Just Because I\u27m an Only Child Doesn\u27t Mean I Can\u27t Have Siblings: Psychological Kinship within Social Support Networks

Pulling from the foundations of research on social support and resilience indicating that those who receive extensive social support are more resilient, this research, consisting of two studies, primarily examined the differences between individuals who are only children and individuals who have siblings in their formation of social support networks. While it is true that only children inherently have less immediate kin available, this research explored the formation of relationships in which non-kin come to be psychologically considered as kin, or psychological kinship. In Study 1, qualitative interviews were conducted in order to develop a working Kinship scale. Study 2, an online study conducted with 480 English-speaking adults, assessed self-reported resilience, social support, and experiences of psychological kinship. Contrary to original hypotheses, results indicated that while only children did not match people with siblings in their levels of social support and resilience, they did report experiencing equal amounts of psychological kinship. Overall, psychological kin relationships appear to be an important aspect of social support networks and therefore meaningfully contribute to one’s resiliency

Offering a First-year Composition Classroom for Veterans and Cadets: A Learning-Community Model Case Study

This article discusses my university’s creation of first-year-composition courses designed with a learning community or cohort approach for student-veterans, service-members, and cadets desiring this model. At my locale, neither the standard sections of Composition I nor II had been created to provide a military population with a common student community, customized readings, flexible attendance policies, and seamless communication with university veteran services that might better facilitate the transition to college for some student-veterans. Thus, as writing program administrator, I piloted linked composition courses for a service-member, veteran, and ROTC learning community, with the latter course also enrolling a nontraditional-student population. In a year-long study, I investigated the impact of enrolling military-affiliated students in linked courses within a traditional classroom to interact under a continuing instructor, engage with military-based readings, and opt to write about their military backgrounds. In presenting patterns that emerged, I argue that these experimental learning-community courses, contingent upon some local factors, supported many military-affiliated students’ engagement with first-year composition, as well as facilitated their transition to academia, through a loosely-structured, cohort model promoting aspects of students’ common but broadly-defined identities. </p

Sisters and the Undertakers Son: a Novel Manuscript with a Critical Introduction

"The Sisters and The Undertaker's Son" is a first-person narrative about a fifteen-year-old girl, Shine, from a small town in central Illinois. The time is Christmas, 1979. At the opening of the book, Shine's family goes bankrupt, an older sister Shine has never met shows up on the doorstep and ruins Shine's birthday party, and a great aunt dies but fails to leave Shine's family an inheritance. In the book, Shine attempts to form various relationships, including one with her unhappy and secretive mother; her absent, truck-driving father; her attention-getting half-sister, Rowena; her precocious sister, Mosha; her unthinking cousin, Arnold; and the moody, dark undertaker's son, Rembrandt. Shine even sits atop the Second Baptist Church and waits for "God in the Sun" to appear to her. She wants to be recognized and loved, and she will resort to greater and more desperate measures to achieve her goal, including dropping out of school, getting married, and trying to rid herself of Rowena forever.English Departmen

Factors Constraining the Reproductive Output of Baptisia alba macrophylla

Baptisia alba macrophylla, a native, herbaceous perennial legume, produces inflorescences with a large number of flowers, yet matures relatively few fruits. We hypothesized that the number of seeds matured by B. alba macrophylla is maximized based on resource availability at each stage of development, but this optimal number is further compromised by extrinsic factors including pollen limitation and pre-dispersal seed predation by the weevils Apion rostrum and Tychius sordidus. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a field experiment at two sites: (i) the John English Prairie, located in Hudson, IL, and also (ii) the Sugar Grove Nature Center and Funks Grove, located in McLean County, IL. Whole plants were randomly assigned to one of two fertilizer treatments (no fertilizer, application of a granular fertilizer prior to first flowering and again post flowering) and one of two seed predation treatments (no insect barrier, application of Tanglefoot® insect barrier). Individual flowers were then assigned to one of two pollination treatments (open pollination, open pollination supplemented with hand-pollinated outcrossing) in an alternating manner. At the John English Prairie, flowers that were supplemented with hand pollination initiated significantly more fruits per flower than flowers that were not supplemented with hand pollination, but neither nutrient treatment nor predation treatment affected fruit initiation at this site. There were no significant effects of nutrient treatment, pollen treatment or predation treatment on fruit maturation at the John English Prairie. No statistical analysis was conducted on the number of seeds matured per fruit at this site because all but three fruits experienced complete reproductive failure (=zero seeds) due to pre-dispersal seed predation by T. sordidus. Further, it can be concluded that pre-dispersal seed predation has an overwhelming and devastating effect on seed maturation in this population. At Sugar Grove Nature Center and Funks Grove, flowers that were supplemented with hand pollination initiated significantly more fruits per flower than flowers that were not supplemented with hand pollination, but this did not translate to greater fruit and/or seed production. Nutrient treatment did not have significant effects on fruit initiation, fruit maturation or seed maturation at this site. Application of Tanglefoot® significantly increased the number of initiated fruits that reached maturity. Likewise, plants treated with Tanglefoot® matured significantly more seeds per fruit than control plants. Further, pre-dispersal seed predation by A. rostrum significantly reduced reproductive output of B. alba macrophylla by limiting the number of fruits and seeds matured, but neither resource availability nor pollen availability were significant factors during any stage of offspring development. This study demonstrates that the number of seeds matured by B. alba macrophylla was severely reduced by pre-dispersal seed predation by weevil larvae, but neither resource availability nor pollen availability significantly affected the total number of seeds matured by this native legume. Pollen supplementation increased fruit initiation at both sites, but these populations are not pollen limited because this effect did not translate to greater fruit and/or seed production. Further, the results of this study indicate that B. alba macrophylla is neither nutrient limited nor pollen limited, but pre-dispersal seed predation by the weevils A. rostrum and T. sordidus significantly reduces reproductive output of B. alba macrophylla during fruit and seed maturation

Strength and conditioning for professional boxing: recommendations for physical preparation

Professional boxing is a popular pan-global sport that attracts considerable interest and revenue. It is a high-intensity sport that requires a range of well-adapted physiological characteristics as likely prerequisites for successful performance. Serious consideration has been given to medical aspects and potential health risks from partaking in training and competition. However, there are no comprehensive sources of applied sport science research in the preparation of professional boxers for competition. In this review, we present research from physiology and strength and conditioning to form a knowledge base for those involved in preparing professional boxers for competition

“Is It Overtraining or Just Work Ethic?”: Coaches’ Perceptions of Overtraining in High-Performance Strength Sports

Optimal physical performance is achieved through the careful manipulation of training and recovery. Short-term increases in training demand can induce functional overreaching (FOR) that can lead to improved physical capabilities, whereas nonfunctional overreaching (NFOR) or the overtraining syndrome (OTS) occur when high training-demand is applied for extensive periods with limited recovery. To date, little is known about the OTS in strength sports, particularly from the perspective of the strength sport coach. Fourteen high-performance strength sport coaches from a range of strength sports (weightlifting; n = 5, powerlifting; n = 4, sprinting; n = 2, throws; n = 2, jumps; n = 1) participated in semistructured interviews (mean duration 57; SD = 10 min) to discuss their experiences of the OTS. Reflexive thematic analysis resulted in the identification of four higher order themes: definitions, symptoms, recovery and experiences and observations. Additional subthemes were created to facilitate organisation and presentation of data, and to aid both cohesiveness of reporting and publicising of results. Participants provided varied and sometimes dichotomous perceptions of the OTS and proposed a multifactorial profile of diagnostic symptoms. Prevalence of OTS within strength sports was considered low, with the majority of participants not observing or experiencing long-term reductions in performance with their athletes

High-intensity conditioning for combat athletes: practical recommendations

Combat sports have been practiced for millennia and today are predominant sports at the Olympic games, with international organizations that host world, continental and national championships at amateur standard. There are also an increasing number of professional combat sports with global audiences. The growing popularity of professional combat sports and their importance at the Olympic games have led to an increase in scientific studies that characterize the physical, physiological, nutritional, biomechanical and training strategies of combat sports athletes. These studies characterize combat sports as high-intensity sports which require training strategies to develop the high-intensity capabilities of athletes. Therefore, the aim of this article is to (i) summarize the physiological demands of combat sports; (ii) present the primary considerations required to program high-intensity conditioning for athletes; (iii) define and present key high-intensity conditioning methods; and (iv) provide guidance for scientists and coaches to help prepare athletes under common but differing circumstances