Lay first-responders alerted to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by smartphone app — Not so novel any longer, and it’s time to do more

In this issue of Resuscitation researchers from Switzerland and Italy investigated the actual route distance taken by lay first-responders alerted to a nearby out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) victim via a smartphone application. 1 In common with a number of other app-based lay first-responder systems, 2 , 3 when a cardiac arrest is suspected by call-handlers at the emergency dispatch centre, an alert is sent to lay first-responders in parallel with the usual Emergency Medical Services (EMS) response

Improving bystander defibrillation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest : capability, opportunity and motivation

In this issue of Resuscitation Sondergaard et al. [1] report that the likelihood of receiving bystander defibrillation decreases quickly as the distance from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) to the nearest Automated External Defibrillator (AED) increases. Bystander automated external defibrillation – when performed – saves lives. The best available data from a recent systematic review and meta-analysis [2] reports that the chances of survival (odds ratio 1.73; 95% confidence interval 1.36–2.18) and favourable neurological outcome (odds ratio 2.12; 95% CI 1.36–3.29) double when defibrillation is undertaken by a bystander

What is the Value of Home? NOT FOR SALE - West End Interventions

Many Australians today are image consumers. We fail to question the importance of lifestyle imagery created and promoted by Real Estate Agencies whom have no actual part in the physical creation of house, or indeed the intimate making of "home" through our experiences of place. Real Estate Markets dictate how, where, when and what we buy. Re-sale values, profit-making, and value-adding interfere with the crafting of a home over time as a tangible, individual, collaborative, and rich lived experience of dwelling. The "NOT FOR SALE" project is a response and critique of the dominance of real estate forces in West End within the context and unshakable presence of a booming inner-city property market. This proposal originated from an experimental dwelling in Avebury St., West End. This project has been fashioned over a period of several years primarily from recycled local materials, interconnected with the changing needs and spatial requirements of the occupants and project participants. The influence of property markets is of little concern in this home "making". The "NOT FOR SALE" project attempts to question and critique the purely financial value that we as a society place upon our homes. By appropriating and re-coding the Real Estate Signage typologies, we aim to provoke social commentary on the dominance of real estate forces in the West End suburb. There is a strong and rich tradition of anti-consumerist activist graffiti in West End. Activists re-code signs and property with political commentary and critique. The "NOT FOR SALE" project draws upon this tradition through our RRESign (Recodified Real Estate Signs): we aim to redress the dominant commercial forces associated with the single house/property. Collectively, at the scale of the street, these RRESigns will reflect a critique of street scale, amenity, and character. Finally, at the scale of the suburb, the network of RRESigns will reflect a critique of the idea of place making. Collectively, the aim of the "NOT FOR SALE" RRESign interventions is to highlight the idea of making and the material characteristics of dwelling that challenges the cultural value of commodified property, re-defining and prioritising the idea of "home". Conventional Real Estate signs use images and text to sell an idea of home: our proposed interventions sell nothing, and are rather celebrations of the joy of making tactile, handcrafted objects, and by extension, the making and crafting of home. The intimate and experiential understanding of home will be harnessed through the engagement of local residents. Community groups within West End such as Local Push can further disseminate the RRESign interventions. The signs will be constructed West End-specific materials (old signs purchased from inexpensive second-hand material merchant Reverse Garbage in Montague Rd.): turning post-consumer waste into objects of material beauty and social critique. Residents and community groups will be encouraged to place their RRESigns outside their properties and adjacent real estate signs, frustrating and recoding the existing For-Sale signs that currently dominate the West End street scape. The project is dependent on the support of the local residents, extending from a few signs in Avebury St. to a network of RRESigns throughout West End. A commentary on people's responses to the project will be linked to the www.apbv.com.au website. What is the value of home

A Comparative Study of Select Choral Conductors’ Approaches to Unification of Choral Sound, Rehearsal, Conducting, and Leadership: Frieder Bernius, Tõnu Kaljuste, Stephen Cleobury, John Eliot Gardiner, Weston Noble, and Robert Shaw

The methods of six highly-successful conductors from around the world—Frieder Bernius (Germany), Tõnu Kaljuste (Estonia), Stephen Cleobury, John Eliot Gardiner (U.K.), Weston Noble, and Robert Shaw (U.S.)—are comparatively examined concerning 1) choral sound unification, 2) rehearsal strategies and techniques, 3) conducting gesture, and 4) practical leadership. Primary sources including personal interviews, published interviews, lectures and writings, rehearsal and concert videos, and online video interviews were the basis for observing the conductors’ approaches to the four research areas. Their practical strategies, drawing on biographical details and interactions with the musicians of their ensembles, are explored to examine their overall approach to choral leadership. Chapters include biographical details for each conductor, sound unification techniques, rehearsal strategies, thoughts on conducting, practical leadership, and synthesis and conclusions. The conductors’ methods of choral sound unification vary greatly but are centered around a natural and free vocal technique that is focused on interpretation and articulation rather than vowel shape. In rehearsal strategies, there is even greater variance, but there is agreement on constant singer engagement, establishment of consistent priorities, and saving the voice for performance. Regarding conducting gesture, there is consensus that choral and orchestral conducting should not look dissimilar, since the musical ideas between ensembles are equivalent, and that gesture should clearly and concisely demonstrate the music. With respect to leadership, conductors should demonstrate extreme competence and confidence (from a high level of musical expertise), a priority-driven work ethic, creative enterprise, the humble heart of a servant, the sharing of success, the acceptance of responsibility, positive energy, and an understanding of prevailing leadership principles exhibited in other disciplines

Mechanical Demands of the Hang Power Clean and Jump Shrug: A Joint-level Perspective

The purpose of this study was to investigate the joint- and load-dependent changes in the mechanical demands of the lower extremity joints during the hang power clean (HPC) and the jump shrug (JS). Fifteen male lacrosse players were recruited from an NCAA DI team, and completed three sets of the HPC and JS at 30%, 50%, and 70% of their HPC 1-Repetition Maximum (1-RM HPC) in a counterbalanced and randomized order. Motion analysis and force plate technology were used to calculate the positive work, propulsive phase duration, and peak concentric power at the hip, knee, and ankle joints. Separate three-way analysis of variances were used to determine the interaction and main effects of joint, load, and lift type on the three dependent variables. The results indicated that the mechanics during the HPC and JS exhibit joint-, load-, and lift-dependent behavior. When averaged across joints, the positive work during both lifts increased progressively with external load, but was greater during the JS at 30% and 50% of 1-RM HPC than during the HPC. The JS was also characterized by greater hip and knee work when averaged across loads. The joint-averaged propulsive phase duration was lower at 30% than at 50% and 70% of 1-RM HPC for both lifts. Furthermore, the load-averaged propulsive phase duration was greater for the hip than the knee and ankle joint. The jointaveraged peak concentric power was the greatest at 70% of 1-RM for the HPC and at 30% to 50% of 1-RM for the JS. In addition, the joint-averaged peak concentric power of the JS was greater than that of the HPC. Furthermore, the load-averaged peak knee and ankle concentric joint powers were greater during the execution of the JS than the HPC. However, the loadaveraged power of all joints differed only during the HPC, but was similar between the hip and knee joints for the JS. Collectively, these results indicate that compared to the HPC the JS is characterized by greater hip and knee positive joint work, and greater knee and ankle peak concentric joint power, especially if performed at 30 and 50% of 1-RM HPC. This study provides important novel information about the mechanical demands of two commonly used exercises and should be considered in the design of resistance training programs that aim to improve the explosiveness of the lower extremity joints

Measuring Three-Dimensional Temperature Distributions in Steel-Concrete Composite Slabs Subjected to Fire using Distributed Fiber Optic Sensors

Detailed information about temperature distribution can be important to understand structural behavior in fire. This study develops a method to image three-dimensional temperature distributions in steel–concrete composite slabs using distributed fiber optic sensors. The feasibility of the method is explored using six 1.2 m × 0.9 m steel–concrete composite slabs instrumented with distributed sensors and thermocouples subjected to fire for over 3 h. Dense point clouds of temperature in the slabs were measured using the distributed sensors. The results show that the distributed sensors operated at material temperatures up to 960◦C with acceptable accuracy for many structural fire applications. The measured non-uniform temperature distributions indicate a spatially distributed thermal response in steel–concrete composite slabs, which can only be adequately captured using approaches that provide a high density of through-depth data points