A letter to my younger self: understanding talented athletes’ experiences of and future recommendations for seeking help for mental health difficulties

Researchers have suggested that athletes are at-risk for mental health difficulties partly due to the stressors they encounter. Despite this, athletes may not acknowledge nor seek support for their mental health problems. The aim of this study is to explore talented athletes’ experiences of seeking help for mental help difficulties, and their perceptions of the psychological services offered. Utilizing letter to self-methodology, 16 talented athletes (11 female; Mage = 25.27, SD = 7.95) were asked to write a letter to their younger self outlining their experiences of seeking help for mental health difficulties. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, and five themes were generated: (1) Athletes have a tendency to bottle up feelings as a way to protect themselves; (2) Unable to identify signs and symptoms of mental ill-health; (3) Availability of sport psychology support has improved, but it is still insufficient; (4) Athletes are individual and should be treated as so; and (5) The sporting environment should attempt to develop cultural competency. Following this, a composite version of the letter was developed and presented to a selection of the original sample (n = 9). Member reflection interviews were then completed (Mduration = 63.07 minutes; SD = 11.15) to explore their responses to the letter. This study provides insight into athletes’ current and desired mental health support. From the findings, a set of recommendations are forwarded to strengthen the provision of mental health support and provide athletes with earlier and tailored support

Elevated-temperature fatigue behavior and microstructure based cumulative damage evaluation of additive manufacturing superalloy under variable amplitude loading

Fatigue properties under service conditions are a critical barrier to the reliable application of additive manufacturing (AM) metals. Yet, the associated damage mechanisms and life evaluation approaches, particularly at long term, elevated temperature and variable amplitude (VA) loading, are almost unclear. To address these, high and very-high cycle fatigue VA tests and meso-microscale analyses were performed to investigate damage mechanism of a laser powder bed fused superalloy with heat treatment at service temperature of 650 °C, and a microstructure based cumulative damage evaluation approach was proposed. Results show that interior failures characterized by defect-assisted faceted cracking are predominant. VA loading tends to sequentially activate multiple defects, resulting in competitive multi-site crack nucleation. Increased stress levels accelerate crack growth, leading to the formation of localized rough growth areas and crack deflection. Both primary and secondary cracks grow transgranularly, with crack paths showing negligible dependence on grain orientation. The interior crack nucleation and growth mechanisms under VA loading are elucidated. A cumulative damage evaluation model incorporating the remaining life factor, correlation function transformation, and a reconstructed stress-life relationship was developed, with the prediction results being in close accord with the experimental data under VA loading. These findings provide new insights into the interior crack nucleation and growth mechanisms in AM superalloys and offer a predictive framework for fatigue life estimation under realistic service conditions

Meta-inner humor beliefs and problematic social media use: a six-month longitudinal test of metacognitive pathways

No previous studies have ever examined humor as a diffusion strategy in the context of technology use. The present study is the first to investigate whether meta-inner humor beliefs (MIHBs) are prospectively associated with problematic social media use (PSMU) via metacognitions about social media use. A prospective, two-wave longitudinal design with a bidirectional cross-lagged panel (CLPA) model was used to examine associations between adaptive and maladaptive MIHBs on PSMU, examining the indirect pathway of positive and negative metacognitions about social media use (meta-SMUs). The study was conducted across two waves at a six-month interval. At Wave 1, a large community sample (N = 1,253; 58.2 % females; age = 36.8 years [SD ± 14.1]) participated in the study, and at Wave 2, 78.1 % of the starting sample completed the follow-up assessment. Results from the bidirectional CLPA showed that adaptive MIHBs at Wave 1 were significantly associated with lower negative and positive meta-SMUs at Wave 2. In contrast, maladaptive MIHBs were only associated with higher negative meta-SMUs at Wave 2. Also, negative meta-SMUs predicted an increase in PSMU six months later, whereas it was non-significant for positive meta-SMUs. Analyses of bidirectional indirect pathways demonstrated that adaptive MIHBs were indirectly related to lower PSMU through reduced negative metacognitions, while maladaptive MIHBs were indirectly related to higher PSMU through elevated negative metacognitions. Multi-group analyses established full longitudinal measurement and structural invariance across gender. The findings underscore the potential role of humor-related metacognitive pathways in the maintenance of PSMU, suggesting that humor-based psychotherapeutic approaches warrant further investigation

Strain monitoring of laminated composites using novel hybrid nanofibrous sensors

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of composite structures necessitates developing robust and resilient sensors which operate in harsh environments with high degree of sensitivity, and are easily integrable in structural components. Electrospinning has been explored in the past for the fabrication of nanofibers whereas electrospraying has been exploited for the deposition of electrosprayed clusters. In this paper, a hybrid manufacturing technique is proposed for manufacturing nanofibrous webs from conductive polymer composite (CPC) solutions. The degree of shear thinning of the solutions is compared by rheological analysis, which shows that the solution with a 2% w/v is effective for electrospray, with a greater degree of shear thinning behavior than a 10% w/v solution. These webs gain their structural integrity and provide multiple sensing mechanisms when nano-sprayed clusters of the same CPC solution weld the fibers obtained through electrospinning together on a polycarbonate substrate. These laminates are then cut into strips and pasted on glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites for strain monitoring with an aim for SHM. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is used to characterize the sensing capability using the electrolyte/interface and surface reactions. The thermogravimetric analysis was conducted to study the suitable temperature range for the developed sensor. The measured gauge factor is 2.5. The sensor is tested up to 2000 cycles while the maximum linearity error and maximum hysteresis error of the sensor are calculated as 0.893 and 1.168. This proves the sensor’s effectiveness for quasistatic as well as dynamic loading scenarios. The fractographic analysis also shows that the sensors can follow various failure modes with the applied load

Epoxy composites reinforced by alkaline–acid treated yucca fibers

This study investigates the impact of chemical treatments on the physico–chemo–mechanical properties of mechanically extracted yucca fibers and the mechanical performance of epoxy-based bio-composites. Initially, yucca fibers are treated with sulfuric acid (H2SO4 at 1% and 4%, during 30 min) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH at 3% and 8%, during 120 min), aiming to enhance their properties. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis reveals improved surface quality of fibers and reduced diameters, while fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirms their functional groups. Yucca-treated fibers exhibit significant tensile strength improvements, with increases of 101.22% (518 MPa) for fibers treated with 3% NaOH and 93.33% (497 MPa) for those treated with 1% sulfuric acid, compared to untreated fibers (257 MPa). Subsequently, bio-composites elaborated via mold casting technique and using these treated fibers demonstrate enhanced mechanical performance. Tensile strength increases by 25% (29.6 MPa) and 45% (34.4 MPa) for composites reinforced with fibers treated with 3% NaOH and 1% sulfuric acid, respectively, compared to untreated fiber composites (23.6 MPa). Similarly, compressive strength improves by 23.35% (79.5 MPa) and 9.85% (89.3 MPa), while bending strength reaches 41.03 MPa (4.3%) and 45.27 MPa (15.1%) for composites reinforced with fibers treated at 3% NaOH and 1% sulfuric acid, respectively