Running with an ‘other’: landscape negotiation and inter-relationality in canicross

In this auto-ethnographic narration, I tell the story of learning to run with an ‘other’, my canine companion ‘A’. Together we have built a routine, a conjoined habitus, connected by equipmental prosthetics and a shared history of the landscapes we have traversed. In drawing on the experiences of our journey from beginners to amateur competitors through a series of ethnographic insights, I seek to highlight the importance of thinking about significant others in sport and leisure activities. The article highlights shifts in human and dog perception, behavior and attitude to running landscapes and concludes by arguing that, by being attentive to the influence and action of ‘others’ in sporting contexts, we are able to discover a plethora of new and exciting calibrations of how landscape negotiation takes place, and indeed, what it may mean in terms of troubling traditionally defined categorizations of sporting/leisure experience, presence and responsibility

EXPLORING THE IMPACTS THAT VIRTUAL NATURE EXPOSURE CAN HAVE ON HEALTH AND WELL-BEING AND THE MECHANISMS INVOLVED:A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Exposure to nature can improve health and well-being. However, numerous populations have restricted access to outdoor environments. Reviews show virtual nature exposure can provide benefits for a range of health and well-being outcomes. There is space for a systematic review that provides an overview of all outcomes impacted by virtual nature exposure, as well as underlying mechanisms. This systematic review searched databases; PsycINFO, MEDLINE, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Searches resulted in 9948 articles, with 66 studies included in the review. Findings showed virtual nature exposure can increase levels of mood, motivation, restorativeness, and cognitive functioning, whilst reducing anxiety, depressive symptoms, stress, and perceived pain. Presence and perceived restorativeness mediated improved positive affect after exposure, whilst connectedness to nature mediated improved positive affect and ability to reflect after exposure, and perceptions of safety mediated the extent to which enclosure of an environment predicted perceived restorativeness. There is support for virtual nature to be used in general and clinical settings for improving health and well-being, in addition as a tool for populations with limited mobility. Future studies should investigate long-term virtual exposure and conduct statistical analyses to understand the mechanisms linking virtual nature exposure with health and well-being outcomes

Compositions for treating or delaying the onset of hair loss (US)

Disclosed herein are novel methods and compositions for treating and/or preventing hair loss in patients. Specifically exemplified herein are compositions containing a modified pyrimidine that are topically applied to a scalp of an patient. Typically, the patient has androgenic alopecia, alopecia greata, postpartum alopecia or telogen effluvium

Stem cells for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases

Stem cells offer an enormous pool of resources for the understanding of the human body. One proposed use of stem cells has been as an autologous therapy. The use of stem cells for neurodegenerative diseases has become of interest. Clinical applications of stem cells for Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and multiple sclerosis will increase in the coming years, and although great care will need to be taken when moving forward with prospective treatments, the application of stem cells is highly promising

Submarine Geographies: the body, the senses and the mediation of tourist experience

The thesis is concerned with ways in which tourists’ experiences of learning to dive are mediated by technology, equipment and cultural constructions that are projected through visual media. The empirical chapters take a different theoretical body of literature to demonstrate the extent to which mediation alters human perception. The thesis is informed by research participants who took part in an experimental visual methodology that sought to open up new ways of studying the senses. The empirical chapters cover a consideration of the phasing in and out of attention of equipmental prosthetics for learner divers, a phenomenological study of the reorganisation of the senses underwater, a Bergsonian take on the intersubjective nature of recollection upon encountering material relics at a wreck site. The construction of docile diving bodies are considered, in relation to appropriate ways of moving and thinking about the ocean’s inhabitants, before the final empirical chapter outlines the mediative role of videographic souvenirs, as they polish memories of previous experience and alter relations to place. The thesis concludes by drawing attention to the way in which understandings of underwater space are constructed before, during and after real-time perception of the ocean and its various inhabitants. Consequently, it is noted that underwater experience is both highly subjective and intertextual, being furnished by the associations and atmospheres that each learner diver brings to the encounter and being re-presented to others by means of what each diver takes away

Laying the Groundwork for a National Impact Investing Marketplace

The practice of impact investing is rapidly gaining momentum, but the level of activity among individual and institutional investors, including philanthropists and foundations, has barely penetrated projections of market potential. The marketplace that should connect impact investors with investees or social ventures does not function effectively. Developing cost-effective ways to engage new investors and break down barriers to investment is an essential part of growing the industry. Developing cost-effective ways to “prime the pump” for social ventures to become investor-ready — through a capacity-building process that includes outreach, education, and technical assistance — is an essential part of growing the industry. The Impact Finance Center partnered with foundations and other investors in Colorado to create “CO Impact Days and Initiative” to demonstrate how to address this need for a more efficient and effective marketplace. CO Impact Days and Initiative was designed to expand regionally and be replicated

Remembering learning to play:reworking gendered memories of sport, physical activity, and movement

In this article, we explore young women’s memories of their experiences with sport, physical activity, and play during their childhood. Through collective memory work – sharing, discussing, writing, and analysing sporting memories/histories – we examine (re)constructions of young women’s experiences of gendered relations of power, bodily awareness, and regulation within movement-based practices. The approach taken explores relationships between theory and method, a feature of post- qualitative inquiry. Forming a collaborative memory workshop with six young women (aged 19–22) and two researchers, we illustrate how work-ing memories facilitates the interrogation of taken-for-granted assump-tions about women’s active bodies. Represented through two memories in this paper, their production, representation, and analysis were a collaborative effort, not solely representative of two individual experi-ences. Despite growing up within a period wherein women’s access to and engagement with sport and physical activity is more available, com-mon, and diverse compared to the youth of past generations, young women’s experiences explored here illustrate the ways in which move-ment-based practices are located within the confluence of postfeminist sensibilities including, intensely scrutinised gendered body cultures, potent neoliberal configurations, and discourses of empowerment. It is these new sporting and active femininities and the gendering experiences of physical culture that are explored within this paper through memory work and collective biograph