Description:
It is time to plant a flag in the White soil of academic journal publishing and declare, ‘This discourse includes the cultural voices of Indigenous peoples’. Indigenous peoples1 are almost invisible as academic authors in rural health journals. Occasionally, that indigeneity might be deduced from the institutional or organisational affiliation statements, or the acknowledgements, or the text of articles. Too frequently, it is not discernible in any way. In essence, Indigenous cultural identity is suppressed by the conventions of academic publishing. This sees author and subject credibility resting on Western views of provenance, including institutional affiliation, college membership, educational qualifications and disciplinary background. This research colonialism reflects a power imbalance that must end.
Description:
Clinical practice is fundamental to the learning of undergraduate and entry-level nursing students. It provides the milieu whereby students apply classroom theory and simulated practice to the real world of nursing and become socialised into the profession. In contemporary nursing education, there is often competition among tertiary education providers to locate quality, appropriate placements; substantial costs may be incurred to access suitable placements.
Description:
In simple terms, copy number variations or CNVs are replications or deletions in the DNA which, in humans, changes it from the normal number of two gene copies. These CNVs are caused by inherited or de novo structural changes such as duplications, insertions or deletions of repeated portions of genetic material (Fig. 1). These duplications can vary from one to ten or more copies and range in size from 50 DNA base pairs to several million [1]. Since their discovery in 1987 by Nakamura et al. [2], when they were initially named variable number tandem repeats, many studies have investigated their association with rare and common human diseases. Throughout evolution, some of these changes in copy number were beneficial such as the globin gene number duplication, while others such as the CNVs that cause Huntington's disease were not. In 2004, two landmark studies by Iafrate et al. [3] and Sebat et al. [4] found that large-scale copy-number variations, ranging in size from 100 kb to 2 Mb are common throughout the human genome, and that a high proportion of them are in known genes. These findings roused several association studies between CNVs and disease
Description:
In simple terms, copy number variations or CNVs are replications or deletions in the DNA which, in humans, changes it from the normal number of two gene copies. These CNVs are caused by inherited or de novo structural changes such as duplications, insertions or deletions of repeated portions of genetic material (Fig. 1). These duplications can vary from one to ten or more copies and range in size from 50 DNA base pairs to several million [1]. Since their discovery in 1987 by Nakamura et al. [2], when they were initially named variable number tandem repeats, many studies have investigated their association with rare and common human diseases. Throughout evolution, some of these changes in copy number were beneficial such as the globin gene number duplication, while others such as the CNVs that cause Huntington's disease were not. In 2004, two landmark studies by Iafrate et al. [3] and Sebat et al. [4] found that large-scale copy-number variations, ranging in size from 100 kb to 2 Mb are common throughout the human genome, and that a high proportion of them are in known genes. These findings roused several association studies between CNVs and disease
Description:
The genetics of blood pressure (BP) is all about discovery and understanding, but it is certainly not for the faint hearted. Despite heroic effort, the question we posed nearly 15 years ago [1] regarding the whereabouts of BP genes remains largely unanswered.
Description:
It is now widely recognised that it is important to involve a full range of stakeholders and other research end-users, from the outset when designing and implementing prevention programmes. As long ago as 2003, my team recognised that the views of those actively involved in sport should also be considered when setting research priorities. Findings from our survey of coaches and sports administrators have since informed the direction of much of our sports injury research over the following decade in community Australian Football. There will be similar examples from other sports, even if they have not been formally documented in the sports medicine literature.
Description:
This special edition is based on papers delivered at a conference of the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeship (INAP), a network of researchers and practitioners interested in apprenticeship and related issues. A previous special edition of Education + Training, “Innovative apprenticeships: promoting successful school-to-work transitions”, was based on the third conference of the network, held in Turin, Italy, in September 2009. This special edition is based on the sixth conference, held in Ballarat, Australia, in September 2015. The theme of the conference was Architectures for Apprenticeship: Achieving Economic and Social Goals. The papers in this volume are selected from the best of the 34 full papers and keynote speeches presented. "From introduction"
Description:
Preventing sports injuries requires behaviour change. Observational learning, or role modelling, is one way to develop self-efficacy, a key behavioural determinant. This premise underpins the social cognitive theory (SCT), and is the reason why role models have such a strong influence on behaviour. Most human behaviour is learned by observing others. Therefore, understanding role modelling and how to use it effectively could be important for sports injury prevention.
Description:
The world’s wetlands of international importance are overseen by host nations under processes established through the intergovernmental Convention on Wetlands, commonly known as the Ramsar Convention. Signatory nations to the Convention are required to list at least one wetland as internationally important (known as Ramsar sites) and describe and maintain their ecological character (Gardner and Davidson 2011). Wetlands that satisfy one of a suite of ecological criteria, many of which relate to wetland biodiversity, may be listed as internationally important; the list of internationally important wetlands currently contains 2231 sites covering 214 936 005 ha (17 March 2016). The signatories are also required to report on any likely and actual variations in the ecological character of the wetland that may bring it to a state where it may be considered degraded (Finlayson 1996). They are then required to mitigate this degradation or follow prescriptions to delist and offset, with the former being potentially biophysically complex (Alexander et al. 2011) and the latter potentially bedevilled by complex processes (Pittock et al. 2010).
Description:
In 1983, Ekstrand et al published the first randomised controlled trial (RCT) of an injury prevention programme for team ball sport. Three decades on from this landmark study, it is worth reflecting on the progress made and the current ‘state-of-play’ in the field of team ball sport injury prevention research. The volume of published research has grown considerably with a recent systematic review of team ball sport injury prevention exercise programmes (IPEPs) identifying over 50 published trials. The scale, quality and outcomes of recent RCTs are also encouraging with a Swedish trial including over 4500 female soccer players and demonstrating a 64% reduction in the rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.
Description:
Multimedia sensor services and technologies play an important role in seamlessly providing andmanaging health, sports, and other services to anyone, everywhere, and anytime. Media sensors are usually equipped with cameras, microphones, and other devices that produce media content and services. Such services and technologies enable caregivers and related professionals to have immediate access to required information for efficient decision making. Since media sensing technology development is growing, many research opportunities are emerging in a broad spectrum of application domains.
Description:
Multimedia sensor services and technologies play an important role in seamlessly providing andmanaging health, sports, and other services to anyone, everywhere, and anytime. Media sensors are usually equipped with cameras, microphones, and other devices that produce media content and services. Such services and technologies enable caregivers and related professionals to have immediate access to required information for efficient decision making. Since media sensing technology development is growing, many research opportunities are emerging in a broad spectrum of application domains.
Description:
What is critical thinking, especially in the context of higher education? How have research and scholarship on the matter developed over recent past decades? What is the current state of the art here? How might the potential of critical thinking be enhanced? What kinds of teaching are necessary in order to realize that potential? And just why is this topic important now? These are the key questions motivating this volume. We hesitate to use terms such as “comprehensive” or “complete” or “definitive,” but we believe that, taken in the round, the chapters in this volume together offer a fair insight into the contemporary understandings of higher education worldwide. We also believe that this volume is much needed, and we shall try to justify that claim in this introduction.
Description:
Capacity is a helpful term in clinical practice to indicate to clients that they (and more importantly their musculoskeletal tissues) are either able or unable to complete a task or participate in physical activity. In the context of injury—having exceeded the capacity of the tissue—the term has immediacy for muscle and ligament: a musculotendinous or ligament strain is an acute injury due to a loading event beyond the tissue's capacity. The tissue response in tendon is usually more gradual—acute traumatic injury of normal tendon is rare, whereas the pathological tendon can fail catastrophically (rupture).
Description:
Recent commentary in the BJSM has argued that a key challenge for future sports injury prevention is to reduce the ‘research to practice’ gap. Unfortunately, very few examples of this type of research actually exist. In this issue, Myklebust et al describe their approach to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention in Norwegian Handball over the past 13 years. This is one of the first published papers on the long-term outcomes of a sports injury prevention intiative that has shown promising efficacy in controlled trials. While this paper describes an impressive intial research effort and outstanding example of long-term follow-up through an ACL Injury Surveillance Programme, it also highlights challenges associated with conducting sports injury prevention implementation research.