Evaluating a Fire Department’s Conditioning Program’s Ability to Predict Tactical Performance from Physical Fitness Testing

Firefighters’ (FF) physical fitness (PF) levels affect their ability to carry out daily tasks and meet unforeseen emergencies. Fire departments (FD) design simulations via the physical ability test (PAT) as an occupational-specific metric of PF. PAT is used both in recruitment and as an indicator of FFs’ on-going PF. However, PATs are labor-/time-/cost-sensitive. Could PF tests reveal recruits’ level of conditioning and predict PAT scores in frugality? PURPOSE: Identify relationships between selected PF components’ scores and PAT performance on City of Hialeah’s Fire Department’s (HFD) specific PAT. METHODS: Forty-five FF (age 26±5SD) performed a battery of PF tests assessing body composition (BF%), cardiorespiratory endurance (1½ mile run), upper-body muscular endurance (pullups, pushups, situps). A timed PAT of nine consecutive events (stair climb, hoist evolution, forcible entry, hose advance, victim-mannequin drag, ladder carry/climb, extrication exercise, confined space crawl) performed to assess tactical performance. Same PF tests repeated following a non-customized 8-week conditioning program. Linear regressions for PAT (Y) and PF tests (X’s) at pre- and post-conditioning period performed to explore relationships and create the pre-/post-prediction models. T-test performed on unstandardized coefficients to compare the pre-post models (SPSS, p \u3c 0.05). RESULTS: Pre-PAT significantly correlated with pre-PF: BF% (r=.4, p=.004), 1½ mile (r=.54, pr=-.4, p=.009), pushups (r=-.5, pr=.31, p=.02), pullups (r=-.4, p=.002), pushups (r=-.4, p=.003). PF tests significantly predicted Pre- (R2=.45, F5,39=6.4, pR2=.26, F5,39=2.7, p=.03). Pre-PAT model was significantly higher than the Post-PAT regression model (t44=4.5, pCONCLUSION: HFD’s selected PF tests are significantly correlated with PAT and contributed to the models’ predictive power. Identifying PF components that, not only condition individuals for the PAT, but also predict performance, could be useful for recruits/FFs and officers, respectively. Administrators need to re-evaluate current conditioning practices to better serve the FFs. Future modeling may need to include skilled-related PF tests

This Research does not Influence Policy

This article concerns a study whose questions, methods and analytical conclusions were the work of a group of Karimojong in Uganda. Its report included text and photographs, plain language, direct voices and faces, and little theorising. When it was disseminated it appealed to local people and to a development consultant concerned with inclusion, but was dismissed as useless by a donor concerned with influencing government policy. This article looks beyond social discrimination and power in understanding these reactions, and explores the communicative encounter itself, asking what makes work relevant, meaningful and influential? This research doesn't influence policy, but it does influence local action and the work of reflective intermediaries which, after all, is important

Enter Mercury, Sleeping: Delivering Prayers on the Early Modern Stage

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP via the DOI in this recor

A united statement of the global chiropractic research community against the pseudoscientific claim that chiropractic care boosts immunity.

BACKGROUND: In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) posted reports claiming that chiropractic care can impact the immune system. These claims clash with recommendations from the World Health Organization and World Federation of Chiropractic. We discuss the scientific validity of the claims made in these ICA reports. MAIN BODY: We reviewed the two reports posted by the ICA on their website on March 20 and March 28, 2020. We explored the method used to develop the claim that chiropractic adjustments impact the immune system and discuss the scientific merit of that claim. We provide a response to the ICA reports and explain why this claim lacks scientific credibility and is dangerous to the public. More than 150 researchers from 11 countries reviewed and endorsed our response. CONCLUSION: In their reports, the ICA provided no valid clinical scientific evidence that chiropractic care can impact the immune system. We call on regulatory authorities and professional leaders to take robust political and regulatory action against those claiming that chiropractic adjustments have a clinical impact on the immune system

Gamma-ray and radio properties of six pulsars detected by the fermi large area telescope

We report the detection of pulsed γ-rays for PSRs J0631+1036, J0659+1414, J0742-2822, J1420-6048, J1509-5850, and J1718-3825 using the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly known as GLAST). Although these six pulsars are diverse in terms of their spin parameters, they share an important feature: their γ-ray light curves are (at least given the current count statistics) single peaked. For two pulsars, there are hints for a double-peaked structure in the light curves. The shapes of the observed light curves of this group of pulsars are discussed in the light of models for which the emission originates from high up in the magnetosphere. The observed phases of the γ-ray light curves are, in general, consistent with those predicted by high-altitude models, although we speculate that the γ-ray emission of PSR J0659+1414, possibly featuring the softest spectrum of all Fermi pulsars coupled with a very low efficiency, arises from relatively low down in the magnetosphere. High-quality radio polarization data are available showing that all but one have a high degree of linear polarization. This allows us to place some constraints on the viewing geometry and aids the comparison of the γ-ray light curves with high-energy beam models

Phospholipase D signaling: orchestration by PIP2 and small GTPases

Hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine by phospholipase D (PLD) leads to the generation of the versatile lipid second messenger, phosphatidic acid (PA), which is involved in fundamental cellular processes, including membrane trafficking, actin cytoskeleton remodeling, cell proliferation and cell survival. PLD activity can be dramatically stimulated by a large number of cell surface receptors and is elaborately regulated by intracellular factors, including protein kinase C isoforms, small GTPases of the ARF, Rho and Ras families and, particularly, by the phosphoinositide, phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). PIP2 is well known as substrate for the generation of second messengers by phospholipase C, but is now also understood to recruit and/or activate a variety of actin regulatory proteins, ion channels and other signaling proteins, including PLD, by direct interaction. The synthesis of PIP2 by phosphoinositide 5-kinase (PIP5K) isoforms is tightly regulated by small GTPases and, interestingly, by PA as well, and the concerted formation of PIP2 and PA has been shown to mediate receptor-regulated cellular events. This review highlights the regulation of PLD by membrane receptors, and describes how the close encounter of PLD and PIP5K isoforms with small GTPases permits the execution of specific cellular functions

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

What Pinnipeds Have to Say about Human Speech, Music, and the Evolution of Rhythm

Research on the evolution of human speech and music benefits from hypotheses and data generated in a number of disciplines. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the high relevance of pinniped research for the study of speech, musical rhythm, and their origins, bridging and complementing current research on primates and birds. We briefly discuss speech, vocal learning, and rhythm from an evolutionary and comparative perspective. We review the current state of the art on pinniped communication and behavior relevant to the evolution of human speech and music, showing interesting parallels to hypotheses on rhythmic behavior in early hominids. We suggest future research directions in terms of species to test and empirical data needed