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The perfect storm: a meta-ethnography of the motivations, behaviours, and experiences of competitive bodybuilders
No full textStudies investigating competitive bodybuilding have primarily done so from a pathologizing perspective, and have often considered aspects of the competitive bodybuilding lifestyle in isolation, therefore overlooking the broader motivations underlying individuals’ engagement in the sport. The current study addressed these limitations by using a meta-ethnographic approach to review the existing competitive bodybuilding literature as a collective. Synthesis of 20 published studies relating to competitive bodybuilders’ motivations, behaviours, and experiences resulted in the construction of five third-order constructs: a journey of self-discovery and improvement, gaining a new identity, enacting control, conditional and unconditional social support, and decisional balance. Encapsulated as a ‘perfect storm’, the results offer novel conceptual understanding of how the interplay of personality traits, life experiences, and situational factors drive competitors to begin and maintain their participation in competitive bodybuilding, the social support they experience, and the role of control in competitors’ motivations, harm management, and justificatory processes. From an applied perspective, the study has implications in terms of both support provision and harm management
How persuasive is woke brand communication on social media? Evidence from a consumer engagement analysis on Facebook
Get PDF© 2024, Springer Nature. The attached document (embargoed until 21/12/2024) is an author produced version of a paper published in Journal of Brand Management uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.<br/
Pulmonary Hypertension-Associated Right Ventricular Cardiomyocyte Remodelling Reduces Treprostinil Function
No full text(1) Pulmonary hypertension (PH)-associated right ventricular (RV) failure is linked to a reduction in pulmonary vasodilators. Treprostinil has shown effectiveness in PAH patients with cardiac decompensation, hinting at potential cardiac benefits. We investigated treprostinil’s synergy with isoprenaline in RV and LV cardiomyocytes. We hypothesised that disease-related RV structural changes in cardiomyocytes would reduce contractile responses and cAMP/PKA signalling activity. (2) We induced PH in male Sprague Dawley rats using monocrotaline and isolated their ventricular cardiomyocytes. The effect of in vitro treprostinil and isoprenaline stimulation on contraction was assessed. FRET microscopy was used to study PKA activity associated with treprostinil stimulation in AKAR3-NES FRET-based biosensor-expressing cells. (3) RV cells exhibited maladaptive remodelling with hypertrophy, impaired contractility, and calcium transients compared to control and LV cardiomyocytes. Combining treprostinil and isoprenaline failed to enhance inotropy in PH RV cardiomyocytes. PH RV cardiomyocytes displayed an aberrant contractile behaviour, which the combination treatment could not rectify. Finally, we observed decreased PKA activity in treprostinil-treated PH RV cardiomyocytes. (4) PH-associated RV cardiomyocyte remodelling reduced treprostinil sensitivity, inotropic support, and impaired relaxation. Overall, this study highlights the complexity of RV dysfunction in advanced PH and suggests the need for alternative therapeutic strategies
‘I don't know what is autism, what is normal teenage behaviour, and what is naughtiness’: Conceptualising child and adolescent to parent violence in the context of neurodevelopmental difference
No full textThis article presents findings from a UK-based qualitative study that explored parents/carers experiences of child to parent violence (CPV) from their child who has a neurodevelopmental difference. The study used semi-structured interviews with 15 mothers who were experiencing physical and psychological violence from their child, often on a daily basis. Findings show that parents struggled to make sense of the violence, often feeling conflicted between whether the violence was the result of their child's neurodevelopmental challenges, ‘normal’ teenage behaviour or, in some cases, their child's poor mental health. Parents also recognised the inappropriateness of common advice they were given to address CPV. The implications of these complex sense-making practices are discussed in relation to future research and practice
Social supermarkets as food support innovations::exploring their nutritional implications and members
No full textE-learning based Cloud Computing Environment: A Systematic Review, Challenges, and Opportunities
No full textNew technologies drive educational shifts, transforming offline to online learning. This study investigates e-learning and cloud computing integration to understand synergies and their potential impact. The study addresses two primary research questions: the influence of e-learning on factors like architecture, software, performance, security, hardware, network, and virtual aspects, and the examination of cloud computing services and models such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and S.O.A. The research aims to provide insights into how e-learning is incorporated in a cloud computing environment. The motivation behind this study is to investigate the intricate relationship between e-learning and cloud computing. By analyzing 154 scientific papers, the study delves into the specifics of this integration, highlighting trends and areas that have received more attention. The study examines e-learning in a cloud computing environment, focusing on architecture (27%), general topics (21%), software (19%), and performance (18%). Virtual environments have fewer security issues, while storage and network focus are more prevalent. Cloud computing services are mainly all services, with software as a service (18%), infrastructure as a service (17%), and platforms as a service (10%). Most studies are based on public clouds (74%), all other models (11%), and hybrid clouds (3%). The study examines e-learning integration in cloud computing, highlighting limitations in hybrid and private clouds, specialized infrastructure, and a gap in platforms and infrastructure offerings
An Automated Precise Authentication of Vehicles for Enhancing the Visual Security Protocols
No full textA new hybrid algorithm for intelligent detection of sudden decline syndrome of date palm disease
No full textDate palm is an important domestic cash crop in most countries. Sudden Decline Syndrome (SDS) causes a huge loss to the crop both in quality and quantity. The literature reports the significance of early detection of disease towards preventive measures to improve the quality of the crop. The number of prevailing detection methods limits to consideration of a certain aspect of disease identification. This study proposes a new hybrid fuzzy fast multi-Otsu K-Means (FFMKO) algorithm integrating the date palm image enhancement, robust thresholding, and optimal clustering for significant disease identification. The algorithm adopts a multi-operator image resizing cost function based on image energy and the dominant color descriptor, the adaptive Fuzzy noise filter, and Otsu image thresholding combined with K-Means clustering enhancements. Besides, we validate the process with histogram equalization and threshold transformation towards enhanced color feature extraction of date palm images. The algorithm authenticates findings on a local dataset of 3293 date palm images and, on a benchmarked data set as well. It achieves an accuracy of 94.175% for successful detection of SDS that outperforms the existing similar algorithms. The impactful findings of this study assure the fast and authentic detection of the disease at an earlier stage to uplift the quality and quantity of the date palm and boost the agriculture-based economy
