Adaptation of Sports Involvement Scale to Turkish Culture: A Validity and Reliability Study in Football Spectators

The Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) represents a gradual change of attitude formation. The continuum in the model is divided into four stages (Awareness, Attraction, Attachment, and Allegiance), which represent the formation of attitudes and involvement levels in increasingly stronger degrees towards the sport object (Funk & James, 2001). The first aim of the research is to adapt the Sports Involvement staging tool/scale developed for sports spectators by Doyle et al. (2013) within the scope of PCM for Turkish culture. The second aim of the research is to examine the differences in resistance to change levels of sports spectators regarding their involvement profiles. A total of 239 (x̄age = 37.00±14.46) football spectators aged between 18-70 participated in the study [56 female (x̄age = 31.79±13.29) and 183 male (x̄age = 38.59±14.47)]. CFA was performed for adapting the scale. The findings of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed that the Sports Involvement Scale represented its structural validity and psychometric properties as in the original scale (Chi-square/sd = 2.43,

The effects of taxifolin on neuropathy related with hyperglycemia and neuropathic pain in rats: A biochemical and histopathological evaluation

Background. Hyperglycemia can be considered a determining factor in the development of diabetic neuropathy as well as neuropathic pain. There is a relationship between the excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathic pain. Taxifolin, on the other hand, is a flavonoid that has been documented to inhibit ROS production. Objectives. To investigate the effects of taxifolin, which has antioxidant and neuroprotective effects, on alloxan-induced hyperglycemia-induced neuropathy and neuropathic pain, biochemically and histopathologically. Materials and methods. The albino Wistar male rats were divided into 3 groups: Healthy group (HG), only alloxan group (AXG) and alloxan+taxifolin group (ATG). Hyperglycemia in animals was caused through intraperitoneal injection of alloxan at a dose of 120 mg/kg. Paw pain thresholds of animals were measured using Basile algesimeter. Sciatic nerve tissues were examined biochemically and histopathologically in order to evaluate neuropathy. Results. Our experimental results revealed that taxifolin significantly prevented the increase of plasma glucose concentration level with alloxan administration, the decrease of the paw pain threshold related to hyperglycemia, the change of oxidant-antioxidant balance in the sciatic nerve tissue in favor of oxidants, and the deterioration of tissue morphology in animals. Conclusions. Our experimental results indicate that taxifolin alleviates alloxan-induced hyperglycemia-related neuropathy and neuropathic pain