), movement proficiency (deep overhead squat and in-line lunge), and trunk muscular endurance (flexor and extensor tests) in young female gymnasts following an 8-week neuromuscular training intervention. Thirty-four pre-peak height velocity (PHV) female gymnasts were divided into either an experimental group (EXP n = 17) or control group (CON n = 17). The EXP replaced their normal gymnastics physical preparation with a neuromuscular training program, while the CON continued with their habitual gymnastics program. Chi square analysis showed that the EXP resulted in significantly more positive responders compared to CON for measures of leg stiffness (41% versus 12% responded positively), extensor muscular endurance, (76% versus 29%), and competency in the deep overhead squat, (76% versus 29%) and in-line lunge (left lead leg) (65% versus 18%). Conversely, the number of positive responders for RSI (53% versus 61%), the flexor endurance test (88% versus 53%), and the right in-line lunge (47% versus 35%) were not significantly different between groups. These findings suggest that most young gymnasts responded positively to neuromuscular training from the perspective of improving movement proficiency and trunk endurance; however, changes in leg stiffness and RSI were more variable and may require higher intensities to realise further adaptations
Caffeine and sprint cycling performance: effects of torque factor and sprint duration
Get PDFPurpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of torque factor and sprint duration on the effects of caffeine on sprint cycling performance. Methods: Using a counterbalanced, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, 13 men completed nine trials. In Trial 1, participants completed a series of 6 s sprints at increasing torque factors, to determine the torque factor, for each individual, which elicited the highest (TOPTIMAL) peak power output (PPO). The remaining trials involved all combinations of torque factor (0.8 N∙m∙kg-1 versus TOPTIMAL), sprint duration (10 s versus 30 s), and supplementation (caffeine [5mg∙kg-1] versus placebo). Results: There was a significant effect of torque factor on PPO, with higher values at TOPTIMAL (mean difference: 168 W; 95% likely range: 142 – 195 W). There was also a significant effect of sprint duration on PPO, with higher values in 10 s sprints (mean difference: 52 W; 95% likely range: 18 – 86 W). However, there was no effect of supplementation on PPO (p = 0.056). Nevertheless, there was a significant torque factor × sprint duration × supplement interaction (p = 0.036), with post hoc tests revealing that caffeine produced a higher PPO (mean difference: 76 W; 95% likely range: 19 – 133 W) when the sprint duration was 10 s and the torque factor was TOPTIMAL. Conclusions: The results of this study show that when torque factor and sprint duration are optimized, to allow participants to express their highest PPO, there is a clear effect of caffeine on sprinting performance
External validity and anchoring heuristics: application of DUNDRUM-1 to secure service gatekeeping in South Wales
Get PDFBackground: Structured clinical judgement tools provide scope for the standardisation of forensic service gatekeeping. These same tools may also allow identification of heuristics in this important decision process. Method: Retrospective assessments using the DUNDRUM-1 triage tool were completed for 121 service users referred for the first time for possible forensic psychiatric admission in South Wales. Fifty cases were admitted to medium security, 49 were admitted to low security and 22 remained in open conditions. Results: DUNDRUM-1 total scores differed appropriately between different levels of security but only 5 of the 11 DUNDRUM-1 items differed between the groups. Regression revealed a decision process anchored on the ‘legal process’ and ‘immediacy of risk due to mental disorder’ items of the DUNDRUM-1 with between 86% and 98% of variability in service user placement explained. Conclusions: Service user placement was broadly aligned with DUNDRUM-1 recommendations. However not all triage items informed gatekeeping decisions and a heuristic anchoring process emerged. It remains to be seen whether decisions anchored in this way are effective or ineffective in this context
Early exercise for lifelong benefit: sustained cardiac programming in rats and the potential translation to humans
Get PDFIt is well established that the intrauterine environment has the potential to determine the lifelong health of an organism. For example, prenatal stress can reduce gestational length and have negative downstream effects on endocrine and metabolic outcomes, which propagate across subsequent generations
Organizational evolution and the Olympic Games: the case of sport climbing
Get PDFThis paper discusses the processes underpinning the evolutionary development of sport climbing in recent decades, with a particular focus on the impact of its inclusion in the Olympic Games. New institutionalism and resource-dependence theory provide an analytical and explanatory framework for this study. The research adopted a qualitative method strategy comprising a series of interviews and the analysis of documents, reports, press and social media. The recent inclusion of the sport in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic programme has created challenges, primarily because of strong values inherent within the sport. The research, however, shows that the values of a sport can expand and develop in order to fit the regulatory legitimacy required by inclusion in the Olympic Games. Nonetheless, the research also shows that involvement with the IOC raises questions about who ‘owns’ the sport
Sport-Specific Musculoskeletal Growth and Postural Control in Female Artistic Gymnasts: A 12 month cohort study
No full textFemale gymnasts have been evidenced to experience sport-specific growth, of which broad shoulders and narrow hips are common characteristics. In addition to being a central component of handstand performance, postural control mechanisms, including whole-body and lumbo-pelvic stability, have been identified as risk factors for overuse spinal pathology. The study aimed to develop a fundamental understanding of musculoskeletal growth and postural control responses of female artistic gymnasts in order to extend longitudinal insights into overuse spinal pathology risk. Whole-body anthropometric measures were collected for 12 competitive female gymnasts (age at recruitment: nine to 15 years) at three time points across a 12 month period. Musculoskeletal growth was partially defined as the rate of bicristal-to-biacromial breadth ratio development, and informed shoulder- and pelvis-dominant growth sub-groups. Kinematic and kinetic indicators of postural control were determined for a total of 700 handstand trials. The shoulder-dominant (gymnastics-specific) growth group was found to have significantly greater biomechanical risk for general stability (p=0.00) than the pelvis-dominant group. Significantly greater lumbo-pelvic risk was demonstrated for the pelvis-dominant group (p=0.00). Extended idiosyncratic examination of proportional sport-specific growth measures alongside multi-faceted risk monitoring was advocated for the effective development of future overuse pathology prevention protocols