Differences in the Psychological Profiles of Elite and Non-elite Athletes

One of the main goals of sport psychology is to identify those psychological factors that are relevant for sport performance as well as possibilities of their development. The aim of the study was to determine whether the set of specific psychological characteristics [generalized self-efficacy, time perspective, emotional intelligence (EI), general achievement motivation, and personality dimensions] makes the distinction between athletes based on their (non)-participation in the senior national team, that is, their belonging to the subsample of elite or non-elite athletes depending on this criterion. According to the group centroids it can be said that elite athletes are characterized by a positive high score in self-efficacy, emotionality, present fatalistic time perspective, past positive time perspective, and openness to experience. They are also characterized by low past negative time perspective, emotional competence, and future time perspective. Non-elite athletes have the opposite traits. The results have been discussed in the context of their application in the process of talent selection and development in sport as well as the development of life skills in athletes

Renormalization Group and Infinite Algebraic Structure in D-Dimensional Conformal Field Theory

We consider scalar field theory in the D-dimensional space with nontrivial metric and local action functional of most general form. It is possible to construct for this model a generalization of renormalization procedure and RG-equations. In the fixed point the diffeomorphism and Weyl transformations generate an infinite algebraic structure of D-Dimensional conformal field theory models. The Wilson expansion and crossing symmetry enable to obtain sum rules for dimensions of composite operators and Wilson coefficients.Comment: 16 page

Size and aging effects on antimicrobial efficiency of silver nanoparticles coated on polyamide fabrics activated by atmospheric DBD plasma

Recently, renewed interest has arisen in silver nanopar@cles for biomedical devices because of their high surface energy, enhanced physicochemical and biological proper@es and extremely large surface area, which provides beAer contact with microorganisms. Atmospheric plasma is an alterna@ve and cost- compe@@ve method to wet chemical nanopar@cles deposi@on methods, avoiding the need of toxic solvents, expensive vacuum equipment and allowing con@nuous and uniform processing of material surfaces. However, there are no reports on the size and @me-dependent an@microbial, physical and chemical surface effects of the silver nanopar@cles immobilized on plasma func@onalized polymers. Thus, the purposes of this study were: (i) the silver nanopar@cle size and aging effects aCer 30 days on the an@microbial ac@vity aCer deposi@on onto DBD plasma-treated polyamide 6,6 fabrics, and (ii) the aging effect on the physico-chemical binding mechanism between different sized silver nanopar@cles and the plasma treaded polyamide 6,6. Five different in size commercial silver nanopar@cles have been employed (10, 20, 40 60 and 100 nm).This work was funded by Portuguese Founda@on for Science and Technology FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) and co-financed by European funds (FEDER) through the PT2020 program, research project M-ERA-NET/0006/2014 and COMPETE program through FCT within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136 and UID/CTM/00264.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Size effects on antimicrobial efficiency of DBD plasma coated silver nanoparticles on textiles

This work studies the surface characteristics, the antimicrobial activity and the aging effect, of plasma pre-treated polyamide 6,6 fabrics (PA66) coated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), with the aim to identify the optimum size of nanosilver exhibiting antibacterial properties suitable for manufacturing of hospital textiles. The release of bactericidal Ag+ ions from the 10, 20, 40, 60 and 100 nm AgNPs-coated PA66 surface were function of the particles size, number and aging. Plasma pre-treatment promoted both ionic and covalent interactions between AgNPs and the formed oxygen species on the fibers (Figure 1), favoring the deposition of smaller in diameter AgNPs that consequently showed better immediate and durable antimicrobial effect against Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Surprisingly, after 30 days of aging, a comparable bacterial growth inhibition was achieved for all the fibers treated with AgNPs of <100 nm in size. The Ag+ in the coatings also favored the electrostatic stabilization of the plasma-induced functional groups on the PA66 surface, thereby retarding the aging process (Figure 2). At the same time, the size-related ratio Ag+/Ag0 of the AgNPs between 40 and 60 nm allowed for controlled release of Ag+ rather than bulk silver. Overall, the results suggest that instead of reducing the AgNPs size, which is associated to higher toxicity, similar long-term effects can be achieved with larger NPs (40-60 nm), even in lower concentrations. Since the antimicrobial efficiency of AgNPs larger than 30 nm is mainly ruled by the release of Ag+ over time and not by the size and number of the AgNPs, this parameter is crucial for the development of efficient antimicrobial coatings on plasma-treated surfaces, and contribution to the safety and durability of clothing used in clinical settings

Influence of fiber orientation on the mechanical response of piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride) electrospun fiber mats

Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - UID/FIS/04650/2013; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the project MAT2016-76039-C4-3-R (AEI/FEDER, UE) (including the FEDER financial support); Basque Government Industry Department under the ELKARTEK Program. S.R., C.R. and A.F. thanks the FCT for the SFRH/BD/111478/2015, SFRH/BPD/90870/2012 and SFRH/BPD/104204/2014 grants, respectively.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio