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Influence of acute exercise with and without carbohydrate replacement on postprandial lipid metabolism
Get PDFInfluence of acute exercise with and without carbohydrate replacement on postprandial lipid metabolism. J Appl Physiol 106: 943–949, 2009. First published December 26, 2008; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.91367.2008.—Acute exercise, undertaken on the day before an oral fat tolerance test (OFTT), typically reduces postprandial triglycerides (TG) and increases high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C). However, the benefits of acute exercise may be overstated when studies do not account for compensatory changes in dietary intake. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of acute exercise, with and without carbohydrate (CHO) replacement, on postprandial lipid metabolism. Eight recreationally active young men underwent an OFTT on the morning after three experimental conditions: no exercise [control (Con)], prolonged exercise without CHO replacement (Ex-Def) and prolonged exercise with CHO replacement to restore CHO and energy balance (Ex-Bal). The exercise session in Ex-Def and Ex-Bal consisted of 90 min cycle ergometry at 70% peak oxygen uptake (V˙ O2peak) followed by 10 maximal 1-min sprints. CHO replacement was achieved using glucose solutions consumed at 0, 2, and 4 h postexercise. Muscle glycogen was 40 � 4% (P � 0.05) and 94 � 3% (P � 0.24) of Con values on the morning of the Ex-Def and Ex-Bal OFTT, respectively. Postprandial TG were 40 � 14% lower and postprandial HDL-C, free fatty acids, and 3-hydroxybutyrate were higher in Ex-Def compared with Con (P � 0.05). Most importantly, these exercise effects were not evident in Ex-Bal. Postprandial insulin and glucose and the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMAIR) were not significantly different across trials. There was no relation between the changes in postprandial TG and muscle glycogen across trials. In conclusion, the influence of acute exhaustive exercise on postprandial lipid metabolism is largely dependent on the associated CHO and energy deficit
Embedding a Threshold Concept in Teaching and Learning of Product Development Management
Get PDFThis paper uses insights from the teaching-learning literature on threshold concepts to develop a structure for understanding teaching and learning in the area of managing product development. Product development management practice continues to move towards a multi-functional focus which means that graduates need to be able to think outside of the silo. Correspondingly, cross disciplinary courses in the area are increasing and focus on that challenge. In terms of the teaching-learning literature, such courses have to communicate threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge, difficult in a single discipline context and particularly challenging in a multi-disciplinary context.
An immediate problem in trying to make threshold concepts explicit for students is that, if these concepts integrate a way of thinking, they necessarily operate at a high level of abstraction (Davies, 2006). If so, then the time to introduce these concepts is when students have acquired sufficient subject knowledge to develop and to practice an integrated understanding. Viewing product development as a process has the potential both to provide a framework for helping managers to assess, to benchmark and to improve this area, and also to define potential research agendas. Seeing product development in this way represents “process” as a threshold concept.
This paper defines threshold concepts, outlines pedagogic principles and describes learning activities that seek to enact these principles. The paper is based upon experience of an established final-year undergraduate course in a university in Ireland. The development this paper draws upon output from “Embedding Threshold Concepts”, a project based at Staffordshire University concerned with the application of this approach to teaching and learning.
• Academic and practical relevance
Meyer and Land (2005) suggest that within each discipline, field or profession there are threshold concepts which integrate and define the scope of the academic community with which a student is engaging. These threshold concepts can be 'considered akin to passing through a portal, or conceptual gateway, thus opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something' (Meyer and Land, 2003). Such concepts lead to a transformed way of understanding, or viewing something that may represent how people 'think' in a particular discipline, or how they perceive, apprehend or experience particular phenomena within a discipline. These concepts usually have five attributes: they are transformative, irreversible, integrative, bounded and troublesome.
Threshold concepts have potential to encourage students towards deep rather than surface learning (Biggs, 1989). To evaluate whether there is substance to this potential we need to be able to identify threshold concepts in a subject, to embed these in the curriculum and to evaluate the results. However, these steps are not straightforward.
• Empirical data base and Analysis
Davies and Mangan (2006-2) suggest that students progress in stages towards a deepening engagement with their academic communities. Davies and Mangan (2006-1) have identified some key pedagogical issues in supporting the students’ acquisition of threshold concepts: first, a threshold concept acts as a keystone; second, the conception of core and enabling processes, which are critical dimensions of the conception of the overall activity of product development, is distant initially from direct experience and can only be experienced hypothetically; third, the relationships between the core and enabling processes become visible through engaging in a field project as a way of practicing and of thinking; fourth, since the acquisition of threshold concepts transforms understanding of previously acquired subject knowledge, students need to be able to accept that, at each stage in their learning, their understanding is provisional.
To highlight these problems, Davies and Mangan (2006-1), propose pedagogical principles and how they might be put them into practice, through different types of activity: reflective exercises, problem-focused exercises and threshold network exercises. All three types of activity are evident in the course examined.
The “Managing New Product Development” (MNPD) course was designed for final-year business school and engineering undergraduate students who wished to develop their understanding of the complex management issues associated with the development of new products (Coughlan, 2002). Running each year since 1997, the course objective is to enable students to understand the contributors to shorter development lead times and increased flows of marketable and manufacturable new products, the choices in structuring the development process, and the integration of differing functional capabilities during the development process. Seeing product development as a process represents “process” as a threshold concept. The analysis of the course structure and teaching-learning environment explores stages of progression of student engagement, pedagogical principles, and activities.
• Synthesis and Contribution to knowledge
The context into which students emerge on graduation continues to be demanding. The rates at which technologies and markets are changing require a capability to build flexibility into the development process. Embedding threshold concepts requires particular conditions of learning to support students in arriving at the kind of transformational thinking required for flexibility in a changing context.
This paper has examined how an undergraduate course can develop this capability - which involves both technical and behavioural skills as well as an ability to manage multiple and sometimes conflicting objectives. Further research into threshold concepts, troublesome knowledge and the nature of the ‘learning space’ would add value to product development teaching and learning at third level
Walace, Balf and Mr Bunn
Get PDFBrendan Farrell’s new musical play is set in the Theatre Royal in the present day and is presented as the posthumous production of Mr Alfred Bunn, the original producer of composers William Vincent Wallace, Michael Balfe and Sir Julius Benedict, contemporaries working in musical theatre in London the 1800s. The play features a cast of four actors supported by a musical chorus, soloists and an orchestra and is a light-hearted look at the respective careers of the eponymous characters, interspersed with musical interludes featuring some of their popular compositions such as Balfe’s 'The Bohemian Girl', Wallace’s 'Maritana' and Benedict’s 'The Lily of Killarney
Blogs: Supporting Staff Development (Poster)
Get PDFThis poster aims to describe the uses of blogs from a staff development perspective and also to demonstrate how students can use blogs to fulfil learning outcomes.
A blog (or web log) is a website that contains dated entries (or posts) in reverse chronological order. Sandars (2006) summarised the three main uses of blogs in education as ‘Read, Write and Interact’. A variety of educational blogging activities that can be undertaken by staff and students are described in terms of these three main uses of blogs.
In terms of the Bologna process, blogs can be useful in allowing students to demonstrate that they have met learning outcomes. The benefit of using a blog to demonstrate fulfillment of learning outcomes, rather than ‘offline’ forms of writing, is that blogs allow for regular, formative feedback from lecturers and/or peer assessors (Wagner, 2003).
In addition to being used by students as a learning tool, blogs are frequently used by staff for personal and professional development. In the field of education teachers or lecturers often use blogs to reflect on their teaching practice (West, Wright & Graham, 2005). In addition, blogs can afford staff the opportunity to interact with a wider research community.
A number of staff development workshops on the educational uses of blogs have been conducted at WIT. These workshops have encouraged staff to use blogs for their own personal and professional development and many staff have, in turn, encouraged students to use blogs as part of their coursework. Blogs can promote a culture of reflective teaching and learning throughout an institution and also encourage more frequent interaction between students, staff and a wider research community
Building Customer Loyalty: A customer experience based approach in a tourism context
Get PDFIn light of the challenges facing the Irish tourism industry, Fáilte Ireland (TPDS report) emphasises that the future success of tourism enterprises relies upon delivering a ‘unique and complete holiday experience’. In addition, it has recognised that the underpinning critical success for the tourism industry is building customer loyalty through the creation of the total customer experience. A review of the literature indicates a general consensus that quality, value and satisfaction are major determinants of customer loyalty. However, while much is known about the relationship between the aforementioned variables and customer loyalty, these variables do not fully explain how customer loyalty is built. Therefore, this research study seeks to reduce the existing gap in extant knowledge by identifying and examining a new determinant of customer loyalty – the customer experience. The overarching objective of this thesis was to examine the relationship between customer experience and customer loyalty. Indeed, both customer relationship management (CRM) and brand literature indicate that loyalty-building is found in the customer’s experience with the product/service, hence it is perceived that a fundamental key to building customer loyalty is the successful management of each individual customer’s experience. The customer experience has been defined as involving three components: functional clues, humanic clues, and mechanic clues. Each one of these clue sets have been investigated individually in relation to their impact on loyalty. Based on the literature, the relationship between customer experience and loyalty in this study has been hypothesised to H1. There is a direct relationship between functional clues and loyalty. H2. The relationship between functional clues and loyalty is mediated by the variables - value and quality. H3. There is a direct relationship between mechanic clues and loyalty. H4. The relationship between mechanic clues and loyalty is mediated by value and quality. H5. There is a direct relationship between humanic clues and loyalty. H6. The relationship between humanic clues and loyalty is mediated by value and quality. The study utilised two phases of data collection – an initial qualitative phase followed by a second phase involving a quantitative methodology. The study collected data from both sides of a dyad: key informants from the hotel industry and the hotels’ customers. The study involved assessing three and four star hotels in the cities of Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny in the South East region of Ireland. The data was analysed using Nvivo (N7) and the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS V.15). The qualitative phase of the study involved in depth interviews with hotel key respondents. This provided the necessary information to create a detailed blueprint of the customer hotel experience based on four critical stages and on each of the experience clues – functional, mechanic and humanic. Indeed, this was a major outcome of the qualitative phase and informed the development of the customer survey in the second quantitative phase. The quantitative phase revealed that the relationship between the functional and mechanic clue sets and loyalty is totally mediated by the value and quality variables. The relationship between the humanic clue set and loyalty was both direct and indirect; the indirect relationship was mediated through value and quality. Due to the lack of research and interest in this area, this study not only contributes substantially to extant academic knowledge, but also makes a significant contribution to tourism practice. Ultimately it bridges the knowledge gap by conceptualising customer loyalty through identifying a number of key determinants. Hence, a major theoretical contribution of this thesis is the fact that it both synthesises and builds on extant efforts to conceptualise and build loyalty. The main practical implication is that it provides best practice guidelines for building customer loyalty through the customer experience. Indeed, for destination managers it highlights the importance of focusing on each of the experience clues - functional, mechanic and humanic - in order to create the total customer experience, a key determinant in building customer loyalty. Furthermore, this study also offers a methodological contribution of data collection in the form of blueprinting – a critical technique in illustrating the customer experience process. While this technique has been in existence for the last twenty years, it has not commonly utilised. Therefore, this study offers a guideline for future researchers in terms of this data collection technique
The Prevalence of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes and Other Altered Glucose States in Acute Hospital Admissions in Ireland.
Get PDFBackground:
The prevalence of altered glucose states are rising exponentially due to population ageing, decreased physical
activity and increasing obesity levels (WHO, 2005). Altered glucose states are associated with increased
morbidity and mortality and place a major financial burden on healthcare budgetary resources (Rubin et al,
1994). Hospitalisation costs, to treat the avoidable complications of diabetes, are the most significant
contributor to the costs of diabetes related healthcare expenditure. This survey was undertaken to ascertain
the prevalence of altered glucose states in acute, medical, hospital admissions and to estimate the cost of this
care to the Irish healthcare system.
Methods:
A prospective survey of an unselected sample was undertaken in acute medical admissions to a Regional
hospital in Ireland. Between June 1st 2005 and 17th December 2006, 1273 individuals were enrolled in this
survey. Of these, 419 eligible individuals had a known or new diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes, impaired
glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose and a history of complication or risk factor for diabetes.
Findings:
34% of individuals hospitalised in this cohort had an altered glucose state. Type 2 diabetes was the most
prevalent and was recorded in 21%. Impaired glucose tolerance was the principal newly diagnosed altered
glucose state identified in 38% of individuals. All combined altered glucose states and type 2 diabetes alone
were more prevalent in males however, a new diagnosis following screening did nor vary according to
gender. Individuals with an altered glucose state were also older with new IGT becoming more prevalent with
age. This was in contrast to negative OGTT results which decreased with increased age. The cost of treating
individuals in this cohort was estimated at €501,124 or €3,458,144 million, when applied to the total
population of acute medical patients, admitted to this regional hospital.
Conclusions:
This study identified previously unavailable hospital admission data, for individuals requiring acute medical
care in Ireland. In this study 34% of all acute medical hospital admissions had an altered glucose state. In
addition, a significant number of individuals had a previously undiagnosed altered glucose state on admission.
This study confirmed the significant cost of hospitalisation care, for altered glucose states in association with microvascular and macrovascular complications and the impact of this on the healthcare system
Active Transportation to School: attitudes and appraisal
Get PDFIntroduction: Only recently have we come to understand that physically inactive lifestyles are one of the major public health challenges of our time. The increase in sedentary behaviour (physical inactivity) over the last number of decades is thought to be one of the main risk factors for the development of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and psychosocial constraints (Anderson, Crespo,Barlett, Cheskin, & Pratt, 1998). The possibility that the commute school can play a role in increasing physical activity and reducing obesity among children has received attention recently (Appleyard, 2002; Tudor-Locke, Ainsworth & Popkin, 2001; U.S Department of Transport, 2004). However, there is a substantial deficit of research regarding barriers to and facilitators of active to school in Ireland including a lack of exploration of the attitudes of parents, pupils and teachers to active transportation to school. To date there have only been two pilot projects initiated in urban areas with large populations. No study has been published in a peer-reviewed journal. In addition, there have been no research-based interventions to encourage active to school.
Methodology: This research involved both quantitative and qualitative data collection centred on the development and implementation of a School Travel Plan. Data regarding the attitudes and changes in attitudes of pupils, teachers and parents towards walking and cycling to school was collected at baseline, impact and outcome evaluation stage.
Results: The overall results indicate that pupils, teachers and parents understand the many benefits of walking/cycling to school. The barriers and facilitators to active to school reported in literature were also reported in this research. The main barrier to active to school identified by pupils concerned issues over body image. Parents’ greatest barriers to active to school included the safety of pupils and a lack of infrastructure conducive to walking/cycling.Conclusion: The overall conclusion of this study is that while the benefits of active transport to school are widely recognised, pupils, parents and teachers expressed many barriers and concerns regarding children walking/cycling to school. Body image was a major concern and barrier to walking/cycling to school. Furthermore, a lack of infrastructure, personal safety and danger from traffic is a major concern for both parents and teachers. However, it appears that infrastructural barriers could be
considered perceived as opposed to actual barriers as they were overcome without being changed: more active modes of travel to school were observed and reported without any improvements to or addition of footpaths, crossings or cycle lanes. For example the perceptions of personal safety and the apparent lack of infrastructure
when investigated further through a walkability analysis did not represent an actual barrier to active to school. Furthermore, changes in travel modes in favour of
walking were witnessed even though there was no change made to infrastructure in the area
INNOVATIVENESS: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ANTECEDENTS, DIMENSIONS, & OUTCOMES (RIKON Group)
Get PDFDrawing from work found in the organisational, tourism services, and consumer innovation literatures over the past 40 years, this paper develops a conceptual framework of innovativeness. It delineates innovativeness as a multidimensional construct; exploring its key antecedents, dimensions, and outcomes. To date, little significant international research activity on innovativeness within the SME, and in particular within the small tourism firm, has emerged from the extant literature. Moreover, the current literature appears to lack clarity in meaning, often confusing ‘innovativeness’ with ‘innovation’. Thus, this paper offers a new conceptualisation of firm-level innovativeness, distinguishing it from actual innovations themselves. In this paper, innovativeness is conceptualised as a particular form of organisational mindset and a specific set of capabilities that drive innovation activity.
Key Words: innovativeness; antecedents; dimensions; outcomes; tourism innovation; conceptualisatio
Developing a Rural Innovation Network in the Irish Tourism Sector (RIKON Group)
Get PDFThe aim of a rural innovation network (RIN) is to reduce uncertainty through cooperation with other rural stakeholders, with different competencies, in order to create new knowledge and enhance firm competitiveness. The variables that impact on RINs have been identified(Murdoch, 2000), but the development of a managerial model to maximise the involvement of rural stakeholders has not, resulting in a significant knowledge gap in substantive literature. Based on first stage results, this paper presents, as a primary step to achieving a rural innovation network, a pragmatic (‘how-to’) framework on developing and managing a
rural tourism network
Experiments with Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networking in AX.25 and D-Star Networks
Get PDFThis paper examines the performance of DTN bundling layers against native protocols for radio data network with a view to possible deployment for emergency communications purposes. The authors conducted experiments with an existing DTN convergence layer in both AX.25 point-to-point and D-Star multi-hop communications links with hidden transmitters. The experimental results show that the DTN system exhibits marginally better performance than TCP/IP, appears to perform better where there are hidden transmitters, and has a more compact link utilisation pattern than TCP/IP. However, situations where obvious improvements can still be made were also identified