Development of a method to identify foot strike on an arena surface: application to jump landing

Foot strike can be difficult to determine using kinematics alone, particularly when studying equine activities on more compliant surfaces, so this study was done with the aim of developing and validating a method to determine foot strike on an arena surface that can be used in conjunction with kinematics alone, and of applying the method in the context of measuring foot strike during jump landing on an arena surface. A low-cost contact mat was developed. The timing of the contact mat switching ‘on’ was compared to the timing of a force platform onset of 20 N, load and loading rate at foot strike. Two groups of 25 participants were used in two separate studies to validate the contact mat: the first measured the difference in timing with respect to two different activities (running and stepping down from a box), and the second measured the difference in timing with respect to 1- and 2-cm depths of an arena surface during running. In a third study, the mat was used to measure leading limb foot strike of six horses during jump landing, and these data were compared to kinematics from a palmar marker on the hoof wall. All data were recorded at 500 Hz. A consistent difference in delay was found between the mat and force platform onset, and as a result, no significant differences (P>0.05) in timing delay between different loading rates or depths were found. During jump landing, foot strike (determined from the mat) occurred after the vertical velocity minima and the acceleration maxima for the hoof marker, but it occurred before the point where the rate of vertical displacement began to reduce. In conclusion, further work is needed to enhance these techniques, but these preliminary results indicate that this method may be effective in determining foot strike for field-based applications

Next generation biomarkers to understand early multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is increasingly treatable. However, highly efficacious treatments carry serious potential risks. Treatment decisions must therefore weigh up the risk of treatment with the risk of irreversible disability. Current prognostic tools do not fully capture the scope of the pathology of MS, particularly axonal loss (an important substrate of disability). As a result, the identification of individuals at greatest risk of poor prognosis is suboptimal, and treatment decisions can be difficult and inconsistent. There is therefore an unmet need for a clinical tool or biomarker which can be employed early in the disease to identify those at greatest risk of future disability. New technologies and techniques have the potential to address this unmet need but require careful analysis in large cohorts. The aim of this work was to establish a large cohort of relapsing remitting MS patients at the point of diagnosis and whilst treatment naïve, and then to explore the potential role of next-generation biomarkers in early relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. We focused on fluid biomarkers reflective of axonal damage, and in particular neurofilament (NfL). We evaluated the role of CSF NfL in MS subtypes through systematic review and meta-analysis and concluded that NfL has utility as a biomarker of acute disease activity. We then employed a single molecule array (Simoa) to demonstrate NfL can be measured in blood, and that blood NfL levels correlate with CSF NfL levels. The extent to which demyelination drives axonal loss in MS is unknown. We combined analysis of blood NfL levels with advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques of myelin integrity- the MRI g-ratio, to examine, in vivo, the relationship between myelin integrity and axonal damage. The MRI g-ratio was higher (suggesting loss of myelin integrity) in MS lesions compared with normal appearing white matter, but varied between individuals. We showed an association between lesion volume, lesion MRI g-ratio, and blood NfL levels. This demonstrates how blood-based biomarkers can be combined with advanced imaging biomarkers to gain insights into clinically relevant biology of disease. Finally, we asked whether the additional measurement of other brain proteins, such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), could provide further insights into disease biology and clinical outcomes. Longterm follow-up of the Future MS cohort will identify whether the biomarker trends found in this work continue to be relevant in the identification of patients at the greatest risk of poor prognosis from relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Examining the Development of a Social Media Strategy for a National Sport Organisation A Case Study of Tennis New Zealand

The application of technology and the rise in social media has not gone unnoticed in sports and has become a vital tool for sport marketers as sport consumers’ media consumption grows. This paper offers an analysis on the development and maintenance of a social media strategy for a National Sport Organisation (NSO) in New Zealand. This initiative, implemented for Tennis New Zealand (TNZ) in 2010, was conducted to provide a minority sport (in terms of mainstream media) with its first online social media presence. This study involved a qualitative and quantitative analysis of Tennis New Zealand’s (TNZ) development and maintenance of a social media strategy through fieldwork, social media metrics data collection and analysis, and evaluation, and highlights a number of issues in the development and effective utilisation of social media for an NSO. In particular applying a ‘one size fits all’ approach to its management despite the uniqueness of the sport product. Creative online strategies using technologies such as Facebook must be employed, monitored and evaluated to ensure they continue to meet the needs and expectations of all stakeholders. Such strategies include the use of promotions, ‘behind-the-scenes’ material, and constant engagement and conversation with fans and followers

A participatory approach to variety trials for organic systems

A participatory research methodology was used to compare the performance of UK wheat varieties under organic conditions. Plots of three breadmaking winter wheat varieties (Hereward, Solstice and Xi19) and a mixture (1:1:1) of the varieties were grown at 19 UK farms in two seasons (2003/04 and 2004/05). Meas-urements were taken of growth habit, yield and grain quality. Grain yields in both seasons showed significant site by variety interactions, although the variation among sites was greater than among varieties in both instances. Wheat grown at Western sites was significantly shorter and higher-yielding than that grown at Eastern sites in 2003/04 but significantly taller in 2004/05. As with grain yield, greater variation among site than variety was found in the Hagberg Falling Number and protein concentra-tion results in both seasons. The results from the two years of trials illustrate the variability of organic systems and the difficulty in selecting a single variety suitable for organic farms

Motivated and Engaged Students via Co-operative Problem- Based Learning

There has been considerable research into using alternative teaching strategies that incorporate peerassisted learning to improve learning outcomes. Interteach has to-date has been used primarily as a replacement for more traditional lectures in the psychcology discipline (Saville et al 2006, Saville and Zinn 2005). We have used conceptual elements to produce for both different course styles and for use with smaller group numbers (10-60 students). For each Interteach workshop, students are required to research answers to three sets of PBL questions prior to attending class. Students are permitted to bring only their workshop sheet with dot points for use as reference material. Classes are randomly allocated into groups of four. Students are then involved in three one-on-one discussions with three different people. For assessment, students complete a short quiz and also allocate preparation and participation points for those students they engaged in discussions with. Combine these strategies encourage active learning and individual engagement in a co-operative learning environment. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this teaching format has been well received by students and produces better learning outcomes overall. This general method has now been successfully applied in many of our courses ranging from immunology, metabolic biochemistry, society science, mathematics and aviation science