1,721,076 research outputs found
TFR Episode 015 Dr. Robin Orr: Load Carriage and tactical fitness
No full textDr. Robin Orr joins us on the TFR Strength and Conditioning Podcast from Australia to talk about load carriage and tactical fitness. Dr. Orr serves as the co-lead of the Bond University Tactical Research Unit. His passion is researching the impacts of load carriage on tactical professionals and holds a doctoral degree in the subject. His bio, as per the Bond University website, states “Rob joined the Australian Army as an infantry soldier before transferring to the Defence Force Physical Training Instructor (PTI) stream. As a PTI, Rob designed, developed, instructed and audited physical training programs for military personnel from both Australian and foreign defense forces. Posted to the Australian Defence Force Physical Training Instructor School he developed and delivered modules on the Combat Fitness Leader Course, The Basic PTI and Advanced PTI courses. Following completion of his master’s degree in physiotherapy, Rob served as a military physiotherapist where his role included the clinical rehabilitation and project management of physical conditioning optimisation reviews. Serving as the Human Performance Officer for the Royal Military College and Special Operations units before joining the team at Bond University in 2012, Rob continues to serve in the Army Reserve as a Human Performance Officer and as a sessional presenter.As co-lead of the Bond University Tactical Research Unit, Rob’s fields of research include the physical conditioning and injury prevention of tactical personnel from trainees to specialists. With a doctoral degree in tactical load carriage, Rob’s passion is researching the impacts of load carriage on tactical personnel. Rob is the educational director of Tactical Strength and Conditioning – Australia and is the section editor for the Australian Strength and Conditioning Journal and editor for the NSCA TSAC Report.
Effect of grip size and grip strength on pistol marksmanship in police officers: A pilot study
Full text linkPolice officers may be required to use their firearms in self-defence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships between hand grip size and strength with pistol shooting accuracy in police officers. Twelve (age = 38.08 ± 6.24 years; height= 174.42 ± 7.33 cm) police officers had their hand sizes (palm width and hand span) and hand grip strength measured. Handgrip dynamometer was set at a Glock 17 pistol’s grip width (50 mm). The officers fired 10 rounds from their service pistols at a stationary target. Independent samples t-tests were performed to identify differences between the sexes. Correlations were used to investigate relationships between measures of hand size, strength, and marksmanship. Alpha levels were set at p < 0.05. Male officers were significantly stronger (p = 0.01) and had a bigger hand width (p = 0.03), but not hand span. There were no significant differences in marksmanship between the sexes. Neither hand size nor grip strength had a significant impact on marksmanship even though there were strong and significant relationships between hand size (span and MCP) and grip strength. A V-shaped curve appears to exist between grip strength and marksmanship and hand span and marksmanship, with a potential influencing factor being the standard sizing of the pistol grip. Keywords: law enforcement, shooting, pistol accuracy, firearm
Law enforcement personnel are willing to change, but report influencing beliefs and barriers to optimised dietary intake
Full text linkBackground: Law enforcement personnel have been recognized as having a high risk for several lifestyle-related health conditions which, in combination with the nature of their work (sedentary roles interspersed with intermittent high-intensity activity, shift work, and a high stress-load), can have a negative impact on their health. The aim of this study was to investigate the dietary habits and factors or barriers influencing these habits within a cohort of law enforcement personnel in the United States of America. Method: Cross-sectional data were obtained via validated paper-based surveys being the Perceived Barriers to Healthy Eating, Food Choice Questionnaire and Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants, Short Version. Results: A total of 159 participants (median age = 27 [range 19–60] years; 74% males) participated. Barriers to healthy eating included being busy and irregular working hours. Overall, 91% (n = 143) placed high importance on consuming nutritious food and 80% (n = 126) on food high in vitamins and minerals. A further 80% (n = 127) emphasized high protein content and 41% (n = 62) followed a high protein diet. Barriers to healthy eating included busy lifestyle (60%, n = 94), and irregular working hours (41%, n = 64). Overall, 80% (n = 127) were very willing to make changes in eating habits to be healthier. Conclusion: Law enforcement officers know what they should eat and report convenience and health the most important factors guiding their food choices. Knowing this, officers find challenges putting good dietary practices into practice due to factors like a busy lifestyle and irregular work hours. Reportedly “very willing” to make changes in their eating habits to be healthier, future interventions should focus on how to effect changes to their eating habits as opposed to focussing on what to eat.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Utility of incident and injury surveillance systems for incident and injury risk management in tactical populations
Full text linkPurpose: To explore differences between various Incident and Injury Surveillance Systems (IISS) in their designs and in the rates of injuries they report for army personnel, and to consider ways to optimise the utility of IISS to inform future efforts to control both cyclical and emergent incident and injury risks.Methods: Rates of injury reported for Australian Army personnel based on the Army's Work Health and Safety incident reporting system and rates of injury reported for Australian Army personnel and for US Army personnel based on ‘point-of-care’ injury surveillance systems were extracted from results of prior research by the authors.1 Factors affecting the utility of IISS were also ascertained from previous research.Results: Rates of injury reported for Australian Army personnel based on the Army's Work Health and Safety incident reporting system are substantially lower than rates of injury reported for Australian Army personnel and for US Army personnel based on ‘point-of-care’ injury surveillance systems.1 However, the latter do not allow for identification of ‘near misses’, dangerous exposures, hazards and similar incidents and factors that affect risk but do not result in immediate injury.1 The utility of IISS is affected by a range of factors, including1,2 data structure; data collection approaches; data completeness and integrity; context; organisational culture; communication between stakeholders; and analysis and reporting capabilities and timeliness.Conclusions: The utility of IISS is heavily dependent on the system accessibility, analysis and reporting capabilities available in real time to commanders, and on tactical and risk management contexts. When tactical taskings and associated incident and injury risks are cyclical or repeated, well-designed IISS using hybrid data collection approaches will be of high utility for risk management. In tactical units engaged in new and emerging operational contexts, IISS are less useful to inform management of emerging and novel incident and injury risks, and IISS should be supplemented by other key approaches to incident and injury risk identification and assessment, thus bringing together population health and work health and safety approaches to incident and injury risk management
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Profiling the Occupational Tasks and Physical Conditioning of Specialist Police
Full text linkSpecialist police are required to perform high risk and dangerous tasks that are physically demanding. The aims of this study were to establish the natures and contexts of tasks performed by specialist police officers and to explore the physical fitness regimes they undertake to maintain their operational fitness for these tasks. A survey approach was employed and members of operational units of the Australian and New Zealand Police Tactical Groups (PTG) participated in the survey. A total of nine (100%) PTG units cooperated, with 132 respondents (31% of the PTG operational members) from theseunits completing the online survey. The occupational task most commonly recently undertaken by PTG was a high risk warrant execution (62% of respondents) followed by rural operations (11% of respondents). The nature and environment of operations varied, and external load was carried in all operational circumstances, with loads typically 21-25 kg. All officers undertook regular physical training, with 73% focusing the physical training on occupation-specific training. Whether the training was actually occupation-specific was difficult to determine, given the current lack of research identifying the physical fitness requirements of key occupational tasks undertaken by specialist police
Selecting the Best of the Best: Associations between Anthropometric and Fitness Assessment Results and Success in Police Specialist Selection
Full text linkTo successfully complete specialist police selection, officers must be physically fit. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between performance on selected anthropometric and fitness tests and successful selection into a specialist police unit. Thirty-two male police officers (mean age = 29.48±4.99 years) participated in a Barrier Fitness Assessment (BFA), followed by a Specialist Selection Course (SSC). The BFA spanned two consecutive days of testing (pull-ups, push-ups, seven-stage sit-ups, a timed loaded pack march, a Multi-Stage Fitness Test, an agility run, a lift and carry task and a 300m swim assessment). The SSC occurred 4 weeks later and consisted of 8 days of intense police training. Officers who successfully completed the SSC were graded based on their performance and this determined their ultimate selection. Data were categorized into four participant groups: Group 1 - Did not complete the BFA; Group 2 - Completed the BFA but not the SSC; Group 3 - Completed the SSC and were not selected; and Group 4 - Completed the SSC and were selected. A Spearman’s rank order correlation analysis was conducted to assess the strengths of the relationships between selection stage achieved and scores on each of the predictor variables, with significance set at 0.05. Height (p=0.011), body weight (p=0.011), pull-ups (p=0.021) and push-ups (p=0.016), seven-stage sit-up scores (p=0.042) and lift and carry speed (p=0.010) were significantly and positively correlated with level of selection success. Results suggest that candidates wishing to attempt selection into specialist police units would benefit from being tall and training to optimize musculoskeletal strength and muscular endurance
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