Theorizing Scale in Critical Place-Name Studies

Building on broader developments in critical social theory, geographers have made significant strides in explicating the assumptions, motivations, and values involved in place naming. This has led to an emphasis on understanding the processes involved in the inscription, subversion, and revision of place names. Despite the increasingly sophisticated approaches found in place-name studies, the field of toponymy occupies a relatively minor position in academic geography. There are varied and complex reasons for this marginality, but perhaps the most salient critique is that place-name research has been slow to engage broader developments in geographic and social theory

Geopolitics of the Kaliningrad Exclave and Enclave: Russian and EU Perspectives

Two U.S. political geographers examine a range of geopolitical issues associated with the shifting sovereignty of Russia\u27s Kaliningrad Oblast (a part of the former German province of East Prussia) during the 20th century, as well as the region\u27s evolving geopolitical status as a consequence of the European Union\u27s enlargement to embrace Poland and Lithuania. They argue that Kaliningrad today can be considered a double borderland, situated simultaneously on the European Union\u27s border with Russia as well as physically separated from Russia, its home country, by the surrounding land boundaries of EU states. Although technically neither an exclave nor an enclave, they posit that in many ways it resembles both, and as such presents a unique set of problems for economic development and interstate relations

Spectacle, architecture and place at the Nuremberg Party Rallies: projecting a Nazi vision of past, present and future

Nuremberg, perhaps more than any other place, stands central among iconic images of Nazi Germany. The Nazi regime went to great lengths to inscribe its basic tenets into Nuremberg's urban landscape. While many are already familiar with the role Nuremberg played as the site of the annual Nazi Party Rallies, few realize that the Nazi building programme in Nuremberg placed great emphasis on redesigning the city's historical centre in addition to developing the extensive rally grounds on the city's edge. This article explores the architectural form, performative function and motivating ideologies associated with these extensive building programmes in Nuremberg and, rather than seeing them as two separate projects, highlights the intimate connections between the construction of the rally grounds on the city's edge and the concurrent redesign of the city's historical centre. Although seemingly irreconcilable in terms of style and scale, these efforts to build and rebuild in Nuremberg were actually seen as complementing elements in the regime's programme to create and project images of historical greatness, current political legitimacy and promises of future grandeur

Demographic Trends in Appalachia and Implications for Enrollments in Higher Education: The Case of Marshall University

Demographic Trends in Appalachia and Implications for Enrollments in Higher Education: The Case of Marshall University Joshua Hagen, James Leonard, and Aaron Nelson Given Appalachia’s relatively depressed economic profile and limited opportunities, especially for young adults, out-migration to other regions has long been a prominent feature of the region. More recently, declining fertility rates have contributed to create a population that increasing skews toward older age groups, both in absolute numbers and as percentages of the total. This demographic dynamic has broad implications for the socio-economic future of the region. Some of these challenges, like coping with health care costs for an increasingly elderly population, have already been much discussed, but the implications for education have received little attention. This presentation will examine recent demographic trends and future projections to gauge their probable impact on higher education enrollments in the region. Given that many of these demographic trends are most pronounced in the traditional coalfield regions of southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, the presentation will use Marshall University as a case study. Keywords: age demographics, higher education, population geography, West Virgini

Characterization of Injuries in Male and Female Ultimate Frisbee Players at the Elite Club-Level

# Background Ultimate Frisbee is a rapidly growing sport played in all levels of competition in men’s, women’s, and coed divisions. Despite widespread popularity, there remains a lack of research on injury risk and prevalence during a season. # Purpose To determine the prevalence of injuries among elite club-level men and women Ultimate Frisbee players and to identify elements associated with injury during a single season. # Study Design Descriptive epidemiological study. # Methods Voluntary preseason and postseason online surveys were distributed to local elite club-level Ultimate teams in 2019. Surveys assessed players’ lifetime Ultimate-associated injury history, injury status, training regimen, and other related elements. # Results Fifty-seven and 84 players were eligible to complete the preseason and postseason surveys, respectively. Prior to the 2019 season, 97% of female respondents and 100% of male respondents reported a previous Ultimate-related injury in their career, with all reporting a prior lower extremity injury. During the 2019 season, 56% of respondents reported being injured, and 12% missed one month or more of the season, with 88% of injured players reporting a lower extremity injury. Men reported more ankle and calf injuries than women, and there was a strong negative correlation between time missed due to injury during the 2018 season and the number of days per week spent weight-training and accumulated training. # Conclusion There is a high prevalence of lower extremity injury among elite club-level Ultimate players during a single season and pervasive lower extremity injury history may contribute to high injury prevalence. Observed injury patterns suggest targeted interventions including Nordic Hamstring Exercises and balance and proprioceptive training may decrease injury risk. Further research into this topic is needed to help reduce injury in these athletes. # Levels of Evidence Level 3

Reply to Comment on “Sloppy models, parameter uncertainty, and the role of experimental design"

available in PMC 2012 November 10.We welcome the commentary from Chachra, Transtrum, and Sethna1 regarding our paper “Sloppy models, parameter uncertainty, and the role of experimental design,”2 as their intriguing work shaped our thinking in this area.3 Sethna and colleagues introduced the notion of sloppy models, in which the uncertainty in the values of some combinations of parameters is many orders of magnitude greater than others.4 In our work we explored the extent to which large parameter uncertainties are an intrinsic characteristic of systems biology network models, or whether uncertainties are instead closely related to the collection of experiments used for model estimation. We were gratified to find the latter result –– that parameters are in principle knowable, which is important for the field of systems biology. The work also showed that small parameter uncertainties can be achieved and that the process can be greatly accelerated by using computational experimental design approaches5–9 deployed to select sets of experiments that effectively exercise the system in complementary directions

Changes in Maximal Strength and Home Run Performance in Ncaa Division I Baseball Players Across 3 Competitive Seasons: A Descriptive Study

The purpose of this longitudinal, descriptive study was to observe changes in maximal strength measured via isometric clean grip mid-thigh pull and home runs (total and home runs per game) across three years of training and three competitive seasons for four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 baseball players. A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed, revealing significant univariate effects of time for peak force (PF) (p = 0.003) and peak force allometrically scaled (PFa) (p = 0.002). Increases in PF were noted from season 1 to season 2 (p = 0.031) and season 3 (p = 0.004), but season 2 was not significantly different than season 3 (p = 0.232). Additionally, increases in PFa were noted from season 1 to season 2 (p = 0.010) and season 3 (p \u3c 0.001), but season 2 was not significantly different than season 3 (p = 0.052). Home runs per game rose from the 2009 (0.32) to 2010 season (1.35) and dropped during the 2011 season (1.07). A unique aspect of the study involves 2010 being the season in which ball-bat coefficient of restitution (BBCOR) bats were introduced to the NCAA competition

Interventions to support the resilience and mental health of frontline health and social care professionals during and after a disease outbreak, epidemic or pandemic: a mixed methods systematic review

Background Evidence from disease epidemics shows that healthcare workers are at risk of developing short‐ and long‐term mental health problems. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned about the potential negative impact of the COVID‐19 crisis on the mental well‐being of health and social care professionals. Symptoms of mental health problems commonly include depression, anxiety, stress, and additional cognitive and social problems; these can impact on function in the workplace. The mental health and resilience (ability to cope with the negative effects of stress) of frontline health and social care professionals ('frontline workers' in this review) could be supported during disease epidemics by workplace interventions, interventions to support basic daily needs, psychological support interventions, pharmacological interventions, or a combination of any or all of these. Objectives Objective 1: to assess the effects of interventions aimed at supporting the resilience and mental health of frontline health and social care professionals during and after a disease outbreak, epidemic or pandemic. Objective 2: to identify barriers and facilitators that may impact on the implementation of interventions aimed at supporting the resilience and mental health of frontline health and social care professionals during and after a disease outbreak, epidemic or pandemic. Search methods On 28 May 2020 we searched the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Global Index Medicus databases and WHO Institutional Repository for Information Sharing. We also searched ongoing trials registers and Google Scholar. We ran all searches from the year 2002 onwards, with no language restrictions. Selection criteria We included studies in which participants were health and social care professionals working at the front line during infectious disease outbreaks, categorised as epidemics or pandemics by WHO, from 2002 onwards. For objective 1 we included quantitative evidence from randomised trials, non‐randomised trials, controlled before‐after studies and interrupted time series studies, which investigated the effect of any intervention to support mental health or resilience, compared to no intervention, standard care, placebo or attention control intervention, or other active interventions. For objective 2 we included qualitative evidence from studies that described barriers and facilitators to the implementation of interventions. Outcomes critical to this review were general mental health and resilience. Additional outcomes included psychological symptoms of anxiety, depression or stress; burnout; other mental health disorders; workplace staffing; and adverse events arising from interventions. Data collection and analysis Pairs of review authors independently applied selection criteria to abstracts and full papers, with disagreements resolved through discussion. One review author systematically extracted data, cross‐checked by a second review author. For objective 1, we assessed risk of bias of studies of effectiveness using the Cochrane 'Risk of bias' tool. For objective 2, we assessed methodological limitations using either the CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) qualitative study tool, for qualitative studies, or WEIRD (Ways of Evaluating Important and Relevant Data) tool, for descriptive studies. We planned meta‐analyses of pairwise comparisons for outcomes if direct evidence were available. Two review authors extracted evidence relating to barriers and facilitators to implementation, organised these around the domains of the Consolidated Framework of Implementation Research, and used the GRADE‐CERQual approach to assess confidence in each finding. We planned to produce an overarching synthesis, bringing quantitative and qualitative findings together. Main results We included 16 studies that reported implementation of an intervention aimed at supporting the resilience or mental health of frontline workers during disease outbreaks (severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS): 2; Ebola: 9; Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS): 1; COVID‐19: 4). Interventions studied included workplace interventions, such as training, structure and communication (6 studies); psychological support interventions, such as counselling and psychology services (8 studies); and multifaceted interventions (2 studies). Objective 1: a mixed‐methods study that incorporated a cluster‐randomised trial, investigating the effect of a work‐based intervention, provided very low‐certainty evidence about the effect of training frontline healthcare workers to deliver psychological first aid on a measure of burnout. Objective 2: we included all 16 studies in our qualitative evidence synthesis; we classified seven as qualitative and nine as descriptive studies. We identified 17 key findings from multiple barriers and facilitators reported in studies. We did not have high confidence in any of the findings; we had moderate confidence in six findings and low to very low confidence in 11 findings. We are moderately confident that the following two factors were barriers to intervention implementation: frontline workers, or the organisations in which they worked, not being fully aware of what they needed to support their mental well‐being; and a lack of equipment, staff time or skills needed for an intervention. We are moderately confident that the following three factors were facilitators of intervention implementation: interventions that could be adapted for local needs; having effective communication, both formally and socially; and having positive, safe and supportive learning environments for frontline workers. We are moderately confident that the knowledge or beliefs, or both, that people have about an intervention can act as either barriers or facilitators to implementation of the intervention. Authors' conclusions There is a lack of both quantitative and qualitative evidence from studies carried out during or after disease epidemics and pandemics that can inform the selection of interventions that are beneficial to the resilience and mental health of frontline workers. Alternative sources of evidence (e.g. from other healthcare crises, and general evidence about interventions that support mental well‐being) could therefore be used to inform decision making. When selecting interventions aimed at supporting frontline workers' mental health, organisational, social, personal, and psychological factors may all be important. Research to determine the effectiveness of interventions is a high priority. The COVID‐19 pandemic provides unique opportunities for robust evaluation of interventions. Future studies must be developed with appropriately rigorous planning, including development, peer review and transparent reporting of research protocols, following guidance and standards for best practice, and with appropriate length of follow‐up. Factors that may act as barriers and facilitators to implementation of interventions should be considered during the planning of future research and when selecting interventions to deliver within local settings