Alterations in Body Size and Composition Consequent to Astro-Trimmer and Slim-Skins Training Programs

Tennis is an activity requiring both endurance and anaerobic components, which could have immunosuppressive effects postexercise.

Purpose

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of a simulated tennis match on apoptotic and migratory markers on lymphocyte subsets.

Method

Male high school (n = 5) and college (n = 3) tennis players (M _age = 18.9 ± 3.3 years) completed 10 sets of a tennis protocol including serves, forehand strokes, and backhand groundstrokes with 1-min rest periods between sets. Apoptosis antigen 1 receptor (CD95) and chemokine receptor fractalkine (CX₃CR1) expression was analyzed on helper T lymphocytes (CD4+), cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CD8+), and B lymphocytes (CD19+) twice, at resting baseline and immediately after all 10 sets of the tennis protocol.

Results

An increase was observed in each lymphocyte subtype (p < .02, effect size = .41), and comparison of absolute changes revealed increases in CD4+/CD95+, CD8+/CD95+, and CD8+/CX₃CR1 lymphocytes following the tennis protocol (p < .01, effect size = .43), but not in CD19+ cells.

Conclusions

A simulated tennis match has adequate intensity to induce immune modulations in terms of increased cell death and cellular migration in T lymphocyte subsets. Lymphocytopenia following tennis play is influenced by both apoptotic and migratory mechanisms.     

An Evaluation of Normal School Sororities

This investigation’s purpose was to answer the following question: In an in-school suspension setting, does a program of therapeutic discipline that involves counseling, bibliotherapy, writing therapy, and contingency contracting result in more positive attitudes toward school attendance, improved attendance, and greater insight into attendance problems among adolescent truants who participate in the program than among adolescent truants who participate in a traditional program of non-therapeutic discipline? When a one-way analysis of variance was used to analyze differences for attitudes and insights and analysis of covariance was used to analyze behavioral differences among 148 subjects in the two programs, it was found that therapeutic discipline students (a) held less positive attitudes toward school attendance, (b) had better records of attendance in classes and fewer truant absences, and (c) demonstrated greater insight into attendance problems than did non-therapeutic discipline students.     

Online Government Resources for Financial Literacy

Freely accessible federal government websites provide children, parents, educators, young adults, adults, and seniors—even non-native English speakers—a wealth of information on financial topics as diverse as saving, budgeting, credit, paying for college, investing, purchasing a home, and end-of-life financial decisions. Libraries of all kinds could collaborate with a variety of community leaders and groups to educate their respective constituents in making informed financial decisions. This article presents and describes some of the many federal websites of use over a typical person's lifetime and offers suggestions for promoting these sources to various audiences.     

Increasing physical literacy in youth: A two-week Sport for Development program for children aged 6-10

PROSPECTS - Regular physical activity significantly improves health outcomes, yet rates of childhood physical activity remain alarmingly low.&nbsp;Physical literacy has been identified as the...     

Infant IQ Ratings Evaluated after an Interval of Seven Years

The four types of control groups commonly employed in cognitive manipulation studies were identified and arguments were presented concerning the problematic nature of each group as a baseline for identifying the “true” treatment effect. A general, two-step control procedure was advocated in which the researcher first identifies the most appropriate control group for a given context and then supplements this experimental control with statistical control. In reference to the latter controls, procedures were presented for developing a task-specific index as a covariable to be employed with a suitable measure of verbal aptitude in an analysis of covariance. The procedure was demonstrated on data from a quasi-experimental design in which it was shown that three different conclusions were possible depending upon the control procedures employed. It was argued that the converging operations obtained from the multivariate approach to the data analyses supported the results from the two-step control procedure. This procedure is not presented as a panacea but represents an attempt to “go beyond” the mechanical appocation of typical experimental controls for placebo effects.     

The Effect of Written Examinations on Learning and on the Retention of Learning

Approximately equal numbers of Canadian and American education students rated each of four teacher types in terms of 24 characteristics. The ratings were factor-analyzed and the teacher types were arrayed along the four resultant principal components. A stepwise discriminant analysis was performed. Dissonance theory suggests that findings have implications not only for teaching pedagogy but for persons seeking student feedback on teachers as well.