Medical teams geared up for winter olympics

A century of exercise physiology: concepts that ignited the study of human thermoregulation. Part 4: evolution, thermal adaptation and unsupported theories of thermoregulation

This review is the final contribution to a four-part, historical series on human exercise physiology in thermally stressful conditions. The series opened with reminders of the principles governing heat exchange and an overview of our contemporary understanding of thermoregulation (Part 1). We then reviewed the development of physiological measurements (Part 2) used to reveal the autonomic processes at work during heat and cold stresses. Next, we re-examined thermal-stress tolerance and intolerance, and critiqued the indices of thermal stress and strain (Part 3). Herein, we describe the evolutionary steps that endowed humans with a unique potential to tolerate endurance activity in the heat, and we examine how those attributes can be enhanced during thermal adaptation. The first of our ancestors to qualify as an athlete was Homo erectus, who were hairless, sweating specialists with eccrine sweat glands covering almost their entire body surface. Homo sapiens were skilful behavioural thermoregulators, which preserved their resource-wasteful, autonomic thermoeffectors (shivering and sweating) for more stressful encounters. Following emigration, they regularly experienced heat and cold stress, to which they acclimatised and developed less powerful (habituated) effector responses when those stresses were re-encountered. We critique hypotheses that linked thermoregulatory differences to ancestry. By exploring short-term heat and cold acclimation, we reveal sweat hypersecretion and powerful shivering to be protective, transitional stages en route to more complete thermal adaptation (habituation). To conclude this historical series, we examine some of the concepts and hypotheses of thermoregulation during exercise that did not withstand the tests of time.

Exploring Culture: Audience Predispositions and Consequent Effects on Audience Behavior in a Mass-Gathering Setting

Introduction

The purpose of this critical review is to look at the current literature regarding mass gatherings and to create further understanding of this area with a particular focus on what the audience brings with them to the event, particularly in a planned event with a cultural theme or focus. Through an understanding of these predispositions and consequent effects on audience behavior in a mass-gathering setting, a more complete understanding of motivation factors of crowds and audiences can also be found.

Methods

A critical review of mass-gathering literature was undertaken by searching various online academic databases. Peer-reviewed scholarly articles relevant to the cultural aspects associated with religious, sporting and music mass gatherings were also analyzed.

Results

Results from the review show that the word “culture” is often used to explain what happens at the event without reflecting how the motivations or behaviors of audiences at an event are influenced by the cultural predispositions of the audience.

Conclusions

By understanding the cultural predispositions of the audience, event planners and designers, event risk managers and event safety personnel are able to better understand the motivation of the audience and how this might impact on audience behavior at the event. Further work needs to be done, however, to investigate the broader range of predispositions. The ultimate aim of developing this understanding is to better inform the health promotion and public health messages that can be developed for a particular type of event based on the likely composition of the audience in attendance.

HuttonA, BrownS, VerdonkN. Exploring culture: audience predispositions and consequent effects on audience behavior in a mass-gathering setting. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(3):1-6.