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Supplementary information files for "Trunk function: the core of mobility performance in wheelchair tennis"
No full textSupplementary files for article "Trunk function: the core of mobility performance in wheelchair tennis"Classification in Paralympic sport aims to create a competitive and fair environment by reducing the impact of impairment on the ability to perform sport-specific activities. In wheelchair tennis (WT), current classification criteria largely rely on expert opinion rather than empirical evidence, particularly regarding trunk function. This study investigated the relationship between upper-body strength (arm, trunk) and wheelchair mobility performance in elite WT players to attain evidence? informed classification.Fifty-one WT players (men, women, and quad division) were assessed during standardized field tests and match play. Upper-body strength was measured using isometric arm and trunk-related force tests, while mobility performance was quantified using inertial sensors, capturing speed, acceleration, and rotational metrics. Associations between strength and mobility performance outcomes were assessed using Pearson/Spearman correlations. Differences between classification-based trunk function groups (0, 1, 2) were explored using T-tests and effect sizes.Correlations between strength and mobility performance were modest (r = 0.26–0.62). Push and pull forces showed the highest associations with sprint and rotational performance (push up to r = 0.54; 29 pull up to r = 0.62). Comparisons between trunk function groups revealed substantial differences, particularly in acceleration and rotation, with large effect sizes (ES = 1.18 - 2.43) between athletes with full versus minimal trunk control.Trunk function plays a critical role in WT mobility and is underrepresented in the current 33 classification system. Future classification systems should include functional measures that reflect the impact of impairment on sport-specific activities. Particular attention should be given to dynamic trunk movements during acceleration and rotation to ensure a more evidence-based and functionally relevant approach.© Slikke, Rietveld, GOOSEY-TOLFREY and Berger, CC BY 4.0</p
AI preparedness guidelines for archivists
No full textArtificial Intelligence (AI) is now a regular topic of conversation in archives. Managers and stakeholders are asking whether AI can speed up description, identify sensitive content, or provide new forms of access. This document offers practical guidance on how to prepare archival collections for AI in ways that remain true to archival principles and ethical commitments.
The key message is simple: AI can support archival work, but only when collections are made “AI-ready” through careful preparation, documentation, and governance. Automation is a constrained necessity, not a magic solution.</p
Prognostic score for predicting respiratory admissions among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in primary care: development and validation in population cohorts (Birmingham Lung Improvement Studies (BLISS))
No full textObjective: To predict the two year risk of respiratory admission to hospital among individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with the development and validation (internal and external) of a prognostic score. Design: Model development and validation in population cohorts. Setting: Birmingham Lung Improvement Studies (BLISS) cohort of new and existing patients with COPD in primary care (model development and internal validation); Evaluation of COPD Longitudinally to Identify Predictive Surrogate Endpoints (ECLIPSE) international cohort and UK primary care Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Aurum database linked with Hospital Episode Statistics (external validation). Participants: 1894 patients with new and existing COPD from BLISS cohort; 1749 patients with moderate to very severe COPD from ECLIPSE cohort; 27 340 patients with COPD from CPRD Aurum database linked with Hospital Episode Statistics. Main outcome measures: One or more respiratory admissions within two years of cohort entry for development, internal validation, and external validation in CPRD; severe exacerbation within two years for external validation in ECLIPSE cohort. The model was developed from 23 candidate predictors by using multivariable logistic regression with bootstrapping for internal validation and adjustment for overfitting and optimism. Discrimination and calibration were assessed at each stage. Net benefit of the score (clinical utility) was examined across a range clinically relevant risk thresholds compared with use of individual score components. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were conducted in the CPRD. The BLISS score was directly compared with the Bertens’ score in the ECLIPSE cohort. Clinical implementation was explored with relevant stakeholders. Results: Six predictors were retained (age, COPD Assessment Test score, respiratory admissions in the previous 12 months, body mass index, diabetes, forced expiratory volume in 1 second % predicted) to form the BLISS score for estimating an individual’s two year risk of respiratory admission. The score had similar discrimination performance on internal validation (optimism adjusted C statistic 0.73 (95% confidence interval 0.70 to 0.77)) and external validation (ECLIPSE: C=0.73 (0.71 to 0.76); CPRD: C=0.71 (0.70 to 0.72)) and good calibration performance in the BLISS (slope=0.87 (95% confidence interval 0.73 to 1.02), CPRD (0.89 (0.85 to 0.93)), and ECLIPSE (0.92 (0.79 to 1.05) cohorts). Stratified analysis in the CPRD cohort showed that it was robust in different population subgroups. Net benefit analyses showed superiority of the BLISS score over individual predictors and the Bertens’ score (C=0.68 (0.65 to 0.71); calibration slope 0.68 (0.56 to 0.81)). Conclusions: The BLISS score showed good performance in estimating individual risk of respiratory admission (within two years) in cohorts containing patients from different settings and geographical locations and with different severities of COPD. Four of the included six variables are readily available in primary care records, and two are partially available but easy to collect. Impact evaluations are now needed to fully study use of the score in clinical care. Study registration ECLIPSE ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00292552 .</p
Digital archives: working across digital & transnational boundaries in newspaper research
No full textThis chapter explores the methodological challenges and possibilities of working with digital newspaper archives across national, linguistic and cultural boundaries. It considers both the technical and conceptual problems raised by digitisation, including the histories of digital collections, their metadata structures, interfaces and search, as well as how digital engagement changes our relationship to transnational periodical research. The chapter further provides a guide to some of the key tools for, and methodological approaches to, digital research into periodicals within and beyond national boundaries.</p
Enhancement of UFLD by improving global dependencies
No full textLane detection is a vital component of autonomous driving technology. It identifies the positions and boundaries of lane lines in images captured by onboard cameras, facilitating key autonomous driving functions and enhancing road safety. Deep learning-based methods dominate lane detection task, with the Ultra Fast Lane Detection (UFLD) model being one of the most well-known recent approaches. Unlike other pixel segmentation-based methods, UFLD distinguishes itself through its row-anchor detection approach, enabling rapid processing speed. However, UFLD encounters challenges related to detection accuracy in various complex scenarios. An analysis of UFLD architecture revealed that insufficient global dependencies limit its performance and generalizability in complex scenarios. To address this limitation, this paper proposed a non-local UFLD model, which strengthens the global dependencies by integrating non-local blocks. Additionally, an auxiliary Lane Intersection over Union (LIoU) loss function is introduced to refine the model’s ability to accurately detect the position and shape of the lane lines. Experimental results on the CULane dataset show that non-local UFLD surpasses original UFLD in detection accuracy across most scenarios while maintaining high detection speed.</p
Gendered geographies of schooling: rights; subjectivities; bodies; and labour
No full textThis chapter highlights the importance of gender in geographies of education, concentrating on four forms of research on schooling, as this is a key arena of academic and policy concern. First, it focuses on girls’ and boys’ right to schooling, investigating the factors that shape gendered patterns of access, and whilst it highlights girls’ resilience in attending school, it also points to the limits of educational qualifications. Second, it examines gendered subjectivities, considering how schooling shapes girls’ and boys’ gendered identities, in intersection with other social differences, in both contemporary and historical contexts. Third, it considers boys’ and girls’ sexed bodies, weighing both how gendered social mores shape their movement to school and in the playground, and how girls encounter material and emotional difficulties around safety and seemly bodily presentation. Fourth, it explores the parental labour, and especially maternal femininities, that support children in school and extend into wider society.</p
Using brand identity as resources to address grand challenge: entrepreneurial alertness and inspiration
No full textThis study employs behavioural theory of social entrepreneurship and bricolage to understand how social enterprises originating from emerging economies depend on resources at hand such as brand identity to confront a grand challenge owing to social and institutional voids. We dwelled on multiple-case and showcase that social entrepreneurial bricoleurs in emerging economies deploy brand values, brand collaboration/partnership as available resources to address grand challenges. Deployment of brand identity occurs in states which demonstrate the type of resource bundles and enabling capabilities such as entrepreneurial alertness and inspiration social enterprises employ to mitigate societal grand challenges. We contribute to behavioural theory of social entrepreneurship, and the deployment of brand identity as a resource bundle harnessed through bricolage and supported by enabling capabilities; we expand further our understanding of bricolage application in branding and deeper insight as occurred in the social enterprise context.</p
Learning through creative expression in historical fiction
No full textLearning through Creative Expression in Historical FictionWhen I turned to creative interpretations of my historical research, I did so with a desire to entertain and inform, while at the same time to broaden public knowledge of women’s lives in the Restoration. I had been disseminating my research into early modern attitudes to the reproductive female body in different ways for several years before turning to fiction. My academic monograph, Menstruation and the Female Body in Early Modern England (2013), was followed by various academic publications on the theme of women’s reproductive health in the past.[i] Through this research I had uncovered very many stories and anecdotes from diaries, letters, journals and commonplace books which did not have a place in my academic writing. I knew the public would both enjoy and be informed by these stories and so published a trade book, Maids, Wives, Widows: Exploring Early Modern Women’s Lives, 1540-1740 (2015), which includes four chapters devoted to women’s reproductive experience.[ii] This book was matched by many articles in history magazines, and by podcast interviews. I felt confident, then, when I turned to writing historical fiction that I had my research credentials well and truly polished, even if I knew my creative writing skills would need development. (cont.)[i] Sara Read, Menstruation and the Female Body in Early Modern England (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).[ii] Sara Read, Maids, Wives, Widows: Exploring Early Modern Women’s Lives, 1540-1740 (Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2015).</p
Urban Latitude Series: Storytelling and Community
No full textThis session engages the intertwining of storytelling and community-led lived experience to emphasise dialogic exchange, interdisciplinary approaches and inclusive co-production of place-based knowledge.Presenters: Prof Mike Wilson (UNESCO Chair in Storytelling Education for Sustainability & Director of the Storytelling Academy: Loughborough University, United Kingdom) & Dr Cristina Goldschmidt-Kiminami (Research Associate in Data Visualisation for Urban Studies: TOWN Observatory, United Kingdom) | Shamsunisaa Miles-Timotheus (Junior Researcher: Gauteng City-Region Observatory, South Africa) & Thembani Mkhize (Researcher: Gauteng City-Region Observatory, South Africa).This session was convened and facilitated by Dr Yolandi Burger as part of the seedcorn project titled "Exploring urban heritage storytelling in digital urban observatories through international collaboration and knowledge exchange".© the authors</p