The purpose of this study was to determine whether athletes were impacted by wearing a mask and playing competitively, by measuring their mental skills (confidence, anxiety, and focus) levels. This study surveyed 7 high school students who played sports in the year 2020-2021. They were surveyed using the “state sport confidence inventory”, “sport competition anxiety test”, and a created focus survey (Appendix D). The participants were asked a series of questions reflecting back on before wearing a mask and questions pertaining to how they feel about wearing a mask in sports. The survey asked the participants specifically about their mental skills. These mental skills are important factors in optimal performance of an athlete, athletes should have high confidence, low anxiety, and high focus levels (Lautenbach et al., 2016). The results showed that athletes had high confidence, low anxiety, and high focus; athletes were more worried about getting the proper amount of oxygen and fixing their mask. This suggests that the athletes who participated in the survey were mentally tough (Bédard Thom et al., 2021) and resilient (Sarkar & Fletcher, 2014).

This research paper examines the impact of journaling on anxiety and team cohesion on a women’s beach volleyball team (n=12). Each athlete was given a 30-Day Reset Journal to complete and asked to complete a mid and end of program survey assessing their anxiety and team cohesion levels. The team head coach (n=1) was asked to have weekly discussions with the team about the journal and respond to a mid and end of program survey assessing if they perceived their team was benefiting from the journal. Athlete anxiety results were broken into four categories: Total Anxiety (p value: 0.40), Worry Score (p value: 0.41), Concentration Disruption Score (p value: 0.82), and Somatic Trait Score (p value: 0.20). Team cohesion results were displayed in five categories: Total Team Cohesion (p value: 0.46), Purpose and Goals (p value: 0.17), Team Relationships (p value: 0.26), Problem Solving (p value: 0.85), and Skills and Learning (p value: 0.47). Although anxiety scores did overall decrease, the data reflected no significant difference between the middle and end surveys. Team cohesion results also displayed decreases with no significant difference between the two surveys. Throughout the study, only four statements within the survey displayed significant change between mid and end program surveys (three anxiety and one team cohesion). Though results were not found to be significant, this study provides some insight into the potential benefits journaling can offer athletes in lowering their anxiety and how placing an emphasis on team discussion with a focus on goal development and shared purpose can increase team cohesion.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how COVID-19 has affected college athletes physically and mentally. A survey with 36 questions encompassing gender, sport, COVID-19 symptom severity, type and duration, return to play factors, perceived social isolation, depression and anxiety was distributed to all student athletes at Arizona State University. A total of 26 athletes (84.6% female, 15.4% male) who previously contracted the COVID-19 virus participated in the survey, representing a variety of 12 different sports. The study concluded that as student athletes symptom severity increased, symptom duration increased as well. Between one day to 10 months of continued symptoms after returning to sport play was reported by one-third of participating student athletes; however, there was no indication that vaccination status, obtaining a negative COVID-19 test, or obtaining medical clearance prior to returning to sport play after contracting COVID-19 affected if symptoms persisted or not after returning to play. Most (92.3%) athletes reported higher levels of perceived isolation, and as social isolation scores increased, depression scores increased. Abnormal anxiety symptoms were reported by 30.8% of student athletes, and as depression scores increased, anxiety scores increased as well. Study results and further research can be utilized to improve and refine gradual return to play protocols, enhance methods of communication and integration during mass social isolation, and greater assess depression and anxiety prevalence in student athletes.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are optimum candidates for creating vaccines, as they are highly flexible, adaptable, safe, and similar to the structural proteins of the target cells. The COVID 19 pandemic has increased the need to create effective and safe vaccines that can be mass produced to stop the spread of COVID-19. Till now, various types of vaccine platforms have been utilized to create COVID-19 vaccines, each with unique characteristics and techniques. It is essential to use robust vaccine platforms that can deliver optimum results in a short period of time, with minimal risks. The structural proteins found in SARS-CoV-2, such as Spike (S) protein have been widely targeted to induce antibody response, also called a humoral response, which is a part of acquired immunity. The other structural proteins such as M (membrane) and E (envelope) can also be used as targets for antibodies. The S2 and glycoprotein (S full) can be used to induce an efficient IgG response. Therefore, the incorporation of structural proteins into VLPs can prove to be useful. Furthermore, double mosaic VLPs employs double epitopes, which can effectively cover the distances between the S proteins, thus optimizing the B cell activation process. This review describes the various developments that have taken place in the field of VLPs and more specifically, with regards to developing VLP vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Early identification of dyslexia is essential to providing children with the necessary services and support to succeed academically. Current dyslexia screening measures are not widely available for English-speaking monolingual children and those available for bilingual children are not widely used. To contribute to the effort to provide widely available screening for six-year-old English speaking and bilingual children, the ASU Bilingual Language and Literacy Lab, the Child Language and Literacy Lab, Learning to Soar Tutoring, Healing Hearts Pediatrics, and the Phoenix Children’s hospital have collaborated to develop the Dyslexia Screening Questionnaire (DysQ) that is offered in both English and Spanish. The goal of this study (Phase I) was to test the readability and comprehensibility of the DySQ to help ensure that it is accessible to a wide population of English and Spanish-speaking parents. In the second phase of the study, we aim to validate the DySQ by comparing the DySQ results with gold-standard testing for diagnosing dyslexia. The ultimate goal is to implement the DySQ into pediatric settings so that English and Spanish-speaking children may be screened for dyslexia at their 6-year-old well-child check-up.