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Research report: the evidence base for therapeutic group care: a systematic scoping review
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The effect of manual therapy and exercise on age-related lung function: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial
No full textBackground: Ageing is associated with a range of anatomical and physiological changes. Establishing whether a change is part of \u27normal\u27 ageing or the early signs of disease will affect management strategies. Progressive stiffening of the thoracic spine, decreasing chest wall compliance and declining lung function begin as early as 40 years of age. Administering an intervention such as manual therapy, which has the potential to mitigate age-related changes in the thoracic spine and chest wall, has the potential to improve thoracic compliance and lung function. The aims of this trial are to investigate whether manual therapy can mitigate the effects of age-related changes in lung function and whether there is a difference in effect between different forms of manual therapy.Methods: The study design is a randomised controlled trial of 372 people with no history of respiratory disease between the ages of 50 and 65 years. The cohort will be divided into three equal groups. The first group will receive a simple 10-min treadmill walking program (Ex). The second group will receive joint mobilisation (MB) of the thoracic spine and ribs plus the same walking program (MB + Ex). The third group will receive joint manipulation (MT) of the thoracic spine and ribs plus the same walking program (MT + Ex). All interventions will be administered a total of six times over a 3-week period. The primary outcome measure is lung function: forced expiratory volume in the 1st second and forced vital capacity. The secondary outcome measures include chest wall expansion (tape measurements) and quality of life measurements (36-Item Short Form Health Survey). Outcome measurements will be taken by blinded assessors on four occasions over a 9-week period. Adverse event data will be gathered at the beginning of each intervention session.Discussion: This randomised controlled trial is designed to investigate whether manual therapy can mitigate the effects of age-related changes in lung function and whether there is a difference in effect between different forms of manual therapy. This is the first fully powered trial designed to test this hypothesis on healthy males and females in this age range
Global citizenship: Defining capabilities for speech-language pathology
No full textPurpose: This paper outlines the findings of a scoping review of the literature relating to global citizenship. The purpose of the review was to develop a working definition and associated capabilities for assessing global citizenship among speech-language pathologists (SLPs), which may also prove helpful to other health professionals and for educating tertiary students. Method: Using Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review framework, key databases were searched, namely Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library and Google Scholar. Subsequently the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms were applied for coding and categorising initial research findings. Articles were individually appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool (CASP). Result: Of the 2126 articles identified, 21 articles were determined to satisfy the search criteria. The literature revealed nine capabilities associated with global citizenship appropriate for health professionals including SLPs. Conclusion: Based on the findings, a working definition is determined for assessing professional global citizenship capabilities, which will prove useful for improving occupational standards, for charting competencies, and ultimately enhancing professional capability
Regularized linear and gradient boosted ensemble methods to predict athletes\u27 gender based on a survey of masters athletes
No full textThe aim of this research was to investigate statistical learning techniques to predict gender based upon psychological constructs (measuring motivations to participate in masters sports). Motivations of marathoners scales (MOMS) sports psychological data for 3928 masters athletes (2,010 males) from the World Masters Games (the largest sporting event in the world by participant numbers) was investigated using the regularized linear modelling methodologies ridge regression, the lasso and the elastic net. Comparison was made between previously published research utilizing logistic regression, discriminate function analysis, radial basis functions, multilayer perceptrons and a selection of boosted decision tree based models. It was hypothesized that the regularized linear models would perform better than other models except the boosted decision trees, however ensembles of the regularized linear models and gradient boosted machines would result in improved accuracy over any prior models in the literature. Implementing modern regression methods with regularization provided improvements in classification accuracy based on gender compared to non-regularized linear models, however not boosted trees such as a gradient boosted machine (GBM). Models that were solely or partially based on L2 regularization (including a penalty term to reduce the sum of squares of the parameters) performed better than those than relied solely or primarily on L1 regularization (including a penalty term to reduce the sum of the absolute values of the parameters) or subset selection. This finding had implications for analysis of MOMS data in general with respect to using the 56 questions in MOMS as opposed to the underlying nine constructs for analysis in order to compensate for multicollinearity. Ensemble methods stacking ridge regression and GBMs with out-of-sample prediction further improved accuracy, giving higher accuracy scores (0.7236) than obtained in any preceding literature. This demonstrates the potential benefits from such an ensemble approach in terms of developing models with improved accuracy, as well as increasing the likelihood of developing practical applications from predictions using MOMS psychometric data
Motivational-general arousal imagery does not improve decision-making performance in elite endurance cyclists
No full textEmotions are predicted to influence judgement and decision-making across a range of performance contexts. This experiment tested whether motivational-general arousal imagery can improve the decision-making performance of elite endurance cyclists. In total, 54 cyclists (38 men, 16 women) were assigned to either a positive imagery condition (where positive images associated with the affective experience of winning were encouraged) or a negative imagery condition (where negative images associated with poor performance were encouraged). The cyclists were read one of two scripts designed to elicit positive or negative images during a 20-min maximal sustainable interval on a cycle ergometer. A decision-making task (colour-word match Stroop) was performed before and immediately after the maximal sustainable power interval. Results showed that the manipulation was successful with cyclists in the positive imagery condition reporting more positive affective states (higher levels of happiness and lower levels of dejection) than those in the negative imagery condition. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in their decision-making performance under physiological duress. These findings indicate that while motivational-general arousal imagery might be a useful method to induce positive emotions during exercise, it is unlikely to improve the decision-making performance of cyclists in performance-relevant conditions
Optimal experiences in exercise: a qualitative investigation of flow and clutch states
No full textObjectives: Understanding how to promote rewarding exercise experiences is important for attempts to help individuals be physically active. This qualitative study aimed to investigate the optimal psychological states experienced during rewarding exercise activities. Specifically, participants were interviewed as soon as possible after recent, rewarding exercise experiences in order to maximise detail and accuracy of recall. Design: Event-focused qualitative study. Method: A sample of 18 individuals (Mage = 32.94 years) participated in event-focused, semi-structured interviews soon after a rewarding exercise experience (M = 2 days later). Data were analysed thematically, while strategies were employed to enhance trustworthiness. Results: Participants reported two distinct optimal experiences during rewarding exercise activities, matching descriptions of flow and clutch states. Flow occurred in contexts involving exploration, novelty/variation, and flexible outcomes, while the experience was described as enjoyable at the time, and involved lower perceived effort. Clutch states occurred in contexts involving achievement and pressure. Exercisers perceived clutch states to be enjoyable afterwards but not at the time, and to involve intense effort. Notable differences were apparent in the outcomes of each state in that flow had an energising effect, whereas clutch states were fatiguing. Conclusions: This study presents evidence for flow and clutch states in exercise, supporting emerging research in sport. These findings provide insights into the occurrence, experience, and outcomes of flow and clutch states specifically from the exerciser’s perspective. Such insights can inform future research on flow and clutch states in this setting, and may provide strategies for reliably inducing each state during exercise
Chromium(VI) formation via heating of Cr(III)-Fe(III)-(oxy)hydroxides: A pathway for fire-induced soil pollution
No full textMixed Cr(III)-Fe(III) (oxy)hydroxides are important Cr-bearing phases in natural, unpolluted soil. Fires frequently affect large areas of land around the world, causing the temporary development of elevated soil temperatures. This study examines the hypothesis that heating Cr(III)-Fe(III) (oxy)hydroxides at temperatures which occur in surface soils during fires can drive rapid oxidation of Cr(III) to hazardous Cr(VI). To test this, poorly-ordered Cr(III)x-Fe(III)1-x (oxy)hydroxides, with x spanning 0.1 to 0.9, were heated at up to 800 °C for 2 h. Heating at 400–800 °C produced a highly crystalline hematite-eskolaite solid-solution (FeIII2-nCrIIInO3, where n ranges from 0 to 2). Chromium K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy showed that during heating up to ∼40% of the initial Cr(III) was oxidized to Cr(VI), with the greatest extent of Cr(VI) formation occurring at 200–400 °C. At these temperatures, a substantial proportion (17%–70%) of the newly-formed Cr(VI) was exchangeable (i.e. extracted by a pH 7.2, 10 mM PO43− solution). This suggests that much of the Cr(VI) formed by heating of Cr(III)x-Fe(III)1-x (oxy)hydroxides at 200–400 °C is likely to be relatively mobile in fire-impacted soils. The results of this study provide new insights into a potentially-important pathway for the in-situ formation of Cr(VI) in soil
Database of surface level atmospheric dimethylsulfide (DMS) collected for the project The Great Barrier Reef as a significant source of climatically relevant aerosol particles
No full textThe data provided here consists of surface level atmospheric DMS measurements collected at Heron Island on the southern Great Barrier Reef (23.44°S, 151.91°E) in January-February 2018. This data has resulted from a series of campaigns conducted on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) to examine the significance of the GBR as a source of new aerosol particles. Accompanying the atmospheric DMS data set are one minute averaged particle number concentrations for the size range fractions 0.5 - 2.5 micron and \u3e2.5 micron collected using a Dylos DC1700 air quality monitor. Surface level solar irradiance (300 -1100 nm) is also provided with the data collected in Jan-Feb 2018 at Heron Island
Role of temperature on the development of hypoxia in blackwater from grass
No full textIn eastern Australia the development of hypoxic blackwater/floodwater and its detrimental consequences are more common in summer than winter. This study examined the effect of temperature on the development of hypoxic conditions which was determined as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in floodwater when pasture grass (a source containing labile organic carbon) was inundated. Labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in blackwater is one of the main factors that contribute to the development of hypoxic conditions. Temperature plays a key role on the microbial mineralization of labile DOC and hence the development of hypoxic conditions. Prolonged flooding at different seasons (having different temperatures) was simulated in the laboratory by incubating fresh pasture grass cuttings with river water and soil at three different temperatures (20 °C, 27.5 °C and 35 °C) for 20 days. Although this study shows that elevated ambient temperatures can result in more rapid development of hypoxic conditions during the first week of flood peak, it is evident that blackwater formed at relatively moderate ambient temperatures (e.g. 20 °C) has a similar potential to deoxygenate the receiving water bodies, especially after one week\u27s duration of flood peak