Search results for: Asian sports

Authors: James Pietris

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Glaucoma is a collection of irreversible optic neuropathies which, if left untreated, lead to severe visual field loss. These diseases are a leading cause of blindness across the globe and are estimated to affect approximately 80 million people, particularly women and people of Asian descent.1This represents a major burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the potential of nicotinamide (vitamin B3) as a novel option in the management of glaucoma. This review aims to analyse the currently available literature to determine whether there is evidence of an association between nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and glaucomatous optic neuropathy and whether nicotinamide has the potential to prevent or reverse these effects. The literature showed a strong connection between reduced NAD+ levels and retinal ganglion cell dysfunction through multiple different studies. There is also evidence of the positive effect of nicotinamide supplementation on retinal ganglion cell function in models of mouse glaucoma and in a study involving humans. Based on the literature findings, a recommendation has been made that more research into the efficacy, appropriate dosing, and potential side effects of nicotinamide supplementation is needed before it can be definitively determined whether it is appropriate for widespread prophylactic and therapeutic use against glaucoma in humans.

Keywords: glaucoma, nicotinamide, vitamin B3, optic neuropathy

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Authors: Hannah Kuhar

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This paper delves into the attitudes of professional and semi-professional rugby union athletes in regard to socio-emotional vulnerability, or the willingness to express the full spectrum of human emotion in a social context. Like all humans, athletes of all sports regularly experience feelings of shame, powerlessness, and loneliness, and often feel unable to express such feelings due to factors including lack of situational support, absence of adequate expressive language and lack of resource. To this author’s knowledge, however, no previous research has considered the particular demographic of professional rugby union athletes, despite the sport’s immense popularity and economic contribution to global communities. Hence, this paper aims to extend previous research by exploring the experiences of professional rugby union athletes and their unwillingness and inability to express socio-emotional vulnerability. By having a better understanding of vulnerability in rugby and sports, this paper is able to contribute to the growing field of mental health and wellbeing research, particularly towards the emerging themes of resilience and belonging. Based on qualitative fieldwork conducted over a period of seven months across France and Australia, via the mechanisms of semi-structured interview and observation, this work uses the field theory framework of Pierre Bourdieu to construct an analysis of multidisciplinary thought. Approaching issues of gender, sexuality, physicality, education, and family, this paper shows that socio-emotional vulnerability is experienced by all players regardless of their background, in a variety of ways. Common themes and responses are drawn to show the universality of rugby’s pitfalls, which have previously been limited to specific demographics in isolation of their broader contexts. With the author themselves a semi-professional athlete, the provision of unique ‘insider’ access facilitates a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of first-hand athlete experiences, often unexplored within the context of the academic arena. The primary contention of this paper is to argue that by celebrating socio-emotional vulnerability, there becomes an opportunity to improve on-field team outcomes. Ultimately, players play better when they feel supported by their teammates, and this logic extends to the outcome of the team when socio-emotional team initiatives are widely embraced. The creation of such a culture requires deliberate and purposeful efforts, where player ownership and buy-in are high. Further study in this field may assist teams to better understand the elements which contribute to strong team culture and to strong results on the pitch.

Keywords: rugby, vulnerability, athletes, France, Bourdieu

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Authors: Amiel Satvedi, Richard Pyne

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Injuries in professional sports occur on a regular basis. Some may be minor, while others can cause huge impact on a player's career and earning potential. In soccer, there is a high risk of players picking up injuries during game time. This research work seeks to help soccer players reduce the risk of getting injured by predicting the likelihood of injury while playing in the near future and then providing recommendations for intervention. The injury prediction tool will use a soccer player's number of minutes played on the field, number of appearances, distance covered and performance data for the current and previous seasons as variables to conduct statistical analysis and provide injury predictive results using a machine learning linear regression model.

Keywords: injury predictor, soccer injury prevention, machine learning in soccer, big data in soccer

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Authors: Nudrat Kamal

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Scholarship exploring the development of the literary tradition of feminist utopias, especially in the sociopolitical context of Europe and North America, has been important and meaningful, but it is, in large part, still restricted to Euro-American texts. This paper will explore Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s feminist utopia Herland (1915) with another feminist utopia written just a decade before, but in a widely different sociopolitical context: Bengali feminist writer Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s English short story Sultana’s Dream (1905). The paper will argue that both texts, despite being written in such different cultural and historical contexts, utilize and subvert the public versus private/domestic sphere dichotomy and the restricted gender roles associated with each sphere in order to conceive of specific formulations of feminist modernities that reflect the sociopolitical contexts and feminist movements both writers were writing within. By bringing Gilman’s Herland into conversation with Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream, the paper hopes to illuminate the new meanings that might emerge if the scholarship on Western feminist utopias was to open itself up to the feminist utopias written elsewhere.

Keywords: comparative literature, feminist utopias, modernity, South Asian literature, utopias

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Authors: Yongmei Li, Chang-Gun Park

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China-Japan-South Korea (CJK) trilateral cooperation has experienced historical challenges in recent years, which negatively influenced the development of their relationship. Results of the interviews with three citizens on trilateral relations illustrate that most people are concerned with the historical conflicts among CJK. This paper specifically focuses on managing historical issues, including comfort women issues, territorial disputes, and divergence in historical education. Accordingly, the effectiveness of management of tensions productively provides a method for detecting historical concerns, managing issues, and connecting the three countries and citizens through advocating for fair media reporting, effective network institutionalization, and active local government cooperation. Furthermore, this paper contributes to providing government solutions for reinforcing the CJK partnership. It specially involves history education, East Asian identity and mutual trust establishment, East Asia intra-regional exchange programs, and reorganization of the role of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS).

Keywords: China-Japan-South Korea, trilateral cooperation, government solutions, effectiveness of management, historical conflicts

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Authors: H. Aksas, S. Boughrara, K. Louhab

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The goal of this study was the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to assess the environmental impact of pharmaceutical product (four kinds of syrup form and tree kinds of pomade form), which are produced in one leader manufactory in Algeria town that is SAIDAL Company. The impacts generated have evaluated using SimpaPro7.1 with CML92 Method for syrup form and EPD 2007 for pomade form. All impacts evaluated have compared between them, with determination of the compound contributing to each impacts in each case. Data needed to conduct Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) came from this factory, by the collection of theoretical data near the responsible technicians and engineers of the company, the practical data are resulting from the assay of pharmaceutical liquid, obtained at the laboratories of the university. This data represent different raw material imported from European and Asian country necessarily to formulate the drug. Energy used is coming from Algerian resource for the input. Outputs are the result of effluent analysis of this factory with different form (liquid, solid and gas form). All this data (input and output) represent the ecobalance.

Keywords: pharmaceutical product, drug residues, LCA methodology, environmental impacts

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Authors: Umang Prajapati

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Elected prime minister of India Narendra Modi has very largely focused on improving ties with the neighbors since day one of his regime. This was the most significant initiative to focus on major Asian powers also emphasizing on the two decades old look east policy. The “neighborhood first policy” as termed by the media has been a corner stone in improving ties with the immediate neighbors of the country through several bilateral talks with the nations individually. However, the announcement of demonetisation policy in India, ceasing the usage of 500 and 1000 rupee notes has rattled countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar who encourage Indian currency parallel to theirs. According to the ministry of commerce and industry (MCI), India’s total trade with neighboring countries stood at US$21.6 in the fiscal year 2015-16, India has good surplus trade surplus with its neighbors and has a strong interest in ensuring smooth trade flows. India might have this benefit, but yet this policy can create issues between India and neighboring countries. The demonetisation policy might benefit in the long run, but in the short run, this might create border issues. While there would be more countries affected by this policy, this paper will emphasize on the problems faced by the countries and the impact of demonetisation on all other neighboring countries.

Keywords: bilateral trades, demonetization, neighborhood policy, value of rupee

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Authors: Yulina E. Riany, Divna Haslam, Matthew Sanders

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This cross-cultural study aims to compare the level of parental depression and stress, parenting style use, and child emotional and behavioural problems between parents in Australia as an example of a Western country and parents in Indonesia as an example of Asian culture. A series of hierarchical regressions were undertaken to determine two models examining the factors that predict child problems residing in Australia (Model 1) and in Indonesia (Model 2). The online survey was completed by 179 parents in Australia and 448 parents in Indonesia. Results indicated that Australian parents reported higher levels of depression, authoritative parenting and higher levels of child misbehaviours compared to Indonesian parents. In comparison, Indonesian parents reported higher authoritarian parenting. Analyses performed to examine Model 1 and 2 revealed that parental negative emotional states and parenting style predicted child emotional and behavioural problems in both countries.

Keywords: cross-cutural study, parental stress, parenting, child misbehaviour

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Authors: Logaiswari Indiran, Zainab Khalifah, Kamariah Ismail

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Business incubators have now been recognized as effective tools in providing business assistance to start-up firms. In both developed and developing countries, the number of incubators is growing tremendously. As the birth rate of incubators increases, so do its challenges. Malaysia, as one of the developing countries in the Asian continent, has also established a number of business incubators to breed and foster the growth and survival of start-up firms. Thus, this study discusses the incubation model applied in Malaysia and the challenges faced by these incubators using secondary data including policies, previous literature, and reports related to Malaysian incubators. The findings of this study call the government to rethink the key role of incubator managers and staffs, internal structure of the incubator concept and process, intellectual properties management, strategic alliances with universities-industries and funding supports in enhancing the support provided by the business incubators in Malaysia. The key challenges highlighted in this study signal important policy lessons for other developing countries that aim to create and map an effective business incubator ecosystem.

Keywords: business incubators, incubation challenges, funding support, incubator managers, internal structure, start-up firms

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Authors: Si Chen, Quanhong Jiang

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In the increasingly mature posture recognition technology, human movement information is widely used in sports rehabilitation, human-computer interaction, medical health, human posture assessment, and other fields today; this project uses the most original ideas; it is proposed to use the collection equipment for the collection of myoelectric data, reflect the muscle posture change on a degree of freedom through data processing, carry out data-muscle three-dimensional model joint adjustment, and realize basic pose recognition. Based on this, bionic aids or medical rehabilitation equipment can be further developed with the help of robotic arms and cutting-edge technology, which has a bright future and unlimited development space.

Keywords: pose recognition, 3D animation, electromyography, machine learning, bionics

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Authors: Chee Kwan Foong, Foong Mei Kei

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This study aimed to investigate the influence of self-stigma, perceived public stigma, assertiveness and gender role beliefs on attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Two hundred and fifty young adults from universities in Brunei were recruited through convenience sampling to complete a survey. Individuals facing higher stigmatisation (both self-stigma and public-stigma) had less positive attitude towards seeking professional psychological help. Individuals who were more assertive had more positive attitude towards seeking professional psychological help. For males, individuals with more traditional gender role belief showed less positive attitude towards seeking professional psychological help. For female, there was no relationship between gender role beliefs and attitude towards seeking professional psychological help. Results confirmed there was a significant mediating effect between public stigma and attitude toward seeking professional psychological help. This study could guide the mental-health professionals in promoting more positive help-seeking attitude and raise the awareness about mental challenges which could assist in reducing stigmatization, and therefore, gain a deeper understanding.

Keywords: assertiveness, attitude towards seeking professional psychological help, gender role beliefs, stigmatization

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Authors: Ramachandra Pradhan, Sandeep Singh Rama, Sabyasachi Mishra

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Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus L.) in its tender form is consumed as a vegetable and popular for its flavour, colour and meat like texture. In South Asian countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Indonesia the market value for tender jackfruit is very high. However, due to lack of technology the marketing and transportation of the fruit is a challenge. The processing activities like washing, sorting, peeling and cutting enhances oxidative stress in fresh cut jackfruit. It is also having the ill effects on quality of fresh cut tender jackfruit by an increase in microbial contaminations, excessive tissue softening, and depletion of phytochemicals and browning. Hence, this study was conducted as a solution to the above problem. Fresh cut tender Jackfruit slices were processed by using the independent parameters such as concentration of CaCl2 (2-5%), concentration of citric acid (1-2.5%) and treatment time (4-10 min.) and the depended variables were Browning index (BI), colour change (ΔE), Firmness (F) and Overall all acceptability (OAA) after the treatment. From the response variables the best combination of independent variables was resulted as 3% concentration of CaCl2 and 2% concentration of citric acid for 6 minutes. At these optimised processing treatments, the browning can be prevented for fresh cut tender jackfruit. This technology can be used by the researcher, scientists, industries, etc. for further processing of tender jackfruit.

Keywords: tender jackfruit, browning index, firmness, texture

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Authors: Oktia Woro Kasmini Handayani, Sri Ratna Rahayu, Efa Nugroho, Berta Kalswahermawati

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Diabetes occurs 10 years faster in the Southeast Asian region than the European region, which occurs in the most productive periods. Cultural differences as well as cultural transitions can be determinant factors of health cases in urban and rural areas. The purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of the cultural environment, behavior and the occurrence of diabetes mellitus in urban areas of Semarang, Indonesia. The research was conducted in the area of Semarang Regency, using a quantitative approach and supported by qualitative data, the population is DM type 2 patients, sample size of 200 people, with a purposive sampling technique. The independent variable consists of cultural environment, behavior, and the dependent variable is DM. The data is analyzed with regression test method. Cultural environment affects behavior positively, with t value of 4,690 and p (sig.) 0.000, this means sig <0.05, while the effect of behavior on Diabetes Mellitus obtained t value 2.950 with p-value (sig.) 0.003 this means that sig <0.05, thus it can be interpreted that the behavior has a significant effect on Diabetes Mellitus. The cultural environment directly affects the incidence of DM. It can also shape a person's behavior or lifestyle or habit, whether healthy or unhealthy one, which in turn causes symptoms of DM.

Keywords: Behavior, Cultural Environment, Diebetes Millitus, Urban

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Authors: Ildikó Balatoni, Nikolett Kosztin

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In this study the importance of maintaining the mental and physical health of employees was examined from the perspective of the employers. To this end companies in Hajdú-Bihar county of Hungary that are within in the TOP 100 based on their net revenue were interviewed. Economic sectors that were represented the most in this survey were processing, services, trade, agriculture, and construction. We examined whether or not companies provided any benefits to their employees concerning health awareness. Among respondents those who offered various services of medical specialists and/or discounted gym or swim passes in addition to compulsory medical examinations were hard to find, however more employers organize health and sports days. Nevertheless, a significant albeit very shallow positive correlation were found between the number of offered benefits vs. total gross income and vs. number of employees (r2=0.2555, p<0.001 and r2=0.1196 and p<0.05, respectively). In conclusion, while workplace health promotion is necessary it requires a change in employers’attitudes.

Keywords: corporate health promotion, employees, employers, health

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Authors: Hans Schumann, Colin Domnauer, Louis Rosenberg

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In this study, machine learning techniques were deployed on real-time human swarm data to forecast the likelihood of outcomes for English Premier League matches in the 2020/21 season. These techniques included ensemble models in combination with neural networks and were tested against an industry standard of Vegas Oddsmakers. Predictions made from the collective intelligence of human swarm participants managed to achieve a positive return on investment over a full season on matches, empirically proving the usefulness of a new artificial intelligence valuing human instinct and intelligence.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, data science, English Premier League, human swarming, machine learning, sports betting, swarm intelligence

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Authors: Anupama Sekhar, Preeti Saryan, Vinita Gowda

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Plants, due to their sedentary lifestyle, have evolved mechanisms to synthesize a huge diversity of complex, specialized chemical metabolites, a majority of them being volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These VOCs are heavily involved in their biotic and abiotic interactions. Since chemical composition could be under the same selection processes as other morphological characters, we test if VOCs can be used to taxonomically distinguish species in the well-studied, fragrant ginger genus -Hedychium (Zingiberaceae). We propose that variations in the volatile profiles are suggestive of adaptation to divergent environments, and their presence could be explained by either phylogenetic conservatism or ecological factors. In this study, we investigate the volatile chemistry within Hedychium, which is endemic to Asian palaeotropics. We used an unsupervised clustering approach which clearly distinguished most taxa, and we used ancestral state reconstruction to estimate phylogenetic signals and chemical trait evolution in the genus. We propose that taxonomically, the chemical composition could aid in species identification, especially in species complexes where taxa are not morphologically distinguishable, and extensive, targeted chemical libraries will help in this effort.

Keywords: chemotaxonomy, dynamic headspace sampling, floral fragrance, floral volatile evolution, gingers, Hedychium

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Authors: Kinza Khan, Dad Muhmmad, Asif Saleem, Nadia Mukhtar, Tahir Yaqub

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Ethomedicines are more commonly used in underdeveloped and developing countries. These medicines are sometimes more potent in controlling microbial infections than conventional medicines. Medicinal plants have been common practice to cure many diseases for centuries. Murraya koenigii is one of these plants and is commonly used in South Asian countries as a flavoring agent in food. To evaluate its anti-microbial activity, six different bacterial strains (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Bacillus cereus and Klebsiella pneumonia were used. N-hexane extract of Murraya koenigii leaves shows maximum activity against Bacillus cereus. Acetone extract of Murraya koenigii shoots showed more efficient activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Dichloromethane extracts showed maximum activity against Bacillus cereus. Ethanol extract exhibited maximum activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The methanol extract of Murraya koenigii shoots displayed maximum antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus. Antifungal activity Ethanol extract was more effective against Candida albicans.

Keywords: ethnomedicines, bacteria, fungi, murraya koenigii, antimicrobial activity

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Authors: Zhidong Zhang, Zhi-Chao Zhang

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This study focuses on early adolescent externalizing behavioral problems which specifically concentrate on rule breaking behavior and aggressive behavior using the instrument of Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA). The purpose was to analyze the relationships between the externalizing behavioral problems and relevant background variables such as sports activities, hobbies, chores and the number of close friends. The stratified sampling method was used to collect data from 1975 participants. The results indicated that several background variables as predictors could significantly predict rule breaking behavior and aggressive behavior. Further, a hierarchical modeling method was used to explore the causal relations among background variables, breaking behavior variables and aggressive behavior variables.

Keywords: aggressive behavior, breaking behavior, early adolescence, externalizing problem

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Authors: Ahmed Elgadri

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In the last thirty years, studies on cross-cultural pragmatics in general and apology strategies in specific have focused on western and East-Asian societies. A small volume of research has been conducted in investigating speech acts production by Arabic dialect speakers. Therefore, this study investigated the apology strategies used by Libyan Arabic speakers using an online Discourse Completion Task (DCT) questionnaire. The DCT consisted of six situations covering different social contexts. The survey was written in Libyan Arabic dialect to help generate vernacular speech as much as possible. The participants were 25 Libyan nationals, 12 females, and 13 males. Also, to get a deeper understanding of the motivation behind the use of certain strategies, the researcher interviewed four participants using the Libyan Arabic dialect as well. The results revealed a high use of IFID, offer of repair, and explanation. Although this might support the universality claim of speech acts strategies, it was clear that cultural norms and religion determined the choice of apology strategies significantly. This led to the discovery of new culture-specific strategies, as outlined later in this paper. This study gives an insight into politeness strategies in Libyan society, and it is hoped to contribute to the field of cross-cultural pragmatics.

Keywords: apologies, cross-cultural pragmatics, language and culture, Libyan Arabic, politeness, pragmatics, socio-pragmatics, speech acts

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Authors: Kaitlyn Deierlein, Janet Lydecker

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Stereotypes surrounding anorexia nervosa are that the illness is commonly perceived as a self-inflicted disorder influenced by controlling parents, vanity, and cultural pressures. According to the authors' best knowledge minimal research has examined interactions with other factors, including gender and racial stereotypes involving this disorder. A common stereotype of this disease is that it mainly only affects Caucasian women and is very rarely seen in any other ethnicity. Previous literature has failed to investigate how visual body image and ethnic stereotypes affect the mental health of different ethnic groups, how various cultures impact the type of anorexia nervosa in the patient, and the different stereotypes associated with their eating disorder. Participants completed a pre-test questionnaire with vignettes, an image exposure portion, and a post-test questionnaire, which will all be evaluated and analyzed by ANOVA t-test and SPSS. Results showed that participants picked Caucasian females as more likely to have anorexia nervosa than those of Asian, Latin American, or African American descent subjects in both picture identification and vignettes. Future research should be conducted to further the results of this study by examining differences between gender stereotypes with anorexia nervosa as well as how sexuality has a role in perception.

Keywords: anorexia nervosa, ethnicity, stereotypes, eating disorders, perception

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Authors: Nur Allisha Othman, Rosnah Shamsudin, Zaulia Othman, Siti Hajar Othman

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Mitigating short storage life of fruit like banana uses minimally process or known as fresh cut can contribute to the growing demand especially in South East Asian countries. The effect of different types of packaging material on fresh-cut Nipah (Musa acuminata balbisiana) were studied. Fresh cut banana cultivar (cv) Nipah are packed in polypropylene plastic (PP), low density polypropylene plastic (LDPE), polymer plastic film (shrink wrap) and polypropylene container as control for 12 days at low temperature (4ᵒC). Quality of physical and chemical evaluation such as colour, texture, pH, TA, TSS, and vitamin C were examined every 2 days interval for 12 days at 4ᵒC. Result shows that the PP is the most suitable packaging for banana cv Nipah because it can reduce respiration and physicochemical quality changes of banana cv Nipah. Different types of packaging significantly affected quality of fresh-cut banana cv Nipah. PP bag was the most suitable packaging to maintain quality and prolong storage life of fresh-cut banana cv Nipah for 12 days at 4ᵒC.

Keywords: physicochemical, PP, LDPE, shrink wrap, browning, respiration

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Authors: Anu S. Krishna

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The paper tries to analyse the UN involvement/intervention in the case of intra-state armed conflict of El Salvador and Nepal comparatively. The peace mission in El Salvador is considered to be the most successful missions of UN ever since it started involving in the peace-building activities. Meanwhile, in the armed conflict of South Asian country, Nepal, the result seemed to be disappointing in comparison with its counterpart. The study on this paper takes three variables as the success or failure of international mediation, i.e., a) signing of the peace agreement, b) disarmament/demobilization and c) constitutional mechanism. A significant amount of scholarship looks at the case of ONUSAL (United Nations Mission in El Salvador). Meanwhile, the armed conflict of Nepal and the role of UNMIN (United Nations Mediation in Nepal) are under researched so far. The paper thus tries to throw light on these cross-regional contexts that share certain similarities and dissimilarities in the nature of conflict. In addition, the international third-party involvement and their way of approaching both the cases differ, which again affected the mediation outcome. The paper tries to argue that, since the approach of the UN led international mediation in theses peace missions were contextual and varied from case to case, thus, finally affected the mediation outcome too.

Keywords: Nepal, UNMIN, El Salvador, ONUSAL, international mediation, armed conflict

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Authors: Md. Shahriar Sabuz

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Bangladesh, a South Asian developing country, has experienced an increasing rate of contraceptive use in the last few decades. But one-third of the pregnancies are still unintended, and the fertility rate surpasses the desired rate of children. It may be because of the discontinuation of the use of contraceptive methods. So, it is necessary to find out the reasons for the discontinuation of the use of contraceptives. Moreover, the rate of contraception discontinuation varies from rural to urban, region to region. In this study, our objectives are to find out the reasons behind the discontinuation of the use of the contraceptive method, and the regional variations of the rate of those reasons. We are using the dataset of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHS) 2014 for this study and the ever-married women of Bangladesh who have discontinued the use of contraceptive methods aged 15-49. The data was collected from the seven districts of the country. The finding shows that currently there are 23% of women have stopped using their contraception. The most common reasons for stopping using the method are that either they are pregnant or want to be pregnant. A significant number of people are not using the contraceptive method because of the fear of side effects. Though the rate of non-user is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, reasons for method discontinuation are not significantly different between urban and rural areas. However, reasons for discontinuing contraceptive methods significantly vary from region to region.

Keywords: discontinuation of contraceptive, health, pregnant, fertility

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Authors: Scott Wysong

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Qatar will spend billions of dollars to host the 2022 World Cup. While football fans around the globe get excited to cheer on their favorite team every four years, critics debate the merits of a country hosting such an expensive and large-scale event. That is, the host countries spend billions of dollars on stadiums and infrastructure to attract these mega sporting events with the hope of equitable returns in economic impact and creating jobs. Yet, in many cases, the host countries are left in debt with decaying venues. There are benefits beyond the economic impact of hosting mega-events. For example, citizens are often proud of their city/country to host these famous events. Yet, often overlooked in the literature is the proposition that serving as the host for a mega-event may enhance the country’s brand image, not only as a tourist destination but for the products made in that country of origin. This research aims to explore this phenomenon by taking an exploratory look at consumer perceptions of three host countries of a mega-event in sports. In 2014, the U.S., Chinese and Finn (Finland) consumer attitudes toward Brazil and its products were measured before and after the World Cup via surveys (n=89). An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the pre-and post-World Cup perceptions of Brazil’s brand personality or country-of-origin image. After the World Cup in 2018, qualitative interviews were held with U.S. sports fans (n=17) in an effort to further explore consumer perceptions of products made in the host country: Russia. A consistent theme of distrust and corruption with Russian products emerged despite their hosting of this prestigious global event. In late 2021, U.S. football (soccer) fans (n=42) and non-fans (n=37) were surveyed about the upcoming 2022 World Cup. A regression analysis revealed that how much an individual indicated that they were a soccer fan did not significantly influence their desire to visit Qatar or try products from Qatar in the future even though the country was hosting the World Cup—in the end, hosting a mega-event as grand as the World Cup showcases the country to the world. However, it seems to have little impact on consumer perceptions of the country, as a whole, or its brands. That is, the World Cup appeared to enhance already pre-existing stereotypes about Brazil (e.g., beaches, partying and fun, yet with crime and poverty), Russia (e.g., cold weather, vodka and business corruption) and Qatar (desert and oil). Moreover, across all three countries, respondents could rarely name a brand from the host country. Because mega-events cost a lot of time and money, countries need to do more to market their country and its brands when hosting. In addition, these countries would be wise to measure the impact of the event from different perspectives. Hence, we put forth a comprehensive future research agenda to further the understanding of how countries, and their brands, can benefit from hosting a mega sporting event.

Keywords: branding, country-of-origin effects, mega sporting events, return on investment

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Authors: Zhidong Zhang, Zhi-Chao Zhang

Abstract:

This study focused on early adolescent rule-breaking behavioral problems using the instrument of Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA). The purpose was to analyze the relationships between the rule-breaking behavioral problems and relevant background variables such as sports activities, hobbies, chores and the number of close friends. The stratified sampling method was used to collect data from 2532 participants. The results indicated that several background variables as predictors could significantly predict rule breaking behavior and aggressive behavior. Further, a path analysis method was used to explore the correlational and causal relationships among background variables and breaking behavior variables.

Keywords: ASEBA, rule-breaking, path analysis, early adolescent

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Authors: Steffanie Kiourkas

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This study sought to examine fans’ responses to San Diego Loyal player Collin Martin being called a homophobic slur by Phoenix Rising player Junior Flemmings. Fans’ responses were gathered from Reddit comments on a thread posted immediately after the incident. Fans specifically centered their conversations on the homophobic slur, the coaches’ reactions, and the use of homophobia in sports in general. This study identified five themes present in the conversations between soccer fans. The themes generally highlighted critiques of the Phoenix Rising team and head coach, critiques of the use of homophobia in soccer, and support for the San Diego Loyal and hopefulness about the state of society moving forward.

Keywords: homophobia, LGBTQ+, United Soccer League, Reddit

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Authors: Cristina Azocar, Ivana Markova

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A survey of 565 male undergraduates examined the effects of exposure to social networking sites and entertainment media on young men’s body image. Exposure to social and to entertainment media was found to have negative effects on men’s body satisfaction, social comparison, and thin ideal internalization. Findings indicated significant differences in those men who were more exposed to social and to entertainment media than those who were not as exposed. Consistent with past studies, gay men were found to be more dissatisfied with their bodies than straight men. Gay men compared themselves to other better-looking individuals and internalized ideal body types seen in media significantly more than their straight counterparts. Surprisingly, straight men seem to care as much about their physical attractiveness/appearance as gay men do, but only in public settings such as at the beach, at athletic events (including gyms) and social events. Although on average ethnic groups were more similar than different, small but significant differences occurred with Asian men indicating significantly higher body dissatisfaction than White/European men and Middle Eastern/Arab men their counterparts. The study increases our knowledge about SNS and entertainment use and its associated body image, and body satisfaction affects among low-income ethnic minority men.

Keywords: body dissatisfaction, body image, entertainment media, gay men, race and ethnicity, social economic status, social comparison, social media

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Authors: Michael McTighe

Abstract:

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of many large-scale in-person sporting events, which led to an increase in the availability of virtual ultra-marathons. This study intended to assess how participation in virtual long distances races relates to levels of physical activity for an extended period of time. Moreover, traditional ultra-marathons are known for being not only physically demanding, but also mentally and emotionally challenging. A second component of this study was to assess how psychological contructs related to emotion regulation and mental toughness predict overall performance in the sport. Method: 83 virtual runners participating in a four-month 1000-kilometer race with the option to exceed 1000 kilometers completed a questionnaire exploring demographics, their performance, and experience in the virtual race. Participants also completed the Difficulties in Emotions Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ). Logistics regressions assessed these constructs’ utility in predicting completion of the 1000-kilometer distance in the time allotted. Multiple regression was employed to predict the total distance traversed during the fourmonth race beyond 1000-kilometers. Result: Neither mental toughness nor emotional regulation was a significant predictor of completing the virtual race’s basic 1000-kilometer finish. However, both variables included together were marginally significant predictors of total miles traversed over the entire event beyond 1000 K (p = .051). Additionally, participation in the event promoted an increase in healthy activity with participants running and walking significantly more in the four months during the event than the four months leading up to it. Discussion: This research intended to explore how psychological constructs relate to performance in a virtual type of endurance event, and how involvement in these types of events related to levels of activity. Higher levels of mental toughness and lower levels in difficulties in emotion regulation were associated with greater performance, and participation in the event promoted an increase in athletic involvement. Future psychological skill training aimed at improving emotion regulation and mental toughness may be used to enhance athletic performance in these sports, and future investigations into these events could explore how general participation may influence these constructs over time. Finally, these results suggest that participation in this logistically accessible, and affordable type of sport can promote greater involvement in healthy activities related to running and walking.

Keywords: virtual races, emotion regulation, mental toughness, ultra-marathon, predictors in performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: S. Werrlich, E. Eichstetter, K. Nitsche, G. Notni

Abstract:

Augmented Reality (AR) is a strong growing research topic in different training domains such as medicine, sports, military, education and industrial use cases like assembly and maintenance tasks. AR claims to improve the efficiency and skill-transfer of training tasks. This paper gives a comprehensive overview of evaluations using AR for assembly and maintenance training tasks published between 1992 and 2017. We search in a structured way in four different online databases and get 862 results. We select 17 relevant articles focusing on evaluating AR-based training applications for assembly and maintenance tasks. This paper also indicates design guidelines which are necessary for creating a successful application for an AR-based training. We also present five scientific limitations in the field of AR-based training for assembly tasks. Finally, we show our approach to solve current research problems using Design Science Research (DSR).

Keywords: assembly, augmented reality, survey, training

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: Yasir Khan, Qiu Bin, Antonio-Mihi Ramirez

Abstract:

This study determines the inflow of international students to China in recent years and the corresponding internationalization strategies in the higher education sector. China has placed attracting international students on in its plan along with the growing of global impact. Acknowledging the stable economy, growth rate, trade, lower renminbi rate, high wages, employment opportunities, high level income per capita, relative low taxes and political system consolidate to attract more international students. A large number of international students making a vast contribution to the higher education sector of China. Understanding the significance of education mission as well as of financial ‘bottom line’ the Chinese government gave great importance to invite more international students from worldwide. The large number of international students in the China has been particularly notable from Asian countries specifically neighboring countries, Pakistan, Thailand, India, Vietnam, South Korea, Magnolia, Malaysia, and Russia. This study summarizes internationalization of higher education in China and also provides directions for future research in this regard.

Keywords: international student mobility, 2020 Govt Planning, emerging market, internationalization of higher education

Procedia PDF Downloads 252