Irish athletes’ attitudes towards seeking sport psychology consultation

The aim of this study was to replicate previous research examining attitudes to sport psychology consultation conducted in the United States, Germany, and United Kingdom (Martin, Lavallee, Kellmann & Page, 2004), and New Zealand (Anderson, Hodge, Lavallee, & Martin, 2004). The study employed the Sport Psychology Attitudes-Revised (SPA-R) questionnaire (Martin, Kellman, Lavallee & Page, 2002) in order to develop an understanding of the attitudes elite Irish athletes (N=240) hold toward sport psychology and also compare these attitudes with those found in other countries. Irish athletes in this study reported a generally positive attitude toward sport psychology provision overall, and also were identified as being open to receiving sport psychology assistance, reported moderately high levels of confidence in sport psychology, and indicated the lack of accessibility and availability to these services as distinguishing factors. Comparison of results with athletes from other countries suggested that positive attitudes toward sport psychology may be based on factors not directly associated with personal experiences of sport psychology. As the provision of sport psychology increases, practitioners need to better understand athletes' attitudes toward sport psychology so they can tailor their services to best meet the needs of athletes. In order to do this, further research related to cultural and national differences is required

Quintessential Maldacena-Maoz Cosmologies

Maldacena and Maoz have proposed a new approach to holographic cosmology based on Euclidean manifolds with disconnected boundaries. This approach appears, however, to be in conflict with the known geometric results [the Witten-Yau theorem and its extensions] on spaces with boundaries of non-negative scalar curvature. We show precisely how the Maldacena-Maoz approach evades these theorems. We also exhibit Maldacena-Maoz cosmologies with [cosmologically] more natural matter content, namely quintessence instead of Yang-Mills fields, thereby demonstrating that these cosmologies do not depend on a special choice of matter to split the Euclidean boundary. We conclude that if our Universe is fundamentally anti-de Sitter-like [with the current acceleration being only temporary], then this may force us to confront the holography of spaces with a connected bulk but a disconnected boundary.Comment: Much improved exposition, exponent in Cai-Galloway theorem fixed, axionic interpretation of scalar explained, JHEP version. 33 pages, 3 eps figure

The handbook for standardised field and laboratory measurements in terrestrial climate-change experiments and observational studies

Climate change is a worldwide threat to biodiversity and ecosystem structure, functioning, and services. To understand the underlying drivers and mechanisms, and to predict the consequences for nature and people, we urgently need better understanding of the direction and magnitude of climate‐change impacts across the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum. An increasing number of climate‐change studies is creating new opportunities for meaningful and high‐quality generalisations and improved process understanding. However, significant challenges exist related to data availability and/or compatibility across studies, compromising opportunities for data re‐use, synthesis, and upscaling. Many of these challenges relate to a lack of an established “best practice” for measuring key impacts and responses. This restrains our current understanding of complex processes and mechanisms in terrestrial ecosystems related to climate change

The Reproductive Revolution

Este texto fue publicado en 2009 por The Sociological Review. Rogamos que, a efectos de divulgación, docencia y cita bibliográfica se acuda a la publicación impresa (u online de la propia revista) y la cita sea esta: MacInnes, J., Pérez Díaz, J. (2009), "The reproductive revolution" The Sociological Review 57 (2): 262-284. Su versión html puede encontrarse en esta dirección:http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122368561/HTMLSTART Quienes estén interesados en ampliar la información sobre nuestra Teoría de la Revolución Reproductiva pueden visitar la página web siguiente: http://www.ieg.csic.es/jperez/pags/RRweb/RRweb.htm También encontrarán en este mismo repositorio otra publicación con unaexposición en castellano de las mismas ideas y publicada en la REIS bajo el título “La tercera revolución de la modernidad: la reproductiva”.We suggest that a third revolution alongside the better known economic and political ones has been vital to the rise of modernity: the reproductive revolution, comprising a historically unrepeatable shift in the efficiency of human reproduction which for the first time brought demographic security.As well as highlighting the contribution of demographic change to the rise of modernity and addressing the limitations of orthodox theories of the demographic transition, the concept of the reproductive revolution offers a better way to integrate sociology and demography. The former has tended to pay insufficient heed to sexual reproduction, individual mortality and the generational replacement of population, while the latter has undervalued its own distinctive theoretical contribution, portraying demographic change as the effect of causes lying elsewhere. We outline a theory of the reproductive revolution, review some relevant supporting empirical evidence and briefly discuss its implications both for demographic transition theory itself, and for a range of key social changes that we suggest it made possible: the decline of patriarchy and feminisation of the public sphere, the deregulation and privatisation of sexuality, family change, the rise of identity, ‘low’ fertility and ‘population ageing’.Peer reviewe

Analysing Expenditure of Same-Day Visitors in Cave Tourism: The Case of Turkey

Turkey occupies eighth place in the world for cave tourism. In recent years, the development of the cave tourism industry throughout the country and the emergence of its positive and negative impacts have attracted the interest of rural development experts, local managers and scholars. Most research is related to scientific studies in caverns, but there has been insufficient study of the profiles of visitors, expenditure patterns and problems experienced by cave tourism destinations. The main aim of this study is to analyse the determinants of the expenditure of same-day visitors on cave tourism, the socio-economic characteristics of the tourists and their attitudes towards the Ballica Cave as a tourist destination. Data were collected from 598 visitors via a questionnaire survey. The double log function was used to determine visitor expenditure on cave tourism. The geographical position of the cave and characteristics of the visitors were taken into consideration when specifying the model. According to the findings, the effect of household income on visitor expenditure was positive but not significant. Distance, age, level of education and gender were important determinants of expenditure. In addition, the majority of respondents thought that the advertising of the Ballica Cave was inadequate. Relatives, friends and neighbours were the main information sources for visitors to the cave

Prevalence and management of chronic insomnia in Swiss primary care: Cross-sectional data from the "Sentinella" practice-based research network.

We investigated the prevalence and treatment of patients with chronic insomnia presenting to Swiss primary care physicians (PCPs) part of "Sentinella", a nationwide practice-based research network. Each PCP consecutively asked 40 patients if they had sleep complaints, documented frequency, duration, comorbidities, and reported ongoing treatment. We analysed data of 63% (83/132) of the PCPs invited. The PCPs asked 76% (2,432/3,216) of included patients about their sleep (51% female); 31% (761/2,432) of these had had insomnia symptoms; 36% (875/2,432) had current insomnia symptoms; 11% (269/2,432) met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criteria for chronic insomnia (61% female). In all, 75% (201/269) of patients with chronic insomnia had comorbidities, with 49% (99/201) reporting depression. Chronic insomnia was treated in 78% (209/269); 70% (188/268) took medication, 38% (102/268) benzodiazepines or benzodiazepine receptor agonists, 32% (86/268) took antidepressants. Only 1% (three of 268) had been treated with cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). A third of patients presenting for a non-urgent visit in Swiss primary care reported insomnia symptoms and 11% met the DSM-5 criteria for chronic insomnia. Hypnotics were the most common treatment, but almost no patients received first-line CBT-I. Reducing the burden of insomnia depends on disseminating knowledge about and access to CBT-I, and encouraging PCPs to discuss it with and offer it as a first-line treatment to patients with chronic insomnia

Treating insomnia in Swiss primary care practices: A survey study based on case vignettes.

Guidelines recommend cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) as first-line treatment for chronic insomnia, but it is not clear how many primary care physicians (PCPs) in Switzerland prescribe this treatment. We created a survey that asked PCPs how they would treat chronic insomnia and how much they knew about CBT-I. The survey included two case vignettes that described patients with chronic insomnia, one with and one without comorbid depression. PCPs also answered general questions about treating chronic insomnia and about CBT-I and CBT-I providers. Of the 820 Swiss PCPs we invited, 395 (48%) completed the survey (mean age 54 years; 70% male); 87% of PCPs prescribed sleep hygiene and 65% phytopharmaceuticals for the patient who had only chronic insomnia; 95% prescribed antidepressants for the patient who had comorbid depression. In each case, 20% of PCPs prescribed benzodiazepines or benzodiazepine receptor agonists, 8% prescribed CBT-I, 68% said they knew little about CBT-I, and 78% did not know a CBT-I provider. In the clinical case vignettes, most PCPs treated chronic insomnia with phytopharmaceuticals and sleep hygiene despite their lack of efficacy, but PCPs rarely prescribed CBT-I, felt they knew little about it, and usually knew no CBT-I providers. PCPs need more information about the benefits of CBT-I and local CBT-I providers and dedicated initiatives to implement CBT-I in order to reduce the number of patients who are prescribed ineffective or potentially harmful medications