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Questionnaires are commonplace in team and individual sports as a subjective tool to assess an athlete’s psychological perception and behavioral practices towards their performance and physical preparation. A consistent and systematic approach is required when administering questionnaires to an athlete or group of athletes. Proper questionnaire design and administration methods allow a strength and conditioning coach to effectively analyze the data and make actionable interventions when necessary. There are challenges in sports, especially team environments, which strength and conditioning professionals must maneuver to better help athletes. These challenges include sudden changes in practice or travel, coaching changes, administrative technicalities, athlete cooperation, and many more factors. When challenges arise, questionnaires are useful tool to gauge how an athlete responds to such changes. The purpose of this report is to outline strategies and considerations for strength and conditioning professionals to effectively implement questionnaires in the collegiate environment.

This study compared exercise performance and comfort while wearing an N95 filtering facepiece respirator (N95), cloth mask, or no intervention control for source control during a maximal graded treadmill exercise test (GXT). Twelve Division 1 athletes (50% female, age = 20.1 ± 1.2, BMI = 23.5 ± 1.6) completed GXTs under three randomized conditions (N95, cloth mask, control). GXT duration, heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR), transcutaneous oxygen saturation (SpO2), transcutaneous carbon dioxide (TcPCO2), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and perceived comfort were measured. Participants ran significantly longer in control (26.06 min) versus N95 (24.20 min, p = 0.03) or cloth masks (24.06 min, p = 0.04). No differences occurred in the slope of HR or SpO2 across conditions (p > 0.05). TcPCO2 decreased faster in control (B = −0.89) versus N95 (B = 0.14, p = 0.02) or cloth masks (B = −0.26, p = 0.03). RR increased faster in control (B = 8.32) versus cloth masks (B = 6.20, p = 0.04). RPE increased faster in the N95 (B = 1.91) and cloth masks (B = 1.79) versus control (B = 1.59, p < 0.001 and p = 0.05, respectively). Facial irritation/itching/pinching was higher in the N95 versus cloth masks, but sweat/moisture buildup was lower (p < 0.05 for all). Wearing cloth masks or N95s for source control may impact exercise performance, especially at higher intensities. Significant physiological differences were observed between cloth masks and N95s compared to control, while no physiological differences were found between cloth masks and N95s; however, comfort my differ.

This research examined the use of the DragonDictate speech recognition system as a writing aid by 10 speakers with spastic dysarthria due to cerebral palsy with the ultimate goal of establishing prescription guidelines. The objectives were to (1) determine how intelligibility relates to recognition success; (2) determine those characteristics of speech, fluency, and voice that affect the accuracy level of the voice recognizer; and (3) investigate individual profiles of recognition over a series of dictations among high- and low-intelligibility dysarthric speakers versus nondisabled controls. Correlations between intelligibility measures and recognition success measures were strong. The total number of voice features correlated moderately with the number of readings needed to reach 80% recognition levels and with variability in recognition. The frequency of pauses showed a strong positive association with the number of readings subjects needed to reach 80% recognition. The frequency of nonspeech sounds was...

This article reports interrater reliability among 4 teams of raters who independently evaluated thought disorder in 20 Rorschach protocols using the Thought Disorder Index (TDI). Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the degree of association among the 4 teams for total thought disorder scores, severity levels, and qualitative thought disorder factors. Highly acceptable agreement was obtained. Spearman rank order correlation coefficients for these same variables were significant for all possible pairings of teams. A repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated that the absolute amount of thought disorder tagged by each team differed even though the teams' relative rankings of thought disorder among subjects was very similar. Such scoring differences reflect individual differences in threshold for detecting deviant thinking. Thought disorder has long been regarded as a hallmark of schizophrenia. Kraepelin (1896/1919) described the disordered thought processes of schizophrenia as "derailments." Bleuler (1911/1950, 1924) wrote that the central feature of schizophrenic thought was "loosening of associations," which included associations by contiguity, bizarre and clang associations, as well as condensations of ideas and incoherent discourse. Subsequent investigations have confirmed the presence of these disorders of thinking in schizophrenic conditions but have also identified thought disorder in patients with affective psychoses, organic brain diseases, and borderline personality disorder (Andreasen & Powers, 1974; Cameron, 1944; Carlson & Goodwin, 1973; Clayton, Pitts, & Winokur, 1965; Edell, 1987; Gershon, Benson, & Frazier, 1974; Goldstein, 1944; Harrow & Quinlan, 1977; Johnston & Holzman, 1979; O'Connell, Cooper, Perry, & Hoke, 1989; Shenton, Solovay, & Holzman, 1987; Solovay, Shenton, & Holzman, 1987). The study of thought disturbances in psychotic patients has spawned the development of objective scales for the measurement of thought disorder. Several such scales are in common use, including the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Lan

This article is a brief introduction to several different Eastern systems of philosophy and therapy. It surveys the Buddhist contributions and several contemporary applications of traditional meditation techniques within the framework of modern psychologic science. It is suggested that meditative exercises produce three therapeutic gains: insight into repetitive, self-defeating patterns of behavior, desensitization of painful thoughts, and the conditioning of the central nervous system.