Social research for a multiethnic population: do the research ethics and standards guidelines of UK Learned Societies address this challenge?

There is increasing recognition in the UK that social science research should generate an evidence base that reflects the ethnic diversity of the population and informs positive developments in public policy and programmes for all. However, describing and understanding ethnic diversity, and associated disadvantage, is far from straightforward. In practice, the ethical and scientific arguments around whether and how to incorporate ethnicity into policy-relevant social research are complex and contentious. In particular, untheorised or insensitive inclusion of data on ethnic 'groups' can have negative consequences. The present investigation begins to explore the extent to which social scientists have access to advice and guidance in this area of research. Specifically, the paper examines how ethnic diversity is explicitly or implicitly considered within the research ethics and scientific standard guidance provided by UK social science Learned Societies to their members. The review found little in the way of explicit attention to ethnic diversity in the guidance documents, but nevertheless identified a number of pertinent themes. The paper compiles and extrapolates these themes to present a tentative set of principles for social scientists to debate and further develop

Popular critiques of consultancy and a politics of management learning?

In this short article, I argue that popular business discourse on the role of management consultancy in the promotion and translation of management ideas is often critical, informed by more or less implicit ethical and political concerns with employee security, equity, openness and the transparency and legitimacy of responsibility. These concerns are, in part, ‘sayable’ because their object is seen as a scapegoat for management. Nevertheless, combined with the popular form of their expression, they can support and legitimize critical studies of management learning, a discipline which otherwise has become overly concerned with processual and situational phenomena at the expense of broader political dynamics and of the content and consequences of management and management knowledg

Can the quality of social research on ethnicity be improved through the introduction of guidance? Findings from a research commissioning pilot exercise

As the volume of UK social research addressing ethnicity grows, so too do concerns regarding the ethical and scientific rigour of this research domain and its potential to do more harm than good. The establishment of standards and principles and the introduction of guidance documents at critical points within the research cycle might be one way to enhance the quality of such research. This article reports the findings from the piloting of a guidance document within the research commissioning process of a major funder of UK social research. The guidance document was positively received by researchers, the majority of whom reported it to be comprehensible, relevant and potentially useful in improving the quality of research proposals. However, a review of the submitted proposals suggested the guidance had had little impact on practice. While guidance may have a role to play, it will need to be strongly promoted by commissioners and other gatekeepers. Findings also suggest the possibility that guidance may discourage some researchers from engaging with ethnicity if it raises problems without solutions; highlighting the need for complementary investments in research capacity development in this area

Comparison between high- and low-intensity eccentric cycling of equal mechanical work for muscle damage and the repeated bout effect

Purpose: We compared high- and low-intensity eccentric cycling (ECC) with the same mechanical work for changes in muscle function and muscle soreness, and examined the changes after subsequent high-intensity ECC. Methods: Twenty men performed either high-intensity ECC (1 min × 5 at 20% of peak power output: PPO) for two bouts separated by 2 weeks (H–H, n = 11), or low-intensity (4 min × 5 at 5% PPO) for the first and high-intensity ECC for the second bout (L–H, n = 9). Changes in indirect muscle damage markers were compared between groups and bouts. Results: At 24 h after the first bout, both groups showed similar decreases in maximal isometric (70° knee angle, − 10.6 ± 11.8%) and isokinetic (− 11.0 ± 8.2%) contraction torque of the knee extensors (KE), squat (− 7.7 ± 10.4%) and counter-movement jump (− 5.9 ± 8.4%) heights (p \u3c 0.05). Changes in KE torque and jump height were smaller after the second than the first bout for both the groups (p \u3c 0.05). Increases in plasma creatine kinase activity were small, and no significant changes in vastus lateralis or intermedius thickness nor ultrasound echo-intensity were observed. KE soreness with palpation was greater (p \u3c 0.01) in H–H (peak: 4.2 ± 1.0) than L–H (1.4 ± 0.6) after the first bout, but greater in L–H (3.6 ± 0.9) than H–H (1.5 ± 0.5) after the second bout. This was also found for muscle soreness with squat, KE stretch and gluteal palpation. Conclusion: The high- and low-intensity ECC with matched mechanical work induced similar decreases in muscle function, but DOMS was greater after high-intensity ECC, which may be due to greater extracellular matrix damage and inflammation. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Analysis of Buoyancy-Driven Ventilation of Hydrogen from Buildings: Preprint

When hydrogen gas is used or stored within a building, as with a hydrogen-powered vehicle parked in a residential garage, any leakage of unignited H2 will mix with indoor air and may form a flammable mixture. One approach to safety engineering relies on buoyancy-driven, passive ventilation of H2 from the building through vents to the outside

Analysis of Buoyancy-Driven Ventilation of Hydrogen from Buildings

The scope of work for this project includes safe building design, vehicle leak in residential garage, continual slow leak, passive, buoyancy-driven ventilation (versus mechanical), and steady-state concentration of hydrogen versus vent size

Changes in plasma hydroxyproline and plasma cell-free DNA concentrations after higher- versus lower-intensity eccentric cycling

Purpose: We examined changes in plasma creatine kinase (CK) activity, hydroxyproline and cell-free DNA (cfDNA) concentrations in relation to changes in maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) torque and delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) following a session of volume-matched higher- (HI) versus lower-intensity (LI) eccentric cycling exercise. Methods: Healthy young men performed either 5 × 1-min HI at 20% of peak power output (n = 11) or 5 × 4-min LI eccentric cycling at 5% of peak power output (n = 9). Changes in knee extensor MVIC torque, DOMS, plasma CK activity, and hydroxyproline and cfDNA concentrations before, immediately after, and 24–72 h post-exercise were compared between groups. Results: Plasma CK activity increased post-exercise (141 ± 73.5%) and MVIC torque decreased from immediately (13.3 ± 7.8%) to 48 h (6.7 ± 13.5%) post-exercise (P \u3c 0.05), without significant differences between groups. DOMS was greater after HI (peak: 4.5 ± 3.0 on a 10-point scale) than LI (1.2 ± 1.0). Hydroxyproline concentration increased 40–53% at 24–72 h after both LI and HI (P \u3c 0.05). cfDNA concentration increased immediately after HI only (2.3 ± 0.9-fold, P \u3c 0.001), with a significant difference between groups (P = 0.002). Lack of detectable methylated HOXD4 indicated that the cfDNA was not derived from skeletal muscle. No significant correlations were evident between the magnitude of change in the measures, but the cfDNA increase immediately post-exercise was correlated with the maximal change in heart rate during exercise (r = 0.513, P = 0.025). Conclusion: Changes in plasma hydroxyproline and cfDNA concentrations were not associated with muscle fiber damage, but the increased hydroxyproline in both groups suggests increased collagen turnover. cfDNA may be a useful metabolic-intensity exercise marker

Cliophysics: Socio-political Reliability Theory, Polity Duration and African Political (In)stabilities

Quantification of historical sociological processes have recently gained attention among theoreticians in the effort of providing a solid theoretical understanding of the behaviors and regularities present in sociopolitical dynamics. Here we present a reliability theory of polity processes with emphases on individual political dynamics of African countries. We found that the structural properties of polity failure rates successfully capture the risk of political vulnerability and instabilities in which 87.50%, 75%, 71.43%, and 0% of the countries with monotonically increasing, unimodal, U-shaped and monotonically decreasing polity failure rates, respectively, have high level of state fragility indices. The quasi-U-shape relationship between average polity duration and regime types corroborates historical precedents and explains the stability of the autocracies and democracies.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl