Confirmatory factor analysis of the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS) among adolescent athletes

The aim of the present study was to examine the factorial validity of the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS; Thomas et al., 1999) among adolescent athletes using confirmatory factor analysis. The TOPS was designed to assess eight psychological strategies used in competition (i.e. activation, automaticity, emotional control, goal-setting, imagery, negative thinking, relaxation and self-talk,) and eight used in practice (the same strategies except negative thinking is replaced by attentional control). National-level athletes (n = 584) completed the 64-item TOPS during training camps. Fit indices provided partial support for the overall measurement model for the competition items (robust comparative fit index = 0.92, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.88, root mean square error of approximation = 0.05) but minimal support for the training items (robust comparative fit index = 0.86, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.81, root mean square error of approximation = 0.06). For the competition items, the automaticity, goal-setting, relaxation and self-talk scales showed good fit, whereas the activation, emotional control, imagery and negative thinking scales did not. For the practice items, the attentional control, emotional control, goal-setting, imagery and self-talk scales showed good fit, whereas the activation, automaticity and relaxation scales did not. Overall, it appears that the factorial validity of the TOPS for use with adolescents is questionable at present and further development is required

A novel multi-network approach reveals tissue-specific cellular modulators of fibrosis in systemic sclerosis

BACKGROUND: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a multi-organ autoimmune disease characterized by skin fibrosis. Internal organ involvement is heterogeneous. It is unknown whether disease mechanisms are common across all involved affected tissues or if each manifestation has a distinct underlying pathology. METHODS: We used consensus clustering to compare gene expression profiles of biopsies from four SSc-affected tissues (skin, lung, esophagus, and peripheral blood) from patients with SSc, and the related conditions pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and pulmonary arterial hypertension, and derived a consensus disease-associate signature across all tissues. We used this signature to query tissue-specific functional genomic networks. We performed novel network analyses to contrast the skin and lung microenvironments and to assess the functional role of the inflammatory and fibrotic genes in each organ. Lastly, we tested the expression of macrophage activation state-associated gene sets for enrichment in skin and lung using a Wilcoxon rank sum test. RESULTS: We identified a common pathogenic gene expression signature-an immune-fibrotic axis-indicative of pro-fibrotic macrophages (MØs) in multiple tissues (skin, lung, esophagus, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells) affected by SSc. While the co-expression of these genes is common to all tissues, the functional consequences of this upregulation differ by organ. We used this disease-associated signature to query tissue-specific functional genomic networks to identify common and tissue-specific pathologies of SSc and related conditions. In contrast to skin, in the lung-specific functional network we identify a distinct lung-resident MØ signature associated with lipid stimulation and alternative activation. In keeping with our network results, we find distinct MØ alternative activation transcriptional programs in SSc-associated PF lung and in the skin of patients with an "inflammatory" SSc gene expression signature. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the innate immune system is central to SSc disease processes but that subtle distinctions exist between tissues. Our approach provides a framework for examining molecular signatures of disease in fibrosis and autoimmune diseases and for leveraging publicly available data to understand common and tissue-specific disease processes in complex human diseases

An observational study of patient characteristics associated with the mode of admission to acute stroke services in North East, England

Objective Effective provision of urgent stroke care relies upon admission to hospital by emergency ambulance and may involve pre-hospital redirection. The proportion and characteristics of patients who do not arrive by emergency ambulance and their impact on service efficiency is unclear. To assist in the planning of regional stroke services we examined the volume, characteristics and prognosis of patients according to the mode of presentation to local services. Study design and setting A prospective regional database of consecutive acute stroke admissions was conducted in North East, England between 01/09/10-30/09/11. Case ascertainment and transport mode were checked against hospital coding and ambulance dispatch databases. Results Twelve acute stroke units contributed data for a mean of 10.7 months. 2792/3131 (89%) patients received a diagnosis of stroke within 24 hours of admission: 2002 arrivals by emergency ambulance; 538 by private transport or non-emergency ambulance; 252 unknown mode. Emergency ambulance patients were older (76 vs 69 years), more likely to be from institutional care (10% vs 1%) and experiencing total anterior circulation symptoms (27% vs 6%). Thrombolysis treatment was commoner following emergency admission (11% vs 4%). However patients attending without emergency ambulance had lower inpatient mortality (2% vs 18%), a lower rate of institutionalisation (1% vs 6%) and less need for daily carers (7% vs 16%). 149/155 (96%) of highly dependent patients were admitted by emergency ambulance, but none received thrombolysis. Conclusion Presentations of new stroke without emergency ambulance involvement were not unusual but were associated with a better outcome due to younger age, milder neurological impairment and lower levels of pre-stroke dependency. Most patients with a high level of pre-stroke dependency arrived by emergency ambulance but did not receive thrombolysis. It is important to be aware of easily identifiable demographic groups that differ in their potential to gain from different service configurations

A re-appraisal of the reliability of the 20 m multi-stage shuttle run test

This is the author's PDF version of an article published in European journal of applied physiology in 2007. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.co

What do the JAMA editors say when they discuss manuscripts that they are considering for publication? Developing a schema for classifying the content of editorial discussion

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In an effort to identify previously unrecognized aspects of editorial decision-making, we explored the words and phrases that one group of editors used during their meetings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed an observational study of discussions at manuscript meetings at <it>JAMA</it>, a major US general medical journal. One of us (KD) attended 12 editorial meetings in 2003 as a visitor and took notes recording phrases from discussion surrounding 102 manuscripts. In addition, editors attending the meetings completed a form for each manuscript considered, listing the reasons they were inclined to proceed to the next step in publication and reasons they were not (DR attended 4/12 meetings). We entered the spoken and written phrases into NVivo 2.0. We then developed a schema for classifying the editors' phrases, using an iterative approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our classification schema has three main themes: science, journalism, and writing. We considered 2,463 phrases, of which 87 related mainly to the manuscript topic and were not classified (total 2,376 classified). Phrases related to science predominated (1,274 or 54%). The editors, most of whom were physicians, also placed major weight on goals important to JAMA's mission (journalism goals) such as importance to medicine, strategic emphasis for the journal, interest to the readership, and results (729 or 31% of phrases). About 16% (n = 373) of the phrases used related to writing issues, such as clarity and responses to the referees' comments.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Classification of editorial discourse provides insight into editorial decision making and concepts that need exploration in future studies.</p

Functional Network Changes in Hippocampal CA1 after Status Epilepticus Predict Spatial Memory Deficits in Rats

Status epilepticus (SE) is a common neurological emergency, which has been associated with subsequent cognitive impairments. Neuronal death in hippocampal CA1 is thought to be an important mechanism of these impairments. However, it is also possible that functional interactions between surviving neurons are important. In this study we recorded in vivo single-unit activity in the CA1 hippocampal region of rats while they performed a spatial memory task. From these data we constructed functional networks describing pyramidal cell interactions. To build the networks, we used maximum entropy algorithms previously applied only to in vitro data. We show that several months following SE pyramidal neurons display excessive neuronal synchrony and less neuronal reactivation during rest compared with those in healthy controls. Both effects predict rat performance in a spatial memory task. These results provide a physiological mechanism for SE-induced cognitive impairment and highlight the importance of the systems-level perspective in investigating spatial cognition

Profiles of white matter tract pathology in frontotemporal dementia.

Despite considerable interest in improving clinical and neurobiological characterisation of frontotemporal dementia and in defining the role of brain network disintegration in its pathogenesis, information about white matter pathway alterations in frontotemporal dementia remains limited. Here we investigated white matter tract damage using an unbiased, template-based diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) protocol in a cohort of 27 patients with the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) representing both major genetic and sporadic forms, in relation both to healthy individuals and to patients with Alzheimer's disease. Widespread white matter tract pathology was identified in the bvFTD group compared with both healthy controls and Alzheimer's disease group, with prominent involvement of uncinate fasciculus, cingulum bundle and corpus callosum. Relatively discrete and distinctive white matter profiles were associated with genetic subgroups of bvFTD associated with MAPT and C9ORF72 mutations. Comparing diffusivity metrics, optimal overall separation of the bvFTD group from the healthy control group was signalled using radial diffusivity, whereas optimal overall separation of the bvFTD group from the Alzheimer's disease group was signalled using fractional anisotropy. Comparing white matter changes with regional grey matter atrophy (delineated using voxel based morphometry) in the bvFTD cohort revealed co-localisation between modalities particularly in the anterior temporal lobe, however white matter changes extended widely beyond the zones of grey matter atrophy. Our findings demonstrate a distributed signature of white matter alterations that is likely to be core to the pathophysiology of bvFTD and further suggest that this signature is modulated by underlying molecular pathologies. Hum Brain Mapp, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Identification of environmental sounds and melodies in syndromes of anterior temporal lobe degeneration

Recognition of nonverbal sounds in semantic dementia and other syndromes of anterior temporal lobe degeneration may determine clinical symptoms and help to define phenotypic profiles. However, nonverbal auditory semantic function has not been widely studied in these syndromes. Here we investigated semantic processing in two key nonverbal auditory domains - environmental sounds and melodies - in patients with semantic dementia (SD group; n=9) and in patients with anterior temporal lobe atrophy presenting with behavioural decline (TL group; n=7, including four cases with MAPT mutations) in relation to healthy older controls (n=20). We assessed auditory semantic performance in each domain using novel, uniform within-modality neuropsychological procedures that determined sound identification based on semantic classification of sound pairs. Both the SD and TL groups showed comparable overall impairments of environmental sound and melody identification; individual patients generally showed superior identification of environmental sounds than melodies, however relative sparing of melody over environmental sound identification also occurred in both groups. Our findings suggest that nonverbal auditory semantic impairment is a common feature of neurodegenerative syndromes with anterior temporal lobe atrophy. However, the profile of auditory domain involvement varies substantially between individuals

Radioactivities in Population Studies: 26Al and 60Fe from OB Associations

The observation of the interstellar 1.809 MeV decay-line of radioactive 26Al by the imaging gamma-ray telescope COMPTEL have let to the conclusion, that massive stars and their subsequent core-collapse supernovae are the dominant sources of the interstellar 26Al abundance. Massive stars are known to affect the surrounding interstellar medium by their energetic stellar winds and by the emission of ionising radiation. We present a population synthesis model allowing the correlated investigation of the gamma-ray emission characteristics with integrated matter, kinetic energy and extreme ultra-violet radiation emission of associations of massive stars. We study the time evolution of the various observables. In addition, we discuss systematic as well as statistical uncertainties affecting the model. Beside uncertainties in the input stellar physics such as stellar rotation, mass loss rates or internal mixing modifications due to a unknown binary component may lead to significant uncertainties.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Proc. "Influence of Binaries on Stellar Population Studies", eds. Vanbeveren & Van Rensbergen, Brussels, Aug. 200