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Physiological and psychological responses to coaching: An exploratory case report from professional Australian rules football
Full text linkCoaching professional sport is stressful, yet there is little information detailing the physiological and psychological responses of coaches during match-play. This case report examined physiological and psychological alterations when coaching professional Australian Rules football. One experienced head coach was monitored for heart rate, stress-related hormones and psychological stress before, during and after seven matches. Heart rate fluctuated during match-play, with locomotion during match breaks contributing to elevated values. Stress hormones did not change, while the psychological questionnaire revealed differences in perceptions of accomplishment, success, recovery and stress related to match outcome. This case report indicated substantial elevations in heart rate while coaching professional football and furthermore, differences in psychological outcomes from winning or losing suggests the need to develop contextualised recovery and coping strategies. With coaching eliciting alterations to physical and psychological markers in this case, confirmatory research with larger cohorts should examine cardiovascular health and well-being strategies in coaches
Implementation of an Australian helpline for low back pain: protocol of a type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial.
Full text linkINTRODUCTION: Low back pain (LBP) is the leading contributor to disability globally. It has a substantial impact on the lives of those who experience it, and places considerable economic burden on healthcare systems. Despite these impacts, and the consistency of guideline recommendations, many individuals do not receive recommended LBP management. Structural barriers to accessing timely, evidence-based care, as well as public uncertainty about where to seek appropriate management, can influence the care individuals receive. Telephone and digitally based helplines assist to overcome many traditional barriers to accessing care and offer a scalable platform to improve the delivery of guideline recommended management for LBP. However, uptake of such services can be limited without targeted promotion and patient-centred design. This project aims to codesign, implement and evaluate an upgraded component of an existing Australian helpline service, tailored for people with back pain and supported by a media awareness campaign. This protocol outlines the codesign process, implementation and planned evaluation of the helpline. METHODS AND ANALYSES: This protocol uses three complementary frameworks-an iterative codesign process, the Practical Robust Implementation Sustainability Model, and the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance framework-to guide the codesign and development, implementation and evaluation of an upgraded helpline for people with LBP. The codesign process involves key stakeholders, including consumers and clinicians, to inform the development and implementation of both the upgraded helpline service and the media campaign to raise awareness and uptake of the helpline. Data sources will include a pre-post cohort of helpline service users, routinely collected service data (eg, monthly call rate) and health system data to evaluate the broader population level impact (eg, rates of emergency department presentations for LBP in the Australian region targeted by the media campaign). Implementation evaluation will include Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance as well as internal and external environmental factors that influence the success of these outcome measures. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The project was approved by the University of Sydney's Human Research Ethics Committee (HE001081). This project involves collaboration with consumers, clinicians and other stakeholders to interpret, translate and disseminate research findings to relevant audiences
Environmental factors have a greater influence on photosynthetic capacity in C4 plants than biochemical subtypes or growth forms.
Full text linkOur understanding of how photosynthetic capacity varies among C4 species and across growth and measurement conditions remains limited. We collated 1696 CO2 response curves of net CO2 assimilation rate (A/Ci curves) from C4 species grown and measured at various environmental conditions and used these data to estimate the apparent maximum carboxylation activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (VpmaxA) and CO2-saturated net photosynthetic rate (Amax), two key parameters describing photosynthetic capacity. We examined how VpmaxA and Amax vary with species-specific traits, growth and measurement conditions. We found little systematic variation of VpmaxA and Amax across the classical C4 biochemical subtypes or growth forms, but showed that growth temperature and measurement conditions are major factors determining C4 photosynthetic capacity. We found no evidence that common C4 model species (e.g. maize, sorghum and Setaria viridis) differ in photosynthetic capacity from other C4 species when grown in controlled environments. However, C4 model species showed up to twice the photosynthetic capacity of other C4 species when grown in the field. Our multivariate model accounts for 47-51% of the variation reported in VpmaxA and Amax, and we argue that environmental conditions have a greater influence on C4 photosynthetic capacity than biochemical subtypes or growth forms
“Development of university students’ communicative intercultural and global citizenship competencies through bilingual collaboration”.
No full textThis paper examines a bilingual telecollaboration project between undergraduate students at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia, and the Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Machine learning methods for small data and upstream bioprocessing applications: A comprehensive review.
Full text linkData are crucial for machine learning (ML) applications, yet acquiring large datasets can be costly and timeconsuming, especially in complex, resource-intensive fields like biopharmaceuticals. A key process in this industry is upstream bioprocessing, where living cells are cultivated and optimised to produce therapeutic proteins and biologics. The intricate nature of these processes, combined with high resource demands, often limits data collection, resulting in smaller datasets. This comprehensive review explores ML methods designed to address the challenges posed by small data and classifies them into a taxonomy to guide practical applications. Furthermore, each method in the taxonomy was thoroughly analysed, with a detailed discussion of its core concepts and an evaluation of its effectiveness in tackling small data challenges, as demonstrated by application results in the upstream bioprocessing and other related domains. By analyzing how these methods tackle small data challenges from different perspectives, this review provides actionable insights, identifies current research gaps, and offers guidance for leveraging ML in data-constrained environments
Coral elementomes diverge for colonies persisting in vegetative lagoons versus reef environments.
Full text linkClimate change, in tandem with localised stressors, continues to drive global declines in coral cover worldwide. Identifying where and how corals survive in present day extreme environments, characterised by suboptimum abiotic conditions, has become a key tool to better resolve coral stress tolerance and in turn future reef trajectories. Whilst several reef forming coral species routinely extend their ecological niche into extreme environments, whether corals have a distinct biogeochemical niche reflected by unique elementomes (the stoichiometry and quantity of elements) remains unknown. Here, through quantitative assessment and elemental mapping, we demonstrate that two functionally important Great Barrier Reef coral species, Acropora millepora and Porites lutea and their algal symbionts (Symbiodiniaceae) exhibit unique elementomes, that reflect a unique biogeochemical niche of species in the extreme mangrove lagoon compared to a neighbouring reef. Coral elementomes were distinct over multiple years, as were the elementomes of the seawater of each habitat. Furthermore, particulate organic matter was elevated in the mangrove lagoon which could support enhanced rates of heterotrophy. Collectively these findings reveal that vegetative mangrove island waters provide a unique biogeochemical environment for resident corals and that resident corals undergo bioelemental reorganisation, particularly via elevated micronutrient content, when living in extreme vegetative mangrove island lagoons. Results here reaffirm the importance of vegetative island systems in the survival of coral reefs and thus the critical need to ensure conservation efforts consider cross ecosystem protection measures
Purpose in Life and Temporal Focus across the Adult Lifespan
No full textPurpose in life is associated with improved physical and mental health, especially in later life. However, research to date suggests challenges to sustaining purpose in life into older age, with research also showing that older adults focus less on the future, potentially impacting upon levels of purpose captured in measures oriented to the future. The present study aimed to examine whether temporal focus influences the association between age and purpose in life scores, using three purpose in life measures, each with differences in their temporal focus. Participants (N = 312, M age = 48.5 years, SD = 18.3) were split into control, or past, present, or future positive self-induction groups to induce temporally focused thinking prior to completing three purpose in life measures. The induction asked participants to focus on a part of their life that is going as well as it possibly could be (wording adjusted for temporal condition). Affect was measured pre and post induction. All data were collected online via Prolific. The data revealed greater purpose in life with age across all three purpose measures. However, relative to the control condition, these age-related improvements in purpose were reduced in the present-induction condition for all three measures of purpose, and in the future-induction condition for one of the measures of purpose. This study re-frames existing conceptions of challenges in finding purpose in older age to present a positive story of greater purpose with increasing age, particularly when temporal perspective is unconstrained. Motivational and emotional factors potentially underpinning older adults’ purpose in life and psychological well-being are discussed. Public Significance Statement. Research has emphasised the importance of maintaining a sense of purpose in later life, with links to health and longevity. While research to date identified difficulties in achieving purpose in life in older age, our findings offer a new perspective whereby older adults report greater purpose in life, and this is irrespective of whether they are focusing on the past, present, or future
Common inherited loss-of-function mutations in the innate sensor NOD2 contribute to exceptional immune response to cancer immunotherapy.
Full text linkLung cancers and melanomas have many somatically mutated self-proteins that would be expected to trigger an immune rejection response, yet therapeutic responses can only be induced in a subset of patients. Here, we investigated the possibility that inherited differences in immune tolerance checkpoints contribute to variability in outcomes. Whole genome sequencing revealed biallelic germline loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in the immune tolerance checkpoint gene, NOD2, in an exceptional immune responder to targeted radiotherapy for metastatic melanoma. In 40 exceptional immune responders to anti-PD1 monotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), genome sequencing showed 30% had inherited a NOD2 LOF variant, more than twice the population frequency (P = 0.0021). Conversely, a gain-of-function RIPK2 allele known to increase NOD2 signaling was inherited by 61% of nonresponders from the same cohort, compared to 10% of exceptional responders and much higher than the population frequency (P < 0.0001). Within the overall recruited cohort of 144 NSCLC anti-PD1 patients, individuals with immune-related adverse events (irAE) had better overall survival, further improved in those with NOD2 LOF. In independent anti-PD1 monotherapy cohorts with a range of cancers, inherited NOD2 LOF was associated with complete or partial response (P = 0.0107). Experimental validation in mice showed germline Nod2 LOF enhanced therapeutic immune responses elicited by anti-PD1 monotherapy against a high mutation burden colorectal cancer, increasing tumor infiltration by effector memory CD8 T cells. Collectively these results reveal common inherited human variation in an immune tolerance checkpoint is a determinant of cancer immune responses elicited by pharmacological inhibition of another checkpoint
Hybrid Resource Allocation in RIS-Assisted V2X Networks via Enhanced DRL
No full textEfficient resource allocation is crucial for ensuring reliable and low-latency connectivity in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. This study investigates a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted V2X system, aiming to maximize the achievable downlink sum rate through the joint optimization of resource block (RB) indicators, power allocation, and RIS configuration under the constraints of quality of service (QoS) requirements, fairness, power limitations, and RIS design parameters. To achieve this, we propose a hybrid double deep Q-network (DDQN)-twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3) resource allocation framework, named HDTA, which first derives analytical lower bounds and subsequently employs an event-triggered deep reinforcement learning (DRL) optimizer. These analytical results serve as both lower bounds and initial conditions for the DRL process. The DRL optimizer adopts a hierarchical DRL structure: RB indicators are optimized first using DDQN. The resulting RB allocation is then used as input for a second-stage optimization, where TD3 is applied for power allocation among assigned users, while a multi-agent DDQN concurrently optimizes the RIS configuration. This structured approach effectively reduces the action space, accelerates convergence, and enhances stability, leading to a more efficient resource allocation strategy. Simulation results demonstrate that our framework outperforms existing benchmark methods, achieving superior system sum rate performance
Can bioleaching of critical metals from secondary resources be a sustainable extraction solution?
Full text linkThe demand for critical metals (CMs) has significantly increased due to their indispensable roles in advanced manufacturing. Bioleaching, when coupled with secondary resources, offers a promising alternative that addresses both environmental and economic concerns. This review aims to highlight the potential of environmentally friendly bioleaching technologies and the use of secondary resources for the sustainable extraction of CMs. This review covers: (i) characterization of low-grade waste resources (LGWR) for potential CMs recovery, (ii) current progress in bioleaching of CMs extraction, (iii) a strength-weakness-opportunity-threat (SWOT) analysis of bioleaching for LGWR; (iv) relevant market trends, and (v) a case study on bioleaching of CMs from LGWR. Comprehensive data analysis from 102 peer-reviewed papers indicates that rare earth elements are notably present in red mud (0.13%) and tailings (0.11%). Mutant and mixed cultures were found to be crucial for scaling up due to higher recovery efficiencies with faster processing, addressing industrial demand for time- and cost-efficient solutions. Moreover, SWOT analysis highlighted infrastructure incompatibility and capital cost inertia as key threats, whereas opportunities were achieved around process integration. Ultimately, red mud was found to be a strategic waste in future supply chains due to its high CM content, indicating the direction of future research to meet the demands
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