Exploring accuracy and impact of concurrent and retrospective self-talk among golfers

The current study aimed to provide insight into the types and frequency of self-talk of skilled golfers (n = 6) by considering and comparing concurrent verbalization and retrospective reports. Each participant wore a microphone to record his thoughts while verbalizing them for the duration of nine holes of golf on three separate occasions. The researchers transcribed and coded this verbalized self-talk. Participants also completed a retrospective self-talk questionnaire at the conclusion of each round. Results suggest that participants’ concurrent verbalization and retrospective reports were inconsistent, specifically with regard to function (i.e., motivational versus instructional) and valence (i.e., positive, negative, and neutral), and that participants felt their concurrent verbalization more accurately reflected their experiences. The results support previous research that indicates that retrospective reports of self-talk may not provide accurate insight into what athletes actually say to themselves as they perform in their sports, while asserting that concurrent verbalization may be a more accurate representation of their self-talk experiences

Correction: assortative mating in fallow deer reduces the strength of sexual selection.

PMCID: PMC3182158 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article corrects this one: PLoS One. 2011; 6(4): e18533. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018533[This corrects the article on p. e18533 in vol. 6.]

Features in the ion emission of Cu, Al, and C plasmas produced by ultrafast laser ablation

© 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. The bi-modal nature of charge integrated ion kinetic energy distributions, which result from ultrafast laser produced plasmas, is discussed in this paper. A negatively biased Faraday cup was used as a charge collector to measure ion distributions from three different solid targets that had been irradiated with an ultrafast laser in the fluence range 0.1-1 J/cm2. A bi-modal time of flight distribution is found for all three targets (C, Al, and Cu). In the case of the metallic targets (Al and Cu), high- and low-kinetic energy peaks exhibit quite different dependencies on laser fluence, whereas for the semi-metallic target (C), both peaks scale similarly with ultrafast laser fluence. The results are discussed within the framework of a one dimensional capacitor model resulting in ion acceleration

Preliminary study of the sedimentation of Lake St. Clair from minor river and stream tributaries

Sediment samples collected from the minor tributary streams and rivers of Lake St. Clair were analyzed to determine if there were any distinct mineral assemblages within the <64 micrometer size fraction. These assemblages could then identify lake sediment provenances. Mineral assemblages were identified for all the streams and rivers by x-ray dffraction analysis, and were found to be uniform in composition. It is suggested that the sources for the suspended and bottom sediments of the streams and rivers have similar compositions, such as that of a uniform till plain. The distribution patterns of the fluvially transported sediments in the lake can not be determined solely on the basis of the composition of the <64 micrometer size fraction.No embarg

Time dependent spin-dressing using a 3^3He atomic beam

We have performed high precision experimental measurements of spin precession using a dressed $^3$He atomic beam. Spin-dressing uses an oscillating magnetic field detuned to high frequency which is orthogonal to a static magnetic field to effectively change the gyromagnetic ratio of a spin. We verify the validity of the spin-dressing Hamiltonian in regions beyond the limiting solution in which the Larmor frequency is much smaller than the frequency of the dressing field. We also evaluate the effect of magnetic field misalignment, e.g. if the oscillating magnetic field is not orthogonal to the static magnetic field. Modulation of the dressing field parameters is also discussed, with a focus on whether such a modulation can be approximated merely as a time dependent, dressed gyromagnetic ratio. Furthermore, we discuss implications for a proposed search for the neutron electric dipole moment, which would employ spin-dressing to make the effective $^3$He and neutron magnetic moments equal.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Study of high voltage solar array configurations with integrated power control electronics

Solar array electrical configurations for voltage regulatio

Composite materials for rail transit systems

The potential is explored for using composite materials in urban mass transit systems. The emphasis was to identify specific advantages of composite materials in order to determine their actual and potential usage for carbody and guideway structure applications. The literature was reviewed, contacts were made with major domestic system operators, designers, and builders, and an analysis was made of potential composite application to railcar construction. Composites were found to be in use throughout the transit industry, usually in secondary or auxiliary applications such as car interior and nonstructural exterior panels. More recently, considerable activity has been initiated in the area of using composites in the load bearing elements of civil engineering structures such as highway bridges. It is believed that new and improved manufacturing refinements in pultrusion and filament winding will permit the production of beam sections which can be used in guideway structures. The inherent corrosion resistance and low maintenance characteristics of composites should result in lowered maintenance costs over a prolonged life of the structure

Random quantum codes from Gaussian ensembles and an uncertainty relation

Using random Gaussian vectors and an information-uncertainty relation, we give a proof that the coherent information is an achievable rate for entanglement transmission through a noisy quantum channel. The codes are random subspaces selected according to the Haar measure, but distorted as a function of the sender's input density operator. Using large deviations techniques, we show that classical data transmitted in either of two Fourier-conjugate bases for the coding subspace can be decoded with low probability of error. A recently discovered information-uncertainty relation then implies that the quantum mutual information for entanglement encoded into the subspace and transmitted through the channel will be high. The monogamy of quantum correlations finally implies that the environment of the channel cannot be significantly coupled to the entanglement, and concluding, which ensures the existence of a decoding by the receiver.Comment: 9 pages, two-column style. This paper is a companion to quant-ph/0702005 and quant-ph/070200

Shareholder Democracy and the Curious Turn Towards Board Primacy

Corporate law is consumed with a debate over shareholder democracy. The conventional wisdom counsels that shareholders should have more voice in corporate governance, in order to reduce agency costs and provide democratic legitimacy. A second set of theorists, described as “board primacists,” advocates against greater shareholder democracy and in favor of increased board discretion. These theorists argue that shareholders need to delegate their authority in order to provide the board with the proper authority to manage the enterprise and avoid short-term decision making. In the last few years, the classical economic underpinnings of corporate law have been destabilized by a growing recognition that shareholders are not a homogeneous group of wealth maximizers. This recognition has, among other things, undercut the arguments made in support of the typical corporate structure where shareholders alone possess the right to vote in corporate elections. Board primacy seems well-positioned to retheorize corporate law to adapt to this new reality. In their analyses of the issue, however, board primacy theorists have conflated two very different aspects of group decision processes: the responsiveness of the governance system and the composition of the electorate. This confusion ends up putting many board primacy theorists in the curious position of moving away from the public choice emphasis on preference aggregation toward a more civic republican model of less responsive, more deliberative decision making. By restricting the franchise, board primacists have detached their governance structures from the underlying desires of their constituents without substituting anything in their place. We argue, however, that the breakdown of this particular distinction between shareholders and other constituents could mean that we should investigate treating other constituents more like shareholders, rather than the other way around