The rich get richer and the poor get poorer - the Matthew mechanism as an approach to explain selection effects and the occurrence of multiple medalists in the "production" of international success in alpine ski racing

The study addresses two questions that are under debate in the literature and exemplifies their examination in alpine ski racing. Firstly, are successful athletes the product of a long-term continuous intervention and/or socialization process or do they rather emerge via repeated selection processes? Secondly, to which extent is a nations’ collective success composed of many athletes’ singular successes or of a few athletes’ multiple successes?The study involved the national squad of the Austrian Ski Federation. Data collection comprised membership in a national squad and World or Olympic medal success and was carried out via document analysis (seasons: 1986-2016).The mean annual athlete turnover rate ranged from 24-57% across squad levels while the turnover rate varied substantially over time within each squad level. Among all national squad athletes, the incidence of being a successful (i.e., medal winning) National Team athlete was 8.9% (95% CI: 6.0%; 12.5%). Twenty-eight athletes won a total of 112 medals, 21 athletes achieved winning two or more medals. The six most successful athletes won 56 medals, comprising 50% of all medals won.The study suggests that successful elite athletes emerge from repeated selection and filtering processes. The observation of multiple medalists and a high concentration of exceptional success among a few athletes is reflected with regard to potential causes that rest on characteristics of the individual athlete, on social mechanisms (e.g., Matthew mechanism) of the elite sports system, or both

Approaches and methods used for measuring organizational performance in national sport governing bodies from 1986 to 2014. A systematized review

In a changing environment, new challenges and demands facing management in sports associations and sports politics are emerging, including the question of how to measure/assess the organizational performance (OP) in national sport governing bodies (NSGB). The characterization of NSGB shows that they are not to be understood as rational systems, but rather as natural and open ones. An examination of existing approaches for measuring OP in private non-profit organizations, which have the central characteristics of NSGB, reveals several problems/deviations, with regard to how organizations are (and should be) understood and analyzed. Based on a systematic review, the paper presents the theoretical approaches and the methods used for measuring OP in NSGB. 20 studies could be identified, and in the vast majority of them, a multi-dimensional approach is applied. The strategic constituencies approach is the one most often used, but interestingly, further analysis shows that most assessments are carried out only by internal stakeholders. The identification of the fact that, in most cases, (internal) individuals assess the variables at organizational/macro level, underlines the need to pay more attention to potential measurement bias. Giving greater consideration to the micro level is not only required in the attempt to detect potential bias, but also due to the necessity of considering agents’ discretionary decision, thereby enabling NSGB to be considered as open and natural systems. Therefore, approaches that can consider both levels (e.g., multi-level modelling) seem to be promising, not only in providing more reliable results, but also in enhancing our understanding of OP, and thus also how to manage it. A further important development is the consideration of the (public) value that organizations contribute to society within the concept of OP

Self-Concept in Adolescents—Relationship between Sport Participation, Motor Performance and Personality Traits

The relationship between sport participation, personality development, self-concept and self-esteem has been discussed repeatedly. In this research, a standardized written survey together with tests on motor performance were carried out with 1399 students (707 male; 692 female) in school years 7 (12.9 ± 0.6 years) and 10 (15.8 ± 0.6 years) to measure the extent of a relationship between physical self-concept (self-developed short scale) and sporting activity, measured motor performance (German motor performance test DMT (Deutscher Motorik-Test) 6–18) and report mark in physical education. Relationships were also analyzed between physical self-concept and general personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experiences, compatibility, and conscientiousness, measured with NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI)). The assessment of own physical attractiveness and own athleticism differs by sex (F(1, 962) = 35.21; p < 0.001), whereby girls assess themselves more critically. Weak significant relationships are displayed between motor performance and the assessment of own physical attractiveness (r(395) = 0.31; p < 0.01). Motor performance is given a higher predictive value with regard to a subject’s own self-concept, (physical attractiveness β = 0.37; t(249) = 5.24; p < 0.001; athleticism β = 0.40; t(248) = 6.81; p < 0.001) than the mark achieved in physical education (physical attractiveness β = −0.01; n.s.; athleticism β = −0.30; t(248) = 5.10; p < 0.001). Relationships were found overall between personality traits and physical self-concept. The influence of the ‘neuroticism’ trait is particularly strong (physical attractiveness β = −0.44; t(947) = −13.58; p < 0.001; athleticism β = −0.27; t(948) = −7.84; p < 0.001). The more pronounced this trait, the lower the assessment of own physical attractiveness and own athleticism

Structural Analysis of Women’s Heptathlon

The heptathlon comprises the results of seven single disciplines, assuming an equal influence from each discipline, depending on the measured performance. Data analysis was based on the data recorded for the individual performances of the 10 winning heptathletes in the World Athletics Championships from 1987 to 2013 and the Olympic Games from 1988 to 2012. In addition to descriptive analysis methods, correlations, bivariate and multivariate linear regressions, and panel data regressions were used. The transformation of the performances from seconds, centimeters, and meters into points showed that the individual disciplines do not equally affect the overall competition result. The currently valid conversion formula for the run, jump, and throw disciplines prefers the sprint and jump disciplines but penalizes the athletes performing in the 800 m run, javelin throw, and shotput disciplines. Furthermore, 21% to 48% of the variance of the sum of points can be attributed to the performances in the disciplines of long jump, 200 m sprint, 100 m hurdles, and high jump. To balance the effects of the single disciplines in the heptathlon, the formula to calculate points should be reevaluated

A machine learning approach to “revisit” specialization and sampling in institutionalized practice

Apart from a broad consensus statement stressing the essential role of practice for achieving success in international senior-level competitions, the nature and scope of developmental participation leading to that extraordinary success in sports have been controversially discussed in international literature for many years. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the existing body of literature in two respects: first, by reviewing the existing literature comparing the developmental activities of internationally and only nationally successful senior athletes. Second, a new methodical approach combining decision trees and gradient boosting is applied to data from a previous study, the results of which were internationally published. This does not only allow for the realization of a multivariate analysis (robustness check), but also gives reasonable hope of achieving a relatively better explanation than with the procedures applied in the past. The approach is realized by means of Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost under the R environment). The results indicate that some formerly found differences in the volume of structured practice in main and other sports between internationally and only nationally successful athletes may represent rather artifacts of uncontrolled age effects than variables that differentiate the groups. In the context of the specialization-diversification debate, the present results indicate that from today’s perspective there is a debate about a “production function”, the structure of which is unknown. Obviously, practice-related recommendations on developmental practice volume are expressions of highly rationalized myths rather than evidence-based efficient norms

Event Entry Time Prediction in Financial Business Processes Using Machine Learning - A Use Case From Loan Applications

The recent financial crisis has forced politics to overthink regulatory structures and compliance mechanisms for the financial industry. Faced with these new challenges the financial industry in turn has to reevaluate their risk assessment mechanisms. While approaches to assess financial risks, have been widely addressed, the compliance of the underlying business processes is also crucial to ensure an end-to-end traceability of the given business events. This paper presents a novel approach to predict entry times and other key performance indicators of such events in a business process. A loan application process is used as a data example to evaluate the chosen feature modellings and algorithms

Examination of negative maternal regard for child and its association with parenting behaviors and child problem behaviors

Scope and Method of Study: This study explored the validity of Negative Maternal Regard and its association with problematic parenting and child longitudinal problem behaviors in a community sample of 585 mother-child dyads. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to examine the latent connection between the parental psychological operations of negative maternal attitude, negative maternal affect, and negative maternal attributions. Negative Maternal Regard was assessed prior to children's kindergarten year and then its association with problematic parenting behaviors (harsh parenting and limited supportive parenting) and longitudinal child problem behaviors (child internalizing and externalizing behaviors) was investigated. Regression analysis was used to examine whether harsh parenting and supportive behaviors mediated the association between Negative Maternal Regard and longitudinal child internalizing and externalizing behaviors across first, second, and third grades.Findings and Conclusions: EFA results indicated the validity of the Negative Maternal Regard construct by showing a significant latent connection among parental psychological operations of maternal negative attributions, affect, and attitude. Further analysis showed Negative Maternal Regard was significantly related to low levels of supportive parenting behaviors and high levels of harsh parenting behavior, and longitudinal child internalizing and externalizing behaviors across first, second, and third grades. Limited supportive parenting and harsh parenting were also found to significantly predict longitudinal child internalizing and externalizing behaviors across first, second, and third grades. Furthermore, a series of regression models showed problematic parenting behaviors (low levels of supportive parenting and high levels of harsh parenting) significantly mediated Negative Maternal Regards effect on longitudinal child externalizing behaviors across first, second, and third grades. In contrast, problematic parenting behaviors (low levels of supportive parenting and high levels of harsh parenting) only partially mediated Negative Maternal Regards effect on longitudinal child internalizing behaviors across first, second, and third grades. As a result, Negative Maternal Regard continued to have a direct effect on child internalizing behaviors across first, second, and third grades even when controlling for problematic parenting behaviors

Lessons Learned from Recent Testing in the Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator

The Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator (NTREES) facility is designed to perform realistic non-nuclear testing of nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) fuel elements and fuel materials. Although the NTREES facility cannot reproduce the neutron and gamma environment of an operating NTR, it can simulate the thermal hydraulic environment within an NTR fuel element to provide critical information on material performance and compatibility. The NTREES facility is currently being reconfigured with an all new suite of pyrometers, a new coil and feedthrough design along with a new gas sampling system for the mass spectrometer. Also new is the ability to perform chamber purges using argon. All of these modifications are the result of experiences gained through several years of testing various NTR components under a wide range of operating conditions. The testing details and the lessons learned from those tests are discussed in this presentation