Intentional thought dynamics during exercise performed until volitional exhaustion

Using a non-linear approach, intentional dynamics of thoughts were examined during constant cycling performed until volitional exhaustion. Participants (n = 12) completed two sessions at 80% W_max. Their (1) intrinsic thought dynamics (i.e., no-imposed thoughts condition) and (2) intentional thought dynamics (i.e., imposed task-unrelated thoughts condition; TUT) were recorded and then classified into four categories: internal and external TUT (TUT-I, TUT-E) and external and internal task-related thoughts (TRT-E, TRT-I). The probability estimates for maintaining each thought category stable, the rate of switching from one category to another, and the entropy dynamics along the testing procedure were assessed and compared through time phase. Friedman ANOVA tests revealed a significant effect of effort increase on thought contents only in the imposed TUT test. While TUT-I probabilities decreased significantly (P < .001) as effort increased, TRT-I probabilities increased (P < .05). Moreover, the entropy to the entire thought dynamics increased at the outset of task performance and decreased upon approaching volitional exhaustion (P < .001). As time spent in constant effort increased, and volitional exhaustion approached, task relatedness (TUT, TRT), direction (internal, external), and entropy of thought contents changed unintentionally providing further evidence for a nonlinear dynamics of attention focus.     

Revisiting Cross-document Structure Theory for multi-document discourse parsing

Multi-document discourse parsing aims to automatically identify the relations among textual spans from different texts on the same topic. Recently, with the growing amount of information and the emergence of new technologies that deal with many sources of information, more precise and efficient parsing techniques are required. The most relevant theory to multi-document relationship, Cross-document Structure Theory (CST), has been used for parsing purposes before, though the results had not been satisfactory. CST has received many critics because of its subjectivity, which may lead to low annotation agreement and, consequently, to poor parsing performance. In this work, we propose a refinement of the original CST, which consists in (i) formalizing the relationship definitions, (ii) pruning and combining some relations based on their meaning, and (iii) organizing the relations in a hierarchical structure. The hypothesis for this refinement is that it will lead to better agreement in the annotation and consequently to better parsing results. For this aim, it was built an annotated corpus according to this refinement and it was observed an improvement in the annotation agreement. Based on this corpus, a parser was developed using machine learning techniques and hand-crafted rules. Specifically, hierarchical techniques were used to capture the hierarchical organization of the relations according to the proposed refinement of CST. These two approaches were used to identify the relations among texts spans and to generate multi-document annotation structure. Results outperformed other CST parsers, showing the adequacy of the proposed refinement in the theory.     

Renewed commitments in a time of vigilance: sexuality education in the USA*

Over the past 20 years, the USA has seen more than its fair share of controversy with respect to education about sexuality, sex and intimate relationships. Attention has focused on content (abstinence-only vs. comprehensive instruction), delivery (by teachers, parents, health professionals or community educators) and context (within school and beyond). In recognition of this fact, Sex Education invited the development of a virtual special issue comprising a sample of its most impactful papers on these and related topics. The 2016 Presidential election results and recent legislative action in the USA point to the importance of thinking broadly about teaching and learning about sexuality inside and outside of schools and of considering sexuality as it intersects with categories of difference, privilege and penalty, including ability, age, immigration, race, gender and class. This paper, developed as an introduction to the virtual special issue, opens with a discussion of the journal’s contributions to the ongoing discussion of pleasure and desire in sexuality education. From there, we turn to the question of what is possible given the material and ideological conditions of schooling and then to opportunities for teachers and learners outside the conventional classroom. We follow with a discussion of the place of intersectional analyses in sexuality education research, and conclude with some thoughts on sexuality education research at this political moment.     

Injury rates in professional soccer players during Ramadan

Many of the socio-cultural lifestyle and dietary changes that take place during Ramadan may affect the risk of injury in athletes, but little evidence is available. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects over two consecutive years of the holy month of Ramadan on injury rates in 42 professional players of a Tunisian top-level professional soccer team. Players were retrospectively organized into fasting and non-fasting groups and monitored for 3 months: 4 weeks before Ramadan, during the month of Ramadan (4 weeks), and 4 weeks after Ramadan each year. During Ramadan, training started at 22.00 h. The circumstances (training/match) and mechanism of injury (traumatic/overuse) were recorded. No significant differences between the three periods were observed for weekly mean training load, training strain, training duration, and Hooper's Index (quality of sleep, and quantities of stress, delayed-onset muscle soreness, and fatigue). Compared with non-fasting players, fasters had a lower (P < 0.05) Hooper's Index and stress during and after Ramadan. No significant difference in injury rates was observed between fasting and non-fasting players. Nevertheless, the rates of non-contact (6.8 vs. 0.6 and 1.1) and training overuse (5.6 vs. 0.6 and 0.5) injuries were significantly higher in fasting players during the month of Ramadan than before or after Ramadan. In conclusion, Ramadan, along with the corresponding changes in nutritional habits, sleeping schedule, and socio-cultural and religious events, significantly increased overuse and non-contact injuries in fasting players despite the fact that the training load, strain, and duration were maintained.     

General Growth Mixture Analysis of Adolescents' Developmental Trajectories of Anxiety: The Impact of Untested Invariance Assumptions on Substantive Interpretations

Substantively, this study investigates potential heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of anxiety in adolescence. Methodologically, this study demonstrates the usefulness of general growth mixture analysis (GGMA) in addressing these issues and illustrates the impact of untested invariance assumptions on substantive interpretations. This study relied on data from the Montreal Adolescent Depression Development Project (MADDP), a 4-year follow-up of more than 1,000 adolescents who completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory each year. GGMA models relying on different invariance assumptions were empirically compared. Each of these models converged on a 5-class solution, but yielded different substantive results. The model with class-varying variance–covariance matrices was retained as providing a better fit to the data. These results showed that although elevated levels of anxiety might fluctuate over time, they clearly do not represent a transient phenomenon. This model was then validated in relation to multiple predictors (mostly related to school violence) and outcomes (grade-point average, school dropout, depression, loneliness, and drug-related problems).