Investigating Athletes’ Retirement from Sport: From Decision-Making to Optimal Support Programmes

This thesis aimed to extend knowledge of athletes’ career transitions through examining athletes’ retirement decision-making process and influence of cultural diversity and organisational culture on the process of career transition. The purpose of Study 1 was to identify the current status of knowledge in the study area through providing a systematic review of the athlete career transition studies. The findings provided up to date knowledge in the study area and suggested potential future research directions. Study 2 aimed to understand Korean tennis players’ career transition out of sport experiences via longitudinal qualitative research. The results indicated that athletes perceived making the retirement decision was difficult process for them and revealed that participants’ experiences were influenced by cultural aspects and sport contexts of Korea. Study 3 focused on exploring the athletes’ retirement decision-making process among Korean tennis players. Results showed that athletes’ leaving from sport decision-making is a complex and multidimensional process, and the transtheoretical model was helpful in explaining athletes’ retirement from sport decision-making. The objective of Study 4 was to explore the processes involved in the development of an athletes’ career transition programme. Results revealed that the organisation might have influence on athletes’ retirement decision and the quality of career transition. Overall, the findings from the current thesis provide advanced useful knowledge on the athlete career transition process, and such knowledge may assist attempts to enhance athletes’ well-being and welfare for during and post-sport life

The development of an athlete career transition programme: A case study

First paragraph: The study of career transitions in sport has developed considerably over the past 30 years. As a result, researchers (e.g., Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994) revealed that the quality of athletes’ career transition is closely related to their life skills development, identity issues, and pre-transition planning. In addition, researchers (e.g., Fleuriel & Vincent, 2009) have consistently highlighted the obligation of national governing bodies (NGB) in assisting athletes in career transition, because of the delay in athletes’ life skills development and high degree of athletic identity that may be caused by their high commitment to sport performance. However, the development of programmes and the detailed strategies of the psychological interventions have not been widely examined in the study area. Examining the process of athlete support programme development may be useful to understand organizational staff attitudes toward supporting athletes’ career transitions. The present study may contribute to study area by identifying organizational staff views on, and attitudes towards, supporting athletes’ career transitions and ideas to encourage sport organizations to assist athletes’ subjective well-being both during and after their sport careers. In addition, the findings from the current study might reveal the gaps and links between academic research findings and practical programmes in assisting athletes’ psychological issues (e.g., athletic identity) during their career transition process

A longitudinal qualitative exploration of elite Korean tennis players’ career transition experiences

The purpose of this study was to explore elite Korean tennis players’ career transition experiences, focusing on psychological components (i.e., self-identity, life skills development, and coping strategies) and socio-cultural influences through the process. A longitudinal qualitative method was employed, and Korean tennis players (N= 5; two males and three females; mean age 29.8 ± 5.54 years) who were considering retirement participated in the current study. Data were analyzed by interpretative phenomenological analysis and resulted in three super-ordinate themes: (a) sense of self and process of identity shift, (b) available resources during the career transition process, and (c) decision-making processes and consequences of decisions. These results provided practical implications for supporting athletes’ career transitions (e.g., developing a balanced self-identity and life skill during their athletic careers, providing proactive intervention) and future research directions (e.g., examining athletes’ retirement decision-making process, the need of cross-cultural research)

3D Capture and 3D Contents Generation for Holographic Imaging

The intrinsic properties of holograms make 3D holographic imaging the best candidate for a 3D display. The holographic display is an autostereoscopic display which provides highly realistic images with unique perspective for an arbitrary number of viewers, motion parallax both vertically and horizontally, and focusing at different depths. The 3D content generation for this display is carried out by means of digital holography. Digital holography implements the classic holographic principle as a two‐step process of wavefront capture in the form of a 2D interference pattern and wavefront reconstruction by applying numerically or optically a reference wave. The chapter follows the two main tendencies in forming the 3D holographic content—direct feeding of optically recorded digital holograms to a holographic display and computer generation of interference fringes from directional, depth and colour information about the 3D objects. The focus is set on important issues that comprise encoding of 3D information for holographic imaging starting from conversion of optically captured holographic data to the display data format, going through different approaches for forming the content for computer generation of holograms from coherently or incoherently captured 3D data and finishing with methods for the accelerated computing of these holograms

Integrating Deep Learning into CAD/CAE System: Generative Design and Evaluation of 3D Conceptual Wheel

Engineering design research integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) is actively being conducted. This study proposes a deep learning-based CAD/CAE framework in the conceptual design phase that automatically generates 3D CAD designs and evaluates their engineering performance. The proposed framework comprises seven stages: (1) 2D generative design, (2) dimensionality reduction, (3) design of experiment in latent space, (4) CAD automation, (5) CAE automation, (6) transfer learning, and (7) visualization and analysis. The proposed framework is demonstrated through a road wheel design case study and indicates that AI can be practically incorporated into an end-use product design project. Engineers and industrial designers can jointly review a large number of generated 3D CAD models by using this framework along with the engineering performance results estimated by AI and find conceptual design candidates for the subsequent detailed design stage

Cochlear Implantation after Bilateral Transverse Temporal Bone Fractures

Patients deafened by a severe head injury are rarely encountered. We report a case of a 65-yr-old man with bilateral transverse temporal bone fractures due to head injury. He underwent cochlear implant and achieved a satisfactory auditory rehabilitation. Imaging studies of temporal bone before performing a cochlear implantation provide important information on a patient with bilateral temporal bone fractures. Cochlear implantations with careful planning in such a patient may be a very effective method for aural rehabilitation