title: Oral ketone supplementation: effect on cognitive function, physiology and exercise performance

authors: Rodger, Shem

subjects: Ergogenic

abstract: Nutritional strategies play an important role in facilitating peak athletic performances and research has shown that a state of physiological ketosis, from either a ketogenic diet or ketone supplementation, may have several benefits for athletes. These ergogenic properties may stem from the thermodynamic advantages ketones possess over other energy substrates as well as their ability to preserve glucose stores. Physiological ketosis has also shown improvements in cognitive performance, particularly for those suffering from neurological disease. The following thesis uses an oral ketone supplement (sodium- and potassium-based β-hydroxybutyrate) to elevate blood ketone concentrations to assess the effects of supplement induced ketosis on exercise metabolism and cycling performance (study 1, Chapter 2), as well as its effect on cognitive performance in an active population (study two, Chapter 3). As part of study 1, Twelve participants took part in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised crossover design. The research assessed the effect of supplement-induced ketosis on 4 minute all-out cycling performance which followed 90 minutes at second ventilatory threshold (VT2). Upon ingestion of a ketone supplement (KET: 30 ml of Ketoforce; Prototype Nutrition, IL, USA) or placebo (PLA: 3g table salt; NaCl), effect size (ES) analysis, revealed an unclear 2.3 ±4.8% (Δ mean ±90% Confidence Interval (CI)) change  in power output during a 4-minute maximal cycling performance test (4PT) in the KET trial compared to PLA. Therefore no substantial performance outcomes came as a result of ketone supplementation despite a three-fold increase in blood β-hydroxybutyrate concentration (ES ±90% CI= 3.02 ±0.8; very large) which was accompanied by a 2.2 ±1.9% increase in the respiratory exchange ratio (RER) during the submaximal exercise phase (ES = 0.51 ±0.4; moderate). During the 4PT increases in both VO2 (2.4 ±3.3%; ES = 0.24 ±0.3; small) and RER (4.3 ±3.3; ES = 0.75 ±0.5, moderate) were evident during the KET trial compared to the PLA. 
Similarly in study 2, the effects of oral ketone supplementation on cognitive function were assessed. Using a single blind, placebo-controlled design cognitive function was evaluated through five tests intended to assess different components of neuro-muscular performance, reaction time, processing speed and memory recall: finger tap test (FTT), stroop test (ST), reaction time test (RT), monkey-ladder test (MLT) and one-card test (OCT). The reliability of each test was also assessed using a test-retest protocol. No statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) were observed in cognitive function between groups. ES analysis revealed small improvements in the KET trial for ST (ES = 0.34 ±0.4) as well as the MLT (ES = 0.34 ±0.4) with either trivial or unclear results for FTT, RT and OCT when compared to PLA. In conclusion, ingestion of an oral ketone supplement was shown to have no substantial impact on human performance as measured through 4-minute cycling performance and measures of cognitive function.

text: Oral ketone supplementation: effect on cognitive function, physiology and exercise performance Nutritional strategies play an important role in facilitating peak athletic performances and research has shown that a state of physiological ketosis, from either a ketogenic diet or ketone supplementation, may have several benefits for athletes. These ergogenic properties may stem from the thermodynamic advantages ketones possess over other energy substrates as well as their ability to preserve glucose stores. Physiological ketosis has also shown improvements in cognitive performance, particularly for those suffering from neurological disease. The following thesis uses an oral ketone supplement (sodium- and potassium-based β-hydroxybutyrate) to elevate blood ketone concentrations to assess the effects of supplement induced ketosis on exercise metabolism and cycling performance (study 1, Chapter 2), as well as its effect on cognitive performance in an active population (study two, Chapter 3). As part of study 1, Twelve participants took part in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised crossover design. The research assessed the effect of supplement-induced ketosis on 4 minute all-out cycling performance which followed 90 minutes at second ventilatory threshold (VT2). Upon ingestion of a ketone supplement (KET: 30 ml of Ketoforce; Prototype Nutrition, IL, USA) or placebo (PLA: 3g table salt; NaCl), effect size (ES) analysis, revealed an unclear 2.3 ±4.8% (Δ mean ±90% Confidence Interval (CI)) change  in power output during a 4-minute maximal cycling performance test (4PT) in the KET trial compared to PLA. Therefore no substantial performance outcomes came as a result of ketone supplementation despite a three-fold increase in blood β-hydroxybutyrate concentration (ES ±90% CI= 3.02 ±0.8; very large) which was accompanied by a 2.2 ±1.9% increase in the respiratory exchange ratio (RER) during the submaximal exercise phase (ES = 0.51 ±0.4; moderate). During the 4PT increases in both VO2 (2.4 ±3.3%; ES = 0.24 ±0.3; small) and RER (4.3 ±3.3; ES = 0.75 ±0.5, moderate) were evident during the KET trial compared to the PLA. 
Similarly in study 2, the effects of oral ketone supplementation on cognitive function were assessed. Using a single blind, placebo-controlled design cognitive function was evaluated through five tests intended to assess different components of neuro-muscular performance, reaction time, processing speed and memory recall: finger tap test (FTT), stroop test (ST), reaction time test (RT), monkey-ladder test (MLT) and one-card test (OCT). The reliability of each test was also assessed using a test-retest protocol. No statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) were observed in cognitive function between groups. ES analysis revealed small improvements in the KET trial for ST (ES = 0.34 ±0.4) as well as the MLT (ES = 0.34 ±0.4) with either trivial or unclear results for FTT, RT and OCT when compared to PLA. In conclusion, ingestion of an oral ketone supplement was shown to have no substantial impact on human performance as measured through 4-minute cycling performance and measures of cognitive function.

year: 2015

title: Quantum empathy: an alternative narrative for global transcendence

authors: Pavlovich, Kathryn

abstract: This paper proposes an alternative narrative for global transcendence that has spirituality at the core of shaping society. It draws on contemplative practices such as mindfulness, reflexivity and empathy that may contribute to closing the gap between self and other. From these practices, I argue that we have the ability to tap into the harmonic frequency of the universe (quantum empathy) that may bridge across, through and beyond boundaries to link our human experience. At this quantum level, empathy is an entangled, interconnected and indeterminate shared existence that may support the ethical shift in human consciousness. This view of spirituality as a macrolevel organizing mechanism does not present a tool-kit for organizational change, but rather offers a provocation of future system-level possibilities abducted from leading-edge science.

text: Quantum empathy: an alternative narrative for global transcendence This paper proposes an alternative narrative for global transcendence that has spirituality at the core of shaping society. It draws on contemplative practices such as mindfulness, reflexivity and empathy that may contribute to closing the gap between self and other. From these practices, I argue that we have the ability to tap into the harmonic frequency of the universe (quantum empathy) that may bridge across, through and beyond boundaries to link our human experience. At this quantum level, empathy is an entangled, interconnected and indeterminate shared existence that may support the ethical shift in human consciousness. This view of spirituality as a macrolevel organizing mechanism does not present a tool-kit for organizational change, but rather offers a provocation of future system-level possibilities abducted from leading-edge science.

year: 2020

title: The Struggle For Success: A Socio-Cultural Perspective on the French Marist Priests and their Māori Mission 1838-1867

authors: Harman, Sandy Angela

subjects: missionaries

abstract: The nineteenth-century Roman Catholic missionary endeavour in New Zealand had its origins in a society of priests from Lyon, known as the Marists. The Marists’ mission has been deemed a failure due to its ongoing financial problems, its reputation for having abandoned Māori adherents, and its less visible impact compared to the Anglican Mission. This thesis examines the challenges facing the pioneer Marist priests in New Zealand and asks the question: was the Mission indeed a failure? The answer lies in the correspondence of the French Marists themselves, a largely untapped historical source which contains a different view of early New Zealand contact and religious history from that of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) evangelists. ‘The Struggle for Success’ consists of three parts examining the Mission before, during and after the pioneer phase. The first describes the Marists’ early influences and religious formation in France, which serve to elucidate the missionaries’ raison d’être and provide an historical context for the Mission. It is also an important attempt at a prosopography of men whose early lives were barely documented, and whose connection with contemporaneous and historical France, and the Lyon area in particular, would greatly affect the missions in Oceania. The subsequent comparative mission history in Part Two highlights the difficulties and conflicts that affected the progress of the Marist Māori Mission in New Zealand compared with other Christian missions in Oceania, notably the CMS in New Zealand and the early Marists in Wallis, Futuna, Tonga and New Caledonia. It describes the factors leading to the alleged failure of the Marist Māori Mission and demonstrates that hardships and struggle were the common lot of pioneer missionaries in Oceania. But the Marists on the Māori Mission had the added obstacles of being Frenchmen in a British colony, ascetics surrounded by and dependent on commerce, and dutiful religious under the authority of overburdened bishops. Irish immigration into New Zealand distorted the original aims of the French Marist missionaries, and Māori politico-religious initiatives to combat the devastating impacts of British colonialism essentially quashed Marist hopes that Māori would become a decidedly Catholic people. Having considered the obstacles to success, the thesis discusses in Part Three how the pioneer Marists understood success and conversion. In retrospect, it is clear that the missionaries underestimated the tenacity of early Māori catechists, but the CMS in New Zealand and Marists throughout Oceania were equally insensible in this respect. Finally the thesis offers an assessment of the mission’s overall success taking into account the revival of the Marist Māori Mission in the late 1870s and its continuation into the twentieth century. The social, cultural and political complexities of missionary endeavour demand a less rigid evaluation of missions than has been previously offered; and success and failure are problematic terms for the pioneer Marist Māori Mission because evangelisation was and is a work in progress.

text: The Struggle For Success: A Socio-Cultural Perspective on the French Marist Priests and their Māori Mission 1838-1867 The nineteenth-century Roman Catholic missionary endeavour in New Zealand had its origins in a society of priests from Lyon, known as the Marists. The Marists’ mission has been deemed a failure due to its ongoing financial problems, its reputation for having abandoned Māori adherents, and its less visible impact compared to the Anglican Mission. This thesis examines the challenges facing the pioneer Marist priests in New Zealand and asks the question: was the Mission indeed a failure? The answer lies in the correspondence of the French Marists themselves, a largely untapped historical source which contains a different view of early New Zealand contact and religious history from that of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) evangelists. ‘The Struggle for Success’ consists of three parts examining the Mission before, during and after the pioneer phase. The first describes the Marists’ early influences and religious formation in France, which serve to elucidate the missionaries’ raison d’être and provide an historical context for the Mission. It is also an important attempt at a prosopography of men whose early lives were barely documented, and whose connection with contemporaneous and historical France, and the Lyon area in particular, would greatly affect the missions in Oceania. The subsequent comparative mission history in Part Two highlights the difficulties and conflicts that affected the progress of the Marist Māori Mission in New Zealand compared with other Christian missions in Oceania, notably the CMS in New Zealand and the early Marists in Wallis, Futuna, Tonga and New Caledonia. It describes the factors leading to the alleged failure of the Marist Māori Mission and demonstrates that hardships and struggle were the common lot of pioneer missionaries in Oceania. But the Marists on the Māori Mission had the added obstacles of being Frenchmen in a British colony, ascetics surrounded by and dependent on commerce, and dutiful religious under the authority of overburdened bishops. Irish immigration into New Zealand distorted the original aims of the French Marist missionaries, and Māori politico-religious initiatives to combat the devastating impacts of British colonialism essentially quashed Marist hopes that Māori would become a decidedly Catholic people. Having considered the obstacles to success, the thesis discusses in Part Three how the pioneer Marists understood success and conversion. In retrospect, it is clear that the missionaries underestimated the tenacity of early Māori catechists, but the CMS in New Zealand and Marists throughout Oceania were equally insensible in this respect. Finally the thesis offers an assessment of the mission’s overall success taking into account the revival of the Marist Māori Mission in the late 1870s and its continuation into the twentieth century. The social, cultural and political complexities of missionary endeavour demand a less rigid evaluation of missions than has been previously offered; and success and failure are problematic terms for the pioneer Marist Māori Mission because evangelisation was and is a work in progress.

year: 2010