Organizational commitment and perceived relatedness as correlates of the intention to continue officiating in track and field

The objectives of the present study were to explore three components of organizational commitment (affective [AC], normative [NC] and continuance [CC] commitment; Allen & Meyer, 1991), perceived relatedness (Oeci & Ryan, 1985; 2002), and behavioural intention (Ajzen, 2002) within the context of volunteer track and field officiating. The objectives were examined in a 2-phase study. Ouring phase 1, experts (N = 10) with domain familiarity assessed the item content relevance and representation of modified organizational commitment (OC; Meyer, Allen & Smith, 1993) and perceived relatedness (La Guardia, Oeci, Ryan & Couchman, 2000) items. Fourteen of 26 (p < .05) items were relevant (Aiken's coefficient V) and NC (M = 3.88, SO = .64), CC (M = 3.63, SD = .52), and relatedness (M = 4.00, SD = .93) items had mean item content-representation ratings of either "good" or "very good" while AC (M = 2.50, SD = 0.58) was rated "fair". Participants in phase 2 (N = 80) responded to items measuring demographic variables, perceptions of OC to Athletics Canada, perceived relatedness to other track and field officials, and a measure of intention (yiu, Au & Tang, 2001) to continue officiating. Internal consistency reliability estimates (Cronbach's (1951) coefficient alpha) were as follows: (a) AC = .78, (b) CC = .85, (c) NC = .80 (d) perceived relatedness = .70 and, (e) intention = .92 in the present sample. Results suggest that the track and field officials felt only minimally committed to Athletics Canada (AC M = 3.90, SD = 1.23; NC M = 2.47, SD = 1.25; CC M = 3.32; SD = 1.34) and that their relationships with other track and field officials were strongly endorsed (M = 5.86, SD = 0.74). Bivariate correlations (Pearson r) indicated that perceived relatedness to other track and field officials demonstrated the strongest relationship with intention to continue officiating (r = .346, p < .05), while dimensions of OC were not significantly related to intention (all p's > .05). Together perceived relatedness (j3 = .339, p = .004), affective commitment (j3 = -.1 53, p = .308), normative commitment (j3 = -.024, p = .864) and continuance commitment (j3 = .186, P = .287) contribute to the prediction of intention to continued officiating (K = .139). These relationships remained unaffected by the inclusion of demographic (j3age = -.02; P years with Athletics Canada = -.13; bothp's > .05) or alternative commitment (j3sport = -.19; P role = .15; Pathletes = .20; all p' s > .05) considerations. Three open-ended questions elicited qualitative responses regarding participants' reasons for officiating. Responses reflecting initial reasons for officiating formed these higher order themes: convenience, helping reasons, extension of role, and intrinsic reasons. Responses reflecting reasons for continuing to officiate formed these higher order themes: track and field, to help, and personal benefits. Responses reflecting changes that would influence continued involvement were: political, organizational/structural, and personal. These results corroborate the findings of previous investigations which state that the reasons underpinning volunteer motivations change over time (Cuskelly et al., 2002). Overall, the results of this study suggest that track and field officials feel minimal commitment to the organization of Athletics Canada but a stronger bond with their fellow officials. Moreover, the degree to which track and field officials feel meaningfully connected to one another appears to exert a positive influence on their intentions to continue officiating. As such, it is suggested that in order to promote continued involvement, Athletics Canada increases its focus on fostering environments promoting positive interactions among officials.

Effects of dietary restraint and oral contraceptives on bone strength and bone turnover in young women

ABSTRACT Introduction The purpose of this study was to assess specific osteoporosis-related health behaviours and physiological outcomes including daily calcium intake, physical activity levels, bone strength, as assessed by quantitative ultrasound, and bone turnover among women between the ages of 18 and 25. Respective differences on relevant study variables, based on dietary restraint and oral contraceptive use were also examined. Methods One hundred women (20.6 ± 0.2 years of age) volunteered to participate in the study. Informed written consent was obtained by all subjects prior to participation. The study and all related procedures were approved by the Brock University Research Ethics Board. Body mass, height, relative body fat, as well as chest, waist and hip circumferences were measured using standard procedures. The 10-item restrained eating subscale of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) was used to assess dietary restraint (van Strien et al., 1986). Daily calcium intake was assessed by the Rapid Assessment Method (RAM) (Hertzler & Frary 1994). Weekly physical activity was documented by the 4-item Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire (Godin & Shephard 1985). Bone strength was determined from the speed of sound (SOS) as measured by QUS (Sunlight 7000S). SOS measurements (m/s) were taken of the dominant and non-dominant sides of the distal one third of the radius and the mid-shaft of the tibia. Resting blood samples were collected from all subjects between 9am and 12pm, in order to evaluate the impact of lifestyle factors on biochemical markers of bone turnover. Blood was collected during the early follicular phase of the menstrual cycle (approximately days 1-5) for all subjects. Samples were centrifliged and the serum or plasma was aliquoted into separate tubes and stored at -80°C until analysis. The bone formation markers measured were Osteocalcin (OC), bone specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP) and 25-OH vitamin D. The bone resorption markers measured were the carboxy (CTx) and amino (NTx) terminal telopeptides of type-I collagen crosslinks. All markers were assessed by ELISA. Subjects were divided into high (HDR) and low dietary restrainers (LDR) based on the median DEBQ score, and also into users (BC) and non-users (nBC) of oral contraceptives. A series of multiple one way ANOVA's were then conducted to identify differences between each set of groups for all relevant variables. A two-way ANOVA analysis was used to explore significant interactions between dietary restraint and use of oral contraceptives while a univariate follow-up analysis was also performed when appropriate. Pearson Product Moment Correlations were used to determine relationships among study variables. Results HDR had significantly higher BMI, %BF and circumference measures but lower daily calcium intake than LDR. There were no significant differences in physical activity levels between HDR and LDR. No significant differences were found between BC and nBC in body composition, calcium intake and physical activity. HDR had significantly lower tibial SOS scores than LDR in both the dominant and non-dominant sites. The post-hoc analysis showed that within the non-birth control group, the HDR had significantly lower tibial SOS scores of bone strength when compared to the LDR but Aere were no significant differences found between the two dietary restraint groups for those currently on birth control. HDR had significantly lower levels of OC than LDR and the BC group had lower levels of BAP than the nBC group. Consistently, the follow-up analysis revealed that within those not on birth control, subjects who were classified as HDR had significantly (f*<0.05) lower levels of OC when compared with LDR but no significant differences were observed in bone turnover between the two dietary restraint groups for those currently on birth control. Physical activity was not correlated with SOS scores and bone turnover markers possibly due to the low physical activity variability in this group of women. Conclusion This is the first study to examine the effects of dietary restraint on bone strength and turnover among this population of women. The most important finding of this study was that bone strength and turnover are negatively influenced by dietary restraint independent of relative body fat. In general, the results of the present thesis suggest that dietary restraint, oral contraceptive use, as well as low daily calcium intake and low physical activity levels were widespread behaviours among this population of college-aged women. The young women who were using dietary restraint as a strategy to lose weight, and thus were in the HDR group, despite their higher relative body fat and weight, had lower scores of bone strength and lower levels of markers of bone turnover compared to the low dietary restrainers. Additionally, bone turnover seemed to be negatively affected by oral contraceptives, while bone strength, as assessed by QUS, seemed unaffected by their use in this population of young women. Physical activity (weekly energy expenditure), on the other hand, was not associated with either bone strength or bone tiimover possibly due to the low variability of this variable in this population of young Canadian women.

Management decision-making in nursing

This study developed a new, valid and reliable evaluation instrument to measure the level, type and pattern of management decisions of fifteen nursing students. The management decision score achieved using this instrument was correlated with two psychological determinants of management decision making: creativity and problem-solving ability. The instrument was a written patient management problem in case format, answered by a free form written response. The student responses were classified for type of management decision according to the sub-categories of technical, inter-personal, environmental and unique. Using statistical analysis a significant difference was found in the type of management decisions most frequently selected by the study sample. The students predominantly selected technical type decisions. This preference for one type of management decision may be due to a number of psychological and environmental factors. These factors may program and mold the type of management decisions student nurses make early in their career. Low but positive correlations were found between the total management score and the two psychological tests. This finding supports the authors cited in the literature who state that although creativity augments the type of management decision making, it is not present or encouraged widely in the nursing profession. These factors are worth considering when the profession becomes concerned over ritualization and lack of individuality in patient care. The tool is easy to administer, lends itself to a variety of professional settings and shows promise with further refinement for computer application.

The identification and characterization of inter- and intra-species genetic diversity derived from retrotransposons in humans

Retrotransposons, which used to be considered as “junk DNA”, have begun to reveal their immense value to genome evolution and human biology due to recent studies. They consist of at least ~45% of the human genome and are more or less the same in other mammalian genomes. Retrotransposon elements (REs) are known to affect the human genome through many different mechanisms, such as generating insertion mutations, genomic instability, and alteration in gene expression. Previous studies have suggested several RE subfamilies, such as Alu, L1, SVA and LTR, are currently active in the human genome, and they are an important source of genetic diversity between human and other primates, as well as among humans. Although several groups had used Retrotransposon Insertion Polymorphisms (RIPs) as markers in studying primate evolutionary history, no study specifically focused on identifying Human-Specific Retrotransposon Element (HS-RE) and their roles in human genome evolution. In this study, by computationally comparing the human genome to 4 primate genomes, we identified a total of 18,860 HS-REs, among which are 11,664 Alus, 4,887 L1s, 1,526 SVAs and 783 LTRs (222 full length entries), representing the largest and most comprehensive list of HS-REs generated to date. Together, these HS-REs contributed a total of 14.2Mb sequence increase from the inserted REs and Target Site Duplications (TSDs), 71.6Kb increase from transductions, and 268.2 Kb sequence deletion of from insertion-mediated deletion, leading to a net increase of ~14 Mb sequences to the human genome. Furthermore, we observed for the first time that Y chromosome might be a hot target for new retrotransposon insertions in general and particularly for LTRs. The data also allowed for the first time the survey of frequency of TE insertions inside other TEs in comparison with TE insertion into none-TE regions. In summary, our data suggest that retrotransposon elements have played a significant role in the evolution of Homo sapiens.

Facing Aggression: Cues Differ for Female versus Male Faces

The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers’ judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers’ judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F1,36= 7.43, p= 0.01). In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait) and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively) and masculinity (negatively) ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as ‘‘honest signals’’.

Invitation: 61st Inter-Parliamentary Conference Tokyo 1974 Inaugural Ceremony

An invitation to the Inaugural Ceremony of the 61st Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Japan October 1974. The invitation reads: "The Japanese Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union has the honour of inviting you to attend the Inaugural Ceremony of the 61st Inter-Parliamentary Conference to be held in the Chamber of the House of Councillors on Wednesday the 2nd of October 1974, at 3 p.m. The Ceremony will be honoured by the presence of Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan".

Letter regarding a special service held by DeVeaux School to re-inter the body of Mrs. Maria Woodruff

Letter (2 page typed form letter with a handwritten note from Don Loker) regarding a special service held by DeVeaux School to re-inter the body of Mrs. Maria Woodruff, the first wife of Judge Samuel DeVeaux. Her body was originally buried at DeVeaux School in Niagara Falls, New York. The location of the ceremony was the cemetery in St. Davids, Ontario. Maria died on April 23, 1815 at the age of 19. This notice was sent by Rev. Alec Pudwell, chaplain of DeVeaux School, Niagara Falls, New York, May 6, 1963.