Proposing a rational resilience credo for use with athletes

© 2016 Association for Applied Sport Psychology. While the reported use of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is growing in sport, little is written about specific tools used by practitioners when applying REBT with athletes. The Athlete Rational Resilience Credo (ARRC) adapts Windy Dryden's (2007) original Rational Resilience Credo for application with athletes. The ARRC promotes rational beliefs in athletes, which are important for resilient responding to adverse events. The ARRC is presented in full, followed by some explanation as to its purposes, critical practitioner reflections, and guidance for its use in sport

Crater lake cichlids individually specialize along the benthic-limnetic axis

A common pattern of adaptive diversification in freshwater fishes is the repeated evolution of elongated open water (limnetic) species and high-bodied shore (benthic) species from generalist ancestors. Studies on phenotype-diet correlations have suggested that population-wide individual specialization occurs at an early evolutionary and ecological stage of divergence and niche partitioning. This variable restricted niche use across individuals can provide the raw material for earliest stages of sympatric divergence. We investigated variation in morphology and diet as well as their correlations along the benthic-limnetic axis in an extremely young Midas cichlid species, Amphilophus tolteca, endemic to the Nicaraguan crater lake Asososca Managua. We found that A. tolteca varied continuously in ecologically relevant traits such as body shape and lower pharyngeal jaw morphology. The correlation of these phenotypes with niche suggested that individuals are specialized along the benthic-limnetic axis. No genetic differentiation within the crater lake was detected based on genotypes from 13 microsatellite loci. Overall, we found that individual specialization in this young crater lake species encompasses the limnetic- as well as the benthic macro-habitat. Yet there is no evidence for any diversification within the species, making this a candidate system for studying what might be the early stages preceding sympatric divergence

The Bayesian Spatial Bradley--Terry Model: Urban Deprivation Modeling in Tanzania

Identifying the most deprived regions of any country or city is key if policy makers are to design successful interventions. However, locating areas with the greatest need is often surprisingly challenging in developing countries. Due to the logistical challenges of traditional household surveying, official statistics can be slow to be updated; estimates that exist can be coarse, a consequence of prohibitive costs and poor infrastructures; and mass urbanisation can render manually surveyed figures rapidly out-of-date. Comparative judgement models, such as the Bradley--Terry model, offer a promising solution. Leveraging local knowledge, elicited via comparisons of different areas' affluence, such models can both simplify logistics and circumvent biases inherent to house-hold surveys. Yet widespread adoption remains limited, due to the large amount of data existing approaches still require. We address this via development of a novel Bayesian Spatial Bradley--Terry model, which substantially decreases the amount of data comparisons required for effective inference. This model integrates a network representation of the city or country, along with assumptions of spatial smoothness that allow deprivation in one area to be informed by neighbouring areas. We demonstrate the practical effectiveness of this method, through a novel comparative judgement data set collected in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, to be published in the journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series

Defining the concept of ‘tick repellency’ in veterinary medicine

Although widely used, the term repellency needs to be employed with care when applied to ticks and other periodic or permanent ectoparasites. Repellency has classically been used to describe the effects of a substance that causes a flying arthropod to make oriented movements away from its source. However, for crawling arthropods such as ticks, the term commonly subsumes a range of effects that include arthropod irritation and consequent avoiding or leaving the host, failing to attach, to bite, or to feed. The objective of the present article is to highlight the need for clarity, to propose consensus descriptions and methods for the evaluation of various effects on ticks caused by chemical substances

Pan-European early switch/early discharge opportunities exist for hospitalised patients with methicillin-resistant <em>Staphylococcus</em> <em>aureus</em> complicated skin and soft-tissue infections

AbstractThe objective of this study was to document pan-European real-world treatment patterns and healthcare resource use and estimate opportunities for early switch (ES) from intravenous (IV) to oral antibiotics and early discharge (ED) in hospitalized patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) complicated skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTIs). This retrospective observational medical chart review study enrolled 342 physicians across 12 European countries who collected data from 1542 patients with documented MRSA cSSTI who were hospitalized (July 2010 to June 2011) and discharged alive (by July 2011). Data included clinical characteristics and outcomes, hospital length of stay (LOS), MRSA-targeted IV and oral antibiotic use, and ES and ED eligibility according to literature-based and expert-validated criteria. The most frequent initial MRSA-active antibiotics were vancomycin (50.2%), linezolid (15.1%), clindamycin (10.8%), and teicoplanin (10.4%). Patients discharged with MRSA-active antibiotics (n = 480) were most frequently prescribed linezolid (42.1%) and clindamycin (19.8%). IV treatment duration (9.3 ± 6.5 vs. 14.6 ± 9.9 days; p <0.001) and hospital LOS (19.1 ± 12.9 vs. 21.0 ± 18.2 days; p 0.162) tended to be shorter for patients switched from IV to oral treatment than for patients who received IV treatment only. Of the patients, 33.6% met ES criteria and could have discontinued IV treatment 6.0 ± 5.5 days earlier, and 37.9% met ED criteria and could have been discharged 6.2 ± 8.2 days earlier. More than one-third of European patients hospitalized for MRSA cSSTI could be eligible for ES and ED, resulting in substantial reductions in IV days and bed-days, with potential savings of €2000 per ED-eligible patient

Evaluation of afoxolaner chewables to control flea populations in naturally infested dogs in private residences in Tampa FL, USA

Citation: Dryden, M. W., Smith, V., Chwala, M., Jones, E., Crevoiserat, L., McGrady, J. C., . . . Carithers, D. (2015). Evaluation of afoxolaner chewables to control flea populations in naturally infested dogs in private residences in Tampa FL, USA. Parasites & Vectors, 8, 7. doi:10.1186/s13071-015-0897-zBackground: A study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of afoxolaner chewables to control flea populations in naturally infested dogs in private residences in Tampa FL, USA. Evaluations of on-animal and premises flea burdens, flea sex structure and fed-unfed premises flea populations were conducted to more accurately assess flea population dynamics in households. Methods: Thirty seven naturally flea infested dogs in 23 homes in Tampa, FL were enrolled in the study and treated with afoxolaner chewables. Chewables (NexGard (R) Chewables; Merial) were administered according to label directions by study investigators on study day 0 and once again between study days 28 and 30. Flea infestations on pets were assessed using visual area thumb counts and premises flea infestations were assessed using intermittent-light flea traps on days 0, 7, 14, 21, and once between study days 28-30, 40-45, and 54-60. Results: Within 7 days of administration of afoxolaner chewable tablets, flea counts on dogs were reduced by 99.3 %. By one month post-treatment, total flea counts on dogs were reduced by 99.9 %, with 97.3 % (36/37) of the dogs being flea free. Following the second dosing on study day 28-30, total on-dog flea burden was reduced by 100 % on days 40-45 and 54-60. On day 0, the traps collected a geometric mean of 18.2 fleas. Subsequent reductions in emerging flea populations were 97.7 and 100 % by days 28-30 and 54-60, respectively. There were 515 total fleas (Ctenocephalides felis felis) collected in the intermittent light flea traps on day 0, and 40.4 % of those fleas displayed visual evidence of having fed. Seven days after initial treatment, only 13.1 % of the fleas contained blood and by day 14 only 4.9 % of the fleas collected in traps displayed evidence of having fed. On day 0, prior to treatment, 60 % of the unfed fleas collected in intermittent-light flea traps were females, but by days 28-30, unfed males accounted for 78 % of the population. Conclusions: This in-home investigation conducted during the summer of 2014 in subtropical Tampa, FL demonstrated that afoxolaner chewables rapidly and effectively eliminated flea populations in infested dogs and homes

A geometric approach to visualization of variability in functional data

We propose a new method for the construction and visualization of boxplot-type displays for functional data. We use a recent functional data analysis framework, based on a representation of functions called square-root slope functions, to decompose observed variation in functional data into three main components: amplitude, phase, and vertical translation. We then construct separate displays for each component, using the geometry and metric of each representation space, based on a novel definition of the median, the two quartiles, and extreme observations. The outlyingness of functional data is a very complex concept. Thus, we propose to identify outliers based on any of the three main components after decomposition. We provide a variety of visualization tools for the proposed boxplot-type displays including surface plots. We evaluate the proposed method using extensive simulations and then focus our attention on three real data applications including exploratory data analysis of sea surface temperature functions, electrocardiogram functions and growth curves

Comparison between REBT and Visual/Kinaesthetic Dissociation in the Treatment of Panic Disorder: An Empirical Study

The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of two brief treatment methods for panic disorder: Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and Visual/Kinaesthetic Dissociation (VKD), neither of which have been the object of scientific enquiry. The study is a two-way between-groups pre-test/post-test experimental design with baseline and follow-up measures. An innovative four-session treatment protocol was developed for each treatment method. Eighteen participants in North-East Surrey, England, who responded to media advertisements for cognitive-behavioural treatment for panic disorder and who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia were randomly assigned to either REBT or VKD. Pre-test/post-test changes in panic were measured using the ACQ, PASQ, and HADS scales and a global panic rating measure. At post-test there was a statistically significant improvement on all measures for both groups, which was maintained at one-month follow-up. Taking into consideration limitations such as the small sample size and a short follow-up period, implications of this study and recommendations for future research are discussed

Classical and quantum ergodicity on orbifolds

We extend to orbifolds classical results on quantum ergodicity due to Shnirelman, Colin de Verdi\`ere and Zelditch, proving that, for any positive, first-order self-adjoint elliptic pseudodifferential operator P on a compact orbifold X with positive principal symbol p, ergodicity of the Hamiltonian flow of p implies quantum ergodicity for the operator P. We also prove ergodicity of the geodesic flow on a compact Riemannian orbifold of negative sectional curvature.Comment: 14 page

A Process for Co-Designing Educational Technology Systems for Refugee Children

There is a growing interest in the potential for technology to facilitate emergency education of refugee children. However, designing in this space requires knowledge of the displaced population and the contextual dynamics surrounding it. Design should therefore be informed by both existing research across relevant disciplines, and from the practical experience of those who are on the ground facing the problem in real life. This paper describes a process for designing appropriate technology for these settings. The process draws on literature from emergency education, student engagement and motivation, educational technology, and participatory design. We emphasise a thorough understanding of the problem definition, the nature of the emergency, and of socio-cultural aspects that can inform the design process. We describe how this process was implemented leading to the design of a digital learning space for children living in a refugee camp in Greece. This drew on involving different groups of participants such as social-workers, parents, and children