Endurance running performance in athletes with asthma

Laboratory assessment was made during maximal and submaximal exercise on 16 endurance trained male runners with asthma (aged 35 +/- 9 years) (mean +/- S.D.). Eleven of these asthmatic athletes had recent performance times over a half-marathon, which were examined in light of the results from the laboratory tests. The maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) of the group was 61.8 +/- 6.3 ml kg-1 min-1 and the maximum ventilation (VEmax) was 138.7 +/- 24.7 l min-1. These maximum cardio-respiratory responses to exercise were positively correlated to the degree of airflow obstruction, defined as the forced expiratory volume in 1 s (expressed as a percentage of predicted normal). The half-marathon performance times of 11 of the athletes ranged from those of recreational to elite runners (82.4 +/- 8.8 min, range 69-94). Race pace was correlated with VO2max (r = 0.863, P less than 0.01) but the highest correlation was with the running velocity at a blood lactate concentration of 2 mmol l-1 (r = 0.971, P less than 0.01). The asthmatic athletes utilized 82 +/- 4% VO2max during the half-marathon, which was correlated with the %VO2max at 2 mmol l-1 blood lactate (r = 0.817, P less than 0.01). The results of this study suggest that athletes with mild to moderate asthma can possess high VO2max values and can develop a high degree of endurance fitness, as defined by their ability to sustain a high percentage of VO2max over an endurance race. In athletes with more severe airflow obstruction, the maximum ventilation rate may be reduced and so VO2max may be impaired. The athletes in the present study have adapted to this limitation by being able to sustain a higher %VO2max before the accumulation of blood lactate, which is an advantage during an endurance race. Therefore, with appropriate training and medication, asthmatics can successfully participate in endurance running at a competitive level.     

Explaining outsourcing in health,sport and physical education

Outsourcing is a complex, controversial and pervasive practice that is increasingly becoming a matter of concern for educational researchers. This article contributes to this literature by examining outsourcing practices related to health, sport and physical education (HSPE). Specifically, it reports data on specialist health and physical education (HPE) teachers', principals' and external providers' reasons for participating in outsourcing arrangements. These data were obtained from a collective case study of six schools and the external providers that they outsourced HSPE to over a 12-month period, using semi-structured interviews and overt participant observations. The findings illustrate the ways in which the informants explained their outsourcing practices using a variety of educationally and organisationally oriented reasons. Educational value, human resources (e.g. expertise), physical resources (e.g. facilities) and symbolic resources (e.g. status) were reasons for outsourcing HSPE that were commonly cited by principals and specialist HPE teachers. Among external providers, educational value, income generation and promotion/advertising were frequently cited to explain their work with and for schools. These findings illustrate the ways in which outsourcing practices in HSPE articulate with, and are implicated in, broader educational privatisations. They also highlight the boundaries that outsourcing practices trouble or reinforce, such as those marking the purview of markets, membership of the HPE profession and the constitution of expertise.     

Who Owns the Unexpected? Insights from Antigone for Don Lamberton’s economic question

Dissent and assent contribute to new information and knowledge in that they foster ideas, avert errors and counter misplaced beliefs. Although intended to facilitate progress, innovation and creativity, dissent may be opposed by the closed mind and defensive mindset. Don Lamberton encountered a specific mindset in his own duties to scholarship in economics. Thus, the perspective of dissent is a fitting way to pay homage to his scholarship. However, this paper is also a lament. It gives an interpretation of Antigone from political philosophy which depicts Antigone rocking an ideological boat harboured by the polis. The silencing of Antigone’s voice results in unexpected losses in the oikos. This is the sort of tragedy threatening critical and innovative scholarship in the twenty-first century.