Exploring and Developing a Scale Using Item Response Theory for Sport Psychological Skills in Speed Skaters.

The purpose of this study was to develop a sports psychological skills scale for speed skaters and examine the validity of the scale. In order to accomplish the purpose of this study, skaters from around the world were set as a population, and then data from 456 athletes were collected using convenience sampling from the athletes participating in the 2020-2022 World Championships and the Beijing Winter Olympics. For analysis, V coefficient, Parallel Analysis, Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling, Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling, Maximum Likelihood CFA, and analysis of Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis were carried out by using WINSTEPS 3.65 and MPLUS 7.04 programs. The level of statistical significance was all set at α = 0.05 and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling, Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling, Maximum Likelihood CFA, and Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis fit used TLI, RMSEA, the concept of reliability. The findings of the study were as follows: First, the factorial structure of SPSS was extracted as five factors with 17 items. Second, the analysis of MCFA on the transformative leadership scale, according to gender differences, was carried out, and cross validity was fulfilled.

A Study on the Preliminary Validity Analysis of Korean Firefighter Job-Related Physical Fitness Test.

The purpose of this study is to revise and modify the firefighter job-related performance tests from overseas to implement into the circumstances in Korea, examine its validity by analyzing the level of association between the test employed in the ongoing firefighter selection process, and propose a Korean firefighter job-related physical fitness test. Therefore, a modified version of Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT) from the United States firefighter selection process was conducted on 28 male firefighter officer candidates. Recorded results from VO2max, heart rate, blood lactate, anaerobic power test, and the ongoing Korean firefighter physical fitness test were analyzed to assess the validity of the modified test. IBM SPSS Statistics Ver. 27.0 was employed for the data correlation analysis in different fitness factors and the total circuit physical test time. The results revealed the proposed modified firefighter job-related physical fitness test showed significant correlation with VO2max (r = −0.450, p < 0.05), METS (r = −0.735, p < 0.01) recovery lactate over 15 min (r = −0.460, p < 0.05), peak power (r = −0.484, p < 0.05), average power (r = −0.647, p < 0.01), and in the ongoing firefighter physical fitness test, grip strength (r = −0.709, p < 0.01), lower back strength (r = −0.681, p < 0.01), standing long jump (r = −0.618, p < 0.01), sit-ups (r = −0.397, p < 0.05), and shuttle run (r = −0.523, p < 0.01). Fitness factors including VO2max, recovery lactate, anaerobic power, muscular strength, and so forth known to play a crucial role in firefighting operations were also shown to be important in the modified firefighter job-related physical fitness test. However, we suggest that studies with a larger sample size are needed in order to generalize our findings.

Sport Psychological Skill Factors and Scale Development for Taekwondo Athletes.

The purpose of this study was to identify the sport psychological skills of Taekwondo athletes and to develop a scale measuring such skills. We collected preliminary data using an open-ended online survey targeting Taekwondo athletes from nine countries (South Korea, China, Malaysia, United States, Spain, France, Brazil, United Kingdom, and Taiwan) who participated in international competitions between 2019 and 2020. We extracted participants' sport psychological skills from 75 survey responses, guided by expert meetings and a thorough literature review. We verified our Taekwondo psychological skill scale's construct validity using 840 survey responses. We utilized V coefficients, parallel analysis, an exploratory structural equation model, maximum likelihood, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis for data analysis. We identified six core sport psychological skills: "goal setting," "confidence," "imagery," "self-talk," "fighting spirit," and "concentration." Our final measure, which demonstrated evidence of reliability and validity, comprises 18 items spanning 6 factors, with each item rated on a 3-point Likert scale.

Annual tendency of research papers used ICR mice as experimental animals in biomedical research fields.

Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice have been widely used in various research fields including toxicology, oncology, pharmacology, and pharmaceutical product safety testing for decades. However, annual tendency of research papers involving ICR mice in various biomedical fields has not been previously analyzed. In this study, we examined the numbers of papers that used ICR mice as experimental animals in the social science, natural science, engineering, medicine-pharmacy, marine agriculture-fishery, and art-kinesiology fields by analyzing big data. Numbers of ICR mouse-used papers gradually increased from 1961 to 2014, but small decreases were observed in 2015 and 2016. The largest number of ICR-used papers were published in the medicine-pharmacy field, followed by natural science and art-kinesiology fields. There were no ICR mouse-used papers in other fields. Furthermore, ICR mice have been widely employed in cell biology studies within the natural science field as well as in biochemistry and pathology in the medicine-pharmacy field. Few ICR mouse-used papers were published in exercise biochemistry and exercise nutrition in the art-kinesiology field. Regardless in most fields, the total numbers of published papers involving ICR mice were higher in 2014 than in other years, although the numbers in some fields including dentistry, veterinary science, and dermatology were high in 2016. Taken together, the present study shows that various ICR stocks, including Korl:ICR mice, are widely employed as experimental animals in various biomedical research fields.

Erratum: Annual tendency of research papers used ICR mice as experimental animals in biomedical research fields.

[This corrects the article on p. 171 in vol. 33, PMID: 28747984.].