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This brief review summarizes translational and intervention research in the area of sports performance. We describe studies with youth, collegiate, and elite athletes; identify recent trends; and propose recommendations for future research.

Pediatric school psychology is a relatively new subspecialty in the field; however, few specific, prescribed roles have been articulated, and fewer have yielded preliminary efficacy data. In this exploratory study, the acceptability and potential efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) as a model for linking families, schools, and pediatric settings to address concerns for children with medical issues were evaluated. Twenty-nine children, their parents, teachers, and consultants were involved in conjoint consultation, a model of cross-system collaboration to address shared concerns of medically referred children. In this structured indirect service delivery model, parents, teachers, and school psychology pediatric consultants worked collaboratively in interdisciplinary problem solving and joint decision making with extensive input regarding medical issues from a developmental pediatrician. Outcome measures included parent and teacher observations of child functioning across home and school settings as a result of consultation-mediated interventions and social validity indices assessing acceptability and consumer satisfaction. Results suggested that CBC is a socially valid procedure for addressing concerns of medically referred children across home and school systems. Both parents and teachers reported the consultation process to be highly acceptable. Preliminary effect size analyses of child outcomes, derived from uncontrolled case study designs, suggest generally positive effects across home and school, although limitations with the methodology preclude conclusive statements. Research is needed to determine the contexts and conditions under which the model is more or less effective using rigorous controlled trials. (Contains 3 tables and 1 note.)

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the extent to which a partnership orientation in conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) may predict case outcomes and determine the relationship between a partnership orientation and implementation integrity of CBC. CBC is a problem-solving process by which families and teachers work collaboratively with a consultant to address students' academic, behavioral, and social needs. Twenty children, their parents and teachers, and consultants were involved in CBC services. Outcomes included parent and teacher ratings of acceptability, satisfaction, perceptions of effectiveness, and child performance across home and school settings. Partnership orientation scores and process integrity data were collected across interviews for each case. Results suggest that both parents and teachers consistently find CBC to be an acceptable, effective, and satisfactory form of service delivery. Findings reveal that consultants can conduct CBC interview objectives effectively within a partnership orientation. A partnership orientation in CBC was significant in predicting teachers' acceptability and satisfaction with the process; however, parents' acceptability and satisfaction with the CBC process was not predicted by a partnership orientation. (Contains 3 tables.)

We evaluated several behavioral coaching procedures with two young adults who had intellectual and developmental disabilities and were preparing for a Special Olympics track event. The primary dependent measure was their time running a 100 m sprint. Following a baseline phase, the athletes were coached to improve sprint times through different combinations of goal setting, performance feedback, positive reinforcement, and video modeling. In a sequential design, the average sprint time of both athletes was lower during intervention conditions compared with baseline. Following intervention, they ran faster than their baseline average in competition at a regional Special Olympics event. We discuss intervention and research issues in behavioral coaching of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell-cell signaling system that enables bacteria to coordinate population density-dependent changes in behavior. This chemical communication pathway is mediated by diffusible N -acyl L-homoserine lactone signals and cytoplasmic signal-responsive LuxR-type receptors in Gram-negative bacteria. As many common pathogenic bacteria use QS to regulate virulence, there is significant interest in disrupting QS as a potential therapeutic strategy. Prior studies have implicated the natural products salicylic acid, cinnamaldehyde, and other related benzaldehyde derivatives as inhibitors of QS in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, yet we lack an understanding of the mechanisms by which these compounds function. Herein, we evaluate the activity of a set of benzaldehyde derivatives using heterologous reporters of the P. aeruginosa LasR and RhlR QS signal receptors. We find that most tested benzaldehyde derivatives can antagonize LasR or RhlR reporter activation at micromolar concentrations, although certain molecules also cause mild growth defects and nonspecific reporter antagonism. Notably, several compounds showed promising RhlR or LasR-specific inhibitory activities over a range of concentrations below that causing toxicity. ortho -Vanillin, a previously untested compound, was the most promising within this set. Competition experiments against the native ligands for LasR and RhlR revealed that ortho -vanillin can interact competitively with RhlR but not with LasR. Overall, these studies expand our understanding of benzaldehyde activities in the LasR and RhlR receptors and reveal potentially promising effects of ortho -vanillin as a small molecule QS modulator against RhlR., Importance: Quorum sensing (QS) regulates many aspects of bacterial pathogenesis and has attracted much interest as a target for anti-virulence therapies over the past 30 years, for example, antagonists of the LasR and RhlR QS receptors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Potent and selective QS inhibitors remain relatively scarce. However, natural products have provided a bounty of chemical scaffolds with anti-QS activities, but their molecular mechanisms are poorly characterized. The current study serves to fill this void by examining the activity of an important and wide-spread class of natural product QS modulators, benzaldehydes, and related derivatives, in LasR and RhlR. We demonstrate that ortho -vanillin can act as a competitive inhibitor of RhlR, a receptor that has emerged and may supplant LasR in certain settings as a target for P. aeruginosa QS control. The results and insights provided herein will advance the design of chemical tools to study QS with improved activities and selectivities., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.