Australian Catholic University

About: Australian Catholic University is a education organization based out in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 2721 authors who have published 10013 publications receiving 215248 citations. The organization is also known as: ACU & ACU National.

Dynamic foot function as a risk factor for lower limb overuse injury: A systematic review

Abstract: Dynamic foot function is considered a risk factor for lower limb overuse injuries including Achilles tendinopathy, shin pain, patellofemoral pain and stress fractures. However, no single source has systematically appraised and summarised the literature to evaluate this proposed relationship. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate dynamic foot function as a risk factor for lower limb overuse injury. A systematic search was performed using Medline, CINAHL, Embase and SportDiscus in April 2014 to identify prospective cohort studies that utilised dynamic methods of foot assessment. Included studies underwent methodological quality appraisal by two independent reviewers using an adapted version of the Epidemiological Appraisal Instrument (EAI). Effects were expressed as standardised mean differences (SMD) for continuous scaled data, and risk ratios (RR) for nominal scaled data. Twelve studies were included (total n = 3,773; EAI 0.44 to 1.20 out of 2.00, representing low to moderate quality). There was limited to very limited evidence for forefoot, midfoot and rearfoot plantar loading variables (SMD 0.47 to 0.85) and rearfoot kinematic variables (RR 2.67 to 3.43) as risk factors for patellofemoral pain; and plantar loading variables (forefoot, midfoot, rearfoot) as risk factors for Achilles tendinopathy (SMD 0.81 to 1.08). While there were significant findings from individual studies for plantar loading variables (SMD 0.3 to 0.84) and rearfoot kinematic variables (SMD 0.29 to 0.62) as risk factors for ‘non-specific lower limb overuse injuries’, these were often conflicting regarding different anatomical regions of the foot. Findings from three studies indicated no evidence that dynamic foot function is a risk factor for iliotibial band syndrome or lower limb stress fractures. This systematic review identified very limited evidence that dynamic foot function during walking and running is a risk factor for patellofemoral pain, Achilles tendinopathy, and non-specific lower limb overuse injuries. It is unclear whether these risk factors can be identified clinically (without sophisticated equipment), or modified to prevent or manage these injuries. Future prospective cohort studies should address methodological limitations, avoid grouping different lower limb overuse injuries, and explore clinically meaningful representations of dynamic foot function.

Revealing psychological inertia in mode shift behavior and its quantitative influences on commuting trips

Abstract: The inertia effects stemmed from repeated past behavior have been investigated by both psychology and transportation studies because of its bearing on explaining human mobility and forecasting travel demand. However, the existing literature from psychology does not strictly control potential endogeneity due to ignorance of detailed level-of-service (LOS) variables of alternatives and rational preference in the analysis. Quantitative transportation studies are insufficient in providing explicit behavior mechanisms. This paper aims to fill the gaps by empirically examining the effects of irrational psychological inertia in mode shift behavior with controlling potential endogeneity. A specific-designed comparison experiment is conducted to demonstrate the existence of psychological inertia in mode shift behavior. The effects of dominance in LOS variables and rational preference towards a certain transport mode are controlled to eliminate potential endogeneity in the analysis. The results demonstrate that after controlling the above-mentioned endogeneity, both car and metro users show significantly and substantially larger predilections to previously used transport mode in mode shift scenarios without overturning travel contexts than those in new context mode choice scenarios with noticeable changes in travel contexts. The results support that psychological inertia plays a significant role in mode shift behavior after controlling potential endogeneity. Moreover, this study utilizes hybrid choice modeling to quantitatively measure the effect of psychological inertia. The relationships between travelers’ characteristics and strength of psychological inertia are analyzed as well to shed light on heterogeneity in the strength of psychological inertia. The findings provide solid evidence of psychological inertia in mode shift behavior by a novel method and provide an approach to measure the quantitative effects of psychological inertia along with empirical studies.

Happy fish in little ponds: Testing a reference group model of achievement and emotion

Abstract: A theoretical model linking achievement and emotions is proposed. The model posits that individual achievement promotes positive achievement emotions and reduces negative achievement emotions. In contrast, group-level achievement is thought to reduce individuals’ positive emotions and increase their negative emotions. The model was tested using one cross-sectional and two longitudinal datasets on 5th to 10th grade students’ achievement emotions in mathematics (Studies 1–3: Ns = 1,610, 1,759, and 4,353, respectively). Multilevel latent structural equation modeling confirmed that individual achievement had positive predictive effects on positive emotions (enjoyment, pride) and negative predictive effects on negative emotions (anger, anxiety, shame, and hopelessness), controlling for prior achievement, autoregressive effects, reciprocal effects, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES). Class-level achievement had negative compositional effects on the positive emotions and positive compositional effects on the negative emotions. Additional analyses suggested that self-concept of ability is a possible mediator of these effects. Furthermore, there were positive compositional effects of class-level achievement on individual achievement in Study 2 but not in Study 3, indicating that negative compositional effects on emotion are not reliably counteracted by positive effects on performance. The results were robust across studies, age groups, synchronous versus longitudinal analysis, and latent-manifest versus doubly latent modeling. These findings imply that individual success drives emotional well-being, whereas placing individuals in high-achieving groups can undermine well-being. Thus, the findings challenge policy and practice decisions on achievement-contingent allocation of individuals to groups.