Clive B Beggs

Leeds Beckett University | LEEDS MET · Carnegie School of Sport

Objectives Covid-19 shone a spotlight on the poor air quality present in many classrooms and led to multiple calls for Air Cleaning Technologies (ACT) in schools. This is understandable given the ability of these technologies to remove or inactivate airborne viruses (via filtration or UVC light respectively). However, there is little knowledge abou...

Existing indoor closed ultraviolet-C (UVC) air purifiers (UVC in a box) have faced technological challenges during the COVID-19 breakout, owing to demands of low energy consumption, high flow rates, and high kill rates at the same time. A new conceptual design of a novel UVC-LED (light-emitting diode) air purifier for a low-cost solution to mitigat...

Background: Aerosol spread of SARS-CoV-2 is a major problem in hospitals, leading to an increase in supplementary HEPA filtration aimed at reducing nosocomial transmission. We report a natural experiment that occurred when an air-cleaning unit (ACU) on a medicine for older people ward was accidentally switched off while being commissioned. Aim:...

Ranking sports teams generally relies on supervised techniques, requiring either prior knowledge or arbitrary metrics. In this paper, we offer a purely unsupervised technique. We apply this to operational decision-making, specifically, the controversial European Super League for association football, demonstrating how this approach can select domin...

A conceptual design of a novel UVC-LED air-cleaner is presented as part of an international educational-research study. The main components are a dust-filter assembly, a UVC chamber and a fan. The dust-filter aims to suppress dust accumulation that will hamper the UVC chamber operation. The innovation is in the UVC chamber that includes a novel tur...

This study aimed to determine the similarity between and within positions in professional rugby league in terms of technical performance and match displacement. Here, the analyses were repeated on 3 different datasets which consisted of technical features only, displacement features only, and a combined dataset including both. Each dataset containe...

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, aerosol spread of SARS-CoV-2 has been a major problem in healthcare facilities, resulting in increased use of supplementary HEPA filtration to mitigate transmission. We report here a natural experiment that occurred when an air filtration unit (AFU) on an inpatient ward for older people was accidentally swit...

Bateman et al. ( Bateman et al., 2021 • Bateman GA • Lechner-Scott J • MF Carey • Bateman AR • Lea RA. Possible Markers of Venous Sinus Pressure Elevation in Multiple Sclerosis: Correlations with Gender and Disease Progression. Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders. 2021; 103207 • Abstract • Full Text • Full Text PDF • PubMed • Scopus (0) • G...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused disruption to professional and recreational sports across the world. The SARS-CoV-2 virus can be transmitted by relatively large respiratory droplets that behave ballistically, and exhaled aerosol droplets, which potentially pose a greater risk. This review provides a summary of end-to-end...

Establishing dose–response relationships between training load and fatigue can help the planning of training. The aim was to establish the relative importance of external training load measurements to relate to the musculoskeletal response on a group and individual player level. Sixteen elite male rugby league players were monitored across three se...

We use European football performance data to select teams to form the proposed European football Super League, using only unsupervised techniques. We first used random forest regression to select important variables predicting goal difference, which we used to calculate the Euclidian distances between teams. Creating a Laplacian eigenmap, we bisect...

In this proof-of-concept study the impact of central venous pressure (CVP) on internal jugular veins cross-sectional area (CSA) and blood flow time-average velocity (TAV) was evaluated in eight subjects, with the aim of understanding the drivers of the jugular venous pulse. CVP was measured using a central venous catheter while CSA variation and TA...

The year 2020 has seen the emergence of a global pandemic as a result of the disease COVID-19. This report reviews knowledge of the transmission of COVID-19 indoors, examines the evidence for mitigating measures, and considers the implications for wintertime with a focus on ventilation.

There is increasing evidence that the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has been influenced by variations in air temperature and humidity. However, the impact that these environmental parameters have on survival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has not been fully characterised. Therefore, an analytical study was undertaken using published data to develop a psychrometr...

Video analysis research into the rugby league tackle typically uses technical criteria from coaching cues or tackle variables from rugby union. As such, the content validity and relevance could be questioned. A video analysis framework which establishes appropriate variables for rugby league is therefore required. The aim of this study was to adopt...

There is increasing evidence that the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has been influenced by variations in air temperature and humidity. However, the impact that these environmental parameters have on survival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has not been fully characterised. Therefore an analytical study was undertaken using published data to develop a psychrometri...

Rugby league carries a high injury incidence with 61% of injuries occurring at tackles. The ball carrier has a higher injury incidence than the defender, therefore understanding mechanisms occurring during injurious tackles are important. Given the dynamic, open nature of tackling, characteristics influencing tackle outcome likely encompass complex...

Objectives Acquiring central venous pressure (CVP), an important clinical parameter, requires an invasive procedure, which poses risk to patients. The aim of the study was to develop a non-invasive methodology for determining mean-CVP from ultrasound assessment of the jugular venous pulse. Methods In thirty-four adult patients (age = 60 ± 12 years...

As the world's economies come out of the lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need for technologies to mitigate COVID-19 transmission in confined spaces such as buildings. This feasibility study looks at one such technology, upper-room ultraviolet (UV) air disinfection, that can be safely used while humans are present in th...

https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.12781 Winter 2020 presents signi�cant risks in managing the ventilation of buildings and maintaining a healthy indoor environment. The extent of the COVID-19 pandemic, both in terms of its stage of development and the controlling measures in-place, varies widely across the globe both inter- and intra-country. Within the...

This study aimed to identify which physical and technical-tactical performance indicators (PI) can classify between levels of rugby league match-play. Data were collected from 46 European Super League (ESL) and 36 under-19 Academy (Academy) level matches over two competitive seasons. Thirty-one male ESL players and 41 male Academy players participa...

As the world economies get out of the lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to assess the suitability of known technologies to mitigate COVID-19 transmission in confined spaces such as buildings. This feasibility study looks at the method of upper-room ultraviolet (UV) air disinfection that has already proven its effica...

Objectives While COVID-19 is known to be spread by respiratory droplets (which travel <2m horizontally), much less is known about its transmission via aerosols, which can become airborne and be widely distributed throughout room spaces. In order to quantify the risk posed by COVID-19 infectors exhaling respiratory aerosols in enclosed spaces, we un...

Purpose: To evaluate the relative importance and predictive ability of salivary immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) measures with regards to upper respiratory illness (URI) in youth athletes. Methods: Over a 38-week period, 22 youth athletes (age = 16.8 [0.5] y) provided daily symptoms of URI and 15 fortnightly passive drool saliva samples, from which s-Ig...

This study examined the relative contribution of exercise duration and intensity to team-sport athlete’s training load. Male, professional rugby league (n = 10) and union (n = 22) players were monitored over 6- and 52-week training periods, respectively. Whole-session (load) and per-minute (intensity) metrics were monitored (league: session rating...

This systematic review aimed to identify and summarise associations between currently identified contextual factors and match running in senior male professional rugby league. Eligible articles included at least one contextual factor and used GPS to measure at least one displacement variable within competitive senior, male, professional rugby leagu...

Purpose Despite being a widely used management technique, cumulative sum (CUSUM) analysis remains almost unheard of in professional sport. To address this, CUSUM analysis of soccer match data from the English Premier League (EPL) was performed. The primary objective of the study was to evaluate CUSUM as a tool for assessing “on-field” team performa...

Identifying the external training load variables which influence subjective internal response will help reduce the mismatch between coach-intended and athlete-perceived training intensity. Therefore, this study aimed to reduce external training load measures into distinct principal components (PCs), plot internal training response (quantified via s...

Objectives Soccer leagues reflect the partial standings of the teams involved after each round of competition. However, the ability of partial league standings to predict end-of-season position has largely been ignored. Here we analyze historical partial standings from English soccer to understand the mathematics underpinning league performance and...

Background: Respiratory symptoms are considered to provide limited diagnostic value in the assessment of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) (Price et al. Resp Med 2016; 120, 36-43). Aim: To evaluate perceived dyspnoea in athletes applying machine learning methods. Method: Cross-sectional evaluation of athletes (n = 65; male: n = 39) reporti...

Purpose: To discuss the use of principal-component analysis (PCA) as a dimension-reduction and visualization tool to assist in decision making and communication when analyzing complex multivariate data sets associated with the training of athletes. Conclusions: Using PCA, it is possible to transform a data matrix into a set of orthogonal composi...

The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulse in the Aqueduct of Sylvius (aCSF pulse) is often used to evaluate structural changes in the brain. Here we present a novel application of the general linear model (GLM) to predict the motion of the aCSF pulse. MR venography was performed on 13 healthy adults (9 female and 4 males—mean age = 33.2 years). Flow data...

Objectives Professional sporting organisations invest considerable resources collecting and analysing data in order to better understand the factors that influence performance. Recent advances in non-invasive technologies, such as global positioning systems (GPS), mean that large volumes of data are now readily available to coaches and sport scient...

Catheter venography has been considered to be the "gold standard" in the evaluation of venous occlusive disease. Venography provides valuable information regarding stenotic areas, flow patterns, reflux, and the presence of collaterals. Many attempts have been made to evaluate the cerebral outflow and patients who may benefit from a treatment of int...

Understanding the most demanding passages of European Super League competition can optimise training prescription. We established positional and match half differences in peak relative distances (m·min-1) across durations, and the number of collisions, high-speed- and very-high-speed-distance completed in the peak 10 min period. Moving-averages (10...

Purpose: To assess early and midterm outcomes of iliac branch device (IBD) implantation without an aortic stent-graft for the treatment of isolated common iliac artery aneurysm (CIAA). Methods: From December 2006 to June 2016, 49 isolated CIAAs in 46 patients were treated solely with an IBD at 7 vascular centers. Five patients were lost to follo...

Objectives Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients frequently suffer from headaches and fatigue, and many reports have linked headaches with intracranial and/or extracranial venous obstruction. We therefore designed a study involving MS patients diagnosed with obstructive disease of internal jugular veins (IJVs), with the aim of evaluating the impact of p...

Data used in the study. (XLS)

Introduction: Understanding the required training load to elicit improvements in intermittent running performance is a crucial process for strength and conditioning coaches. The aim was to investigate whether internal and external training load (TL) variables are related in a ‘dose-response’ manner with changes in 30-15 intermittent fitness test (3...

Purpose Adductor longus injuries are complex. The conflict between views in the recent literature and various nineteenth-century anatomy books regarding symphyseal and perisymphyseal anatomy can lead to difficulties in MRI interpretation and treatment decisions. The aim of the study is to systematically investigate the pyramidalis muscle and its an...

Objective Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of the internal jugular veins (IJVs) has been proposed in recent years to treat chronic cerebrovascular venous insufficiency, with discordant results. Moreover, very little is known about the efficacy of PTA in restoring a normal cerebral venous outflow. The aim of this study was to investigate...

The skeleton of a cricket fast bowler is exposed to a unique combination of gravitational and torsional loading in the form of substantial ground reaction forces delivered through the front landing foot, and anterior-posterior shear forces mediated by regional muscle contractions across the lumbo-pelvic region. The objectives of this study were to...

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of physical qualities for speed and change of direction (CoD) ability in female soccer players. Data were collected on 10 female soccer players who were part of a professional English Women's Super League team. Player assessments included anthropometric (stature and body mass), body composit...

Ranking enables coaches, sporting authorities, and pundits to determine the relative performance of individual athletes and teams in comparison to their peers. While ranking is relatively straightforward in sports that employ traditional leagues, it is more difficult in sports where competition is fragmented (e.g. athletics, boxing, etc.), with not...

Purpose: To characterize the intracranial volumetric changes that influence the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulse in the Aqueduct of Sylvius (AoS). Materials and Methods: Neck MRI data were acquired from 12 healthy adults (8 female and 4 males; mean age=30.9 years), using a 1.5 Tesla scanner. The intracranial arterial, venous and CSF volumes change...

The cerebral venous drainage system has often been viewed simply as a series of collecting vessels passively channelling blood from the brain back to the heart. However, recent studies suggest that this system may be far from passive and that it plays an important role in regulating intracranial pressure and the stiffness of the brain parenchyma, a...

Objectives: To retrospectively compare the longitudinal physical development of junior rugby league players between the Under 13 and 15 age categories in relation to their adult career attainment outcome. Design: Retrospective longitudinal design. Methods: Fifty-one former junior rugby league players were retrospectively grouped according to t...

Prediction of adult performance from early age talent identification in sport remains difficult. Talent identification research has generally been performed using univariate analysis, which ignores multivariate relationships. To address this issue, this study used a novel higher-dimensional model to orthogonalize multivariate anthropometric and fit...

Exploratory Dataset. (XLSX)

Validation Dataset. (XLSX)

This study examined the relationship between accelerometer metrics and both collisions and running demands during rugby union match-play. Twelve under-18 forwards and 14 under-18 backs were recruited from a professional rugby union club. Six competitive matches were filmed during which players wore micro-technological units (Optimeye S5, Catapult I...

Objectives Constricted cerebral venous outflow has been linked with increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulsatility in the aqueduct of Sylvius in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and healthy individuals. This study investigates the relationship between CSF pulsatility and internal jugular vein (IJV) cross-sectional area (CSA) in these two groups, s...

Complete dataset of the clinical, MRI and MRV data for the MS patients and healthy individuals who participated in the study. (XLS)

Objectives: To assess the relationship between cross-sectional area of internal jugular veins and brain volumes in healthy individuals without neurologic disease. Methods: A total of 193 healthy individuals without neurologic disease (63 male and 130 female; age > 20 to < 70 years) received magnetic resonance venography and structural brain magn...

Background: Internal jugular vein (IJV) narrowing has been implicated in central nervous system pathologies, however normal physiological age- and gender-related IJV variance in healthy individuals (HIs) has not been adequately assessed. Objectives: We assessed the relationship between IJV cross-sectional area (CSA) and aging. Materials and met...

Coronal view of orthogonal maximum intensity projection of the 2D axial magnetic resonance venography, allowing for visualization of the internal jugular veins (IJVs) from cervical levels C2 to T1. Region of interest slices were selected with the minimum cross-sectional area of the IJVs at different cervical locations (C2/C3, C4, C5/C6, and C7/T1)....

Intra- and inter-rater reproducibility of internal jugular vein cross-sectional area in 25 healthy individuals at different cervical levels. (DOC)

IJV-CSA-Aging File. The minimal data set are within the paper and its supporting information files. (TXT)

Due to the focus of research within athletic populations, little is known about the hydration strategies of rugby league referees. We observed all eight full-time professional referees, during 31 Super League matches to investigate the drinking strategies and magnitude of dehydration (body mass loss) experienced by referees during match play. Refer...

The classical deterministic susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR) model has played an important role in the analysis of epidemic systems with large populations. However, when population numbers become small e.g. in a hospital ward, a stochastic analysis will be vital. The stochastic Petri-Nets using Gillespie algorithm for modeling the transmissio...

The use of electroencephalograms (EEGs) to diagnose and analyses Alzheimer's disease (AD) has received much attention in recent years. The sample entropy (SE) has been widely applied to the diagnosis of AD. In our study, nine EEGs from 21 scalp electrodes in 3 AD patients and 9 EEGs from 3 age-matched controls are recorded. The calculations show th...

Aging of the healthy brain is characterized by focal or nonfocal white matter (WM) signal abnormality (SA) changes, which are typically detected as leukoaraiosis (LA). Hypertension is a risk factor for WM lesion formation. This study investigated whether LA might be associated with increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulsatility linked to arterial...