• LevelEd SR: A Substitutional Reality Level Design Workflow

  Beever, Lee; John, Nigel W.; University of Chester

  Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have continued to increase in popularity over the past decade. However, there are still issues with how much space is required for room-scale VR and experiences are still lacking from haptic feedback. We present LevelEd SR, a substitutional reality level design workflow that combines AR and VR systems and is built for consumer devices. The system enables passive haptics through the inclusion of physical objects from within a space into a virtual world. A validation study (17 participants) has produced quantitative data that suggests players benefit from passive haptics in entertainment VR games with an improved game experience and increased levels of presence. Including objects, such as real-world furniture that is paired with a digital proxy in the virtual world, also opens up more spaces to be used for room-scale VR. We evaluated the workflow and found that participants were accepting of the system, rating it positively using the System Usability Scale questionnaire and would want to use it again to experience substitutional reality.
• ‘How you keep going’: Voluntary sector practitioners’ story-lines as emotion work

  Quinn, Kaitlyn; Tomczak, Philippa; Buck, Gillian; University of Toronto; University of Nottingham; University of Chester (Wiley, 2022-01-16)

  The voluntary sector acts as the last line of defense for some of the most marginalized people in societies around the world, yet its capacities are significantly reduced by chronic resource shortages and dynamic political obstacles. Existing research has scarcely examined what it is like for voluntary sector practitioners working amidst these conditions. In this paper, we explore how penal voluntary sector practitioners across England and Scotland marshaled their personal and professional resources to “keep going” amidst significant challenges. Our analysis combines symbolic interactionism with the concept of story- lines. We illuminate the narratives that practitioners mobilized to understand and motivate their efforts amidst the significant barriers, chronic limitations, and difficult emotions brought forth by their work. We position practitioners' story- lines as a form of emotion work that mitigated their experiences of anger, frustration, overwhelm, sadness, and disappointment, enabling them to move forward and continue to support criminalized individuals. Our analysis details three story- lines— resignation, strategy, and refuge—and examines their consequences for practitioners and their capacities to intervene in wicked social problems.
• The content and load of preseason field-based training in a championship-winning professional rugby league team: A case study

  Fairbank, Matthew; Highton, Jamie; Daniels, Matthew; Twist, Craig; orcid: 0000-0001-6168-0378 (SAGE Publications, 2022-01-07)

  This study reports on the content and periodisation of the preseason field-based training for a professional rugby league team. Thirty professional male rugby league players (26 ± 5 years, 180.9 ± 6.5 cm, 94 ± 9 kg) completed an 8-week preseason. Global positioning system devices and heart rate were used to monitor physical and physiological responses of different field-based training components (speed, conditioning, rugby skill and game-based training). Rugby skill training contributed the most to the total distance covered, conditioning was the greatest contributor to high-speed running (>15 km/h) and game-based training provided the greatest high metabolic distance (>20 W/kg) and overall external load. Game-based training provided the greatest time with heart rate ≥80% estimated maximum. The weekly preseason cycle had lower loads on Monday and Thursday whereas Tuesday and Friday produced the highest loads. The preseason described herein adopted a progressive overload comprising a weekly undulating cycle. This study emphasises how skill and games-based training contributes significantly to the overall load of a professional rugby league team's preseason with more traditional conditioning promoting high-speed running load and high metabolic load.
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  Use of vision-based augmented reality to improve student learning of the spine and spinal deformities. An exploratory study.

  Kandasamy, Gok; orcid: 0000-0002-2569-2205; Bettany-Saltikov, Josette; orcid: 0000-0001-7784-500X; Cordry, Julien; orcid: 0000-0002-6489-3026; McSherry, Rob; orcid: 0000-0003-1335-5014 (2021-10-29)

  <h4>Background</h4>Knowledge of anatomy and pathology of the spine together with spinal deformities is integral to several healthcare disciplines. This knowledge is crucial for graduates for assessment and management of patients with spinal problems. Physiotherapy students generally find it difficult to conceptualise the integrity of the structure and function of the spine that affects their acquisition of related physiotherapy skills.<h4>Objective</h4>Our first objective was to introduce and evaluate the use of a Vision-Based Augmented Reality (VBAR) mobile application to teach students the anatomy and accessory movements of the spine. A further objective was to explore student experiences of and engagement with VBAR by conducting a post-lecture survey comparing VBAR to traditional teaching.<h4>Methods</h4>This post-intervention crossover design study included two groups: final year physiotherapy students (<i>n</i> = 74) and mean age of 23 (±1.8). The computing department at Teesside University developed the VBAR mobile application. Moreover, a survey adapted from a previously published article was disseminated to students to evaluate their level of understanding following the use of the VBAR application.<h4>Results</h4>The results demonstrated that the median questionnaire scores in students' perceived level of understanding for the VBAR group were significantly higher than for the traditional teaching group (<i>p</i> < 0.05).<h4>Conclusion</h4>The results of this post-intervention survey suggest that the integration of VBAR learning activities results in gains relating to students' understanding of spinal anatomy, function, pathology and deformities. These findings suggest that VBAR could be an additional teaching tool to support student learning.<h4>Clinical implications</h4>Greater understanding is expected to increase the quality of clinical practice.
• Regucalcin ameliorates doxorubicin-induced cytotoxicity in Cos-7 kidney cells and translocates from the nucleus to the mitochondria

  Mohammed, Noor A.; Hakeem, Israa J.; Hodges, Nikolas; Michelangeli, Francesco; orcid: 0000-0002-4878-046X (Portland Press Ltd., 2022-01-06)

  Abstract Doxorubicin (DOX) is a potent anticancer drug, which can have unwanted side-effects such as cardiac and kidney toxicity. A detailed investigation was undertaken of the acute cytotoxic mechanisms of DOX on kidney cells, using Cos-7 cells as kidney cell model. Cos-7 cells were exposed to DOX for a period of 24 h over a range of concentrations, and the LC50 was determined to be 7 µM. Further investigations showed that cell death was mainly via apoptosis involving Ca2+ and caspase 9, in addition to autophagy. Regucalcin (RGN), a cytoprotective protein found mainly in liver and kidney tissues, was overexpressed in Cos-7 cells and shown to protect against DOX-induced cell death. Subcellular localization studies in Cos-7 cells showed RGN to be strongly correlated with the nucleus. However, upon treatment with DOX for 4 h, which induced membrane blebbing in some cells, the localization appeared to be correlated more with the mitochondria in these cells. It is yet to be determined whether this translocation is part of the cytoprotective mechanism or a consequence of chemically induced cell stress.

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