A New Pedagogy to Enhance the Safety and Resilience of Journalists in Dangerous Environments Globally

Risks to journalists are rising with disasters, epidemics, physical, mental and digital harassment all increasing globally. Some 1382 journalists have been killed since 1992 and 246 are imprisoned. However, the threat type has been changing, with the majority of journalists killed annually being ones working in their own country, often who are targeted for assassination. In response, UNESCO and others have called for research into best practice for safety education to halt this and the consequential decline in global media freedom. This five-year award winning project, A Holistic Humanitarian Approach to Enhance the Safety and Resilience of Journalists Globally, tested the hypothesis that a new pedagogy based on a ‘holistic humanitarian’ philosophy would be more effective in protecting journalists working in dangerous domains globally than existing provisions. The little-changed 30-year-old dominant international provision, the ‘military battlefield’ pedagogy, is used by the world’s major news organizations like BBC, CNN and the New York Times. This new pedagogy adapted and customized best practice from other professions and used Taylor’s 2020 Competencies for Disaster Healthcare professionals. A new program was devised and the two international cohorts who took it in 2018 and 2019 judged that it ‘very significantly’ enhanced their resilience and safety skills. Its concentration on group and individual physical and mental resilience building, risk mitigation, psychology, communication, self-defence, and digital security skill acquisition was a paradigm shift in training internationally for news professionals in dangerous environments. The research, thus, proved the study’s hypotheses

Fluorescence-based analyser as a rapid tool for determining soluble protein content in dairy ingredients and infant milk formula

peer-reviewedAbstract: Milk protein, in particular native whey protein, is of interest to dairy manufacturers as a measure of functional and nutritional quality. However, quantification of soluble whey protein (SP) is time consuming; giving rise to the need to develop rapid, accurate, and portable at-line process analytical technology. In this study, the performance of a fluorescence-based analyser(F) (Amaltheys II, Spectralys Innovations, France) was evaluated for quantification of SPF and whey protein nitrogen index (WPNI)F in skim milk, whey protein concentrate and infant formula powders. Rehydration of powders prior to analysis was a key factor for ensuring repeatability and reproducibility. A comparison of the analyser with reference methods for SPF and WPNIF resulted in coefficient of determination (R2) > 0.993 for both SPKjeldahl method and WPNIGEA. The results show the fluorescence-based analyser to be rapid, compact, and accurate device, suited for providing reliable support to dairy ingredient and infant formula manufacturers. Industrial relevance: The fluorescence based analysis investigated in this article is suitable for application in the dairy industry where it can be used as a rapid, at-line PAT tool for both liquid and powder samples. The technology has the potential to replace well-established methods for measurement of soluble protein. The main benefit to industry is the ability to respond more rapidly to variations in soluble protein without compromising on the accuracy associated with more time consuming methods

EEPIC - Enhancing Employability Through Positive Interventions For Improving Career Potential: The impact of a high support career guidance intervention on the wellbeing, hopefulness, self-efficacy and employability of the long-term unemployed - a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: Labour market policy (LMP) and its implementation have undergone rapid change internationally in the last three decades with a continued trend towards active LMP. In Ireland however, this shift has been more recent with ongoing reforms since 2012 and a concomitant move toward active labour market ‘work-first’ policy design (i.e. whereby unemployed people are compulsorily required to work in return for their social welfare benefits). Labour market policies vary from those that require this compulsory approach to those which enable the unemployed to move towards sustainable quality work in the labour market through upskilling (human capital approach). Despite this, however, long-term unemployment—a major cause of poverty and social exclusion—remains high, while current employment support approaches aimed at sustainable re-employment are, arguably, unevaluated and under examined. This study examines the effectiveness of a new high support career guidance intervention in terms of its impact on aspects of wellbeing, perceived employability and enhancing career sustainability. Method: The study involves a single-centre randomised, controlled, partially blinded trial. A total of 140 long-term unemployed job-seekers from a disadvantaged urban area will be randomly assigned to two groups: (1) an intervention group; and (2) a ‘service as usual’ group. Each group will be followed up immediately post intervention and six months later. The primary outcome is wellbeing at post intervention and at six-month follow-up. The secondary outcome is perceived employability, which includes a number of different facets including self-esteem, hopefulness, resilience and career self-efficacy

The effect of equipment modification on the performance of novice junior cricket batters

Equipment scaling has yielded better performance in children in comparison to using adult equipment. To better inform applied practice in junior sport, an investigation of additional equipment modifications designed to further simplify the task is required. This study, therefore, aims to determine the effect of increasing surface area of cricket equipment (bats and balls) on batting performance and technique. Forty-three children (M age = 5.2, SD = 0.8 years) completed a cricket batting task in which they aimed to hit the ball through a target zone while using either regular-scaled, or modified bat and ball with an increased surface area. The number of bat-ball contacts was significantly higher when using the modified (M = 13.81, SE = 0.42) compared to the regular-scaled ball (M = 10.65, SE = 0.49). Batting performance measured as shots played through target areas was also significantly higher when using the modified (M = 31.78, SE = 1.97) than the regular-scaled ball (M = 28.85, SE = 2.27). More desirable technique was also observed when using the modified compared to the regular bat. Findings suggest that further modifications to regular-scaled equipment can enhance skill production

The effect of task load, information reliability and interdependency on anticipation performance

In sport, coaches often explicitly provide athletes with stable contextual information related to opponent action preferences to enhance anticipation performance. This information can be dependent on, or independent of, dynamic contextual information that only emerges during the sequence of play (e.g. opponent positioning). The interdependency between contextual information sources, and the associated cognitive demands of integrating information sources during anticipation, has not yet been systematically examined. We used a temporal occlusion paradigm to alter the reliability of contextual and kinematic information during the early, mid- and final phases of a two-versus-two soccer anticipation task. A dual-task paradigm was incorporated to investigate the impact of task load on skilled soccer players' ability to integrate information and update their judgements in each phase. Across conditions, participants received no contextual information (control) or stable contextual information (opponent preferences) that was dependent on, or independent of, dynamic contextual information (opponent positioning). As predicted, participants used reliable contextual and kinematic information to enhance anticipation. Further exploratory analysis suggested that increased task load detrimentally affected anticipation accuracy but only when both reliable contextual and kinematic information were available for integration in the final phase. This effect was observed irrespective of whether the stable contextual information was dependent on, or independent of, dynamic contextual information. Findings suggest that updating anticipatory judgements in the final phase of a sequence of play based on the integration of reliable contextual and kinematic information requires cognitive resources.</p

Perceiving context: The key to anticipation in sport

Perceiving context: The key to anticipation in spor

Connecting magnetic towers with Faraday rotation gradients in active galactic nuclei jets

The idea that systematic Faraday Rotation gradients across the parsec-scale jets of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can reveal the presence of helical magnetic (B) fields has been around since the early 1990s, although the first observation of this phenomenon was about ten years later. These gradients are taken to be due to the systematic variation of the line-of-sight B field across the jet. We present here, the parsec-scale Faraday Rotation distributions for the BL Lac objects 0716+714 and 1749+701, based on polarization data obtained with the Very Long Baseline Array at two wavelengths near each of the 2 cm, 4 cm and 6 cm bands (0716+714) and at four wavelengths in the range 18-22 cm (1749+701). The Rotation Measure (RM) maps for both these sources indicate systematic gradients across their jets, as expected if these jets have helical B fields. The significance of these transverse RM gradients is >3 sigma in all cases. We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations directly demonstrating the possibility of observing such transverse RM gradients even if the intrinsic jet structure is much narrower than the observing beam. We observe an intriguing new feature in these sources, a reversal in the direction of the gradient in the jet as compared to the gradient in the core region. This provides new evidence to support models in which field lines emerging from the central region of the accretion disc and closing in the outer region of the accretion disc are both 'wound up' by the differential rotation of the disc. The net observed RM gradient will essentially be the sum effect of two regions of helical field, one nested inside the other. The direction of the net RM gradient will be determined by whether the inner or outer helix dominates the RM integrated through the jet, and RM gradient reversals will be observed if the inner and outer helical fields dominate in different regions of the jet. This potentially provides new insights about the overall configuration of the jet B fields

An investigation of the cognitive processes underlying soccer coaches’ decision-making during competition

The ability of coaches to make effective decisions that can impact positively on a team’s performance during competition is a fundamental skill in coaching, especially in fast, dynamic team sports such as soccer. Yet, there has been little research attention given to exploring the thought processes underpinning coaches’ decision-making during soccer match-play. We used a think aloud protocol analysis to explore the cognitions of skilled (n = 10) and less-skilled (n = 10) adult soccer coaches while required to watch and coach one of the teams during a sequence of representative videos clips of a soccer match first-half. The clips offered a perspective view from the dugout and were played in chronological order to provide a realistic representation of the match context. At the end of the first-half, coaches were also asked to verbalize their thoughts about what they would say to the team at half-time. During first-half match-play, skilled coaches verbalized a greater percentage of thoughts related to performance and tactical evaluations, and the planning of actions, whereas less-skilled coaches mostly monitored the ongoing game actions or events (all ps < .05). Moreover, during half-time skilled soccer coaches generated a greater proportion of relevant planning strategies that aimed to improve team performance for the second half than less-skilled participants (p < .05). Our findings suggest that skilled soccer coaches’ more advanced memory representations of the game enable them to easily retrieve task-specific information in order to make more relevant evaluations and plan better strategic decisions compared with their less skilled counterparts

Cognitive processes underlying anticipation in a context-oriented task

Cognitive processes underlying anticipation in a context-oriented tas