Applied Sport Psychology: Unearthing and Contextualizing a Dual Genealogy

In this dissertation, I trace the historical development of sport psychology and draw on multiple fields to rethink its taken-for-granted practices and future trajectories. Influenced by Foucault’s (1977) genealogical approach to historical analysis, I challenge the conventions of linear chronology and provide competing narratives that highlight a set of discursive possibilities for the emergence of the psychology of sport. Though my focus is on a dual genealogy of applied sport psychology (i.e., American and Soviet discourses), I do not offer a new hegemonic discourse or origin story. Rather I attempt to provide a genealogical analysis of the (sub)discipline to show how and why sport psychology discourse has come to be the way it is performed today. Drawing on Foucault’s (1982, 1995) conceptual understanding of the subject and of knowledge production, I approach the work of Avksenty Cezarevich Puni and Coleman Roberts Griffith as two sites of origins of (applied) sport psychology. My prime interest here is not so much in identifying these two scholars’ individual practices as in uncovering the discursive formations of that historical conjuncture that shaped the way sport psychology has come to be conceptualized, theorized, practiced and institutionalized. I situate a dual genealogy of the discourse within global and local (i.e., glocal) particularities of the Cold War culture and socio-political practices in order to interrogate the interplay between the actual events and their representations in scholarly activities, particularly as they relate to the construction of oppositions and tensions between the Soviet and American discourses. I examine the implications of certain exclusions and inclusions for shaping current interpretations of international sport psychology within a broader context of national identity construction, deconstruction and reconstruction. My discourse analysis highlights rhetorical strategies aligned with technologies of institutional power and reveals the role of (sport) historiography in the production of a hierarchical and sealed system of knowledge. Each chapter of this dissertation holds a piece (or a fragmented narrative) of the historical analysis of the psychology of sport. The presentation of competing narratives of the past, the present and the future throughout the dissertation is aimed at “provoking [the field of sport psychology] into new moves and spaces where [it] hardly recognizes [itself] in becoming otherwise, the unforeseeable that [it is] already becoming” (Lather, 2003, p. 5). Finally, drawing on a recent co-authored paper with Handel Wright (Ryba &Wright, 2005), I attempt to articulate the intersection of sport psychology and cultural studies as one of the possible approaches to future work in sport psychology and put forward an argument for an integrated sport studies that includes (applied) sport psychology

Combinatorial discovery of a lead-free morphotropic phase boundary in a thin-film piezoelectric perovskite

We report on the discovery of a lead-free morphotropic phase boundary in Sm doped BiFeO3 with a simple perovskite structure using the combinatorial thin film strategy. The boundary is a rhombohedral to pseudo-orthorhombic structural transition which exhibits a ferroelectric (FE) to antiferroelectric (AFE) transition at approximately Bi0.86Sm0.14FeO3 with dielectric constant and out-of-plane piezoelectric coefficient comparable to those of epitaxial (001) oriented Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) thin films at the MPB. The discovered composition may be a strong candidate of a Pb-free piezoelectric replacement of PZT.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Applied Physics Letter

MicroRNAs and drinking: association between the Pre-miR-27a rs895819 polymorphism and alcohol consumption in a Mediterranean population

Recently, microRNAs (miRNA) have been proposed as regulators in the different processes involved in alcohol intake, and differences have been found in the miRNA expression profile in alcoholics. However, no study has focused on analyzing polymorphisms in genes encoding miRNAs and daily alcohol consumption at the population level. Our aim was to investigate the association between a functional polymorphism in the pre-miR-27a (rs895819 A>G) gene and alcohol consumption in an elderly population. We undertook a cross-sectional study of PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED)-Valencia participants (n = 1007, including men and women aged 67 ± 7 years) and measured their alcohol consumption (total and alcoholic beverages) through a validated questionnaire. We found a strong association between the pre-miR-27a polymorphism and total alcohol intake, this being higher in GG subjects (5.2 ± 0.4 in AA, 5.9 ± 0.5 in AG and 9.1 ± 1.8 g/day in GG; padjusted = 0.019). We also found a statistically-significant association of the pre-miR-27a polymorphism with the risk of having a high alcohol intake (>2 drinks/day in men and >1 in women): 5.9% in AA versus 17.5% in GG; padjusted < 0.001. In the sensitivity analysis, this association was homogeneous for sex, obesity and Mediterranean diet adherence. In conclusion, we report for the first time a significant association between a miRNA polymorphism (rs895819) and daily alcohol consumption

Circulating Adiponectin and Its Association with Metabolic Traits and Type 2 Diabetes: Gene-Diet Interactions Focusing on Selected Gene Variants and at the Genome-Wide Level in High-Cardiovascular Risk Mediterranean Subjects

Adiponectin is gaining renewed interest since, in addition to its possible protective role against insulin resistance and arteriosclerosis, recent studies suggest other additional favorable effects. However, the influence of gene-diet interactions on plasma adiponectin levels is still little understood. We analyzed the association between plasma adiponectin levels and various metabolic traits in a high-cardiovascular risk Mediterranean population, as well as the genetic effect of four candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the adiponectin gene (ADIPOQ) and their interactions with the Mediterranean dietary pattern. Additionally, we explored, at the genome-wide level, the SNPs most associated with plasma adiponectin levels, as well as gene-diet interactions with the Mediterranean diet. In the 954 participants studied (aged 55-80 years), plasma adiponectin levels were strongly associated with plasma HDL-C concentrations (p = 6.6 × 10-36) and inversely related to triglycerides (p = 4.7 × 10-18), fasting glucose (p = 3.5 × 10-16) and type 2 diabetes (p = 1.4 × 10-7). Of the four pre-selected ADIPOQ candidate SNPs, the one most associated with plasma adiponectin was the -11391G > A (rs17300539) promoter SNP (p = 7.2 × 10-5, in the multivariable adjusted model). No significant interactions with the Mediterranean diet pattern were observed for these SNPs. Additionally, in the exploratory genome-wide association study (GWAS), we found new SNPs associated with adiponectin concentrations at the suggestive genome-wide level (p < 1 × 10-5) for the whole population, including the lead SNP rs9738548 (intergenic) and rs11647294 in the VAT1L (Vesicle Amine Transport 1 Like) gene. We also found other promising SNPs on exploring different strata such as men, women, diabetics and non-diabetics (p = 3.5 × 10-8 for rs2850066). Similarly, we explored gene-Mediterranean diet interactions at the GWAS level and identified several SNPs with gene-diet interactions at p < 1 × 10-5. A remarkable gene-diet interaction was revealed for the rs2917570 SNP in the OPCML (Opioid Binding Protein/Cell Adhesion Molecule Like) gene, previously reported to be associated with adiponectin levels in some populations. Our results suggest that, in this high-cardiovascular risk Mediterranean population, and even though adiponectin is favorably associated with metabolic traits and lower type 2 diabetes, the gene variants more associated with adiponectin may be population-specific, and some suggestive gene-Mediterranean diet interactions were detected

Exploiting proteomic data for genome annotation and gene model validation in Aspergillus niger

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Proteomic data is a potentially rich, but arguably unexploited, data source for genome annotation. Peptide identifications from tandem mass spectrometry provide <it>prima facie </it>evidence for gene predictions and can discriminate over a set of candidate gene models. Here we apply this to the recently sequenced <it>Aspergillus niger </it>fungal genome from the Joint Genome Institutes (JGI) and another predicted protein set from another <it>A.niger </it>sequence. Tandem mass spectra (MS/MS) were acquired from 1d gel electrophoresis bands and searched against all available gene models using Average Peptide Scoring (APS) and reverse database searching to produce confident identifications at an acceptable false discovery rate (FDR).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>405 identified peptide sequences were mapped to 214 different <it>A.niger </it>genomic <it>loci </it>to which 4093 predicted gene models clustered, 2872 of which contained the mapped peptides. Interestingly, 13 (6%) of these <it>loci </it>either had no preferred predicted gene model or the genome annotators' chosen "best" model for that genomic locus was not found to be the most parsimonious match to the identified peptides. The peptides identified also boosted confidence in predicted gene structures spanning 54 introns from different gene models.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This work highlights the potential of integrating experimental proteomics data into genomic annotation pipelines much as expressed sequence tag (EST) data has been. A comparison of the published genome from another strain of <it>A.niger </it>sequenced by DSM showed that a number of the gene models or proteins with proteomics evidence did not occur in both genomes, further highlighting the utility of the method.</p

The plant tissue culture collection at the Department of Botany, University of Debrecen

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Electrical transport and magnetic properties of a possible electron-doped layered manganese oxide

We report on the structural, transport, and magnetic properties of La0.67Sr0.33MnOx thin films grown in vacuum by pulsed-laser deposition. The as-grown thin films have both the matrix La1.34Sr0.66MnO4 phase with K2NiF4 structure and an embedded MnO phase. The electrical transport and magnetic properties of the films are determined mainly by those of the matrix phase. By annealing, the as-grown thin films can be transformed into the normal La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 single phase, which shows the expected colossal magnetoresistance effect. Based on the composition of the matrix phase, and the structural, electrical, and magnetic properties of the films, we propose that the matrix phase is possibly electron doped with a mixed valence of Mn2+/Mn3+ instead of the Mn3+/Mn4+ as in the hole-doped case