Yoga practice in the UK: a cross- sectional survey of motivation, health benefits and behaviours

Objectives Despite the popularity of yoga and evidence of its positive effects on physical and mental health, little is known about yoga practice in the UK. This study investigated the characteristics of people who practise yoga, reasons for initiating and maintaining practice, and perceived impact of yoga on health and well-being. Design, setting and participants A cross-sectional online anonymous survey distributed through UK-based yoga organisations, studios and events, through email invites and flyers. 2434 yoga practitioners completed the survey, including 903 yoga teachers: 87% were women, 91% white and 71% degree educated; mean age was 48.7 years. Main outcome measures Perceived impact of yoga on health conditions, health outcomes and injuries. Relationships between yoga practice and measures of health, lifestyle, stress and well-being. Results In comparison with national population norms, participants reported significantly higher well-being but also higher anxiety; lower perceived stress, body mass index and incidence of obesity, and higher rates of positive health behaviours. 47% reported changing their motivations to practise yoga, with general wellness and fitness key to initial uptake, and stress management and spirituality important to current practice. 16% of participants reported starting yoga to manage a physical or mental health condition. Respondents reported the value of yoga for a wide range of health conditions, most notably for musculoskeletal and mental health conditions. 20.7% reported at least one yoga-related injury over their lifetime. Controlling for demographic factors, frequency of yoga practice accounted for small but significant variance in health-related regression models (p<0.001). Conclusion The findings of this first detailed UK survey were consistent with surveys in other Western countries. Yoga was perceived to have a positive impact on physical and mental health conditions and was linked to positive health behaviours. Further investigation of yoga’s role in self-care could inform health-related challenges faced by many countries

The Diffusion Network of Research Knowledge in Operations Management

Purpose: To examine how the research knowledge in OM has been obtained and distributed since the first journals in OM began publication in 1980, changes in the interests of OM over the decades and where they are heading in the future, and to explore the changing roles of individual journals in the development of OM. Design/methodology/approach: A two-stage bibliometric study was employed, first using citation analysis to examine the changing research interests in OM through an analysis of the OM journals. Then the top journals of most importance to OM were analysed to determine the role that each one played in the knowledge distribution network and how that changed over the decades. Findings: OM’s journal base consists of 7 research knowledge sources, 12 transmitters linking different journal groups, and 11 sinks with limited input. Research attention changed from practice, engineering, and OR to general management, strategy, and production management in the 2000s, with strategy, organizational issues, and logistics surfacing in the 2010s. OM features increasingly academic research with less interest in practice. OM journals’ network importance has increased substantially, with JOM now a bridge between the quantitative and management journals. Practical implications Both researchers and managers gain in understanding the history and identifying the future direction of OM, as well as which journals will have the most relevant papers to their interests. Originality/value: This research identifies the history of the OM field in terms of its constituents and where it is going in the future. This history is related to the role OM plays among the knowledge network of top journals and presents a novel way of classifying and labeling journals based on their contribution

The ATLAS forward physics program

The ATLAS forward detector system is presented. Luminosity determination using the LUCID and ALFA detectors is discussed in addition to diffractive measurements that should be possible with early data. A possible high luminosity upgrade strategy involving new forward proton detectors is also briefly reviewed

Forward Physics at ATLAS

Presentation on behalf of ATLAS at Low-x 200

Glossary of the vocabulary of Francis Thompson's poetry

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Kansas, English, 1928

Central Exclusive Di-jet Production at the Tevatron

We perform a phenomenological analysis of dijet production in double pomeron exchange at the Tevatron. We find that the CDF Run I results do not rule out the presence of an exclusive dijet component, as predicted by Khoze, Martin and Ryskin (KMR). With the high statistics CDF Run II data, we predict that an exclusive component at the level predicted by KMR may be visible, although the observation will depend on accurate modelling of the inclusive double pomeron exchange process. We also compare to the predictions of the DPEMC Monte Carlo, which contains a non-perturbative model for the central exclusive process. We show that the perturbative model of KMR gives different predictions for the di-jet ET dependence in the high di-jet mass fraction region than non-perturbative models.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figure

Examining the terminology of race issues in assessments for international exchange students

This study examined assignments by students from a university in Scotland and a university in the USA, and explored the terminology used by student when referring to race issues in assignments linked to practice. The findings suggest the terminology of race issues in assessments may be inappropriate for students because they allow racism to be marginalized from practice or presented in a way that conveys little analysis

The role of feedback in shaping the structure of the interstellar medium

We present an analysis of the role of feedback in shaping the neutral hydrogen (H I) content of simulated disc galaxies. For our analysis, we have used two realizations of two separate Milky Way-like (similar to L star) discs - one employing a conservative feedback scheme (McMaster Unbiased Galaxy Survey), the other significantly more energetic [Making Galaxies In a Cosmological Context (MaGICC)]. To quantify the impact of these schemes, we generate zeroth moment (surface density) maps of the inferred H I distribution; construct power spectra associated with the underlying structure of the simulated cold interstellar medium, in addition to their radial surface density and velocity dispersion profiles. Our results are compared with a parallel, self-consistent, analysis of empirical data from The H I Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS). Single power-law fits (P proportional to k(gamma)) to the power spectra of the stronger feedback (MaGICC) runs (over spatial scales corresponding to similar to 0.5 to similar to 20 kpc) result in slopes consistent with those seen in the THINGS sample (gamma similar to -2.5). The weaker feedback (MUGS) runs exhibit shallower power-law slopes (gamma similar to -1.2). The power spectra of the MaGICC simulations are more consistent though with a two-component fit, with a flatter distribution of power on larger scales (i.e. gamma similar to -1.4 for scales in excess of similar to 2 kpc) and a steeper slope on scales below similar to 1 kpc (gamma similar to -5), qualitatively consistent with empirical claims, as well as our earlier work on dwarf discs. The radial H I surface density profiles of the MaGICC discs show a clear exponential behaviour, while those of the MUGS suite are essentially flat; both behaviours are encountered in nature, although the THINGS sample is more consistent with our stronger (MaGICC) feedback runs