Injury Risk Estimation Expertise Assessing the ACL Injury Risk Estimation Quiz

Background: Available methods for screening anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk are effective but limited in application as they generally rely on expensive and time-consuming biomechanical movement analysis. A potential efficient alternative to biomechanical screening is skilled movement analysis via visual inspection (ie, having experts estimate injury risk factors based on observations of athletes’ movements). Purpose: To develop a brief, valid psychometric assessment of ACL injury risk factor estimation skill: the ACL Injury Risk Estimation Quiz (ACL-IQ). Study Design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A total of 660 individuals participated in various stages of the study, including athletes, physicians, physical therapists, athletic trainers, exercise science researchers/students, and members of the general public in the United States. The ACL-IQ was fully computerized and made available online (www.ACL-IQ.org). Item sampling/reduction, reliability analysis, cross-validation, and convergent/discriminant validity analysis were conducted to optimize the efficiency and validity of the assessment. Results: Psychometric optimization techniques identified a short (mean time, 2 min 24 s), robust, 5-item assessment with high reliability (test-retest: r = 0.90) and consistent discriminability (average difference of exercise science professionals vs general population: Cohen d = 1.98). Exercise science professionals and general population individuals scored 74% and 53% correct, respectively. Convergent and discriminant validity was demonstrated. Scores on the ACL-IQ were most associated with ACL knowledge and various cue utilities and were least associated with domain-general spatial/decision-making ability, personality, or other demographic variables. Overall, 23% of the total sample (40% exercise science professionals; 6% general population) performed better than or equal to the ACL nomogram. Conclusion: This study presents the results of a systematic approach to assess individual differences in ACL injury risk factor estimation skill; the assessment approach is efficient (ie, it can be completed in\3 min) and psychometrically robust. The results provide evidence that some individuals have the ability to visually estimate ACL injury risk factors more accurately than other instrument-based ACL risk estimation methods (ie, ACL nomogram). The ACL-IQ provides the foundation for assessing the efficacy of observational ACL injury risk factor assessment (ie, does simple skilled visual inspection reduce ACL injuries?). It also provides a representative task environment that can be used to increase our understanding of the perceptual-cognitive mechanisms underlying observational movement analysis and to improve injury risk assessment performance

Unraveling Urban-Rural Sustainable Contradictions

While Norway has a vast amount of land in relation to its population, the ongoing development of land in rural mountainous and coastal areas is having an impact on nature. Strategies for implementing densification in cities must also consider the impact on rural areas. Within this research we address the contradictory imbalance of the consumption of nature for leisure/urban escapism with that of the conservation of nature in rural areas. Rural areas are often viewed as an escape from the urban chaos and within Norway fall under a right to have access to nature. This right to nature is primarily viewed from a social-cultural perspective – and associated with the umbrella term of ‘cabin culture’. The cabin culture concept unintentionally creates a tension between an environmental sensitivity to natural landscape and the consumption of nature resources to support urban values of comfort and connectivity. There is a potential for a negative environmental rebound effect when urban dwellers compensate themselves for reduced urban space by extending the size of their dwellings through second homes in rural areas. This work highlight ways in which land is being consumed by visitors who are not just residents but also by urban escapists. The paper’s main contribution is to illuminate often overlooked aspects of sustainable solutions in cities on rural areas and the disconnect on how urban planning is impacting the rural

Architectural Practice Supporting Sustainability Transitions in the Built Environment

Abstract Transitions towards sustainability are urgently needed to address the environmental and societal challenges on a global scale. This article applies concepts used in sustainability transition studies – niches and transition experiments – to architectural practice. A tentative evaluative scheme developed by Luederitz et al [1] is used in this article to analyse how transition experiments in architectural practice can be designed and performed to support sustainability transitions in the built environment. Three practice-led transition experiments addressing resource efficiency and frugality, reuse of materials, user involvement in design, self-building, etc. are analysed. The article concludes by discussing implications of using a transition experiment approach in architectural practice.</jats:p

Alternative consumption: a circular economy beyond the circular business model

Studies for the circular economy have focused consumption from the perspective of acceptance of business models. However, consumers can engage in waste prevention, reuse and reparation in modes of consumption outside existing market-networks. This paper proposes a shift in perspective for studies on the circular economy, from production to consumption. Taking alternative modes of consumption as its starting point, it explores what the circular economy may entail when explored from a consumption perspective. More specifically, it presents the results of a literature review in which literature on alternative consumption has been reviewed and analyzed based on circularity principles and a framework of six moments of consumption. In this review, two main modes of alternative consumption were identified – one based on the meaning given to purchases made within the existing market structure, and one centered on engagement in taking care of community commons. These two modes are relevant to reduction and slowing down of material cycles. Based on these findings, recommendations are made regarding how the results can be used in further theoretical and empirical research on consumption in the circular economy, beyond business models