Combating the Challenges of Working as an Athletic Trainer in an Ego-Oriented Motivational Climate: Theory to Practice

Achievement goal theory explains the underlying reasons for why people do what they do (Roberts & Papaioannou, 2014). At the heart of this theory are two goal orientations; task-orientation which describe individuals who view success as making improvements and giving high effort, while ego-oriented individuals view success by outperforming others (Duda & Treasure, 2015). In addition to having individual goal orientations, motivational climate is a construct within achievement goal theory that describes the environment created by authority figures, via their words and actions (Duda et al., 2014). The environment created is described as either being task- or ego-oriented. Previous research suggests that task-oriented motivational climates elicit more enjoyment, satisfaction, and interest in sport, while ego-oriented motivational climates are correlated with higher levels of anxiety, more avoidance or reduced effort in response to failure, decreased quality of friendships, more conflict within the team, and contingent self-worth (Baric & Bucik, 2009; Breiger, Cumming, Smith, & Smoll, 2015; Curran, Hill, Hall, & Jowett, 2015; Duda et al. 2014). The stress-injury model (Andersen & Williams, 1988) proposes that an athlete’s personality, stress history, and coping resources influence the athlete’s cognitive appraisal of the stressful situation and influence the risk of injury (Andersen & Williams, 1988). To reduce the risk of injury, athletic trainers (ATs) can help athletes to control stress through by teaching the athlete strategies to help cope with stress including deep breathing techniques and controlling negative thoughts. However, there are many challenges that arise for ATs that are working within ego-oriented motivational climates. It is important that the AT knows how to navigate the ego-oriented motivational climate in order to provide the best care for the athletes. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical background of achievement goal theory and practical solutions for ATs to combat ego-oriented motivational climates that are created by the coaching staff. Suggestions to do so include teaching athletes to be assertive, using role play to prepare the athletes for difficult conversations, and weighing the pros and cons during decision making

Individual Insurance: Health Insurers Try to Tap Potential Market Growth

Examines the challenges the current individual health insurance market poses for insurers and consumers, the market's growth potential, market and regulatory conditions across states, and trends in marketing strategies. Considers policy implications

The Economic Recession: Early Impacts on Health Care Safety Net Providers

Examines how the recession and state and local budget cuts affected safety-net clinics' capacity to meet demand in five communities, the extent to which federal stimulus funds mitigated the impact, strategies for sustainability, and implications

Laser Marking of Titanium Coating for Aerospace Applications

Abstract In the aerospace industry, in order to ensure the identification and the traceability of the products, high repeatability, non-invasive and durable marking processes are required. Laser marking is one of the most advanced marking technologies. Compared to traditional marking processes, like punches, microdot, scribing or electric discharge pencil etcher, laser marking offers several advantages, such us: non-contact working, high repeatability, high scanning speed, mark width comparable to the laser spot dimension, high flexibility and high automation of the process itself. In order to assure the mark visibility for the component lifetime, an appropriate depth of the mark is required. In this way, a stable behaviour is ensured also when the component operates in aggressive environments (i.e. in presence of oxidation, corrosion and wear phenomena). The mark depth is strongly affected by the laser source kind and by the process parameters, such us average power, pulse frequency and scanning speed. Moreover, an excessive mark penetration could cause stress concentrations and reduce the fatigue life of the component. Consequently, an appropriate selection of the process parameters is required in order to assure visibility and to avoid excessive damage. Cold Spray Deposition (CSD) is a relative new technology that allows to produce surface coatings without significant substrate temperature increasing. In aeronautics fields this technology is useful to coat materials sensible to temperature, such as solution tempered aluminum alloy, with a titanium layer. Aim of the work is to characterize the laser marking process on CSD Ti coating, in order to study the influence of the laser marking process parameters (pulse power and scanning speed), on the groove geometry of the marking. The experimental marking tests were carried out through a 30 W MOPA Q-Switched Yb:YAG fibre laser; under different process conditions. The groove geometry was measured through a HIROX HK9700 optical microscope. The results showed the effectiveness of the laser process to produce high quality marks on the titanium layer. Moreover, a correlation between the process parameters and the mark's geometry was clearly observed

Vino e Ambiente: sostenibilità e qualità primaria nel sottobacino Iudeo-Bucari (TP).

In questa raccolta di scritti, vengono riportati i risultati dell’attività di ricerca realizzata con la collaborazione della cantina UVAM e dell’Istituto Regionale Vino e Olio di Sicili

A Smartphone Application Designed to Engage the Elderly in Home-Based Rehabilitation

As life expectancy increases, it is imperative that the elderly take advantage of the benefits of technology to remain active and independent. Mobile health applications are widely used nowadays as they promote a healthy lifestyle and self-management of diseases, opening new horizons in the interactive health service delivery. However, adapting these applications to the needs and requirements of the elderly is still a challenge. This article presents a smartphone application that is part of a multifactorial intervention to support older people with balance disorders. The application aims to enable users to self-evaluate their activity and progress, to communicate with each other and, through strategically selected motivational features, to engage with the system with undiminished interest for a long period of time. Mock-up interfaces were evaluated in semi-structured focus groups and interviews that were performed across three European countries. Further evaluation in the form of four pilot studies with 160 participants will be performed and qualitative and quantitative measures will be used to process the feedback about the use of the application

Stability of Satellite Planes in M31 II: Effects of the Dark Subhalo Population

The planar arrangement of nearly half the satellite galaxies of M31 has been a source of mystery and speculation since it was discovered. With a growing number of other host galaxies showing these satellite galaxy planes, their stability and longevity have become central to the debate on whether the presence of satellite planes are a natural consequence of prevailing cosmological models, or represent a challenge. Given the dependence of their stability on host halo shape, we look into how a galaxy plane's dark matter environment influences its longevity. An increased number of dark matter subhalos results in increased interactions that hasten the deterioration of an already-formed plane of satellite galaxies in spherical dark halos. The role of total dark matter mass fraction held in subhalos in dispersing a plane of galaxies present non trivial effects on plane longevity as well. But any misalignments of plane inclines to major axes of flattened dark matter halos lead to their lifetimes being reduced to < 3 Gyrs. Distributing > 40% of total dark mass in subhalos in the overall dark matter distribution results in a plane of satellite galaxies that is prone to change through the 5 Gyr integration time period.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted to MNRAS September 22 201