Emotional and cognitive changes during and post a near fatal heart attack and one-year after: A case study

This case study reports on changes in emotions before and during an unexpected heart rate in a young, apparently healthy male with a life-long history of exercise in the absence of family history of heart problems. He completed the Brunel Mood Scale (Terry et al., 2003) to assess emotions before, during, and after the heart attack, and also describing his thoughts during these periods. Results indicate he experienced unpleasant emotions in the build up to the heart attack, feelings he attributed at the time to frustration to achieve fitness goals. He maintained an exercise regime prior to having a heart attack, a finding consistent with previous research suggesting that early diagnosis, although vital for survival, is not likely to be identified among seemingly healthy individuals. During the heart attack, he experienced a rapid emotional change characterised by a rapid increase in anger coupled with thoughts of needing to survive. The intensity of emotions and regulation strategies employed before and during the heart attack provide insight this experience, and we suggest future research should investigate emotional change during adverse conditions

Goal confidence and difficulty as predictors of goal attainment in junior high school cross-country runners

This study examined the influence of confidence in a goal and difficulty of the goal on the attainment of self-set goals regarding time and position. 63 Junior high school cross-country runners (M Age=13.5 yr., SD=.5 yr.) completed a 6-item Race Goals Questionnaire approximately 24 hr. prior to a 2km race. Attainability of a goal was assessed by categorizing runners into either a Performed to Expectation (Time, Position) or an Underperformed group (Time, Position). A 2 x 2 multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant differences between the two groups on Time for Confidence in and Difficulty of goals. There were no differences between the two groups on Position. Discriminant function analyses to predict time goal performance indicated that 47 (74.6%, participants could be correctly classified into the groups by Time on the basis of Confidence in, and Difficulty of goals. Discriminant function analyses to predict performance in terms of Position indicated 38 participants (60.3%) could be correctly classified on the basis of Confidence in, and Goal Difficulty of goals. The results concur with previous proposals that goals regarding time and position have a differential influence on performance.The official published version of this article can be found at the Publisher link belo

Development and initial validation of the Music Mood-Regulation Scale (MMRS)

This study designed a measure to assess the perceived effectiveness of music as a strategy to regulate mood among a sport and exercise population. A strategy of assessing and comparing the integrity of competing hypotheses to explain the underlying factor structure of the scale was used. A 21-item Music Mood-Regulation Scale (MMRS) was developed to assess the extent to which participants used music to alter the mood states of anger, calmness, depression, fatigue, happiness, tension, and vigor. Volunteer sport and exercise participants (N = 1,279) rated the perceived effectiveness of music to regulate each MMRS item on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the integrity of four competing models, and results lend support to a correlated 7-factor structure for the MMRS (RCFI = .94; RMSEA = .06). Cronbach alpha coefficients were in the range of 0.74 – 0.88 thus demonstrating the internal reliability of scales. It is suggested that the MMRS shows promising degrees of validity. Future research should assess the extent to which individuals can develop the ability to use music as a strategy to regulate mood in situations in which disturbed mood might be detrimental to performance

Antecedents of state anxiety in rugby

The official published version of this article can be found at the link below.The purpose of this study was to extend research investigating the antecedents of multidimensional state anxiety into the sport of rugby. Participants (N=86; Age: M=23.7 yr., SD=4.8 yr.) completed a 10-item Prematch Questionnaire developed to assess the antecedents of anxiety and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 1 hr. prior to competition. Factor analysis of intercorrelations of scores on the Prematch Questionnaire indicated that three factors accounted for 63.3% of the variance. These were labelled Perceived Readiness, Match Conditions, and Coach Influence. Stepwise multiple regression indicated that Perceived Readiness predicted rated Self-confidence and Somatic Anxiety. Game conditions also predicted Self-confidence. Collectively, these factors accounted for 30% of Self-confidence and 11% of Somatic Anxiety. No factor predicted Cognitive Anxiety. Findings support the notion that each sport has unique stressors and that researchers should seek sport-specific measures of the antecedents of anxiety (Lane, Terry, & Karageorghis, 1995a, 1995b)

Path analysis examining relationships among antecedents of anxiety, multidimensional state anxiety, and triathlon performance

The official published version of this article can be found at the link below. This is a authors’ draft of the paper: Copyright @ Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1995The study explored predictive paths for antecedents of anxiety, state anxiety responses, and performance. Male triathletes (N = 175) completed a modified Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 which included the original intensity scale and a direction scale of Jones and Swain. They also completed a 23-item Prerace Questionnaire which measured antecedents of anxiety among triathletes. Factor analysis of intercorrelations for the Prerace Questionnaire identified six factors similar to those found in 1995 by the present authors. Path analysis to predict state anxiety from antecedents of anxiety indicated that rated intensity of anxiety was predicted by the perceived difficulty of race goals and by perceived readiness. Direction of anxiety was predicted by coach's influence, recent form, and perceived readiness. Path analysis to predict performance from state-anxiety scores and antecedents of anxiety indicated that recent form predicted performance directly without mediation of anxiety responses. Anxiety scores did not predict performance. The findings support the notion that intensity and direction of anxiety responses have different antecedents

Use and perceived effectiveness of pre-competition mood regulation strategies among athletes

The well-established link between mood and sport performance highlights a need for athletes to develop mood regulation strategies. The present study investigated such strategies among 195 volunteer athletes. Participants completed the Regulation of Feelings Scale, a 37-item measure assessing frequency of use and perceived effectiveness of strategies to reduce feelings of anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, tension, and increase feelings of vigour on the day of a competition. The most popular strategies were “engage in physical pre-competition activities”, “spend time alone”, “give myself a pep talk”, “talk to someone about my feelings”, and “use humour”. Frequency of use and perceived effectiveness of strategies varied according to the specific mood dimension athletes sought to regulate. Strategies did not differ by gender, type of sport, or level of competition, but the order in which strategies were presented to the athletes influenced their responses. Exploratory factor analyses for each of the six mood dimensions did not support a theoretical model, which proposed that mood regulation strategies can be grouped into four types – behavioural distraction, behavioural engagement, cognitive distraction, and cognitive engagement. The present findings provide a rich source of information that may help to guide interventions among applied practitioners

Seeking Optimum System Settings for Physical Activity Recognition on Smartwatches

Physical activity recognition (PAR) using wearable devices can provide valued information regarding an individual's degree of functional ability and lifestyle. In this regards, smartphone-based physical activity recognition is a well-studied area. Research on smartwatch-based PAR, on the other hand, is still in its infancy. Through a large-scale exploratory study, this work aims to investigate the smartwatch-based PAR domain. A detailed analysis of various feature banks and classification methods are carried out to find the optimum system settings for the best performance of any smartwatch-based PAR system for both personal and impersonal models. To further validate our hypothesis for both personal (The classifier is built using the data only from one specific user) and impersonal (The classifier is built using the data from every user except the one under study) models, we tested single subject validation process for smartwatch-based activity recognition.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, Accepted in CVC'1

The diagnosis of mental disorders: the problem of reification

A pressing need for interrater reliability in the diagnosis of mental disorders emerged during the mid-twentieth century, prompted in part by the development of diverse new treatments. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), third edition answered this need by introducing operationalized diagnostic criteria that were field-tested for interrater reliability. Unfortunately, the focus on reliability came at a time when the scientific understanding of mental disorders was embryonic and could not yield valid disease definitions. Based on accreting problems with the current DSM-fourth edition (DSM-IV) classification, it is apparent that validity will not be achieved simply by refining criteria for existing disorders or by the addition of new disorders. Yet DSM-IV diagnostic criteria dominate thinking about mental disorders in clinical practice, research, treatment development, and law. As a result, the modernDSMsystem, intended to create a shared language, also creates epistemic blinders that impede progress toward valid diagnoses. Insights that are beginning to emerge from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics suggest possible strategies for moving forward

Search for Low-Scale Technicolor in ATLAS

The low scale technicolor is an appealing scenario of strong ewsb. It has a rich phenomenology which can be tested at the LHC. A very characteristic signal would involve the observation of a technipion in resonance with a Standard Model gauge boson. A fast simulation analysis of the process $p p \to \rho_{T}^{\pm} \to \pi_{T}^{\pm} Z \to bj \ell\ell$ and $p p \to a_{T}^{\pm} \to \pi_{T}^\pm Z \to bj \ell\ell$ for three representative sets of masses for the new particles suggests that the technirho and technipion could be observed with $\sim 15$ fb$^{-1}$, and that the $a_{T}$ could be observed simultaneously with the $\rho_{T}$ and $\pi_{T}$ within a year or more of running at the LHC

KIR haplotypes are associated with late-onset type 1 diabetes in European-American families.

Classical human leukocyte antigens (HLA) genes confer the strongest, but not the only, genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes. Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR), on natural killer (NK) cells, bind ligands including class I HLA. We examined presence or absence, with copy number, of KIR loci in 1698 individuals, from 339 multiplex type 1 diabetes families, from the Human Biological Data Interchange, previously genotyped for HLA. Combining family data with KIR copy number information allowed assignment of haplotypes using identity by descent. This is the first disease study to use KIR copy number typing and unambiguously define haplotypes by gene transmission. KIR A1 haplotypes were positively associated with T1D in the subset of patients without the high T1D risk HLA genotype, DR3/DR4 (odds ratio=1.29, P=0.0096). The data point to a role for KIR in type 1 diabetes risk in late-onset patients. In the top quartile (age of onset>14), KIR A2 haplotype was overtransmitted (63.4%, odds ratio=1.73, P=0.024) and KIR B haplotypes were undertransmitted (41.1%, odds ratio=0.70, P=0.0052) to patients. The data suggest that inhibitory 'A' haplotypes are predisposing and stimulatory 'B' haplotypes confer protection in both DR3/DR4-negative and late-onset patient groups.This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health award R01 DK61722 (J.A.N.). Research in the Trowsdale lab is supported by the MRC and Wellcome Trust with part funding from the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/gene.2015.4