Contemporary Nutrition Strategies to Optimize Performance in Distance Runners and Race Walkers

Distance events in Athletics include cross country, 10,000-m track race, half-marathon and marathon road races, and 20- and 50-km race walking events over different terrain and environmental conditions. Race times for elite performers span ∼26 min to >4 hr, with key factors for success being a high aerobic power, the ability to exercise at a large fraction of this power, and high running/walking economy. Nutrition-related contributors include body mass and anthropometry, capacity to use fuels, particularly carbohydrate (CHO) to produce adenosine triphosphate economically over the duration of the event, and maintenance of reasonable hydration status in the face of sweat losses induced by exercise intensity and the environment. Race nutrition strategies include CHO-rich eating in the hours per days prior to the event to store glycogen in amounts sufficient for event fuel needs, and in some cases, in-race consumption of CHO and fluid to offset event losses. Beneficial CHO intakes range from small amounts, including mouth rinsing, in the case of shorter events to high rates of intake (75–90 g/hr) in the longest races. A personalized and practiced race nutrition plan should balance the benefits of fluid and CHO consumed within practical opportunities, against the time, cost, and risk of gut discomfort. In hot environments, prerace hyperhydration or cooling strategies may provide a small but useful offset to the accrued thermal challenge and fluid deficit. Sports foods (drinks, gels, etc.) may assist in meeting training/race nutrition plans, with caffeine, and, perhaps nitrate being used as evidence-based performance supplements

Spartan Daily, November 2, 1994

Volume 103, Issue 44https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/8614/thumbnail.jp

Using mobile personalisation to enhance the user experience at large sporting events

At large sporting events (LSEs), e.g. football matches and athletics events, the user experience has been shown to be highly variable (Nilsson, 2004; Nilsson et al. 2004). Reported problems include a lack of social interaction with fellow spectators, and insufficient relevant information on the events or the sporting action taking place (Nilsson, 2004; Nilsson et al. 2004; Esbjornsson et al. 2006; Jacucci et al. 2005). A possible solution is personalisation, making the mobile application adapt to the user, ensuring that only relevant information is retrieved and presented in a way that is suitable. This thesis is devoted to studying the user experience related to mobile personalization at LSEs. It aims to investigate how personalized mobile applications at LSEs can render the user experience more active and engaging in a contextually, socially and culturally relevant way. The thesis reviews different theoretical approaches to help to understand the concepts of interest e.g. personalization and user experience (Chapter 2). Research methods are also discussed including the challenge of adapting user-centred methods into the Chinese culture (Chapter 3). This thesis investigates the user experience of mobile personalization at LSEs by following the circle of user-centred research: It starts to consider user requirements and user experience at LSEs and derives the usage patterns that personalized mobile applications could usefully support (Chapter 4). Then it explores the relevant contextual factors at LSEs which could be used to prescribe the behaviour of a personalizable mobile application (Chapter 5). Next, it describes the user-centred process used to design personalizable interfaces for mobile applications used at LSEs. Four key elements of design are considered: content, conceptual, interaction and presentation design (Chapter 6). The final outputs of the design process were two personalized mobile prototypes for Chinese users at LSEs. These included versions based on either (1) user-initiated or (2) system-initiated personalisation. Finally it investigates the impact on user experience of mobile personalization at LSEs in two empirical studies (a field experiment and a lab-based experiment) with these prototypes (Chapters 7 and 8). Mobile personalization is shown to result in an enriched user experience across a range of activities that a spectator would undertake at a large sporting event. The thesis discusses primarily the effective design of mobile personalization, the design implications at LSEs, user experience design, and research methods for Chinese users (Chapter 9). In conclusion (Chapter 10), specific contributions and avenues for future work are highlighted.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Context-specific social norms intervention to reduce college student alcohol use: manipulating reference groups to target tailgating students, A

2015 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Alcohol use among college students may result in a variety of ill effects for students and their community. The social norms approach is commonly employed to address these issues, targeting individuals' perceptions of normative consumption. However, normative interventions have rarely been implemented in specific situations or contexts that encourage alcohol consumption, when college students need prevention programming the most. Moreover, researchers have often ignored the important gender differences that exist in alcohol use by providing gender-neutral norms. In the current investigation, a randomized controlled trial was conducted in the Fall of 2013 with three experimental conditions: a no-treatment control, a context-specific social norm intervention, and a combined context-specific and gender-specific social norm intervention. Psychology students (N = 216, Mage = 19.11, 72.6% female) were exposed to one of the experimental conditions and completed pre-test assessments online 48 hours prior to the football game they intended to tailgate, and then responded to follow-up measures within 7 days after the football game. Results indicate that the combined intervention may be a promising technique for reducing college students' perceived norms and alcohol consumption in tailgating situations. Specifically, students in the combined condition perceived their peers drank less alcohol while tailgating. In addition, females in the context and combined conditions reported consuming less alcohol than participants in the control group. However, due to small sample sizes in the present study, these effects failed to reach conventional levels of statistical significance. The implications for designing effective normative interventions are discussed

Sports in Digital Era

The thesis's primary purpose is to demonstrate the growth of the digital era on the sports industry for awareness and better management. Moreover, it aims to explain the digital technology revolution and its effect on physical activities and sports. The paper presents a social analysis of sports regarding the effects of the IV Industrial Revolution, driven by an unprecedented level of development in materials sciences, digital technology, and biology. The future views on the evolution of the sports industry and options for the sports manager in the phase of digital transition are illustrated. The conclusion summarizes the implications and represents the direction of the sports industry.O objetivo desta tese é demonstrar o crescimento da era digital na indrústia desportiva para a consciencialização e uma melhor gestão. Além disso, visa explicar a revolução tecnológica digital e a sua influência na atividade física e desporto. O documento apresenta uma análise social do desporto em relação aos efeitos da IV Revolução Industrial, impulsionada pelo sem precedente nível de desenvolvimento nas ciências materiais, tecnologia digital e biologia. O futuro da evolução da indústria do desporto e as opções dos gestores desportivos na fase de transição do digital. A conclusão resume as implicações e reflete a direção da indústria do desporto

November 10, 2011

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia

A study of the individual factors that contribute to alcohol related risk in college students

Collegiate alcohol use is a growing concern. Though alcohol use is often considered normative with this population, it is associated with negative consequences including unwanted sexual contact and suicidality (Core Institute, 2013) and as criminal charges for status offenses or driving under the influence. Often, offenses that occur on or near campus are diverted from the criminal justice system and addressed through the student conduct process. University officials mandate students who violate alcohol and/or drug (AOD) policy to interventions designed to reduce alcohol consumption and related negative consequences, yet these interventions are not always successful at doing so (e.g. Bernstein et al., 2017; Borsari et al., 2012, 2016). Variability in the process of assigning students to mandated interventions (e.g. Amaro et al., 2009; Bernstein et al., 2017; Juhnke et al., 2002), prevents assessment of the way intervention assignment practices influence alcohol related outcomes. Moreover, there is no empirically derived method of assigning students to interventions. In the last decade, however, alcohol consumption (frequency of heavy episodic dinking) and experience of alcohol-related consequences measured on the Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (YAACQ; Read, Kahler, Strong, & Colder, 2006) have been used in research studies to determine risk prior to intervention assignment (Bernstein et al., 2017; Borsari, 2005; Borsari et al., 2016). Although this is a step in the right direction, using solely alcohol consumption and consequences does not fully account for the context of the student’s life or experiences. Risk has also been determined using scores from the Alcohol Use Disorders Test (AUDIT; Saunders, Aasland, Babor, de la Fuente, & Grant, 1993, Carey, Carey, Maisto, & Henson, 2009); however, this method also fails to consider other factors that contribute to risk ratings among college students (e.g., history of AOD use, family history, drinking motives, and demographic factors such as sex, race, Greek affiliation). While researchers exploring the impact of risk-based assignment to interventions is emerging, knowledge of the impact of this assignment process is limited. And, though these interventions assigned based on risk demonstrated some effectiveness, they do not facilitate improvement for all students (Bernstein et al., 2017; Borsari et al., 2016). Researchers have called for a more multifaceted set of variables to determine risk (Borsari et al., 2016) and assign interventions in order to improve study outcomes, and until now, no such model has been explored. The purpose of this study was to explore a comprehensive model that takes into account the individual inter- and intrapersonal factors that contribute to risk. Using stepwise logistic regression, this study identified a combination of factors to be used for risk rating determination among a convenience sample of collegiate drinkers. This study also sought to understand differences between risk groups. Risk ratings may be used to assign students to alcohol interventions to improve effectiveness and resource allocation. This calculated risk rating can be used to determine intervention type/assignment, and improve intervention outcomes consistent with Mallet, Bachrach, and Turissi’s (2009) suggestion that interventions for risky drinkers may be enhanced or improved by incorporating more variables (for example intrapersonal variables) that are closely related to intervention outcomes. This study was a first step in efforts to understand how individual factors including demographic factors and intrapersonal factors, interact to explain current and future risk. Collegiate undergraduates aged 18-25 years old responded to a questionnaire about demographic characteristics, motives for drinking, alcohol-related consequences, and patterns of alcohol consumption. Results of the study indicate individual factors such as freshman classification, biological sex, and motives for drinking may be appropriate screening variables as they are more likely to predict alcohol-related risk than other individual factors including alcohol citation history. These findings are consistent with previous research that identify class year, sex, and drinking motives as predictive of risky alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. Implications for counselors and student affairs staff are discussed in the context of program development and implementation