Examining the predictive validity of behavior screeners across measures and respondents

Through this study we compared different informants and different behavior screening tools that are available to screen for behavioral and emotional risk. We examined screening results from 100 students from a high school with a high achiever's magnet program in the Southeastern United States (school demographics: 71% female and 79% black, non-Hispanic). This school conducted behavior screening using both teacher-report via the Student Risk Screening Scale, Internalizing/Externalizing (SRSS-IE) and student report via the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Nonparametric correlation tests were conducted between the SRSS-IE and SDQ externalizing and internalizing scores. Generalized linear regression models were created based on the data (demographics, internalizing, and externalizing scores on both screening tools) to model the two count outcomes (office discipline referrals [ODRs] and absences). Diagnostic accuracy metrics were generated from the scores on both the SRSS-IE and SDQ with the outcome measures (ODRs and absences). Externalizing scores on both screening tools had statistically significant low correlations. The ODR model contained two predictors: externalizing score on the SRSS-IE and internalizing score on the SDQ, while the absence model contained grade and the externalizing score on the SDQ. The highest accuracy and agreement values were seen between students with elevated risks on both screening measures and ODRs. The results confirmed that teacher and student reporting, as well as different screening tools, will result in some different students being identified. The choice of informant and screening tools should be dependent on the needs and resources of the school.     

Transformative Education

Universities aspire to offer students a transformative experience, but rarely spell out the nature of this transformation. In this essay, L. A. Paul and John Quiggin frame the successful university education as transformative in the philosophical sense. They explain the way that a successful college education can be understood as generating an individual conceptual revolution, and thus, as a transformative experience. Education can create epistemically transformative change through the process of developing critical thinking skills, leading to conceptual replacement and the discovery of new intellectual frameworks. This epistemic transformation, if deep enough, scales up into a personal transformation. After explicating the nature and structure of transformative education, Paul and Quiggin show how understanding transformation in terms of personal change and awareness of unawareness clarifies the debate over its value.     

Effects of purposeful soccer heading on circulating small extracellular vesicle concentration and cargo

BackgroundConsidering the potential cumulative effects of repetitive head impact (HI) exposure, we need sensitive biomarkers to track short- and long-term effects. Circulating small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) (<200 nm) traffic biological molecules throughout the body and may have diagnostic value as biomarkers for disease. The purpose of this study was to identify the microRNA (miRNA) profile in circulating sEVs derived from human plasma following repetitive HI exposure.MethodsHealthy adult (aged 18–35 years) soccer players were randomly assigned to one of 3 groups: the HI group performed 10 standing headers, the leg impact group performed 10 soccer ball trapping maneuvers over 10 min, and the control group did not participate in any soccer drills. Plasma was collected before testing and 24 h afterward, and sEVs were isolated and characterized via nanoparticle tracking analysis. Next-generation sequencing was utilized to identify candidate miRNAs isolated from sEVs, and candidate microRNAs were analyzed via quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In silico target prediction was performed using TargetScan (Version 7.0; targetscan.org) and miRWalk (http://mirwalk.umm.uni-heidelberg.de/) programs, and target validation was performed using luciferase reporter vectors with a miR-7844-5p mimic in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293T/17 cells.ResultsPlasma sEV concentration and size were not affected across time and group following repetitive HI exposure. After 24 h, the HI read count from next-generation sequencing showed a 4-fold or greater increase in miR-92b-5p, miR-423-5p, and miR-24-3p and a 3-fold or greater decrease in miR-7844-5p, miR-144-5p, miR-221-5p, and miR-22-3p. Analysis of quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that leg impact did not alter the candidate miRNA levels. To our knowledge, miR-7844-5p is a previously unknown miRNA. We identified 8 miR-7844-5p mRNA targets: protein phosphatase 1 regulatory inhibitor subunit 1B (PPP1R1B), LIM and senescent cell antigen-like domains 1 (LIMS1), autophagy-related 12 (ATG12), microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta (MAP1LC3B), integrin subunit alpha-1 (ITGA1), mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1), glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β), and mitogen-activated protein kinase 8 (MAPK8).ConclusionCollectively, these data indicate repetitive HI exposure alters plasma sEV miRNA content, but not sEV size or number. Furthermore, for the first time we demonstrate that previously unknown miR-7844-5p targets mRNAs known to be involved in mitochondrial apoptosis, autophagy regulation, mood disorders, and neurodegenerative disease.     

Mela: festival scenes in South Asian cinema

This article examines a recurrent film motif across a number of South Asian films, mostly called Mela. It also offers some observations on melas, actual and allegorical, as represented in films but often seeming to exceed their containment in context so as to say more about the conviviality of life, where this is at issue, where life is at a juncture in need of resolution within the cycle of becoming. The issues of violence, loss, national identity, politics of interpretation and repetition in ideology are canvassed. While the essay is focused upon Mela films themselves, and South Asian film more broadly, it has of course been important to note work by scholars such as M. Madhava Prasad, Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Anjali Gera Roy, Tejaswini Niranjana, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and the help of my students, some of whom are named below.     

Fateful aspects of aspiration among graduates in New York and Los Angeles

ABSTRACT

This article presents ethnographic research on the aspirations of graduates from a private university in New York City, some of whom move to Los Angeles. Findings depict financial and family pressures exerting a governing force upon the graduates’ futures, often beyond their control. Focusing on the narratives of four individuals, we introduce the language of fate as a means of conceptualising the potential repercussions of aspiration and Higher Education. The premise of both is an increased determinacy over one’s future, yet in the high-stakes U.S. context here examined, this financial investment and articulation of family hope may generate fated (seemingly inescapable) and/or fateful (ominous) outcomes. The dynamic of ‘cruel optimism’ illustrates some of the paradoxical consequences of Higher Education, whereby people may be punished by their aspirations. We discuss what factors affect differing outlooks on the future and imply alternative dimensions to adversity beyond the remit of ‘inequality’.     

Reviewing the Variability-Overuse Injury Hypothesis: Does Movement Variability Relate to Landing Injuries?

Purpose: Overuse injuries are common in sport, but complete understanding of injury risk factors remains incomplete. Although biomechanical studies frequently examine musculoskeletal injury mechanisms, human movement variability studies aim to better understand neuromotor functioning, with proposed connections between overuse injury mechanisms and changes in motor variability. Method: In a narrative review, we discuss the variability-overuse injury hypothesis, which suggests repeated load application leads to mechanical tissue breakdown and subsequent injury when exceeding the rate of physiological adaptation. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of this hypothesis, we incorporate concepts from motor control, neurophysiology, biomechanics, as well as research design and data analysis. We therefore summarize multiple perspectives while proposing theoretical relationships between movement variability and lower extremity overuse injuries. Results: Experimental data are presented and summarized from published experiments examining interactions between experimental task demands and movement variability in the context of drop landing movements, along with comparisons to previous movement variability studies. Conclusion: We provide a conceptual framework for sports medicine researchers interested in predicting and preventing sports injuries. Under performance conditions with greater task demands, we predict reduced trial-to-trial movement variability that could increase the likelihood of overuse injuries.