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It’s not ‘who’ but ‘how badly’: The association of Functional Movement Screen with injury outcome in community rugby union
No full textBackground: The use of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is widespread, but evidence supporting its use as an injury-screening tool in team sports such as Rugby Union is equivocal.
Objective: To determine the association between FMS score and match-injury incidence and match-injury burden in adult community rugby union players.
Design: Prospective cohort study.
Setting: English community rugby union clubs (2013-2014 season) with a formally qualified medical professional to diagnose and report match-injuries. FMS testing was completed during the pre-season period by the research team.
Participants: 436 players from 23 clubs completed the FMS. Match-injuries and individuals’ match exposure data was returned for 293 players.
Risk Factors: Lower FMS composite score (21 point maximum), the presence of pain and/or asymmetry.
Main Outcome Measurements: Association of FMS composite score, pain and asymmetry with match injury incidence (≥8days time-loss/1000hours) severe injury incidence (>28 days time-loss/1000hours) and injury burden (total time-loss days/1000hours).
Results: Poisson regression was offset for exposure (log transformed) and adjusted for random effects of club (cluster) and player. The associations between both match-injury incidence (≥8days time-loss)(rate ratio (RR), 90% confidence interval (CI) = 1.0, 0.9-1.0) and severe injury incidence (>28 days time-loss) (RR, 90%CI = 0.9, 0.8-1.0) with composite FMS score were trivial. A one-point increase in FMS score was associated with a 10% reduction in injury burden (RR, 90%CI = 0.9, 0.8-1.0), while the presence of both pain and asymmetry was associated with a three times increase in injury burden (RR, 90%CI = 2.9, 1.1 – 7.8).
Conclusions: FMS score was not associated with injury incidence, but was associated with injury burden. As the strongest association with injury burden was found for pain and asymmetry, clubs using the FMS may be advised to prioritise rehabilitation of players with asymmetrical, painful movement patterns
Analysing the media discourses surrounding DJs as authentic performers and artists within electronic dance music culture magazines
Get PDFThis paper critically analyses how the media construct, consolidate and perpetuate discourses surrounding DJs as artists. It explores representations of their status and roles in a selection of dance music magazines (Mixmag and DJ Mag) and the links to wider ideologies concerning music and dance culture such as authenticity, originality, innovation, cultural progression and performance. It considers how the media bestow DJs with artistic credibility and authenticity in addition to the range and type of references used to position DJs within the cultural landscape and hierarchy of electronic dance music culture (EDMC). Furthermore, it discusses their sensationalist construction as powerful performers and the links between DJ performances and wider discourses surrounding event experiences. This paper concludes that not only do the discourses perpetuated serve to elevate and sustain the cultural status of DJs, they also validate and perpetuate a wider range of ideological notions within dance music culture. It also highlights the power relations between authors, audiences, DJs and promoters and the medias role in sustaining the social capital of different players, through projecting a vibrant and dynamic culture
Concussion knowledge and experience among Welsh amateur rugby union coaches and referees
Get PDFBackground Rugby union is a collision sport where participants are at high risk of sustaining a concussion. In settings where there is little qualified medical supervision, certain stakeholders (eg, coaches and officials) should possess sufficient knowledge in regard to the recognition and management of concussion.
Aim The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and experience of various aspects of concussion among coaches and referees involved in Welsh amateur rugby union.
Methods A questionnaire was distributed to 1843 coaches and 420 referees.
Results A total of 333 coaches and 283 referees completed the questionnaire (18% and 68% response rates, respectively). Participants exhibited greater knowledge of concussion symptom recognition relative to knowledge of both the consequences of concussion and associated return-to-play protocols, both of which could be considered poor. There were no differences in knowledge levels between coaches and referees or between participants with or without a history of concussion. Two-thirds of participants incorrectly believed that headgear could prevent concussion, and nearly 30% of coaches reported having witnessed other coaches allowing a potentially concussed player to continue playing.
Conclusions Identification of several misconceptions indicates that concussion management within Welsh amateur rugby union needs to be improved, warranting a multi-faceted educational intervention
Pursuing health through techniques of the body in martial arts
Get PDFAs a broad set of body cultures, the ‘martial arts’ are a group of fighting systems from around the world that are composed of individual sets of movement that include kicking, jumping, rolling, stamping and punching expressed through a great variety of stylisations and developments. Such techniques, although originally devised for combat and military situations, might be adapted for health research and clinical applications. These ‘techniques of the body’, to follow Marcel Mauss’s well-known anthropological concept, are both biomechanical and sociocultural, and may form the basis of a new wave of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research into martial arts and health. The steps, leaps, stances, strikes and blocks, as individual components of fighting systems, can form the building blocks of creative research that adopts a cautious and pragmatic approach. The ways in which punches might be beneficial for arm strength and shoulder stability, for dealing with work-related stress and for forging social bonds with others, to offer one example of a specific form of movement, provide new questions and topics for specialists, teams of researchers and practitioners, as well as the new generation of multidisciplinary sport science students emerging from colleges and universities. This will require the coupling of scientific rigour with artistic creativity – something part of the heritage of the martial arts, physical culture and the YMCA Movement more generally.
Keywords: Health research; human movement; interdisciplinarity; physical culture; techniques of the body
A review of field-based assessments of neuromuscular control and their utility in male youth soccer players
Get PDFLower extremity injuries in male youth soccer are common and equate to a substantial time-loss from training and competitions during the course of a season. Extended periods of absence will impact player involvement in skill and physical development activities, as well as participation in competitive match play. Neuromuscular risk factors for lower extremity injury in male youth soccer players can be categorized into quadriceps dominance; leg dominance; ligament dominance; trunk dominance and reduced dynamic stability. Valid screening methods to identify risk factors that are practically viable are needed for youth athletes who may be at a greater risk of injury in soccer. While field-based tests of neuromuscular control provide a reliable option for the assessment of injury risk in adults and females, less data are available in male youth soccer players and further research is required to examine their ability to predict injury risk. This article provides a review of the current literature pertaining to field-based screening tests and critically appraises their suitability for use with male youth soccer players. Currently the only method that has been validated in male youth soccer players is the landing error scoring system. Asymmetrical anterior reach measured during the Y-Balance test may also be considered due to its strong predictive ability in male youth basketball players; however, further research is required to fully support its use with soccer player
Trace Elemental Composition in PM10 and PM2.5 Collected in Cardiff, Wales
Get PDFA Dichotomous Sampler Model 241 was used to collect PM10 and PM2.5 samples, from midnight to midnight on every other day, from December 2009 to December 2010. Ca, K, Mg, Na, Al, Pb, Cr, Ni, Zn, Cu, Cd, and Fe were determined by Atomic absorption Spectrometer (AAS). The mass concentration ranged from 18.0 to 83.3 μg/m3, with an annual average of 37. 9 μg/m3 for PM10. The mass concentration of PM2.5 ranged from 3.0 to 36.0 μg/m3 with an annual average of 14.1 μg/m. Most of the elements in both PM fractions were abundant in the winter season. A good correlation was observed between PM10 and PM2.5.Enrichment factors (EF) for elements in PM10 and PM2.5 were calculated and indicate that elements from anthropogenic origins such as Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr and Cd were highly enriched with respect to crustal elements Al, Fe and Ca
Great British medalists: Response to the commentaries
No full textHardy et al. (2017) reported the findings of a large-scale, multisource, qualitative study that examined the commonalities of, and discriminators between, a group of super-elite (SE) and a group of elite (E) athletes who were matched on gender, sport, discipline, and era. Fifteen research teams who are actively engaged in research in the domain then provided critical commentaries on the target paper. In our response to these commentaries, we briefly remind the reader of the primary findings of the original paper and then deal with the commentaries under the subheadings: Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Elite Performance; Mediating and Moderating Variables; Methodological Issues; Omissions; and Alternative Approaches. Finally, we discuss the very small number of disagreements that we have with any of the commentarie
Gaze-Aware Cognitive Assistant for Multiscreen Surveillance
Get PDFSurveillance operators must scan multiple camera feeds to ensure timely detection of incidents; however, variability in scanning behavior can lead to untimely/failed detection of critical information in feeds that were neglected for a long period. Us-ing an eye tracker to monitor screen fixations we can calculate (in real-time) the time elapsed since the last scan of each particular feed, allowing the setting-up of targeted countermeasures contingent on operator oculomotor behavior. One ave-nue is to provide operators with timely alerts to modulate the scan pattern to avoid attentional tunneling and inattentional blindness. We test such an adaptive solution within a major event surveillance simulation and preliminary results show that operator scan behavior can be modulated, although further investigation is re-quired to determine warning frequency and modality to optimize the balance be-tween saliency and workload increase. Future work will focus on adding a real-time vigilance detection and countermeasure capability
Recognizing readiness in manufacturing firms
Get PDFThis article presents a framework for manufacturers to assess their readiness for taking a service design approach to the development of product-service systems (PSS). The framework is developed from the results of interviews with three manufacturing firms that have begun the servitization journey. The selected companies have traditionally been involved in goods production, and have recently started engaging with services in different ways. The readiness framework attempts to bridge the previous studies and models offering companies a self-assessment tool based on the service implementation readiness measured along nine dimensions that apply to manufacturing firms to adopt a more customer-centric approach that fits into their company and suits their needs
The public's perception of the role of community pharmacists in Wales
Get PDFObjective
To investigate the general public's perceptions of the community pharmacist's (CP) role in Wales by exploring understanding, awareness of services provided and potential interventions for promoting the role of CPs.
Methods
Qualitative methodology using focus group (FG) discussions exploring opinions, facilitated by a moderator (pharmacist) and an assistant. Topics discussed included the following: what a CP does; reasons for visiting; from whom they seek advice on medicines or lifestyle issues; use of traditional and newer services and promotion of services. The groups, totalling 32 participants, represented non‐users and users of pharmacy services, that is pupils from a local secondary school (x1 group), people from the local community (x3) and patients plus carers from a Parkinson's disease group (x1). FG discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and analysis was undertaken to identify themes.
Key findings
Traditional dispensing and supply of medicines roles were clearly recognised, but poor awareness of the newer services emerged, particularly in public health roles. CP's professionalism was acknowledged, but there was confusion over where they ‘fit’ within the National Health Service or with General Practitioners, with concerns or misconceptions raised over the impact of commercialism on professionalism.
Conclusions
Based on these findings, the public is accepting of the extended role of CPs and would engage with CPs for a wider range of services. However, there is a lack of awareness of what public health services are available. Considerable work is needed to increase public awareness, during the strategic development of these services in Wales