BEYOND THE LINES: EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES ON NCAA STUDENT-ATHLETE HEALTH

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) student-athletes are faced with unique stressors that put them at increased risk for various biopsychosocial-spiritual (BPSS) health concerns. Additionally, given the high prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in diverse populations, it is likely that many student-athletes are also coping with challenges stemming from negative childhood events. Despite a substantial amount of evidence linking ACEs to deleterious BPSS health outcomes in both young adult and adult populations, little is known about the impact of ACEs on the overall health of student-athletes. This dissertation is comprised of the following six chapters: (a) an introduction to the dissertation, (b) a literature review exploring BPSS health concerns experienced by NCAA student-athletes and the impact of ACEs on health outcomes, (c) a systematic review examining the effectiveness of interventions being used to improve BPSS health outcomes among student-athletes, (d) a proposed methodology for the original research study, (e) an original research study exploring the interplay between ACEs and BPSS health outcomes among Division I, II, and III NCAA student-athletes (N = 477) who represented 20 sports across 53 universities, and (f) a series of implications and recommendations for researchers, clinicians, and NCAA athletics personnel

Lightcone reference for total gravitational energy

We give an explicit expression for gravitational energy, written solely in terms of physical spacetime geometry, which in suitable limits agrees with the total Arnowitt-Deser-Misner and Trautman-Bondi-Sachs energies for asymptotically flat spacetimes and with the Abbot-Deser energy for asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes. Our expression is a boundary value of the standard gravitational Hamiltonian. Moreover, although it stands alone as such, we derive the expression by picking the zero-point of energy via a ``lightcone reference.''Comment: latex, 7 pages, no figures. Uses an amstex symbo

Black Hole Pair Creation and the Entropy Factor

It is shown that in the instanton approximation the rate of creation of black holes is always enhanced by a factor of the exponential of the black hole entropy relative to the rate of creation of compact matter distributions (stars). This result holds for any generally covariant theory of gravitational and matter fields that can be expressed in Hamiltonian form. It generalizes the result obtained previously for the pair creation of magnetically charged black holes by a magnetic field in Einstein--Maxwell theory. The particular example of pair creation of electrically charged black holes by an electric field in Einstein--Maxwell theory is discussed in detail.Comment: (12 pages, ReVTeX) Revised version of "Pair Creation of Electrically Charged Black Holes". New section shows that the BH pair creation rate is enhanced by a factor $\exp(BH entropy)$ for any Hamiltonian gravity + matter theor

The postulates of gravitational thermodynamics

The general principles and logical structure of a thermodynamic formalism that incorporates strongly self-gravitating systems are presented. This framework generalizes and simplifies the formulation of thermodynamics developed by Callen. The definition of extensive variables, the homogeneity properties of intensive parameters, and the fundamental problem of gravitational thermodynamics are discussed in detail. In particular, extensive parameters include quasilocal quantities and are naturally incorporated into a set of basic general postulates for thermodynamics. These include additivity of entropies (Massieu functions) and the generalized second law. Fundamental equations are no longer homogeneous first-order functions of their extensive variables. It is shown that the postulates lead to a formal resolution of the fundamental problem despite non-additivity of extensive parameters and thermodynamic potentials. Therefore, all the results of (gravitational) thermodynamics are an outgrowth of these postulates. The origin and nature of the differences with ordinary thermodynamics are analyzed. Consequences of the formalism include the (spatially) inhomogeneous character of thermodynamic equilibrium states, a reformulation of the Euler equation, and the absence of a Gibbs-Duhem relation.Comment: 28 pages, Revtex, no figures. An important sentence and several minor corrections included. To appear in Physical Review

Thermodynamics of Reissner-Nordstrom-anti-de Sitter black holes in the grand canonical ensemble

The thermodynamical properties of the Reissner-Nordstr\"om-anti-de Sitter black hole in the grand canonical ensemble are investigated using York's formalism. The black hole is enclosed in a cavity with finite radius where the temperature and electrostatic potential are fixed. The boundary conditions allow us to compute the relevant thermodynamical quantities, e.g. thermal energy, entropy and charge. The stability conditions imply that there are thermodynamically stable black hole solutions, under certain conditions. Instantons with negative heat capacity are also found.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, Revtex. Published version. Changes: figures added to tex

Randomised pragmatic waitlist trial with process evaluation investigating the effectiveness of peer support after brain injury: protocol.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an important global health problem. Formal service provision fails to address the ongoing needs of people with TBI and their family in the context of a social and relational process of learning to live with and adapt to life after TBI. Our feasibility study reported peer support after TBI is acceptable to both mentors and mentees with reported benefits indicating a high potential for effectiveness and likelihood of improving outcomes for both mentees and their mentors. To (a) test the effectiveness of a peer support intervention for improving participation, health and well-being outcomes after TBI and (b) determine key process variables relating to intervention, context and implementation to underpin an evidence-based framework for ongoing service provision. A randomised pragmatic waitlist trial with process evaluation. Mentee participants (n=46) will be included if they have moderate or severe TBI and are no more than 18 months post-injury. Mentor participants (n=18) will be people with TBI up to 6 years after injury, who were discharged from inpatient rehabilitation at least 1 year prior. The primary outcome will be mentee participation, measured using the Impact on Participation and Autonomy questionnaire after 22 weeks. Primary analysis of the continuous variables will be analysis of covariance with baseline measurement as a covariate and randomised treatment as the main explanatory predictor variable at 22 weeks. Process evaluation will include analysis of intervention-related data and qualitative data collected from mentors and service coordinators. Data synthesis will inform the development of a service framework for future implementation. Ethics approval has been obtained from the New Zealand Health and Disability Ethics Committee (19/NTB/82) and Auckland University of Technology Ethics Committee (19/345). Dissemination of findings will be via traditional academic routes including publication in internationally recognised peer-reviewed journals. ACTRN12619001002178. [Abstract copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Hamiltonian thermodynamics of the Reissner-Nordstr\"om-anti-de Sitter black hole

We consider the Hamiltonian dynamics and thermodynamics of spherically symmetric Einstein-Maxwell spacetimes with a negative cosmological constant. We impose boundary conditions that enforce every classical solution to be an exterior region of a Reissner-Nordstr\"om-anti-de Sitter black hole with a nondegenerate Killing horizon, with the spacelike hypersurfaces extending from the horizon bifurcation two-sphere to the asymptotically anti-de Sitter infinity. The constraints are simplified by a canonical transformation, which generalizes that given by Kucha\v{r} in the spherically symmetric vacuum Einstein theory, and the theory is reduced to its true dynamical degrees of freedom. After quantization, the grand partition function of a thermodynamical grand canonical ensemble is obtained by analytically continuing the Lorentzian time evolution operator to imaginary time and taking the trace. A~similar analysis under slightly modified boundary conditions leads to the partition function of a thermodynamical canonical ensemble. The thermodynamics in each ensemble is analyzed, and the conditions that the (grand) partition function be dominated by a classical Euclidean black hole solution are found. When these conditions are satisfied, we recover in particular the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. The limit of a vanishing cosmological constant is briefly discussed. (This paper is dedicated to Karel Kucha\v{r} on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.)Comment: 34 pages, REVTeX v3.0. (Minor corrections and presentational revisions; added references.

Thermodynamics of the two-dimensional black hole in the Teitelboim-Jackiw theory

The two-dimensional theory of Teitelboim and Jackiw has constant and negative curvature. In spite of this, the theory admits a black hole solution with no singularities. In this work we study the thermodynamics of this black hole using York's formalism.Comment: 16 pages, Late

Beyond the Lines: Exploring the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on NCAA Student-Athlete Health

Emerging research has highlighted a link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and various health concerns experienced by NCAA student-athletes. Building on prior work (Kaier, Cromer, Davis, & Strunk, 2015), we hypothesized that ACEs would significantly predict student-athletes’ biopsychosocial (BPS) health and that spirituality would serve as a protective factor against the effect of ACEs on BPS health outcomes. Division I, II, and III NCAA student-athletes (N = 477) representing 20 sports across 53 universities completed an online quantitative survey (k = 133) that assessed for ACEs, injury/physical health concerns, anxiety, depression, stress, social support, substance use, and spirituality. Nearly two-thirds (64.5%) of student-athletes endorsed at least one ACE. Structural Equation Models (SEMs) yielded significant positive relationships between ACEs and anxiety, depression, perceived stress, injury/health problems, and substance use, and a negative relationship with social support while controlling for sex, race, school, and division. Additionally, spirituality had a significant negative effect on anxiety, depression, perceived stress, injury/health problems, and substance use, and a positive effect on social support. SEM moderation analyses indicated that spirituality only moderated the relationship between ACEs and substance use. Specifically, at average and high levels of spirituality, the relationship between ACEs and substance use was stronger. Clinical implications, study limitations, and future research directions are discussed

Ricci-flat Metrics with U(1) Action and the Dirichlet Boundary-value Problem in Riemannian Quantum Gravity and Isoperimetric Inequalities

The Dirichlet boundary-value problem and isoperimetric inequalities for positive definite regular solutions of the vacuum Einstein equations are studied in arbitrary dimensions for the class of metrics with boundaries admitting a U(1) action. We show that in the case of non-trivial bundles Taub-Bolt infillings are double-valued whereas Taub-Nut and Eguchi-Hanson infillings are unique. In the case of trivial bundles, there are two Schwarzschild infillings in arbitrary dimensions. The condition of whether a particular type of filling in is possible can be expressed as a limitation on squashing through a functional dependence on dimension in each case. The case of the Eguchi-Hanson metric is solved in arbitrary dimension. The Taub-Nut and the Taub-Bolt are solved in four dimensions and methods for arbitrary dimension are delineated. For the case of Schwarzschild, analytic formulae for the two infilling black hole masses in arbitrary dimension have been obtained. This should facilitate the study of black hole dynamics/thermodynamics in higher dimensions. We found that all infilling solutions are convex. Thus convexity of the boundary does not guarantee uniqueness of the infilling. Isoperimetric inequalities involving the volume of the boundary and the volume of the infilling solutions are then investigated. In particular, the analogues of Minkowski's celebrated inequality in flat space are found and discussed providing insight into the geometric nature of these Ricci-flat spaces.Comment: 40 pages, 3 figure