Psychological adjustment in children and fencing: A descriptive research: Çocuklarda ruhsal uyum ve eskrim sporu: Betimsel bir araştırma

The aim of research is describe the psychological adjustment levels of fencing students at ages 6-11 through their parents and teachers. 42 male and 38 female fencing students participated in the research. In order to determine the psychological adjustment level of the participants, a personal information form and Hacettepe Psychological Adjustment Scale filled out by the parents and teachers. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and Mann Whitney-U analysis were applied to the data set. As a result of the analyzes, it was found that there was a negative correlation between sport age and psychological maladjustment levels (p <0.05). It is thought that fencing positively affect children’s psychological adjustment level. However, there was a significant difference between parent and teacher evaluations (p <0.05). It can be mentioned that teachers see children more flawlessly and in harmony while evaluating, or that children exhibit behavioral problems in the school environment at a lower rate than in the home environment.  It is thought that the obtained data can be a guide resource for longitudinal and experimental studies to be conducted on the potential of fencing sports to effect the psychological adjustment levels of children. ​Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file.   Özet Araştırmanın amacı, 6-11 yaş aralığında eskrim sporu yapan çocukların nevrotik ve davranış sorun boyutları ile bunların bileşkesi olan ruhsal uyum düzeylerini, ortaya koymaktır. Araştırmaya eskrim sporu yapan 42 erkek ve 38 kız çocuk katılmıştır. Araştırmaya katılan sporcuların ruhsal uyum düzeylerini belirlemek amacıyla ebeveyn ve öğretmenlerine kişisel bilgi formu ve Hacettepe Ruhsal Uyum Ölçeği uygulanmıştır. Elde edilen veri setine, tanımlayıcı istatistikler, Pearson kolerasyon çarpımı ve Mann Whitney-U analizleri uygulanmıştır. Yapılan analizler sonucunda, spor yaşı ile ruhsal uyumsuzluk düzeyleri arasında negatif yönde orta düzeyde ilişki olduğu tespit edilmiştir (p<0,05). Eskrim sporunun çocukların ruhsal uyum düzeylerini olumlu yönde etkilediği düşünülmektedir. Bununla birlikte ebeveyn ve öğretmen değerlendirmeleri arasında ise anlamlı farklılık olduğu saptanmıştır (p<0,05). Öğretmenlerin değerlendirme yaparken çocukları daha kusursuz ve uyumlu gördükleri veya çocukların okul ortamında davranış sorunlarını ev ortamına göre daha düşük oranda sergilediklerinden söz edilebilir. Elde edilen verilerin, eskrim sporunun çocukların ruhsal uyum düzeylerini etkileme potansiyeli ile ilgili yapılacak olan boylamsal ve deneysel çalışmalara bir fikir kaynağı olabileceği düşünülmektedir

Higher-order corrections to the short-pulse equation

Using renormalization group techniques, we derive an extended short- pulse equation as approximation to a nonlinear wave equation. We investigate the new equation numerically and show that the new equation captures efficiently higher- order effects on pulse propagation in cubic nonlinear media. We illustrate our findings using one- and two-soliton solutions of the first-order short-pulse equation as initial conditions in the nonlinear wave equation

Behavioral and Emotional Dynamics of Two People Struggling to Reach Consensus about a Topic on Which They Disagree

We studied the behavioral and emotional dynamics displayed by two people trying to resolve a conflict. 59 groups of two people were asked to talk for 20 minutes to try to reach a consensus about a topic on which they disagreed. The topics were abortion, affirmative action, death penalty, and euthanasia. Behavior data were determined from audio recordings where each second of the conversation was assessed as proself, neutral, or prosocial. We determined the probability density function of the durations of time spent in each behavioral state. These durations were well fit by a stretched exponential distribution, with an exponent, , of approximately 0.3. This indicates that the switching between behavioral states is not a random Markov process, but one where the probability to switch behavioral states decreases with the time already spent in that behavioral state. The degree of this “memory” was stronger in those groups who did not reach a consensus and where the conflict grew more destructive than in those that did. Emotion data were measured by having each person listen to the audio recording and moving a computer mouse to recall their negative or positive emotional valence at each moment in the conversation. We used the Hurst rescaled range analysis and power spectrum to determine the correlations in the fluctuations of the emotional valence. The emotional valence was well described by a random walk whose increments were uncorrelated. Thus, the behavior data demonstrated a “memory” of the duration already spent in a behavioral state while the emotion data fluctuated as a random walk whose steps did not have a “memory” of previous steps. This work demonstrates that statistical analysis, more commonly used to analyze physical phenomena, can also shed interesting light on the dynamics of processes in social psychology and conflict management

Pain Coping Skills Training for Patients Who Catastrophize About Pain Prior to Knee Arthroplasty: A Multisite Randomized Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND: Pain catastrophizing has been identified as a prognostic indicator of poor outcome following knee arthroplasty. Interventions to address pain catastrophizing, to our knowledge, have not been tested in patients undergoing knee arthroplasty. The purpose of this study was to determine whether pain coping skills training in persons with moderate to high pain catastrophizing undergoing knee arthroplasty improves outcomes 12 months postoperatively compared with usual care or arthritis education. METHODS: A multicenter, 3-arm, single-blinded, randomized comparative effectiveness trial was performed involving 5 university-based medical centers in the United States. There were 402 randomized participants. The primary outcome was the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) Pain Scale, measured at baseline, 2 months, 6 months, and 12 months following the surgical procedure. RESULTS: Participants were recruited from January 2013 to June 2016. In 402 participants, 66% were women and the mean age of the participants (and standard deviation) was 63.2 ± 8.0 years. Three hundred and forty-six participants (90% of those who underwent a surgical procedure) completed a 12-month follow-up. All 3 treatment groups had large improvements in 12-month WOMAC pain scores with no significant differences (p > 0.05) among the 3 treatment arms. No differences were found between WOMAC pain scores at 12 months for the pain coping skills and arthritis education groups (adjusted mean difference, 0.3 [95% confidence interval (CI), -0.9 to 1.5]) or between the pain coping and usual-care groups (adjusted mean difference, 0.4 [95% CI, -0.7 to 1.5]). Secondary outcomes also showed no significant differences (p > 0.05) among the 3 groups. CONCLUSIONS: Among adults with pain catastrophizing undergoing knee arthroplasty, cognitive behaviorally based pain coping skills training did not confer pain or functional benefit beyond the large improvements achieved with usual surgical and postoperative care. Future research should develop interventions for the approximately 20% of patients undergoing knee arthroplasty who experience persistent function-limiting pain. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level I. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence

Unifying Ancient and Modern Geometries Through Octonions

We show the first unified description of some of the oldest known geometries such as the Pappus’ theorem with more modern ones like Desargues’ theorem, Monge’s theorem and Ceva’s theorem, through octonions, the highest normed division algebra in eight dimensions. We also show important applications in hadronic physics, giving a full description of the algebra of color applicable to quark physics, and comment on further applications

Algebraic Formulation of Hadronic Supersymmetry Based on Octonions: New Mass Formulas and Further Applications

A special treatment based on the highest division algebra, that of octonions and their split algebraic formulation is developed for the description of diquark states made up of two quark pairs. We describe symmetry properties of mesons and baryons through such formulation and derive mass formulae relating π, ρ, N and Δ trajectories showing an incredible agreement with experiments. We also comment on formation of diquark-antidiquark as well as pentaquark states and point the way toward applications into multiquark formulations expected to be seen at upcoming CERN experiments. A discussion on relationship of our work to flux bag models, string pictures and to string-like configurations in hadrons based on spectrum generating algebras will be given