The role, readiness to change and training needs of the Athlete Health and Performance team members to safeguard athletes from interpersonal violence in sport: a mini review

Safeguarding athletes from interpersonal violence (IV) in sport is an important topic of concern. Athlete Health and Performance (AHP) team members working with athletes have a professional, ethical, and moral duty to protect the health of athletes, prevent IV, and intervene when it occurs. However, little is known on their respective roles regarding IV in sport and their needs to fulfill their responsibility of safeguarding athletes. The aim of this review is to synthesize knowledge about the roles, readiness to change and training needs of AHP team members to navigate IV in sport. A total of 43 articles are included in the review. Results show that all AHP team members have a role to play in safeguarding athletes and should therefore be trained in the area of IV in sport. Overall, very little research has directly assessed AHP team members' needs to positively foster safety and eliminate IV in sport. There are common training needs for all types of AHP team members such as the ability to recognize signs and symptoms of IV in sport. However, there are also specific needs based on the role of the AHP team members such as ways of facilitating behavioural change for sport managers. Findings from this review are mostly experts' recommendations and should therefore be interpreted as such. The results of the review can guide the development of future research and recommendations

Personal risk factors and types of sport associated with drive for thinness and drive for muscularity in NextGen athletes

IntroductionProfessional and student-athletes are at risk of developing symptoms of eating disorders (ED), including drive for thinness and muscularity due to personal risk factors (e.g., low self-esteem) and sport-specific characteristics (e.g., sport requirements). However, limited studies have focused on ED symptoms among NextGen athletes (identified in Canada as élite or relève) who compete at the provincial, national, and international levels but are not yet part of national teams. As such, they have access to fewer financial resources and support from their sport federations, which can create additional stress for these athletes. The present study aimed to identify personal risk factors and types of sports associated with (a) drive for thinness and (b) drive for muscularity in NextGen athletes.MethodsThese athletes (n = 254) aged between 14 and 25 years old completed an online questionnaire. Perfectionism, self-esteem in sport, drive for thinness, and drive for muscularity were, respectively, assessed by the Multidimensional Inventory of Perfectionism in Sport, the Sport State Self-Esteem Scale, the Eating Attitude Test-26, and the Drive for Muscularity Scale. Other personal risk factor (e.g., athletic status) were measured using in-house questions. Each personal risk factor was included in two multiple linear regressions, respectively, to determine which factors were most associated with drive for thinness and drive for muscularity.ResultsAnalyses revealed that perfectionist aspirations during training were linked to a stronger desire for thinness. In addition, not being in school or not having a job were also linked to a stronger desire for thinness. Several variables were found to be associated with a greater desire for muscularity: being a male athlete, playing team sport, weight category sport or endurance sport (as opposed to esthetic sport), having elite status, being less satisfied with one’s current sporting performance and having higher perfectionist aspirations during training.DiscussionThis study offers initial insights into the factors influencing EDs among NextGen athletes, which provides a foundation for deeper exploration and the creation or modification of targeted interventions. These findings can guide sport organizations in creating guidelines and programs to better support the next generation of national athletes (e.g., create programs to help athletes maintain investments outside)

Epiphytic Lichens and Bryophytes on Populus Tremuloides Along a Chronosequence in the Southwestern Boreal Forest of Quebec, Canada

Many studies have shown that certain species of bryophytes and lichens require old-growth forests for their survival. The objective of this study is to evaluate the composition and diversity of epiphytic lichen and bryophyte communities on trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), as a function of the time elapsed since stand initiation. The study was carried out in the forests surrounding Lake Duparquet, in the southwestern part of Québec\u27s boreal forest. Stands representing different post-fire successional stages, corresponding to 278, 125, 79, and 51 yr since the last fire were selected. For each stand age, 10 trees from four different sites were sampled. A total of 75 species of non-vascular plants were found, including 34 species of mosses, seven species of liverworts, and 34 species of lichens. More species were observed in the 278-yr old stand, which also contained a greater number of exclusive species. In a correspondence analysis performed on species presence/absence data, axes one and two were correlated with distance from the closest unburnt area and time since fire. For each tree, species richness, diversity, and cover indices were calculated and compared for the different stand ages. These indices tended to be higher in the 79-yr old stand and lower in the 51-yr old stand. By using mixed log-linear models, we found that the frequency of occurrence of some species was linked to the time since fire, and others species to tree age. Old-growth forests are important to bryophytes and lichens since they have a greater number of species and some species are found exclusively or more frequently in old-growth forests. Furthermore, each stand age has some species associated with it. Therefore, forest management practices should be adopted to maintain all successional stages present in the natural forest landscape in order to preserve the diversity of non-vascular plants

Prescribed burning of harvested boreal black spruce forests in eastern Canada: effect on understory vegetation

Ecosystem-based management advocates that forestry disturbances should aim to emulate natural disturbances to mitigate the landscape level impact of forest management. This study compares the impact of clear-cuts followed by a prescribed burn (CCPB) with clear-cuts alone (CC) and current careful logging practices (CLAAG: careful logging around advanced growth) on understory composition within black spruce paludified forest stands at the plot, site and treatment levels using a functional type approach. Vascular and non-vascular taxa showed significant differences in composition at the plot level among treatments. We found that pioneer taxa occurred mainly in CCPB sites, while late successional taxa characterized CC sites. CLAAG sites had higher taxa richness than CCPB and CC sites and we found that CCPB treatments were most likely to promote vascular taxa compositions that are more similar to those observed after natural disturbances. Additionally, the relative abundance of Sphagnum spp., responsible for paludification, was significantly reduced in sites treated by prescribed burning. This study therefore presents results suggesting that prescribed burning might represent a sustainable alternative to current harvesting techniques in the Clay Belt of eastern Canada that could both help in preserving biodiversity (in terms of understory species assemblage) while maintaining or even enhancing forest productivity.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Antenatal suppression of il-1 protects against inflammation-induced fetal injury and improves neonatal and developmental outcomes in mice

Preterm birth (PTB) is commonly accompanied by in utero fetal inflammation, and existing tocolytic drugs do not target fetal inflammatory injury. Of the candidate proinflammatory mediators, IL-1 appears central and is sufficient to trigger fetal loss. Therefore, we elucidated the effects of antenatal IL-1 exposure on postnatal development and investigated two IL-1 receptor antagonists, the competitive inhibitor anakinra (Kineret) and a potent noncompetitive inhibitor 101.10, for efficacy in blocking IL-1 actions. Antenatal exposure to IL-1β induced Tnfa, Il6, Ccl2, Pghs2, and Mpges1 expression in placenta and fetal membranes, and it elevated amniotic fluid IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and PGF2α, resulting in PTB and marked neonatal mortality. Surviving neonates had increased Il1b, Il6, Il8, Il10, Pghs2, Tnfa, and Crp expression in WBCs, elevated plasma levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8, increased IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 in fetal lung, intestine, and brain, and morphological abnormalities: e.g., disrupted lung alveolarization, atrophy of intestinal villus and colon-resident lymphoid follicle, and degeneration and atrophy of brain microvasculature with visual evoked potential anomalies. Late gestation treatment with 101.10 abolished these adverse outcomes, whereas Kineret exerted only modest effects and no benefit for gestation length, neonatal mortality, or placental inflammation. In a LPS-induced model of infection-associated PTB, 101.10 prevented PTB, neonatal mortality, and fetal brain inflammation. There was no substantive deviation in postnatal growth trajectory or adult body morphometry after antenatal 101.10 treatment. The results implicate IL-1 as an important driver of neonatal morbidity in PTB and identify 101.10 as a safe and effective candidate therapeutic.Mathieu Nadeau-Vallée, Peck-Yin Chin, Lydia Belarbi, Marie-Ève Brien, Sheetal Pundir, Martin H. Berryer, Alexandra Beaudry-Richard, Ankush Madaan, David J. Sharkey, Alexis Lupien-Meilleur, Xin Hou, Christiane Quiniou, Alexandre Beaulac, Ines Boufaied, Amarilys Boudreault, Adriana Carbonaro, Ngoc-Duc Doan, Jean-Sebastien Joyal, William D. Lubell, David M. Olson, Sarah A. Robertson, Sylvie Girard and Sylvain Chemto