The acute angiogenic signalling response to low-load resistance exercise with blood flow restriction

This study investigated protein kinase activation and gene expression of angiogenic factors in response to low-load resistance exercise with or without blood flow restriction (BFR). In a repeated measures cross-over design, six males performed four sets of bilateral knee extension exercise at 20% 1RM (reps per set?=?30:15:15:continued to fatigue) with BFR (110?mmHg) and without (CON). Muscle biopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis before, 2 and 4?h post-exercise. mRNA expression was determined using real-time RT–PCR. Protein phosphorylation/expression was determined using Western blot. p38MAPK phosphorylation was greater (p?=?0.05) at 2?h following BFR (1.3?±?0.8) compared to CON (0.4?±?0.3). AMPK phosphorylation remained unchanged. PGC-1α mRNA expression increased at 2?h (5.9?±?1.3 vs. 2.1?±?0.8; p?=?0.03) and 4?h (3.2?±?0.8 vs. 1.5?±?0.4; p?=?0.03) following BFR exercise with no change in CON. PGC-1α protein expression did not change following either exercise. BFR exercise enhanced mRNA expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) at 2?h (5.2?±?2.8 vs 1.7?±?1.1; p?=?.02) and 4?h (6.8?±?4.9 vs. 2.5?±?2.7; p?=?.01) compared to CON. mRNA expression of VEGF-R2 and hypoxia-inducible factor 1α increased following BFR exercise but only eNOS were enhanced relative to CON. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 mRNA expression was not altered in response to either exercise. Acute low-load resistance exercise with BFR provides a targeted angiogenic response potentially mediated through enhanced ischaemic and shear stress stimuli.     

Key determinants of time to 5 m in different ventral swimming start techniques

The aim of this study was to determine the biomechanical parameters that explain ventral start performance in swimming. For this purpose, 13 elite swimmers performed different variants of the ventral start technique. Two-dimensional video analyses of the aerial and underwater phases were used to assess 16 kinematic parameters from the starting signal to 5?m, and an instrumented starting block was used to assess kinetic data. A Lasso regression was used to reduce the number of parameters, providing the main determinants to starting performance, revealing different combinations of key determinants, depending on the variant (r²?≥?0.90), with flight distance being the most relevant to all variants (r?≤??0.80; p?r?=??0.79; p?r?≤?0.61; p?r²?=?0.66) or block time and flight distance (r²?=?0.83). These data provide relevant contributions to the further understanding of the biomechanics of swimming starts as well as insights for performance analysis and targeted interventions to improve athlete performance.     

The relationship between the use of kinaesthetic imagery and different visual imagery perspectives

In two studies, we examined the strength of relationship between internal and external visual imagery with kinaesthetic imagery. In Study 1, 56 participants completed the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire and the Movement Imagery Questionnaire. Pearson's product-moment correlations failed to reveal a significant correlation between external visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery. However, the correlation between internal visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery approached significance. In Study 2, the instructional set of the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire was changed to make the participant the 'agent' of the external visual perspective images rather than somebody else. Sixty-four participants completed the two questionnaires. The results indicated a significant correlation between external visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery (r = 0.60, P < 0.01). However, the correlation between internal visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery was non-significant (r = 0.23, P > 0.01). The results are discussed in relation to who is the agent of the image and the processes that may underlie kinaesthetic imagery. The implications for researchers trying to establish the functional, behavioural and neurological differences within, and across, imagery modalities are considered.     

Sources of stress, burnout and intention to terminate among rugby union referees

We examined sources of stress, burnout and intention to terminate among rugby union referees. Questionnaires were returned by 682 of 1175 referees (58%) from Wales, Scotland and England. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed four correlated sources of stress factors (performance concerns, time pressure, interpersonal conflict and fear of physical harm), which accounted for 49.6% of the variance. Referees believed the first three factors to be mildly related to their stress. They believed fear of physical harm to be unrelated to their stress. A structural model hypothesizing that time pressure and interpersonal conflict predict burnout, and that age and burnout predict intention to terminate refereeing, fit the observed data. The goodness-of-fit index for this model was 0.96. Our results and those of other studies indicate that interpersonal conflict and time pressure are common sources of stress for sport officials and are frequently related to their burnout experiences. Also, age and burnout are frequently, although only marginally, related to intention to terminate.     

Injury rehabilitation: a goal-setting intervention study

The study examined the effects of a 5-week goal-setting intervention on athletes' rehabilitation adherence, self-efficacy, treatment efficacy, and the psychological response variables: dispirited and reorganization. Participants were matched across six variables and randomly assigned to one of three groups: goal-setting intervention, social support control, and control. The results confirmed some of the hypothesized effects of the goal-setting intervention: (a) athlete self-report of adherence showed the goal-setting group adhered significantly more to the rehabilitation program than the other two groups; (b) the goal-setting intervention resulted in significant group differences for self-efficacy (the goal-setting group having the highest level of self-efficacy); and (c) there was a significant increase across time for reorganization and decrease across time for dispirited (between specific time phases).     

The ‘will to give’: corporations,philanthropy and schools

In contemporary times, corporate philanthropy is positioned as an effective means to ‘solve’ a variety of social problems. Childhood obesity is one such ‘problem’ that has captured the interests of schools, corporations, industry groups and a number of ‘not-for-profit’ players. In this paper, I critically examine how the private sector uses the notion of philanthropy to shape school-based solutions to obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. By conducting a critical ethnography in two New Zealand primary schools and drawing on Foucauldian notions of government and ‘practices of assemblage’, I illuminate how a number of organisations officially planned to employ philanthropy as a means to govern others, as well as what actually happened when these plans met their intended targets: children, teachers and principals. Although corporations, charities and schools were assembled together through their combined ‘will to give’, the notion of philanthropy helped to re-assemble and re-invent private sector organisations so that they were seen to be socially responsible, healthy, and even educational. Philanthropy also worked to mask private sector players less altruistic interests: branding, public relations strategies, avoidance of stricter regulations and legislation, and the desire to profit.     

‘Getting fit basically just means,like, nonfat’: children's lessons in fitness and fatness

Current concerns about a childhood obesity crisis and children's physical activity levels have combined to justify fitness lessons as a physical education practice in New Zealand primary (elementary) schools. Researchers focused on children's understandings of fitness lessons argue that they construct fitness as a quest for an ‘ideal’ (skinny or muscular) body. The conflation of fitness with thinness, however, is complex and problematic. In this paper, we draw from research conducted with a class of primary school children in New Zealand. Drawing on the theoretical tools of Foucault and utilizing a visual methods approach, we examine how children experience school fitness lessons and construct notions of fitness, health and body. The children's responses illustrated that obesity discourses and body pedagogies ‘collided’ in a way that shaped understandings of fitness lessons in ways inextricably connected with the avoidance of being fat. The children assumed that fitness lessons increased fitness and that being fit was demonstrated by a ‘correct’ corporeal appearance. We argue that body pedagogies inside and outside the school gates shape children's ideas about the body in ways which exclude other understandings of bodies, health, and physical activity.     

Meeting the expectation of industry: an integrated approach for the teaching of mechanics and electronics to design students

This paper examines the traditional engineering-based provision delivered to Product Design and Technology (B.Sc.) undergraduates at the Loughborough Design School and questions its relevancy against the increasing expectations of industry. The paper reviews final-year design projects to understand the level of transference of engineering-based knowledge into design practice and highlights areas of opportunity for improved teaching and learning. The paper discusses the development and implementation of an integrated approach to the teaching of Mechanics and Electronics to formalise and reinforce the key learning process of transference within the design context. The paper concludes with observations from the delivery of this integrated teaching and offers insights from student and academic perspectives for the further improvement of engineering-based teaching and learning.