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This study, centered around a survey of library directors (N = 83), examines community health programming (CHP) in Michigan's public libraries within the broader context of national CHP initiatives. Reponses indicate that while physical activity classes and food skills programs are popular, there are still challenges to overcome. These findings led us to recommendations for cultivating partnerships that can help CHP grow and flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motocross racing is a seldom-researched popular extreme sport. This field research aimed to investigate feeling states, perceived arousal, anxiety, and negative and positive affect in the anticipatory and recovery race periods and their relationship to expected and perceived performance. Twenty Motocross racers completed psychometric scales before and after a national championship race. Results revealed that objective performance was unrelated to psychological measures. Arousal, anxiety, and positive affect were lower after the race. Expected performance was unrelated to postrace measures. Still, perceived performance correlated significantly with the feeling state, anxiety, and positive affect after the race and the feeling state before the race. Furthermore, racers who performed as expected or better showed improved feeling states after the race compared with those who did worse than expected. The core affect of the latter group declined. This research on psychological states during Motocross races could motivate new initiatives for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hear from a public library director of a small library in Michigan. The author assumed the role as a first-time library director. This column explores the opportunities and challenges of taking on a directorship of a small public library. An emphasis on customer service and building the library into a community player is a key theme. The library's relationship to the city and other city departments is also discussed. Leading a public library through the COVID pandemic is touched on as well. This column is a glimpse into the operation of municipal government and public libraries. Smaller public libraries are special places in a community and this column helps you understand how they function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries play an increasingly significant role in responding to the needs of the local economy. They have the resources to survey the business community to determine what these needs are. Libraries can also form partnerships with government agencies and nonprofits that can help to foster a thriving economy. Programming and events can be targeted to assist segments of the population that have traditionally been underserved or have only limited access to the resources needed for business creation. Richland Library in Columbia, SC, and the Baltimore County Public Library are cited for the community partnerships they have formed and for their innovative programming in support of small business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revered tradition of amateurism has transformed due to legal and legislative challenges initiated by the name, image, and likeness landscape. In contrast to the traditional National Collegiate Athletic Association model, college athletes have now gained the opportunity to benefit financially from their notoriety by adopting an influencer role. The purpose of this manuscript was to explore the conceptual and theoretical shifts resulting from the introduction of the influencer role, considering the existing literature on athlete–student role theory. By achieving harmony between the athlete, student, and influencer roles, athletes should produce the most significant gains in each area, including academic performance, athletic achievement, and monetary benefit. However, greater psychological and sociological consequences may emerge for athletes if the influencer role further complicates the conflict between their athlete and student roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coaches' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about mental health—or mental health literacy (MHL)—affect teams' mental health climates and the detection, referral, and treatment of athletes' mental health concerns. Thus, assessing collegiate coaches' MHL, and factors related to its presence, is critical. Using the Mental Health Literacy Scale, 1,571 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) coaches were surveyed regarding their MHL and demographic and mental health experience factors. Overall, 99.9% of the coaches surveyed believe that athletes' mental health affected their sport performances. Through hierarchical regression analyses, coaches' exposure to mental health treatment, perceived helpfulness of mental health treatment, gender (i.e., woman), years coaching (i.e., fewer years), and current NCAA division (i.e., Division III) were significantly related to their MHL, explaining 15.5% of variance. However, coaches' race/ethnicity did not reach significance. Recommendations regarding increasing coaches' MHL and hiring appropriately trained and licensed mental health and sport psychology professionals are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While important for athletic development and well-being in youth sport, knowledge remains limited around the processes underpinning triadic relationships between parents, athletes, and coaches. This study aimed to examine the relational processes that drive the functioning of parent–athlete–coach triads across three developmental stages of youth tennis. Using a collective-case-study design, 10 players, 10 coaches, and 9 mothers completed preinterview tasks and semistructured interviews and provided conversational history. Reflexive thematic analysis led to the generation of two higher order themes: foundations of relationship quality and factors enabling team effectiveness. Findings highlighted how specific relationship qualities (i.e., commitment, trust, respect, and parent–coach proximity) and team effectiveness constructs (i.e., shared goals, collaborative and adjusted roles, support, and role-specific communication) served to facilitate the tennis experience for triads. Scholars are encouraged to consider integrating small-group principles (e.g., team building) into tailored support programs that address the psychosocial needs of the triad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explored how three professional Australian football coaches learned and understood mental toughness. Participants shared stories regarding mental toughness through semistructured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. Creative nonfiction was employed to develop a composite story. All participants' voices contributed equally to the narrative, which follows Sam (our composite coach) through three periods in his career: as a junior player, an elite footballer, and, finally, a coach in the professional football environment. Mental toughness was fundamentally determined by the sociocultural environment in which one was immersed. Athletes and coaches were expected to internalize dominant understandings of mental toughness and reinforce ideals and were punished if they deviated from mentally tough standards set up in their clubs. Mental toughness was defined by various values, beliefs, and norms that originated from the sociocultural environment, indicating the importance of context in understanding the roots of being mentally tough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study explored how applied sport psychology practitioners adopting client-led stances described two of their athlete interactions. Applied sport psychology practitioners (8 female and 12 male, mean age = 33.76 years, SD = 4.70), describing themselves as client-led practitioners, discussed two athlete consultancies during open-ended interviews. Data analysis involved examining the narrative structure of practitioners' stories and identifying the features of client-led service delivery present in the accounts. The participants' stories reflected a collaborative empiricism narrative in which they collaborated with athletes to resolve client issues. The stories contained features of client-led person-centered therapy and the use of practitioner-led techniques and interventions. The results point to applied implications such as providing accounts of service delivery on which practitioners can reflect as they consider the ways they wish to help clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kinetics of force-mediated chemical reactions of end-tethered polymers with varying chain length N in varying shear rate flow γ ̇ are explored via coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations. At fixed γ ̇ , force F along a polymer increases linearly with N as previously predicted; however, contrary to existing theory, the F(N) slope increases for N above a transition length that exhibits minimal dependence on γ ̇ . Force profiles are used in a stochastic model of a force-mediated reaction to compute the time for x percent of a polymer population to experience a reaction, tx. Observations are insensitive to the selected value of x in that tx data for varying N and γ ̇ can be consistently collapsed onto a single curve via appropriate scaling, with one master curve for systems below the transition N (small N) and another for those above (large N). Different force scaling for small and large N results in orders of magnitude difference in force-mediated reaction kinetics as represented by the population response time. Data presented illustrate the possibility of designing mechano-reactive polymer populations with highly controlled response to flow across a range in γ ̇ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Philosophy of Mixed Martial Arts: Squaring the Octagons" is an academic book that explores philosophical ideas and concepts related to mixed martial arts (MMA) and combat sports. The book covers a wide range of topics, including the history and nature of MMA, ethical aspects, cognitive and aesthetic aspects, violence and constraints in combat sports, and the gender debate in MMA. The authors come from diverse academic backgrounds and include practitioners and former athletes, providing a range of perspectives. While the book primarily focuses on MMA, it also extends to other martial arts and combat sports. It is a valuable resource for understanding the social and moral issues surrounding MMA and boxing, and it can be used for teaching and research purposes in various disciplines. [Extracted from the article]

Group physical activity can provide physical and social benefits; however, social barriers or a lack of social support may affect participation. This study examined social-support needs and barriers among older adults who were not participating in group physical activities. Using interpretive description, semistructured interviews were conducted with 38 older adults (M = 70.9 years; 81.6% women). Themes were grouped into two categories. Category 1, expectations and initial impressions, consisted of the following: (a) Groups cannot meet everyone's expectations or interests, (b) groups are intimidating to join, and (c) the need for inclusive programming. Category 2, social processes within group physical activity, consisted of (a) modeling physical activity behaviors, (b) sharing information and suggestions about physical activity opportunities, and (c) encouragement and genuine interest. Outreach to this population should aim to address these barriers and utilize these supportive behaviors to reduce feelings of intimidation and promote participation among older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with autism engage in active play in different ways than children who are neurotypical, but their active play behaviors are not well understood. Research with twins and triplets with autism offers a unique opportunity to gain a clear picture of the play behaviors of children with autism because twins and triplets share many similarities (age, access to toys, etc.). Through semistructured interviews, this descriptive phenomenological study aimed to describe the active play behaviors of 19 twins and triplets with autism from the perspective of their parents (N = 9). The interviews revealed two main themes: (a) parents' descriptions of active play and (b) parents' descriptions of social play. The results reveal the diverse active and social play behaviors of twins and triplets with autism; parents described their children's play behavior when engaging in sensory, indoor, outdoor, and organized play. These results suggest that children with autism may be meeting the definition of active play in nontraditional ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the association between socioecological factors and outdoor physical activity (PA) and play in children with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents (N = 133) completed a survey to report changes in their child's outdoor PA and play during the pandemic (from prepandemic levels), and child, household, and neighborhood environment factors. Children with a PA-supporting parent and from multichild and White households had lower odds of reporting decreased outdoor PA. Children from multichild, higher income, married couple households and a PA-supporting parent had lower odds of decreased outdoor play. Living in neighborhoods with higher urbanization (i.e., high dwelling density, street intersections, and land-use mix) was associated with greater odds of decreased outdoor PA and play. Future research that uses larger and more representative samples of children with disabilities is needed to test for the multivariate effects of socioecological variables on outdoor PA and play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to identify factors that reduce parental concern of concussion risks for children who play youth tackle American football. Interviews were conducted with parents who allowed children between the ages of 10 and 15 years to play on tackle football teams. Factors that reduced parental concern included advances in equipment safety and helmet technology, active parental monitoring and relationship building with coaches, and social comparisons to other youth athletes regarding their own child's athleticism and ability to avoid injury. Although these factors reduced parents' concern for concussion risks, the findings highlight biases that influence parental risk judgments, suggest that interventions to reduce concussions must account for competing narratives of concussion prevention, and offer recommendations for improving education efforts focused on player safety in contact sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article brings together scholarship on communication theory, influencer marketing, and personal branding to examine a new type of social media influencer—the college athlete influencer. Previous research in the field of sports has not specifically explored the distinct characteristics of college athletes that contribute to their effectiveness as marketing influencers. By adopting a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the source of college athletes' influence via social media. Quantitative results indicate that projecting an athletic identity on social media enhances the influencer's credibility and increases the likelihood of consumers purchasing the products they endorse. Furthermore, qualitative findings indicated that the shared school identity acts as the ultimate impetus for the bond between the influencer and the consumer, which subsequently impacts the consumer's purchasing decisions. This study provides actionable implications for schools, colleges, and brands seeking to build compelling sponsorships in the name, image, and likeness era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On July 1, 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association suspended its amateurism bylaw, allowing states to pass name, image, and likeness legislation. This opened the floodgates in intercollegiate athletics, allowing student-athletes to earn income and other financial incentives by engaging in sponsorships and other commercial deals with companies and organizations. Despite this, international collegiate athletes are currently prohibited from monetizing name, image, and likeness opportunities in the United States due to exclusionary restrictions on the F1 student visa status. There has been limited discourse regarding this near exclusion, leaving international collegiate athletes a silent group with few advocating for changes to ensure equity. This preliminary study investigates the perceptions of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I intercollegiate athletic practitioners and coaches on the impact this exclusion can have on a wide range of issues, including recruiting, team dynamics, and job function. Findings suggested there are five main areas where this legislative gap will have an impact, including education, finance, diversion, equity and fairness, and American exceptionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research looking into youth sport coaching indicates that a majority of coaches may also be a parent to an athlete on their team. While previous studies have also sought to understand how being a parent–coach might affect parents' relationships with their own child(ren), little work appears to explore how occupying this role might affect an individual's ability to remain effective as a coach. As such, 14 parent–coaches were interviewed to examine how they perceived their dual role to influence their coaching effectiveness and to hear what strategies they used to remain effective. Interviews were analyzed thematically, and findings indicated that parent–coaches have few formalized resources to aid them in navigating the issues associated with their challenging dual-role position. More support would be welcomed by this population to improve their effectiveness and to ensure that all developing athletes in their care continue to have positive experiences within the youth sport environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assistant coaches play an important role in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic departments and spend substantial amounts of time working with student-athletes, yet no research to date has examined their knowledge of mental performance and mental health services. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to learn about NCAA Division I assistant coaches' understanding and use of mental performance and mental health services. Thirteen assistant coaches employed at universities with at least one mental performance consultant and one licensed mental health provider were interviewed. Thematic analysis procedures were used, and five themes were constructed: (a) day-to-day responsibilities of the assistant coach, (b) needing both mental performance and mental health services, (c) factors influencing understanding of mental performance and mental health services, (d) factors impacting student-athlete utilization of mental performance and mental health services, and (e) confusion between mental performance and mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amorphous drugs represent an intriguing option to bypass the low solubility of many crystalline formulations of pharmaceuticals. The physical stability of the amorphous phase with respect to the crystal is crucial to bring amorphous formulations into the market—however, predicting the timescale involved with the onset of crystallization a priori is a formidably challenging task. Machine learning can help in this context by crafting models capable of predicting the physical stability of any given amorphous drug. In this work, we leverage the outcomes of molecular dynamics simulations to further the state-of-the-art. In particular, we devise, compute, and use "solid state" descriptors that capture the dynamical properties of the amorphous phases, thus complementing the picture offered by the "traditional," "one-molecule" descriptors used in most quantitative structure–activity relationship models. The results in terms of accuracy are very encouraging and demonstrate the added value of using molecular simulations as a tool to enrich the traditional machine learning paradigm for drug design and discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

However, just as Danto pointed out in connection to the appreciation of artworks, Morgan emphasises that "there is more to sport than meets the eye" (73): the intrinsic properties making up the formal structure of a particular sport determine what properties will be relevant in aesthetically engaging a sporting body. Somaesthetics and Sport: edited by Andrew Edgar, Leiden/Boston, Brill, 2022, x+260 pp., €124.02 (hardback), ISBN 978-90-04-51064-7; €148.59 (Ebook), ISBN 978-90-04-51065-4 The aesthetic force of sport - residing, for instance, in the graceful and purposeful movement of skilful bodies, the intensely absorbing drama of a sporting competition, or the immersion into the autotelic, embodied activity of overcoming obstacles set by the rules - has been fascinating the philosophy of sport since its inception in the 70s. [Extracted from the article]

The author presents a first-hand account of a self-identified problem employee. She focuses on her role as a new manager in a large public library. She identifies problem behaviors and the negative attitudes behind them. She lists a number of causes for becoming a problem employee. She looks at the failures of her supervisor and the library system, including the lack of communication, clear direction, and concrete feedback. She examines the shortcomings of her library school management course in preparing her to lead. She identifies self-doubt as another culprit. She confesses that she did not see herself as management material and lacked role models. She acknowledges that her early academic success made her resistant to seek help or to modify her work behaviors. She explains how her role as a problem employee was allowed to persist for several years. Finally, the author shows how she changed from being a problem employee to a productive member of the library staff. She offers both personal and generic suggestions for solving the problem of having problem employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Applying Educational Psychology in Coaching Athletes" by Jeffrey J. Huber is a comprehensive book that explores the intersection between sport psychology and educational psychology. The author provides practical insights and strategies for coaches and sports psychologists to enhance athlete development and performance. The book covers various educational psychology theories, such as motivation, behaviorism, cognitivism, and humanism, and offers real-world applications for coaching athletes. It emphasizes the importance of understanding athletes' motivation and cognitive processes to optimize their performance. Overall, this book is a valuable resource for professionals in the field of sports coaching and psychology, offering practical guidance for creating supportive and effective learning environments for athletes. [Extracted from the article]

In 2021, alongside seven colleges at the University of Idaho campus, the University of Idaho Library received an eGlass system (https://eglass.io) with funding from the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Grant to expand faculty's capacity to create instructional videos. The eGlass is a transparent glass whiteboard that allows instructors to write, draw, and annotate. It comes with a built-in camera that can capture instructors' facial expressions and gestures while facing their remote students and allow better engagement. The eGlass is suitable for creating asynchronous instructional videos for flipped classrooms and integrating Zoom for synchronous online classes. This article details the eGlass equipment setup, studio space optimization, outreach efforts and initiatives, usage examples of early adopters, lessons learned during the first year of the eGlass deployment, and future considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Athletes ( I N = i 584) completed the Group Environment Questionnaire (Carron et al., 1985) to measure perceptions of cohesion and the SPLIT to assess athlete leadership behaviors. using structural equation modelling (SEM), the results showed the athlete leadership dimensions of task- and change-oriented leadership were positively related to the cohesion dimensions of ATG-T ( =.19, I p i <.05; =.62, I p i <.05, respectively) and GI-T ( =.16, I p i <.05; =.62, I p i <.05, respectively). B An examination of positive body image, sport-confidence, and sport performance evaluations in Jamaican athletes b I Chelsi Ricketts, Michigan State University; Leapetswe Malete, Michigan State University; Nicholas D. Myers, Michigan State University; André G. Bateman, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica; Caryl James Bateman, The University of the West Indies, Mona i Body image research in sport has primarily examined athletes' risk for developing body-related psychopathologies (e.g., negative body image, eating disorders), despite evidence of higher positive body image in athletes compared to non-athletes. It was hypothesized that (a) body and functionality appreciation would exert positive direct effects on sport-confidence, (b) sport-confidence would exert a positive direct effect on sport performance evaluations, and (c) body and functionality appreciation would exert positive indirect effects on sport performance evaluations through sport-confidence. The purpose of this study was to validate an athlete-reported version of the CLSS-Q. In total, 528 (high school, I n i = 346; college, I n i = 182) student-athletes completed the athlete-reported version of the 36-item CLSS-Q. To assess the factor structure of the athlete-reported CLSS-Q, we conducted a series of exploratory structural equation models (ESEM) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). [Extracted from the article]