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Law and social reproduction in Colombia’s national development plan: valuing popular economies’ re/productive labors
No full textIn this article we explore the legal and policy reforms that the current government of Colombia is pursuing to recognize and valorize the contribution that workers from popular economies make to socio-economic well-being. In particular, we analyse important claims these workers have made about the value-producing quality of their labors, before then assessing Colombian government policy responses advanced through institutional measures. Throughout, our attention is on surfacing the potential and limitations of legal arrangements that purport to valorize non-wage-labor contributions to socio-economic well-being. We offer this analysis as a distinct contribution to the work of evaluating techniques for pluralising social reproduction approaches, with a focus on law. We also contribute to the literature on law and social reproduction by exploring the constitutive role law plays in, and therefore its potential to affect, processes of value-making.</p
Quantification of the real contact area of a finger-pad during sliding using a novel optical coherence tomography system and the influence of skin thickness
No full textUnderstanding the interaction of skin with surfaces is important as there are many applications where this is important, such as medicine (skin grafts), bioelectronics (sensors, robotic hands, and wearable technology), and consumer products, depending on the grip, dexterity, and feel of the objects. These phenomena are all strongly governed by frictional forces, which are intrinsically linked to the real area of contact. The real contact area, in turn, is modulated by factors such as skin hydration and the topographical roughness of the interacting surfaces. In this work, a new high-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) tool, developed in-house, was used to analyze the real contact area and the stratum corneum thickness in finger-pad interfaces due to its ability to penetrate and image the skin layers at high resolution. Data were compared with a lower-resolution VivoSight® OCT device used in previous work. Forty-seven finger-pad sliding tests against smooth glass were performed using three different volunteers with forces ranging from 0.5 to 3 N. Post-test analyses of the OCT images captured revealed that the real measured contact area was 54 ± 7% of the apparent contact area using the high-resolution OCT device in comparison to 63 ± 10% measured with the VivoSight OCT. This underscores the rationale for employing a high-resolution OCT system, as it enables precise visualization of the contact perimeter at the tribological interface, thereby facilitating a more accurate quantification of interfacial geometry and contact mechanics. The thickness of the stratum corneum was also seen to increase during sliding under the high-resolution OCT device. This resulted from the high skin deformation, which in turn influenced the contact area.</p
Pedagogical dynamics of language use in coach–athlete orchestration: Insights from Wittgenstein’s language-game philosophy
No full textBackground: Ludwig Wittgenstein played a pivotal role in sparking the linguistic turn (i.e. shifting the focus of social research from what reality is to how reality is constructed through language). Some sport-related studies have paid attention to the therapeutic feature of Wittgenstein’s philosophy, which stresses the descriptive orientation towards everyday language use and its resistance to aprioristic theorisation. However, another gist of his later works is aspect-seeing—where experts and novices can perceive the same aspect heterogeneously, and the latter are linguistically guided to see/feel what the former do. Despite its potential to further develop coaching as an act of orchestration in which coaches support athletes in developing their ways of seeing, the issue of aspect-seeing remains underexplored in sport pedagogy.Purpose: This article investigates Wittgenstein’s philosophy to deepen the understanding of language-use-in-orchestration; this mediating process requires coaches’ subtle ‘string-pulling’ to linguistically scaffold athletes in expanding their epistemic states (aspect-seeing).Findings: After tracing Wittgenstein’s philosophical transition, its implications for coach–athlete interactions are discussed. We then unpack two forms of linguistic reflexivity necessary for pedagogical orchestration. First, private language, a direct expression of one’s internal sensory experience, tends to be apparent only to the speaker (e.g. ‘it’ or ‘this’). Recognising its tacit nature, coaches should establish external references (e.g. non-verbal activities) as the basis for the language game; in doing so, coaches and athletes can collaboratively bridge their sensorial divergences in how performance is—and could be—felt. Second, family resemblance is the crisscrossed web of linguistic threads and meaning fibres between coaches and athletes. Instead of transmitting embodied knowledge through an objective definition, family resemblance enables its meaning to emerge and resonate during coach–athlete interactions. To activate family resemblance as a linguistic mechanism for pedagogical orchestrations, coaches ought to dialogically overlap and metaphorically expand this reciprocal web grounded in athletes’ evolving epistemic states. Otherwise, the web will likely be thinner, leaving their communicative efforts as mere sounds without shared symbols.Conclusion: These findings highlight how language, which acts as a flexible tool, can be reflexively harnessed to orchestrate aspect-seeing in coach–athlete dyads.Impact statement: Attending to the neglected centrality of language in (re)configuring the pedagogical dynamics between instructors and learners, this philosophical inquiry (a) reinforces linguistic comprehension of coaching-as-orchestration, (b) catalyses critical rumination on the premise of ideal language often taken for granted in coach–athlete interaction literature, and (c) encourages practitioners to reflect on their (un)pedagogical language use in everyday coaching contexts.</p
Transcranial direct current stimulation with Bosu-ball training increases cortical activation and improves ankle-foot function among individuals with chronic ankle instability: a randomized controlled trial
No full textObjectives: This study explored the effects of High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) with Bosu-ball training on cortical activation and ankle-foot function among individuals with chronic ankle instability (CAI).Design: Single-blind randomized sham-controlled trial.Setting: Biomechanics laboratory.Methods: Thirty-seven participants were allocated to tDCS+Bosu group (n=19) and Bosu group (n=18), received 6-week active or sham HD-tDCS with Bosu ball training. Change values of oxyhemoglobin concentration (ΔHbO2) and Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM) were measured pre- and post-intervention. Two-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analysis were applied.Results: We detected significant group-by-time interactions in ΔHbO2 for the affected and non-affected side premotor cortex and supplementary motor area (PMC & SMA, channel 4: P=0.048; channel 14: P=0.047) and the affected side primary motor cortex (M1, channel 6: P=0.049), and significant time effects for the affected and non-affected side PMC & SMA (channel 2: P=0.043; channel 12: P=0.047), M1 (channel 5: P=0.041; channel 15: P=0.027; channel 16: P=0.049), primary somatosensory cortex (S1, channel 7: P=0.039; channel 17: P=0.043) and somatosensory association cortex (SAC, channel 8: P=0.021; channel 19: P=0.035). We detected significant interaction in the FAAM Sports subscale (P=0.046), and significant time effect in the FAAM Activities of Daily Living subscale (ADL subscale) (P2 of channels 4, 5, 16, 19 were moderately positively correlated with the increment in scores of the FAAM Sports subscale (P=0.015, P=0.006, P=0.008, P=0.003). The increment in ΔHbO2 of channel 7 was weakly positively correlated with the increment in scores of the FAAM Sports (P=0.049) and ADL subscales (P=0.038).Conclusions: Bosu-ball training increased cortical activation and improved ankle-foot function among individuals with CAI, and yielded more improvements with active HD-tDCS. The increment of cortical activation was positively correlated with the improvement of ankle-foot function.</p
A Transdisciplinary Systems Approach for Addressing Complex Real-World Issues: A Sri Lankan Perspectives
No full text[...] A dearth of published material in Sri Lanka has posed a serious hindrance to promoting and institutionalizing transdisciplinarity and creating a transdisciplinary research culture, particularly in academia and R&D institutions. Therefore steps were taken to produce a much-needed source book titled “A Transdisciplinary Approach for Addressing Complex Real-World Issues: A Sri Lankan Perspective” addressing nine relevant sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations. To this end, a galaxy of competent, high-profile Sri Lankan scientists and professionals with a commendable grasp of the subject were invited to contribute to the book. Working in a transdisciplinary setting is challenging and time-consuming, yet our contributors were engaged in writing the papers amidst their manifold commitments. [...]</p
Connected Loughborough Project: Garendon Park Active Travel Readiness
No full textThe Garendon Park development, located to the North of the A512 on the way to Shepshed west of Loughborough at the site of the historic Garendon Park estate, is a strategic urban extension within Charnwood Borough’s local development framework. The scheme forms part of a broader effort to meet regional housing targets set out in the Charnwood Local Plan. With outline permission granted for up to 3,200 dwellings, the development also includes two primary schools, a community centre with the options to provide retail facilities, office space, and public services such as general practitioner, a village hall, and areas designated for employment and infrastructure.The development includes a new link road connecting the site with A6 in the North and he A512 in the South. Existing connectors will be integrated in a strategic active travel network and a bus service is planned to provide connections with Loughborough and wider Leicestershire.© the authors</p
Desecuritising working-class struggle: memory activism and active audiences in the commemoration of 3 March 1976 in Vitoria-Gasteiz
No full textAround a hundred days after dictator Francisco Franco’s death, on 3 March 1976, police violently evicted 4000 striking workers who had gathered for an assembly in the Church of San Francisco de Asís, located in a working-class neighbourhood in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Five workers were killed and over a hundred were injured by gunfire. It was one of the largest massacres to occur during Spain’s so-called transition to democracy. Five decades later, these violent events remain neither investigated nor brought to trial. While working-class struggle was securitised and the extreme use of violence legitimised by the authorities at the time, contemporary grassroots memory work actively desecuritises working-class resistance through guided tours in the neighbourhood. Based on one-to-one interviews with memory activists, participant observation of walking tours, and participants’ reflections, this article examines the underexplored role of memory work in desecuritisation processes and how audiences engage with this work. Offering deeper insight into desecuritisation as a dynamic, embodied, and intersubjective process, the article identifies immersive contextualisation, a forensic approach, artwork, and participatory debates as key mechanisms. It concludes that activist guided tours serve as a form of commemoration that facilitates trajectories of desecuritisation and radical democratisation, countering a legacy of national security-led securitisation.</p
Multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA) to understand how obesity risk varies according to multiple lifestyle behavior recommendations
No full textBackgroundThe combined and interactive effects of multiple lifestyle behaviours on obesity risk are not well understood. We used Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA) to examine how adherence to public health recommendations for five lifestyle behaviours affects BMI and obesity risk.MethodsThe sample included 139,540 men and 125,455 women from the UK Biobank. We categorized fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, sleep duration and alcohol intake as binary variables (meeting vs. not meeting guidelines), and smoking status into three categories (previous, current, never). These categories were combined to form 48 unique strata, representing all possible combinations of the five behaviours. Linear and binary logistic MAIHDA models were used, with individuals nested within strata, and BMI and obesity status (obesity vs. normal weight) as outcomes. Three models were employed: Model 1 (null), Model 2 (with fixed effects for lifestyle behaviours), and Model 3 (with confounders and fixed effects). Variance Partition Coefficient (VPC), Proportional Change in Variance (PCV), and predicted BMI and obesity risk were estimated.ResultsFor both sexes, strata with the lowest obesity risk were associated with meeting most recommendations, while strata with the highest risk were linked to meeting few. Logistic Model 1 VPCs revealed 7% of variance in obesity risk among males and 5% among females was explained by between-strata differences. In Model 3, VPCs attenuated to 0.5% among males and 0.1% among females, suggesting differences in obesity risk were largely additive effects. PCVs from Model 3 also indicated primarily additive rather than interactive effects. Results were similar for BMI in the linear models.ConclusionsUsing a novel statistical approach, this study shows that additive effects of multiple lifestyle behaviours predominantly explain differences in BMI and obesity risk. Meeting more public health lifestyle recommendations is important in mitigating obesity risk.</p
Green export marketing strategy: antecedents, boundary conditions and performance consequences
No full textDrawing on the Structure-Conduct-Performance paradigm (SCP), this study explores the drivers and performance implications of green export marketing strategy among UK export manufacturing firms. It further examines the boundary conditions under which the performance consequences of green export marketing strategy are changed, strengthened, or weakened. Survey data is drawn from 260 export manufacturers from the UK and analysed via structural equation modelling in LISREL to address the study’s objectives. In doing so, the study contributes to advancing international marketing literature by employing the SCP perspective to understand how market structure traits shape GEMS formulation among UK exporters and how social media listening moderates these relationships. The study further examines the moderating role of green export marketing capability in response to calls for the examination of contextual factors that shape the link between GEMS and export performance. The study offers managerial insights on how export manufacturers develop green export marketing strategies and the conditions necessary for enhanced export performance.</p
Demonstration of Energy Efficiency Potential (DEEP) report 1: Synthesis
No full textRetrofitting solid walled homes is one of the greatest challenges for the UK in achieving its net zero ambitions. Solid walled homes have unique features, that require special consideration. They are among the least efficient in the UK, and their occupants are more likely to be in fuel poverty. They are also at elevated risk of surface condensation, excessive cold in winter and overheating in summer. Retrofitting these homes is a cornerstone of UK policy to tackle fuel poverty and to facilitate the delivery of decarbonised electrified heat into homes. However, installing solid wall insulation is costly and poses more risks of unintended consequences than any other retrofit. Previous projects investigating solid wall insulation have identified major failures when retrofits are installed in a ‘piecemeal’ way i.e., they did not consider how the retrofit measure affects risks of damp, inadequate ventilation, and overheating in homes. This led to the adoption of the whole house approach in new technical standards for retrofit installers (PAS 20351) to ensure that all risks of retrofit measures were always considered, even if only one measure was being installed at a time. Industry is beginning to adapt to these standards, but more research is needed to explore the benefits of adopting the whole house approach, and more guidance is needed to support retrofits in solid walled homes. Insights from this project explain how solid walled homes can be retrofitted more safely and effectively.© Crown Copyright</p