The co-leadership of transformational leadership : a discource analysis

This paper brings the co-leadership and transformational leadership theories together. Co-leadership is described as two (or more) leaders in vertically contiguous positions who share the responsibilities of leadership (Heenan & Bennis, 1999). Here we conduct a small preliminary analysis to explore this phenomenon, focusing on four leaders in one New Zealand company who are regarded by other members of their organisation as transformational. With the use of discourse analysis, we explore an interaction with their followers guided by Berson and Avolio’s (2004) analysis of the communication behaviour associated with transformational leadership - careful listener, careful transmitter, and open communicator

A daily diary approach to investigate the effect of ego depletion on intentions and next day behavior

Objectives: Ego depletion impairs physical and cognitive capacities, but its effects on daily intentions and behavior remain unclear. This study provides insight into relationships between ego depletion, intentions, and exercise, leisure sitting and other non-activity related behaviors. Design: The study involved repeated assessment using a daily diary. Method: Australian university students (N = 103, 52% female, M age = 22 years) self-reported end-of-day ego depletion, decisional intentions, and behavior for time spent exercising, in leisure-time sitting, doing paid work, sleeping, studying, housework, and the amount of alcohol consumed across seven days. Results: When people were more ego depleted at the time of reporting intentions, they intended to exercise for less time the next day than when people were less ego depleted. However, if people were highly ego depleted when reporting exercise intentions for the next day, they were subsequently more likely to reach those intentions. There were no significant effects of ego depletion on intentions or on the likelihood of achieving intentions for any behavior other than exercise. Conclusions: Given that the effects of ego depletion on intentions and behavior were seen for exercise but not other daily behaviors, it may be that ego depletion only impacts intentions to engage in physically effortful behavior. Future research is needed to test replicability of the effects. Interventions may consider accounting for ego depletion in efforts to enhance behavioral intentions; however, the findings also highlight the importance of keeping behavior change (as opposed to change in intentions) as the main outcome focus. © 2018 Elsevier Lt

An exercise in resistance: Inoculation messaging as a strategy for protecting motivation during a monotonous and controlling exercise class

Sustained attention has been devoted to studying the factors that support (or thwart) individuals’ enjoyment of, interest in, and value judgments regarding, their exercise activities. We employed a resistance-inducing (i.e., inoculation theory) messaging technique with the aim of protecting these desirable perceptions in the face of environmental conditions designed to undermine one’s positive exercise experiences. Autonomously-motivated exercisers (N = 146, Mage = 20.57, SD = 4.02) performed a 25-minute, group-based, instructor-led exercise circuit, in which the activities were deliberately monotonous, and during which the confederate instructor acted in a disinterested, unsupportive, and critical manner. Shortly before the session, participants received either a control message containing general information about the exercise class, or an inoculation message containing a forewarning about potential challenges to participants’ enjoyment/interest/value perceptions during the class, as well as information about how participants might maintain positive perceptions in the face of these challenges. Despite there being no between-condition differences in pre-session mood or general exercise motives, inoculated (relative to control) participants reported greater interest/enjoyment in the exercise session and higher perceptions of need support from the instructor. Perceptions of need support mediated the relationship between message condition and interest/enjoyment

Using ecological momentary assessment to understand differences in associations of exercise time and psychological stress

Psychological stress puts people at risk for acute health problems (e.g., headaches, influenza), chronic illnesses (e.g., heart disease), and all-cause mortality. Evidence suggests daily exercise may help reduce stress; however, some people may benefit more from exercise than others. For example, Fly-in, Fly-out (FIFO) workers, who commute long distances to work and stay on-site for consecutive days/weeks experience different daily stressors (e.g., long-work hours, fatigue) from their partners at home (e.g., loneliness, additional childcare and domestic responsibilities), and from university students (e.g., studying, financial strains). The aim of our study was to determine if the daily exercise-stress association differs between these groups

Using learning analytics to assess student engagement and academic outcomes in open access enabling programmes

Curriculum design, teaching methods, assessments and range of academic support need to be inclusive in Open Access Enabling courses. The findings of this study confirm a correlation between student access to online learning materials and a positive impact on grades in science courses. More specifically, students who frequently use the online learning system to access materials have better assessment and exam results. © 2017 The Open University

Construct validity evidence for a measure of peer athletic reputation (PAthR) in high school physical education

Grounded in the work that has been conducted on peer academic reputation in educational settings, our aim was to develop and provide initial construct validity evidence for a modified instrument designed to assess peer athletic reputation (PAthR). In phase 1, we devised a series of items to assess PAthR. In phase 2 (n ≈ 399), and approximately one month later in phase 3 (n ≈ 374), female high school physical education (PE) students completed a series of questionnaires that included the PAthR instrument. Analyses indicated that PAthR was (a) represented as a unitary construct, (b) positively associated across time points, (c) positively associated with indicators of desirable peer interactions (e.g., peer relatedness support, peer relatedness need satisfaction) and PE experiences (e.g., intrinsic motivation, perceived competence), and (d) negatively associated with indices considered to be less adaptive in nature (i.e., anxiety, amotivation). These findings provide preliminary support for a novel approach to the measurement of peer reputation in PE, and demonstrate evidence of the nomological net with which this concept may be associated

Exudative cloacitis in the kakapo <i>(Strigops habroptilus)</i> potentially linked to <i>Escherichia coli</i> infection

<div><p>AIM: To investigate the initiating causes of cloacitis (inflammation of the cloaca) in kakapo (<i>Strigops habroptilus</i>).</p><p>METHODS: Metagenomics using unbiased RNA or DNA sequencing was applied to faecal material from an 11-year-old female kakapo with exudative cloacitis, and a pool of eight birds (male and female aged 1–20 years) with no current signs or history of the disease. Faecal material from the diseased bird was collected pre- and post-treatment. For RNA sequencing, extracted RNA/DNA was subject to DNase, and the remaining RNA reverse transcribed to cDNA and subject to multiple displacement amplification prior to sequencing.</p><p>RESULTS: No significant alignment to any known avian virus sequence was obtained from any faecal samples. However significant BLAST alignments to five bacteriophages known to infect enterobacteria were obtained. Strong evidence was obtained for the presence of the bacteriophage Escherichia phage TL-2011b, a bacteriophage known to occur in <i>Escherichia coli</i> causing outbreaks of foodborne disease in humans, in the sample from the diseased bird, but not the non-diseased pool. Differences in <i>E. coli</i> community structure between the diseased bird and the non-diseased pool were also apparent.</p><p>CONCLUSIONS: <i>Escherichia coli</i> infection of human origin is suggested as a possible cause of exudative cloacitis, although confirmatory work is required to test this hypothesis.</p></div

A systematic review of the effects of non-conscious regulatory processes in physical activity

Physical activity theories have almost exclusively focused on conscious regulatory processes such as plans, beliefs, and expected value. The aim of this review was to aggregate the burgeoning evidence showing that physical activity is also partially determined by non-conscious processes (e.g., habits, automatic associations, priming effects). A systematic search was conducted and study characteristics, design, measures, effect size of the principle summary measures, and main conclusions of 52 studies were extracted by two independent coders. The findings support that habitual regulatory processes measured via self-report are directly associated with physical activity beyond conscious processes, and that there is likely interdependency between habit strength and intentions. Response latency measures of automatic associations with physical activity were widely disparate, precluding conclusions about specific effects. A small body of evidence demonstrated a variety of priming effects on physical activity. Overall, it is evident that physical activity is partially regulated by non-conscious processes, but there remain many unanswered questions for this area of research. Future research should refine the conceptualisation and measurement of non-conscious regulatory processes and determine how to harness them to promote physical activity

Acute photosensitisation and mortality in a herd of dairy cattle in Tasmania

<p>CASE HISTORY: A herd of Holstein, Jersey, or Holstein-Jersey cross lactating cattle of mixed ages presented with a sudden drop in milk yield in 94/678 cows on 3 October 2014 (Day 0). The herd was located in Gretna in the Derwent Valley (Tasmania, Australia) and had been grazing dryland pasture.</p> <p>CLINICAL FINDINGS: On Day 0 the cows variably showed recumbency, peracute photosensitisation, inflamed coronary bands, conjunctival erythema, periauricular oedema, distress indicated by kicking at the flank, bruxism, discomfort, weight shifting, vocalisation indicating pain and depression. Blood samples collected on Day 4 from five clinically affected cows showed high activities of aspartate aminotransferase, glutamate dehydrogenase and gamma-glutamyl transferase. Morbidity, based on the number of treated cases within 72 hours of clinical onset, was estimated at 165/678 cows (24.3%). Mortality over the first 30 days was 19/678 cows (2.8%).</p> <p>PATHOLOGICAL FINDINGS: Necropsies of two cows on Day 4 showed marked distension of the gall bladder and extensive icterus. Necropsies of another two cows on Day 5 showed enlarged livers with severe damage and oedema of the distal abomasum. Severe ulcerative abomasal gastritis was present in both cows. Hepatic histopathology was consistent with chronic cholangiohepatitis.</p> <p>MYCOTOXICOLOGY: Fifty-five different mycotoxins were detected from a barley grass (<i>Hordeum murinum</i>) sample from the presumably contaminated pasture. Concentrations of B-trichothecenes, fumonisins, and zearalenone metabolites from this sample were remarkably high. The leaf smut, <i>Jamesdicksonia dactylidis</i>, that has not been previously reported in Tasmania, was identified from the sample of barley grass, but it is not known whether the smut can produce toxins.</p> <p>DIAGNOSIS: Probably an undescribed peracute mycotoxicosis associated with the ingestion of contaminated dryland pasture.</p> <p>CLINICAL RELEVANCE: A definitive diagnosis could not be reached in this case of acute photosensitisation and mortality in dairy cattle grazing possibly contaminated dryland pasture. The findings differed from both facial eczema and acute bovine liver disease, suggesting an undescribed mycotoxicosis.</p

Reflective and non-conscious responses to exercise images

Images portraying exercise are commonly used to promote exercise behavior and to measure automatic associations of exercise (e.g., via implicit association tests). The effectiveness of these promotion efforts and the validity of measurement techniques partially rely on the untested assumption that the images being used are perceived by the general public as portrayals of exercise that is pleasant and motivating. The aim of this study was to investigate how content of images impacted people's automatic and reflective evaluations of exercise images. Participants (N = 90) completed a response time categorization task (similar to the implicit association test) to capture how automatically people perceived each image as relevant to Exercise or Not exercise. Participants also self-reported their evaluations of the images using visual analog scales with the anchors: Exercise/Not exercise, Does not motivate me to exercise/Motivates me to exercise, Pleasant/Unpleasant, and Energizing/Deactivating. People tended to more strongly automatically associate images with exercise if the images were of an outdoor setting, presented sport (as opposed to active labor or gym-based) activities, and included young (as opposed to middle-aged) adults. People tended to reflectively find images of young adults more motivating and relevant to exercise than images of older adults. The content of exercise images is an often overlooked source of systematic variability that may impact measurement validity and intervention effectiveness. © 2018 Cope, Vandelanotte, Short, Conroy, Rhodes, Jackson, Dimmock and Rebar