Protective guidelines and mitigation strategies for hot conditions in professional football : starting 11 hot tips for consideration

Elevated heat, humidity and solar load combined with low air movement independently and additively impair performance, increase the perception of effort and the risk of heat-related illnesses. For the specific context of professional football, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) heat guidelines are often used as the default policy. Still, these seem less protective than guidelines in other sports or from countries traditionally exposed to extreme hot conditions. Following several high- profile international and continental competitions played in hot conditions (eg, 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil), a series of cross-sectional studies showed that national team players and their managers unanimously mentioned that the hot and humid conditions during these matches made it difficult as a team to perform. Such a concern is likely to be relevant for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup that will be held in the traditional June–July window across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and USA. Therefore, to better protect players’ health and performance during training and match play in hot conditions, we present our starting 11 Hot Tips that should be considered and facilitated by governing bodies, competition organisers, clubs, staff members and players.https://bmjopensem.bmj.comhj2023Sports Medicin

Foreign Capital Inflow, Skilled-Unskilled Wage Inequality and Unemployment of Unskilled Labour in a Fair Wage Model

This paper has developed a three-sector general equilibrium framework that explains unemployment of both skilled and unskilled labour. Unemployment of unskilled labour is of the Harris-Todaro (1970) type while unemployment of skilled labour is caused due to the validity of the FWH in the high-skill sector. There are two types of capital one of which is specific to the primary export sector while the other moves freely among the different sectors. Inflows of foreign capital of either type unambiguously improve the economic conditions of the unskilled working class. However, the effects on the skilled-unskilled wage inequality and the extent of unemployment of both types of labour crucially hinge on the properties implied by the efficiency function of the skilled workers

Injury prevention strategies at the FIFA 2014 World Cup: perceptions and practices of the physicians from the 32 participating national teams

Purpose The available scientific research regarding injury prevention practices in international football is sparse. The purpose of this study was to quantify current practice with regard to (1) injury prevention of top-level footballers competing in an international tournament, and (2) determine the main challenges and issues faced by practitioners in these national teams. Methods A survey was administered to physicians of the 32 competing national teams at the FIFA 2014 World Cup. The survey included 4 sections regarding perceptions and practices concerning non-contact injuries: (1) risk factors, (2) screening tests and monitoring tools, (3) preventative strategies and (4) reflection on their experience at the World Cup. Results Following responses from all teams (100%), the present study revealed the most important intrinsic (previous injury, accumulated fatigue, agonist:antagonist muscle imbalance) and extrinsic (reduced recovery time, training load prior to and during World Cup, congested fixtures) risk factors during the FIFA 2014 World Cup. The 5 most commonly used tests for risk factors were: flexibility, fitness, joint mobility, balance and strength; monitoring tools commonly used were: medical screen, minutes/matches played, subjective and objective wellness, heart rate and biochemical markers. The 5 most important preventative exercises were: flexibility, core, combined contractions, balance and eccentric. Conclusions The present study showed that many of the National football (soccer) teams’ injury prevention perceptions and practices follow a coherent approach. There remains, however, a lack of consistent research findings to support some of these perceptions and practices

Accelerometery and Heart Rate Responses of Professional Fast-Medium Bowlers in One-Day and Multi-Day Cricket

The physical demands of fast-medium bowling are increasingly being recognised, yet comparative exploration of the differing demands between competitive formats (i.e. one-day [OD] versus multi-day [MD] matches) remain minimal. The aim of this study was to describe in-match physiological profiles of professional fast-medium bowlers from England across different versions of competitive matches using a multivariable wearable monitoring device. Seven professional cricket fast-medium bowlers wore the BioharnessTM monitoring device during matches, over three sea-sons (>80 hours in-match). Heart Rate (HR) and Acceleromety (ACC) was compared across match types (OD, MD) and differ-ent in-match activity states (Bowling, Between over bowling, Fielding). Peak acceleration during OD bowling was significantly higher in comparison to MD cricket ([OD vs. MD] 234.1 ± 57.9 vs 226.6 ± 32.9 ct·episode-1, p < 0.05, ES = 0.11-0.30). Data for ACC were also higher during OD than MD fielding activities (p < 0.01, ES = 0.11-.30). OD bowling stimulated higher mean HR responses (143 ± 14 vs 137 ± 16 beats·min-1, p < 0.05, ES = 0.21) when compared to MD matches. This increase in OD crick-et was evident for both between over (129 ± 9 vs 120 ± 13 beats·min-1,p < 0.01, ES = 0.11-0.50) and during fielding (115 ± 12 vs 106 ± 12 beats·min-1, p < 0.01, ES = 0.36) activity. The increased HR and ACC evident in OD matches suggest greater acute physical loads than MD formats. Therefore, use of wearable technology and the findings provided give a valuable appreciation of the differences in match loads, and thus required physiological preparation and recovery in fast-medium bowlers

Evaluation of the pilot implementation of the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill-Mix in Emergency Care Settings - Report 2

Arising from efforts to introduce a systematic approach to the determination of safe and appropriate nurse staffing levels in the Irish healthcare system, where historical need and legacy issues were often key determinants in staffing decisions, the Department of Health published a policy document titled: A Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix in General and Specialist Medical and Surgical Care Settings in Ireland (Department of Health 2018) (henceforth referred to as the Framework). Based on the research undertaken by a research team from University College Cork, the University of Southampton, University of Technology Sydney, and National University of Ireland Galway (Drennan at al. 2018), this report outlined a number of recommendations to ensure staffing levels in medical and surgical wards in acute hospitals were safe and effective in the delivery of care. In a continuation of this evidence-based approach, the Department of Health made the decision to extend the model to develop a framework for emergency care settings; this resulted in the publication of a draft document titled: A Pilot to Implement the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix in Emergency Care Settings (Department of Health, 2018). This document outlined a number of recommendations to ensure the safe staffing of emergency care settings. Central among these recommendations was the introduction of a systematic approach to the determination of staffing levels, the adjustment of skill mix to ensure that care was delivered by 85% RN and 15% HCA, and to ensure that the CNM 2 role was 100% supervisory. The research in this report provides data on the implementation of the recommendations of the Draft Framework in three emergency departments (EDs) and one injury unit (IU). Exploring the extent to which changes in staffing within the selected departments have had an impact on patientsâ experience within the emergency care setting, as well as on the experience of the nursing and healthcare assistant workforce and on organisational factors, this report outlines the methods and results of the programme of research examining the impact of introducing a pilot safe staffing framework to emergency care settings

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements