The introduction of the video assistant referee (VAR) was a landmark in soccer history, yet it is not empirically examined whether the technology contributes to the most supreme value of the game: ...fair play. Because referees are said to be one driving cause of the home advantage (HA), the aim of this study was to examine whether the HA changed in the German Bundesliga since the implementation of the VAR in the season 2017/18. We examined a total of 2448 games during the four seasons before and after the implementation of the VAR with regards to the game outcomes (i.e., goals and points) as well as indicators of referee bias (i.e., fouls, yellow cards, 2nd yellow cards, red cards, and penalty kicks) for both the home and the away teams. Findings indicate that the VAR influences game outcomes to a fairer degree. Specifically, (i) we found statistical evidence for the HA before, but not after the implementation of the VAR. However, (ii) these results need to be interpreted with caution because direct assessments of the change induced by the introduction of the VAR are not statistically significant. Finally, (iii) with the implementation of the VAR, fewer fouls were committed by both the home and the away team.
•VAR improves the fairness of the game.•VAR reduces the home advantage.•The VAR effect remains significant without the seasons effected by Covid-19.
The authors investigated the impact of video speed on judging the duration of sport performance. In three experiments, they investigated whether the speed of video presentation (slow motion vs. real ...time) has an influence on the accuracy of time estimation of sporting activities (n1 = 103; n2 = 100; n3 = 106). In all three studies, the time estimation was more accurate in real time than in slow motion, in which time was overestimated. In two studies, the authors initially investigated whether actions in slow motion are perceived to last longer because the distance they cycled or ran is perceived to be longer (n4 = 92; n5 = 106). The results support the hypothesis that the duration of sporting activities is estimated more accurately when they are presented in real time than in slow motion. Sporting officials' judgments that require accurate time estimation may thus be biased when based on slow-motion displays.
The implicit motivational needs for power, achievement, and affiliation are relevant for sports performance. Due to their hypothesized association with functions of the right hemisphere (McClelland, ...1986), they may influence lateralized perceptual and motor processes. And due to their interactions with motive-specific incentives, they may influence performance conditional on the presence of suitable incentives. This preregistered study, conducted mostly online, examines motivational needs using a standard picture-story exercise (PSE) and their associations with indicators of perceptual and motor laterality and sports performance in gymnasts (N = 67). Further it explores how implicit motives interact with suitable motivational incentives in the prediction of sports performance. Results partly confirm a link between indicators of cerebral rightward laterality and implicit motives: the implicit affiliation and achievement motives are positively associated with an indicator of emotional-perceptional laterality (chimeric-faces task), but not with an indicator of motor laterality (turning bias). Moreover, the implicit achievement motive was positively correlated with training hours. The implicit affiliation motive was negatively associated with the highest attained competition level. The presence of achievement incentives (perceived control, failure) and affiliation incentives (training together or alone) did not interact with corresponding motives to predict sports performance.
The investigation of Executive Functions (EF) has become a trending topic of investigation in sport science. This critical review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the underlying theory and the ...typical methodology (and problems with the methodology) in the interdisciplinary study of EFs as it relates to the two most researched questions within the sports literature: (1) if the engagement in sports and exercise can enhance EFs; and (2) if and how EFs contribute to superior performance/expertise in sports. A critical evaluation on theoretical and methodological work on EF shows numerous problems on how to conceptualize and measure the EF construct. These problems within the basic research on EF seem to be widely overlooked in the sport literature and have contributed to ambiguous empirical evidence on the question if sport and physical exercise can be used to train EF. Similarly, the second question 'if EF contribute to superior performance in (some) sports' has also received inconclusive empirical support. We conclude by pointing out avenues for future theoretical and empirical work regarding the important topic of EF in sport and exercise.
In a seminal article (Plessner & Haar, 2006) a social cognition approach was proposed as framework to study how people judge their own or others’ performance in competitive sport contexts. An ...important goal of this work was to better understand the processes that underlie potential biases in judgments of sports performance and, thus, receive some hints on how to prevent them. Numerous studies have since been published in which judgments of sports performance have been subjected to scientific analysis. The present paper provides an updated overview on related research from the past 15 years. Again, it follows central building blocks of social information processing (i.e., information input, rules of information integration, situational influences, and characteristics/states of the judging person). Additionally, we organize this overview according to whether the research addresses judgments typically performed by athletes, officials, managers/coaches, or observers. On the one hand, it becomes clear that not all possible combinations of judging persons and information processes are addressed to the same extent in research, which opens up a number of future research tasks. On the other hand, it is suggested that future research in this area should not only be developed broadly, but also that the goal of further theoretical development should not be lost sight of.
Glucose variability (GV), which describes fluctuations in blood glucose levels within the day, is a phenomenon that is increasingly becoming the target of scientific attention when it comes to ...increased risk of coronary heart disease. Effects of GV may contribute to the development of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Hyperglycemia can lead to oxidative stress resulting in molecular damage due to accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). To discover more about the immediate effects of GV, continuous vs. bolus intravenous glucose administration was applied to 10 healthy men aged 21–30 years over a time frame of 48 h. Whole blood and plasma were analyzed for DNA damage using a comet assay with 3 different treatments (lysis buffer, H2O2, and the lesion-specific enzyme formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase (FPG)) as well as for the oxidative stress markers protein carbonyls (PC), unconjugated bilirubin (UCB), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). A significant time effect was found in the three DNA damage treatments as well as in PC and UCB possibly due to circadian changes on oxidative stress, but no intervention group effect was observed for any of the markers. In conclusion, bolus vs. continuous glucose administration had no significant acute effect on DNA damage and markers of oxidative stress in healthy men.
The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of a judoka's psychological readiness in relation to his ability to return to sport. At the present time, the relationship between physical and ...psychological readiness to return to sport has not been adequately elucidated.
This is a cross-sectional study. An online survey was distributed via social networks and the German Judo Association collecting data from competitive and recreational judo athletes. The survey collected data on participants' characteristics, history of injury, and psychological readiness to return to sport after injury as determined by either the Anterior Cruciate Ligament-Return to Sport after Injury Scale, the Shoulder Instability-Return to Sport after Injury Scale, or a modified version of the Return to Sport after Injury Scale depending on the respective type of injury.
The study included 383 judo athletes (272 competitive judo athletes and 112 recreational judo athletes). Regardless of injury location, athletes who achieved return to sports (M = 70.67; SD = 16.47) had higher RSI scores than athletes that did not return to sports (M = 53.88; SD = 19.12; p < 0.0001). Male athletes (M = 65.60; SD = 19.34) did show significantly higher RSI scores than female athletes (M = 60.45; SD = 19.46). The RSI score differed for different time loss categories, F(7, 375) = 11.309, p < 0.001, η
= .174 with decreasing RSI scores for longer time loss and lowest RSI scores in athletes, who never returned to sports. RSI scores of athletes with knee injuries differed from athletes with other injury locations (10.23, 95% CI 4.08, 16.38). After adjusting for time loss due to injury, competitive athletes had higher RSI scores than competitive athletes (F (1, 382) = 7.250, p < 0.001, partial η
= .02). Conservatively treated athletes (M = 66.58; SD = 18.54) had higher RSI scores than surgically treated athletes (M = 59.05; SD = 20.01; p < 0.05).
Based on the data of this study, type of injury, sport level, treatment method, and gender appear to influence psychological readiness on judoka and their ability to return to sport. The multiple factors that influence a judoka and their ability to return to sport argue for individualized treatment of judoka and their psychological state after injury in the return to sport process.
•Identification of mold species by DNA barcoding.•Confirmation of identified species by targeted metabolite profiling.•Visualization of moldy spots by multispectral imaging.•Recommendations for the ...disposal of moldy bread should possibly be reconsidered.
Mould is a ubiquitous threat to safe food. In this work, a combination of three reliable methods to identify mould present in food at the species level is presented, to estimate the safety of the apparently non-moldy slices of bread and therefore contribute to the prevention of food waste. In overstored sliced bread, three mould species on the first slice of the stack (Chaetomium globosum, Penicillium chrysogenum and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis) were identified by DNA barcoding. The obtained sequences of the PCR products matched 100% in BLAST alignments with an e-value of 0. Targeted metabolite profiling confirmed the presence of the mycotoxin producers Chaetomium globosum and Penicillium chrysogenum. Known mycotoxins from these moulds (chaetoglobosin A and meleangrin, respectively) were quantitated (8.2 µg/g chaetoglobosin A and 2.2 µg/g meleangrin) in bread spot A. The second slice was less infected, which was revealed by only two mouldy spots, the lower amounts of determined mould metabolites and by normalized canonical discriminant analysis (nCDA) after multispectral imaging. On the third slice of the stack, no mould traces were detected by either metabolite profiling, or comparative multispectral imaging. These results suggest that it might be safe to consume bread slices in lower layers of bread stacks, even if mould growth is visible on the outer slices.
Purpose
Established Alzheimer’s disease (AD) biomarker concepts classify into amyloid pathology and neuronal injury biomarkers, while recent alternative concepts classify into diagnostic and ...progression AD biomarkers. However, combined amyloid positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) offers the chance to obtain both biomarker category read-outs within one imaging session, with increased patient as well as referrer convenience. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate this matter for the first time.
Methods
100 subjects (age 70 ± 10 yrs, 46 female), n = 51 with clinically defined mild cognitive impairment (MCI), n = 44 with possible/probable AD dementia, and n = 5 with frontotemporal lobe degeneration, underwent simultaneous
18
Fflorbetaben or
11
CPIB PET/MRI (3 Tesla Siemens mMR). Brain amyloid load, mesial temporal lobe atrophy (MTLA) by means of the Scheltens scale, and other morphological brain pathologies were scored by respective experts. The patients/caregivers as well as the referrers were asked to assess on a five-point scale the convenience related to the one-stop-shop PET and MRI approach.
Results
In three subjects, MRI revealed temporal lobe abnormalities other than MTLA. According to the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association classification, the combined amyloid-beta PET/MRI evaluation resulted in 31 %, 45 %, and 24 % of the MCI subjects being categorized as “MCI-unlikely due to AD”, “MCI due to AD-intermediate likelihood”, and “MCI due to AD-high likelihood”, respectively. 50 % of the probable AD dementia patients were categorized as “High level of evidence of AD pathophysiological process”, and 56 % of the possible AD dementia patients as “Possible AD dementia - with evidence of AD pathophysiological process”. With regard to the International Working Group 2 classification, 36 subjects had both positive diagnostic and progression biomarkers. The patient/caregiver survey revealed a gain of convenience in 88 % of responders as compared to a theoretically separate PET and MR imaging. In the referrer survey, an influence of the combined amyloid-beta PET/MRI on the final diagnosis was reported by 82 % of responders, with a referrer acceptance score of 3.7 ± 1.0 on a 5-point scale.
Conclusion
Simultaneous amyloid PET/MRI is feasible and provides imaging biomarkers of all categories which are able to supplement the clinical diagnosis of MCI due to AD and that of AD dementia. Further, patient and referrer convenience is improved by this one-stop-shop imaging approach.
Palm oil has a bad reputation due to the exploitation of farmers and the destruction of endangered animal habitats. Therefore, many consumers wish to avoid the use of palm oil. Decorative sugar ...contains a small amount of palm oil to prevent the sugar from melting on hot bakery products. High-oleic sunflower oil used as a substitute for palm oil was analyzed in this study via multispectral imaging and an electronic nose, two methods suitable for potential large-batch analysis of sugar/oil coatings. Multispectral imaging is a nondestructive method for comparing the wavelength reflections of the surface of a sample. Reference samples enabled the estimation of the quality of unknown samples, which were confirmed via acid value measurements. Additionally, for quality determination, volatile compounds from decorative sugars were measured with an electronic nose. Both applications provide comparable data that provide information about the quality of decorative sugars.
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