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The Effects of Psyching-Up on Deadlift Performance in Competitive Strongmen, Strongwomen, and Powerlifters
Full text linkThe effects of psyching-up on deadlift performance in competitive strongmen, strongwomen, and powerlifters. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2026—This study investigated the effect of the act of “psyching-up” on deadlift performance in experienced strength athletes and examined whether individual differences in anxiety sensitivity, reward sensitivity, and trait aggression influence strategy selection. A total of 200 competitive strength athletes completed the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System Likert scale and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Subjects then performed a deadlift under 2 conditions: a free-choice psyching-up intervention and a passive control. Barbell velocity was measured using a GymAware RS linear position transducer. Results showed that deadlift velocity was significantly greater during the psyching-up condition ( M = 0.39 m·s −1 , SD = 0.11) compared with the control ( M = 0.34 m·s −1 , SD = 0.10), representing an 18.58% increase in performance ( p < 0.001). This improvement in bar speed corresponds to an estimated 4.3% increase in predicted 1-repetition maximum. A one-way ANOVA found no significant differences in performance across the 8 psyching-up strategies ( p = 0.16). However, discriminant analysis revealed that higher reward sensitivity, greater trait aggression, and lower anxiety sensitivity significantly predicted the selection of “arousal-enhancing” strategies ( p = 0.002). These findings indicate that psyching-up can support deadlift performance in strength athletes and that personality traits may influence their choice of strategy. While no single strategy was found to be more effective than others, the data suggest that athletes tend to select strategies that reflect their individual personality traits. This study also presents a discriminant function that may help practitioners and coaches recommend appropriate psyching-up approaches based on an athlete's personality profile, contributing to more effective and individualized psychological preparation in strength sports
Bond Losses in Post‐Auction Resale Markets : Causes and Consequences
Full text linkThis paper examines the primary-dealers' returns in post-auction resale markets for treasury bonds, assesses the prevalence of losses and gains and their consequences for the financial sector. Using a novel database that tracks more than 2350 primary-to-secondary transactions, we find that bond losses for primary-dealers are pervasive and were severe during the financial crisis. Our results indicate that liquidity constraint is a major source of the bond losses. We also find that financial sector value is correlated with these losses. Using an alternating market experiment, we show that primary-to-secondary losses are higher under discriminatory auctions as compared to uniform auctions
Midwives’ perspectives and perceptions in relation to perinatal psychotic-like experiences : A qualitative study
Full text linkBackground Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) refer to subclinical experiences consistent with psychosis that may include hearing, feeling or seeing things that others cannot, or experiencing unusual beliefs. These experiences appear to be more common during the perinatal period. There appear to be barriers which make it difficult for midwives to support mothers with mental health difficulties. However, it is important that midwives can provide support with PLEs. Aim This study aimed to explore UK midwives’ perspectives and perceptions relating to mothers’ psychotic-like experiences in the perinatal period. Methods A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with ten midwives recruited online was conducted. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Four themes were developed: (1) Identifying psychotic-like experiences would be complicated; (2) Psychotic-like experiences can feel overwhelming for women and midwives; (3) This is my responsibility: I’ll do what I can to support women even if it’s hard; and (4) The system feels unsafe and insecure which makes the anticipated role in supporting psychotic-like experiences harder. Conclusion Midwives described their motivation to support mothers with PLEs but articulated many factors that made this difficult. The results emphasise the importance of training and guidance for midwives to support them being able to offer support and information to mothers. The findings also highlight the importance of systemic safety for midwives alongside support through supervision and reflective practice
A secure and transparent communication mechanism based on blockchain and fuzzy evaluation matrix in metaverse industry 4.0
Full text linkRecently, Metaverse is gaining prominence within the field of radiology due to its potential to revolutionize image visualization. Radiologists can harness its capabilities to access dynamic, highly detailed results, thereby enhancing diagnostic precision. Digital twins, at the core of the Metaverse, are digital replicas of real-world objects and entities. They serve as the foundational building blocks, enabling the creation of virtual counterparts for everything within the Metaverse. To ensure the reliability of these digital twins, blockchain technology offers a multi-dimensional data storage solution, reinforcing data integrity and trustworthiness. It is used to ensure a transparent and 3D visualization of each communication and interaction for further looking up any criticality if present in the network. With the rapid increase in value and volume of data, the evolution of the metaverse faces a number of privacy and security concerns. Furthermore, the metaverse in Industry 4.0 is a trending topic that further needs to focus on its security challenges at its initial stage. Fortunately, blockchain is considered as one of the significant solutions. The aim of this paper is to propose a secure and efficient fuzzy evaluation matrix by computing the trust values along with integrating with blockchain mechanism in industry 4.0 enabling metaverse environment. The proposed mechanism is validated against various security concerns such as broken authentication, eavesdropping, personal information leakage, data injection, and unauthorized access. The proposed mechanism showed the validation rate against existing schemes with an improvement of 94% in comparison of several security metrics
Selective transesterification mediated by lanthanum complexes in the copolymerisation of lactide and δ-valerolactone †
Full text linkLanthanum complexes copolymerise lactide and δ-valerolactone to produce copolymers with variable microstructures via a selective transesterification mechanism
Creditor Duty and Corporate Sustainability
No full textSince the turn of the current decade, policy, regulation, and industry practice call companies to pursue corporate sustainability more than ever before. However, the challenges that doing so may create for the governance and management of insolvent and nearly insolvent companies seems to be overlooked. This Chapter contributes to a growing literature exploring the promotion of pursuing corporate sustainability as an inquiry into governing distressed companies and the laws governing them. It argues that the creditor duty’s jurisprudence offers some guidance to directors about how they can legitimately pursue corporate sustainability when their company is doubtfully solvent. However, acting on this guidance requires directors having the means and capacity to do so. The Chapter points out that this is a blind spot in the regulation and policy seeking to establish the pursuit of corporate sustainability as a mainstream corporate practice, and calls for greater attention to be paid on the matter
Bayesian Inference in Dynamic Panel Stochastic Frontier Models
Full text linkThe paper develops a dynamic panel stochastic frontier model that incorporates firms’ intertemporal decision behaviour and short-run stagnant adjustments to the production process. Its dynamic specification recognises short-run output adjustment costs, where final output may be only partially adjusted to the optimum level. In nesting previous panel stochastic frontier models, our new approach delivers a flexible framework that accommodates heterogeneous technologies and latent time-varying inefficiency effects. In addition, our model handles endogeneity issues related to flexible inputs. Model inference is based on a Bayesian framework, where Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques are utilized. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate the robustness of the model in small and moderate samples. Last, we present our model in an empirical example, analysing publicly listed UK companies operating in the manufacturing and construction sector over the period 2004-2022. A general finding is that most firms exhibit stagnant production processes, with the half-life for adjusting supply to be as high as 6 quarters. The estimated average technical efficiency is 89%. Our findings underscore the importance of accounting for dynamic frictions and heterogeneity when evaluating firm performance and designing productivity-enhancing policies
Ethical and Epistemological Issues in Intimate Insider Ethnographic Research on Crime and Deviance
Full text linkThere is considerable literature on intimacy, and friendships developed in the field of social research. However, there is a lack of research exploring the ethical issues that arise when researching pre-established friendships. Subsequently, there is a lack of research exploring the ethical issues that arise through the intersection of ethnographic, intimate insider, and crime and deviance research. Intimate insiders are researchers who study in a community where they have pre-existing relationships. In this article, the author uses their study of the illicit streaming device market to illustrate the ethical challenges they encountered while conducting ethnographic research with pre-existing friends who were involved in crime and deviance. The article argues that this intersection raises unique ethical challenges around confidentiality, power imbalances, role conflict, the risk of harm, and deception, and describes how these issues were overcome. It concludes that although such research raises ethical issues, it also offers benefits
Incorporating risk preferences in forecast selection
No full textThis paper introduces a methodology for incorporating risk preferences directly into forecasting model selection. The relative model information score, estimated from either a point-based information criterion or cross-validated errors, leverages the full distribution to map different risk propensities. We show that standard model selection in the literature is risk-agnostic. A risk-neutral stance is represented by the median of the relative model information score distribution, which characterises the plausibility of a model choice, while risk-averse and risk-tolerant choices correspond to its upper and lower quantiles. Our empirical evaluation demonstrates that risk-neutral and risk-averse selections consistently outperform the benchmark risk-agnostic choice in both point and quantile forecast accuracy. Moreover, we show that a risk-tolerant selection is beneficial during periods of extreme disruption. The proposed methodology provides a robust and flexible way to manage the forecast modelling risk, improving forecast accuracy and aligning forecasting modelling with stakeholders’ risk profiles