Digital Directions: AVR stortyelling

The aim of the workshop was to bring together a range of storytellers, practitioners and experts in the field of immersive experience design. Eleanor Dare and Alexandra Antonopoulou presented their work on AR and VR artist's books, The Phi Books. They discussed the way in which they use AR and VR as a heuristic for story-making and for collaboration, extending their earlier work with algorithmic writing methods

The mental health of elite athletes: A narrative systematic review

BACKGROUND: The physical impacts of elite sport participation have been well documented; however, there is comparatively less research on the mental health and psychological wellbeing of elite athletes. OBJECTIVE: This review appraises the evidence base regarding the mental health and wellbeing of elite-level athletes, including the incidence and/or nature of mental ill-health and substance use. METHODS: A systematic search of the PubMed, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, Cochrane and Google Scholar databases, up to and including May 2015, was conducted. RESULTS: The search yielded a total of 2279 records. Following double screening, 60 studies were included. The findings suggested that elite athletes experience a broadly comparable risk of high-prevalence mental disorders (i.e. anxiety, depression) relative to the general population. Evidence regarding other mental health domains (i.e. eating disorders, substance use, stress and coping) is less consistent. These results are prefaced, however, by the outcome of the quality assessment of the included studies, which demonstrated that relatively few studies (25 %) were well reported or methodologically rigorous. Furthermore, there is a lack of intervention-based research on this topic. CONCLUSION: The evidence base regarding the mental health and wellbeing of elite athletes is limited by a paucity of high-quality, systematic studies. Nonetheless, the research demonstrates that this population is vulnerable to a range of mental health problems (including substance misuse), which may be related to both sporting factors (e.g. injury, overtraining and burnout) and non-sporting factors. More high-quality epidemiological and intervention studies are needed to inform optimal strategies to identify and respond to player mental health needs

Effectiveness of hydrotherapy as an adjunct treatment for the management of breast cancer related lymphoedema in women following breast cancer surgery: a systematic review

Cancer is a leading cause of death and disability around the world. Of all cancers, breast cancer commonly ranks amongst the top three. Surgical intervention for breast cancer is common and a possible side effect of this is breast cancer related lymphoedema (BCRL). Women with breast cancer related lymphoedema commonly have regional limb swelling and pain, which can negatively impact mental and social well-being as well as upper limb function. Hydrotherapy is therapeutic modality which may be used as an adjunct to self-management strategies after the intensive phase of lymphoedema management. Yet despite its popularity, recent research has questioned its effectiveness in clinical practice. Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of hydrotherapy as an adjunct treatment to usual care on arm volume and pain when compared with usual care alone for women with breast cancer related lymphoedema. Method: A comprehensive search of eight electronic databases, including Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, AMED, The Cochrane Library and PEDro was completed. Studies of adult women with secondary upper limb lymphoedema following breast cancer surgery, which measured lymphoedema volume, pain, upper limb and QOL outcomes were included. Methodological quality was assessed using a modified CASP tool for randomised controlled trials. The NHMRC FORM methodology was utilised to synthesise the evidence and provide an overall grade of recommendation. Results: Four randomised controlled trials and one controlled clinical trial were included in this systematic review. Critical appraisal of the included studies revealed overall methodological quality to be moderate. Hydrotherapy interventions duration varied between 8 to 12 weeks with some similarities between outcome measures assessed. Collectively, there is mixed evidence to support the positive impact of hydrotherapy as an adjunct treatment on reducing lymphoedema volume in the short-term and emerging evidence for upper limb function, pain and QOL. Conclusion: A small number of studies have investigated the effect of hydrotherapy as an adjunct treatment in the breast cancer related lymphoedema population. Hydrotherapy could be considered as an adjunct treatment for women with breast cancer related lymphoedema, although the evidence base is mixed. Hydrotherapy may have positive physiological as well psychosocial impacts, as it is delivered in a group setting. However, the current literature base is limited by small sample size, lack of standardised exercise parameters, inadequate baseline characteristic assessment and limited long-term follow-up

Development of practice principles for the management of ongoing suicidal ideation in young people diagnosed with major depressive disorder

Objectives: There is a lack of clear guidance regarding the management of ongoing suicidality in young people experiencing major depressive disorder. This study utilised an expert consensus approach in identifying practice principles to complement relevant clinical guidelines for the treatment of major depressive disorder in young people. The study also sought to outline a broad treatment framework for clinical intervention with young people experiencing ongoing suicidal ideation. Methods: In-depth focus groups were undertaken with a specialist multidisciplinary clinical team (the Youth Mood Clinic at Orygen Youth Health Clinical Program, Melbourne) working with young people aged 15–25 years experiencing ongoing suicidal ideation. Each focus group was audio recorded and transcribed verbatim using orthographic conventions. Principles of grounded theory and thematic analysis were used to analyse and code the resultant data. Results: The identified codes were subsequently synthesised into eight practice principles reflecting engagement and consistency of care, ongoing risk assessment and documentation, individualised crisis planning, engaging systems of support, engendering hopefulness, development of adaptive coping, management of acute risk, and consultation and supervision. Conclusions: The identified practice principles provide a broad management framework, and may assist to improve treatment consistency and clinical management of young people experiencing ongoing suicidal ideation. The practice principles may be of use to health professionals working within a team-based setting involved in the provision of care, even if peripherally, to young people with ongoing suicidal ideation. Findings address the lack of treatment consistency and shared terminology and may provide containment and guidance to multidisciplinary clinicians working with this at-risk group

Morphology of Influenza B/Lee/40 Determined by Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Cryo-electron microscopy projection image analysis and tomography is used to describe the overall architecture of influenza B/Lee/40. Algebraic reconstruction techniques with utilization of volume elements (blobs) are employed to reconstruct tomograms of this pleomorphic virus and distinguish viral surface spikes. The purpose of this research is to examine the architecture of influenza type B virions by cryo-electron tomography and projection image analysis. The aims are to explore the degree of ribonucleoprotein disorder in irregular shaped virions; and to quantify the number and distribution of glycoprotein surface spikes (hemagglutinin and neuraminidase) on influenza B. Projection image analysis of virion morphology shows that the majority (∼83%) of virions are spherical with an average diameter of 134±19 nm. The aspherical virions are larger (average diameter = 155±47 nm), exhibit disruption of the ribonucleoproteins, and show a partial loss of surface protein spikes. A count of glycoprotein spikes indicates that a typical 130 nm diameter type B virion contains ∼460 surface spikes. Configuration of the ribonucleoproteins and surface glycoprotein spikes are visualized in tomogram reconstructions and EM densities visualize extensions of the spikes into the matrix. The importance of the viral matrix in organization of virus structure through interaction with the ribonucleoproteins and the anchoring of the glycoprotein spikes to the matrix is demonstrated

Sport-Related Concussion and Mental Health Outcomes in Elite Athletes: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Elite athletes can experience a diverse range of symptoms following post-concussive injury. The impact of sport-related concussion on specific mental health outcomes is unclear in this population. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to appraise the evidence base regarding the association between sport-related concussion and mental health outcomes in athletes competing at elite and professional levels. METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and Cinahl databases was conducted. RESULTS: A total of 27 studies met inclusion criteria for review. Most of the included studies (67%, n = 18) were published in 2014 or later. Study methodology and reporting varied markedly. The extant research has been conducted predominantly in North America (USA, n = 23 studies; Canada, n = 3), often in male only (44.4%, n = 12) and college (70.4%, n = 19) samples. Depression is the most commonly studied mental health outcome (70.4%, n = 19 studies). Cross-sectional retrospective studies and studies including a control comparison tend to support an association between concussion exposure and depression symptoms, although several studies report that these symptoms resolved in the medium term (i.e. 1 month) post-concussion. Evidence for anxiety is mixed. There are insufficient studies to draw conclusions for other mental health domains. CONCLUSION: Consistent with current recommendations to assess mood disturbance in post-concussive examinations, current evidence suggests a link between sports-related concussion and depression symptoms in elite athletes. Causation cannot be determined at this stage of enquiry because of the lack of well-designed, prospective studies. More research is required that considers a range of mental health outcomes in diverse samples of elite athletes/sports

Risk of bias reporting in the recent animal focal cerebral ischaemia literature

BACKGROUND: Findings from in vivo research may be less reliable where studies do not report measures to reduce risks of bias. The experimental stroke community has been at the forefront of implementing changes to improve reporting, but it is not known whether these efforts are associated with continuous improvements. Our aims here were firstly to validate an automated tool to assess risks of bias in published works, and secondly to assess the reporting of measures taken to reduce the risk of bias within recent literature for two experimental models of stroke. METHODS: We developed and used text analytic approaches to automatically ascertain reporting of measures to reduce risk of bias from full-text articles describing animal experiments inducing middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) or modelling lacunar stroke. RESULTS: Compared with previous assessments, there were improvements in the reporting of measures taken to reduce risks of bias in the MCAO literature but not in the lacunar stroke literature. Accuracy of automated annotation of risk of bias in the MCAO literature was 86% (randomization), 94% (blinding) and 100% (sample size calculation); and in the lacunar stroke literature accuracy was 67% (randomization), 91% (blinding) and 96% (sample size calculation). DISCUSSION: There remains substantial opportunity for improvement in the reporting of animal research modelling stroke, particularly in the lacunar stroke literature. Further, automated tools perform sufficiently well to identify whether studies report blinded assessment of outcome, but improvements are required in the tools to ascertain whether randomization and a sample size calculation were reported

An exploratory study into the effects of a 20 minute crushed ice application on knee joint position sense during a small knee bend.

Objectives The effect of cryotherapy on joint positioning presents conflicting debates as to whether individuals are at an increased risk of injury when returning to play or activity immediately following cryotherapy application at the knee. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a 20 minute application of crushed ice at the knee immediately affects knee joint position sense during a small knee bend. Design Pre and post-intervention. Setting University movement analysis laboratory. Participants Eleven healthy male participants. Main Outcome Measures Kinematics of the knee were measured during a weight bearing functional task pre and post cryotherapy intervention using three-dimensional motion analysis (Qualisys Medical AB Gothenburg, Sweden). Tissue cooling was measured via a digital thermometer at the knee. Results Results demonstrated significant reductions in the ability to accurately replicate knee joint positioning in both sagittal (P=.035) and coronal (P=.011) planes during the descent phase of a small knee bend following cryotherapy. Conclusion In conclusion a twenty minute application of crushed ice to the knee has an adverse effect on knee joint repositioning. Team doctors, clinicians, therapists and athletes should consider these findings when deciding to return an athlete to functional weight bearing tasks immediately following ice application at the knee, due to the potential increase risk of injury