A08: Effects of Participation in Sports Clubs Activity on College Students’ Perceived Stress and Well-Being

Purpose: Mandated social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic has brought more anxiety and stress to college students. The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether college students\u27 participation in sports club activities can reduce anxiety and stress. The secondary purpose was to compare the effects of different types of sport clubs. Methods: The sample consisted of 242 college students (143 males; mean age=22.63 years old) in an academically prestigious university. They were voluntarily enrolled in either team sports clubs, such as volleyball, football, baseball, and softball, etc. (n=96), or individual sports clubs, such as squash, cycling, mountaineering, etc. (n=146). They responded to validated scales to assess perceived stress (Sheldon Cohen, 1983) and well-being (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2009). Self-compiled questionnaires on motivation to join sports clubs and basic information on club organization activities were collected. All surveys were conducted in October 2021. Results: A considerable proportion of students (34.7%) participated in sports clubs to reduce academic pressure. Most of them (72.26%) have already recognized the physical and mental health benefits of physical activity. Significant decreases were observed for perceived stress in both groups: team sports group (ΔM = -0.76, p \u3c 0.01), and individual sports group (ΔM= -0.77, p \u3c 0.01). A significant increase in well-being was observed in two types of courses led by the team sports group (ΔM=1.55, p \u3c 0.01) followed by the individual sports group (ΔM=1.34, p \u3c 0.01). Individual sports clubs have a more pronounced effect on reducing negative emotions than team sports clubs (ΔM = -2.01, p \u3c 0.05). Conclusion: Participation in both team sports clubs and individual sports clubs reduced perceived stress and increased well-being. Individual sports clubs had more decreases in negative emotions compared to team sports clubs

Dataset for Fine Fuels and Vegetation Point Clouds from Close-Range Structure-from-Motion

Rangelands and semi-arid ecosystems are subject to increasing changes in ecologic makeup from a collection of factors. In much of the northern Great Basin of the western United States, rangelands invaded by exotic annual grasses such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae) are experiencing an increasingly short fire cycle, which is compounding and persistent. Improving and expanding ground-based field methods for measuring above-ground biomass (AGB) may enable more sample collections across a landscape and over succession regimes, and better harmonize with other remote sensing techniques. Developments and increased adoption of uncrewed aerial vehicles and instrumentation for vegetation monitoring are enabling greater understanding of vegetation in many ecosystems. Research towards understanding the relationship of traditional field measurements with newer aerial platforms in rangeland environments is growing rapidly, and there is increasing interest in exploring the potential use both to quantify AGB and fine fuel load at pasture and landscape scales. Our study here uses relatively inexpensive handheld photography with custom sampling frames to collect and automatically reconstruct 3D-models of the vegetation within 0.2 m2 quadrats (n = 288). Next, we examine the relationship between volumetric estimates of vegetation to compare with biomass. We found that volumes calculated with 0.5 cm voxel sizes (0.125 cm3) most closely represented the range of biomass weights. We further develop methods to classify ground points, finding a 2% reduction in predictive ability compared to using the true ground surface. Overall, our reconstruction workflow had an R2 of 0.42, further emphasizing the importance of high-resolution imagery and reconstruction techniques. Ultimately, we conclude that more work is needed of increasing extents (such as from UAS) to better understand and constrain uncertainties in volumetric estimations of biomass in ecosystems with high amounts of invasive annual grasses and fine fuel litter

Tiffany Gill - Tell Your Story

My story of my past, present, and future achievements

Combining Self-Talk and Attentional Focus: An Investigation of the Optimal Implementation of Self-Talk in Sports

Self-talk is a psychological technique where people say statements to themselves silently or aloud to motivate or goal-direct movement. The latter, called instructional self-talk, consists of cue word strings that athletes use to guide performance (e.g., “bend-shoot” in basketball), which has been shown to enhance performance. Depending on the type of cue words used during self-talk, athletes can shift their attention to their own body (internal focus) or to the outcome of the movement (external focus). However, studies in motor learning have shown that an internal focus of attention negatively impacts performance. Thus, this study investigated whether the type of self-talk cue used affects performance in a golf-putting task. We predicted that participants would show better performance when using external-focus cues. In this experiment, participants performed a golf-putting task while implementing self-talk. After completing a familiarization phase and self-talk training, participants completed 80 trials using internal-focus cues in half of them and external-focus cues in the other half. Based on preliminary results, the type of instructional self-talk cue did not significantly affect performance (p \u3e 0.05). The lack of difference between conditions suggests that athletes might be able to use internal- or external-focus cues without any performance detriments

An Early Miocene (Aquitanian) Mangrove Fossil Forest Buried by a Volcanic Lahar at Barro Colorado Island, Panama

We describe remains on an Early Miocene mangrove forest, based on a fossil wood assemblage, discovered on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Sedimentological and stratigraphic analysis suggests that the fossil trees grew in marginal marine to coastal fluvial settings and were buried under a volcanic lahar flow in a single event. Radiometric analyses of a tuff associated with the fossils gives a date of ∼22.79 Ma indicating an assignment to the Aquitanian stage of Early Miocene. At this time, central Panama was part of a long and narrow peninsula with intense volcanic activity that connected it with North America and was separated from South America by the Central American Seaway. A total of 121 fossil wood specimens were located. Wood anatomy indicates that most of the identifiable specimens belonged to the same morphotype, which has anatomical traits similar to Sonneratia (Lythraceae), a mangrove tree that is native to Southeast Asia. We named this morphotype as a new fossil species: Sonneratioxylon barrocoloradoensis Pérez-Lara., sp. nov. Biomechanical estimates indicate that S. barrocoloradoensis had a mean tree height of 25 m with some specimens reaching 40 m, in contrast to modern Sonneratia and other extant mangrove forests, which generally have lower mean heights. The dominance of S. barrocoloradoensis, its similarity to Sonneratia, and the depositional setting suggest that the fossil wood assemblage on Barro Colorado Island comprised a mangrove forest growing along the coast of the volcanic chain of central Panama

Improving Emergency Department Nurses Communication Self-Efficacy with Underrepresented Populations Through Cultural Humility Training

Problem Description: The chasm of health inequality for underrepresented populations in the United States is growing, despite advances in healthcare and increased life expectancy. Disparities span the age and healthcare continuum for underrepresented populations, with increased mortality and morbidity rates in nearly every category. Non-white residents in Cook County face the same challenges. Historical lack of trust creates a reluctance to seek healthcare among Black populations, but when they do, they are disproportionately dissatisfied with their care, receive less aggressive treatment, and report higher levels of uncontrolled pain. Nurses, as the largest body of healthcare professionals, are uniquely positioned to facilitate a change in health outcomes for underrepresented populations. Setting: The racial demographics in Cook County, Illinois varies by city. The Evergreen Park region, a suburb of Chicago, is approximately 64% white and 27.7% Black residents; however, Black nurses working in the local healthcare organization emergency department represent only 14.5% of the nurses. Rationale: Despite growing evidence to support cultural humility and communication training to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction, review of available trainings for an urban medical center in Southwest Chicago revealed no access to cultural humility training and the available communication training was not framed through the lens of cultural awareness. Project Aims: The project aimed to assess Emergency Department (ED) nurses perceived self-efficacy engaging in patient-centered communication using the tenants of cultural humility, provide cultural humility and communication training for ED nurses, and to then reassess nurses perceived self-efficacy in including cultural humility in their practice. Project Outcomes: The project had seven short term change outcomes, one for preparing the intervention, four for the participants engagement in and endorsement of the intervention, and three for participant knowledge acquisition. Implementation and Evaluation Plan: The implementation plan included training of the standardized patients, development of a pre-learning module, and eight simulation events spanning a two-week period. The simulation event consisted of communication self-efficacy and Cultural Humility Scale baseline assessment data collection, education discussion, simulation pre-briefing, 15-minute simulated event, de-briefing, and a reassessment of communication self-efficacy. Results: Pre and post-test communication self-efficacy scores for the nurse participants (n=26) after the simulation event shows most nurses (76%) stated an increase in overall confidence with 10-25% confidence increase for each question. The two-month follow-up Cultural Humility self-assessment scale demonstrated higher than expected results. Interpretation: The intervention findings aligned with literature suggesting that communication simulations utilizing live actors may improve self-efficacy in emergency department nurses. The educational discussion also aligned with the literature in that it provided a platform for self-reflection. Conclusion: Nurses willingly engaged in the intervention, were open and self-disclosed during the cultural humility discussion, improved their communication self-efficacy scores, and rated the event highly in their evaluations. Nurses were able to discuss personal biases, power imbalance, and opportunities to improve communications with patients. Preliminary reports show the simulation may have led to improved patient experience scores. The organization has plans to continue the training and extend the program across the organization

A111: Relationship Between Physical Activity and Mental Toughness: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Chinese College Students

Purpose: Physical activity has favorable impacts on exercisers\u27 stress levels, psychological distress and anxiety, emotional regulation, and mental wellness. In recent years, the global outbreak of COVID-19 has subtly altered college students\u27 lifestyles. Studies have shown that the physical and mental health of students has deteriorated dramatically, which is alarming. Mental toughness refers to the ability to adapt well in the face of major pressures, setbacks, and adversity in life. The purpose of the present study was to examine variations in mental toughness depending on the intensity, length, and frequency of physical activity. Methods: A total of 3,120 Chinese college students participated in this study. In the spring semester of 2022, participants were given the demographic questionnaire, the Physical Activity Rating Scale (PARS-3), and the Chinese version of the Mental Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). 3049 students completed the survey. Independent sample t test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis, and regression analysis were performed using SPSS 25.0 statistical software. Results: The physical activity level differed significantly across sex (t = 14.37, p \u3c 0.001), grade (F=3.72, p \u3c 0.05), and monthly living expenses (F = 5.70, p \u3c 0.001). The mental toughness had significant differences across sex (t = 4.55, p \u3c 0.001), grade (F = 3.35, p \u3c 0.05), and monthly living expenses (F = 5.41, p \u3c 0.001). There were significant differences in mental toughness across different levels of physical activity intensity (F = 39.28, p \u3c 0.001), different length of physical activity (F = 33.35, p \u3c 0.001), different frequency of physical activity (F = 30.14, p \u3c 0.001), and different levels of physical activity (F = 91.55, p \u3c 0.001). Physical activity was significantly and positively correlated with mental toughness (r = 0.26, p \u3c 0.01). Conclusion: Male students exhibited significantly higher levels of physical activity than their female counterparts, and freshmen demonstrated greater physical activity than students in other grades. Additionally, the amount of physical activity among college students was influenced by their monthly living expenses. The mental toughness score of male students was notably higher than that of female students, with freshmen scoring significantly higher than students in other grades. In comparison to other levels of physical activity, engaging in a high quantity of exercise, high-intensity short-duration exercise, more than 60 minutes of activity time, and a daily activity frequency had the most pronounced impact on enhancing mental toughness. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between physical activity and mental toughness

Effects of Heterogeneous Data Sets and Time-Lag Measurement Techniques on Cosmological Parameter Constraints from Mg II and C IV Reverberation-Mapped Quasar Data

Previously, we demonstrated that Mg II and C IV reverberation-mapped quasars (RM QSOs) are standardizable and that the cosmological parameters inferred using the broad-line region radius–luminosity (R–L) relation are consistent with those determined from better-established cosmological probes. With more data expected from ongoing and future spectroscopic and photometric surveys, it is imperative to examine how new QSO data sets of varied quality, with their own specific luminosity and time-delay distributions, can be best used to determine more restrictive cosmological parameter constraints. In this study, we test the effect of adding 25 OzDES Mg II RM QSOs as well as 25 lower quality SDSS RM C IV QSOs, which increases the previous sample of RM QSOs by ~ 36 per cent. Although cosmological parameter constraints become tighter for some cosmological models after adding these new QSOs, the new combined data sets have increased differences between R–L parameter values obtained in different cosmological models and thus a lower standardizability for the larger Mg II + C IV compilation. Different time-delay methodologies, particularly the ICCF and CREAM methods used for inferring time delays of SDSS RM QSOs, slightly affect cosmological and R–L relation parameter values, however, the effect is negligible for (smaller) compilations of robust time-delay detections. Our analysis indicates that increasing the sample size is not sufficient for tightening cosmological constraints and a quality cut is necessary to obtain a standardizable RM QSO sample

An Empirical Analysis of Intervention Strategies’ Effectiveness for Countering Misinformation Amplification by Recommendation Algorithms

Social network platforms connect people worldwide, facilitating communication, information sharing, and personal/professional networking. They use recommendation algorithms to personalize content and enhance user experiences. However, these algorithms can unintentionally amplify misinformation by prioritizing engagement over accuracy. For instance, recent works suggest that popularity-based and network-based recommendation algorithms contribute the most to misinformation diffusion. In our study, we present an exploration on two Twitter datasets to understand the impact of intervention techniques on combating misinformation amplification initiated by recommendation algorithms. We simulate various scenarios and evaluate the effectiveness of intervention strategies in social sciences such as Virality Circuit Breakers and accuracy nudges. Our findings highlight that these intervention strategies are generally successful when applied on top of collaborative filtering and content-based recommendation algorithms, while having different levels of effectiveness depending on the number of users keen to spread fake news present in the dataset

Soil Pollution at a Local Firing Range

Contamination of firing range soils due to bullets is an extremely prevalent issue throughout the world. Past research on soil contamination at firing ranges has shown that the weathering of bullets can pose severe contamination risks for the metals found within bullets, such as lead and antimony. This causes immediate health concerns due to the possibility of lead and antimony from the bullets reaching groundwater and potentially threatening drinking water. The objective of this study was to determine the degree of soil contamination from bullets at the Mountain Cove police shooting range in Boise, Idaho. This was accomplished by collecting soil samples from the site using a composite sampling method, then determining the composition of these samples using ICP-MS. It was determined that there are significantly elevated concentrations of lead and antimony within the berm soil, which suggests that further remediation at the site may be necessary in order to mitigate the risks of this pollution