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Optimal velocity loss threshold for inducing post activation potentiation in track and field athletes
Get PDFThe aim of this study was to determine the optimal velocity loss (VL) threshold that maximises the post activation potentiation (PAP) stimulus for achieving larger and more consistent performance gains in track and field athletes. Twenty-two athletes from athletics participated in four back squat PAP tests with four different VL threshold (5%, 10%, 15% and 20% VL) at an intensity of 85% 1RM. Countermovement jump (CMJ) height, power, and momentum were assessed before, and 10s, 4, 8, 12, 16 minutes after the PAP condition. Repetitions of the squat in all the PAP conditions were also recorded. Only the 5% VL condition produced significant improvements in height (ES=0.73, P=0.038), peak power output (ES=0.73, P=0.038) and momentum (ES=0.72, P=0.041) of CMJ, and these changes appeared 8 minutes after the condition. The total number of repetitions during the 5% VL condition was significantly lower than that observed in the 15% (P=0.003) and 20% VL (P＜0.001) trials. The results from this study indicate that 5%VL during the 2 sets preconditioning squat at 85%1RM was optimal for eliciting PAP in a CMJ exercise, and resulted in significant increases at the 8-min recovery period. The same squat condition also had the least number of repetitions. However, considering the efficiency in practice, athletes can also choose the rest time of 4-min, which can also achieve similar results
What explains entrepreneurial start-ups across countries: an integrative model
Get PDFThis research develops a multilevel framework to examine how resource-based antecedents shape individuals' decisions to start ventures via their perception of opportunities and how country-level characteristics pertaining to institutional development and institutional instability provide boundary conditions for the aforementioned associations. The empirical results show that entrepreneurial start-ups are positively affected by human capital resources and organisational resources, and that individuals’ perception of opportunities acts as a mediator within these relationships. In addition, the findings demonstrate that the proposed mediation effects are further bounded by country-specific institutional environments. The results offer new insights for the development of knowledge and theoretical bases by providing a multi-level perspective on how resource-based factors, perceived opportunity, and institutions operate as principal determinants that affect entrepreneurial start-ups. This paper complements and advances resource-based theory by integrating an approach that focuses on institutions and the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities to assess the mechanisms that are needed to release the potential of resources in venture creation more comprehensively. The research findings have implications and values for general managers who are keen to understand why heterogeneous resource is necessary and how it functions in their businesses, as well as how the process of managing resources needs to be aligned with their capabilities to identify and pursue business opportunities
The racialised ‘second existence’ of class: class identification and (de- / re-) construction across the British South Asian middle classes
Get PDFThis paper maps typologies of class identity for the UK-born South Asian middle classes. Using thematic analysis of interviews with twenty British South Asian professionals, it identifies culturally and socially situated forms of class (dis-)identification. It finds that ‘middle-class’ identity is not uncritically adopted or internalised by socially mobile British South Asians who, on the bases of objective socioeconomic markers, may be classified as such. Beyond existing research which has long established the dual material and symbolic nature of class, and the corresponding ‘fuzziness’ of class subjectivity, for the population of interest this can be attributed in large part to: (i) the rapid upward intergenerational social mobility of South Asian groups which is seen to defy British-specific forms of stratification and class reproduction and (ii) the racialisation of class where the symbolic power and subjective salience of middle-classness is mediated through Whiteness. In establishing this, this paper argues for further theoretical and analytical reflection on the racialisation of class taking into account the ethnoracial specificities of culturally diverse ethnic minority populations
Building cultures of participation: involving young people in contact with the criminal justice system in the development of drug interventions in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy and Poland
Get PDFThis article explores the participation of young people in contact with criminal justice systems in the development of drugs interventions. Interviews were undertaken with 160 young people (aged 15–25) and 66 practitioners involved in the design, delivery and commissioning of drug interventions. We analyse the key challenges in involving young people in the development of interventions including structural, organisational and individual factors. We argue that these barriers can be overcome by fostering flexible models of participation and identifying the most meaningful and appropriate approaches for involving young people at different stages and in different initiatives which consider socio-cultural contexts
Bilateral deficit in the countermovement jump and its associations with judo-specific performance
Get PDFThis study aimed to describe the bilateral deficit (BLD) during the countermovement jump (CMJ) in judo athletes and determine the relationship between the BLD and judo-specific performance. Fourteen male judo athletes participated. The athletes performed tree specific judo tests: Maximal Sprint Speed Judo Test, Maximal Aerobic Speed Judo Test, Special Judo Fitness Test (SJFT), and double-and single-leg CMJ. The follow CMJ variables were used: jump height JH, mean – MPO and peak – PPO power output, peak force – PF, peak velocity – PV and impulse – IMP. The Pearson’s or Spearman’s test were used (p<0.05). The results show that the BLD is found in all CMJ parameters (27% in JH; 20% in MPO; 22% in PPO, 61% in PF, 41% in PV and 31% in IMP). Negative correlations between first set of SJFTTT (total throws) and BLD in PF (r=-0.60; p=0.022) and between the second set of SJFTTT and BLD in MPO (r=-0.74;p=0.002), PV (r=-0.59;p=0.025) and IMP (r=-0.55; p=0.040) were found. Also, negative correlations between SJFTTT and the BLD in all CMJ parameters (r=-0.53 to -0.85;p<0.05) were found. The BLD in most CMJ variables is negatively correlated (large to very large) to the SJFTTT. So, high BLD values are related to poor SJFTTT performance
"I can’t describe it and they can’t see the rain." an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of self-harm in young adults who report difficulties identifying and describing their feelings
Get PDFSelf-harm is a serious and increasing public health concern. Self-harm is significantly associated with alexithymia, a trait characterised by a difficulty identifying and describing feelings. Alexithymia has been found to be a barrier to psychological treatment. This article explores the experiences of self-harm among eight young adults who reported difficulties identifying and describing their feelings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, with the optional use of photographs as visual stimuli for discussion. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Two themes are presented here: The Obscure Self describes participants’ struggle to grasp a coherent sense of self, and how self-harm provided a means of physically reconnecting with their bodies. Words Fail Me describes participants’ difficulties communicating their subjective experience, which increased feelings of isolation and recourse to self-harm. There were also tentative indications that participants were able to recognise their emotional experience when expressed by others. The lack of interpersonal connection, arising from difficulties understanding feelings and communicating them to others, may create or exacerbate the context for self-harm. The findings have relevance for the treatment of self-harm, given the high, but often unacknowledged, prevalence of alexithymia in clinical populations
Decolonising quantitative research methods pedagogy: teaching contemporary politics to challenge hierarchies from data
Get PDFDecolonisation of the curriculum in higher education is a radical, transformative process of change that interrogates the enduring Eurocentric and racist narratives surrounding the production of academic ‘knowledge’. Our key argument is that it is essential for students of politics to understand the authorities and hierarchies exerted through quantitative data. In this article, we show that (1) quantitative methods and data literacy can be an explicit tool in the endeavour to challenge structures of oppression, and (2) there is a need to apply decolonial principles to the teaching of quantitative methods, prioritising the historical contextualisation and anti-racist critique of the ways in which statistics amplify existing micro and macro power relations. To explain how this can be done, we begin with a commentary on the ‘state of decolonisation’ in higher education, its relevance to the subdisciplines of politics, and its application to quantitative teaching in the United Kingdom. We then suggest some guiding principles for a decolonial approach to quantitative methods teaching and present substantive examples from political sociology, international political economy, and international development. These suggestions and examples show how a decolonial lens advances critical and emancipatory thinking in undergraduate students of politics when it is used with quantitative methods
The effect of home country characteristics on the internationalization of EMNEs: the moderating role of knowledge stock
Get PDFThis paper examines the effect of home country characteristics on the internationalization of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). Drawing on the institution-based view (IBV), we argue that institutional, political, and social characteristics will positively relate to the internationalization of EMNEs. Further, drawing on the knowledge-based view (KBV), we also argue that a firm’s knowledge stock (KS) will positively moderate the aforementioned relationship. Our research setting involves the incorporation of primary data collected from Iranian multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in the food and beverage industry. The results provide support for the hypotheses that home country characteristics positively impact the international growth of EMNEs but this does not lead to their further expansion. Also, supported was the hypothesis that EMNEs' knowledge stock positively moderates the relationship between home country characteristics and their international growth. These findings not only contribute to current knowledge about the drivers of EMNE’s internationalization but also stress the idiosyncratic role of home country institutions and the impact of knowledge-specific capabilities on the internationalization of EMNEs, their international growth, and expansion
Abdullah Demirbaş: on Sur & celebrating Amed’s diversity
No full textAbdullah Demirbaş, the former mayor of Sur in the heart of Amed (Diyarbakir) – the de facto capital of Northern Kurdistan (southeast Turkey) – is a man who sincerely believes that religious, ethnic, and linguistic diversity is a strength in society worth protecting. This philosophy put him at odds throughout the years with the Turkish state’s official unitary ideology, which lead to him being removed twice from office in 2007 and 2009, and later imprisoned. [...
Toccata from Concerto for piano solo (Hommage à Alkan)
No full textExtracted from Concerto for Piano Solo (a homage to Charles Valentin Alkan). A moto perpetuo (a genre Alkan often favoured), with echoes of Prokofiev’s Toccata and Ligeti’s Continuum.
First performance of Toccata separately: Panayotis Archontides, 2nd October 2015, Morley College, London SE1.
This work won the ‘Prix du Public’ audience prize at its Belgian premiere on 8 October 2024, Espace Toots (Festival Osmose), Brussels: Isis Larrère, piano