Stars Versus Starters: The Relationship Between Ability Level and Character in High School Football Players Attending a Major College Football Camp

The image of a University of Miami football player wielding his helmet as a weapon during a brawl with cross-town rival Florida International University was broadcast repeatedly across the national television airwaves in the fall of 2006. This most recent brawl during a collegiate football contest has again fueled the debate: does sport build or reveal character? Sport advocates, former athletes, and coaches unabashedly promote the benefits of sport. Yet, scholars and empirical research have consistently backed the notion that sport may just as well contribute in a potentially damaging manner to the development of children and adolescents if not taught, organized, managed, and led properly (e.g., Beller & Stoll, 1995; Ewing, Gano-Overway, Branta, and Seefeldt, 2002; Petitpas, Cornelius, Van Raalte, & Jones, 2005). Beller and Stoll went a step further in concluding, As such, competitive athletics as it is taught and morally modeled in this country does not appear to cognitively develop young people (p. 361)

Sport Fan Team Identification Formation in Mid-Level Professional Sport

Team identification, the degree to which an individual feels psychologically linked to a team, has been a focal point in studies of sport fans and sport spectatorship (e.g. Fink et al., 2002; Jones, 1997; Wann & Branscombe, 1993; Wann & Dolan, 1994; Wann & Schrader, 1997). Although the development of team identification has been examined extensively in established sport markets, the purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between sport fan team identification and motivations for initially becoming a fan of a new mid-level professional sport in a new market. A convenience sample of spectators (N=351) at an American Arena Football League (AFL) game completed a survey designed to identify and measure this relationship. A simultaneous multiple regression analysis revealed significant and positive predictive value for team identification from the following reasons for becoming a fan: parents and/or family (β=.125, p\u3c .05), born and/or live in area (β=.210, p\u3c.001), players and/or coaches (β=.411, p=.001), and tailgating and party atmosphere (β=.123,

Youth Sport Market Segmentation with the Theory of Planned Behavior

Approximately half (54%) of all American youth between the ages of 6 -17 play in at least one organized sport (SGMA: Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, 2004). By adulthood; however, only 15.4% of American adults report that they participate in the same organized sport (SGMA, 2004). While this deficit can be explained by an expansion of alternate activities available to adults or a lack of continued opportunities, there is evidence that adult participation in sports and other leisure activities is significantly influenced by the repertoire of activities they participated in as children (Scott & Willits, 1989; 1998). Sport managers wound benefit from a more thorough understanding of the reasons for initial involvement and the intentions to continue participation in guiding future retention efforts

Energy- and Cost-Efficient Pumping Station Control

With renewable energy becoming more common, energy prices fluctuate more depending on environmental factors such as the weather. Consuming energy without taking volatile prices into consideration can not only become expensive, but may also increase the peak load, which requires energy providers to generate additional energy using less environment-friendly methods. In the Netherlands, pumping stations that maintain the water levels of polder canals are large energy consumers, but the controller software currently used in the industry does not take real-time energy availability into account. We investigate if existing AI planning techniques have the potential to improve upon the current solutions. In particular, we propose a light weight but realistic simulator and investigate if an online planning method (UCT) can utilise this simulator to improve the cost-efficiency of pumping station control policies. An empirical comparison with the current control algorithms indicates that substantial cost, and thus peak load, reduction can be attained

Usefulness of Heat Map Explanations for Deep-Learning-Based Electrocardiogram Analysis

Deep neural networks are complex machine learning models that have shown promising results in analyzing high-dimensional data such as those collected from medical examinations. Such models have the potential to provide fast and accurate medical diagnoses. However, the high complexity makes deep neural networks and their predictions difficult to understand. Providing model explanations can be a way of increasing the understanding of “black box” models and building trust. In this work, we applied transfer learning to develop a deep neural network to predict sex from electrocardiograms. Using the visual explanation method Grad-CAM, heat maps were generated from the model in order to understand how it makes predictions. To evaluate the usefulness of the heat maps and determine if the heat maps identified electrocardiogram features that could be recognized to discriminate sex, medical doctors provided feedback. Based on the feedback, we concluded that, in our setting, this mode of explainable artificial intelligence does not provide meaningful information to medical doctors and is not useful in the clinic. Our results indicate that improved explanation techniques that are tailored to medical data should be developed before deep neural networks can be applied in the clinic for diagnostic purposes

Long QT syndrome — a cause of sudden death.

Sindrom dugog QT intervala (LQTS) je primarni aritmijski poremećaj koji može dovesti do pojave malignih ventrikularnih aritmija tipa torsades de pointe (TdP) i iznenadne srčane smrti. Obilježja u elektrokardiogramu (EKG) uključuju produljenje korigiranog QT intervala i abnormalnosti T-vala. Do danas identificirana genetska osnova za LQTS uključuje trinaest podložnih gena za LQTS: KCNQ1, KCNH2, SCN5A, ANK2, KCNE1, KCNE2, KCNJ2, CACNA1C, CAV3, SCN4B, AKAP9, SNTA1, i KCNJ5. Najčešći genotip su mutacije KCNQ1 te gotovo polovica pacijenata ima tu vrstu mutacije. Navedeni geni kodiraju ionske kanale i regulatorne proteine koji su uključeni u modulaciju struja srčanog akcijskog potencijala. Stečeni oblici LQTS-a mogu također biti uzrokovani genetskim mutacijama, u tim slučajevima nositelji mutacija razvijaju aritmije isključivo u određenim uvjetima (npr. uporaba određenih lijekova). Trenutna terapija uključuje primjenu beta-blokatora, ugradnju implantabilnog kardioverter defibrilatora (ICD) te simpatičku denervaciju srca. LQTS mutacije povezane su s iznenadnom srčanom smrti kod mladih i veoma mladih; a post-mortem genetska testiranja LQTS gena mogu biti korisna kod procjene uzroka iznenadne neobjašnjive smrti (sudden unexplained death). Kaskadni probir koristan je za identificiranje asimptomatskih članova obitelji koji mogu biti pod povećanim rizikom od iznenadne smrti. U ovom preglednom članku prikazali smo gene povezane s LQTS-om zajedno s opisom povezanih patofizioloških mehanizama.Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a primary arrhythmic disorder that may lead to the precipitation of torsades de pointe (TdP) and sudden death. Electrocardiogram (ECG) features include prolongation of the corrected QT interval and T-wave abnormalities. The genetic basis of LQTS identified to date includes thirteen susceptibility genes for LQTS: KCNQ1, KCNH2, SCN5A, ANK2, KCNE1, KCNE2, KCNJ2, CACNA1C, CAV3, SCN4B, AKAP9, SNTA1, and KCNJ5. Mutations in KCNQ1 are by far the most frequent genotype with nearly half of the patients carrying KCNQ1 mutations. These genes code for ion channels and regulatory proteins that are involved in the modulation of the currents of the cardiac action potential (AP). Acquired forms of LQTS may also have underlying genetic mutations, in these cases mutation carriers develop arrhythmias only under certain conditions (e.g. use of certain medications). Current therapies include use of beta-blockers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) and left cardiac sympathetic denervation. LQTS mutations have been associated with sudden death in the young and very young; and postmortem genetic testing in LQTS genes can be useful when assessing the cause of a sudden unexplained death. Cascade screening is also useful to identify asymptomatic family members that may be at risk of sudden death. Here we have reviewed the genes associated with LQTS along with the description of the related pathophysiological mechanisms