An exploratory case study of mental toughness variability and potential influencers over 30 Days

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.The purpose of this study was to explore whether mental toughness varies across a 30-day training block and whether such variability is associated with specific antecedents. This exploratory case study research investigated mental toughness variability using the Mental Toughness Index (MTI) with thirteen elite master runners across a series of self-selected training sessions, followed by interviews and follow-up questionnaires, to identify primary influencers of variability. There were significant differences in the MTI scores between baseline (before the training period), and the minimum and the maximum reported score over five self-selected training sessions (p's < 0.004). The proceeding follow-up interviews and questionnaires then provided insights into factors influencing this intra-individual variability. These higher-level themes included foundational wellbeing, specific preparation, and actions utilized in the moment. This study is the first to demonstrate within-person MTI variability across specific training sessions and provides initial insights for both athletes and practitioners into potential influencers of mental toughness

Urban planning, public participation and digital technology: App development as a method of generating citizen involvement in local planning processes

There has been a recent shift in England towards empowering citizens to shape their neighbourhoods. However, current methods of participation are unsuitable or unwieldy for many people. In this paper, we report on ChangeExplorer, a smart watch application to support citizen feedback, to investigate the extent to which digital wearables can address barriers to participation in planning. The research contributes to both technology-mediated citizen involvement and urban planning participation methods. The app leverages in-situ, quick interactions encouraging citizens to reflect and comment on their environment. Taking a case study approach, the paper discusses the design and deployment of the app in a local planning authority through interviews with 19 citizens and three professional planners. The paper discusses the potential of the ChangeExplorer app to address more conceptual issues, and concludes by assessing the degree to which the technology raises awareness of urban change and whether it could serve as a gateway to more meaningful participatory methods

Monitoring drinking water quality in South Africa: Designing information systems for local needs

In South Africa, the management and monitoring of drinking water quality is governed by policies and regulations based on international standards. Water Service Authorities, which are either municipalities or district municipalities, are required to submit information regarding water quality and the management thereof regularly to the national Blue Drop System (BDS). Since 2009, a trend has emerged in which urban municipalities have been shown to consistently improve their water quality management whilst some of the rural and under-resourced municipalities are falling behind. A major concern has been that rural municipalities are failing to report the required information and are not complying with some of the regulator’s requirements that speak to the overall management of water quality monitoring rather than the actual water quality itself. This paper reflects on a case study undertaken in four rural municipalities in South Africa where a cellphone-based information system was implemented to collect information relevant to the municipality. The study was conducted by the Information for Community Oriented Municipal Services (iCOMMS) research team based at the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town. The hypothesis for the research was that improved information flow within rural municipalities – from water supplies in outlying areas to the municipal government office – can improve the efficiency of existing monitoring, if the design, development and implementation of such a system are based on collecting appropriate and locally relevant information. Water service authorities at the four field sites managed the process of monitoring in very different ways due to limited resources as well as structural challenges within each government department. The variety of stakeholders involved in water quality monitoring programmes, and the alternative methods and processes used, challenges the current understanding of information system design as well as the notion of developing a single national information system. The decentralisation of national water quality monitoring to municipal level was assessed in this research, which concluded that the BDS was of limited usefulness to water quality monitoring in the rural municipalities partaking in this research.Keywords: water quality monitoring, information management, Blue Drop System, decentralisation, rural municipalitie

Reactions to Recent Changes in Industrial Relations Legislation in New Zealand

At the end of February the Industrial Relations Society held a panel discussion in Auckland on the changes made to industrial relations legislation through the Industrial Relations Amendment Act (No. 2) 1976 and the Commerce Amendment Act 1976. Edited extracts from some of the contributions by panel members are recorded below

Proportional Consistency of Apportionment Methods

We analyze a little-known property of apportionment methods that captures how allocations scale with the size of the house: specifically, if, for a fixed population distribution, the house size and allocation can be scaled down within the set of integers, then the apportionment should be correspondingly scaled down. Balinski and Young (2001) include this property among the minimal requirements for a "reasonable" apportionment method. We argue that this property is better understood as a consistency requirement since quota-based apportionments that are "less proportional" meet this requirement while others that are "more proportional" do not. We also show that the family of quotatone methods based on stationary divisors (including the quota method) do not satisfy this property

Measuring activity in patients with sarcoidosis - a pilot trial of two wrist-worn accelerometer devices

Introduction: Increasing physical activity is associated with health benefits. Reduced physical activity has been noted in sarcoidosis, particularly where fatigue co-exists. Monitoring physical activity is possible with wrist-worn devices. This study compared two available devices to determine patient preference and compare wear-time, with a secondary outcome of comparing device outputs with fatigue scores. Methods: Patients with sarcoidosis wore two wrist-worn activity monitors (GENEActiv actiwatch and Actigraph GT3X-bt) separately for seven days each. Participants were randomly allocated to receive either device first. Participants completed the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) questionnaire immediately before wearing the first device. All participants completed a questionnaire of their perception regarding each device after the wear period. Data from the devices was analysed for total wear time, time spent in moderate or vigorous activity (MVPA) and for time spent in sedentary behaviours. Results: Twelve patients with sarcoidosis were included. The GENEActiv device was preferred by ten (83.3%) participants. Wear time was greater with the GENEActiv device (1354 minutes/day vs 1079 minutes/day). Time spent in MVPA was slightly higher when recorded by the GENEActiv compared with the Actigraph. Moderately strong correlation was seen between FAS scores and sedentary time (r=-0.554), light activity (r=-0.585) and moderate activity (r=0.506). Discussion: A clear preference was demonstrated for the GENEActiv. This was reflected in higher wear time and suggests the device can be comfortably worn 24 hours per day. Data from this small cohort also suggests there is correlation between fatigue and activity scores in patients with sarcoidosis

Planning For 5G: A Problem Structuring Approach for Survival in the Telecoms Industry

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this recordThis paper examines the application of systemic problem structuring methods to the development of a research strategy in response to the challenges of fifth generation (5G). The paper proposes a methodology for strategic decision making. The key stakeholders, objectives, technologies, and boundaries from existing literature are identified and problem structuring based on hierarchical process modeling is used to explore the dependency of certain features of 5G on specific technologies, giving an indication of the importance of certain technologies over others and thus insight into where to place research effort. The hard technical challenges of 5G are discussed and equally the importance of the soft social and business challenges explored. For context, we explain how 5G will provide a platform for innovations and discuss how new and existing businesses may use this to their advantage. Problem structuring is used to explore how the challenges and opportunities of future wireless systems are related to the process of developing new business models

New insights into the outflows from R Aquarii

R Aquarii is a symbiotic binary surrounded by a large and complex nebula with a prominent curved jet. It is one of the closest known symbiotic systems, and therefore offers a unique opportunity to study the central regions of these systems and the formation and evolution of astrophysical jets. We studied the evolution of the central jet and outer nebula of R Aqr taking advantage of a long term monitoring campaign of optical imaging, as well as of high-resolution integral field spectroscopy. Narrow-band images acquired over a period of more than 21 years are compared in order to study the expansion and evolution of all components of the R Aqr nebula. The magnification method is used to derive the kinematic ages of the features that appear to expand radially. Integral field spectroscopy of the OIII 5007A emission is used to study the velocity structure of the central regions of the jet. New extended features, further out than the previously known hourglass nebula, are detected. The kinematic distance to R Aqr is calculated to be 178 pc using the expansion of the large hourglass nebula. This nebula of R Aqr is found to be roughly 650 years old, while the inner regions have ages ranging from 125 to 290 years. The outer nebula is found to be well described by a ballistic expansion, while for most components of the jet strong deviations from such behaviour are found. We find that the Northern jet is mostly red-shifted while its Southern part is blue-shifted, apparently at odds with findings from previous studies but almost certainly a consequence of the complex nature of the jet and variations in ionisation and illumination between observations.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&