The use of counselling principles and skills to develop practitioner-athlete relationships by practitioners who provide sport psychology support

This study examined how practitioners who provide sport psychology support use counselling principles and skills to develop practitioner-athlete relationships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen competent practitioners (Mean age = 41.2 ± 10.9 years old, five men, eight women). Thematic analysis revealed that the participants used a range of counselling principles to develop practitioner-athlete relationships including: the facilitative conditions, self-disclosure, counselling skills, the formation of working alliances, and awareness of the unreal relationship. The participants also described using non-counselling strategies (e.g., gaining an understanding of the athlete’s sporting environment) to build relationships with their athletes. There was considerable variation between the participants both in the training that they had received in counselling principles and skills, and how they applied them. It was concluded that counselling principles and skills play a significant role in the development of practitioner-athlete relationships

A formal method for identifying distinct states of variability in time-varying sources: SgrA* as an example

Continuously time variable sources are often characterized by their power spectral density and flux distribution. These quantities can undergo dramatic changes over time if the underlying physical processes change. However, some changes can be subtle and not distinguishable using standard statistical approaches. Here, we report a methodology that aims to identify distinct but similar states of time variability. We apply this method to the Galactic supermassive black hole, where 2.2 um flux is observed from a source associated with SgrA*, and where two distinct states have recently been suggested. Our approach is taken from mathematical finance and works with conditional flux density distributions that depend on the previous flux value. The discrete, unobserved (hidden) state variable is modeled as a stochastic process and the transition probabilities are inferred from the flux density time series. Using the most comprehensive data set to date, in which all Keck and a majority of the publicly available VLT data have been merged, we show that SgrA* is sufficiently described by a single intrinsic state. However the observed flux densities exhibit two states: a noise-dominated and a source-dominated one. Our methodology reported here will prove extremely useful to assess the effects of the putative gas cloud G2 that is on its way toward the black hole and might create a new state of variability.Comment: Submitted to ApJ; 33 pages, 4 figures; comments welcom

On Markovian solutions to Markov Chain BSDEs

We study (backward) stochastic differential equations with noise coming from a finite state Markov chain. We show that, for the solutions of these equations to be `Markovian', in the sense that they are deterministic functions of the state of the underlying chain, the integrand must be of a specific form. This allows us to connect these equations to coupled systems of ODEs, and hence to give fast numerical methods for the evaluation of Markov-Chain BSDEs

Emission lines in the atmosphere of the irradiated brown dwarf WD0137−349B

ESL acknowledges the support of STFC studentship. SLC acknowledges support from the University of Leicester College of Science and Engineering. CH highlights the financial support of the European community under the FP7 ERC starting grant 257431. This work was supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/M001040/1].We present new optical and near-infrared spectra of WD0137−349; a close white dwarf–brown dwarf non-interacting binary system with a period of ≈114 min. We have confirmed the presence of H α emission and discovered He, Na, Mg, Si, K, Ca, Ti and Fe emission lines originating from the brown-dwarf atmosphere. This is the first brown-dwarf atmosphere to have been observed to exhibit metal emission lines as a direct result of intense irradiation. The equivalent widths of many of these lines show a significant difference between the day-side and night-side of the brown dwarf. This is likely an indication that efficient heat redistribution may not be happening on this object, in agreement with models of hot Jupiter atmospheres. The H α line strength variation shows a strong phase dependency as does the width. We have simulated the Ca ii emission lines using a model that includes the brown-dwarf Roche geometry and limb darkening, and we estimate the mass ratio of the system to be 0.135 ± 0.004. We also apply a gas-phase equilibrium code using a prescribed drift-phoenix model to examine how the chemical composition of the brown-dwarf upper atmosphere would change given an outward temperature increase, and discuss the possibility that this would induce a chromosphere above the brown-dwarf atmosphere.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Readiness to change drinking behaviour among heavy-drinking university students in England

There is growing literature on possible ways of reducing alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm among university students (Larimer and Cronce, 2002; Siegers and Carey, 2010). However, interventions with this aim might be made more effective by information on students’ readiness to change their drinking behaviour (Carey et al., 2007a), where an assessment of readiness to change might influence the kind of approach that is thought most likely to be successful. For example, it has been found that readiness to change moderated the effects of a brief intervention among heavy-drinking students (either brief motivational intervention or alcohol expectancy challenge) such that high readiness to change made an expectancy challenge relatively more effective in reducing drinking (Capone and Wood, 2009). This study also reported an association between higher readiness to change and greater reductions in alcohol consumption in the overall sample, thus supporting previous findings (Fromme and Corbin, 2004; Carey et al., 2007b). Although high readiness to change may increase the chances of successful brief intervention among heavy-drinking students, it has been found that, even among individuals referred to a university-based alcohol intervention programme, there was limited acknowledgement of a drinking problem or interest in changing behaviour (Caldwell, 2002; Vik et al., 2000). Such research has been conducted mainly in the USA and, with the exception of one study (Hosier, 2001), it is unknown whether a comparable lack of concern about heavy drinking is true of students in England. Moreover, there is limited understanding of the different factors associated with, and predictive of, readiness to change in heavy-drinking students. The aims of this paper are therefore (i) to assess levels of readiness to change among heavy-drinking students at universities in England, (ii) to identify variables predictive of readiness to change among heavy-drinking students and (iii) to generate hypotheses that could be tested in further research