Sources of self-efficacy in distance runners

Self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1997) asserts that people will be more likely to engage in behaviors that they believe they can successfully perform and avoid behaviors in which they feel that they will be unsuccessful. Researchers have concluded that individuals with high levels of self-efficacy are more likely to pursue challenging goals, cope with pain, and persevere through setbacks, while those with low self-efficacy avoid challenges and tend to give up when confronted with obstacles (Llewellyn, Sanchez, Asghar, & Jones, 2008). Endurance sport, particularly distance running, is a domain in which being able to cope with pain and persevere through setbacks is especially important; therefore the purpose of this dissertation was to increase our understanding of self-efficacy in the physical activity domain by exploring the sources of self-efficacy for distance runners. The first study utilized a quantitative approach to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy, affect and training volume during marathon training. The results revealed that self-efficacy fluctuated over the training period and was only minmally related to affect. Study two was an extension of the first and utilized a qualitative approach to investigate the sources of self-efficacy information used by runners. Physiological states emerged as the most influential source of efficacy information throughout the program and past performance experiences increased in their influence as participants gained more running experience. The third study was a qualitative investigation of the sources of self-efficacy for running using a sample of African American distance runners. Past performance was cited as the most salient source of efficacy information for these runners and, for the majority of participants, race/ethnicity did not emerge as a significant factor in their efficacy for running

Fall Risk Identification and Reduction Among the Gerontological Population at a Long-term Care Facility

Abstract Problem: Data obtained from the facility from February 2022 to July 2023 showed that there were a total of 110 falls at the facility with 51% resulting in injury. The facility also lacked a standardized fall assessment tool with minimal follow up after fall incidents. Context: A microsystem assessment of the geriatric population at the long-term care facility indicated the need for a standardized fall risk screening tool to accurately assess patients. Interventions: A staff presentation was created highlighting the high rate of falls at the facility as well as to educate on the implementation of the Morse Fall Scale. Additionally, a presentation was created for residents to provide education on factors that increase the risk of falls and prevention measures to encourage active participation in their care. Measures: Data from February 2022-July 2023 was obtained and organized in an electronic database created on a Google Sheet. To measure the outcome, the number of falls in January 2023 will be compared to data from January 2024 to determine if there has been a 20% decrease in resident falls. Results: Due to time constraints, the results will not be obtained. The expected outcome of this project is to reduce the number of falls in the facility by 20% within six months and prevent future incidents, as evidence shows that fall assessment and interventions can reduce falls rates by 20-30% (Morris & O\u27Riordan, 2017). Conclusion: Equipping the staff with a standardized electronic Morse Fall Scale assessment tool will improve the assessment of residents\u27 fall risk. Education provided to residents will allow them to be active and mindful in their own care ultimately reducing the fall rate and achieving the best patient outcomes

Alcohol Consumption is associated with Increased CEA Levels in Male Patients with Stage IV Colorectal Cancer- A Single-Institution Retrospective Analysis

Introduction: Alcohol use is an independent risk factor for liver metastasis, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Serum CEA level is an established prognostic indicator in CRC, yet the correlation with behavioral factors such as alcohol use remains to be defined. In a single-center review, we evaluated alcohol use, gender, and CEA levels in predicting advanced disease in CRC patients. Methods: Retrospective analysis of UNMC patients diagnosed with CRC as the primary cancer between 2012-2019, stages I-IV, and age \u3e19 with documentation of alcohol use. Univariable statistics were performed using Chi-Square and non-parametric tests. Associations between stage, gender, and alcohol use (some vs. none) and the log-transformed CEA outcome (either initial or rate of change) were assessed using linear regressions. Results: Alcohol use was found to be reported in 333 of 1243 CRC patients. The cohort was comprised of 192 male and 141 female subjects. Elevated CEA levels at CRC diagnosis were associated with increased all-cause mortality (33.0% for CEA \u3e 3.4ng/ml vs 10.4% for CEA \u3c 3.4ng/ml). Model analysis found that stage IV male alcohol users showed an increase in serial CEA levels compared to males who did not use alcohol, but this pattern was not observed among stage IV females. Conclusions: Males with a history of alcohol use may be at risk for advanced CRC disease suggesting the utility of serial serum CEA monitoring in these patients. A detailed alcohol use history should be obtained in all patients with CRC as it has prognostic value and may allow for early intervention. This analysis was limited by missing alcohol use data for the majority (73.2%) of CRC patients evaluated. A prospective study is warranted to define the implications of alcohol use and risk of CRC liver metastasis

First radial velocity results from the MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA)

The MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) is a dedicated observatory of four 0.7m robotic telescopes fiber-fed to a KiwiSpec spectrograph. The MINERVA mission is to discover super-Earths in the habitable zones of nearby stars. This can be accomplished with MINERVA's unique combination of high precision and high cadence over long time periods. In this work, we detail changes to the MINERVA facility that have occurred since our previous paper. We then describe MINERVA's robotic control software, the process by which we perform 1D spectral extraction, and our forward modeling Doppler pipeline. In the process of improving our forward modeling procedure, we found that our spectrograph's intrinsic instrumental profile is stable for at least nine months. Because of that, we characterized our instrumental profile with a time-independent, cubic spline function based on the profile in the cross dispersion direction, with which we achieved a radial velocity precision similar to using a conventional "sum-of-Gaussians" instrumental profile: 1.8 m s$^{-1}$ over 1.5 months on the RV standard star HD 122064. Therefore, we conclude that the instrumental profile need not be perfectly accurate as long as it is stable. In addition, we observed 51 Peg and our results are consistent with the literature, confirming our spectrograph and Doppler pipeline are producing accurate and precise radial velocities.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PASP, Peer-Reviewed and Accepte

Threshold Laws for the Break-up of Atomic Particles into Several Charged Fragments

The processes with three or more charged particles in the final state exhibit particular threshold behavior, as inferred by the famous Wannier law for (2e + ion) system. We formulate a general solution which determines the threshold behavior of the cross section for multiple fragmentation. Applications to several systems of particular importance with three, four and five leptons (electrons and positrons) in the field of charged core; and two pairs of identical particles with opposite charges are presented. New threshold exponents for these systems are predicted, while some previously suggested threshold laws are revised.Comment: 40 pages, Revtex, scheduled for the July issue of Phys.Rev.A (1998

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

Cache protection and decision making in the Cape ground squirrel (Xerus inauris)

Caching food provides a variety of benefits to an individual, such as the build up of reserves for periods when resources are depleted or to gain a disproportionate amount of an ephemeral resource. One of the risks to adopting this strategy is the potential for theft from food stores, by both conspecifics and/or other species. To reduce this theft, some species have evolved a range of cache protection mechanisms, such as placing food out of site of competitors. In this thesis, I examined various cache protection and decision-making processes exhibited by the Cape ground squirrel (Xerus inauris), a social rodent. Due to the sociality of this species, and therefore, the potential for high rates of cache loss, I predicted they would use a diverse range of behaviours to increase the survivability of stored food. I first described the natural caching behaviours of the Cape ground squirrel in their natural habitat. This species increased caching frequency just after the heaviest periods of rainfall, indicating that this behaviour might be controlled by the availability of food. They cache around a central burrow system, which classifies their cache type as “scatter hoarding”. In the second study, I investigated the effect of group size on caching and recovery behaviours. Group size in these ground squirrels showed daily fluctuations, and an increased number of individuals in a group had a negative impact on food cache survival. In response to fluctuations in group size, individuals did not change the spatial arrangement of caches, but I argued that this arrangement was a by-product of optimal cache placement and not a method to protect caches. With increased social competition, the ground squirrels seemed to maximise payoffs from food by consuming rather than caching items. The third study, focused on determining whether the cachers were sensitive to the attentive state of nearby conspecifics. Conspecifics were often observed competing with cachers immediately after a cache was deposited, and therefore ensuring audience members are inattentive to the cache event would decrease the chance a cache was stolen. There was a strong preference for individuals to cache when audience members were inattentive to the cache event. In addition, higher ranked individuals showed less sensitivity to these audience effects, possibly due to their ability to defend food items from conspecifics. In the fourth study I presented individuals with a choice between two food items of differing value: one item that was always artificially removed when cached and the other item that was not removed when cached. Although the two items only varied with respects to the payoff in caching, individuals reduced the amount of the removed items they both consumed or cached during the choice presentations. This avoidance to choose the removed food occurred over time, indicating that individuals were using information about the item’s payoff during cache recovery and this then impacted on successive decisions. Due to the lack of obvious landmarks at the study site, in the last experiment, I predicted that individuals might use positional cues from the sun as a reference point when caching and recovering food items. When caching food, individuals moved at consistent offset angles from the sun, moving in straight lines from the provisioning point to the cache point. When recovering food, individuals displayed some flexibility in the use of solar cues, which allowed them to retrieve food more efficiently. Food was retrieved sooner if there were a higher number of individuals present in the group. Overall, this thesis highlights the variety of decision-making processes individuals must undertake when caching food to ensure maximum profitability. I answered a number of questions on when animals cache, the decisions about what to cache and where to place caches. As this species is social, this decision-making is highly influenced by group members. This thesis provides much needed knowledge on the cache protection strategies used by mammals, where the majority of work has been conducted on birds. Research such as this will hopefully encourage other studies on mammals to determine how social living can lead to the evolution of counterstrategies to protect food stores. Das Verstecken von Futter bietet einige Vorteile, wie das Anlegen von Vorräten um Zeiten der Dürre zu überbrücken, oder das Speichern von überproportionalen Mengen von saisonal vorkommenden Ressourcen. Ein Risiko dieser Strategie ist die Möglichkeit das Artgenossen oder Tiere anderer Arten die angelegten Vorräte stehlen. Um das Risiko des Diebstahls zu verringern, haben verschiedene Arten Schutzmechanismen evolviert, wie zum Beispiel das Plazieren des Futters außerhalb der Sichtweite von Konkurrenten. In meiner Doktorarbeit habe ich unterschiedliche Arten der Vorratssicherung sowie unterschiedliche Entscheidungsprozesse eines sozialen Nagetieres, dem Kap-Borstenhörnchen (Xerus inauris), untersucht. Da diese Art in sozialen Gruppen lebt, und damit wahrscheinlich eine hohe Verlustrate angelegter Vorräte besteht, erwartete ich, dass Kap-Borstenhörnchen verschiedene Verhaltensweisen nutzen um die Beständigkeit ihrer Vorräte zu erhöhen. Zuerst beschreibe ich die natürlichen Verhalten der Kap-Borsteenhörnchen bei der Anlage von Vorräten in ihrem natürlichen Lebensarum. Diese Art erhöhte die Rate des Versteckens von Vorräten nach Zeiten mit starkem Regen, was andeutet, dass dieses Verhalten von dem Vorhandensein des Futters abhängig ist. Diese verteilt Art verteilt die unterschiedlichen Verstecke um eine zentrale Wohnhöhle, weshalb ihre Art der Vorratsanlage als „scatter-hoarding“ bezeichnet werden kann. Im zweiten Kapitel habe ich untersucht, wie die Größe der sozialen Gruppe das Anlegen und Wiederfinden von Vorräten beeinflusst. Die Gruppengröße verändert sich über den Tag hinweg und eine grössere Anzahl an Tieren in der Gruppe hatte einen negativen Einfluss auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit einen angelegten Vorrat wiederzufinden. Kap-Borstenhörnchen reagierten auf Änderungen der Gruppengröße nicht mit einer Änderung der räumlichen Anordnung ihrer Verstecke. Deshalb argumentiere ich, dass die Anordnung der Verstecke ein Nebenprodukt der optimalen Plazierung ist und nicht als Methode dient um die Verstecke zu schützen. Bei einer erhöhten Konkurrenz durch Artgenossen ist eine Möglichkeit der Gewinnmaximierung das Futter zu verzehren anstatt es zu verstecken, eine Strategie die bei Kap-Borstenhörnchen beobachtet wurde. Im dritten Kapitel untersuche ich, ob Tiere die gerade einen Vorrat anlegen die Aufmerksamkeit räumlicher naher Artgenossen wahrnehmen. Artgenossen wurden häufig dabei beobachtet, wie sie direkt nachdem ein Tier Futter versteckt hatte mit diesem um das Versteck kämpften. Dementsprechend würde sich die Wahrscheinlichkeit verstecktes Futter zu verlieren verringern, wenn versteckende Tiere sicher stellten, dass mögliche Zuschauer gerade unaufmerksam sind. Kap-Borstenhörnchen zeigten eine starke Präferenz dafür Futter genau dann zu verstecken, wenn mögliche Zuschauer unaufmerksam waren. Außerdem konnte ich zeigen, dass höherrangige Tiere weniger empfindlich auf mögliche Zuschauer reagierten, möglicherweise da sie die Fähigkeit besitzen Futter vor Artgenossen zu verteidigen. Im vierten Kapitel habe ich Tiere vor die Wahl zwischen zwei unterschiedlichen Futtertypen gestellt, wobei die Futterstücke eines Typs immer künstlich entfernt wurde, nachdem es versteckt worden war und das andere nicht. Obwohl sich die zwei Futtertypen nur hinsichtlich ihres Gewinns beim Verstecken unterschieden, verzehrten und versteckten die Individuen die Futterstücke vom Typen welches nach dem Verstecken entfernt wurde, deutlich weniger. Diese Vermeidung des wieder entfernten Futtertypen geschah erst nach einer Weile, was darauf hindeutet, dass die Individuen die Information über den Gewinn dieses Futterstückes beim Leeren des Versteckes abschätzen und für zukünftige Entscheidungen nutzen. Im letzten Kapitel testete ich ob Kap-Borstenhörnchen die Sonne als Referenzpunkt nutzen wenn sie Futter verstecken oder es wiederfinden, da auf dem Gelände andere offensichtliche Orientierungspunkte fehlen. Beim Verstecken von Futter bewegten sich die Tiere immer mit einem konstant verschobenen Winkel zur Sonne, und bewegten sich dabei gleichzeitig auf geraden Linien zwischen der Futterquelle und dem Ort des Verstecks. Beim Wiederfinden des Futters zeigten die Tiere Flexibilität bei der Nutzung der Sonne als Orientierungshilfe und entfernten Futter schneller wenn mehr Tiere in der Gruppe anwesend waren. Insgesamt zeigt diese Doktorarbeit die Vielfältigkeit der Entscheidungen welche Tiere treffen müssen wenn sie Vorräte anlegen, um den Gewinn zu maximieren. Ich habe verschiedene Fragen beantwortet, wie zum Beispiel wann die Tiere Futter verstecken, über die Entscheidungen was sie verstecken und wo sie ihre Verstecke plazieren. Da dies eine sehr gesellige Art ist, sind diese Entscheidungen stark von den Artgenossen in der Gruppe abhängig. Die meiste Forschung über Strategien zum Schutz von angelegten Vorräten wurde bisher an Vögeln gemacht, daher liefert diese Arbeit dringend benötigtes Wissen über diese Strategien bei Säugetieren. Forschung wie diese ermutigt hoffentlich andere Studien an Säugetieren um herauszufinden, wie das Leben in sozialen Gruppen zur Evolution von Strategien zum Schutz von Vorräten führen kann

SFU UJP Submission and Publication Statistics

The following tables include data from the six volumes of the journal, including the current volume. Table 1 outlines the total numbers of individuals who worked on the journal each year, as well as the number of articles at each stage of the publication process. Tables 2, 3, and 4 outlines the submitted articles for each volume by area of psychology, the articles reaching graduate review for each volume by area of psychology, and the accepted articles in each volume by area of psychology, respectively