Associations between motor competence and physical activity levels of children with intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorder: Movement matters

Motor competence is important for lifelong physical activity (PA). The current study aimed to examine associations between PA and motor competence. In total, 43 children aged 7–12 years with intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorder completed anthropometric measures, the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2, and wore a wrist accelerometer to capture total PA, moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), average acceleration, and intensity gradient. No significant associations were found between PA outcomes and motor competence. Motor competence performance was commonly ‘below average’ or ‘average’. The weakest subtests were upper limb coordination and strength. The strongest subtest was running speed and agility. Total weekly MVPA was 336.1 ± 150.3 min, higher than UK recommendations of 120-180 per week for disabled children and young people. Larger scale studies are needed to better understand the relationship between PA and motor competence. Future research should also consider the influence of environmental factors on PA in this group

Public division about climate change rooted in conflicting socio-political identities

Of the climate science papers that take a position on the issue, 97% agree that climate change is caused by humans1, but less than half of the US population shares this belief2. This misalignment between scientific and public views has been attributed to a range of factors, including political attitudes, socio-economic status, moral values, levels of scientific understanding, and failure of scientific communication. The public is divided between climate change 'believers' (whose views align with those of the scientific community) and 'sceptics' (whose views are in disagreement with those of the scientific community). We propose that this division is best explained as a socio-political conflict between these opposing groups. Here we demonstrate that US believers and sceptics have distinct social identities, beliefs and emotional reactions that systematically predict their support for action to advance their respective positions. The key implication is that the divisions between sceptics and believers are unlikely to be overcome solely through communication and education strategies, and that interventions that increase angry opposition to action on climate change are especially problematic. Thus, strategies for building support for mitigation policies should go beyond attempts to improve the public’s understanding of science, to include approaches that transform intergroup relations

Massage-like stroking boosts the immune system in mice

Recent clinical evidence suggests that the therapeutic effect of massage involves the immune system and that this can be exploited as an adjunct therapy together with standard drug-based approaches. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms behind these effects exploring the immunomodulatory function of stroking as a surrogate of massage-like therapy in mice. C57/BL6 mice were stroked daily for 8 days either with a soft brush or directly with a gloved hand and then analysed for differences in their immune repertoire compared to control non-stroked mice. Our results show that hand-but not brush-stroked mice demonstrated a significant increase in thymic and splenic T cell number (p lt 0.05; p lt 0.01). These effects were not associated with significant changes in CD4/CD8 lineage commitment or activation profile. The boosting effects on T cell repertoire of massage-like therapy were associated with a decreased noradrenergic innervation of lymphoid organs and counteracted the immunosuppressive effect of hydrocortisone in vivo. Together our results in mice support the hypothesis that massage-like therapies might be of therapeutic value in the treatment of immunodeficiencies and related disorders and suggest a reduction of the inhibitory noradrenergic tone in lymphoid organs as one of the possible explanations for their immunomodulatory function

Online networks of racial hate: A systematic review of 10 years of research on cyber-racism

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The ways in which the Internet can facilitate the expression and spread of racist views and ideologies have been the subject of a growing body of research across disciplines. To date, however, there has been no systematic reviews of this research. To synthesise current knowledge on the topic and identify directions for future research, we systematically review a decade of research on cyber-racism as perpetrated by groups and individuals (i.e., according to the source of cyber-racism). Overall, the cyber-racism research reviewed shows that racist groups and individuals use different communication channels, are driven by different goals, adopt different strategies, and the effects of their communication are distinctive. Despite these differences, both groups and individuals share a high level of skill and sophistication when expressing cyber-racism. Most of the studies reviewed relied on qualitative analyses of online textual data. Our review suggests there is a need for researchers to employ a broader array of methods, devote more attention to targets’ perspectives, and extend their focus by exploring issues such as the roles of Internet in mobilising isolated racist individuals and in enabling ideological clustering of supporters of racist ideologies