The Relationship Between Stress Mindset and Prior Injury in College Student-Athletes

Stress has often been associated with negative outcomes for both physical and mental health. However, there is also evidence that stress can yield positive outcomes, including health improvements and increased performance. Stress mindset, or how one evaluates or views the nature of stress, helps explain how stress can result in such extreme positive and negative outcomes. College students in the United States experience high levels of stress and have been found to view stress as more debilitating than enhancing. Stress also appears to play a role in athletic injury risk. An individual with particular risk factors, such as a previous injury, is more likely to appraise a situation as stressful, resulting in physiological or attentional changes that increases their level of risk for sustaining an injury. Research suggests that previous injuries can put an athlete at risk for another injury, however, research has also found previous injuries can result in significant growth and positive outcomes following the injury. One potential explanation for these two vastly different outcomes could be how the athlete views stress, such as an injury. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between stress mindset and previous injury in a college student-athlete population. METHODS: Current college student-athletes (N=87) over the age of 18 completed demographic information, previous injury history, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and Stress Mindset Measure (SMM) via Qualtrics, an online survey tool. A Spearman rank-order correlation was performed to assess the associations between stress mindset, perceived stress, and previous injury, as measured by total number of sport injuries, number of sport injuries over the previous 12 months, and the number or practice or competition days missed or modified due to injury. RESULTS: No significant relationship was observed for stress mindset and total number of sport injuries (rs (84) = -.008, p = .939). Likewise, no significant relationship was also found for stress mindset and injuries over the past year (rs (82) = -.053, p = .632). No significant relationship was found for stress mindset and injury days missed (rs (81) =.002, p =.983). Stress mindset was not related to previous injury in this study. However, the PSS was significantly positively related to the total number of sport injuries (rs (76) = .229, p = .044). CONCLUSION: No statistically significant relationship was found between stress mindset and previous injuries in current college student-athletes, consistent with findings from the only other study to date to examine the concept of stress mindset in conjunction with sport injury. However, a statistically significant relationship was found between perceived stress and total number of injuries, providing further support to the large body of research linking amount of stress and injury. Although the relationship between stress mindset and previous injury was nonsignificant in the present study, it is still possible that stress mindset may play a role in an athlete’s response to an injury, which was not assessed in this study. Thus, future research should explore how one’s stress mindset impacts an athlete’s response to an injury

Notch after cleavage.

The discovery that Notch activation involves a proteolytic cleavage to release the intracellular domain (NICD) revolutionized the field of Notch signaling. It resulted in a simple model whereby the cleaved NICD enters the nucleus and activates expression of genes by forming a DNA bound complex with CSL. However, is it really this simple? The realization that the outcome from activating Notch varies greatly from cell to cell raised many questions about what governs the target gene selections in different cell types. Insights have come from recent genome-wide studies, which highlight the importance of tissue-specific transcription factors and epigenetics. Co-factors also have been identified that participate in the regulation of enhancers. Finally, it is generally assumed that once cleaved, NICD goes on to do its job, but with a burgeoning number of post-translations, it may not be that simple

Predicting the stability of biotherapeutics in formulation

Biotherapeutics, especially monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), is one of the fastest growing groups of pharmaceuticals, corresponding to a treatment option to life-threatening conditions, such as cancer, autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular diseases. A key barrier in the production of these pharmaceuticals is the formation of protein aggregates, which can lead to increased production costs, loss of the biological function, and immunogenic responses from patients. To detect the presence of aggregates and ensure protein stability upon storage, efficient formulation screening methods are required. Self-Interaction Chromatography (SIC) has previously been shown to be an accurate, automated and high-throughput technique to predict protein aggregation [1]. This study is adapting SIC into Interaction Chromatography (IC), which takes the interactions between two different proteins or species into account. The aim of the first case study was to analyse different formulations containing histidine buffer, phosphate-citrate buffer and sodium citrate buffer at 25 mM, and using a therapeutic mAb. Additionally, the stabilising effects of NaCl, polysorbate and L-arginine were examined in the range of 0-250 mM, 0-0.1% v/v and 0-200 mM, respectively. The protein-protein interactions for each formulation condition were quantified by calculating the osmotic second virial coefficient (B22), a fundamental physicochemical property that describes protein-protein interactions in solution. These results were also compared with aggregation data and aggregation kinetics using size-exclusion chromatography and dynamic light scattering. In a second case study bovine serum albumin (BSA) was mixed in formulation buffers in combination with sucrose and trehalose, where the protein-protein interactions were studied by determining B22 and the aggregation propensity measured. Later these conditions were lyophilised, which is a common way to formulate many biotherapeutics. The aim was to see if the results from the initial screenings also could predict the stability of the freeze-dried cakes. The first case study showed that IC was a suitable technique to detect small changes in formulation conditions as it managed to predict the increase in stability of the mAb with the ionic strength and arginine concentration, but with no major effect with the addition of polysorbate. The second case study showed that BSA exhibited repulsive protein-protein interactions in all the range of concentrations analysed, as expected due to its high stability in solution, which could be increased with the addition of stabilisers, especially trehalose. Even in the freeze-dried cakes higher concentration of trehalose led to an increased Young’s modulus, and therefore higher mechanical stability. Based on these results it could be seen that a protein-protein interaction technique such as IC could be used as an early predictor for formulation behaviour both in liquid and solid states. References 1. Hedberg, S.H.M., Lee, D., Mishra, Y., Haigh, J.M., and Williams, D.R. (2018) Mapping the Mab Aggregation Propensity Using Self-Interaction Chromatography as a Screening Tool. Analytical Chemistry. 90, 3878-3885

Why Steps is such an important program in our area

One of the most overlooked populations in any community is the homeless. However, this population is still a very important part of any community. This population can be valuable to the community if given the correct resources. Therefore, it is important for communities to be cognizant of the homeless population present in the area so that they can make informed decisions on policies that pertain to this population and the allocation of resources. It is the purpose of this study to not only attempt to count the total homeless population but also observe and evaluate the resources present to the homeless in Farmville and the surrounding areas. This project was done in close cooperation with STEPS in Farmville, which provides multiple services for the homeless population. Hopefully, this study can also help raise awareness for this population present in our community

The diverse evolutionary paths of simulated high-z massive, compact galaxies to z=0

Massive quiescent galaxies have much smaller physical sizes at high redshift than today. The strong evolution of galaxy size may be caused by progenitor bias, major and minor mergers, adiabatic expansion, and/or renewed star formation, but it is difficult to test these theories observationally. Herein, we select a sample of 35 massive, compact galaxies ($M_* = 1-3 \times 10^{11}$ M$_\odot$, $M_*/R^{1.5} > 10^{10.5}$ M$_\odot$/kpc$^{1.5}$) at $z=2$ in the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation Illustris and trace them forward to $z=0$ to uncover their evolution and identify their descendants. By $z=0$, the original factor of 3 difference in stellar mass spreads to a factor of 20. The dark matter halo masses similarly spread from a factor of 5 to 40. The galaxies' evolutionary paths are diverse: about half acquire an ex-situ envelope and are the core of a more massive descendant, a third survive undisturbed and gain very little mass, 15% are consumed in a merger with a more massive galaxy, and a small remainder are thoroughly mixed by major mergers. The galaxies grow in size as well as mass, and only $\sim$10% remain compact by $z=0$. The majority of the size growth is driven by the acquisition of ex-situ mass. The most massive galaxies at $z=0$ are the most likely to have compact progenitors, but this trend possesses significant dispersion which precludes a direct linkage to compact galaxies at $z=2$. The compact galaxies' merger rates are influenced by their $z=2$ environments, so that isolated or satellite compact galaxies (which are protected from mergers) are the most likely to survive to the present day.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, MNRAS accepted version including 2 new figure

Using Student Ambassadors to Relay Themes from Changing the Conversation in Engineering First Year Seminars

This paper describes the efforts at a large mid-Atlantic university to integrate themes from Changing the Conversation into First Year Seminars. Changing the Conversation, a 2008 book by the National Academy of Engineering, found that both male and female students were more attracted to messages describing engineering in terms relating to societal impact, such as the phrases, Engineering makes a world of difference and Engineering is essential to our health, happiness, and safety. Although the research was conducted with younger students, the potential for using these themes in the undergraduate curricula could have the potential to impact persistence in engineering, especially for female students or those from other underrepresented groups. The purpose of the initiative described in the paper, which uses engineering students from a group called the Engineering Ambassadors to relay these messages in freshmen level courses, is to impact student perceptions of engineering and to provide information to students that will be critical in making career decisions. In the Fall of 2011, a pilot program was launched in two sections of a Chemical Engineering First Year Seminar. Engineering Ambassadors made four separate visits to each section, focusing on the following topics: 1) An overview of College of Engineering Majors, 2) Options within Chemical Engineering, 3) Student experiences in the College of Engineering, and 4) How to be a successful engineering student. Woven through each presentation were themes from Changing the Conversation, focusing on how engineers are essential to health, happiness and safety. The students were mentored by a faculty member whose background is in Communication. The quality of student presentations was high, utilizing the assertion-evidence method of slide design. Data was collected to determine whether the following project objectives were met: 1) Students in the First Year Seminars will have a greater understanding of the possible careers in engineering as well as the engineering majors; and 2) Students will be more likely to define engineering in terms associated with health, happiness, and safety. The data showed that the students had a very positive reaction to the Engineering Ambassador visits, although a larger sample size would be necessary to more clearly understand the impact

Bearing all down under : The role of Australasian countries in the illegal bear trade

Declaration of Funding CRS and LG are grateful to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) for generously supporting Monitor Conservation Research Society’s work on this project. PG-D was partially supported by NERC grant NE/S011641/1 under the Newton LATAM funding programme. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the CITES Management and Enforcement Authorities in Australia and New Zealand for assisting in the collection and curation of seizure and enforcement data. The authors acknowledge the Indigenous Traditional Owners of the land on which the University of Adelaide is built -the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. Particular thanks to Jo Beath (Department of Agriculture, Water & Environment, Australia) and Dylan Swain (Department of Conservation, New Zealand) for facilitating provision of CITES seizure datasets. PC thanks Eric Cassey for checking the calculation of data summaries. PG-D thanks C. Jones and B. Warburton (MWLR New Zealand) for their support and help.Peer reviewedPostprin

Exploring Stress Mindset and Perceived Stress between College Student-Athletes and Non-Athletes

International Journal of Exercise Science 15(5): 1554-1562, 2022. One’s beliefs about the nature of stress (e.g., stress mindset) play a large role in the extent to which one experiences the detrimental or beneficial outcomes of stress. Stress mindset has been explored in college students, but there is limited research on stress mindsets in student-athletes. Sport can serve as a buffer to the negative impacts of stress for some student-athletes; however, pressures associated with sport participation increase stress in other student-athletes. Therefore, the purpose was to examine potential differences in stress mindset and perceived stress between non-athletes and college student-athletes. We hypothesized college student-athletes would report higher stress mindset scores but lower perceived stress scores. A total of 272 students (n = 87 student-athletes; n = 185 non-athletes) completed a demographic questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Stress Mindset Measure via an online survey. No significant differences were observed between student-athletes’ and non-athletes’ stress mindset scores; however, significant differences were observed between student-athletes’ and non-athletes’ perceived stress. Thus, student-athletes and non-athletes shared a similar view of stress, but student-athletes reported a lower level of perceived stress than non-athletes. While there appears to be no statistically significant differences in stress mindset between college non-athletes and student-athletes, both groups reported holding a stress-is-debilitating mindset. Implications for practitioners working with the college population are discussed