6,959 research outputs found
Examining the role of mental health and clinical issues within talent development
Although significant research supports the association between physical activity and mental wellbeing, current literature acknowledges that athletes are no less susceptible to mental illness than the general population. Despite welcomed initiatives aimed at improving mental health within elite sport, these programs often fail to target young athletes; an important concern given that the genesis of many mental illnesses are recognized to occur during this critical period. Given the importance of early intervention and effective treatment, and the potentially devastating consequences of clinical issues going undiagnosed, the implications for talent identification and development become obvious. With this in mind, this study sought to examine the range of mental health issues that may impact upon developing athletes and potential consequences for the development process, specific risk and protective factors associated with talent development, along with an examination of current practices concerning the identification of mental health issues in such environments. Qualitative interviews were conducted with purposively sampled clinicians (n = 8) experienced in working with adolescents and/or young athletes. Inductive content analysis was undertaken, identifying four main themes: key behavioral indicators; associated risk factors; associated protective factors; and issues around identification and diagnosis. Key behavioral indicators included behavioral change, along with behaviors associated with eating disorders, anxiety and depression. Risk factors centered on family background, the performance environment, and issues surrounding adolescence. Protective factors were primarily social in nature. Finally, a lack of awareness and understanding of clinical issues, multiple causes of symptoms, non-disclosure and the need for triangulation of assessment were identified. The need for improved identification and intervention strategies was apparent, with coaches identified as well placed to detect general ‘warning signs’ such as behavioral change. Short of integrating trained clinicians into talent development environments, as part of a triangulation process, ecologically validated assessment tools – coupled with appropriate training and signposting – could offer a practical way of flagging potential issues in developing athletes. The need for the development of such an instrument is therefore apparent. Finally, education around the influential role of family is also recommended in order to promote the protective elements and mitigate risk factors
Local molecular field theory for the treatment of electrostatics
We examine in detail the theoretical underpinnings of previous successful
applications of local molecular field (LMF) theory to charged systems. LMF
theory generally accounts for the averaged effects of long-ranged components of
the intermolecular interactions by using an effective or restructured external
field. The derivation starts from the exact Yvon-Born-Green hierarchy and shows
that the approximation can be very accurate when the interactions averaged over
are slowly varying at characteristic nearest-neighbor distances. Application of
LMF theory to Coulomb interactions alone allows for great simplifications of
the governing equations. LMF theory then reduces to a single equation for a
restructured electrostatic potential that satisfies Poisson's equation defined
with a smoothed charge density. Because of this charge smoothing by a Gaussian
of width sigma, this equation may be solved more simply than the detailed
simulation geometry might suggest. Proper choice of the smoothing length sigma
plays a major role in ensuring the accuracy of this approximation. We examine
the results of a basic confinement of water between corrugated wall and justify
the simple LMF equation used in a previous publication. We further generalize
these results to confinements that include fixed charges in order to
demonstrate the broader impact of charge smoothing by sigma. The slowly-varying
part of the restructured electrostatic potential will be more symmetric than
the local details of confinements.Comment: To be published in J Phys-Cond Matt; small misprint corrected in Eq.
(12) in V
Proposed reference models for nitrous oxide and methane in the middle atmosphere
Data from the Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (SAMS) on the Nimbus 7 satellite, for the period from Jan. 1979 - Dec. 1981, are used to prepare a reference model for the long-lived trace gases, methane and nitrous oxide, in the stratosphere. The model is presented in tabular form on seventeen pressure surfaces from 20 to 0.1 mb, in 10 degree latitude bins from 50S to 70N, and for each month of the year. The means by which the data quality and interannual variability, and some of the more interesting globally and seasonally variable features of the data are discussed briefly
Near Infrared Spectroscopy of Young Brown Dwarfs in Upper Scorpius
Spectroscopic follow-up is a pre-requisite for studies of the formation and
early evolution of brown dwarfs. Here we present IRTF/SpeX near-infrared
spectroscopy of 30 candidate members of the young Upper Scorpius association,
selected from our previous survey work. All 24 high confidence members are
confirmed as young very low mass objects with spectral types from M5 to L1,
15-20 of them are likely brown dwarfs. This high yield confirms that brown
dwarfs in Upper Scorpius can be identified from photometry and proper motions
alone, with negligible contamination from field objects (<4%). Out of the 6
candidates with lower confidence, 5 might still be young very low mass members
of Upper Scorpius, according to our spectroscopy. We demonstrate that some very
low mass class II objects exhibit radically different near infrared (0.6 -
2.5micron) spectra from class III objects, with strong excess emission
increasing towards longer wavelengths and partially filled in features at
wavelengths shorter than 1.25micron. These characteristics can obscure the
contribution of the photosphere within such spectra. Therefore, we caution that
near infrared derived spectral types for objects with discs may be unreliable.
Furthermore, we show that the same characteristics can be seen to some extent
in all class II and even a significant fraction of class III objects (~40%),
indicating that some of them are still surrounded by traces of dust and gas.
Based on our spectra, we select a sample of objects with spectral types of M5
to L1, whose near-infrared emission represents the photosphere only. We
recommend the use of these objects as spectroscopic templates for young brown
dwarfs in the future.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Accepted in MNRA
Network growth model with intrinsic vertex fitness
© 2013 American Physical SocietyWe study a class of network growth models with attachment rules governed by intrinsic node fitness. Both the individual node degree distribution and the degree correlation properties of the network are obtained as functions of the network growth rules. We also find analytical solutions to the inverse, design, problems of matching the growth rules to the required (e.g., power-law) node degree distribution and more generally to the required degree correlation function. We find that the design problems do not always have solutions. Among the specific conditions on the existence of solutions to the design problems is the requirement that the node degree distribution has to be broader than a certain threshold and the fact that factorizability of the correlation functions requires singular distributions of the node fitnesses. More generally, the restrictions on the input distributions and correlations that ensure solvability of the design problems are expressed in terms of the analytical properties of their generating functions
Studies on the Role of Urinary Macromolecules in Urolithiasis: Review of Methodologies and a Proposal for a Standard Reference Crystallization System
In this study, urine from a calcium oxalate kidney stone former was ultrafiltered (10 kD cut-off). Crystallization was induced in the ultrafiltrate and retentate fractions as well as in a sample of the whole urine. The progress of crystallization was monitored by Coulter Counter and flow cytometry techniques. (The latter has not been used in studies of the role of urinary macro-molecules in urolithiasis). Deposited crystals were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Results indicated that urinary macromolecules in this subject are inhibitors of nucleation and aggregation. These results agree with the findings of some workers but disagree with those of others. Indeed, studies on the role played by urinary macromolecules in promoting or inhibiting urolithiasis have failed to produce consistent findings. Examination of the literature reveals that a wide variety of experimental techniques and crystallization systems have been used in these studies and that this might be the cause of the inconsistencies. Based on reported experiences and those of the present study, a standard reference crystallization system is proposed. The key elements of this system involve the use of real urine, ultrafiltration, continuous crystallizer equipment, Coulter Counter procedures and scanning electron microscopy
Drug-like analogues of the parasitic worm-derived immunomodulator ES-62 are therapeutic in the MRL/Lpr model of systemic lupus erythematosus
Introduction ES-62, a phosphorylcholine (PC)-containing immunomodulator secreted by the parasitic worm Acanthocheilonema viteae, protects against nephritis in the MRL/Lpr mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, ES-62 is not suitable for development as a therapy and thus we have designed drug-like small molecule analogues (SMAs) based around its active PC-moiety. To provide proof of concept that ES-62-based SMAs exhibit therapeutic potential in SLE, we have investigated the capacity of two SMAs to protect against nephritis when administered to MRL/Lpr mice after onset of kidney damage.
Methods SMAs 11a and 12b were evaluated for their ability to suppress antinuclear antibody (ANA) generation and consequent kidney pathology in MRL/Lpr mice when administered after the onset of proteinuria.
Results SMAs 11a and 12b suppressed development of ANA and proteinuria. Protection reflected downregulation of MyD88 expression by kidney cells and this was associated with reduced production of IL-6, a cytokine that exhibits promise as a therapeutic target for this condition.
Conclusions SMAs 11a and 12b provide proof of principle that synthetic compounds based on the safe immunomodulatory mechanisms of parasitic worms can exhibit therapeutic potential as a novel class of drugs for SLE, a disease for which current therapies remain inadequate
The 2016 Joint European Prevention Guidelines and the uses of polypills: Time to update the evidence.
The Anisotropic Bak-Sneppen model
The Bak-Sneppen model is shown to fall into a different universality class with the introduction of a preferred direction, mirroring the situation in spin systems. This is first demonstrated by numerical simulations and subsequently confirmed by analysis of the multitrait version of the model, which admits exact solutions in the extremes of zero and maximal anisotropy. For intermediate anisotropies, we show that the spatiotemporal evolution of the avalanche has a power law `tail' which passes through the system for any non-zero anisotropy but remains fixed for the isotropic case, thus explaining the crossover in behaviour. Finally, we identify the maximally anisotropic model which is more tractable and yet more generally applicable than the isotropic system
Teaching formulaic sequences in an English-language class: The effects of explicit instruction versus coursebook instruction
This study investigates the relative effectiveness of different teaching approaches
on the learning of formulaic sequences. Three comparisons were made in this
study: the effects of explicit teaching of formulaic sequences versus teaching embedded
in traditional coursebook instruction, the effects of the degree of salience
of the sequences in the coursebook on learning, and the effects of explicit teaching
of formulaic sequences with context versus teaching without context. Sixtynine
formulaic sequences occurring in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
coursebook were selected for the study. The participants were 60 low-proficiency
university students majoring in technology in Vietnam. Participants were quasirandomly
assigned to one of three groups: control, no-context learning, and
sentence-context learning. Learning was measured by two multiple-choice tests
of receptive knowledge of form and meaning. Findings indicated that although
explicit instruction was effective, the degree of salience in traditional coursebook
instruction had no significant effects on learning formulaic sequences. Explicit
teaching combined with incidental exposure to formulaic sequences in the
coursebook was superior to the traditional coursebook instruction approach in the
classroom setting. Furthermore, the results from explicit instruction with context
sentences did not differ significantly from those of instruction without context.
Explanations for the findings and pedagogical applications are offered
- …