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Editorial: Cybersecurity and artificial intelligence: advances, challenges, opportunities, threats
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Comparing talent development environments of girls and boys in handball and ice hockey in Norway
Get PDFCurrently, there is little research on successful talent development environments (TDEs) focusing on women and girls. In response, the main aim of the present study was to compare TDEs of age‐specific national teams for girls and boys in the Norwegian context (N = 216: 92 girls and 124 boys). Gender differences were investigated in the two different sports of handball and ice hockey, which in the Norwegian context represent more and less successful sports (handball and ice hockey, respectively). Before investigating gender differences in the two sports, a necessary first step was to investigate the psychometric properties of Norwegian version of the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire (TDEQ‐5). Results support the Norwegian TDEQ‐5 to be a reliable and valid measure within the Norwegian context. The successful sport of Norwegian handball showed no significant gender differences regarding TDE. The less successful and male dominated sport of Norwegian ice hockey showed girls to score lower on several TDEQ factors compared to boys. Results also showed ice hockey having lower TDEQ scores compared to handball. We argue that handball provide similarly functional TDEs for girls and boys, making gender equality a characteristic feature of a TDE that is successful both in terms of mass participation and international achievements
Beyond Operational Fragility
Get PDFThis paper develops the Operational Fragility Index (OFI) as a statistical object on probability manifolds and random graphs, independent of any one domain. We derive local geometric interpretations of divergence-based components via Fisher information, give asymptotic justications for the peaks-over-threshold tail module using the Pickands-Balkema-de Haan limit, and recast ow bottleneck metrics as spectral functionals of weighted directed networks. We analyze predictability breakdown through fractional Brownian and multi-fractal scaling and show that the OFI's weighted-logit aggregation is a bounded, strictly monotone, Lipschitz mapping with stability under perturbations of inputs and weights. Dependence between components is handled with copulas; we obtain tail-dependence consequences for joint exceedances and provide a large-deviation bound for excursions of the composite index. The result is a general theory of systemic fragility indices with clear continuity, sensitivity, and convergence properties that extend the original engineering-style construction into a higher mathematical framework
Barriers and enablers of delivering asthma self-management to those with intellectual disabilities: A scoping review
No full textBackgroundRespiratory-related illness including asthma is a leading cause of avoidable higher mortality in those with intellectual disabilities. International guidelines stress the importance of good self-management in avoiding asthma-related deaths but give no guidance on how this is achieved with this vulnerable population.MethodA scoping review of published research to identify barriers and facilitators to promoting asthma self-management in people with intellectual disabilities.ResultsOnly six studies published from 2015 to 2022 met study inclusion criteria. Studies commonly reported that the education of patients and caregivers was critical, with a lack of education being a barrier to good asthma control. Three studies also highlighted the importance of caregivers and support workers in helping those with intellectual disabilities to self-manage their asthma.ConclusionsThis review highlights the paucity of research in this area. Further research is urgently needed to improve asthma self-management in those with intellectual disabilities thereby reducing asthma-related deaths
Shifts in dietary composition are linked to increased clutch size, but not brood size, in a UK urban Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus population
No full textCapsule: Over three decades, the garden bird community composition in Edinburgh has changed, probably in response to increased garden bird feeding, and this has increased prey biomass for Eurasian Sparrowhawks Accipiter nisus, coinciding with a significantly higher clutch size of Sparrowhawks over the same period. Aims: To study the potential impacts of a changing avian prey community on Sparrowhawk breeding success.Methods: We used a range of datasets to explore how changing trends in garden bird abundance in Edinburgh, UK might impact the diet and breeding success of Sparrowhawks.Results: Several important Sparrowhawk prey species increased in abundance in Edinburgh between 1998 and 2019, including Woodpigeon Columba palumbus, Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis and House Sparrow Passer domesticus, and others showed decreases, including Starling Sturnus vulgaris, Greenfinch Chloris chloris and Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs. These trends are similar to UK trends for garden bird populations. Sparrowhawk diet shifted towards smaller and larger prey sizes compared to an earlier study conducted between 1986 and 1989. Prey whose contribution to Sparrowhawk diet increased consisted mainly of larger species, such as Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon Columba livia and Magpie Pica pica. Across the key prey species, there was a significant correlation between trends in prey populations between 1998-2012 and change in the proportion in diet composition, suggesting changing diet reflected a changing prey base. Our results suggest that Sparrowhawk diet has become more diverse, with a more even spread of prey species relative to the earlier study. Sparrowhawk clutch size was significantly higher in 2009-15 compared to 1986-89, with an increase of almost one egg per clutch, but there were no significant differences between these periods in brood size. Conclusion: Our results are consistent with a bottom-up trophic effect of garden bird community composition on Sparrowhawk clutch size, but not brood size
The Effects of Neuromuscular Training on Electromyography, Lower Extremity Kinematics, and Ground Reaction Force During an Unanticipated Side-Cut on Recreational Female Hockey Players
Get PDFDuring an unpredictable side-cut, this study examined how a sport-specific neuromuscular training program (NMTP) influenced electromyography responses in the lower limb posterior muscles, leg movement angles, maximum vertical ground reaction force (vGRF), and the rate of force development of vGRF. Thirty-eight adult female recreational hockey players were randomly allocated into an intervention group (INT) or a control group (CON). Before beginning training or matches, the INT carried out the NMTP three times per week for eight weeks, whereas the CON performed their routine warm-up. A 45° sidecut (dominant leg only) was performed at baseline and after eight-weeks and recorded with a motion capture system. The effect of group and time, and their interaction, was investigated using a mixed-design ANOVA. After landing, the participants in the INT had greater activation of their gastrocnemius lateralis, gastrocnemius medialis, and gluteus maximus muscles than those in the CON. INT participants showed significantly lower amounts of maximum knee abduction and knee excursion, while there was an increase in these variables for the CON. At week eight, the vGRF RFD decreased for the INT but increased for the CON. Although non-significant, the overall muscle activity showed an increasing trend for the INT when it came to supervised NMTP for eight weeks compared to the effect seen in the CON. This activity caused greater alterations in the motion and forces of the lower body for the INT than the CON
Probing the co-evolution of Supermassive Black Holes and their hosts from scaling relations pairwise residuals: dominance of stellar velocity dispersion and host halo mass
Get PDFThe correlations between supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies still defy our understanding from both the observational and theoretical perspectives. Here, we perform pairwise residual analysis on the latest sample of local inactive galaxies with a uniform calibration of their photometric properties and with dynamically measured masses of their central SMBHs. The residuals reveal that stellar velocity dispersion and, possibly host dark matter halo mass , appear as the galactic properties most correlated with SMBH mass, with a secondary (weaker) correlation with spheroidal (bulge) mass, as also corroborated by additional machine learning tests. These findings may favour energetic/kinetic feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) as the main driver in shaping SMBH scaling relations. Two state-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulations, inclusive of kinetic AGN feedback, are able to broadly capture the mean trends observed in the residuals, although they tend to either favour as the most fundamental property, or generate too flat residuals. Increasing AGN feedback kinetic output does not improve the comparison with the data. In the Appendix, we also show that the galaxies with dynamically measured SMBHs are biased high in at fixed luminosity with respect to the full sample of local galaxies, proving that this bias is not a by-product of stellar mass discrepancies. Overall, our results suggest that probing the SMBH–galaxy scaling relations in terms of total stellar mass alone may induce biases, and that either current data sets are incomplete, and/or that more insightful modelling is required to fully reproduce observations
Implementation outcomes of the waves for change community-based task-shared prevention intervention for adolescent mental health in South Africa
Get PDFAdolescents face increased vulnerability to mental health conditions, particularly when exposed to multidimensional poverty and trauma and pronounced treatment gaps. Waves for Change, a Sport for Development (SfD) intervention, employs task-sharing through its ‘5-Pillar Method’ to build resilience and prevent mental health conditions among at-risk adolescents in South Africa. This study assessed the implementation outcomes of this Method using a mixed-methods design, incorporating interviews, focus groups, self-report questionnaires, document reviews and routine site assessments, with 69 stakeholders including staff, peer coaches, mental healthcare providers, social workers, teachers, and adolescents. A thematic analysis revealed key facilitators to successful implementation, including: a year-long preventative approach, creation of safe spaces for learning self-regulation skills, employment of youth coaches from local communities, incorporation of fun, group-based physical activities, modelling and repetition of desired skills, provision of transport and meals, government partnerships, and consistent weekly training and supervision. Implementation challenges included coach capacity, due to their education levels and own trauma experiences, measurement of fidelity to the Method and of adolescents’ emotional experiences, and some concerns around ocean safety. These findings provide valuable insights for implementing community-based SfD interventions for adolescents facing adversity, and contributes towards global evidence supporting task-shared mental health approaches in LMICs
Perceptually Adaptive Speech Clarity System for Reverberant Environments
Get PDFThis document outlines a perceptually adaptive audio system designed to improve the intelligibility of spoken announcements in highly reverberant environments. Using speech buffering, pacing modification, spectral shaping, and real-time feedback, the system enhances clarity without architectural intervention. The system is privacy-respecting, low-cost, and requires no retrofitting. It is also applicable to real-time interpersonal communication in noisy or complex environments. This is a timestamped public disclosure under a Creative Commons licence
Flexible Electrochemical Capacitors based on ZnO-Carbon Black Composite
Get PDFFlexible electrochemical capacitors (EC) or supercapacitors are found to be an efficient energy storage device for modern and future electronic gadgets that offer lightweight and compact energy solutions. In this work, we investigated the electrochemical and energy-storing performances of a flexible ZnO-carbon black (ZnO-CB) composite-based EC. The prepared ZnO-CB composite electrode exhibits a conductivity of 60.75 kS/m and it shows rough surface morphology which was observed through the scanning electron microscopic images. The cyclic voltammetry analysis reveals that the flexible ZnO-CB composite-based EC has a specific capacitance of 99.21 mF.cm−2 and a charge contribution of 0.198 C.cm−2 at a low scan rate of 1 mV.s−1. The energy density of the EC gives 13.80 µW.h.cm−2 at 1 mV.s−1 and 0.53 µWh.cm−2 at 100 mV.s−1. The energy storing performances are also observed through galvanostatic charging discharging analysis and provides a specific capacitance of 5.70 mF.cm−2 with energy and power densities of 54.11 µW.h.cm−2 and 0.104 mW. cm−2 respectively at a current density of 0.25 mA.cm−2. The bendability study of the device carried out in angles of 20°, 40° and 60° predicts its energy-storing performance under various bending angles. The observed energy-storing performances of the EC reveals its potential as a power source for operating flexible and wearable devices
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