Tackling in physical education rugby: an unnecessary risk?

Since 2016, we have been strong advocates for the removal of tackling from rugby (League and Union) played in school physical education in the United Kingdom [1]. This is because (a) tackling is the leading cause of injury in rugby, (b) rugby has a level of risk that is higher than non-contact sports, (c) there is no requirement or need for tackling as part of the school physical education curriculum, and (d) many children are compelled to participate in contact rugby [2]. In response to this call, the Chief Medical Officers and the Physical Activity Expert Group commented: ‘The Committee reject the call to ban tackling, as they do not feel rugby participation poses an unacceptable risk of harm’ [3]. Yet, the notion of risk (un) acceptability is a construct that needs further discussion, which we will start here [4]

The influence of student gender on the assessment of undergraduate student work

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of perceived student gender on the feedback given to undergraduate student work. Participants (n = 12) were lecturers in higher education and were required to mark two\ud undergraduate student essays. The first student essay that all participants marked was the control essay. Participants were informed that the control essay was written by Samuel Jones (a male student). Participants then marked the target essay. Although participants marked the same essay, half of the participants (n = 6) were informed that the student essay was written by Natasha Brown (a female student), while the remaining participants were informed that it was written by James Smith (a male student). In-text and end-of-text feedback were qualitatively analysed on six dimensions: academic style of writing; criticality; structure, fluency and cohesion; sources used; understanding/knowledge of the subject; and other. Analysis of feedback for both the control and target essay revealed no discernible differences in the number of comments (strengths of the essay, areas for improvement) made and the content and presentation of these comments between the two groups. Pedagogical implications pertaining to the potential impact of anonymous marking on feedback processes are discussed

A community-based, bionic leg rehabilitation program for patients with chronic stroke: clinical trial protocol

Stroke is a major global health problem whereby many survivors have unmet needs concerning mobility during recovery. As such, the use of robotic assisted devices (i.e., a bionic leg) within a community-setting may be an important adjunct to normal physiotherapy in chronic stroke survivors. This study will be a dual-centre, randomized, parallel group clinical trial to investigate the impact of a community based, training program using a bionic leg on biomechanical, cardiovascular and functional outcomes in stroke survivors. Following a baseline assessment which will assess gait, postural sway, vascular health (blood pressure, arterial stiffness) and functional outcomes (6-minute walk), participants will be randomized to a 10-week program group, incorporating either: i) physiotherapy plus community-based bionic leg training program, ii) physiotherapy only, or iii) usual care control. The training program will involve participants engaging in a minimum of 1 hour per day of bionic leg activities at home. Follow up assessment, identical to baseline, will occur after 10-weeks, 3 and 12 months post intervention. Given the practical implications of the study, the clinical significance of using the bionic leg will be assessed for each outcome variable. The potential improvements in gait, balance, vascular health and functional status may have a meaningful impact on patients’ quality of life. The integration of robotic devices within home-based rehabilitation programs may prove to be a cost effective, practical and beneficial resource for stroke survivors

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

On-Chip Multiplexers for Transferable Nanomaterials: Design, Fabrication and Applications

The development of scalable, on-chip multiplexing technology, capable of electrically characterising an array of nanomaterial field-effect transistors at cryogenic temperatures, is described. The channel in each transistor in the array is a nanomaterial which is transferred onto the multiplexer device, and each transistor in the array can be measured individually. The underlying multiplexer device is fabricated from a GaAs / AlxGa1−xAs heterostructure; nanomaterials successfully incorporated into the multiplexer circuit are monolayer graphene and InAs nanowires. Two device designs are presented: the first can characterise up to 16 field-effect transistors; the second, up to 128. A 16-output multiplexer, with 11 functioning graphene field-effect transistors is the primary focus of this thesis. This device is characterised by multiple magneto-transport experiments, which demonstrate that the multiplexing technique can be used to collect reproducible data that is consistent with existing results, at a rate higher than what would otherwise be possible. In the absence of a magnetic field, transistors are characterised by calculating commonly used metrics, such as the carrier mobility and the intrinsic carrier density, which are found to be consistent over multiple device cool-downs. In weak magnetic fields, the scattering processes are investigated by analysing weak localisation signals and reproducible conductance fluctuations. In strong magnetic fields, Landau quantisation is observed in some of the graphene channels. The level spacing is used to calculate the Fermi velocity of carriers and the cyclotron mass of carriers in each Landau level, which provides conclusive evidence that the intrinsic properties of graphene are not significantly altered by the multiplexing technique. From the magneto-transport experiments, it is evident that many-body electron interactions are relevant to the observed transport phenomena. At low temperature and strong magnetic field, a transition into an insulating state is observed in one of the channels, which also is likely to be caused by many-body effects. Finally, initial results from ongoing work are presented, which includes extending the device design so that it can operate at both room temperature and cryogenic temperature, and the measurement of InAs nanowire field-effect transistors

Navigating Critical Moments in Practice

A limited amount of research has acknowledged how practitioners’ personal and professional identities are intertwined and the human element of sport psychology delivery is often overlooked. Alignment of these identities is important for both the practitioner and the quality of service delivery. As practitioners become more expert, alignment is said to increase through the individuation process which includes how effectively practitioners fit within their environment. This chapter provides four examples of critical moments that challenged the identities of two experienced practitioners and their ability to be authentic and congruent within their applied work. Reflections on each of the critical moments are provided with the intention that sharing these incidents will enable the reader to reflect upon and consider how they might address and manage similar incidents in their own practice

A post-Roman sequence at Carlisle Cathedral

Major new research on this important Post-Roman site. Contributions from several specialists on significant archaeological assemblages