Forecasting Issues in NCAA Division I FBS Athletics

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its member institutions have been faced with significant changes in the recent past. This study was used to predict issues, caused by some of these changes, which will impact leaders of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) athletic departments over the next five to seven years. The Delphi technique was employed to obtain expert opinions for the forecast. The expert panel consisted of sport management faculty who were surveyed over three rounds to determine what issues were likely to occur and whether or not those issues would have a significant impact. The purpose of the study was to anticipate the issues stemming from the granting of autonomy to the Power 5 conferences and the recent litigation facing the NCAA and its member institutions. Further, the forecast is meant to aid in stakeholder management and strategic planning for athletic administrators at FBS institutions. The expert panel identified nine possible issues, deeming three of the issues likely to occur and four of the issues as having a significant impact. Based on these results, recommendations and suggestions for future research are discussed

An Examination of the Present and Predictions for the Future of Intercollegiate Athletics

This study forecasts future issues in NCAA Division I FBS intercollegiate athletics. The research design employed the Delphi technique to survey an expert panel, consisting of 12 athletic directors and associate athletic directors from FBS institutions, over three rounds to ascertain what issues are likely to occur over the next five to seven years and whether or not these issues will have a significant impact on the way intercollegiate athletics operates. Results of the study revealed eight issues that were likely to occur over the next five to seven years. Four of these issues related to the economic sector of the environment, one related to the legal sector, and three related to the sociocultural. Further, 14 of the issues were rated by the expert panel as having a significant level of impact if they were to occur. Recommendations are made based on the forecasts by the expert panel

Patterns of Drinking Among the Deaf

Thirty-nine White deaf persons functioning normally within the general hearing community were surveyed on a variety of factors concerning their use of alcohol, and compared to the data from two comparable hearing samples reported previously in the literature. No significant differences were found between the deaf and heharing samples on patterns of drinking or other parameters of alcohol use. Heavier alcohol use among the deaf correlated significantly with reported frequency of driving after having drunk too much, age of having had first drink, ever having been drunk, feeling guilt over drinking too much, and others criticizing the respondent for drinking behavior. Heavier use also tended to be correlated with attendance at an all-deaf school. Implications of the findings of similar drinking patterns for the deaf and the hearing are discussed in terms of the lack of specific rehabilitation facilities for the deaf, along with possible reasons for the lack of use by deaf clients of alcohol rehabilitation agencies in the community

A novel and practical care process framework to inform model of care development

Breaking free of pre-existing assumptions to achieve transformative change in care delivery remains challenging. This paper presents a care process framework (CPF) using a Rapid Task Analysis (RTA) tested with healthcare teams across five communities in British Columbia, Canada, to provide leaders a novel and practical approach to care model development. The study's goals were to determine if the care process framework was replicable even though the population care needs differed for each community. The results showed the framework was replicable, informed the care model development and identified ideal scopes of practice and team composition given the context of care. The framework also captured expert tacit knowledge and decision-making to build capacity given our current workforce challenges. For operational leaders and government agencies, the use of the framework may influence a shift in historical approaches that better aligns health and human resources capacity to population health and service needs

Intrauterine exposure to chronic hypoxia in the rat leads to progressive diastolic function and increased aortic stiffness from early postnatal developmental stages

Aim We sought to explore whether fetal hypoxia exposure, an insult of placental insufficiency, is associated with left ventricular dysfunction and increased aortic stiffness at early postnatal ages. Methods Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were exposed to hypoxic conditions (11.5% FiO2) from embryonic day E15‐21 or normoxic conditions (controls). After delivery, left ventricular function and aortic pulse wave velocity (measure of aortic stiffness) were assessed longitudinally by echocardiography from day 1 through week 8. A mixed ANOVA with repeated measures was performed to compare findings between groups across time. Myocardial hematoxylin and eosin and picro‐sirius staining were performed to evaluate myocyte nuclear shape and collagen fiber characteristics, respectively. Results Systolic function parameters transiently increased following hypoxia exposure primarily at week 2 (p \u3c .008). In contrast, diastolic dysfunction progressed following fetal hypoxia exposure beginning weeks 1–2 with lower early inflow Doppler velocities, and less of an increase in early to late inflow velocity ratios and annular and septal E’/A’ tissue velocities compared to controls (p \u3c .008). As further evidence of altered diastolic function, isovolumetric relaxation time was significantly shorter relative to the cardiac cycle following hypoxia exposure from week 1 onward (p \u3c .008). Aortic stiffness was greater following hypoxia from day 1 through week 8 (p \u3c .008, except week 4). Hypoxia exposure was also associated with altered nuclear shape at week 2 and increased collagen fiber thickness at week 4. Conclusion Chronic fetal hypoxia is associated with progressive LV diastolic dysfunction, which corresponds with changes in nuclear shape and collagen fiber thickness, and increased aortic stiffness from early postnatal stages

Defining a Flexible Notion of “Good” STEM Writing Across Contexts: Lessons Learned From a Cross-Institutional Conversation

We respond to a surging interest in science communication training for graduate scientists by advocating for a focus on rhetorically informed approaches to STEM writing and its assessment. We argue that STEM communication initiatives would benefit by shifting from a strategic focus on products to a flexible understanding of writing as a practice worthy of attention and study. To do that, we use our experience across two universities and two distinct programmatic contexts to train STEM graduate students in writing and communication. We draw from cross-disciplinary conversations to identify four facets of “good” STEM writing: (1) connecting to the big picture; (2) explaining science; (3) adhering to genre conventions; and (4) choosing context-appropriate language. We then describe our ongoing conversations across contexts to develop and implement flexible rubrics that capture and foster conversations around “good” writing. In doing so, we argue for a notion of writing rubrics as boundary objects, capable of fostering cross-disciplinary, integrative conversations and collaborations that strengthen student writing, shift STEM students toward a rhetorically informed sense of “good” writing, and offer that kinds of assessment data that make for persuasive evidence of the power of writing-centric approaches for STEM administrators and funders

Mammalian Y chromosomes retain widely expressed dosage-sensitive regulators

The human X and Y chromosomes evolved from an ordinary pair of autosomes, but millions of years ago genetic decay ravaged the Y chromosome, and only three per cent of its ancestral genes survived. We reconstructed the evolution of the Y chromosome across eight mammals to identify biases in gene content and the selective pressures that preserved the surviving ancestral genes. Our findings indicate that survival was nonrandom, and in two cases, convergent across placental and marsupial mammals. We conclude that the gene content of the Y chromosome became specialized through selection to maintain the ancestral dosage of homologous X-Y gene pairs that function as broadly expressed regulators of transcription, translation and protein stability. We propose that beyond its roles in testis determination and spermatogenesis, the Y chromosome is essential for male viability, and has unappreciated roles in Turner (tm) s syndrome and in phenotypic differences between the sexes in health and disease

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Perceived Smoking Prevalence: Evidence from a National Survey of Teens

Prior studies show that perceived smoking prevalence is a significant predictor of smoking initiation. In this study, we examine racial/ethnic differences in perceived smoking prevalence and racial/ethnic differences in exposure to contextual factors associated with perceived smoking prevalence. We used cross-sectional time series data from the Legacy Media Tracking Surveys (LMTS), a national sample of 35,000 12- to 17-year-olds in the United States. Perceived smoking prevalence was the primary outcome variable, measured using an LMTS question: “Out of every 10 people your age, how many do you think smoke?” Multivariable models were estimated to assess the association between perceived smoking prevalence; race/ethnicity; and exposure to social contextual factors. Findings indicate that African American, Hispanic, and American Indian youth exhibit the highest rates of perceived smoking prevalence, while white and Asian youth exhibit the lowest. Minority youth are also disproportionately exposed to social contextual factors that are correlated with high perceived smoking prevalence. These findings suggest that disproportionate exposure to social contextual factors may partially explain why minority youth exhibit such high levels of perceived smoking prevalence