Changes in EMG and Finger Force with Repeated Hangs from the Hands in Rock Climbers

The nature and degree of fatigue in muscles that control finger position during repeated sustained efforts in rock climbing have not been described. The purpose of this study was to identify changes in maximum hang time and forearm electromyogram (EMG) during repeated maximum duration hangs from a simulated rock feature. A second objective was to determine the effect of different recovery times between hangs upon changes in finger force. Five experienced rock climbers performed 2 test sessions on different days in a randomized order. Each session involved 8 repetitions of a maximum duration hang with either 1 min (R1) or 3 min (R3) resting recovery between hangs. Finger force (FF) was measured for the right hand via a piezoelectric force sensor fitted with a plate to accept the distal digits of four fingers. Peak EMG (EMGPK) and EMG Area (EMGAREA) were recorded from the anterior forearm for each hang and standardized as percent of maximum FF EMG prior to statistical analysis. Hang duration progressively decreased over repetitions but tended to plateau around repetition 5 for both R1 and R3 conditions. A significant difference was found for both recovery conditions and repetitions (p\u3c.05) as well as a significant interaction of the two factors (p\u3c.05) for hang duration. There were no significant differences for EMGPK among repetitions or between recovery conditions (p\u3e.05). EMGAREA decreased initially with repeated hangs during both R1 and R3 but this trend tended to plateau at repetition 3 for the R3 condition. A significant difference was found in EMGAREA for both recovery conditions and trials (p\u3c.05) as well as a significant interaction of the two factors (p\u3c.05). Mean FF decreased between pre- and post-hangs for both R1 and R3 however the difference was not significant. It was concluded that the overall decline in hang time is less with 3 min recovery vs 1 min recovery between hangs. Peak EMG does not appear to change despite this evidence of fatigue. A 3 min recovery interval between hang repetitions decreases the magnitude of fatigue experienced and enables a greater EMGAREA per hang

Diet-Induced Changes in n-3- and n-6-Derived Endocannabinoids and Reductions in Headache Pain and Psychological Distress

Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are biosynthetic precursors to endocannabinoids with antinociceptive, anxiolytic, and neurogenic properties. We recently reported that targeted dietary manipulation—increasing omega-3 fatty acids while reducing omega-6 linoleic acid (the H3-L6 intervention)—reduced headache pain and psychological distress among chronic headache patients. It is not yet known whether these clinical improvements were due to changes in endocannabinoids and related mediators derived from omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. We therefore used data from this trial (n=55) to investigate (1) whether the H3-L6 intervention altered omega-3 and omega-6 derived endocannabinoids in plasma, and (2) whether diet-induced changes in these bioactive lipids were associated with clinical improvements. The H3-L6 intervention significantly increased the omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid derivatives 2-docosahexaenoylglycerol (+65%, p<0.001) and docosahexaenoylethanolamine (+99%, p<0.001), and reduced the omega-6 arachidonic acid derivative 2-arachidonoylglycerol (-25%, p=0.001). Diet-induced changes in these endocannabinoid derivatives of omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid, but not omega-6 arachidonic acid, correlated with reductions in physical pain and psychological distress. These findings demonstrate that targeted dietary manipulation can alter endocannabinoids derived from omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in humans, and suggest that 2-docosahexaenoylglycerol and docosahexaenoylethanolamine could have physical and/or psychological pain modulating properties. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ({"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT01157208","term_id":"NCT01157208"}}NCT01157208

The open innovation research landscape: established perspectives and emerging themes across different levels of analysis

This paper provides an overview of the main perspectives and themes emerging in research on open innovation (OI). The paper is the result of a collaborative process among several OI scholars – having a common basis in the recurrent Professional Development Workshop on ‘Researching Open Innovation’ at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. In this paper, we present opportunities for future research on OI, organised at different levels of analysis. We discuss some of the contingencies at these different levels, and argue that future research needs to study OI – originally an organisational-level phenomenon – across multiple levels of analysis. While our integrative framework allows comparing, contrasting and integrating various perspectives at different levels of analysis, further theorising will be needed to advance OI research. On this basis, we propose some new research categories as well as questions for future research – particularly those that span across research domains that have so far developed in isolation

Competitive Benchmarking: An IS Research Approach to Address Wicked Problems with Big Data and Analytics

Wicked problems like sustainable energy and financial market stability are societal challenges that arise from complex socio-technical systems in which numerous social, economic, political, and technical factors interact. Understanding and mitigating them requires research methods that scale beyond the traditional areas of inquiry of Information Systems (IS) “individuals, organizations, and markets” and that deliver solutions in addition to insights. We describe an approach to address these challenges through Competitive Benchmarking (CB), a novel research method that helps interdisciplinary research communities to tackle complex challenges of societal scale by using different types of data from a variety of sources such as usage data from customers, production patterns from producers, public policy and regulatory constraints, etc. for a given instantiation. Further, the CB platform generates data that can be used to improve operational strategies and judge the effectiveness of regulatory regimes and policies. We describe our experience applying CB to the sustainable energy challenge in the Power Trading Agent Competition (Power TAC) in which more than a dozen research groups from around the world jointly devise, benchmark, and improve IS-based solutions

Managing formalization to increase global team effectiveness and meaningfulness of work in multinational organizations

Global teams may help to integrate across locations, and yet, with formalized rules and procedures, responsiveness to those locations’ effectiveness, and the team members’ experiences of work as meaningful may suffer. We employ a mixed-methods approach to understand how the level and content of formalization can be managed to resolve these tensions in multinationals. In a sample of global teams from a large mining and resources organization operating across 44 countries, interviews, observations, and a quantitative 2-wave survey revealed a great deal of variability between teams in how formalization processes were enacted. Only those formalization processes that promoted knowledge sharing were instrumental in improving team effectiveness. Implementing rules and procedures in the set-up of the teams and projects, rather than during interactions, and utilizing protocols to help establish the global team as a source of identity increased this knowledge sharing. Finally, we found members’ personal need for structure moderated the effect of team formalization on how meaningful individuals found their work within the team. These findings have significant implications for theory and practice in multinational organizations

New wave manufacturing strategies: Operational, organizational and human dimensions

Lean production (LP) is just one of several concepts which have been devised to express the radical new approaches which have taken place in manufacturing in recent years. Others are just-in-time (JIT), world-class manufacturing (WCM) and total quality management (TQM). In order to embrace the whole gamut of development, we have coined the term “new wave manufacturing” (NWM). Whichever term is used, our joint research to date gives us concern that the existing literature fails to address adequately certain crucial aspects of the organizational realities of such innovations. On the one hand, the operations management literature tends either to ignore the social and organizational dimension or pays scant attention to its importance. On the other hand, the organizational behaviour literature has not realized its potential because of its failure to engage fully with the technical and operational arrangements which it wishes to critique. In consequence, both sets of literature, while ostensibly assessing the same phenomenon, end up talking past each other, and their treatment of the recent important developments in manufacturing methods remain partial. In this article, we seek to clarify the main contours of the existing literature in order to reveal what is already known and what is as yet to be tackled in order to prepare the ground for a new phase of study. The article is organized into four main sections: the first assesses the key distinguishing features of new wave manufacturing methods; the second attends to what is known about the prerequisite social arrangements needed by these new methods; the third addresses current knowledge about social outcomes; and the final section sets out a research agenda consequent to this analysis