Search results for: elite rain

Authors: Scott Draper, Nat Benjanuvatra, Grant Landers, Terry Griffiths, Justin Geldard

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Open water swimming has been an Olympic sport since 2008 and is growing in popularity world-wide as a low impact form of exercise. Unlike pool swimming, open water swimmers experience a range of different environmental conditions, including surface waves, variable water temperature, aquatic life, and ocean currents. This presentation will describe experimental research to investigate how freestyle swimming behaviour and performance is influenced by surface waves. A group of 12 swimmers were instructed to swim freestyle in the 54 m long wave flume located at The University of Western Australia’s Coastal and Offshore Engineering Laboratory. A variety of different regular waves were simulated, varying in height (up to 0.3 m), period (1.25 – 4s), and direction (with or against the swimmer). Swimmer’s velocity and acceleration, respectively, were determined from video recording and inertial sensors attached to five different parts of the swimmer’s body. The results illustrate how the swimmers stroke rate and the wave encounter frequency influence their forward speed and how particular wave conditions can benefit or hinder performance. Comparisons to simplified mathematical models provide insight into several aspects of performance, including: (i) how much faster swimmers can travel when swimming with as opposed to against the waves, and (ii) why swimmers of lesser ability are expected to be affected proportionally more by waves than elite swimmers. These findings have implications across the spectrum from elite to ‘weekend’ swimmers, including how they are coached and their ability to win (or just successfully complete) iconic open water events such as the Rottnest Channel Swim held annually in Western Australia.

Keywords: open water, surface waves, wave height/length, wave flume, stroke rate

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Authors: Wenfu Zhang

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This study examines why young, privileged Chinese individuals emigrate, how they sustain fluid, ongoing movement, and the life goals through migrant entrepreneurship. Through interviews with 30 young Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in the UK, this study reveals that they migrate primarily to escape an increasingly "risk society", characterized by reduced social and personal freedoms, a hostile business environment, and hyper-competition within professional and entrepreneurial sectors in the PRC. In this context, elite-oriented immigration policies of Northern countries align with these migrants' goals, creating a duality of 'neoliberalism as exception' and 'exceptions to neoliberalism', which facilitates selective entry for young, privileged Chinese. Intriguingly, even within the perceived context of an increasingly 'risk society,' young, privileged migrants are hesitant to relinquish their Chinese nationality, despite having diligently obtained UK residency. This choice reflects a deliberate strategy to cultivate 'mobility capital'. A Northern country's residency offers mobility to exit China when “risks” emerge, while Chinese nationality enables a strategic return when advantageous. This study contributes to the literature on how young, privileged Chinese individuals from the not-so-distant ‘Deng Xiaoping Era’ view China’s ongoing “New Era” as shaping their future aspirations with uncertainty; it examines how revenue-driven immigration controls in postcolonial Northern countries impact Southern elites by enabling them to project their domestic inequality issues onto a global scale through the use of mobility capital. In this study, it term these young Chinese elites "Chinese Übermensches," an unparalleled phenomenon in Chinese migration history.

Keywords: mobility capital, elite migration, entrepreneurship, neoliberalism, risk society

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Authors: Magdy Abouzeid

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Introduction: Physical activity has been shown to have a positive effect on bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC) among children, adolescents, and adults. Sports characterized by little or moderate weight bearing or impact have a low osteogenic effect. However, the action of such sports on bone turnover remains unclear. Swimming, as a non-weight-bearing sport, has been considered to be insignificant in the maintenance of bone mass. Purpose: To examine this issue we measured (BMD) and(BMC) of the lumbar spine, proximal femur via dual energy x-ray absorptiometry in the group of elite male swimmers, and determine the effect of swimming training on bone health and compared the results with matched controls group in age, body weight and height. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five male swimmers (age 20.7+/-0.8 years) training for 12-15 hours/week; and the controls group consisted of 25 non-active male (age 21.3 +/-1.3 years) were studied BMD and BMC of lumbar spine, femur were assessed via (DXA) absorptiometry. Results: There was significant difference between swimmers and control group in BMD and BMC, BMD of Swimmers was significantly greater than controls at all sites. The lumbar spine (1, 08 +/-0.202 vs., 0717+0.57 gxcm (-2), right proximal femur (1, 02 +/-, 044 vs., 771+/-, 027 gxcm (-2), and left proximal femur (1.374+/-0.212 vs. 1.01 +/-0.141 gxcm (-2). Swimmers were significantly taller, and had greater BMC and BMD compared to the controls group (P<0.001). Conclusions: These results suggest that swimming training may be beneficial in the prevention or therapy of OSTEOPENIA, and may lead to increased (BMD) and (BMC) for male swimmers. Swimming may be an effective non-pharmacological intervention for the adults and adolescent. Further research with younger athletes of another type of aquatics sport is warranted to better identify the periods of BMD development during which Aquatics sport has the greatest impact on bone health.

Keywords: bone mineral density, lumbar spine, femur, swimming, DXA absorptiometry

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Authors: Suraj Sharma

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Green infrastructure (GI) offers a contemporary approach for reducing the risk of flooding, improve water quality, and harvesting stormwater for sustainable use. GI promotes landscape planning to enhance sustainable development and urban resilience. However, the existing literature is lacking in ensuring the comprehensive assessment of GI performance in terms of ecosystem function and services for social, ecological, and economical system resilience. We propose a robust indicator set and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) for quantitative and qualitative analysis for sustainable water management to assess the capacity of urban resilience. Green infrastructure in urban resilience water management system (GIUR-WMS) supports decision-making for GI planning through scenario comparisons with urban resilience capacity index. To demonstrate the GIUR-WMS, we develop five scenarios for five sectors of Chandigarh (12, 26, 14, 17, and 34) to test common type of GI (rain barrel, rain gardens, detention basins, porous pavements, and open spaces). The result shows the open spaces achieve the highest green infrastructure urban resilience index of 4.22/5. To implement the open space scenario in urban sites, suitable vacant can be converted to green spaces (example: forest, low impact recreation areas, and detention basins) GIUR-WMS is easy to replicate, customize and apply to cities of different sizes to assess environmental, social and ecological dimensions.

Keywords: green infrastructure, assessment, urban resilience, water management system, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation

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Authors: Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay, Joseph Ogutu, Gundula Bartzke, Hans-Peter Piepho

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Rainfall is a critical component of climate governing vegetation growth and production, forage availability and quality for herbivores. However, reliable rainfall measurements are not always available, making it necessary to predict rainfall values for particular locations through time. Predicting rainfall in space and time can be a complex and challenging task, especially where the rain gauge network is sparse and measurements are not recorded consistently for all rain gauges, leading to many missing values. Here, we develop a flexible Bayesian model for predicting rainfall in space and time and apply it to Narok County, situated in southwestern Kenya, using data collected at 23 rain gauges from 1965 to 2015. Narok County encompasses the Maasai Mara ecosystem, the northern-most section of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, famous for its diverse and abundant large mammal populations and spectacular migration of enormous herds of wildebeest, zebra and Thomson's gazelle. The model incorporates geographical and meteorological predictor variables, including elevation, distance to Lake Victoria and minimum temperature. We assess the efficiency of the model by comparing it empirically with the established Gaussian process, Kriging, simple linear and Bayesian linear models. We use the model to predict total monthly rainfall and its standard error for all 5 * 5 km grid cells in Narok County. Using the Monte Carlo integration method, we estimate seasonal and annual rainfall and their standard errors for 29 sub-regions in Narok. Finally, we use the predicted rainfall to predict large herbivore biomass in the Maasai Mara ecosystem on a 5 * 5 km grid for both the wet and dry seasons. We show that herbivore biomass increases with rainfall in both seasons. The model can handle data from a sparse network of observations with many missing values and performs at least as well as or better than four established and widely used models, on the Narok data set. The model produces rainfall predictions consistent with expectation and in good agreement with the blended station and satellite rainfall values. The predictions are precise enough for most practical purposes. The model is very general and applicable to other variables besides rainfall.

Keywords: non-stationary covariance function, gaussian process, ungulate biomass, MCMC, maasai mara ecosystem

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Authors: Zulfajri Basri Hasanuddin

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There is an increasing demand for broadband services in Indonesia. Therefore, the answer is the use of Ka-Band which has some advantages such as wider bandwidth, the higher transmission speeds, and smaller size of antenna in the ground. However, rain attenuation is the primary factor in the degradation of signal at the Kaband. In this paper, the author will determine whether the Ka-band frequency can be implemented in Indonesia which has high intensity of rainfall.

Keywords: Ka-band, link budget, link availability, BER, Eb/No, C/N

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Authors: Anna Perrone, Federico Martinelli

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Olive fruit is well-known for the high content in secondary metabolites with high interest at nutritional, nutraceutical, antioxidant, and healthy levels. The content of secondary metabolites in olive at harvest may be affected by different water regimes, with significant effects on olive oil composition and quality and, consequently, on its healthy and nutritional features. In this work, a summary of several research studies dealing with the biosynthesis of healthy and nutraceutical metabolites of the secondary metabolism in olive fruit will be reported. The phytochemical findings have been correlated with the expression of key genes involved in polyphenol, terpenoid, and carotenoid biosynthesis and metabolism in response to different development stages and water regimes. Flavonoids were highest in immature fruits, while anthocyanins increased at ripening. In epicarp tissue, this was clearly associated with an up-regulation of the UFGT gene. Olive fruits cultivated under different water regimes were analyzed by metabolomics. This method identified several hundred metabolites in the ripe mesocarp. Among them, 46 were differentially accumulated in the comparison between rain-fed and irrigated conditions. Well-known healthy metabolites were more abundant at a higher level of water regimes. Increased content of polyphenols was observed in the rain-fed fruit; particularly, anthocyanin concentration was higher at ripening. Several secondary metabolites were differentially accumulated between different irrigation conditions. These results showed that these metabolic approaches could be efficiently used to determine the effects of agronomic treatments on olive fruit physiology and, consequently, on nutritional and healthy properties of the obtained extra-virgin olive oil.

Keywords: olea europea, anthocyanins, polyphenols, water regimes

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Authors: Saeed Ilbeigi, Bart Van Gheluwe

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The purpose of this study was to identify the three-dimensional kinematics of the sprint start during the start phase of the sprint. The purpose of this study was to identify the three-dimensional kinematics of the sprint start during the start phase of the sprint. Moreover, the effect of anthropometrical factors such as skeletal muscle mass, thigh girth, and calf girth also were considered on the kinematics of the sprint start. Among all young sprinters involved in the national Belgium league, sixty sprinters (boys: 14.7 ± 1.8 years and girls: 14.8±1.5 years) were randomly selected. The kinematics data of the sprint start were collected with a Vicon® 620 motion analysis system equipped with 12 infrared cameras running at 250 Hz and running the Vicon Data Station software. For statistical analysis, T-tests and ANOVA׳s with Scheffé post hoc test were used and the significant level was set as p≤0.05. The results showed that the angular positions of the lower joints of the young sprinters in the set position were comparable with adult figures from literature, however, with a greater range of joint extension. The most significant difference between boys and girls was found in the set position, where the boys presented a more dorsiflexed ankle. No further gender effect was observed during the leaving the blocks and contact phase. The sprinters with a higher age, skeletal muscle mass, thigh girth, and calf girth displayed a better angular position of the lower joints (e.g. ankle, knee, hip) in the set position, a more optimal angular position for the foot and knee for absorbing impact forces at foot contact and finally a higher range of flexion/extension motion to produce force and power when leaving the blocks.

Keywords: anthropometry, kinematics, sprint start, young elite sprinters

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Authors: Lilian Mbinya Muasa

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Climate change is inevitable and a global challenge with long term implications to the sustainable development of many countries today. The negative impacts of climate change are creating far reaching social, economic and environmental problems threatening lives and livelihoods of millions of people in the world. Developing countries especially sub-Saharan countries are more vulnerable to climate change due to their weak ecosystem, low adaptive capacity and high dependency on rain fed agriculture. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are more vulnerable to climate change impacts due to their weak adaptive capacity and over-reliance on rain fed agriculture. In Kenya, 78% of the rural communities are poor farmers who heavily rely on rain fed agriculture thus are directly affected by climate change impacts.Currently, many parts of Kenya are experiencing successive droughts which are contributing to persistently unstable and declining agricultural productivity especially in semi arid eastern Kenya. As a result, thousands of rural communities repeatedly experience food insecurity which plunge them to an ever over-reliance on relief food from the government and Non-Governmental Organization In addition, they have adopted poverty coping strategies to diversify their income, for instance, deforestation to burn charcoal, sand harvesting and overgrazing which instead contribute to environmental degradation.This research was conducted in Makueni County which is classified as one of the most food insecure counties in Kenya and experiencing acute environmental degradation. The study aimed at analyzing the adaptive capacity to climate change across farming households of Makueni County in Kenya by, 1) analyzing adaptive capacity to climate change and agricultural productivity across farming households, 2) identifying factors that contribute to differences in adaptive capacity across farming households, and 3) understanding the relationship between climate change, agricultural productivity and adaptive capacity. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to determine adaptive capacity and Total Factor Productivity (TFP) to determine Agricultural productivity per household. Increase in frequency of prolonged droughts and scanty rainfall. Preliminary findings indicate a magnanimous decline in agricultural production in the last 10 years in Makueni County. In addition, there is an over reliance of households on indigenous knowledge which is no longer reliable because of the unpredictability nature of climate change impacts. These findings on adaptive capacity across farming households provide the first step of developing and implementing action-oriented climate change policies in Makueni County and Kenya.

Keywords: adaptive capacity, agricultural productivity, climate change, vulnerability

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Authors: Hossam Mohamed Abdelfattah Helal Hegazi

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Winds and storms are considered crucial weathering factors, representing primary causes of destruction and erosion for all materials on the Earth's surface. This naturally includes historical structures, with the impact of winds and storms intensifying their deterioration, particularly when carrying high-hardness sand particles during their passage across the ground. Ancient Egyptians utilized various methods to prevent wind damage to their ancient architecture throughout the ancient Egyptian periods . One of the techniques employed by ancient Egyptians was the use of clay or compacted earth as a filling material between opposing walls made of stone, bricks, or mud bricks. The walls made of reeds or woven tree branches were covered with clay to prevent the infiltration of winds and rain, enhancing structural integrity, this method was commonly used in hollow layers . Additionally, Egyptian engineers innovated a type of adobe brick with uniformly leveled sides, manufactured from dried clay. They utilized stone barriers, constructed wind traps, and planted trees in rows parallel to the prevailing wind direction. Moreover, they employed receptacles to drain rainwater resulting from wind-loaded rain and used mortar to fill gaps in roofs and structures. Furthermore, proactive measures such as the removal of sand from around historical and archaeological buildings were taken to prevent adverse effects

Keywords: winds, storms, weathering, destruction, erosion, materials, Earth's surface, historical structures, impact

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Authors: Syed Ibrahim, Syed Muneer Ahmed

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It is a global phenomenon that fitness is a pre-requisite to the desired end of optimum efficiency in elite class basketballers achieved through appropriate conditioning program. This study was undertaken to find out the effect of gymnastic oriented training program on the physical fitness and the level of technical performance of basketball players. Method: 27 basketballers were divided into 12 experimental and 15 control groups aged between 19 to 25 years. Physical fitness tests comprising of vertical jump, push-ups, chin ups, sit ups, back strength, 30 m sprint, boomerangs test, 600 m run, sit and reach, bridge up and shoulder rotation and technical skill tests like dribbling, layup shots and rebound collection were used for the study. A pre- and post-test was conducted before and after the training program of 6 weeks. Results: The results indicated no significant difference in the anthropometric measurements of age, height and weight between the experimental and control group as the ‘t’ values observed were 0.28, 1.63 and 1.60 respectively . There were significant improvements in vertical jump, push-ups, sit-ups, modified boomerang test, bridge test and shoulder rotation index with the ‘t’ values being 2.60, 3.41, 3.91, 4.02, 3.55 and 2.33 respectively. However, no significant differences existed in chin-ups, back strength, 30 m sprint and 6000 m run with the ‘t’ values being 2.08, 1.77, 1.28 and 0.80 respectively. There was significant improvement in the post-test for the technical skills tests in the experimental group with ‘t’ values being 3.65, 2.57, and 3.62 for the dribble, layup shots and rebound collection respectively. There was no significant difference in the values of the control group except in the rebound collection which showed significant difference. Conclusion: It was found that both the physical fitness and skill proficiency of the basketballers increased through the participation in the gymnastics oriented program.

Keywords: gymnastic, technical, pre-requisite, elite class

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Authors: Abdul Malik Dawlatzai, Shafiqullah Rahmani

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Splash erosion in field has affected by factors; slope, rain intensity, soil properties, and plant cover. And also, soil erosion affects not only farmland productivity but also water quality downstream. There are a number of potential soil conservation practices, but many of these are complicated and relatively expensive, such as buffer strips, agro-forestry, counter banking, catchment canal, terracing, surface mulching, reduced tillage, etc. However, mitigation soil and water loss in agricultural land, particularly in arid and semi-arid climatic conditions, is indispensable for environmental protection and agricultural production. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of adding gypsum mineral on mitigating splash erosion caused by rain drop. The research was conducted in soil laboratory Badam Bagh Agricultural Researching Farm, Kabul, Afghanistan. The stainless steel cores were used, and constant water pressure was controlled by a Mariotte’s bottle with kinetic energy of raindrops 2.36 x 10⁻⁵J. Gypsum mineral was applied at a rate of 5 and 10 t ha⁻¹ and using a sandy loam and loam soil textures. The result was showed an average soil loss from sandy loam soil texture; control was 8.22%, 4.31% and 4.06% similar from loam soil texture, control was 7.26%, 2.89%, and 2.72% respectively. The application of gypsum mineral significantly (P < 0.05) reduced dispersion of soil particles caused by the impact of raindrops compared to control. Therefore, it was concluded that the addition of gypsum was effective as a measure for mitigating splash erosion.

Keywords: gypsum, soil loss, splash erosion, Afghanistan

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Authors: Mohamed I. Alzarah

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Passive dew harvesting and rainwater collection requires a very small financial investment meanwhile they can exploit a free and clean source of water in rural or remote areas. Dew condensation on greenhouse dryer cladding and assorted other surfaces was frequently noticed. Accordingly, this study was performed in order to measure the quantity of condensation in the arid regions. Dew was measured by using three different kinds of collectors which were glass of flat plate solar collector, tempered glass of photovoltaic (PV) and double sloped (25°) acrylic plexiglas of greenhouse dryer. The total amount of dew collection for three different types of collectors was measured during December 2013 to March 2014 in Alahsa, Saudi Arabia. Meteorological data were collected for one year. The condensate dew drops were collected naturally (before scraping) and by scraping once and twice. Dew began to condense most likely between 12:00 am and 6:30 am and its intensity reached the peak at about 45 min before sunrise. The cumulative dew yield on double-sloped test roof was varying with wind speed and direction. Results indicated that, wiping twice gave more dew yield compared to wiping once or collection by gravity. Dew and rain pH were neutral (close to 7) and the total mineralization was considerable. The ions concentration agrees with the World Health Organization recommendations for potable water. Using existing drying system for dew and rain harvesting cold provide a potable water source for arid region.

Keywords: PV module, flat plate solar collector, greenhouse, drying system, dew collection, water vapor, rainwater harvesting

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Authors: I. Derek Kaka’an, P. Smolianov, D. Koh Choon Lian, S. Dion, C. Schoen, J. Norberg

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This study was designed to examine mass participation and elite football performance in Nigeria with reference to advance international football management practices. Over 200 sources of literature on sport delivery systems were analyzed to construct a globally applicable model of elite football integrated with mass participation, comprising of the following three levels: macro- (socio-economic, cultural, legislative, and organizational), meso- (infrastructures, personnel, and services enabling sport programs) and micro-level (operations, processes, and methodologies for development of individual athletes). The model has received scholarly validation and showed to be a framework for program analysis that is not culturally bound. The Smolianov and Zakus model has been employed for further understanding of sport systems such as US soccer, US Rugby, swimming, tennis, and volleyball as well as Russian and Dutch swimming. A questionnaire was developed using the above-mentioned model. Survey questions were validated by 12 experts including academicians, executives from sport governing bodies, football coaches, and administrators. To identify best practices and determine areas for improvement of football in Nigeria, 120 coaches completed the questionnaire. Useful exemplars and possible improvements were further identified through semi-structured discussions with 10 Nigerian football administrators and experts. Finally, content analysis of Nigeria Football Federation’s website and organizational documentation was conducted. This paper focuses on the meso-level of Nigerian football delivery, particularly infrastructures, personnel, and services enabling sport programs. This includes training centers, competition systems, and intellectual services. Results identified remarkable achievements coupled with great potential to further develop football in different types of public and private organizations in Nigeria. These include: assimilating football competitions with other cultural and educational activities, providing favorable conditions for employees of all possible organizations to partake and help in managing football programs and events, providing football coaching integrated with counseling for prevention of antisocial conduct, and improving cooperation between football programs and organizations for peace-making and advancement of international relations, tourism, and socio-economic development. Accurate reporting of the sports programs from the media should be encouraged through staff training for better awareness of various events. The systematic integration of these meso-level practices into the balanced development of mass and high-performance football will contribute to international sport success as well as national health, education, and social harmony.

Keywords: football, high performance, mass participation, Nigeria, sport development

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Authors: Zain Ul Hassan, Muhammad Zain Ul Abadin, Muhammad Zubair Khan

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Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have now become of predominant importance for various operations, and an immense amount of work is going on in this specific category. The structural stability and life of these UAVs is key factor that should be considered while deploying them to different intelligent operations as their failure leads to loss of sensitive real-time data and cost. This paper presents an applied research on the development of a structural health monitoring system for a UAV designed and fabricated by deploying modular approach. Firstly, a modular UAV has been designed which allows to dismantle and to reassemble the components of the UAV without effecting the whole assembly of UAV. This novel approach makes the vehicle very sustainable and decreases its maintenance cost to a significant value by making possible to replace only the part leading to failure. Then the SHM for the designed architecture of the UAV had been specified as a combination of wings integrated with strain gauges, on-board data logger, bridge circuitry and the ground station. For the research purpose sensors have only been attached to the wings being the most load bearing part and as per analysis was done on ANSYS. On the basis of analysis of the load time spectrum obtained by the data logger during flight, fatigue life of the respective component has been predicted using fracture mechanics techniques of Rain Flow Method and Miner’s Rule. Thus allowing us to monitor the health of a specified component time to time aiding to avoid any failure.

Keywords: fracture mechanics, rain flow method, structural health monitoring system, unmanned aerial vehicle

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Authors: Chen ChihYu, Tang Wen Tzu, Chen Kuang Hui

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Aim —To compare the dismount skill between Taiwanese and elite international gymnastics in parallel bars following the 2017-2020 code of points. Methods—The gymnasts who advanced to the parallel bars event finals of these four competitions including World Championships, Universiade, the National Games of Taiwan, and the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games of Taiwan both 2017 and 2019 were selected in this study. The dismount skill of parallel bars was analyzed, and the average difficulty score was compared by one-way ANOVA. Descriptive statistics were applied to present the type of dismount skill and the difficulty of each gymnast in these four competitions. The data from World Championships and Universiade were combined as the international group (INT), and data of Taiwanese National Games and National Intercollegiate Athletic Games were also combined as the national group (NAT). The differences between INT and NAT were analyzed by the Chi-square test. The statistical significance of this study was set at α= 0.05. Results— i) There was a significant difference in the mean parallel bars dismount skill in these four competitions analyzed by one-way ANOVA. Both dismount scores of World Championships and Universiade were significantly higher than in Taiwanese National Games and National Intercollegiate Athletic Games (0.58±0.08 & 0.56±0.08 > 0.42±0.06 & 40±0.06, p < 0.05). ii) Most of the gymnasts in World Championships and Universiade selected the 0.6-point skill as the parallel bars dismount element, and for the Taiwanese National Games and the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games, most of the gymnasts performed the 0.4-point dismount skill. iii) The result of the Chi-square test has shown that there was a significant difference in the selection of parallel bars dismount skill. The INT group used the E or E+ difficulty element as the dismount skill, and the NAT group selected the D or D- difficulty element. Conclusion— The level of parallel bars dismount in Taiwanese gymnastics is inferior to elite international gymnastics. It is suggested that Taiwanese gymnastics must try to practice the F difficulty dismount (double salto forward tucked with half twist) in the future.

Keywords: Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, dismount, difficulty score, element

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Authors: Kayvan Khoramipour, Abbas Ali Gaeini, Elham Shirzad, Øyvind Sandbakk

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Basketball has different positions with individual movement profiles, which may influence metabolic demands. Accordingly, the present study aimed to compare the movement and metabolic load between different positions during elite male basketball games. Five main players of 14 teams (n = 70), who participated in the 2017-18 Iranian national basketball leagues, were selected as participants. The players were defined as backcourt (Posts 1-3) and frontcourt (Posts 4-5). Video based time motion analysis (VBTMA) was performed based on players’ individual running and shuffling speed using Dartfish software. Movements were classified into high and low intensity running with and without having the ball, as well as high and low-intensity shuffling and static movements. Mean frequency, duration, and distance were calculated for each class, except for static movements where only frequency was calculated. Saliva samples were collected from each player before and after 40-minute basketball games and analyzed using metabolomics. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLSDA) (for metabolomics data) and independent T-tests (for VBTMA) were used as statistical tests. Movement frequency, duration, and distance were higher in backcourt players (all p ≤ 0.05), while static movement frequency did not differ. Saliva samples showed that the levels of Taurine, Succinic acid, Citric acid, Pyruvate, Glycerol, Acetoacetic acid, Acetone, and Hypoxanthine were all higher in backcourt players, whereas Lactate, Alanine, 3-Metyl Histidine, and Methionine were higher in frontcourt players Based on metabolomics, we demonstrate that backcourt and frontcourt players have different metabolic profiles during games, where backcourt players move clearly more during games and therefore rely more on aerobic energy, whereas frontcourt players rely more on anaerobic energy systems in line with less dynamic but more static movement patterns.

Keywords: basketball, metabolomics, saliva, sport loadomics

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Authors: Martin Mundo-Molina

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In Mexico, there are many small rural communities with serious water supply deficiencies. In Chiapas, Mexico, there are 19,972 poor rural communities, 15,712 of which have fewer than 100 inhabitants. The lack of a constant water supply is most severe in the highlands of Chiapas where the population is made up mainly of indigenous groups. The communities are on mountainous terrain with a widely dispersed population. These characteristics combine to make the provision of public utilities, such as water, electricity and sewerage, difficult with conventional means. The introduction of alternative, low-cost technologies represents means of supplying water such as through fog and rain catchment with zero greenhouse emissions. In this paper is presented the rainwater harvesting system (RWS) constructed in Yalentay, Chiapas Mexico. The RWS is able to store 1.2 M liters of water to provide drinking water to small rural indigenous communities of 500 people in the drought stage. Inside the system of rainwater harvesting there isn't photosynthesis in order to conserve water for long periods. The natural filters of the system of rainwater harvesting guarantee the drinking water for using to the community. The combination of potability and low cost makes rain collection a viable alternative for rural areas, weather permitting. The Mexican Institute of Water Technology and Chiapas University constructed a rainwater harvesting system in Yalentay Chiapas, it consists of four parts: 1. Roof of aluminum, for collecting rainwater, 2. Underground-cistern, divided in two tanks, 3. Filters, to improve the water quality and 4. The system of rainwater harvesting dignified the lives of people in Yalentay, saves energy, prevents the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, conserves natural resources such as water and air.

Keywords: appropriate technologies, climate change, greenhouse gases, rainwater harvesting

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Authors: Leena-Maria Alyedreessy

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Self-esteem is thought to be determined by ones’ own feeling of being included, liked and accepted by others. This research explores whether this concept may also be applied in the virtual world and assesses whether there is any relationship between Twitter users' self-esteem and the amount of interactions they receive. 20 female Arab participants were given a survey asking them about their Twitter interactions and their feelings of having an imagined audience to fill out and a Rosenberg Self-Esteem Assessment to complete. After completion and statistical analysis, results showed a significant correlation between the feeling of being Twitter elite, the feeling of having a lot of people listening to your tweets and having a lot of interactions with high self-esteem. However, no correlations were detected for low-self-esteem and low interactions.

Keywords: twitter, social media, self-esteem, narcissism, interactions

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Authors: Pauliasi Tony Fakahau

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This paper provides an overview of the impact of the revenue reform programme on vulnerable communities in the Kingdom of Tonga. Economic turmoil and mismanagement during the late 1990s forced the government to seek technical and financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank to undertake a comprehensive Economic and Public Sector Reform (EPSR) programme. The EPSR is a Western model recommended by donor agencies as the solution to Tonga’s economic challenges. The EPSR programme included public sector reform, private sector growth, and revenue generation. Tax reform was the main tool for revenue generation, which set out to strengthen tax compliance and administration as well as implement a value-added consumption tax. The EPSR is based on Western values and ideology but failed to recognise that Tongan cultural values are important to the local community. Two participant groups were interviewed. Participant group one consisted of 51 people representing vulnerable communities. Participant group two consisted of six people from the government and business sector who were from the elite of Tongan society. The Kakala Research Methodology provided the framework for the research, and the Talanoa Research Method was used to conduct semi-structured interviews in the homes of the first group and in the workplaces of the second group. The research found a heavy burden of the consumption tax on the purchasing power of participant group one (vulnerable participants), having an impact on nearly every financial transaction they made. Participant group ones’ main financial priorities were kavenga fakalotu (obligations to the church), kavenga fakafāmili (obligations to the family) and kavenga fakafonua (obligations to cultural events for the village, nobility, and royalty). The findings identified inequalities of the revenue reform, especially from consumption tax, for vulnerable people and communities compared to the elite of society. The research concluded that government and donor agencies need ameliorating policies to reduce the burden of tax on vulnerable groups more susceptible to the impact of revenue reform.

Keywords: tax reform, tonga vulnerable community revenue, revenue reform, public sector reform

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Authors: N. Hachemi, I. Benmehdi, O. Hasnaoui

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The air like water is an essential element for living beings. Each day, a man breathes about 20m3 of air. It originally consists of a set of gas whose presence and concentrations correspond to the needs of life. This study focuses on air pollution by smoke and dust emitted from the chimney of the cement works of Beni Saf, pathological and their impact on the environment. Dust of the cement plant are harmless to permissible levels for living organisms, but the two combined phenomena namely the release of dust and aridity of the climate, which severely marked area of Beni Saf; have contributed adverse effects in on human health and the degradation of vegetation cover and species especially weakened by environmental stress. The most visible impact is certainly the deposition of dust on the surrounding areas of the cement factory, and seriously affecting the aesthetics of the landscape. Health problems are more important inside and outside the factory. Among the diseases notable caused by the cement works are: deafness, heart disease, asthma and mental. The dust of the cement works is mainly composed of fine particles of limestone, clay, free lime, silicates and also loaded of the gases such as carbon dioxide gas CO2. The accumulation of this gas in the atmosphere is directly involved in the phenomenon of increasing of greenhouse effect. Some gases, for example, are directly toxic. They can change the climate, changing precipitation types and become a greater source of stress by drought, etc. The environment also suffers from air pollution indirectly; it is more precisely the acid rain. They are produced by the combustion of non-metals in air. Acid rain has consequences for contaminating the soil, weakening the flora, fauna and acidifies lakes. Finally, the pollution problems are multiple and specific dust. It can worsen and change, it has reached epidemic proportions quantitatively and qualitatively disturbing and unpredictable.

Keywords: atmospheric pollution, cement, dust, environment

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Authors: Md. Obidul Haque, Abbasi Khanm

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Port city Chittagong, the commercial capital of Bangladesh, is flourished with fascinating topography and climatic context along with basic resources for livelihood; both shape this city and become living archives of its ecologies. Chittagong has been witnessing numerous urban development measures being taken by city development authority, though some of those seem incomplete because of lack of proper planning. Due to this unplanned trail, the blessings of nature have become the reason of sufferings for city dwellers. One of which is the water clogging due to heavy rainfall, seepage, high tide, absence of well-knit underground drainage system, and so on. The problem has reached such an extent that the first monsoon rain is enough to shut down the entire city and causing immense sufferings to livestock, specially most vulnerable groups such as children and office going people. Study shows that total discharge is higher than present drainage capacity of the canals, thus, resulting in overflow, as major channels are clogged up by dumping waste or illegal encroachment, which are supposed to flush out rain water. This paper aims to address natural and manmade causes behind urban water clogging, adverse socio-environmental hazardous effects, possibilities for probable solutions on basis of local people’s experience and rational urban planning and landscape architectural proposals such as facilitating well planned drainage system, along with waste management policies etc. which can be able to intervene in these movements to activate the mighty port city’s unfulfilled potentials.

Keywords: drainage, high-tide, urban storm water logging (USWL), urban planning, water management

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Authors: David Maina Muthegethi

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For decades, archaeological work of Swahili Civilization has mainly concentrated on exploration of economic and political dynamics of City states. This paper moves further and explore how gender roles were formed, maintained, negotiated and re-negotiated through time and space in Gede City. Unlike other Swahili city states, Gede was located around two miles away from the shores of Indian Ocean. Nonetheless, the city was characterized by security walls, stone houses, mosques and tombs typical of Swahili City states such as Kilwa. The study employed several methods of data collection namely: archival research, survey, re-examination of collected materials and excavation of Gede archaeological site. Since, the study aimed to examine gender roles across different social class, a total of three houses were excavated based on their social hierarchy. Thus, the houses were roughly categorized as belonging to elites, middle class and lower class. The house were located in the inner wall, second inner wall and the outer wall of Gede City respectively. Key findings shows that gender roles differed considerably along classes in Gede archaeological site. For instance, the women of the elite and middle class were active participants in Gede international trade through production and consumption of imported goods. This participation corresponded with commercialization of Gede households especially in elite’ areas where they hosted international traders. On the other hand, the middle class houses, women concentrated on running of light industries aimed at supplying goods for the urban community. Thus, they were able to afford exotic goods as their elites counterparts. Lastly, the gender roles of lower class entailed subsistence gender roles with little participation in Gede formal commerce. Interestingly, gender roles in Gede were dynamic in nature and response to cultural diffusion, spread of Islam, intensification of trade, diversification of subsistence patterns and urbanization. Therefore, this findings, demonstrate centrality of gender in reconstruction of social lives of Swahili Civilization.

Keywords: gender roles, Islam, Swahili civilization, urbanization

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Authors: Chakrit Chotamonsak

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This study was analyzed changes in temperature and precipitation extremes in northern Thailand for the period 1981-2011.The study includes an analysis of the average and trends of changes in temperature and precipitation using 22 climate indices, related to the intensity, frequency and duration of extreme climate events. The results showed that the averaged trend of maximum, minimum and mean temperature is likely to increase over the study area in rate of 0.5, 0.9 and 0.7 °C in last 30 years. Changes in temperature at nighttime, then rising at a rate higher daytime is resulting to decline of diurnal temperature range throughout the area. Trend of changes in average precipitation during the year 1981-2011 is expected to increase at an average rate of 21%. The intensity of extreme temperature events is increasing almost all station. In particular, the changes of the night were unusually hot has intensified throughout the region. In some provinces such as Chiang Mai and Lampang are likely be faced with the severity of hot days and hot nights in increasing rate. Frequency of extreme temperature events are likely to increase each station, especially hot days, and hot nights are increasing at a rate of 2.38 and 3.58 days per decade. Changes in the cold days and cold nights are declining at a rate of 0.82 and 3.03 days per decade. The duration of extreme temperature events is expected to increase the events hot in every station. An average of 17.8 days per decade for the number of consecutive cold winter nights likely shortens the rate of 2.90 days per decade. The analysis of the precipitation indices reveals the intensity of extreme precipitation is increasing almost across the region. The intensify expressed the heavy rain in one day (Rx1day) and very heavy rain accumulated in 5 days (RX5day) which is likely to increase, and very heavy rainfall is likely to increase in intensity. Frequency of extreme precipitation events is likely to increase over the station. The average frequency of heavy precipitation events increased xxx days per decade. The duration of extreme precipitation events, such as the consecutive dry days are likely to reduce the numbers almost all station while the consecutive wet days tends to increase and decrease at different numbers in different areas.

Keywords: climate extreme, temperature extreme, precipitation extreme, Northern Thailand

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Authors: Amanda J. Burridge, Keith J. Edwards, Paul A. Wilkinson, Tom Batstone, Erik H. Murchie, Lorna McAusland, Ana Elizabete Carmo-Silva, Ivan Jauregui, Tracy Lawson, Silvere R. M. Vialet-Chabrand

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The rate of genetic progress in wheat production must be improved to meet global food security targets. However, past selection for domestication traits has reduced the genetic variation in modern wheat cultivars, a fact that could severely limit the future rate of genetic gain. The genetic variation in agronomically important traits for the wild relatives and progenitors of wheat is far greater than that of the current domesticated cultivars, but transferring these traits into modern cultivars is not straightforward. Between the elite cultivars of wheat, photosynthetic capacity is a key trait for which there is limited variation. Early screening of wheat wild relative and progenitors has shown differences in photosynthetic capacity and efficiency not only between wild relative species but marked differences between the accessions of each species. By identifying wild relative accessions with improved photosynthetic traits and characterising the genetic variation responsible, it is possible to incorporate these traits into advanced breeding programmes by wide crossing and introgression programmes. To identify the potential variety of photosynthetic capacity and efficiency available in the secondary and tertiary genepool, a wide scale survey was carried out for over 600 accessions from 80 species including those from the genus Aegilops, Triticum, Thinopyrum, Elymus, and Secale. Genotype data were generated for each accession using a ‘Wheat Wild Relative’ Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) genotyping array composed of 35,000 SNP markers polymorphic between wild relatives and elite hexaploid wheat. This genotype data was combined with phenotypic measurements such as gas exchange (CO₂, H₂O), chlorophyll fluorescence, growth, morphology, and RuBisCO activity to identify potential breeding material with enhanced photosynthetic capacity and efficiency. The data and associated analysis tools presented here will prove useful to anyone interested in increasing the genetic diversity in hexaploid wheat or the application of complex genotyping data to plant breeding.

Keywords: wheat, wild relatives, pre-breeding, genomics, photosynthesis

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Authors: Yali Liu

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The ethnographic research involved a multi-sited field trip study in China to compile in-depth data from Chinese multilingual academics of Korean, Japanese, and Russian. It aimed to create a culturally-informed portrait of their values and perceptions regarding their choice of language for academic publishing. Extended and lengthy fieldwork, or known as ‘deep hanging out’, enabled the author to gain a comprehensive understanding of the research context at the macro-level and the participants’ experiences at the micro-level. This research involved multiple fieldwork sites, which the author selected in acknowledgment of the diversity in China’s regions with respect to their geopolitical context, socio-economic development, cultural traditions, and administrative status. The 14 weeks of data collection took the author over-land to five regions in northern China: Hebei province, Tianjin, Jilin province, Gansu province, and Xinjiang. Responding to the fieldwork dynamics, the author positioned herself at different degrees of insiderness and outsiderness. This occurred at three levels: the regional level, the individual level, and the within-individual level. To enhance the ability to reflect on the authors’ researcher subjectivity, the author explored her understanding of the five ‘I’s, derived from the authors’ natural attributes. This helped the author to monitor her subjectivity, particularly during critical decision-making. The methodological challenges the author navigated were related to interviewing elites; this involved the initial approach, establishing a relationship, and negotiating the unequal power relationship during our contact. The author developed a number of strategies to strengthen her authority, and to gain the confidence of her envisaged participants and secure their collaboration, and the author negotiated a form of reciprocity that reflected their needs and expectations. The current ethnographic research has both theoretical and practical significance. It contributes to the methodological development regarding multi-sited ethnographic research. The messiness and strategies about positioning and interviewing elites will provide practical lessons for researchers who conduct ethnographic research, especially from power-‘less’ positions.

Keywords: multi-sited ethnographic research, elite interview, multilingual China, subjectivity, reciprocity

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Authors: Aparajita Santra

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In the context of the government's vision of turning Delhi into a green, privatized and slum free city, giving it a world-class image at par with the global cities of the world, this paper investigates into the various processes and politics of things that went behind defining spaces in the city and attributing an aesthetic image to it. The paper will explore two cases that were forged primarily through the forces of one particular type of power relation. One would be to look at the modernist movement adopted by the Nehruvian government post-independence and the next case will look at special periods like Emergency and Commonwealth games. The study of these cases will help understand the ambivalence embedded in the different rationales of the Government and different powerful agencies adopted in order to build world-classness. Through the study, it will be easier to discern how city spaces were reconfigured in the name of 'good governance'. In this process, it also became important to analyze the double nature of law, both as a protector of people’s rights and as a threat to people. What was interesting to note through the study was that in the process of nation building and creating an image for the city, the government’s policies and programs were mostly aimed at the richer sections of the society and the poorer sections and people from lower income groups kept getting marginalized, subdued, and pushed further away (These marginalized people were pushed away even geographically!). The reconfiguration of city space and attributing an aesthetic character to it, led to an alteration not only in the way in which citizens perceived and engaged with these spaces, but also brought about changes in the way they envisioned their place in the city. Ironically, it was found that every attempt to build any kind of facility for the city’s elite in turn led to an inevitable removal of the marginalized sections of the society as a necessary step to achieve a clean, green and world-class city. The paper questions the claim made by the government for creating a just, equitable city and granting rights to all. An argument is put forth that in the politics of redistribution of space, the city that has been designed is meant for the aspirational middle-class and elite only, who are ideally primed to live in world-class cities. Thus, the aim is to study city spaces, urban form, the associated politics and power plays involved within and understand whether segmented cities are being built in the name of creating sensible, inclusive cities.

Keywords: aesthetics, ambivalence, governmentality, power, World-class

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Authors: Jacob Lindh, Kahin Kevin Lee, Yeuqing Li

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This study explores the kinematic differences in elite golfers’ lead wrist motion during partial swings of varying heights. By measuring wrist mechanics in relation to ball flight control, the research aims to enhance understanding of how golfers adapt to different shot height demands. Golfers encounter diverse shot scenarios during tournament and practice play, requiring precision, control, and adaptability. This is particularly relevant for 'wedge' shots within 100 meters of the target. Furthermore, being able to control the ball's flight height on these shots provides players with an advantage, as golf course conditions are known to swiftly change with weather and seasonal conditions. Golfers often employ partial swings to improve their precision to short-distance targets. While previous research has established the biomechanical relationship between full and partial swings, there have been limited efforts in investigating the kinematic modifications that occur when golfers perform partial shots of different heights. This study measures the kinematic differences in elite golfers’ lead wrist motion when they perform swings intending to result in shots travelling 60% of the flight distance of their full swing shots with the same club. Participants will begin with five full shots using a high-lofted club, followed by three low, three medium, and three high partial shots aimed at 60% of their average full-swing flight distance. Their lead wrist kinematics will be recorded using two different motion track systems (Xsens MTW Awinda & Deniz). The validity of their shots will be controlled using a launch monitor’s (Trackman) carry distance and ball flight height data points. Data analysis (ANOVA) will be performed on the collected data to find the most significant variations. The study anticipates notable differences in wrist kinematics between high and low partial shots, particularly in lead wrist angular velocity and displacement. These insights can guide customized coaching and training practices tailored to golfers' individual needs and playing conditions. In addition, equipment manufacturers can use the findings to gain a deeper understanding of how their products are used and identify opportunities for improvement.

Keywords: golf, wrist kinematics, biomechanics, shot height

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Authors: Annamarie Rannou, Horace Bartilow

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Global concerns about xenophobic activity are on the rise across developed and developing countries. And yet, social science scholarship has almost exclusively examined xenophobia as a prejudice of advanced western nations. This research argues that the fields of study related to xenophobia must be re-conceptualized within a framework of ethnicity in order to level the playing field for cross-regional inquiry. This study develops a new concept of ethnic xenophobia and integrates existing explanations of anti-migrant expression into theories of ethnic threat. We argue specifically that political elites convert economic, political, and social threats at the national level into ethnic xenophobic activity in order to gain or maintain political advantage among their native selectorate. We expand on Stuart Kaufman’s theory of symbolic politics to underscore the methods of mobilization used against migrants and the power of elite discourse in moments of national crises. An original dataset is used to examine over 35,000 cases of ethnic xenophobic activity targeting refugees. Wordscores software is used to develop a unique measure of anti-migrant elite rhetoric which captures the symbolic discourse of elites in their mobilization of ethnic xenophobic activism. We use a Structural Equation Model (SEM) to test the causal pathways of the theory across seventy-two developed and developing countries from 1990 to 2016. A framework of Most Different Systems Design (MDSD) is also applied to two pairs of developed-developing country cases, including Kenya and the Netherlands and Lebanon and the United States. This study sheds tremendous light on an underrepresented area of comparative research in migration studies. It shows that the causal elements of anti-migrant activity are far more similar than existing research suggests which has major implications for policy makers, practitioners, and academics in fields of migration protection and advocacy. It speaks directly to the mobilization of myths surrounding refugees, in particular, and the nationalization of narratives of migration that may be neutralized by the development of deeper associational relationships between natives and migrants.

Keywords: refugees, ethnicity, symbolic politics, elites, migration, comparative politics

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Authors: Wanderson Goncalves e Goncalves, José Alberto Silva de Sá

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Human actions are a threat to the balance and conservation of the Amazon forest. Therefore the environmental monitoring services play an important role as the preservation and maintenance of this environment. This study classified forest types using data from a forest inventory provided by the 'Florestal e da Biodiversidade do Estado do Pará' (IDEFLOR-BIO), located between the municipalities of Santarém, Juruti and Aveiro, in the state of Pará, Brazil, covering an area approximately of 600,000 hectares, Bands 3, 4 and 5 of the TM-Landsat satellite image, and Self - Organizing Maps. The information from the satellite images was extracted using QGIS software 2.8.1 Wien and was used as a database for training the neural network. The midpoints of each sample of forest inventory have been linked to images. Later the Digital Numbers of the pixels have been extracted, composing the database that fed the training process and testing of the classifier. The neural network was trained to classify two forest types: Rain Forest of Lowland Emerging Canopy (Dbe) and Rain Forest of Lowland Emerging Canopy plus Open with palm trees (Dbe + Abp) in the Mamuru Arapiuns glebes of Pará State, and the number of examples in the training data set was 400, 200 examples for each class (Dbe and Dbe + Abp), and the size of the test data set was 100, with 50 examples for each class (Dbe and Dbe + Abp). Therefore, total mass of data consisted of 500 examples. The classifier was compiled in Orange Data Mining 2.7 Software and was evaluated in terms of the confusion matrix indicators. The results of the classifier were considered satisfactory, and being obtained values of the global accuracy equal to 89% and Kappa coefficient equal to 78% and F1 score equal to 0,88. It evaluated also the efficiency of the classifier by the ROC plot (receiver operating characteristics), obtaining results close to ideal ratings, showing it to be a very good classifier, and demonstrating the potential of this methodology to provide ecosystem services, particularly in anthropogenic areas in the Amazon.

Keywords: artificial neural network, computational intelligence, pattern recognition, unsupervised learning

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