16119 research outputs found
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VO2 max before and after hip and knee replacement surgery for osteoarthritis patients: A narrative review
Full text linkPurpose: This narrative review investigates cardiovascular fitness in patients undergoing hip and knee replacement for osteoarthritis (OA), with a focus on changes in VO2 max before and after surgery. VO2 max is a key physiological marker of aerobic capacity that is associated with post-operative outcomes and long-term health. For nurses involved in orthopaedic care, understanding how VO2 max is affected by surgery and rehabilitation can inform patient education, discharge planning, and postoperative recovery strategies. Principal results: Patients scheduled for total knee or hip replacement commonly present with low preoperative VO2 max compared to matched healthy controls. While some studies hypothesise that this is due to reduced physical activity, direct measurement of activity levels or multivariate adjustment was generally lacking. Postoperatively, structured rehabilitation programmes may lead to improvements in VO2 max, although findings vary based on the type, intensity, and duration of the intervention. Low-frequency or home-based exercise showed small improvements, while more intensive programmes, such as high-intensity interval training, had greater effects. However, many studies excluded patients with common comorbidities, limiting generalisability. Major conclusions: Hip and knee replacement surgery may provide a critical window for improving cardiovascular fitness, especially when accompanied by targeted rehabilitation. These findings have important implications for nursing practice. Nurses can play a pivotal role in promoting structured aerobic exercise, supporting use of wearable technologies, and ensuring recovery pathways address cardiorespiratory health alongside joint mobility. Further research is needed to determine optimal rehabilitation strategies, improve inclusivity in VO2 assessment, and evaluate long-term outcomes in diverse patient populations
Reframing accessible tourism through the Humanising Framework
No full textPurpose
This paper explores the dehumanised lived experiences of disabled travellers with mobility needs, identifying areas for improvement in tourism practice and suggesting ways to create humanised and dignified experiences within accessible tourism.
Design
Semi-structured qualitative interviews and a thematic analysis identified four themes underpinned by the Humanising Framework.
Findings
Four key themes emerged: barriers for disabled travellers create traumatic, inhospitable experiences; uncertainty during travel causes anxiety; staff attitudes and accessibility awareness shape experiences; and “nothing about us without us” underscores the need to hear disabled travellers’ voices. Accessible facilities, infrastructure, and accurate information are essential to avoid dehumanising encounters. Developing hospitable attitudes among tourism and hospitality staff encourages participation and dignity. Co-creating experiences with disabled travellers promotes inclusion and humanised practices. Applying the Humanising Framework helps identify complex needs and supports collaborative design, ensuring accessibility is relational, ethical, and central to improving tourism and hospitality experiences.
Originality
Applying the Humanising Framework highlights the importance of recognising lived experiences as key sources of knowledge, making a meaningful contribution to inclusive tourism theory and practice. People investing and working in hospitality have an ethical and legal responsibility to design accessible and inclusive environments and to provide clarity about limitations and how to minimise them. Based on the findings, the paper introduces the REC Model for inclusivity in hospitality as an alternative for improving customer experience, satisfaction, and loyalty for all.
Implications
Disabled travellers continue to experience dehumanising encounters, which can negatively affect their self-perception and discourage participation in travel. This impacts wellbeing, independence, agency, and the desire to socialise in hospitality environments. Humanising tourism for disabled travellers through the REC Model can have positive impacts for both individuals and the broader community, fostering social justice, offering mutual benefits for travellers, businesses, and society, and increasing inclusivity
Sensory methodologies and disabled sporting embodiment: implications for research and practice in physical education
Full text linkIn this paper, we centre the senses and sensory methodologies in researching disabled sporting embodiment and make suggestions for how such approaches can inform research and practice in physical education (PE). Firstly, we conceptualise sensory research and illustrate its value in revealing the embodied experiences of disabled bodies in sport and PE. Specifically, we advocate the use of sensory research in: (i) developing multifaceted, complex, embodied and messy understandings of disabled bodies; (ii) challenging the normativity of sensory experience; (iii) exposing the felt, enfleshed feelings of ableism; and (iv) acknowledging the emplaced experiences of disability. Drawing on our own experiences of undertaking sensory research in disability sport, we demonstrate the usefulness of this approach in action by providing three vignettes exploring the embodied experiences of physically (spinal cord injury) and sensorially (visual impairment) impaired people and of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) in sport. We conclude by making suggestions for developing sensory research practices when exploring the embodied experiences of disabled pupils in PE and how sensory understandings can enhance embodied practices in PE
Is evidence enough? Rethinking climate action as communication
Full text linkAs humanity faces climate change, interdisciplinary conversations about how climate research is produced are significant, as they offer researchers and activists opportunities to consider knowledge from different
research traditions. This Structured Conversation explores the perspectives of three experts working in the field of climate change on how climate evidence is taken up by policy actors to exert influence and by activists to protest and empower
Mission- and challenge-oriented innovation policies and sustainable multi-level innovation synergy in China
Full text linkThe consolidated Innovation System (IS) framework is currently re-discussed with attention to 'levels' and 'missions' that generally respond to 'grand challenges' that affect mankind (e.g. climate change, global health, inclusive economy). Renovated frameworks are required to consider the dynamism of the global scenario where businesses, governmental bodies, other organisations, networks and consumers interact and innovate at quite different levels, from technological up to institutional and cultural. This debate is mostly applied to the case of competitive economies in Europe and elsewhere, while leaving a significant research gap on how catching-up economies can promote innovation across their firms, industries and regions. This paper introduces this debate within such context. Two RISs in China show how these dimensions can work in catching-up regional economies. Our findings show that a dynamic IS needs to be based on a Sustainable Multi-Level Innovation Synergy (SMLIS) between regional innovation systems (RIS) and the national innovation system (NIS), where the NIS identifies the national and global 'grand challenges' which are addressed through 'mission-oriented' and 'transformative' innovation policies, while each individual RIS determines the regional direction of this response by designing and directing specific and sustainable strategies and actions that address the related 'regional challenges'. This is important in catching-up economies, where the regions often lack adequate resources, skills, and capabilities, while having their institutional and industrial path-dependencies
Brand activism: Gen Z and socio-political branding
Full text linkBranding refers to the distinctiveness of an organization that differentiates it from its competitors and builds loyalty with customers. Brand trust is the confidence consumers have in a company to deliver consistently against their expectations of the brand. Brand equity is the commercial value that a brand has and is linked to consumer perception and loyalty. Culture refers to the expected behaviors of a defined group of people, e.g., customers. Brand activism is when an organization takes a visible ideological stance associated with a specific issue or social concern. Socio-political branding refers to the practice of using brand activism specifically to connect with certain key stakeholder groups
MXene-assisted interface engineering for strengthening aluminium matrix composites via high-pressure torsion
Full text linkOwing to its intrinsic two-dimensional structure, combined with its functionalized surfaces and superior mechanical properties, Ti3C2Tx (MXene) has emerged as a highly attractive candidate for reinforcing aluminium matrix composites (AMCs) in advanced structural applications. In this study, few-layer MXene (FMXene) was successfully incorporated into pure aluminium via an electrostatic self-assembly strategy followed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) processing at room temperature. The microstructure evolution of FMXene-Al composites was systematically investigated, revealing that this integrated processing strategy effectively induced grain refinement and facilitated the homogeneous dispersion of FMXene. The microhardness of the FMXene-Al composites increased with both the number of HPT turns and the FMXene content (wt.%), reaching a maximum value of approximately 140 HV. Notably, a favourable trade-off between strength and ductility was achieved at an FMXene content of 0.5 wt.%, where the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) reached 290 MPa while retaining appreciable ductility of ~ 1%. This work provides valuable insights into the development of nanostructured, high-performance AMCs via room temperature, interface-engineered processing routes
From usefulness to play: Why consumers value food delivery applications
No full textPurpose: This study systematically reviews how consumers in Europe engage with Food Delivery Applications (FDAs), identifying factors influencing adoption, continued use, and the values and meanings attached to digital food provisioning.
Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was conducted using Consumer Value Theory (CVT) to analyse functional, ethical, social, and symbolic dimensions shaping consumer engagement with FDAs in retail contexts.
Findings: FDA use reflects eight CVT value dimensions. Efficiency and excellence continue to drive adoption, while less examined dimensions such as aesthetics, play, and spirituality also shape engagement, indicating that FDAs function as sources of identity expression, moral alignment, and emotional satisfaction beyond transactional convenience.
Originality: This is the first study to apply CVT systematically to FDAs in retail food provision. It advances understanding beyond traditional adoption models by highlighting experiential and symbolic aspects of digital food consumption.
Research limitations/implications: The European focus limits broader generalisability; future studies should examine diverse retail environments.
Practical implications: Platform designers and policymakers should incorporate both functional and affective–moral drivers when developing inclusive and value-aligned digital food retail services
Late Holocene vegetation dynamics, fire regimes, and human impact in Southern Brazil: A multi-proxy palaeoecological record from the Matematico Lake
Full text linkThe long-term interactions between forest and grassland in Southern Brazil remain poorly understood, despite the region's ecological importance and the ongoing debate about natural versus anthropogenic drivers of landscape dynamics. In this study we present a multi-proxy palaeoecological study of the Matematico sediment core from the Southern Brazilian highlands, with the aim of disentangling the roles of climate and human activity in shaping late Holocene Araucaria Forest and Campos (grassland) dynamics. We combined pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), charcoal, and compound-specific hydrogen isotopes (δ2H) from leaf-wax n-alkanes, making this the first study in Southern Brazil to integrate these proxies within a single core. Between ∼3.500 and 2.100 cal yr BP (calibrated years before present), the landscape was dominated by Campos under relatively dry conditions, with low fire activity and limited forest cover. Subsequent Araucaria Forest expansion happened in two phases, which were identified at ∼1700 and ∼ 500 cal yr BP. Both phases correspond with shifts to more negative δ2H values, indicating a forest expansion due to wetter climatic conditions. However, the earlier wet phase, corresponding to the wettest interval of the last 8000 years in Southern Brazil, did not trigger lasting forest establishment, suggesting that climate alone was insufficient to drive large-scale forest expansion. Meanwhile, the later expansion at ∼500 cal yr BP a coincides with increased charcoal influx and archaeological evidence of intensived occurrence of Southern Jê groups of the Taquara/Itararé Tradition, suggesting potential human influence in this latter expansion. This integrated multi-proxy approach provides new insights into the ecological and cultural legacies of the today's threatened Araucaria Forest–Campos mosaic
Social media-mediated strategies of anti-racism for the Asian community: A systematic literature review
Full text linkUrgent action is needed to combat the rise in anti-Asian hate exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This systematic literature review examines previous studies on social media-mediated anti-racism strategies, given the increasing scholarly interest in the role of social media in addressing social justice issues and the need to empower both Asian and non-Asian communities in anti-racism efforts. The paper reviewed 38 peer-reviewed studies, categorizing them based on key attributes such as publication outlets, geographic focus, and methodological approaches. It also reviewed the identified anti-racism strategies in the papers, as well as their interrelationships with agents, effectiveness, and outcomes. The review also documented the associated challenges. Based on the findings, this review proposes four key directions for future research: (a) expanding the scope of strategies through diverse scholarly perspectives, (b) deepening understanding of these strategies across different national, socio-cultural, and platform-specific contexts, (c) identifying patterns of effectiveness by triangulating findings from multiple methodological approaches, and (d) systematically examining the challenges of leveraging social media for social justice initiatives