Affective Infrastructures: Toward a Cultural Neuropsychology of Sport

Recently there has been a turn toward considerations of embodiment, cognition, and context in sport studies. Many researchers have argued that the traditional focus on clinical psychology and performance enhancement within the discipline is incomplete, and now emphasize the importance of athletes’ social and familial contexts in a research paradigm that examines interconnections between movement, cognition, emotion, and the social and cultural context in which movement takes place. While it is important that the sport studies focus is being expanded to consider these interactions, I will argue that this model is still incomplete in that it is missing a fundamental variable – that of our evolutionary neurobiological roots. I will use the work of affective neuroscientists Jaak Panksepp and Stephen Porges to show that because sport so clearly activates neural systems that function at both proximate and ultimate levels of causation, it can be seen to serve fundamental needs for affective balance. A neurobiology of affect shows how the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system has resulted in neurophysiological substrates for affective processes and stress responses, and has wide-ranging implications for sport studies in terms of suggesting what forms of coaching might be the most effective in what context. I propose the term cultural neuropsychology of sport as a descriptor for a model that examines the relationships between neurophysiological substrates and athletes’ social and familial contexts in terms of how these variables facilitate or fail to facilitate athletes’ neuroceptions of safety, which in turn have a direct impact on their performance. A cultural neuropsychological model of sport might thereby be seen to elaborate a relationship between proximate and ultimate mechanisms in concretely applied ways

Hydrogen generation from plasmatron reformers: A promising technology for NOx adsorber regeneration

Plasma Fuel Converters increase the efficiency of fuel in vehicles through the injection of electrical current. This document focuses on the benefits of using plasma reformers for nitrogen oxide emission reductions. The document summarizes laboratory and vehicle tests of plasmatrons while attempting to maximize nitrogen oxide reduction and efficient fuel use. From the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Sloan Automobile Lab

Direct Left Atrial Pressure Monitoring in Severe Heart Failure: Long-Term Sensor Performance

Abstract We report the stability, accuracy, and development history of a new left atrial pressure (LAP) sensing system in ambulatory heart failure (HF) patients. A total of 84 patients with advanced HF underwent percutaneous transseptal implantation of the pressure sensor. Quarterly noninvasive calibration by modified Valsalva maneuver was achieved in all patients, and 96.5 % of calibration sessions were successful with a reproducibility of 1.2 mmHg. Absolute sensor drift was maximal after 3 months at 4.7 mmHg (95 % CI, 3.2–6.2 mmHg) and remained stable through 48 months. LAP was highly correlated with simultaneous pulmonary wedge pressure at 3 and 12 months (r=0.98, average difference of 0.8± 4.0 mmHg). Freedom from device failure was 95 % (n=37) at 2 years and 88 % (n=12) at 4 years. Causes of failure were identified and mitigated with 100 % freedom from device failure and less severe anomalies in the last 41 consecutive patients (p=0.005). Accurate and reliable LAP measurement using a chronic implanted monitoring system is safe and feasible in patients with advanced heart failure