1,720,983 research outputs found
Mental Health in German Paralympic Athletes During the 1st Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic Compared to a General Population Sample
Full text linkINTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has huge influences on daily life and is not only associated with physical but also with major psychological impacts. Mental health problems and disorders are frequently present in elite paralympic athletes. Due to the pandemic situation, new stressors (e.g., loss of routine, financial insecurity) might act upon the athletes. Therefore, the assessment of mental health in athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic is important to identify prevalence of psychological problems and propose countermeasures. METHODS: The mental health of German paralympic athletes was longitudinally monitored (starting in May 2019). The athletes completed the Patient Health Questionnaire 4 (PHQ-4) on a weekly basis and reported a stress level, training hours, and training load. During the pandemic, 8 measurement time points (March 2020 to April 2021) were used to reflect the psychological health course of the athletes. In parallel, a convenience sample of the general population was questioned about their psychological distress, including the PHQ-4. To be included in the analysis, participants of both groups had to complete at least 4 measurement time points. Matching of the para-athletes and the general population sample was prioritized upon completion of the same measurement time points, gender, and age. RESULTS: Seventy-eight paralympic athletes (40 women, 38 men, age: 29.8 ± 11.4 years) met the inclusion criteria. Seventy-eight matched pairs of the general population (40 women; 38 men; age: 30.5 ± 10.9 years) were identified. The para-athletes had a significantly (p <0.0001; 0.39 < r <0.48) lower PHQ-4 value at each measurement time point compared to the matched control group. No significant age or sex differences were evident regarding the symptom burden. In para-athletes, no significant and a weak positive correlation was found between decreased training load and PHQ-4 values and a stress level, respectively. Reduced physical activity was significantly (p <0.0001) associated with higher PHQ-4 values in the general population sample. DISCUSSION: Lower PHQ-4 values were reported by the para-athletes compared to the general population sample. However, small sample sizes must be considered while interpreting the data. Nevertheless, adequate support for individuals suffering from severe psychopathological symptoms should be provided for para-athletes as well as for the general population
Neuromuscular control during stair descent and artificial tibial translation after acute ACL rupture
Full text linkAbstract: Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture has direct effect on passive and active knee stability and, specifically, stretch-reflex excitability. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to investigate neuromuscular activity in patients with an acute ACL deficit (ACL-D group) compared with a matched control group with an intact ACL (ACL-I group) during stair descent and artificially induced anterior tibial translation. It was hypothesized that neuromuscular control would be impaired in the ACL-D group. Study Design: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Surface electromyographic (EMG) activity of the vastus medialis (VM), vastus lateralis (VL), biceps femoris (BF), and semitendinosus (ST) muscles was recorded bilaterally in 15 patients with ACL-D (mean, 13.8 days [range, 7-21 days] since injury) and 15 controls with ACL-I during stair descent and artificially induced anterior tibial translation. The movements of stair descent were divided into preactivity, weight acceptance, and push-off phases. Reflex activity during anterior tibial translation was split into preactivity and short, medium, and late latency responses. Walking on a treadmill was used for submaximal EMG normalization. Kruskal-Wallis test and post hoc analyses with Dunn-Bonferroni correction were used to compare normalized root mean square values for each muscle, limb, movement, and reflex phase between the ACL-D and ACL-I groups. Results: During the preactivity phase of stair descent, the hamstrings of the involved leg of the ACL-D group showed 33% to 51% less activity compared with the matched leg and contralateral leg of the ACL-I group (P < .05). During the weight acceptance and push-off phases, the VL revealed a significant reduction (approximately 40%) in the involved leg of the ACL-D group compared with the ACL-I group. At short latency, the BF and ST of the involved leg of the ACL-D group showed a significant increase in EMG activity compared with the uninvolved leg of the ACL-I group, by a factor of 2.2 to 4.6. Conclusion: In the acute phase after an ACL rupture, neuromuscular alterations were found mainly in the hamstrings of both limbs during stair descent and reflex activity. The potential role of prehabilitation needs to be further studied
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Gesundheitliche Probleme bei deutschen paralympischen Athleten in der Vorbereitung auf die Paralympischen Spiele 2020 in Tokio
Full text linkProblem:
In-competition injury and illness incidences in Paralympic athletes have been studied extensively during the last decade. However, longitudinal monitoring data is still lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to prospectively record incidence rates and type of health problems of Paralympic athletes during the preparation period for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Method:
German Paralympic athletes preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games were invited to complete the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center questionnaire on health problems weekly using a web application. Additionally, training volume and competition exposure were asked.
Results:
79 athletes were included in the study and were observed for 10 months. The health problem incidence rate was 7.5/1000 exposure hours (95% CI: 6.5-8.6). Illnesses were half of
the reported health problems and acute injuries had the highest time loss with 13±24 days. Females, younger age groups, visual impaired athletes and participants in ambulatory sports had
higher incidence rates compared to their pairs.
Discussion:
Reported incidence rates of health problems are high among Paralympic athletes. Obtained data is comparable to Paralympic Games and a Swedish Paralympic cohort. Injury
and illness factors are manifold and demand further research to develop and implement preventive strategies.Problem:
Die Häufigkeit von Verletzungen und Krankheiten bei paralympischen Athleten während eines Wettkampfes wurde in den letzten zehn Jahren mehrfach systematisch untersucht. Hingegen sind longitudinale Erhebungen rar. Das Ziel dieser Studie war die prospektive Erfassung der Häufigkeit und Art von Gesundheitsproblemen bei paralympischen Athleten in der Vorbereitungszeit auf die Paralympischen Spiele 2020 in Tokio.
Methode:
Deutsche paralympische Athleten, die sich auf die Paralympischen Spiele 2020 in Tokio vorbereiten, wurden eingeladen, den Fragebogen des Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center
zu gesundheitlichen Problemen wöchentlich über eine Web-Applikation auszufüllen. Zusätzlich wurden Trainingsvolumen und Wettkampfbelastung erfragt.
Ergebnisse:
79 Athleten wurden in die Studie eingeschlossen. Der hier rapportierte Erhebungszeitraum betrug 10 Monate. Die Inzidenzrate für gesundheitliche Probleme lag bei 7,5/1000 Belastungsstunden (95% KI: 6,5-8,6). Krankheiten machten die Hälfte der gemeldeten Gesundheitsprobleme aus und akute Verletzungen hatten mit 13±24 Tagen den höchsten Zeitverlust. Frauen, jüngere Altersgruppen, sehbehinderte SportlerInnen und TeilnehmerInnen an Fußgängersportarten hatten höhere Inzidenzraten gegenüber ihren Vergleichsgruppen.
Diskussion:
Die berichteten Inzidenzraten von Gesundheitsproblemen bei paralympischen Athleten sind hoch. Die erhobenen Daten sind vergleichbar mit denen bei Paralympischen Spielen und einer schwedischen paralympischen Kohorte. Verletzungs- und Krankheitsfaktoren sind vielfältig und erfordern weitere Forschung, um präventive Strategien zu entwickeln und umzusetzen
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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