The applicability of self-regulation theories in sport : goal adjustment capacities, stress appraisals, coping and well-being among athletes

Objectives: We examined a model, informed by self-regulation theories, which included goal adjustment capacities, appraisals of challenge and threat, coping, and well-being. Design: Prospective. Methods: Two hundred and twelve athletes from the United Kingdom (n = 147) or Australia (n = 65), who played team (n = 135) or individual sports (n = 77), and competed at international (n = 7), national (n = 11), county (n = 67), club (n = 84), or beginner (n = 43) levels participated in this study. Participants completed measures of goal adjustment capacities and stress appraisals two days before competing. Athletes also completed questions on coping and well-being within three hours of their competition ending. Results: The way an athlete responds to an unattainable goal is associated with his or her well-being in the period leading up to and including the competition. Goal reengagement positively predicted well-being, whereas goal disengagement negatively predicted well-being. Further, goal reengagement was positively associated with challenge appraisals, which in turn was linked to task-oriented coping, and task-oriented coping positively associated with well-being. Conclusion: When highly-valued goals become unattainable, consultants could encourage athletes to seek out alternative approaches to achieve the same goal or help them develop a completely new goal

A confirmatory factor analysis of the performance enhancement attitude scale for adult and adolescent athletes

Objectives: The Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS; Petróczi & Aidman, 2009) is an extensively used questionnaire to assess doping attitudes among adult and adolescent athletes. To date, however, there is limited evidence to support the structure of the PEAS with either adult or adolescent athletes. The aim of this paper was to assess the factor structure of the PEAS with adult and adolescent athletes. Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: One thousand, one-hundred and fifty-four athletes, who were aged between 12 and 68 years (M age = 21.76 years, SD = 7.68) completed the PEAS in the presence of a research assistant. We subjected the data to Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Results: The original 17-item PEAS displayed a poor model among the overall sample, and with the sub-samples of adult and adolescent athletes. The 11-item, 8-item, and 6-item versions of the PEAS, which were used in previous studies, provided a better fit than the original 17-item PEAS. The 8-item version of the PEAS demonstrated the best fit for adults, but no model exhibited a good fit with adolescent athletes. Conclusions: Scholars could consider using the 8-item version of the PEAS with adults. Our data, however, infers that researchers should use the PEAS with caution to assess doping attitudes among adolescent athletes, due to the poor model fit of all versions tested. The accurate assessment of attitudes towards doping among adolescent athletes requires questionnaires specifically designed for this population, and grounded in an appropriate theoretical framework

Implications of Electronics Constraints for Solid-State Quantum Error Correction and Quantum Circuit Failure Probability

In this paper we present the impact of classical electronics constraints on a solid-state quantum dot logical qubit architecture. Constraints due to routing density, bandwidth allocation, signal timing, and thermally aware placement of classical supporting electronics significantly affect the quantum error correction circuit's error rate. We analyze one level of a quantum error correction circuit using nine data qubits in a Bacon-Shor code configured as a quantum memory. A hypothetical silicon double quantum dot quantum bit (qubit) is used as the fundamental element. A pessimistic estimate of the error probability of the quantum circuit is calculated using the total number of gates and idle time using a provably optimal schedule for the circuit operations obtained with an integer program methodology. The micro-architecture analysis provides insight about the different ways the electronics impact the circuit performance (e.g., extra idle time in the schedule), which can significantly limit the ultimate performance of any quantum circuit and therefore is a critical foundation for any future larger scale architecture analysis.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 3 table

Personality profiles and persuasion: An exploratory study investigating the role of the Big-5, Type D personality and the Dark Triad on susceptibility to persuasion

The present study investigated the relationship between personality profiles and susceptibility to persuasion.
 Participants (N = 316) were recruited for an online questionnaire and asked to complete self-reported measures of their personality – Big-5, Dark Triad and Type D. Individual differences in susceptibility to persuasion were also explored using Cialdini's model of persuasion. Latent profile analysis identified three distinct profiles which were labelled Socially Apt, Fearful and Malevolent. These profiles were correlated with scores on the persuasion sub-scales – authority, commitment, liking, scarcity, reciprocity, consensus – and a number of interesting associations were identified. The malevolent profile self-reported as more susceptible to a higher use of scarcity relative to the other principles of persuasion, and was least susceptible to reciprocity and authority. The socially apt profile appear to be more inclined to be persuaded to do something if it is consistent with their beliefs or a prior act whereas individuals in the Fearful profile were more likely to report obeying those in authority and going along with a crowd. Implications for persuasion are discussed along with research on personality types

Retrieving Aerosol in a Cloudy Environment: Aerosol Availability as a Function of Spatial and Temporal Resolution

The challenge of using satellite observations to retrieve aerosol properties in a cloudy environment is to prevent contamination of the aerosol signal from clouds, while maintaining sufficient aerosol product yield to satisfy specific applications. We investigate aerosol retrieval availability at different instrument pixel resolutions, using the standard MODIS aerosol cloud mask applied to MODIS data and a new GOES-R cloud mask applied to GOES data for a domain covering North America and surrounding oceans. Aerosol availability is not the same as the cloud free fraction and takes into account the technqiues used in the MODIS algorithm to avoid clouds, reduce noise and maintain sufficient numbers of aerosol retrievals. The inherent spatial resolution of each instrument, 0.5x0.5 km for MODIS and 1x1 km for GOES, is systematically degraded to 1x1 km, 2x2 km, 4x4 km and 8x8 km resolutions and then analyzed as to how that degradation would affect the availability of an aerosol retrieval, assuming an aerosol product resolution at 8x8 km. The results show that as pixel size increases, availability decreases until at 8x8 km 70% to 85% of the retrievals available at 0.5 km have been lost. The diurnal pattern of aerosol retrieval availability examined for one day in the summer suggests that coarse resolution sensors (i.e., 4x4 km or 8x8 km) may be able to retrieve aerosol early in the morning that would otherwise be missed at the time of current polar orbiting satellites, but not the diurnal aerosol properties due to cloud cover developed during the day. In contrast finer resolution sensors (i.e., 1x1 km or 2x2 km) have much better opportunity to retrieve aerosols in the partly cloudy scenes and better chance of returning the diurnal aerosol properties. Large differences in the results of the two cloud masks designed for MODIS aerosol and GOES cloud products strongly reinforce that cloud masks must be developed with specific purposes in mind and that a generic cloud mask applied to an independent aerosol retrieval will likely fail

Joint Assessment of Intended and Unintended Effects of Medications: An Example Using Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Inhibitors for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Objective. To estimate the net health benefits of pegaptanib and ranibizumab by considering the impact of visual acuity and unintended effects (cardiovascular and hemorrhagic events) on quality-of-life among persons with neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Methods. We designed a probabilistic decision-analytic model using published data. It employed 17 visual health states and three for unintended effects. We calculated incremental net health benefits by subtracting the harms of each medication from the benefit using the quality-adjusted life year (QALY). Results. In a hypothetical cohort of 1,000 75-year olds with new-onset bilateral age-related macular degeneration followed for ten years, the mean QALYs per patient is 3.7 for usual care, 4.2 for pegaptanib, and 4.3 for ranibizumab. Net benefits decline with increasing baseline rates of unintended effects. Interpretation. Net health benefits present a quantitative, potentially useful tool to assist patients and ophthalmologists in balancing the benefits and harms of interventions for age-related macular degeneration

Approaches for advancing scientific understanding of macrosystems

The emergence of macrosystems ecology (MSE), which focuses on regional- to continental-scale ecological patterns and processes, builds upon a history of long-term and broad-scale studies in ecology. Scientists face the difficulty of integrating the many elements that make up macrosystems, which consist of hierarchical processes at interacting spatial and temporal scales. Researchers must also identify the most relevant scales and variables to be considered, the required data resources, and the appropriate study design to provide the proper inferences. The large volumes of multi-thematic data often associated with macrosystem studies typically require validation, standardization, and assimilation. Finally, analytical approaches need to describe how cross-scale and hierarchical dynamics and interactions relate to macroscale phenomena. Here, we elaborate on some key methodological challenges of MSE research and discuss existing and novel approaches to meet them

Renal Association Clinical Practice Guideline on Haemodialysis

© The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.This guideline is written primarily for doctors and nurses working in dialysis units and related areas of medicine in the UK, and is an update of a previous version written in 2009. It aims to provide guidance on how to look after patients and how to run dialysis units, and provides standards which units should in general aim to achieve. We would not advise patients to interpret the guideline as a rulebook, but perhaps to answer the question: "what does good quality haemodialysis look like?"The guideline is split into sections: each begins with a few statements which are graded by strength (1 is a firm recommendation, 2 is more like a sensible suggestion), and the type of research available to back up the statement, ranging from A (good quality trials so we are pretty sure this is right) to D (more like the opinion of experts than known for sure). After the statements there is a short summary explaining why we think this, often including a discussion of some of the most helpful research. There is then a list of the most important medical articles so that you can read further if you want to - most of this is freely available online, at least in summary form.A few notes on the individual sections: 1. This section is about how much dialysis a patient should have. The effectiveness of dialysis varies between patients because of differences in body size and age etc., so different people need different amounts, and this section gives guidance on what defines "enough" dialysis and how to make sure each person is getting that. Quite a bit of this section is very technical, for example, the term "eKt/V" is often used: this is a calculation based on blood tests before and after dialysis, which measures the effectiveness of a single dialysis session in a particular patient. 2. This section deals with "non-standard" dialysis, which basically means anything other than 3 times per week. For example, a few people need 4 or more sessions per week to keep healthy, and some people are fine with only 2 sessions per week - this is usually people who are older, or those who have only just started dialysis. Special considerations for children and pregnant patients are also covered here. 3. This section deals with membranes (the type of "filter" used in the dialysis machine) and "HDF" (haemodiafiltration) which is a more complex kind of dialysis which some doctors think is better. Studies are still being done, but at the moment we think it's as good as but not better than regular dialysis. 4. This section deals with fluid removal during dialysis sessions: how to remove enough fluid without causing cramps and low blood pressure. Amongst other recommendations we advise close collaboration with patients over this. 5. This section deals with dialysate, which is the fluid used to "pull" toxins out of the blood (it is sometimes called the "bath"). The level of things like potassium in the dialysate is important, otherwise too much or too little may be removed. There is a section on dialysate buffer (bicarbonate) and also a section on phosphate, which occasionally needs to be added into the dialysate. 6. This section is about anticoagulation (blood thinning) which is needed to stop the circuit from clotting, but sometimes causes side effects. 7. This section is about certain safety aspects of dialysis, not seeking to replace well-established local protocols, but focussing on just a few where we thought some national-level guidance would be useful. 8. This section draws together a few aspects of dialysis which don't easily fit elsewhere, and which impact on how dialysis feels to patients, rather than the medical outcome, though of course these are linked. This is where home haemodialysis and exercise are covered. There is an appendix at the end which covers a few aspects in more detail, especially the mathematical ideas. Several aspects of dialysis are not included in this guideline since they are covered elsewhere, often because they are aspects which affect non-dialysis patients too. This includes: anaemia, calcium and bone health, high blood pressure, nutrition, infection control, vascular access, transplant planning, and when dialysis should be started.Peer reviewe

Accelerated Thermokarst Formation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

Thermokarst is a land surface lowered and disrupted by melting ground ice. Thermokarst is a major driver of landscape change in the Arctic, but has been considered to be a minor process in Antarctica. Here, we use ground-based and airborne LiDAR coupled with timelapse imaging and meteorological data to show that 1) thermokarst formation has accelerated in Garwood Valley, Antarctica; 2) the rate of thermokarst erosion is presently,10 times the average Holocene rate; and 3) the increased rate of thermokarst formation is driven most strongly by increasing insolation and sediment/albedo feedbacks. This suggests that sediment enhancement of insolation-driven melting may act similarly to expected increases in Antarctic air temperature (presently occurring along the Antarctic Peninsula), and may serve as a leading indicator of imminent landscape change in Antarctica that will generate thermokarst landforms similar to those in Arctic periglacial terrains