Concussion Knowledge of Youth Sport Athletes, Coaches, and Parents: A Review

Mild traumatic brain injury, commonly known as a concussion, has gained widespread public attention. Approximately 1.1 to 1.9 million children ≤18 years old suffer sport/recreation-related concussions in the U.S. annually. The purpose of this review was to assess research articles examining concussion knowledge of youth sport athletes, coaches and parents. Twenty-one articles published from 2009-2016 were selected. The results of this review suggest that most athletes, coaches, and parents had good knowledge regarding the definition of a concussion, common signs/symptoms, and complications from repeated concussions, while most stakeholders had moderate knowledge about the causes, prevalence, and return-to-play guidelines. However, the majority of respondents did not correctly identify the emotional signs/symptoms associated with concussions, and did not know that youth concussions should be managed more conservatively than adult concussions. Notable knowledge gaps were found among youth athletes and parents compared to coaches. Suggestions to improve these youth sport stakeholders’ concussion knowledge are provided

Effectiveness of Green Olympic Initiatives on Reasons Affecting Residents’ Actions to Support the Olympic Movement

The world faces major environmental challenges that affect the well-being of human beings, plants, and wildlife. The Olympic Games, one of the most influential sport events, should pay special attention to environmental issues. In 1996, the environmental element became a central factor of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) (IOC, 2009). To scientifically and comprehensively evaluate the impact of the Olympics on the host city, the IOC launched the Olympic Games Global Impact (OGGI) study in 2003 (IOC, 2006). This study begins two years before the host city is selected, and terminates two years after hosting the Games (IOC, 2006). One of the reasons to do an 11-year OGGI study is likely because the social, economic, and environmental impact of the Games may vary throughout the whole process. To a great extent, these technical reports remain internal to the IOC. A majority of previous studies on mega sport events have focused on the economic impact (Twynam & Johnston, 2004). Few studies have emphasized the environmental aspect of major sport events. It would be constructive to investigate the environmental impact of the Beijing Games over eight years, from the moment of being named as the host city to one year after hosting the event. Based on the environmental measures applied in Beijing, there were five critical time periods that should be considered in order to comprehensively understand the effectiveness of the Beijing Green Olympic initiatives, including July 2001 (Time 1) when Beijing was named as the host city for the 2008 Olympic Games, August 2007(Time 2) when it was one year before the Games, August 2008 (Time 3) when it was during the Games, December 2008 (Time 4) when it covered close-out and summary period of the Games, and December 2009 (Time 5) when it was one year after the Games. Research has suggested that local residents play an important role in achieving successful and sustainable impact of mega sport events (Deccio & Baloglu, 2002). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine residents’ perceived effectiveness of Beijing Green Olympic initiatives, by investigating their awareness, perception, attitude, intention, and actual behavior through conducting a time-series analysis. Based on a comprehensive review of literature, a questionnaire was developed that included the following sections: awareness, perception, attitude, behavior intention, and actual behavior associated with Beijing Green Olympics initiatives. All items were phrased in a 7-point scale (1 = “strongly disagree” to 7 = “strongly agree”). The questionnaire was phrased into five versions, corresponding with the five key time periods. Each version had a different leading statement and, to increase recall accuracy, a historical scenario/picture reflecting a specific time period. Five sets of pictures depicting significant events that happened in China during each time periods were collected and their accuracy of time representation was verified by two professors and three graduate students in sport social science from a leading Chinese university. Items within each time period were put in a random order to reduce carry-over effect in the repeated measure research design. The questionnaire was then double-translated to ensure translation accuracy. A community intercept approach was adopted and data were collected at shopping centers, city libraries, parks, restaurants, municipal offices, and transportation centers in Beijing, China. A total of 119 subjects, who were 18 years or older in 2001 and considered Beijing as his/her primary residential location since 2001, were included in the study. A doubly repeated measure MANOVA was conducted, which revealed that the vector mean scores of the Green Olympics’ effectiveness variables (i.e., awareness, perception, attitude, behavior intention, and actual behaviour) were significantly (p \u3c .05) different over the five time periods. The research findings indicate that the perceived environmental impact by residents had been formed, developed, and altered as a result of different environmental efforts applied in Beijing. To a great extent, these reflected the effectiveness of the Green Olympic programs across five key periods of the Games. Further discussions are conducted on expanding environmental programs and policies beyond 2008 and the city of Beijing, and moving China toward environmentally sustainable development

A comparison of US and Scotland youth soccer coaches' legal consciousness regarding concussion safety regulations

Due to the severe health consequences of sport related concussion (SRC), governments and sport governing bodies around the world have enacted numerous measures including changes to legislation and rules of the game, and increased emphasis on coach education. This study compared the legal consciousness of girls’ youth soccer coaches regarding concussion management under a statutory legal regime in the U.S. and a non-statutory regime in Scotland. The present study collected qualitative data through ten interviews of girls’ youth soccer coaches in Scotland and another ten interviews of girls’ high school soccer coaches in the U.S. Utilizing the socio-legal theory of legal consciousness, the findings support the idea that people make connections from their past experiences to shape their understanding of the law. We observed variance between U.S. and Scottish coaches’ legal consciousness. Overall, all coaches exhibited a version of conformity to and engagement with SRC management guidance and little resistance. Florida coaches displayed more conformity, likely due to the SRC educated mandated by law. Scottish coaches who had coached in the U.S. previously demonstrated the strongest resistance. The findings suggest a need for continued improvement in the implementation of SRC laws and guidelines including updated training and better dissemination of educational materials

An Observed Correlation Between Thermal and Non-Thermal Emission in Gamma-Ray Bursts

Recent observations by the $Fermi$ Gamma-ray Space Telescope have confirmed the existence of thermal and non-thermal components in the prompt photon spectra of some Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Through an analysis of six bright Fermi GRBs, we have discovered a correlation between the observed photospheric and non-thermal $\gamma$-ray emission components of several GRBs using a physical model that has previously been shown to be a good fit to the Fermi data. From the spectral parameters of these fits we find that the characteristic energies, $E_{\rm p}$ and $kT$, of these two components are correlated via the relation $E_{\rm p} \propto T^{\alpha}$ which varies from GRB to GRB. We present an interpretation in which the value of index $\alpha$ indicates whether the jet is dominated by kinetic or magnetic energy. To date, this jet composition parameter has been assumed in the modeling of GRB outflows rather than derived from the data

The optical afterglow of the short gamma-ray burst GRB 050709

It has long been known that there are two classes of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), mainly distinguished by their durations. The breakthrough in our understanding of long-duration GRBs (those lasting more than ~2 s), which ultimately linked them with energetic Type Ic supernovae, came from the discovery of their long-lived X-ray and optical afterglows, when precise and rapid localizations of the sources could finally be obtained. X-ray localizations have recently become available for short (duration <2 s) GRBs, which have evaded optical detection for more than 30 years. Here we report the first discovery of transient optical emission (R-band magnitude ~23) associated with a short burst; GRB 050709. The optical afterglow was localized with subarcsecond accuracy, and lies in the outskirts of a blue dwarf galaxy. The optical and X-ray afterglow properties 34 h after the GRB are reminiscent of the afterglows of long GRBs, which are attributable to synchrotron emission from ultrarelativistic ejecta. We did not, however, detect a supernova, as found in most nearby long GRB afterglows, which suggests a different origin for the short GRBs.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, press material at http://www.astro.ku.dk/dark

The motivational antecedents of the development of mental toughness: a self-determination theory perspective

Mental toughness is a topic that has received growing attention in psychological literature over the past decade. Although some researchers have attempted to understand how mental toughness is developed, little effort has been made to integrate an understanding of mental toughness development with established psychological theory and research. The aim of our review is to demonstrate the utility of theory and research on motivation for understanding mental toughness and its development. In particular, we propose that self-determination theory provides a sound basis for understanding the motivational antecedents of mental toughness. To achieve our aim, we consider concepts that bridge mental toughness and self-determination theory literature, namely striving, surviving, and thriving. We conclude our review with suggestions for future lines of empirical enquiry that could be pursued to further test our propositions

Fermi Large Area Telescope Constraints on the Gamma-ray Opacity of the Universe

The Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) includes photons with wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared, which are effective at attenuating gamma rays with energy above ~10 GeV during propagation from sources at cosmological distances. This results in a redshift- and energy-dependent attenuation of the gamma-ray flux of extragalactic sources such as blazars and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). The Large Area Telescope onboard Fermi detects a sample of gamma-ray blazars with redshift up to z~3, and GRBs with redshift up to z~4.3. Using photons above 10 GeV collected by Fermi over more than one year of observations for these sources, we investigate the effect of gamma-ray flux attenuation by the EBL. We place upper limits on the gamma-ray opacity of the Universe at various energies and redshifts, and compare this with predictions from well-known EBL models. We find that an EBL intensity in the optical-ultraviolet wavelengths as great as predicted by the "baseline" model of Stecker et al. (2006) can be ruled out with high confidence.Comment: 42 pages, 12 figures, accepted version (24 Aug.2010) for publication in ApJ; Contact authors: A. Bouvier, A. Chen, S. Raino, S. Razzaque, A. Reimer, L.C. Reye

Black Populations and Economic Growth: An Extreme Bounds Analysis of Mississippi County-Level Data

We use Mississippi county-level data on (per capita) income and the percentages of populations that are Black (henceforth "Black") to examine the relationship between race and economic growth. The analysis is also conditioned on 40 other economic and socio-demographic variables. Given a negative and statistically significant partial correlation between income growth and Black, we ask if it is robust to exhaustive combinations of other conditioning variables (taken 3 at a time). The evidence suggests yes. Since even robust correlation does not imply causation, we then ask if other robust correlates with income growth play a roll in accounting for Black in the data. The answer “yes” is obtained for only one other robust correlate of the "right" sign: the percentage of a population that is below the poverty level

TeV Gamma-Ray Observations of the Galactic Center

We report a possible detection of TeV gamma-rays from the Galactic Center by the Whipple 10m gamma-ray telescope. Twenty-six hours of data were taken over an extended period from 1995 through 2003 resulting in a total significance of 3.7 standard deviations. The measured excess corresponds to an integral flux of \Flux above an energy of $2.8 \mathrm{TeV}$, roughly 40% of the flux from the Crab Nebula at this energy. The 95% confidence region has an angular extent of about 15 arcmin and includes the position of Sgr A*. The detection is consistent with a point source and shows no evidence for variability

Design concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA: an advanced facility for ground-based high-energy gamma-ray astronomy

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has had a major breakthrough with the impressive results obtained using systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has a huge potential in astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. CTA is an international initiative to build the next generation instrument, with a factor of 5-10 improvement in sensitivity in the 100 GeV-10 TeV range and the extension to energies well below 100 GeV and above 100 TeV. CTA will consist of two arrays (one in the north, one in the south) for full sky coverage and will be operated as open observatory. The design of CTA is based on currently available technology. This document reports on the status and presents the major design concepts of CTA