Competitive anxiety levels of track and field athletes in rural area of Sabah

The purpose of the study was to examine the competitive anxiety level of track and field athletes in remote areas of Sabah. A total of 213 male athletic athletes aged between sixteen to eighteen years have participated in this study. The participants' competitive anxiety levels before competition were assessed and classified into three categories: cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory (CSAI-2) was utilized in this study, and participants completed the questionnaire 60 minutes before the competition began. The data were analyzed by using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that field athletes were significantly better compared to track athletes in cognitive anxiety and self-confidence, (p 0.05). The study found that field events athletes can cope with anxiety better than track events athletes. Hence, it was essential for track and field athletes to get a proper training program regarding their psychological demands before the competition. Low anxiety and high confidence levels can contribute to improved performance in athletes

Competitive anxiety levels of track and field athletes in rural area of Sabah

The purpose of the study was to examine the competitive anxiety level of track and field athletes in remote areas of Sabah. A total of 213 male athletic athletes aged between sixteen to eighteen years have participated in this study. The participants' competitive anxiety levels before competition were assessed and classified into three categories: cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory (CSAI-2) was utilized in this study, and participants completed the questionnaire 60 minutes before the competition began. The data were analyzed by using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that field athletes were significantly better compared to track athletes in cognitive anxiety and self confidence, (p 0.05). The study found that field events athletes can cope with anxiety better than track events athletes. Hence, it was essential for track and field athletes to get a proper training program regarding their psychological demands before the competition. Low anxiety and high confidence levels can contribute to improved performance in athletes

Analisis perbandingan orientasi matlamat atlet lelaki bawah lapan belas tahun pedalaman Sabah

Pencapaian seseorang atlet dalam sukan olahraga dapat dipengaruhi oleh beberapa faktor psikologi seperti motivasi, orientasi matlamat, kekuatan mental dan persepsi kognitif. Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk melihat perbezaan faktor psikologi terhadap orientasi matlamat, subskala orientasi ego dan orientasi tugasan antara atlet acara balapan dan acara padang. Peserta seramai enam puluh empat orang atlet lelaki bawah lapan belas tahun telah dipilih untuk menyertai kajian dan mereka terdiri daripada atlet bahagian pedalaman Sabah. Instrumen yang telah digunakan dalam kajian ini adalah Task and Ego Orientation in Sports Questionnaire (TEOSQ) yang telah diterjemahkan. Hasil dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa tidak terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan terhadap orientasi matlamat, subskala orientasi ego dan orientasi tugasan di antara atlet acara balapan dan padang. Dapatan kajian ini adalah selaras dengan Teori Persepsi Kebolehan Nicholls kerana asas komponen ini berpusatkan kepada penguasaan sesuatu kemahiran ataupun tugasan

Vascular function and cardiovascular risk in a HIV infected and HIV free cohort of African ancestry : baseline profile, rationale and methods of the longitudinal EndoAfrica-NWU study

CITATION: Fourie, C. M. T., et al. 2020. Vascular function and cardiovascular risk in a HIV infected and HIV free cohort of African ancestry : baseline profile, rationale and methods of the longitudinal EndoAfrica-NWU study. BMC Infectious Diseases, 20:473, di:10.1186/s12879-020-05173-6.The original publication is available at https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.comBackground: People living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV) have an increased susceptibility to develop non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). Infection with HIV contributes to the development of CVD independent of traditional risk factors, with endothelial dysfunction being the central physiological mechanism. While HIV-related mortality is declining due to antiretroviral treatment (ART), the number of deaths due to CVD is rising in South Africa - the country with the highest number of PLHIV and the world’s largest ART programme. The EndoAfrica study was developed to determine whether HIV infection and ART are associated with cardiovascular risk markers and changes in vascular structure and function over 18months in adults from different provinces of South Africa. This paper describes the rationale, methodology and baseline cohort profile of the EndoAfrica study conducted in the North West Province, South Africa. Methods: In this case-control study, conducted between August 2017 and June 2018, 382 volunteers of African descent (276 women; 106 men), comprising of 278 HIV infected and 104 HIV free individuals were included. We measured health behaviours, a detailed cardiovascular profile, and performed biomarker analyses. We compared baseline characteristics, blood pressure, vascular function and biochemical markers between those infected and HIV free. Results: At baseline, the HIV infected participants were older (43 vs 39 years), less were employed (21% vs 40%), less had a tertiary education (7% vs 16%) and their body mass index was lower (26 vs 29 kg/m2) than that of the HIV free participants. While the cardiovascular profile, flow-mediated dilation and pulse wave velocity did not differ, glycated haemoglobin was lower (p = 0.017) and total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, gammaglutamyltransferase and tobacco use were higher (all p < 0.047) in PLHIV. Conclusion: Despite PLHIV being older, preliminary cross-sectional analysis suggests that PLHIV being treated with ART do not have poorer endothelial or vascular function compared to the HIV free participants. More detailed analyses on the baseline and follow-up data will provide further clarity regarding the cardiovascular profile of South Africans living with HIV.https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-020-05173-6Publisher's versio

Coronal Heating as Determined by the Solar Flare Frequency Distribution Obtained by Aggregating Case Studies

Flare frequency distributions represent a key approach to addressing one of the largest problems in solar and stellar physics: determining the mechanism that counter-intuitively heats coronae to temperatures that are orders of magnitude hotter than the corresponding photospheres. It is widely accepted that the magnetic field is responsible for the heating, but there are two competing mechanisms that could explain it: nanoflares or Alfv\'en waves. To date, neither can be directly observed. Nanoflares are, by definition, extremely small, but their aggregate energy release could represent a substantial heating mechanism, presuming they are sufficiently abundant. One way to test this presumption is via the flare frequency distribution, which describes how often flares of various energies occur. If the slope of the power law fitting the flare frequency distribution is above a critical threshold, $\alpha=2$ as established in prior literature, then there should be a sufficient abundance of nanoflares to explain coronal heating. We performed $>$600 case studies of solar flares, made possible by an unprecedented number of data analysts via three semesters of an undergraduate physics laboratory course. This allowed us to include two crucial, but nontrivial, analysis methods: pre-flare baseline subtraction and computation of the flare energy, which requires determining flare start and stop times. We aggregated the results of these analyses into a statistical study to determine that $\alpha = 1.63 \pm 0.03$. This is below the critical threshold, suggesting that Alfv\'en waves are an important driver of coronal heating.Comment: 1,002 authors, 14 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, published by The Astrophysical Journal on 2023-05-09, volume 948, page 7