Rethinking the social value of sport events through an asset-based community development (ABCD) perspective

© 2016 Human Kinetics, Inc. With an increasing emphasis on the social value of sport and events, there has been a shift in focus regarding the management and development process of event projects as well as their associated outcomes. This shift is about emphasizing a more strategic approach to developing social benefits by recognizing and utilizing leverageable resources related to sport events as a means of fostering lasting social and economic change (Chalip, 2006; O'Brien & Chalip, 2007; Schulenkorf & Edwards, 2012). In this paper, we adapt and apply the asset-based community development (ABCD) approach as a means of developing a more action-oriented, community-based approach to leveraging the social assets of sporting events. In applying the ABCD approach, we aim to shift the focus of event-led projects away from attempts to "solve" social problems (i.e., deficit perspective) to enhancing the existing strengths of communities (i.e., strengths perspective). We reflect on case study findings that highlight the challenges and opportunities in realizing an ABCD approach for disadvantaged communities through an examination of a healthy lifestyle community event initiative in the Pacific Islands

Crowdsourcing for Research: Perspectives From a Delphi Panel

Crowdsourcing, an open call for the public to collaborate and participate in problem solving, has been increasingly employed as a method in health-related research studies. Various reviews of the literature across different disciplines found crowdsourcing being used for data collection, processing, and analysis as well as tasks such as problem solving, data processing, surveillance/monitoring, and surveying. Studies on crowdsourcing tend to focus on its use of software, technology and online platforms, or its application for the purposes previously noted. There is need for further exploration to understand how best to use crowdsourcing for research, as there is limited guidance for researchers who are undertaking crowdsourcing for the purposes of scientific study. Numerous authors have identified gaps in research related to crowdsourcing, including a lack of decision aids to assist researchers using crowdsourcing, and best-practice guidelines. This exploratory study looks at crowdsourcing as a research method by understanding how and why it is being used, through application of a modified Delphi technique. It begins to articulate how crowdsourcing is applied in practice by researchers, and its alignment with existing research methods. The result is a conceptual framework for crowdsourcing, developed within traditional and existing research approaches as a first step toward its use in research

Bayesian multi-objective optimisation with mixed analytical and black-box functions: application to tissue engineering

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine looks at improving or restoring biological tissue function in humans and animals. We consider optimising neotissue growth in a three-dimensional scaffold during dynamic perfusion bioreactor culture, in the context of bone tissue engineering. The goal is to choose design variables that optimise two conflicting objectives: (i) maximising neotissue growth and (ii) minimising operating cost. We make novel extensions to Bayesian multi-objective optimisation in the case of one analytical objective function and one black-box, i.e. simulation-based, objective function. The analytical objective represents operating cost while the black-box neotissue growth objective comes from simulating a system of partial differential equations. The resulting multi-objective optimisation method determines the trade-off in the variables between neotissue growth and operating cost. Our method outperforms the most common approach in literature, genetic algorithms, in terms of data efficiency, on both the tissue engineering example and standard test functions. The resulting method is highly applicable to real-world problems combining black-box models with easy-to-quantify objectives like cost

Action Planning for Daily Mouth Care in Long-Term Care: The Brushing Up on Mouth Care Project

Research focusing on the introduction of daily mouth care programs for dependent older adults in long-term care has met with limited success. There is a need for greater awareness about the importance of oral health, more education for those providing oral care, and organizational structures that provide policy and administrative support for daily mouth care. The purpose of this paper is to describe the establishment of an oral care action plan for long-term care using an interdisciplinary collaborative approach. Methods. Elements of a program planning cycle that includes assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation guided this work and are described in this paper. Findings associated with assessment and planning are detailed. Assessment involved exploration of internal and external factors influencing oral care in long-term care and included document review, focus groups and one-on-one interviews with end-users. The planning phase brought care providers, stakeholders, and researchers together to design a set of actions to integrate oral care into the organizational policy and practice of the research settings. Findings. The establishment of a meaningful and productive collaboration was beneficial for developing realistic goals, understanding context and institutional culture, creating actions suitable and applicable for end-users, and laying a foundation for broader networking with relevant stakeholders and health policy makers

Re-presenting para-sport bodies: Disability and the cultural legacy of the Paralympic Games

This report provides data and recommendations drawn from the rst funded academic project to examine the implications of the rapid commercialisation of the Paralympic Games and the increasing visibility of disa- bility in the media; in uenced by the success of Channel 4’s entry as the United Kingdom’s o cial Paralympic broadcaster in 2012. Through an integrated methodological approach, we provide a joined-up evidence base that captures the intentions and practices of Channel 4’s (C4) broadcasting of the Rio 2016 Paralympics; the in uence of this on the content of Paralympic coverage and mediated forms of disability representation; and the wider impact on public attitudes toward disability. This approach allowed us to examine the important and in uential relationship between Paralympic production practices, progressive social change and cultural legacies

Error bounds for monomial convexification in polynomial optimization

Convex hulls of monomials have been widely studied in the literature, and monomial convexifications are implemented in global optimization software for relaxing polynomials. However, there has been no study of the error in the global optimum from such approaches. We give bounds on the worst-case error for convexifying a monomial over subsets of $[0,1]^n$. This implies additive error bounds for relaxing a polynomial optimization problem by convexifying each monomial separately. Our main error bounds depend primarily on the degree of the monomial, making them easy to compute. Since monomial convexification studies depend on the bounds on the associated variables, in the second part, we conduct an error analysis for a multilinear monomial over two different types of box constraints. As part of this analysis, we also derive the convex hull of a multilinear monomial over $[-1,1]^n$.Comment: 33 pages, 2 figures, to appear in journa

Overexpression of TUF1 restores respiratory growth and fluconazole sensitivity to a Cryptococcus neoformans vad1Δ mutant

The yeast-like fungus Cryptococcus neoformans favours respiration as a mechanism of energy production, and thus depends heavily on mitochondrial function. Previous studies of a C. neoformans vad1Δ mutant revealed reduced expression of the mitochondrial elongation factor TUF1 and defects in glycerol utilization, consistent with mitochondrial dysfunction. In this study, we found that in trans expression of TUF1 in the vad1Δ mutant suppressed the mitochondrial defects, including growth on respiration-dependent carbon sources and fluconazole resistance, associated with VAD1 deletion. Tetracycline, an inhibitor of mitochondrial translation, was found to confer resistance to fluconazole in the wild-type and vad1Δ mutant, whereas the fluconazole susceptibility of the TUF1-overexpressing strain was unaffected by tetracycline treatment. In the presence of fluconazole, the vad1Δ mutant exhibited increased activation of the global transcriptional regulator Sre1. TUF1 overexpression failed to alter cleavage of Sre1 in response to fluconazole in the vad1Δ mutant, suggesting that TUF1 repression in the vad1Δ mutant is distal to Sre1, or that it occurs through an independent pathway

Drug information resources used by nurse practitioners and collaborating physicians at the point of care in Nova Scotia, Canada: a survey and review of the literature

BACKGROUND: Keeping current with drug therapy information is challenging for health care practitioners. Technologies are often implemented to facilitate access to current and credible drug information sources. In the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, legislation was passed in 2002 to allow nurse practitioners (NPs) to practice collaboratively with physician partners. The purpose of this study was to determine the current utilization patterns of information technologies by these groups of practitioners. METHODS: Nurse practitioners and their collaborating physician partners in Nova Scotia were sent a survey in February 2005 to determine the frequency of use, usefulness, accessibility, credibility, and current/timeliness of personal digital assistant (PDA), computer, and print drug information resources. Two surveys were developed (one for PDA users and one for computer users) and revised based on a literature search, stakeholder consultation, and pilot-testing results. A second distribution to nonresponders occurred two weeks following the first. Data were entered and analysed with SPSS. RESULTS: Twenty-seven (14 NPs and 13 physicians) of 36 (75%) recipients responded. 22% (6) returned personal digital assistant (PDA) surveys. Respondents reported print, health professionals, and online/electronic resources as the most to least preferred means to access drug information, respectively. 37% and 35% of respondents reported using "both print and electronic but print more than electronic" and "print only", respectively, to search monograph-related drug information queries whereas 4% reported using "PDA only". Analysis of respondent ratings for all resources in the categories print, health professionals and other, and online/electronic resources, indicated that the Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties and pharmacists ranked highly for frequency of use, usefulness, accessibility, credibility, and current/timeliness by both groups of practitioners. Respondents' preferences and resource ratings were consistent with self-reported methods for conducting drug information queries. Few differences existed between NP and physician rankings of resources. CONCLUSION: The use of computers and PDAs remains limited, which is also consistent with preferred and frequent use of print resources. Education for these practitioners regarding available electronic drug information resources may facilitate future computer and PDA use. Further research is needed to determine methods to increase computer and PDA use and whether these technologies affect prescribing and patient outcomes