The dose-response relationship between training load and aerobic fitness in academy rugby union players

© 2018 Human Kinetics, Inc. Purpose: To identify the dose-response relationship between measures of training load (TL) and changes in aerobic fitness in academy rugby union players. Method: Training data from 10 academy rugby union players were collected during a 6-wk in-season period. Participants completed a lactate-threshold test that was used to assess VO 2 max, velocity at VO 2 max, velocity at 2 mmol/L (lactate threshold), and velocity at 4 mmol/L (onset of lactate accumulation; vOBLA) as measures of aerobic fitness. Internal-TL measures calculated were Banister training impulse (bTRIMP), Edwards TRIMP, Lucia TRIMP, individualized TRIMP (iTRIMP), and session RPE (sRPE). External-TL measures calculated were total distance, PlayerLoad™, high-speed distance > 15 km/h, very-high-speed distance > 18 km/h, and individualized high-speed distance based on each player’s vOBLA. Results: A second-order-regression (quadratic) analysis found that bTRIMP (R 2 = .78, P = .005) explained 78% of the variance and iTRIMP (R 2 = .55, P = .063) explained 55% of the variance in changes in VO 2 max. All other HR-based internal-TL measures and sRPE explained less than 40% of variance with fitness changes. External TL explained less than 42% of variance with fitness changes. Conclusions: In rugby players, bTRIMP and iTRIMP display a curvilinear dose-response relationship with changes in maximal aerobic fitness

A field-based cycling test to assess predictors of endurance performance and establishing training zones

This study evaluates the relationship between a field-based 8-min time trial (8MTT) and physiological endurance variables assessed with an incremental laboratory test. Secondly, lactate thresholds assessed in the laboratory were compared to estimated functional threshold power (FTP) from the 8MTT. Nineteen well-trained road cyclists (aged 22 +/- 2 yr, height 185.9 +/- 4.5 cm, weight 72.8 +/- 4.6 kg, VO2max 64 +/- 4 ml[middle dot]min-1[middle dot]kg-1) participated. Linear regression revealed that mean 8MTT power output (PO) was strongly to very strongly related to PO at 4 mmol[BULLET OPERATOR]L-1, PO at initial rise of 1.00 mmol[BULLET OPERATOR]L-1, PO at Dmax and modified (mDmax) (r = 0.61 - 0.82). Mean 8MTT PO was largely to very largely different compared to PO at fixed blood lactate concentration (FBLC) of 2 mmol[middle dot]L-1 (ES = 3.20) and 4 mmol[middle dot]L-1 (ES = 1.90), PO at initial rise 1.00 mmol[BULLET OPERATOR]L-1 (ES = 2.33), PO at Dmax (ES = 3.47) and mDmax (ES = 1.79) but only trivially different from maximal power output (Wmax) (ES = 0.09). The 8MTT based estimated FTP was moderate to very largely different compared to PO at initial rise of 1 mmol[BULLET OPERATOR]L-1 (ES = 1.37), PO at Dmax (ES = 2.42), PO at mDmax (ES = 0.77) and PO at 4 mmol[BULLET OPERATOR]L-1(ES = 0.83). Therefore, even though the 8MTT can be valuable as a performance test in cycling shown through its relationships with predictors of endurance performance, coaches should be cautious when using FTP and PO at laboratory-based thresholds interchangeably to inform training prescription

From ‘flame’ to embers? Whatever happened to the English radical tradition c.1880-2020?

© 2021 The Social History Society. From the middle of the nineteenth-century, representatives of radical and labour agitations in Britain sough to embed themselves in an older democratic precedent. Referring back to these established narratives, Communist authors of the Popular Front period laid the foundations for the revival of an English radical tradition that proved formative for a generation of historians who saw themselves as custodians of the radical past. Outlining the radical approach to the British historical past and its emphasis on Englishness, this article considers the development of and approaches to a radical past and the traditions and personalities that were integrated into a usable radical lineage

Images of survival, stories of destruction: Nuclear war on British screens from 1945 to the early 1960s

This article discusses a range of depictions and discussions of nuclear war, which appeared on British screens in the first half of the Cold War, in order to understand the changing way nuclear weapons were viewed within British culture. Using such screened images to understand how nuclear war was constructed and represented within British culture, the article argues that the hydrogen bomb, not the atomic bomb, was the true harbinger of the nuclear revolution that transformed cultural understandings of warfare and destruction. Although the atomic bomb created a great deal of anxiety within British popular culture, representations of atomic attack elided atomic destruction with that experienced in 1939-45, emphasising the 'survivability' of atomic war. In the thermonuclear era, the Second World War could not undertake the same symbolic work. The image of the city-destroying bomb was an imaginative as well as technological step-change. Screened representations stressed that a thermonuclear war would literally end the world. As such, they preceded, and indeed provided the cultural climate for, the rise of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). The Campaign exploited and further popularised this idea of the apocalyptic nuclear war as a key aspect of its political and moral standpoint. The article concludes, however, that the cultural hegemony of this vision of nuclear war equally helped underpin notions of nuclear deterrence. The basic assumptions about the nature of nuclear war constructed and circulated on British screens therefore formed part of CND's 'cultural' victory but the article also explains why this did not translate into the political realm. © Edinburgh University Press

The Big Society and the Conjunction of Crises: Justifying Welfare Reform and Undermining Social Housing

The idea of the “Big Society” can be seen as culmination of a long-standing debate about the regulation of welfare. Situating the concept within governance theory, the article considers how the UK coalition government has justified a radical restructuring of welfare provision, and considers its implications for housing provision. Although drawing on earlier modernization processes, the article contends that the genesis for welfare reform was based on an analysis that the government was forced to respond to a unique conjunction of crises: in morality, the state, ideology and economics. The government has therefore embarked upon a programme, which has served to undermine the legitimacy of the social housing sector (most notably in England), with detrimental consequences for residents and raising significant dilemmas for those working in the housing sector

Regression, developmental trajectory and associated problems in disorders in the autism spectrum: the SNAP study

We report rates of regression and associated findings in a population derived group of 255 children aged 9-14 years, participating in a prevalence study of autism spectrum disorders (ASD); 53 with narrowly defined autism, 105 with broader ASD and 97 with non-ASD neurodevelopmental problems, drawn from those with special educational needs within a population of 56,946 children. Language regression was reported in 30% with narrowly defined autism, 8% with broader ASD and less than 3% with developmental problems without ASD. A smaller group of children were identified who underwent a less clear setback. Regression was associated with higher rates of autistic symptoms and a deviation in developmental trajectory. Regression was not associated with epilepsy or gastrointestinal problems

The ethics of practical reasoning : exploring the terrain

Social work has been under sustained scrutiny regarding the quality of decision-making. The assumption is that social workers make poor quality decisions. And yet our knowledge and understanding of how social workers make decisions is, at best, partial. In our view, examination of practitioner decision-making will be enhanced by considering the role that ethics plays in practical judgement in practice. Although there has been significant work regarding the role of values and ethics in practice, this work tends to idealise morality setting up external standards by which practice is judged. In this paper, we will argue that ethics in practice needs to be understood as more than simply operationalise ideal standards, ethics also entails critical engagement with social and ethical issues and can challenge idealised statements of values. We outline the idea of the ethical dimension of practical reasoning, consider its relationship to professional discretion, judgments and decision-making in order to provide a clear focus for this research agenda, and identify the practical challenges researching ethics in professional decision-making entails