Not a Student, Not an Athlete, a Person

College athletics can place immense demands on athletes in terms of time commitment, physical conditioning, and pressure to perform. However, one important but less visible dimension affected by participation is one’s identity. College athletes hold multiple identities (Sturm et al., 2011) and these identities are further refined through their experiences (Chang et al., 2018). However, much less is known about athletes’ cognitive awareness of others’ perceptions and how those opinions influence athletes’ sense of self. In the present work, 52 Division I collegiate basketball players took part in a qualitative survey focused on understanding their athletic experience based on interactions with others. Responses revealed that athletes had dichotomous beliefs when addressing their perceptions of self and how they believed others viewed them, primarily based on the influence of sport. Conversely, athletes had more differing thoughts when discussing their aspirations and wishes for their future and often discussed professional goals, personality traits, and connections to others. Taken together, these results corroborate the desire (and need) for athletes to foster identities beyond their sport world (Stokowski et al., 2019) and for those who shape the sport experience to proactively work on behalf of athletes in this domain

The Social-Psychological Implications of a Coaching Change at the Collegiate Level: Perceptions of Athletes

The purpose of this study was to better understand the social-psychological processes and outcomes athletes experience during a head coaching change. The authors conducted semistructured interviews with 47 NCAA Division I athletes, representing 11 different sports at 20 distinct institutions. Following inductive analysis of transcribed interviews, seven higher order themes emerged: emotions, academics, goals, leadership, negative effects, positive effects, and changing culture and structure of the team. According to the perceptions of athletes, results showed that coaches stressed the importance of academics and used goal setting principles with their new team. However, athletes also spoke to deficiencies in leadership and the emotional instability that resulted in a loss of confidence, increased stress, and feeling ignored by the new staff. Thus, open and honest lines of communication need to be formed early with athletes—by multiple athletic personnel—so that individuals have the support system necessary to prevent maladaptive results

“It doesn\u27t need to be equitable”: Student-Athletes’ Perceptions of Gender Equity

Despite federal legislation (e.g., Title IX), gender equity has yet to be achieved, specifically within sport spaces. Although nearly half (47%) of NCAA (2022) Division I athletes are women, men are viewed as superior athletes and often given more opportunities and resources than their female counterparts (Coakley, 2016). Therefore, we investigated NCAA Division I college athletes’ perceptions of gender equity. Using convenience sampling, 4 female and 4 male college athletes participated in semi-structured interviews. The data from the interviews divulged 3 themes: (not) discriminating, opportunity and fairness, and lack of exposure. In their own words, the participants revealed that despite efforts to enhance opportunities for women through collegiate sport participation, women are still at a disadvantage in collegiate sports. Specifically, women were seen being disadvantaged in the areas of media coverage, amenities, and equipment. All of the participants also described that football received exorbitant resources in comparison to all other sports. In fact, all non-football athletes felt inferior to football, with some participants even using football to justify inequitable conditions. The results of this study can assist athletic departments in better serving all athletes through equitable means, ensuring this population feels valued

He\u27s an Asshole : Power 5 College Football Athletes Navigating a Shady Coaching Transition

Head coaches play a crucial role in shaping both athletes’ athletic experiences and the complex team system. Consequently, coaching transitions have a tremendous effect on college athletes. Through the lens of transition theory, the purpose of this case study was to investigate the effect of multiple head coaching changes on NCAA Division I Power Five football athletes. Eight football athletes completed a 27- item open-ended questionnaire. Data analysis revealed three explicit, meaningful themes: support, achievement, and consistency. This study strives to assist athletic administrators and coaches in becoming increasingly aware of the potential impact that these abrupt coaching transitions can have on the athlete experience. Additionally, through the voices of the participants, this study attempts to assist college athletes in navigating a coaching transition

Generalised Factorial Moments and QCD Jets

{ In this paper we present a natural and comprehensive generalisation of the standard factorial moments (\clFq) analysis of a multiplicity distribution. The Generalised Factorial Moments are defined for all $q$ in the complex plane and, as far as the negative part of its spectrum is concerned, could be useful for the study of infrared structure of the Strong Interactions Theory of high energy interactions (LEP multiplicity distribution under the ${\cal Z}_0$). The QCD calculation of the Generalised Factorial Moments for negative $q$ is performed in the double leading log accuracy and is compared to OPAL experimental data. The role played by the infrared cut-off of the model is discussed and illustrated with a Monte Carlo calculation. }Comment: 11pages 4 figures uuencode, LATEC, INLN 94/

Treatment with pyrophosphate inhibits uremic vascular calcification

Pyrophosphate, which may be deficient in advanced renal failure, is a potent inhibitor of vascular calcification. To explore its use as a potential therapeutic, we injected exogenous pyrophosphate subcutaneously or intraperitoneally in normal rats and found that their plasma pyrophosphate concentrations peaked within 15 min. There was a single exponential decay with a half-life of 33 min. The kinetics were indistinguishable between the two routes of administration or in anephric rats. The effect of daily intraperitoneal pyrophosphate injections on uremic vascular calcification was then tested in rats fed a high-phosphate diet containing adenine for 28 days to induce uremia. Although the incidence of aortic calcification varied and was not altered by pyrophosphate, the calcium content of calcified aortas was significantly reduced by 70%. Studies were repeated in uremic rats given calcitriol to produce more consistent aortic calcification and treated with sodium pyrophosphate delivered intraperitoneally in a larger volume of glucose-containing solution to prolong plasma pyrophosphate levels. This maneuver significantly reduced both the incidence and amount of calcification. Quantitative histomorphometry of bone samples after double-labeling with calcein indicated that there was no effect of pyrophosphate on the rates of bone formation or mineralization. Thus, exogenous pyrophosphate can inhibit uremic vascular calcification without producing adverse effects on bone

On kinematics and dynamics of independent pion emission

Multiparticle boson states, proposed recently for 'independently' emitted pions in heavy ion collisions, are reconsidered in standard second quantized formalism and shown to emerge from a simplistic chaotic current dynamics. Compact equations relate the density operator, the generating functional of multiparticle counts, and the correlator of the external current to each other. 'Bose-Einstein-condensation' is related to the external pulse. A quantum master equation is advocated for future Monte-Carlo simulations.Comment: 10 pages LaTeX, Sec.7 adde

Multiplicity dependence of identical particle correlations in the quantum optical approach

Identical particle correlations at fixed multiplicity are consideres in the presence of chaotic and coherent fields. The multiplicity distribution, one-particle momentum density, and two-particle correlation function are obtained based on the diagrammatic representation for cmulants in semi-inclusive events. Our formulation is applied to the analysis of the experimental data on the multiplicity dependence of correlation functions reported by the UA1 and the OPAL Collaborations.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Disoriented Chiral Condensates, Pion Probability Distributions and Parallels with Disordered System

A general expression is discussed for pion probability distributions coming from relativistic heavy ion collisions. The general expression contains as limits: 1) The disoriented chiral condensate (DCC), 2) the negative binomial distribution and Pearson type III distribution, 3) a binomial or Gaussian result, 4) and a Poisson distribution. This general expression approximates other distributions such as a signal to noise laser distribution. Similarities and differences of the DCC distribution with these other distribution are studied. A connection with the theory of disordered systems will be discussed which include spin-glasses, randomly broken objects, random and chaotic maps.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure include

Jet Energy Density in Hadron-Hadron Collisions at High Energies

The average particle multiplicity density dN/deta is the dynamical quantity which reflects some regularities of particle production in low-pT range. The quantity is an important ingredient of z-scaling. Experimental results on charged particle density are available for pp, pA and AA collisions while experimental properties of the jet density are still an open question. The goal of this work is to find the variable which will reflect the main features of the jet production in low transverse energy range and play the role of the scale factor for the scaling function psi(z) and variable z in data z-presentation. The appropriate candidate is the variable we called "scaled jet energy density". Scaled jet energy density is the probability to have a jet with defined ET in defined xT and pseudorapidity regions. The PYTHIA6.2 Monte Carlo generator is used for calculation of scaled jet energy density in proton-proton collisions over a high energy range (sqrt s = 200-14000 GeV) and at eta = 0. The properties of the new variable are discussed and sensitivity to "physical scenarios" applied in the standard Monte Carlo generator is noted. The results of scaled jet energy density at LHC energies are presented and compared with predictions based on z-scaling.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, 8 figures, Presented at the XVII International Baldin Seminar on High Energy Physics Problems "Relativistic Nuclear Physics & Quantum Chromodynamics", Dubna, Russia, September 27 - October 2, 200