The Effect of Joint Versus Soft Tissue Flossing on Overall Performance in the Lower Extremities

Effective warm-up routines result in a reduction in muscle soreness post-exercise, a lessened risk of injury, and an enhanced performance output ability. Existing research has shown promising effects of muscle tissue flossing, a novel method of warming up in which a latex band is used to apply pressure to a specific area in the body. The purpose of this study was to determine how active college students respond to flossing applied to both a joint as well as soft tissue in the lower extremities, focusing on the ankle joint and calf muscle. Floss bands were applied bilaterally for each of two visits and remained there for a total of two minutes. Subjects walked around to regain blood flow before completing each of the three outcome tests. Twenty minutes post- treatment, each of the three outcome tests were repeated. Subjects (n=7, 86% female) conducted tests on power (vertical countermovement jump test), range of motion (weight-bearing lunge test), and balance (dynamic leap and balance test) that were compared between the two flossing treatment sites. There was no significant difference in performance between the immediate post-treatment and the 20-minute post-treatment. The treatment sites were equally effective, but significant differences were found for the vertical jump immediately following removal of the floss bands in favor of the ankle site (0.439+0.040) over the calf site (0.419+0.039, p=\u3c0.001). In conclusion, active college students responded equally to floss band application in a joint and soft tissue area in the lower extremities

Supporting the transition of children and young people with a spinal cord injury from paediatric to adult healthcare services

The seamless transition from the paediatric to the adult healthcare system, termed healthcare transition, is a significant and critical factor in fostering independence and improved health outcomes. Empirical evidence confirms that a structured healthcare transition process can improve outcomes for young people with chronic conditions. However, to date, healthcare transition research has not explored the impact of healthcare transition interventions for young people with paediatric onset spinal cord injuries. Based on lived experience, people with disabilities have knowledge and expertise to share with researchers. In healthcare research and intervention design, end-user involvement is paramount, as interventions designed in this way are better adapted to the specific needs of users and are often more innovative. Although studies report involving young people with chronic conditions in the development of healthcare transition interventions, few details have been provided as to how this was achieved. This study fills an important gap, as it details how a healthcare transition intervention was co-designed and developed with young people with paediatric onset spinal cord injuries and parents/caregivers. The aim of this study was to co-design, develop, implement, and evaluate a healthcare transition intervention to support young people with spinal cord injuries. This study has provided new insight into the healthcare transition needs of young people with spinal cord injuries. It is also the first study to co-design and develop a healthcare transition intervention in partnership with young people with spinal cord injuries and parents/caregivers. Although the sample was small, it has shown that it is possible to meaningfully engage and empower young people with spinal cord injuries and parents/caregivers in the co-design of a healthcare transition intervention. Using a participatory action research approach and co-design activities resulted in enhanced end-user acceptability of the developed healthcare transition intervention. The initial findings from this research also highlight that the ‘SCI Healthcare Transition’ website is a novel, innovative intervention that is feasible and acceptable. However, further evaluation of the website is needed to determine the impact on healthcare transition experiences and success

A Longitudinal Study Of Maternal Style, Young Adult Temperament And Cognition, And Program Outcome In Guide Dogs

How does maternal style, experienced over the first few weeks of life, affect later outcomes? Equally important, what is the role of an adolescent’s temperament and cognitive skills? The quest to understand which factors early in development lead to positive life outcomes is an endeavor that transcends species boundaries. In this dissertation, I explore the nature of these relationships using data collected from birth to adolescence in a cohort of prospective guide dogs. In Study 1, I quantify the behavior of mothers (n = 21) toward their litters. The results revealed that canine maternal style can be summarized in one principal component that explained a significant proportion of the variation and was stable across weeks, variable across individuals, and related to maternal cortisol and experimental measures. In Study 2, I examine the influence of early maternal style on later behavior, as well as on success in the guide dog program up to two years later. I also evaluated the influence of young adult temperament and cognition on success. Measures of maternal style as well as adolescent temperament and cognition were significantly associated with outcome in the guide dog program, even when controlling for each other. Successful dogs had less involved mothers as puppies, and demonstrated superior problem-solving skills, lower levels of perseveration, and reduced anxious vocal behavior as young adults. Temperament and cognition are frequently assessed in tasks purporting to measure one or the other, but large-scale studies usually only include tasks assigned to either domain. Dogs in our study completed a battery of both temperament and cognitive tasks. Thus, in Study 3, I address the categorization of ‘temperament’ and ‘cognitive’ tasks using both confirmatory and exploratory analyses and validate the findings using subjective ratings from puppy raisers, salivary cortisol, and program outcome measures. Forcing tasks into groups defined by cognition or temperament led to poor results, whereas a bottom-up approach revealed that putative cognitive and temperament measures interact in unanticipated ways. Taken together, these results suggest that mothering and the not-so-straightforward interplay of temperament and cognition provide important clues to the future success of an animal

Mind Body Health Interventions in Preschoolers

There are myriad of mind body health (MBH) interventions that are effective for the preschool population. Supports may include, yet are not limited to, journal expression, yoga, music therapy, mindfulness, video self-modeling, and muscle relaxation. These particular interventions have resulted in positive changes for preschoolers with anxiety, depression, stress, and attention, as well as various physical conditions. Benefits of these MBH interventions include being effective with respect to teacher time, economically feasible, and are well-received by parents, teachers, and preschoolers

Evaluation of Aedes aegypti densonucleosis (AeDNV) infection in adult mosquito mortality

Aedes aegypti densonucleosis virus (AeDNV) has long been considered a likely agent in biologic control against arthropod-borne diseases. Extensive studies have been done to evaluate infection and pathogeneses in Aedes aegypti larvae and pupae, but only primary studies have been preformed in adults. The primary studies on adult mortality produced a two part mortality curve that showed high levels of early mortality, low levels of intermediate mortality and high levels of late mortality. It was hypothesized that the high levels of early mortality were due to high levels of virus infection, whereas the high levels late mortality were due to old age. In this study we analyzed the mosquitoes that died early and late in the mortality assay with quantitative PCR to determine virus titers in individual mosquitoes. We found that there is no significant difference between titer level of mosquitoes that died in the early part of the curve (Day 17-29), which had an average of 1.264 x 1011 genome equivalents per ml and those that died in the late part of the curve (Day 45-54), which had an average of 2.255 x 1011 genome equivalents per ml.Highest Honors

Future Prospects for Local Energy Markets : Lessons from the Cornwall LEM

The Cornwall Local Energy Market was a four year trial (2016-2020) jointly funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Centrica. The aim was to unlock network capacity through intelligent management of supply and demand in constrained areas of the distribution network in Cornwall. This was achieved by installing a range of renewable and storage devices in homes and businesses and setting up an online trading platform to allow the Distribution Network Operator to purchase flexibility services from participants

Modeling Galactic Conformity with the Color-Halo Age Relation in the Illustris Simulation

Comparisons between observational surveys and galaxy formation models find that the mass of dark matter haloes can largely explain galaxies' stellar mass. However, it remains uncertain whether additional environmental variables, generally referred to as assembly bias, are necessary to explain other galaxy properties. We use the Illustris Simulation to investigate the role of assembly bias in producing galactic conformity by considering 18,000 galaxies with $M_{stellar}$ > $2 \times 10^9$ $M_{\odot}$. We find a significant signal of galactic conformity: out to distances of about 10 Mpc, the mean red fraction of galaxies around redder galaxies is higher than around bluer galaxies at fixed stellar mass. Dark matter haloes exhibit an analogous conformity signal, in which the fraction of haloes formed at earlier times (old haloes) is higher around old haloes than around younger ones at fixed halo mass. A plausible interpretation of galactic conformity can be given as a combination of the halo conformity signal with the galaxy color-halo age relation: at fixed stellar mass, particularly toward the low-mass end, Illustris' galaxy colors correlate with halo age, with the reddest galaxies (often satellites) being preferentially found in the oldest haloes. In fact, we can explain the galactic conformity effect with a simple semi-empirical model, by assigning stellar mass based on halo mass (abundance matching) and by assigning galaxy color based on halo age (age matching). We investigate other interpretations for the galactic conformity, particularly its dependence on the isolation criterion and on the central-satellite information. Regarding comparison to observations, we conclude that the adopted selection/isolation criteria, projection effects, and stacking techniques can have a significant impact on the measured amplitude of the conformity signal.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS (minor revisions to match accepted version

Protocol for developing a healthcare transition intervention for young people with spinal cord injuries using a participatory action research approach

Introduction: While healthcare transition (HCT) interventions are recognised as an important area in paediatric rehabilitation, there has been limited research focusing on young people with spinal cord injuries (SCI). In this study, researchers will collaborate with young people with SCI and their parents/caregivers to develop, implement and evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a HCT intervention aimed at supporting young people with SCI during their transition from paediatric to adult healthcare services. Methods and analysis: A participatory action research (PAR) approach will be used to co-develop the HCT intervention with young people with SCI aged 14–25 years and their parents/caregivers. Three phases will be conducted to address the five objectives of this study. Phase 1 will use semi-structured interviews to explore young people and parent/caregivers’ experiences of HCT. In Phase 2a, both young people and parent/caregivers will be co-researchers. They will be included in the analysis of the interviews and will be asked to participate in co-design workshops to inform the development of a prototype HCT intervention. In Phase 2b, using focus groups, feedback on the prototype HCT intervention will be collected. In Phase 3, the refined prototype HCT intervention will be implemented, and young people with SCI and parent/ caregivers will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the HCT intervention in semi-structured interviews. A reference group, including stakeholders and end users, will be consulted at different time points. Ethics and dissemination The study has received ethics approval from Western Sydney University Human Research and Ethics Committee (H14029). The researcher will use the results of this study as chapters in a thesis to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy degree. The findings will be disseminated via publication in peer-reviewed journals and will be presented at local, national or international conferences. Trial registration number ACTRN1262100050085

Predictive Models of Assistance Dog Training Outcomes Using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire and a Standardized Temperament Evaluation

Assistance dogs can greatly improve the lives of people with disabilities. However, a large proportion of dogs bred and trained for this purpose are deemed unable to successfully fulfill the behavioral demands of this role. Often, this determination is not finalized until weeks or even months into training, when the dog is close to 2 years old. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop objective selection protocols that can identify dogs most and least likely to succeed, from early in the training process. We assessed the predictive validity of two candidate measures employed by Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), a national assistance dog organization headquartered in Santa Rosa, CA. For more than a decade, CCI has collected data on their population using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) and a standardized temperament assessment known internally as the In-For-Training (IFT) test, which is conducted at the beginning of professional training. Data from both measures were divided into independent training and test datasets, with the training data used for variable selection and cross-validation. We developed three predictive models in which we predicted success or release from the training program using C-BARQ scores (N = 3,569), IFT scores (N = 5,967), and a combination of scores from both instruments (N = 2,990). All three final models performed significantly better than the null expectation when applied to the test data, with overall accuracies ranging from 64 to 68%. Model predictions were most accurate for dogs predicted to have the lowest probability of success (ranging from 85 to 92% accurate for dogs in the lowest 10% of predicted probabilities), and moderately accurate for identifying the dogs most likely to succeed (ranging from 62 to 72% for dogs in the top 10% of predicted probabilities). Combining C-BARQ and IFT predictors into a single model did not improve overall accuracy, although it did improve accuracy for dogs in the lowest 20% of predicted probabilities. Our results suggest that both types of assessments have the potential to be used as powerful screening tools, thereby allowing more efficient allocation of resources in assistance dog selection and training.Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries of Denmark (DFFE) [3304-FVFP-09-F-011]Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The well-being and work-related stress of senior school leaders in Wales and Northern Ireland during COVID-19 “educational leadership crisis”: A cross-sectional descriptive study

The COVID-19 pandemic caused far-reaching societal changes, including significant educational impacts affecting over 1.6 billion pupils and 100 million education practitioners globally. Senior school leaders were at the forefront and were exposed to particularly high demands during a period of “crisis leadership”. This occupation were already reporting high work-related stress and large numbers leaving the profession preceding COVID-19. This cross-sectional descriptive study through the international COVID-Health Literacy network aimed to examine the well-being and work-related stress of senior school leaders (n = 323)in Wales (n = 172) and Northern Ireland (n = 151) during COVID-19 (2021–2022). Findings suggest that senior school leaders reported high workloads (54.22±11.30 hours/week), low well-being (65.2% n = 202, mean WHO-5 40.85±21.57), depressive symptoms (WHO-5 34.8% n = 108) and high work-related stress (PSS-10: 29.91±4.92). High exhaustion (BAT:high/very high 89.0% n = 285) and specific psychosomatic complaints (experiencing muscle pain 48.2% n = 151) were also reported, and females had statistically higher outcomes in these areas. School leaders were engaging in self-endangering working behaviours; 74.7% (n = 239) gave up leisure activities in favour of work and 63.4% (n = 202) sacrificed sufficient sleep, which was statistically higher for females. These findings are concerning given that the UK is currently experiencing a “crisis” in educational leadership against a backdrop of pandemic-related pressures. Senior leaders’ high attrition rates further exacerbate this, proving costly to educational systems and placing additional financial and other pressures on educational settings and policy response. This has implications for senior leaders and pupil-level outcomes including health, well-being and educational attainment, requiring urgent tailored and targeted support from the education and health sectors. This is particularly pertinent for Wales and Northern Ireland as devolved nations in the UK, who are both implementing or contemplating major education system level reforms, including new statutory national curricula, requiring significant leadership, engagement and ownership from the education profession.<br/