Stress and risk for depression in competitive athletes suffering from back pain – Do age and gender matter?†

Back pain (BP), a prominent problem for competitive athletes, is a primary reason for limitations in athletic performance and daily life restrictions. As studies on the relationship between psychological variables and BP in athletes are scarce, the aim of this study was to investigate stress and depression in competitive athletes with BP. In a cross-sectional design, data of 154 competitive athletes (51% female; M_age?=?18.81 years, SD_age?=?5.05 years) were collected, assessing Performance stress, Socio-emotional stress, Risk for depression and Psychological well-being and the two BP parameters BP Intensity and Disability. Two multiple linear regressions were conducted to predict (1) BP Intensity and (2) Disability from Performance stress, Socio-emotional stress, Risk for depression and Psychological well-being. Multiple linear regressions demonstrated that Performance stress (β?=?.21, p?=?.01) was the only significant predictor of BP Intensity (F_1,142?=?6.68, p?=?.01, R²?=?.05), whilst Risk for depression (β?=?.24, p?=?.01) was the only significant predictor of Disability (F_1,142?=?8.46, p?=?.01, R²?=?.06). Neither gender nor age explained a significant amount of variance in the models. Study results showed that, as in the general population, the variables stress and depression are related to BP in competitive athletes. In particular, BP intensity was found to be associated with stress and BP-related disability was associated with depression, whereas age and gender showed no association with the BP parameters. A longitudinal investigation is warranted to determine the direction of the observed relationships.     

The state-of-the-art in digital technology-based assessment

The role of digital technology in assessment has received a great deal of attention in recent years. Naturally, technology offers many practical benefits, such as increased efficiency with regard to the design, implementation and scoring of existing assessments. More importantly, it also has the potential to have profound, transformative effects on the field of assessment by facilitating the integration of formative activities with accountability requirements and broadening the range of abilities and the scope of constructs that can be assessed. This article provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art in digital technology-based assessment, with particular reference to advances in the automated scoring of constructed responses, the assessment of complex 21^st century skills in large-scale assessments and innovations involving high fidelity virtual reality simulations. Key challenges with respect to each are highlighted before the extent to which digital technology is truly transforming assessment is considered.     

Conceptions of the value of higher education in a measured market

A critical analysis is developed of the dominant meanings of value in marketised higher education. In policy terms, this has become informed by the logics of the measured market whereby value has become synonymous with economic return and institutional accountability. The notion of value is one which permeates many discussions on the purpose of higher education and the perceived benefits it confers onto individuals and society as a whole. This, however, remains largely implicit and unearthing the specific meaning of value (and values) clearly presents challenges. This article critically examines a variety of concepts relevant to discussion of the value of higher education, including the relationship between value and quality, consumerism, goods and performativity. In each case, it unpacks their meanings and implications for the relationship between students and institutions, particularly at a time when this is seen to be increasingly transactional. It then outlines an alternative value framing to the utilitarian ‘value for money’ so prevalent in much market-driven policy.     

Enhancing children's literacy skills: designing the Q‐Tales ecosystem for children's e‐book design and publication

This article describes the conceptualisation and development of a pedagogical framework to support the design of e‐books for children to enhance literacy development. It emerged from research undertaken within the Q‐Tales international consortium project of the EU's Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation, where the aim was to facilitate key stakeholders to collaborate and participate in the online production and publication of high‐quality, educational e‐books for children. The pedagogical framework described here sought to answer the question “What concepts and principles undergird the effective design of pedagogically impactful e‐books for children?” It is grounded by the theoretical underpinnings of socio‐constructivism, constructionism and skill theory, and how they relate to children's literacy development. A framework describing different narrative forms and component features, key pedagogical activities appropriate for different stages of reading development and design recommendations regarding the integration of multimedia into e‐books are also central to the pedagogical framework. As well as informing the design of the Q‐Tales infrastructure for children's e‐book design and publication, we hope the guidelines and pedagogical activities enumerated here will be widely useful for those designing and developing digital, interactive narratives, particularly e‐books to enhance children's emerging literacy.     

Minecraft and children’s digital making: implications for media literacy education

This article aims to contribute new knowledge about the media literacies children assemble as they play the digital game Minecraft which it describes as a children's digital making platform. The article argues media literacy's tendency to use socio-cultural and humanist accounts of media participation limit its ability to fully explain digital making practices. Socio-material and performative literacy theories are used to introduce a framework for exploring digital media literacies across four nodes: digital materials, media production, conceptual understanding and media analysis [Dezuanni, M. 2015.“The Building Blocks of Digital Media Literacy: Socio-material Participation and the Production of Media Knowledge.”Journal of Curriculum Studies 47 (3): 416–419]. The article's second half outlines how the author uses digital ethnography in his home to understand children's Minecraft digital making and the article's theoretical claims are explored using empirical data. The conclusion considers the ramifications of digital making for media literacy research and practice.     

Impact and educational outcomes of a small group self‐directed teaching strategy in a clinical neuroscience curriculum

The complexity of the material being taught in clinical neuroscience within the medical school curriculum requires creative pedagogies to teach medical students effectively. Many clinical teaching strategies have been developed and are well described to address these challenges. However, only a few have been evaluated to determine their impact on the performance of students studying clinical neuroscience. Interactive, 2‐hour, self‐directed small‐group interactive clinical case‐based learning sessions were conducted weekly for 4 weeks to integrate concepts learned in the corresponding didactic lectures. Students in the small groups analyzed cases of patients suffering from neurological disease that were based on eight learning objectives that allowed them to evaluate neuroanatomical data and clinical findings before presenting their case analysis to the larger group. Students’ performances on the formative quizzes and summative tests were compared to those of first‐year medical students in the previous year for whom the self‐directed, small‐group interactive clinical sessions were not available. There was a significant improvement in the summative performance of first‐year medical students with self‐directed clinical case learning in the second year (Y2) of teaching clinical neuroscience (P < 0.05) when compared with first‐year students in the first year (Y1) for whom the self‐directed learning approach was not available. Student performance in the formative assessments between Y1 and Y2 was not significantly different (P = 0.803). A target of ≥70% student scoring above 80% in the final summative examination was met. The current study revealed evidence for the impact and educational outcomes of a self‐directed, clinical teaching strategy in a clinical neuroscience curriculum for first‐year medical students. Anat Sci Educ 11: 478–487. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Unintended consequences on gender diversity of high-tech growth and labor market polarization

There has been considerable media coverage highlighting the lack of gender diversity in Silicon Valley, stressing the relatively low participation of women in the high-tech economy. Austin offers a unique case for testing whether similar gender issues characterized other high-tech regions because the city has historically benefited from the expansion of Silicon Valley’s large high-tech firms since the 1980s. The gender-biased business practices identified in Silicon Valley firms may have been transferred to their branch plants in Austin. Our analysis shows women’s losses in middle-skill occupation employment shares were concentrated in the low-tech industry and were partially offset by job share gains in high-skill occupations in the same sector between 1980 and 2015. Men’s losses in middle-skill occupation job share were also mainly concentrated in the low-tech sector but were partially offset by employment share gains in high-skill occupations only in the high-tech industry during this period. Women made large gains in relative real median wages only in high-skill occupations in the high-tech industry while their relative real median wages in other skill occupations and in the low-tech industry stagnated around zero during this period. Men’s gains in relative median wages were also concentrated only in the high-tech industry but were less than half of women’s and were negative (between ?10 and ?21 percent) in other occupations in the high-tech industry and across all occupations in the low-tech industry. As noted in previous studies, the impact of job polarization is not well understood across sectors and gender. This study finds the high-tech industry in Austin has had unintended consequences in terms of job polarization across gender, providing relatively fewer job opportunities in high-skill occupations to women than men but offering much higher gains in relative real median wages to women than men. Males also found relatively more job opportunities in high-skill occupations in the high-tech industry than women but experienced only half of women’s gains in relative median wages in this industry between 1980 and 2015.     

Customer participation and new product performance: Towards the understanding of the mechanisms and key contingencies

In a study of 243 firms of varying sizes across 14 different industries, we investigate the effect of customer participation on new product development performance. We confirm that overall customer participation is positively related to new product development performance and that the effect is mediated by innovativeness. We also demonstrate that these effects are contingent upon absorptive capacity of the firm in question such that firms with high absorptive capacity stand to gain more from engaging their customers in new product development than firms with low absorptive capacity, especially at the later stages of the NPD process. The results are robust to alternative estimation techniques, measures employed to operationalize key concepts, and the industrial makeup of the sample. Post hoc analyses provide non-trivial managerial implications for the decision makers at the firm level.     

Inflammatory and apoptotic signalling pathways and concussion severity: a genetic association study

The objective was to investigate the relationship between IL-1B rs16944, IL-6 rs1800795, and CASP8 rs3834129 genetic polymorphisms and concussion severity. Rugby players from high school, senior amateur, and professional teams completed a concussion severity questionnaire and donated a DNA sample. Participants (n = 163) were split into symptom severity groups around the median number and duration of symptoms. The frequency of participants with high symptom counts (more than five symptoms) increased across the IL-1B (C/C: 35%; C/T: 51%; T/T: 56%; P = 0.047) and the IL-6 (C/C: 31%; C/G: 44%; G/G: 58%; P = 0.027) genotypes. The C–C inferred interleukin allele construct frequency, created from combining the IL-1B and IL-6 genotype data, was lower in participants reporting a high symptom count (18%), compared to those with a low symptom count (fewer than six symptoms, 36%, P = 0.002). Similarly, the C–C inferred interleukin allele construct frequency was lower in those reporting prolonged symptom duration (more than one week, 16%), as opposed to short symptom duration (less than one week, 34%, P = 0.015). This study provides evidence of novel inflammatory pathway genetic associations with concussion severity, which supports the hypothesis implicating neuroinflammation in the development of concussion symptoms.     

Examining the antecedents of sport team brand equity: A dual-identification perspective

Although the practice of building brand equity in the context of professional sport teams is popular, the formation of sport team brand equity in the sport marketing literature is still relatively unknown and incompletely understood. In this study, the authors propose a dual-identification model to examine the formation of sport team brand equity in an Asia-based professional team sport setting. Baseball fans (N = 548) of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan participated in the self-administered survey. A Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model analysis revealed that marketplace characteristics (including group experience, salient experience, team history, and fan rituals) and brand-identified-related factors (including self-congruity and team brand prestige) were significantly related to identification with sport team and identification with sport team brand, respectively. In turn, both identification with sport team and identification with sport team brand were significant predictors of sport team brand equity. These findings highlight the importance of studying a dual-identification model in order to understand how sport team brand equity forms and suggest implications for sport team managers.