青少年乒乓运动员的焦虑和运动成绩关系

多维焦虑理论认为认知和躯体焦虑对运动成绩会产生不同的影响.根据这个理论,运动员在赛前具有较高的认知焦虑水平或躯体焦虑水平出现极端值(过高或过低)或自信心较低时,他们将取得较差的运动成绩.先前的研究还认为焦虑与运动成绩间的关系还取决于所要完成动作的特点.不同的运动技能有各自最佳的焦虑水平.总的来说,焦虑水平较高有利于完成体力消耗较大的运动项目.而焦虑水平较低时,则有利于完成精确类项目.就乒乓球项目而言,它既需要体力又需要精确性,因此,本研究调查分析了乒乓球运动员赛前焦虑水平与运动成绩间的关系.研究对象3 6名青少年乒乓球运动员,男、女运动员各1 8名,平均年龄为12.28±0.74岁.研究方法采用运动竞赛状态焦虑量表(CSAI-2C).让运动员在参加地区赛第一场比赛的赛前30分填写问卷.研究结果认知状态焦虑水平不能用来预测运动员的成绩.获胜运动员和失利运动员赛前的躯体状态焦虑和自信心没有差异.这表明本研究没有支持多维焦虑理论的假设,或许是乒乓球运动的特点和运动员的个体差异比运动员的焦虑水平对运动成绩的影响更大.因此,如果运动员的个人特点与他们的技术风格相适应,不同焦虑水平的运动员都可能取得好成绩.     

The Establishment of the Qatar National Olympic Committee: Building the National Sport Identity

This paper examines the process of the establishment of the Qatar National Olympic Committee (QOC) in the late 1970s as part of a nation-building process. Qatar was one of the British protectorates in the Gulf region having its international relations controlled by Britain. On September 3, 1971, the country's Heir Apparent appeared on local TV and announced Qatar's independence. In the following years, the new Amir started a campaign of nation-building. Sport played an important part in this campaign, facilitating the formation of a national identity. Meanwhile, sports federations in Qatar began to apply for membership of their respective International Federations (IFs). In order to send athletes to the Olympics, the QOC was established in 1979 and it was recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1980. The primary written sources used in this paper are official documents from the IOC, the IFs and the Official Gazette of the State of Qatar. The establishment of the QOC can be seen as part of the process of nation-building experienced by Qatar after its independence. International sports events were used to win international recognition, and investments in infrastructure, sports facilities and elite sport were seen by the Qatar government as an important approach to boost the country's international representation. However, in order to join the Olympic movement and raise Qatar's national flag at international sporting events, the QOC had to revise its Constitution to meet all the requirements of the IOC.     

EDLE: an integrated tool to foster entrepreneurial skills development in engineering education

Academic papers on entrepreneurship in engineers’ education have been growing in the last decades. However, studies on entrepreneurship in engineering have not sought to analyze how entrepreneurship education, in connection to active learning, design thinking, and Bloom’s Taxonomy, inserted in an integrated way, as a tool, might help the process of engineering students’ entrepreneurial skills development. Thus, this study has the goal to propose an integrated tool, linked to the principles of entrepreneurship education, active learning, design thinking, and Bloom’s Taxonomy, to foster engineering students’ entrepreneurial skills development. The tool, called Entrepreneurial Dynamic Learning, is operationalized and validated in a 2-year case study in a Brazilian public university. The study also produces practical implications, and five are highlighted: (1) at the level of governments and policy makers; (2) engineering scientific associations; (3) universities, coordinators, and professors of engineering undergraduate programs; (4) engineering education researchers; and (5) the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry.     

How and where is artificial intelligence in the public sector going? A literature review and research agenda

To obtain benefits in the provision of public services, managers of public organizations have considerably increased the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. However, research on AI is still scarce, and the advance of this technology in the public sector, as well as the applications and results of this strategy, need to be systematized. With this goal in mind, this paper examines research related to AI as applied to the public sector. A review of the literature covering articles available in five research databases was completed using the PRISMA protocol for literature reviews. The search process yielded 59 articles within the scope of the study out of a total of 1682 studies. Results show a growing trend of interest in AI in the public sector, with India and the US as the most active countries. General public service, economic affairs, and environmental protection are the functions of government with the most studies related to AI. The Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) technique is the most recurrent in the investigated studies and was pointed out as a technique that provides positive results in several areas of its application. A research framework for AI solutions for the public sector is presented, where it is demonstrated that policies and ethical implications of the use of AI permeate all layers of application of this technology and the solutions can generate value for functions of government. However, for this, a prior debate with society about the use of AI in the public sector is recommended.     

Towards an automated method to assess data portals in the deep web

The rising number of data portals has been increasing demand for new techniques to assess data openness in an automated manner. Some methods have emerged that presuppose well-organized data catalogs, the availability of API interfaces and natively exposed metadata. However, many data portals, particularly those of local governments, appear to be misimplemented and developed with the classic website model in mind, which provides access to data only through user interaction with web forms. Data in such portals resides in the hidden part of the web, as it is dynamically produced only in response to direct requests. This paper proposes an automated method for assessing government-related data in the deep web on the basis of compliance with open data principles and requirements. To validate our method, we apply it in an experiment using the government websites of the 27 Brazilian capitals. The method is fully carried out for 22 of the capitals' websites, resulting in the analysis of 5.6 million government web pages. The results indicate that the keyword search approach utilized in the method, along with the checking of web pages for multifield web forms, is effective for identifying deep web data sources, as 1.5% of web pages with potential government data that are analyzed are found to contain data stored in the deep web. This work contributes to the development of a novel method that allows for the continuous checking and identification of government data from surface web data portals. In addition, this method can be scaled and repeated to assure the widest possible content coverage.     

Body dissatisfaction in women’s artistic gymnastics: A longitudinal study of psychosocial indicators

Body dissatisfaction is prevalent in women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG). Cross-sectional research points to social and individual risk factors, however it does not account for potential changes in body dissatisfaction during an athletic season. This study aimed to determine how gymnasts’ body dissatisfaction, risk factors for eating disorders, media internalisation, perfectionism and mood state change during pre-competition, competition and post-competition seasons and to identify how these psychosocial indicators impact on body dissatisfaction during the athletic year. The sample consisted of 20 Brazilian elite women’s artistic gymnasts aged 10–16 years. Data were obtained from a 9-month study using: Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ); Eating Attitude Test-26; Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ-3); Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS); Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS) and triceps and subscapular skinfolds. Body dissatisfaction was higher during the competition season and disordered eating, perfectionism and vigour values were higher in the pre-competition season. Disordered eating has been found as the strongest predictor of body dissatisfaction during all seasons, and mood state partly contributed to body dissatisfaction in the competitive season. Stakeholders should understand that body dissatisfaction and the prevalence of disordered eating may change over time.     

Analysis of the interplay between knowledge and performance management in industrial clusters

The concept of industrial clustering has been studied in-depth by policy makers and researchers from many fields, mainly due to the competitive advantages it may bring to regional economies. Companies often take part in collaborative initiatives with local partners while also taking advantage of knowledge spillovers to benefit from locating in a cluster. Thus, Knowledge Management (KM) and Performance Management (PM) have become relevant topics for policy makers and cluster associations when undertaking collaborative initiatives. Taking this into account, this paper aims to explore the interplay between both topics using a case study conducted in a collaborative network formed within a cluster. The results show that KM should be acknowledged as a formal area of cluster management so that PM practices can support knowledge-oriented initiatives and therefore make better use of the new knowledge created. Furthermore, tacit and explicit knowledge resulting from PM practices needs to be stored and disseminated throughout the cluster as a way of improving managerial practices and regional strategic direction.