Italian Team Research Articles

Sponsoring Sports Teams with Low Media Exposure: An Exploratory Investigation on Small and Medium Sized B2B Firms

The current research was designed to further comprehend the nature of the relationship between small and medium-sized sponsoring enterprises and their affiliated sport organizations. In order to achieve this purpose, the research has involved some of the major sponsors of Italian rugby teams that participate in the Championship that has limited media exposure. Using semi-structured interviews the study focused on understanding what managers think of sponsorship and exploring the underlying reasons in a small business decision to sponsor a sport team with poor or limited media visibility. Results show that the involvement of local firms in the city’s activities is very important. When sponsors exploit these forms of sponsorship as a way of helping the local community, then they seem to adopt these sponsorships to reach an effective outcome in terms of brand awareness and return on investment. Conclusions are discussed and recommendations are offered.

Do height and weight play an important role in block and attack efficiency in high-level men's volleyball?

The research objective was to study the relationships of players’ efficiency in attack and block with their anthropometric characteristics. Data on men’s weight and height and their proficiency in the game were used. The subjects were the members of the Estonian, Italian, French and Croatian national volleyball teams who participated in Pool B of the European Championship. Data are given on men’s height, weight, age, total number of spikes, attack errors, attacks won, efficiency of attack, total number of blocks, block errors, blocks won, and efficiency of block. In addition, the number of points won by men and their positions in the game are given. Minimums, maximums, standard deviations and means were calculated. To find correlations, Pearson’s correlation analysis (p<0.05) was used. In our study, taller and heavier players proved to be more efficient at attack. Comparison of positions showed that middle blockers were taller and performed more blocks, setters were shorter and performed the least of attacks, and outside attackers and opposite attackers were of medium height and carried the greatest load of attack. As a conclusion, it was found that, in professional volleyball, height correlated with the efficiency of attack (r= 0.534; p<0.05), and weight also correlated with the efficiency of attack (r= 0.518; p<0.05). There was no correlation between the anthropometric characteristics and block in volleyball at the professional level in our study. In volleyball, the greatest load at attack is carried by outside attackers and opposite attackers, while middle blockers have the greatest load at block. Setters perform the smallest number of attacks.

“Soccer is a matter of real men?” Sexist and homophobic attitudes in three Italian soccer teams differentiated by sexual orientation and gender identity

During the 1980s and early 1990s, homophobia and sexism were pervasive in sport contexts due to their sex-segregation, male-domination, and heteronormative culture. In the last two decades, a change in attitudes toward gender and sexuality, in particular within typically masculine sports, has been observed. Notwithstanding that, no research assessing if this change also occurred in Italy was conducted. Using semi-structured focus groups and adopting the framework of Inclusive Masculinity Theory, the current study explored sexist and homophobic attitudes in three Italian soccer teams differentiated by gender and sexual orientation. Team 1 comprised openly gay male athletes, Team 2 comprised both lesbian and heterosexual women, and Team 3 comprised heterosexual men. Narratives were analysed through constant comparison analysis. Specific macro-categories were identified in each team, as follows: Team 1: need for affiliation, in/visibility, perceived homophobia, and perceived institutionalised homophobia; Team 2: need for affiliation, masculine dominance, equal opportunities, and crossing gender boundaries; and Team 3: presumption of heterosexuality, female inferiority, and tendency toward a homosocial law. The results suggest that soccer, in Italy, still represents a context organised around men’s dominance over women and the stigmatisation of gay men. Notwithstanding, they suggest also that we are witnessing an interlocutory phase where some heterosexual soccer players are starting to challenge homophobia but, at the same time, women and openly gay players still perceive a homohysteric culture. The discussion is contextualised in the social context where discourses arose.

Aggregate wages of players and performance in Italian Serie A

This paper investigates the relationship between players’ wages and sport performance in the Italian top professional football league—Serie A. The analysis focuses on 14 seasons from 2001/2002 to 2014/2015. Findings show that aggregate wage expenditure is a robust predictor of success for Italian professional football teams. We first exploited a fixed-effects panel data and eventually we addressed the problem of endogeneity by providing a dynamic IV specification of the model. Based on the System-GMM framework, we employed a model including lagged terms of dependent variables and covariates as instruments to control for endogeneity as well as alternative exogenous instruments to control for geographical/environmental factors and socio-economic factors that could be the actual predictors of performance through an indirect effect on payroll.

Circannual rhythm of plasmatic vitamin D levels and the association with markers of psychophysical stress in a cohort of Italian professional soccer players

ABSTRACTAdequate plasmatic Vitamin D levels are crucial to maintain calcium homeostasis and bone metabolism both in the general population and in athletes. Correct dietary supply and a regular sun exposure are fundamental for allowing the desired and effective fitness level. Past studies highlighted a scenario of Vitamin D insufficiency among professional soccer players in several countries, especially in North Europe, whilst a real deficiency in athletes is rare. The typical seasonal fluctuations of Vitamin D are wrongly described transversally in athletes belonging to teams that play at different latitudes and a chronobiologic approach studying the Vitamin D circannual rhythm in soccer players has not been described yet. Therefore, we studied plasma vitamin D, cortisol, testosterone, and creatin kinase (CK) concentrations in three different Italian professional teams training at the same latitude during a period of two consecutive competitive seasons (2013 and 2014). In this retrospective observational study, 167 professional soccer players were recruited (mean age at sampling 25.1 ± 4.7 years) and a total of 667 blood drawings were carried out to determine plasma 25(OH)D, serum cortisol, serum testosterone and CK levels. Testosterone to cortisol ratio (TC) was calculated based as a surrogate marker of overtraining and psychophysical stress and each athlete was drawn until a maximum of 5 times per season. Data extracted by a subgroup of players that underwent at least 4 sample drawings along a year (N = 45) were processed with the single and population mean cosinor tests to evaluate the presence of circannual rhythms: the amplitude (A), acrophase (Φ) and the MESOR (M) are described. In total, 55 players (32.9%) had an insufficient level of 25(OH)D during the seasons and other 15 athletes (9.0%) showed, at least once, a deficiency status of Vitamin D. The rhythmometric analyses applied to the data of Vitamin D revealed the presence of a significant circannual rhythm (p < 0.001) with the acrophase that occurred in August; the rhythms of Vitamin D levels were not different neither among the three soccer teams nor between competitive seasons. Cortisol, testosterone and TC showed significant circannual rhythms (p < 0.001): cortisol registered an acrophase during winter (February) while testosterone and TC registered their peaks in the summer months (July). On the contrary, CK did not display any seasonal fluctuations. In addition, we observed weak but significant correlations between 25(OH)D versus testosterone (r = 0.29 and p < 0.001), cortisol (r = −0.27 and p < 0.001) and TC (r = 0.37 and p < 0.001). No correlation was detected between Vitamin D and CK. In conclusion, the correct chronobiologic approach in the study of annual variations of Vitamin D, cortisol and testosterone could be decisive in the development of more specific supplementation and injury prevention strategies by athletic trainers and physicians.

Financial Versus Sports Performance: The Missing Link

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the financial and the sports performance of Italian football teams. To achieve this aim, a panel data analysis was performed, using financial statements and data from sports results. The panel dataset covers seven seasons (from 2007–2008 to 2013–2014) and 29 clubs that belong to the Italian “Serie A.” The results indicate positive effects between the expenses for football players’ salaries and the clubs’ sports performance but no significant effects between player transfer fees and sports performance.

May a unitary autonomic index help assess autonomic cardiac regulation in elite athletes? Preliminary observations on the national Italian Olympic committee team.

Long term endurance training, as occurring in elite athletes, is associated to cardiac neural remodeling in favor of cardioprotective vagal mechanisms, resulting in resting bradycardia and augmented contribution of cardiac parasympathetic nerve activity. Autonomic assessment can be performed by way of heart rate variability. This technique however provides multiple indices, and there is not yet complete agreement on their specific significance. Purpose of the study was to assess whether a rank transformation and radar plot could provide a unitary autonomic index, capable to show a correlation between intensity of individual work and quality of autonomic regulation. We studied 711 (23.6±6.2 years) elite athletes that took part in the selection procedure for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games for the National Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). Indices from Heart Rate Variability HRV obtained at rest, during standing up and during recovery from an exercise test were used to compute a percent ranked unitary autonomic index for sport (ANSIs), taken as proxy of quality of autonomic regulation. Within the observed wide range of energy expenditure, the unitary autonomic index ANSIs appears significantly correlated to individual and discipline specific training workloads (r=0.25, P<0.001 and r=0.78, P<0.001, respectively), correcting for possible age and gender bias. ANSIs also positively correlates to lipid profile. Estimated intensity of physical activity correlates with quality of cardiac autonomic regulation, as expressed by a novel unitary index of cardiac autonomic regulation. ANSIs could provide a novel and convenient approach to individual autonomic evaluation in athletes.

Football cultural events and stock market returns: the case of FIFA World Cup

Over the past two decades, cultural sporting mega-events such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup have captured a leading position in the consumption-based economic development policies of many late-capitalist societies (Fehle et al., 2005; Chang et al., 2012). Recent studies have pointed out the importance of sporting mega-events on the analysis of investor moods (Martínez and Román, 2014; Kaplanski and Levy, 2010; Edmans et al., 2007). Moving from these evidences, this paper aims at analysing whether the effect of Italian national soccer team results in the FIFA World Cup competition between 2002-2014 influenced the trend of national stock FTSE MIB indexes. Results demonstrate that football results have a strong impact on investor moods: sporting events in general have a significant effect on investor behaviours. In particular, football game results influence stock market returns since soccer is a consistent part of many people's lives.

The sporophytic self-incompatibility mating system is conserved in Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata and O. e. europaea

Fruit setting after self-pollination, crosses and free-pollination appears to be erratic in the cultivated olive tree [Olea europaea subsp europaea L. (O. e. europaea L.)] because of a lack of a suitable model to enable prediction of rates. The same lack of prediction also applies to the wild taxon Olea europaea subsp cuspidata (O. e. cuspidata). Because of their close phylogenetic relationships, we hypothesize that O. e. cuspidata and cultivated olive share the same self-incompatibility system. We used data recently published in a wide study involving four O. e. cuspidata accessions and four olive cultivars. Because the olive varieties have been deciphered for their S-allele pair, that infer determinants present in the stigma and pistil, and that coat the pollen, we deciphered the S-alleles carried by three of the O. e. cuspidata accessions. Data are too scarce and the number of accessions too small to speculate on the O. e. cuspidata genetic population structure. The working hypothesis is confirmed. This study and data from the Italian team will enable us to embark on a large-scale hybridization program between the two subsp. to obtain a wide range of progenies for screening for responses to cold, diseases and pests.

Notes on the Parthian Block f1 from the Sasanian Inscription of Paikuli*

The celebrative monument of Paikuli, located in the present-day province of Sulaimaniyah (Kurdistan, Iraq), was built at the southernmost edge of the Qaradagh range by the Sasanian king Narseh (293-302/3 ad). It marks the place where dignitaries of the Ērānšahr met the Sasanian sovereign to swear an oath of loyalty to him during a dynastic struggle. The bilingual inscription (Middle Persian and Parthian), originally carved on the walls of the monument, constitutes one of the most important primary sources for the early Sasanian history, despite its fragmentary state of preservation. From 2006 onwards an Italian team has been investigating the monument, conducting surveys in the valley of Paikuli and studying the materials now kept in the Slemani Museum (Sulaimaniyah), both activities continuing to the present day. The following paper aims to advance comprehension of the problematic Parthian block f1, one of the 19 recently-discovered inscribed blocks (Cereti, Terribili 2014), providing a new textual reconstruction and a synoptic reading of its content with the corresponding Middle Persian passages. Due to the peculiar epigraphic material and distinctive block shape, the analysis of f1 offers interesting insight into the distribution of the text on the wall and the related technical issues.

The unrest of the San Miguel volcano (El Salvador, Central America): installation of the monitoring network and observed volcano-tectonic ground deformation

Abstract. On 29 December 2013, the Chaparrastique volcano in El Salvador, close to the town of San Miguel, erupted suddenly with explosive force, forming a column more than 9 km high and projecting ballistic projectiles as far as 3 km away. Pyroclastic density currents flowed to the north-northwest side of the volcano, while tephras were dispersed northwest and north-northeast. This sudden eruption prompted the local Ministry of Environment to request cooperation with Italian scientists in order to improve the monitoring of the volcano during this unrest. A joint force, made up of an Italian team from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia and a local team from the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, was organized to enhance the volcanological, geophysical and geochemical monitoring system to study the evolution of the phenomenon during the crisis. The joint team quickly installed a multiparametric mobile network comprising seismic, geodetic and geochemical sensors (designed to cover all the volcano flanks from the lowest to the highest possible altitudes) and a thermal camera. To simplify the logistics for a rapid installation and for security reasons, some sensors were colocated into multiparametric stations. Here, we describe the prompt design and installation of the geodetic monitoring network, the processing and results. The installation of a new ground deformation network can be considered an important result by itself, while the detection of some crucial deforming areas is very significant information, useful for dealing with future threats and for further studies on this poorly monitored volcano.

Quaternary geology and paleoseismology in the Fucino and L’Aquila basins

This 2 days-long field trip aims at exploring field evidence of active tectonics, paleoseismology and Quaternary geology in the Fucino and L’Aquila intermountain basins and adjacent areas, within the inner sector of Central Apennines, characterized by extensional tectonics since at least 3 Ma. Each basin is the result of repeated strong earthquakes over a geological time interval, where the 1915 and 2009 earthquakes are only the latest seismic events recorded respectively in the Fucino and L’Aquila areas. Paleoseismic investigations have found clear evidence of several past earthquakes in the Late Quaternary to Holocene period. Active tectonics has strongly imprinted also the long-term landscape evolution, as clearly shown by numerous geomorphic and stratigraphic features. Due to the very rich local historical and seismological database, and to the extensive Quaternary tectonics and earthquake geology research conducted in the last decades by several Italian and international teams, the area visited by this field trip is today one of the best studied paleoseismological field laboratories in the world. The Fucino and L’Aquila basins preserve excellent exposures of earthquake environmental effects (mainly surface faulting), their cumulative effect on the landscape, and their interaction with the urban history and environment. This is therefore a key region for understanding the role played by earthquake environmental effects in the Quaternary evolution of actively deforming regions, also as a major contribution to seismic risk mitigation strategies.

Validation of a self-reported HIV symptoms list: the ISS-HIV symptoms scale.

BackgroundTo describe the development and the psychometric properties of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità-HIV symptoms scale (lSS-HIV symptoms scale).MethodsThe ISS-HIV symptom scale was developed by an Italian working team including researchers, physicians and people living with HIV. The development process went through the following steps: (1) review of HIV/AIDS literature; (2) focus group; (3) pre-test analysis; (4) scale validation.ResultsThe 22 symptoms of HIV-ISS symptoms scale were clustered in five factors: pain/general discomfort (7 items); depression/anxiety (4 items); emotional reaction/psychological distress (5 items); gastrointestinal discomfort (4 items); sexual discomfort (2 items). The internal consistence reliability was for all factors within the minimum accepted standard of 0.70.ConclusionsThe results of this study provide a preliminary evidence of the reliability and validity of the ISS-HIV symptoms scale. In the new era where HIV infection has been transformed into a chronic diseases and patients are experiencing a complex range of symptoms, the ISS-HIV symptoms scale may represent an useful tool for a comprehensive symptom assessment with the advantage of being easy to fill out by patients and potentially attractive to physicians mainly because it is easy to understand and requires short time to interpret the results.

The language of football: a cultural analysis of selected world cup nations

This essay aims to describe how actions in the football field relate to the different national teams’ and countries’ cultural understanding of football and how these actions become spoken dialects within a language of football. Inspired by Edgar Schein’s framework of culture, the Brazilian and Italian national team football cultures were examined. The basis of the analysis was both document and video analysis. The documents were mostly research studies and popular books on the national football cultures, while the video analysis included all matches including Italy and Brazil from the World Cup in 2010 and 2014. The cultural analysis showed some coherence between the national football cultures and the national teams, which suggested a national dialect with the language of the game. Each national dialect seemed to be based on different basic assumptions and to some extent specific symbolic actions on the field. The actions were found to be quite dynamic, which questions the cultural stability at the national team level. Furthermore, the analysis also revealed some incoherence between the national teams and the Brazilian and Italian football culture in general. The results question the idea of the national team as a symbol of a particular national football culture.

Surgical treatment of neglected congenital idiopathic talipes equinovarus after walking age in Eritrea: an Italo-Eritrean cooperation.

An Italian team of orthopaedic surgeons joined Eritrean colleagues to perform a clinical study in ambulating children affected by neglected idiopathic congenital talipes equinovarus (clubfoot). This study reports the surgical strategy as well as clinical outcomes, early complications and relapse at a mid-term follow-up. Four expeditions of 7days were organized between 2012 and 2015 from Italy to the Halibet Hospital of Asmara in Eritrea. In each expedition were included two experienced surgeons, two assistants and one anaesthesiologist. During these expeditions, a total of 468 patients were evaluated together with Eritrean colleagues and 45 cases of neglected talipes equinovarus in ambulating children were diagnosed and selected for surgery. Follow-up range was 1-3years. During the four expeditions, the Eritrean team of orthopaedic surgeons learned to manage most cases of neglected talipes equinovarus. No major complications were reported. Sixteen feet were considered excellent, 25 good and four poor. No overcorrections were observed. Neglected congenital talipes equinovarus is the result of delayed treatment of congenital deformity in developing countries, and its treatment often requires extensive surgery. Collaboration with foreign expert surgeons may help local doctors to learn how to treat this disease. The current study demonstrates that surgical expeditions in developing countries, when organized in collaboration with local doctors, help to manage on site this severe deformity.

Hand grip strength and anthropometric characteristics in Italian female national basketball teams.

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of hand and body dimensions on hand grip strength and to define a reference scale for talent identification in basketball players. Body and hand anthropometric data and the maximal handgrip strength of 109 female Italian basketball National players (Under14-Seniores) were measured. Handgrip strength and arm length trend increased, raising the statistical significant differences only for players from the age of 19 (U20, Seniores) with respect to sub-elite groups (U14, U15) (P<0.05). Handgrip strength showed low positive correlations with height and Body Mass Index but a positive relationships with arm length (r=0.5; P<0.001). Findings underline training and years of practice have effects on increasing handgrip strength. Data show that to select female basketball players by arm length means selecting by handgrip strength. Thus it is possible to suggest that in addition to height, arm length could also be considered a useful parameter in young female talent identification.

Burnout and risk of burnout in the teams of bone marrow transplant:a multicentre Italian survey

. Burnout and risk of burnout in the Italian teams of bone marrow transplant: a multicentre survey. The term burnout is used to describe a state of work-related psychological distress in healthcare employees characterized by three related, but independent, components: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and reduced personal accomplishment (PA). The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of burnout and stress symptoms in physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals in Italian Bone Marrow Transplantation Units. All personnel of a multidisciplinary group of the Italian Group of Bone Marrow Transplantation were asked to answer two different validated questionnaires: the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) for the assessment of general wellbeing. Logistic regression was used to investigate possible risk factors for burnout. This study showed a relatively low burnout prevalence (3.7%), however about 43.5% of health workers were at risk for developing a burnout syndrome. No personal or center characteristics seemed related to burnout risk, but there was a strong correlation between higher scores from the general health questionnaire and burnout risk. Results from our survey suggest that burnout is a relevant problem in transplant teams and as such strategies should be implemented to prevent it.

Football cultural events and stock market returns: the case of FIFA WORLD CUP

Over the past two decades, cultural sporting mega-events such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup have captured a leading position in the consumption-based economic development policies of many late-capitalist societies (Fehle et al., 2005; Chang et al., 2012). Recent studies have pointed out the importance of sporting mega-events on the analysis of investor moods (Martinez and Roman, 2014; Kaplanski and Levy, 2010; Edmans et al., 2007). Moving from these evidences, this paper aims at analysing whether the effect of Italian national soccer team results in the FIFA World Cup competition between 2002-2014 influenced the trend of national stock FTSE MIB indexes. Results demonstrate that football results have a strong impact on investor moods: sporting events in general have a significant effect on investor behaviours. In particular, football game results influence stock market returns since soccer is a consistent part of many people's lives.

Outdoor Tests for the Validation of an Inertial System Able to Detect Illegal Steps in Race-walking

Aim of this study was to validate an inertial system able to detect the loss of ground contact (LOGC) in race-walking through outdoor tests in real training conditions. An inertial sensor was placed at L5/S1 of the vertebral column of a Italian national team athlete to acquire timing measurements of the LOGC. Data were encoded by a well-defined protocol. After a preliminary laboratory study, the athlete performed outdoor-field-tests at different velocities. A specific e-bike with a high-speed camera allowed to acquire a video and to validate sensor measurements. Results indicate that the inertial system can improve the accuracy in detecting the visible LOGC.

The role of the WISE Consortium in the European DEDIPAC-KH project

WISE (Wellness, nutrItion, Sport and Exercise prevention) is a research consortium including five Italian research teams (University of Turin, University of Milan, University of Trieste, Universiy of Rome “Foro Italico”, University of Bari), operating within the broader framework of the DEDIPAC-KH joint action (Determinants of Diet and Physical Activity Knowledge Hub). Research actions within the WISE consortium, funded by the Italian Ministry of Higher Education & Research, are in line with the main objective of the DEDIPAC-KH of developing an international and interdisciplinary network of researchers on dietary, physical activity and sedentary behaviours, related determinant research and policy interventions. More specifically, the WISE consortium research aimed to contribute to the following task (1.2.4 - Task Leader: Prof. Alan Donnelly): perform SLRs to identify state-of the art methods for physical activity and sedentary behaviour measurements. The focus of task 1.2.4 was to examine the methodological effectiveness (validity, reliability and sensitivity/responsiveness) of measures of physical activity and sedentary behaviours. The approach taken with this task was to examine the methodological effectiveness of measures of physical activity and sedentary behaviours in two populations; i) child/adolescence and ii) adults. Findings on methodological effectiveness of measures of physical activity and sedentary behaviours constitute the basis for a variety of publication and reports, and conference communications. The DEDIPAC-KH project created an unique opportunity for developing a comprehensive analysis on the determinants of diet and physical activity in Italy, and fostered successful collaboration with leading international groups. The findings of the WISE project created valuable information for the implementation of successful policies in Italy.This work was supported by MIUR.