Analyzing the British News Media’s Representations of British Female Olympians during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games are the first Games with numerical gender parity, with equal numbers of male and female athletes competing. Notably, during the Olympic Games, the proportion of coverage sportswomen receive in the media is significantly greater than outside of the Games, albeit considerably less than sportsmen. As such, the representations and framing of sportswomen during this period of increased visibility hold significant importance and influence. In this context, we examine the trends that have been previously identified in the representations of sportswomen in the sports media and explore the representations of three British sportswomen who represented Great Britain during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the British news media: Dina Asher-Smith (athletics), Helen Glover (rowing), and Bethany Shriever (BMX racing). Despite evidence of some progress in female Olympians’ media representations, ambivalent narratives and gendered discursive journalistic practices are still prevalent in British news media. In light of these findings, we suggest ways that the journalists and media organizations can improve representations of sportswomen to facilitate progression towards gender equity in sports reporting at future Olympic Games

Analyzing the British News Media’s Representations of British Female Olympians during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games are the first Games with numerical gender parity, with equal numbers of male and female athletes competing. Notably, during the Olympic Games, the proportion of coverage sportswomen receive in the media is significantly greater than outside of the Games, albeit considerably less than sportsmen. As such, the representations and framing of sportswomen during this period of increased visibility hold significant importance and influence. In this context, we examine the trends that have been previously identified in the representations of sportswomen in the sports media and explore the representations of three British sportswomen who represented Great Britain during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the British news media: Dina Asher-Smith (athletics), Helen Glover (rowing), and Bethany Shriever (BMX racing). Despite evidence of some progress in female Olympians’ media representations, ambivalent narratives and gendered discursive journalistic practices are still prevalent in British news media. In light of these findings, we suggest ways that the journalists and media organizations can improve representations of sportswomen to facilitate progression towards gender equity in sports reporting at future Olympic Games

Levi-Civita spacetimes in multidimensional theories

We obtain the most general static cylindrically symmetric vacuum solutions of the Einstein field equations in $(4 + N)$ dimensions. Under the assumption of separation of variables, we construct a family of Levi-Civita-Kasner vacuum solutions in $(4 + N)$. We discuss the dimensional reduction of the static solutions. Depending on the reduction procedure, they can be interpreted either as a scalar-vacuum generalization of Levi-Civita spacetimes, or as the effective 4D vacuum spacetime outside of an idealized string in braneworld theory.Comment: 7 pages. Accepted for publication in Mod. Phys. Lett. A (MPLA

An exact self-similar solution for an expanding ball of radiation

We give an exact solution of the $5D$ Einstein equations which in 4D can be interpreted as a spherically symmetric dissipative distribution of matter, with heat flux, whose effective density and pressure are nonstatic, nonuniform, and satisfy the equation of state of radiation. The matter satisfies the usual energy and thermodynamic conditions. The energy density and temperature are related by the Stefan-Boltzmann law. The solution admits a homothetic Killing vector in $5D$, which induces the existence of self-similar symmetry in 4D, where the line element as well as the dimensionless matter quantities are invariant under a simple "scaling" group.Comment: New version expanded and improved. To appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

A comparison of the upper limb movement kinematics utilized by children playing virtual and real table tennis

Active virtual games (AVG) may facilitate gross motor skill development, depending on their fidelity. This study compared the movement patterns of nineteen 10–12 yr old children, while playing table tennis on three AVG consoles (Nintendo Wii, Xbox Kinect, Sony Move) and as a real world task. Wrist and elbow joint angles and hand path distance and speed were captured. Children playing real table tennis had significantly smaller (e.g. Wrist Angle Forehand Real-Kinect: Mean Difference (MD): -18.2°, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): -26.15 to -10.26) and slower (e.g. Average Speed Forehand Real-Kinect: MD: -1.98 m s-1, 95% CI: -2.35 to -1.61) movements than when using all three AVGs. Hand path distance was smaller in forehand and backhand strokes (e.g. Kinect-Wii: MD: 0.46 m, 95% CI: 0.13–0.79) during playing with Kinect than Move and Wii. The movement patterns when playing real and virtual table tennis were different and this may impede the development of real world gross motor skills. Several elements, including display, input and task characteristics, may have contributed to the differences in movement patterns observed. Understanding the interface components for AVGs may help development of higher fidelity games to potentially enhance the development of gross motor skill and thus participation in PA

Wave-like Solutions for Bianchi type-I cosmologies in 5D

We derive exact solutions to the vacuum Einstein field equations in 5D, under the assumption that (i) the line element in 5D possesses self-similar symmetry, in the classical understanding of Sedov, Taub and Zeldovich, and that (ii) the metric tensor is diagonal and independent of the coordinates for ordinary 3D space. These assumptions lead to three different types of self-similarity in 5D: homothetic, conformal and "wave-like". In this work we present the most general wave-like solutions to the 5D field equations. Using the standard technique based on Campbell's theorem, they generate a large number of anisotropic cosmological models of Bianchi type-I, which can be applied to our universe after the big-bang, when anisotropies could have played an important role. We present a complete review of all possible cases of self-similar anisotropic cosmologies in 5D. Our analysis extends a number of previous studies on wave-like solutions in 5D with spatial spherical symmetry

Modern cosmologies from empty Kaluza-Klein solutions in 5D

We show that the empty five-dimensional solutions of Davidson-Sonnenschtein-Vozmediano, {\em Phys. Rev.} {\bf D32} (1985)1330, in the "old" Kaluza-Klein gravity, under appropriate interpretation can generate an ample variety of cosmological models in 4D, which include the higher-dimensional modifications to general relativity predicted by "modern" versions of noncompactified 5D gravity as, e.g., induced-matter and braneworld theories. This is the first time that these solutions are investigated in a systematic way as embeddings for cosmological models in 4D. They provide a different formulation, which is complementary to the approaches used in current versions of 5D relativity.Comment: Accepted for publication in JHE

The seed of magnetic monopoles in the early inflationary universe from a 5D vacuum state

Starting from a 5D Riemann flat metric, we have induced an effective 4D Hermitian metric which has an antisymmetric part which is purely imaginary. We have worked an example in which both, non-metricity and contorsion are zero. We obtained that the production of monopoles should be insignificant at the end of inflation and the tensor metric should come asymptotically diagonal and describing a nearly 4D de Sitter expansion.Comment: Version accepted in Physics Letters

The principle of least action for test particles in a four-dimensional spacetime embedded in 5D

It is well known that, in the five-dimensional scenario of braneworld and space-time-mass theories, geodesic motion in 5D is observed to be non-geodesic in 4D. Usually, the discussion is purely geometric and based on the dimensional reduction of the geodesic equation in 5D, without any reference to the test particle whatsoever. In this work we obtain the equation of motion in 4D directly from the principle of least action. So our main thrust is not the geometry but the particle observed in 4D. A clear physical picture emerges from our work. Specifically, that the deviation from the geodesic motion in 4D is due to the variation of the rest mass of a particle, which is induced by the scalar field in the 5D metric and the explicit dependence of the spacetime metric on the extra coordinate. Thus, the principle of least action not only leads to the correct equations of motion, but also provides a concrete physical meaning for a number of algebraic quantities appearing in the geometrical reduction of the geodesic equation