Qualitative Research in Sport Management: Case Study as a Methodological Approach

This paper presents qualitative research in sport management and suggests that case study is an appropriate qualitative methodology for research and practice in sport finance. The purpose of qualitative methodology is presented along with the process of a case study. The intention of this paper, for academicians working in sport management, is twofold. The first aspect is for researchers to consider using qualitative case study methodology in instances where such practice will progress the knowledge and understanding of specific situations while invoking a deeper response to research questions. The second facet of this paper focuses on the framework of case study methodology, as applied to a research project in the field of sport finance

The search for universal transdiagnostic and trans-therapy change processes: evidence for intolerance of uncertainty

The search for universal processes associated with symptom change across emotional disorders and different forms of psychotherapy offers hope of increased theoretical parsimony and treatment efficiencies. This study investigated whether intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a universal process by examining whether changes in IU were associated with changes in symptoms across three different cognitive behavior therapy protocols for depression (n = 106), social anxiety disorder (n = 88), or generalized anxiety disorder (n = 62) in a community mental health clinic. IU was associated with reductions in repetitive negative thinking in all treatments, which is consistent with IU being a transdiagnostic and 'trans-therapy' process of change. Changes in IU were also associated with symptom relief in the social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder groups, but not in the depression group. Implications of these findings are discussed within the broader literature of transdiagnostic approaches to emotional disorders

The Benefits of Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration for Urban Community Resilience in a Time of Climate Change and COVID-19 Pandemic

The major global pressures of rapid urbanization and urban growth are being compounded by climate impacts, resulting in increased vulnerability for urban dwellers, with these vulnerabilities exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of this is concentrated in urban and peri-urban areas where urban development spreads into hazard-prone areas. Often, this development is dominated by poor-quality homes in informal settlements or slums with poor tenure security. Lessons from a resilience-building project in the Pacific shows that a fit-for-purpose (FFP) approach to land administration can provide solutions by increasing the number of households with security of tenure, and consequently, improving resilience outcomes as informal settlements grow. This paper specifically discusses the influence of FFP land administration on reducing vulnerabilities to external shocks, such as climate change and COVID-19. It proposes ways to be better manage urban growth through the responsible governance of land tenure rights and more effective land-use planning to improve resilience to multiple shocks and stresses, hence, delivering improved access to safe land and shelter. Land administration systems can contribute to enhanced resilience to the shocks of climate extremes and pandemics by improving tenure security and enhancing land-use planning controls. It is argued that climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction need to be better mainstreamed into two major elements of land governance: (i) securing and safeguarding of land rights, and (ii) planning and control of land use

Addressing Land Issues in Disaster Risk Management in the Pacific Island Countries

The Pacific region is one of the most disaster-prone in the world. Rapid urbanization, conflict over land, and the establishment of informal settlements on hazardous sites further exacerbate the problems. These issues present a significant challenge for government agencies, which require capacity building to respond adequately. Customary land predominates in many Pacific island countries and is central to decisions about land. In this paper we review previous disasters in the Pacific island countries to identify land issues that have emerged, and consider how land tenure and disaster management are administered. We conclude that land and national disaster management office agencies must work together to address land issues in the context of natural disasters and that customary groups should be involved in disaster risk reduction activities and efforts to improve tenure security for all legitimate landholders. Capacity strengthening would benefit all groups involved

Single- and Multi-Distribution Dimensionality Reduction Approaches for a Better Data Structure Capturing

In recent years, the huge expansion of digital technologies has vastly increased the volume of data to be explored, such that reducing the dimensionality of data is an essential step in data exploration. The integrity of a dimensionality reduction technique relates to the goodness of maintaining the data structure. Dimensionality reduction techniques such as Principal Component Analyses (PCA) and Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) globally preserve the distance ranking at the expense of neglecting small-distance preservation. Conversely, the structure capturing of some other methods such as Isomap, Locally Linear Embedding (LLE), Laplacian Eigenmaps t-Stochastic Neighbour Embedding (t-SNE), Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP), and TriMap rely on the number of neighbours considered. This paper presents a dimensionality reduction technique, Same Degree Distribution (SDD) that does not rely on the number of neighbours, thanks to using degree-distributions in both high and low dimensional spaces. Degree-distribution is similar to Student-t distribution and is less expensive than Gaussian distribution. As such, it enables better global data preservation in less computational time. Moreover, to improve the data structure capturing, SDD has been extended to Multi-SDDs (MSDD), which employs various degree distributions on top of SDD. The proposed approach and its extension demonstrated a greater performance compared with eight other benchmark methods, tested in several popular synthetics and real datasets such as Iris, Breast Cancer, Swiss Roll, MNIST, and Make Blob evaluated by the co-ranking matrix and Kendall’s Tau coefficient. For further work, we aim to approximate the number of distributions and their degrees in relation to the given dataset. Reducing the computational complexity is another objective for further work

Neurosurgical management of non-spastic movement disorders

BACKGROUND: Non-spastic movement disorders in children are common, although true epidemiologic data is difficult to ascertain. Children are more likely than adults to have hyperkinetic movement disorders defined as tics, dystonia, chorea/athetosis, or tremor. These conditions manifest from acquired or heredodegenerative etiologies and often severely limit function despite medical and surgical management paradigms. Neurosurgical management for these conditions is highlighted. METHODS: We performed a focused review of the literature by searching PubMed on 16 May 2023 using key terms related to our review. No temporal filter was applied, but only English articles were considered. We searched for the terms (( Pallidotomy [Mesh]) OR Rhizotomy [Mesh]) OR Deep Brain Stimulation [Mesh], dystonia, children, adolescent, pediatric, globus pallidus, in combination. All articles were reviewed for inclusion in the final reference list. RESULTS: Our search terms returned 37 articles from 2004 to 2023. Articles covering deep brain stimulation were the most common (n = 34) followed by pallidotomy (n = 3); there were no articles on rhizotomy. DISCUSSION: Non-spastic movement disorders are common in children and difficult to treat. Most of these patients are referred to neurosurgery for the management of dystonia, with modern neurosurgical management including pallidotomy, rhizotomy, and deep brain stimulation. Historically, pallidotomy has been effective and may still be preferred in subpopulations presenting either in status dystonicus or with high risk for hardware complications. Superiority of DBS over pallidotomy for secondary dystonia has not been determined. Rhizotomy is an underutilized surgical tool and more study characterizing efficacy and risk profile is indicated

Imaging haemodynamic changes related to seizures: comparison of EEG-based general linear model, independent component analysis of fMRI and intracranial EEG

Background: Simultaneous EEG-fMRI can reveal haemodynamic changes associated with epileptic activity which may contribute to understanding seizure onset and propagation. Methods: Nine of 83 patients with focal epilepsy undergoing pre-surgical evaluation had seizures during EEG-fMRI and analysed using three approaches, two based on the general linear model (GLM) and one using independent component analysis (ICA): 1. EEGs were divided into up to three phases: early ictal EEG change, clinical seizure onset and late ictal EEG change and convolved with a canonical haemodynamic response function (HRF) (canonical GLM analysis). 2. Seizures lasting three scans or longer were additionally modelled using a Fourier basis set across the entire event (Fourier GLM analysis). 3. Independent component analysis (ICA) was applied to the fMRI data to identify ictal BOLD patterns without EEG. The results were compared with intracranial EEG. Results: The canonical GLM analysis revealed significant BOLD signal changes associated with seizures on EEG in 7/9 patients, concordant with the seizure onset zone in 4/7. The Fourier GLM analysis revealed changes in BOLD signal corresponding with the results of the canonical analysis in two patients. ICA revealed components spatially concordant with the seizure onset zone in all patients (8/9 confirmed by intracranial EEG). Conclusion: Ictal EEG-fMRI visualises plausible seizure related haemodynamic changes. The GLM approach to analysing EEG-fMRI data reveals localised BOLD changes concordant with the ictal onset zone when scalp EEG reflects seizure onset. ICA provides additional information when scalp EEG does not accurately reflect seizures and may give insight into ictal haemodynamics

Imagery enhancements increase the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural group therapy for social anxiety disorder: A benchmarking study

Emerging evidence suggests that imagery-based techniques may enhance the effectiveness of traditional verbal-linguistic cognitive interventions for emotional disorders. This study extends an earlier pilot study by reporting outcomes from a naturalistic trial of an imagery-enhanced cognitive behavioural group therapy (IE-CBGT, n=53) protocol for social anxiety disorder (SAD), and comparing outcomes to historical controls who completed a predominantly verbally-based group protocol (n=129). Patients were consecutive referrals from health professionals to a community clinic specialising in anxiety and mood disorders. Both treatments involved 12, two-hour group sessions plus a one-month follow-up. Analyses evaluated treatment adherence, predictors of dropout, treatment effect sizes, reliable and clinically significant change, and whether self-reported tendencies to use imagery in everyday life and imagery ability predicted symptom change. IE-CBGT patients were substantially more likely to complete treatment than controls (91% vs. 65%). Effect sizes were very large for both treatments, but were significantly larger for IE-CBGT. A higher proportion of the IE-CBGT patients achieved reliable change, and better imagery ability was associated with larger symptom change. Outcomes compared very favourably to published group and individual treatments for SAD, suggesting that IE-CBGT may be a particularly effective and efficient mode of treatment delivery

Factors Influencing Collegiate Athletic Department Revenues

One of the primary challenges of Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) collegiate athletic programs is revenue generation, particularly in light of increasing costs and competition. Surprisingly, a limited number of studies have investigated factors related to athletic department-generated revenues. A statistically significant multiple regression model was created, explaining 76.7 percent of the variance in annual generated revenues among FBS programs. Factors such as conference affiliation, success in football and men’s basketball, enrollment, and time were identified as important in predicting revenue generation. The Revenue Theory of Costs was put forth as a framework for better understanding the financial behavior of intercollegiate athletic programs