The purpose of this study was to investigate fear of failure in highly competitive junior athletes and the association with psychological stress and burnout. In total 258 athletes (152 males and 108 ...females) ranged in age from 15 to 19 years (M = 17.4 years, SD = 1.08) participated. Athletes competed in variety of sports including both team and individual sports. Results showed in a variable‐oriented approach using regression analyses that one dimension, fear of experiencing shame and embarrassment had a statistically significant effect on perceived psychological stress and one dimension of burnout, reduced sense of accomplishment. However, adopting a person‐oriented approach using latent class analysis, we found that athletes with high levels of fear failure on all dimensions scored high on burnout. We also found another class with high scores on burnout. These athletes had high scores on the individual‐oriented dimensions of fear of failure and low scores on the other oriented fear of failure dimensions. The findings indicate that fear of failure is related to burnout and psychological stress in athletes and that this association is mainly associated with the individual‐oriented dimensions of fear of failure.
Recent research suggests that groups of athletes which differ in terms of perfectionism and perceptions of achievement climate can be identified. Moreover, these groups also differ in terms of ...burnout symptoms. The purpose of the current study was to extend this research by examining whether discernible groups can be identified based on scores of perfectionism and perceptions of parent‐initiated climate and, then, whether these groups differ in terms of burnout. Two‐hundred and thirty‐seven Swedish junior athletes (124 males and 113 females aged 16–19) from a variety of sports completed measures of athlete burnout, multidimensional perfectionism, and parent‐initiated motivational climate. Latent profile analysis identified four groups: non‐perfectionistic athletes in a task‐involving climate, moderately perfectionistic athletes in a task‐involving climate, highly perfectionistic athletes in a task‐involving climate, and highly perfectionistic athletes in a mixed climate. The latter two groups reported higher levels of burnout in comparison to other groups. The findings suggest that junior athletes high in perfectionism may be at comparatively greater risk to burnout and that this may especially be the case when they perceive their parents to emphasize concerns about failure and winning without trying one's best.
Prenatal exposure to maternal depression is common and puts offspring at risk for developing a range of neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite its prevalence and adverse associations, neurobiological ...processes by which prenatal maternal depression (PMD) confers risk remain poorly understood. Maternal mood and fetal behavior were assessed between 34 and 37 gestational weeks. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion MRI, we examined functional and structural connectivity within amygdala-prefrontal circuits in 64 infants (mean age=5.8±1.7 weeks) with (n=20) and without (n=44) in utero exposure to PMD. Resting fMRI and diffusion MRI both indicated atypical amygdala-prefrontal connectivity in PMD-exposed infants: Resting fMRI indicated increased inverse, or negative, functional connectivity between the amygdala and the dorsal prefrontal cortex (PFC), bilaterally, and diffusion MRI indicated decreased structural connectivity between the right amygdala and the right ventral PFC. Spectral dynamic causal modeling supported these findings suggesting altered amygdala-PFC effective (or directed) connectivity in PMD-exposed infants. Last, path analyses supported a mechanistic account relating PMD to a third-trimester fetal behavior: PMD alters amygdala-PFC connectivity, which in turn, is associated with an increase in fetal heart rate reactivity to in utero perturbation. These data suggest that the maturation and coordination of central and peripheral physiology are altered by prenatal exposure to maternal depression. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to directly associate infant MRI measures with a behavior-fetal heart rate response, and supports hypotheses that PMD-associated variations in the development of amygdala-PFC circuits are relevant for future neurobehavioral maturation.
Premise of the study: Long-distance dispersal can affect speciation processes in two opposing ways. Dispersal can promote geographic isolation or it can bring together geographically distant and ...distantly related genotypes, thus counteracting local differentiation. We used the Gulf Coast of North America (GC), a "hot spot" of reed diversity and evolutionary dynamics, as a model system to study the diversification processes within the invasive, cosmopolitan, polyploid grass Phragmites. Methods: Genetic diversity was studied using collections representing all species of the genus and from all continents (except Antarctica). A range of molecular markers, including chloroplast and nuclear sequences, microsatellites, and AFLPs, was analyzed to detect DNA variation from the population to the species level and to infer phylogenetic relationships across continents. Key results: An interspecific hybrid, Phragmites mauritianus × P. australis, and four P. australis cp-DNA haplotypes from Africa, Europe, and North America have been dispersed to the GC and interbreed with each other. Conclusions: Long-distance dispersal and weak breeding barriers appear to be recurring phenomena, not only in the GC, but worldwide. We present data strongly suggesting that interspecific hybridization and introgression among different Phragmites species take place and appear to have contributed significantly to the diversification processes within the genus. Hence, the application of traditional species concepts within Phragmites might be inappropriate.
The design, construction, and commissioning of the ALICE Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) is described. It is the main device for pattern recognition, tracking, and identification of charged particles ...in the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC. The TPC is cylindrical in shape with a volume close to 90m3 and is operated in a 0.5T solenoidal magnetic field parallel to its axis.
In this paper we describe in detail the design considerations for this detector for operation in the extreme multiplicity environment of central Pb–Pb collisions at LHC energy. The implementation of the resulting requirements into hardware (field cage, read-out chambers, electronics), infrastructure (gas and cooling system, laser-calibration system), and software led to many technical innovations which are described along with a presentation of all the major components of the detector, as currently realized. We also report on the performance achieved after completion of the first round of stand-alone calibration runs and demonstrate results close to those specified in the TPC Technical Design Report.
Burnout is a construct that has garnered considerable attention in sport psychology within recent years. Several hypothesized models regarding how the three dimensions (exhaustion, devaluation, and ...reduced sense of accomplishment) temporally relate to each other have been advanced. One proposal outlined by Maslach and Leiter suggests that exhaustion predicts devaluation which predicts reduced sense of accomplishment. However, there is no consensus among researchers as it has been argued that exhaustion predicts devaluation and reduced accomplishment separately. The aim of this study was to test multiple alternative hypotheses regarding the relationships of the burnout dimensions in athletes. Two samples of Swedish youth elite athletes with differing time spans between measurements were used. Specifically, one sample involved time‐intensive measures collected every week over an eight‐week period, and the other sample included four measurement points across an 18‐month period. Results showed that none of the previously proposed models outlining the temporal relations of burnout dimensions were supported. Statistical analysis of the models including the cross‐lagged predictions of dimensions did not have any statistically significant impact except when exhaustion negatively predicted devaluation between time 1 (month 0) and time 2 (month 6) in the 18‐month sample; this relation faded in the following time points. Further, issues regarding the stability of devaluation and reduced sense of accomplishment emerged as their autocorrelation were very weak in the time‐intensive sample. These findings raise a number of points for further theoretical and practical discussions about the athlete burnout construct.
AIM: The plant family Goodeniaceae includes 12 genera, largely restricted to Australia. They are a diverse and conspicuous element of the country's ecosystems and an important clade to consider in ...the effort to reconstruct the historical biogeography of this continent. We used a time‐calibrated molecular phylogeny to perform ancestral‐area reconstructions for the family, in order to: (1) determine its area of origin; (2) test whether vicariance played a role in the history of lineages occupying the south‐western and south‐eastern regions; (3) trace diversification processes in the central arid zone; and (4) trace potential eastward dispersals into the Pacific. LOCATION: Australia and the Pacific. METHODS: We employed a previously published molecular dataset to develop a time‐calibrated phylogeny for the Goodeniaceae using beast 1.6.1 with both primary and secondary node calibrations. Ancestral areas were reconstructed via both dispersal–extinction–cladogenesis (DEC) and statistical dispersal–vicariance analysis (S‐DIVA). RESULTS: The Goodeniaceae split from Asteraceae + Calyceraceae c. 78 Ma, with the divergence of the Lechenaultia, Anthotium and Dampiera (LAD) clade from the remainder of the family c. 67 Ma. Although the geographical origin of the family is equivocal, the LAD clade originated in south‐western Australia, and the remainder of the family, especially Goodenia s.l., probably originated in the central Eremaean zone. The majority of Goodenia cladogenesis events occurred during the Miocene, with expansions to the north, south‐east and south‐west. The crown radiation of Scaevola s.l. occurred later, during the second half of the Miocene, and has involved several recent extra‐Australian dispersals into the Pacific. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: Although it is unclear where in Australia the family originated, our results support a south‐western origin for the LAD clade and considerable diversification of some clades within Goodenia s.l. and Scaevola s.l. in that zone. A relative paucity of mid‐Miocene sister relationships between south‐western and south‐eastern lineages suggests that the occupants of these regions were not affected by contemporary vicariance events. Instead, our results suggest that the aridifying Eremaean zone was an important source and sink for lineages, especially in Goodenia s.l. Dispersal is inferred for the extra‐Australian lineages due to their recent origins.
The tick-borne bacterium
Candidatus
(Ca.) Neoehrlichia (N.) mikurensis is a cause of “fever of unknown origin” because this strict intracellular pathogen escapes detection by routine blood cultures. ...Case reports suggest that neoehrlichiosis patients may display serological reactivity to
Anaplasma
(
A
.)
phagocytophilum.
Since
Anaplasma
serology is part of the diagnostic work-up of undetermined fever in European tick-exposed patients, we wanted to investigate (1) the prevalence of
A. phagocytophilum
seropositivity among neoehrlichiosis patients, (2) the frequency of misdiagnosed neoehrlichiosis patients among
A. phagocytophilum
seropositive patients, and (3) the frequency of
A. phagocytophilum
and
Ca.
N. mikurensis co-infections. Neoehrlichiosis patients (
n
= 18) were analyzed for
A. phagocytophilum
IgM and IgG serum antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence assay. Serum samples from suspected anaplasmosis patients (
n
= 101) were analyzed for bacterial DNA contents by singleplex PCR specific for
A. phagocytophilum
and
Ca.
N. mikurensis, respectively. One fifth of the neoehrlichiosis patients (4/18) were seropositive for IgM and/or IgG to
A. phagocytophilum
at the time of diagnosis. Among the patients with suspected anaplasmosis, 2% (2/101) were positive for
Ca.
N. mikurensis by PCR whereas none (0/101) had detectable
A. phagocytophilum
DNA in the serum. To conclude, patients with suspected anaplasmosis may in fact have neoehrlichiosis. We found no evidence of
A. phagocytophilum
and
Ca.
N. mikurensis co-infections in humans with suspected anaplasmosis or confirmed neoehrlichiosis.
Although stress is considered to be a negative factor for psoriasis, no convincing scientific evidence of this association exists, largely because of difficulties in measuring stress. Stress ...resilience is the ability to cope with and adapt to stressful events. Stress resilience can be measured in a standardized way and used as a marker for chronic stress.
The objective of this study is to investigate whether low stress resilience in adolescence increases the risk for onset of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis later in life.
A cohort of Swedish men (mean age 18.3 years), enrolled in compulsory military service between 1968 and 2005, was created using data from the Swedish Military Service Conscription Register (n = 1,669,422). Stress resilience at conscription was estimated using standardized semi-structured interviews, and was divided into three categories: low, medium and high. The men were followed from conscription until new-onset psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, death or emigration or at the latest until 31 December 2019. Cox regression models adjusted for confounders at conscription were used to obtain hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for incident psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
Men in the lowest stress resilience category had an increased risk of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (HR 1.31 (95% CI 1.26-1.36) and 1.23 (95% CI 1.15-1.32), respectively), compared with those in the highest stress resilience category. When including only hospitalized patients the HRs for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in the lowest stress resilience group were 1.79 (1.63-1.98) and 1.53 (1.32-1.77), respectively.
This large, prospective register study suggests that low stress resilience in adolescence is associated with an increased risk of incident psoriasis among men. The results indicate that patients with psoriasis have an inherent psychological vulnerability, and highlight the importance of addressing psychological well-being in the management of psoriasis.
Background
Rupture of atherosclerotic plaques is the major cause of acute cardiovascular events. The biomarker PRO‐C6 measuring Endotrophin, a matrikine of collagen type VI, may provide valuable ...information detecting subjects in need of intensified strategies for secondary prevention.
Objective
In this study, we evaluate endotrophin in human atherosclerotic plaques and circulating levels of PRO‐C6 in patients with atherosclerosis, to determine the predictive potential of the biomarker.
Methods
Sections from the stenotic human carotid plaques were stained with the PRO‐C6 antibody. PRO‐C6 was measured in serum of patients enrolled in the Carotid Plaque Imagining Project (CPIP) (discovery cohort, n = 577) and the innovative medicines initiative surrogate markers for micro‐ and macrovascular hard end‐points for innovative diabetes tools (IMI‐SUMMIT, validation cohort, n = 1,378). Median follow‐up was 43 months. Kaplan–Meier curves and log‐rank tests were performed in the discovery cohort. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis (HR with 95% CI) was used in the discovery cohort and binary logistic regression (OR with 95% CI) in the validation cohort.
Results
PRO‐C6 was localized in the core and shoulder of the atherosclerotic plaque. In the discovery cohort, PRO‐C6 independently predicted future cardiovascular events (HR 1.089 95% CI 1.019 −1.164, p = 0.01), cardiovascular death (HR 1.118 95% CI 1.008 −1.241, p = 0.04) and all‐cause death (HR 1.087 95% CI 1.008 −1.172, p = 0.03). In the validation cohort, PRO‐C6 predicted future cardiovascular events (OR 1.063 95% CI 1.011 −1.117, p = 0.017).
Conclusion
PRO‐C6 is present in the atherosclerotic plaque and associated with future cardiovascular events, cardiovascular death and all‐cause mortality in two large prospective cohorts.
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