Weekly group tummy time classes are feasible and acceptable to mothers with infants: a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial

2020, The Author(s). Background: The World Health Organization recommends 30 min of tummy time daily for improved motor development and reduced likelihood of plagiocephaly. As only 30% of infants meet this recommendation, parents require strategies and support to increase this proportion. Methods: The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of a group intervention to promote tummy time. The design is a cluster randomized controlled trial with concealed allocation, assessor blinding, and intention-to-treat analysis. Five groups of healthy infants (N = 35, baseline mean (SD) age 5.9 (2.8) weeks) and their mothers attending local mother\u27s groups (Australia) were randomly allocated to the intervention or control group. The intervention group received group tummy time classes in addition to usual care. The control group received usual care with their child and family health nurse. Primary outcomes were intervention feasibility and acceptability. Secondary outcomes were tummy time duration (accelerometry), adherence to physical activity guidelines, head shape, and motor development. Measures were taken at baseline, post-intervention, and when infants were 6 months of age. Analyses were by linear mixed models and Cohen\u27s d statistic. Results: Recruitment, retention, and collection of objective data met feasibility targets. Acceptability was also met with intervention mothers reporting the information, goal planning, and handouts significantly more useful and relevant than control group mothers (p \u3c 0.01). Moderate effect sizes were also found at post-intervention for tummy time duration, adherence to physical activity guidelines and infant ability in prone and supine favoring the intervention group (intervention infants had a mean of 30 min and 30% adherence to guidelines (95% CI 0 to 60.6 min) compared to the control infants who had a mean of 16.6 min and 13% adherence to the guidelines (95% CI 0 to 42.1 min, Cohen\u27s d = 0.5). Limitations were the small sample size, 4-week intervention, limited accelerometer use, and a homogenous sample of participants. Conclusion: Group tummy time classes delivered in a mother\u27s group setting were shown to be feasible and acceptable. A larger randomized controlled trial is warranted. Trial registration: ANZCTR, ACTRN12617001298303p. Registered 11 September 201

Penalty Corner Routines in Elite Women’s Indoor Field Hockey: Prediction of Outcomes based on Tactical Decisions

Indoor hockey is a highly competitive international sport, yet no research to date has investigated the key actions within this sport. As with outdoor field hockey, penalty corners represent one of the most likely situations in which goals can be scored. All 36 matches of the round-robin phase of the 2010-2011 England Hockey League Women’s Premier Division ‘Super Sixes’ competition were analysed with the purpose of establishing which factors can predict the scoring of a goal using Binary Logistic Regression analysis. Seventy two (22.6%) of the 319 observed penalty corners resulted in a goal. The strongest predictor of scoring a goal was taking the penalty corner from the goalkeeper’s right. Based on the odds ratio (OR), the odds of the attacking team scoring were 2.27 (CI = 1.41 - 3.65) times higher with penalty corners taken from the goalkeeper’s right as opposed to the left. Additionally, if the goalkeeper decided to rush to the edge of the circle, the odds of the attacking team failing to score were 2.19 (CI = 1.18 - 4.08) times higher compared to when the goalkeeper remained near the goal line. These results suggest that strategic decisions from the players and coaches have an important part to play in the success of penalty corners. Future research should investigate the impact of goalkeepers’ movement and further examine the technical and tactical intricacies of penalty corners

Raven and the Russians: An Environmental History of Looking at Animals in Siberia, 1582-1867

The history of Russia’s eastern empire was largely defined by disjointed disparities between a Russian-speaking culture and the numerous indigenous groups of Siberia. Among these disparities were differing conceptions of the animals in the physical environment between the Russians and several of the indigenous groups they encountered as they expanded their claim to empire. This thesis foregrounds the role played by subjective perceptions of what the animal component of the physical environment was and was for by considering both indigenous and imperial perspectives of six animals which played roles in the imperial process

The influence of geomorphology on large wood dynamics in a low gradient headwater stream

Understanding large wood dynamics is critical for a range of disciplines including flood risk management, ecology and geomorphology. Despite the importance of wood in rivers, our understanding of the mobility of large wood remains limited. In this study individual pieces of large wood were tagged and surveyed over a 32 month period within a third and fourth order lowland forest river. Individual piecesof wood were found to be highly mobile, with 75% of pieces moving during the survey period, and a maximum transport distance of 5.6 km. Multivariate analyses of data from this study and two other published studies identified dimensionless wood length as the important factor in explaining likelihood of movement. A length threshold of 2.5 channel widths is identified for near functional immobility, with few pieces above this size moving. In addition, for this study, wood type, branching complexity, location and dimensionless wood diameter were found to be important in determining mobility only for sinuous reaches with readily inundated floodplains. Where logjams persist over multiple years they were shown to be reworked, withcomponent pieces being transported away and replaced by newly trapped pieces. The findings of this study have implications for river management and restoration. The high mobility observed in this study demonstrates that only very large pieces of wood of length greater than 2.5 channel widths should be considered functionally immobile. For pieces of wood of length less than the channel width the possibility of high rates of mobility and long transport distances should be anticipated