Perceptual Measures Research Articles

Lower-body compression garments worn following exercise improves perceived recovery but not subsequent performance in basketball athletes

ABSTRACTThis study examined the effects of lower-body compression garments on perceived recovery and subsequent performance in basketball athletes. In a parallel-group design, 30 recreational, male basketball athletes were randomly allocated to either a control (CON, n = 15, loose-fitting clothing) or experimental group (COMP, n = 15, compression garments) for 15 h following fatigue-inducing, basketball-specific exercise in the evening (1600-1800 h). Perceptual measures of fatigue and muscle soreness, as well as physical performance tests (sprints, jumps and agility), were performed pre-exercise, post-exercise, and post-recovery (15 h following exercise). Subjective and objective measures of sleep were recorded following the exercise trial. There were non-significant (p > 0.05), unclear-trivial differences between groups for all performance measures. Perceived post-recovery fatigue (d = −1.27, large) and muscle soreness (d = −1.61, large) were significantly lower in COMP compared to CON (p < 0.05). COMP exhibited better perceived sleep quality (d = 0.42, small, p = 0.18) than CON, with an unclear difference in sleep duration between groups (p > 0.05). Wearing lower-body compression garments overnight improved perceived fatigue and muscle soreness, but had negligible effects on subsequent physical performance in basketball athletes. Future research should focus on longer periods of compression wear following fatiguing exercise.

Differences in dry-bulb temperature do not influence moderate-duration exercise performance in warm environments when vapor pressure is equivalent.

Recent studies have determined that ambient humidity plays a more important role in aerobic performance than dry-bulb temperature does in warm environments; however, no studies have kept humidity constant and independently manipulated temperature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of dry-bulb temperature, when vapor pressure was matched, on the thermoregulatory, perceptual and performance responses to a 30-min cycling work trial. Fourteen trained male cyclists (age: 32 ± 12year; height: 178 ± 6cm; mass: 76 ± 9kg; [Formula: see text]: 59 ± 9mLkg-1min-1; body surface area: 1.93 ± 0.12m2; peak power output: 393 ± 53W) volunteered, and underwent 1 exercise bout in moderate heat (MOD: 34.9 ± 0.2°C, 50.1 ± 1.1% relative humidity) and 1 in mild heat (MILD: 29.2 ± 0.2°C, 69.4 ± 0.9% relative humidity) matched for vapor pressure (2.8 ± 0.1kPa), with trials counterbalanced. Despite a higher weighted mean skin temperature during MOD (36.3 ± 0.5 vs. 34.5 ± 0.6°C, p < 0.01), none of rectal temperature (38.0 ± 0.3 vs. 37.9 ± 0.4°C, p = 0.30), local sweat rate (1.0 ± 0.3 vs. 0.9 ± 0.4mgcm-2min-1, p = 0.28), cutaneous blood flow (283 ± 116 vs. 287 ± 105 PU, p = 0.90), mean power output (206 ± 37 vs. 205 ± 41W, p = 0.87) or total work completed (371 ± 64 vs. 369 ± 70kJ, p = 0.77) showed any difference between environments during the work trial. However, all perceptual measures (perceived exertion, thermal discomfort, thermal sensation, skin wettedness, pleasantness, all p < 0.05) were affected detrimentally during MOD compared to MILD. In a warm and compensable environment, dry-bulb temperature did not influence high-intensity cycling performance when vapor pressure was maintained, whilst the perceptual responses were affected.

All Tied Up: The Effect of Wearing a Necktie on Acoustic and Perceptual Measures of Male Solo Singing

The purpose of this study was to assess acoustically (long-term average spectra and multidimensional voice profile) and perceptually (participant perceived phonatory ease and expert listening panel) the effect of wearing a necktie on male singing in a solo setting. No study to date has assessed the potential effects of wearing neckties in a solo vocal setting. Among primary results: (a) statistically significant differences in spectral energy (0-10 kHz) between performances with and without a necktie, (b) increases in mean jitter and shimmer percentage measurements of singers with a necktie, (c) significant reduction in perceived phonatory ease when singing while wearing a necktie, and (d) listener preferences for singing without a necktie. Results were discussed in terms of limitations of the study, suggestions for future research, and implications for voice pedagogy.

Effects of Hypohydration on Muscular Strength, Endurance, and Power in Women.

Gann, JJ, Andre, TL, Gallucci, AR, and Willoughby, DS. Effects of hypohydration on muscular strength, endurance, and power in women. J Strength Cond Res 35(2S): S102-S106, 2021-The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of dehydration on muscular strength, endurance, power, and perceptual measures in resistance-trained women. Ten resistance-trained women completed 2 bouts of exercise (1 repetition maximum [1RM] for bench press and angled leg press followed by 5 sets to failure of 75% of 1RM and vertical jump), either dehydrated (∼3% body mass) (DT) or heat-exposed with fluid replacement (HT). Paired t-tests revealed bench press 1RM was significantly lower for DT (42.7 ± 14.5 kg) compared with HT (44.1 ± 13.9 kg). No significant difference was found for leg press 1RM (DT = 216.1 ± 55.0 kg; HT = 223.4 ± 55.7 kg). There was also no difference in total reps completed for bench press (DT = 33.5 ± 5.0; HT = 33.0 ± 5.5) or leg press (DT = 42.6 ± 20.3; HT = 45.8 ± 19.7). There was no significant difference for vertical jump height (DT: 45.8 ± 5.2 cm, HT: 46.9 ± 6.0 cm). Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and session RPE were not significantly different between trials. Significant differences for perceived recovery status (DT: 5.1 ± 2.2, HT: 7.2 ± 1.1) and perceived readiness (DT: 4.2 ± 1.0, HT: 2.5 ± 0.5) indicate subjects expected impaired performance during DT. The current results suggest that previous night dehydration may have a negative impact on both bench press 1RM performance and perceptual feelings of recovery in resistance-trained women.

A Patient-Specific Computational Framework for the Argus II Implant.

Goal: Retinal prosthesis performance is limited by the variability of elicited phosphenes. The stimulating electrode's position with respect to retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) affects both perceptual threshold and phosphene shape. We created a modeling framework incorporating patient-specific anatomy and electrode location to investigate RGC activation and predict inter-electrode differences for one Argus II user. Methods: We used ocular imaging to build a three-dimensional finite element model characterizing retinal morphology and implant placement. To predict the neural response to stimulation, we coupled electric fields with multi-compartment cable models of RGCs. We evaluated our model predictions by comparing them to patient-reported perceptual threshold measurements. Results: Our model was validated by the ability to replicate clinical impedance and threshold values, along with known neurophysiological trends. Inter-electrode threshold differences in silico correlated with in vivo results. Conclusions: We developed a patient-specific retinal stimulation framework to quantitatively predict RGC activation and better explain phosphene variations.

Image Restoration via Simultaneous Nonlocal Self-Similarity Priors.

Through exploiting the image nonlocal self-similarity (NSS) prior by clustering similar patches to construct patch groups, recent studies have revealed that structural sparse representation (SSR) models can achieve promising performance in various image restoration tasks. However, most existing SSR methods only exploit the NSS prior from the input degraded (internal) image, and few methods utilize the NSS prior from external clean image corpus; how to jointly exploit the NSS priors of internal image and external clean image corpus is still an open problem. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for image restoration by simultaneously considering internal and external nonlocal self-similarity (SNSS) priors that offer mutually complementary information. Specifically, we first group nonlocal similar patches from images of a training corpus. Then a group-based Gaussian mixture model (GMM) learning algorithm is applied to learn an external NSS prior. We exploit the SSR model by integrating the NSS priors of both internal and external image data. An alternating minimization with an adaptive parameter adjusting strategy is developed to solve the proposed SNSS-based image restoration problems, which makes the entire algorithm more stable and practical. Experimental results on three image restoration applications, namely image denoising, deblocking and deblurring, demonstrate that the proposed SNSS produces superior results compared to many popular or state-of-the-art methods in both objective and perceptual quality measurements.

Empirical analysis of women entrepreneurs and their success perception

Success is measured in several ways, especially the success of a business enterprise. Present paper has taken up perceptual measure of success. Nine success factors are identified on basis of past researches and women entrepreneurs' perception on these factors is measured with the help of primary survey conducted on all the registered women owned enterprises in the northern state of India. Entrepreneurs' background characteristics and enterprise characteristics are considered to assess whether they have an impact on the success perception of the entrepreneurs. The study shows that family size, education, firm's size and age have impact on success perception of women entrepreneurs. The major contribution of the paper is that the background of entrepreneur as well as enterprise are studied together to assess their impact on success perception.

Determinants of Turnover Tax (ToT) Tax Collection Effectives in Ethiopia: The Case Hosanna Town

This paper aims to explore that factor influencing the effectiveness of Turnover tax collection in Hosanna Town. The study organized factors into four categories: Tax- administration related, Tax officers-related, Taxpayers-related and Tax systems related factors. The study used an explanatory approach, whereby data from 276 taxpayers’ for three sub-cities in Hosanna Town were collected using administers the questions. The questionnaire had 38 statements representing factors and12 statements representing the Turnover tax revenue collection effectiveness. The collected data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. In the case of descriptive statistics, the study used frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. For the inferential statistics, the study used multiple regression analysis. The study findings showed that there were eight main critical factors turnover tax effectiveness. The results showed that turnover tax rate, mode of payment, Government policy formulation and services to taxpayers, Taxpayers knowledge of obligations and rights are factors that positively significantly effective on turnover tax revenue. However, punishment by tax office, detection capabilities of tax offices, education and advice from tax office were not significantly at 5% significance effective on turnover tax revenue. Despite the contributions of this study, there are some limitations which need to be acknowledged. First, data were collected from taxpayers only. Secondly, only 12 statements for factor were used. Thirdly, the study has used only primary data. Last, perceptual measures of turnover tax collection effectiveness. The authors consider that if other approaches were used, they could have reached different conclusions. From a practical perspective, revenue authority may be relying heaviling on taxpayers, as well as regulations, directives and proclamation, for turnover tax collection effectives. The study shows that mode of payment, taxpayer right and obligations on proclamation and tax policy on turnover tax are critical factors too. However, the study also has practical implications for local (Town) governments, revenue authority, turnover tax collection and taxpayers at large. This paper extends prior research in the area of turnover tax collection and is the first paper to use four categories of factors to analyze the influencing of turnover tax collection effectiveness, taking into consideration both tax authorities and taxpayers. It is used the model, which helped to generate variables with multiple prior theories (i.e. theoretical triangulation). Hence, new theories were combined with old theories to produce findings which take into consideration the context of the country.

Slow Endogenous Fluctuations in Cortical fMRI Signals Correlate with Reduced Performance in a Visual Detection Task and Are Suppressed by Spatial Attention.

Spatial attention improves performance on visual tasks, increases neural responses to attended stimuli, and reduces correlated noise in visual cortical neurons. In addition to being visually responsive, many retinotopic visual cortical areas exhibit very slow (<0.1 Hz) endogenous fluctuations in functional magnetic resonance imaging signals. To test whether these fluctuations degrade stimulus representations, thereby impairing visual detection, we recorded functional magnetic resonance imaging responses while human participants performed a target detection task that required them to allocate spatial attention to either a rotating wedge stimulus or a central fixation point. We then measured the effects of spatial attention on response amplitude at the frequency of wedge rotation and on the amplitude of endogenous fluctuations at nonstimulus frequencies. We found that, in addition to enhancing stimulus-evoked responses, attending to the wedge also suppressed slow endogenous fluctuations that were unrelated to the visual stimulus in topographically defined areas in early visual cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and lateral occipital cortex, but not in a nonvisual cortical control region. Moreover, attentional enhancement of response amplitude and suppression of endogenous fluctuations were dissociable across cortical areas and across time. Finally, we found that the amplitude of the stimulus-evoked response was not correlated with a perceptual measure of visual target detection. Instead, perceptual performance was accounted for by the amount of suppression of slow endogenous fluctuations. Our results indicate that the amplitude of slow fluctuations of cortical activity is influenced by spatial attention and suggest that these endogenous fluctuations may impair perceptual processing in topographically organized visual cortical areas.

The Syllable Structure of Gbari

The Gbari syllable structure is attested in literature to be V,N,CV, CNV (CnV and CVÌ´) CNGV, OGNV or ONGV (Hyman and Magaji,1970; Rosendall, 1990) using articulatory and perceptual measures. This work revisits the syllable structure of Gbari language, a Nupoid language of the new Benue Congo phylum, using an added measure- the acoustic parameter, arguing some stand point of the previous researchers. It examines the doubtful segments finding best justifiable interpretations for proper labeling. The 1700 SIL Comparative African Wordlist (SILCAWL) 2006, a Nexton digital audio recorder is used to elicit data from six respondents (two females and four males) of 30-70 age range. Phonological observation and analysis coupled with articulatory, perceptual and acoustic parameters are instrumental in the research. The analysis shows ambiguous and questionable CNV structures: a CCV (with C2 as a palatal nasal consonant, a product of coalescence), a nasally released consonant followed by a vowel (CnV) and a consonant followed by a nasalized vowel (CVÌ´). It is in an attempt to resolve this ambiguity and investigate the status of these structures that the researchers came up with a more validating pattern for the Gbari syllable structure summarized as V, CV and CGV. Where V represents the vowel and the syllabic nasal, CV a consonant (with or without secondary articulation) and a vowel (oral or nasalized); and a CGV (all consonant types realized as a segment followed by a glide and a vowel). Gbari language is rich in phonology and is an interesting area for further research.

Examining the mediating role of innovativeness in the link between core competencies and SME performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of core competencies, namely, transformational leadership (TFL), entrepreneurial competence and technical competence on financial performance through the mediation effect of innovativeness, among owner-managed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachA research model was developed to test nine research hypotheses. Self-report questionnaires designed for this study were sent to SME owner-managers in Malaysia. A total of 178 completed questionnaires were successfully collected. SPSS and SmartPLS were used to perform the data analysis to test the measurement model and structural model.FindingsThis paper provides empirical evidence that behavioural innovativeness mediates the relationship between TFL and financial performance, product innovativeness mediates the relationships among entrepreneurial competence, technical competence and financial performance and process innovativeness mediates the relationship between technical competence and financial performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study are potentially limited by perceptual measures, cross-sectional data and the risk of response bias from a single informant.Practical implicationsOwner-managed SMEs can focus on developing the core competencies to achieve financial performance through innovative products, processes and behaviours. Policymakers and practitioners can gain fresh insights into the complexity of sustaining the business activities and financial performance of SMEs through the core competencies and innovativeness.Originality/valueThe extant literature has revealed that entrepreneurship, leadership, expertise and innovativeness are considered key factors in promoting financial performance, yet little is known about the combined effects of the core competencies on financial performance through innovativeness for owner-managed SMEs in the context of a developing country. The study makes an important contribution to filling this research gap.

Changes in subjective mental and physical fatigue during netball games in elite development athletes

ObjectivesTo assess the magnitude of changes in, and relationships between, physical and mental fatigue pre-to-post match in elite development netballers. DesignObservational. MethodsTwelve female netballers (21.3±2.9 years) competing in the Australian Netball League reported perceptual measures of mental and physical fatigue pre- and post-match on 12 separate competition occasions. Minutes played, to allow for calculation of weighted changes (ratings proportional to playing time), positional groups and performance analysis variables were also assessed. ResultsPost-match ratings were higher (p<0.01) than pre-match for both mental (pre: 31.02±19.28; post: 44.73±24.47) and physical fatigue (pre: 28.86±15.37; post: 47.21±24.67). The correlation coefficient between change in mental and physical fatigue (r=0.37, p<0.01) revealed a shared variance of 13.9%. Acute changes in mental fatigue were related to minutes played (r=0.32, p<0.01) as was change in physical fatigue (r=0.59, p<0.01). No differences in change in mental fatigue were found between positional groups (p=0.07) though change in physical fatigue was higher for shooters compared to defenders (p<0.05). Performance variables revealed no relationships with mental or physical fatigue, with the exception of turnover number with both post-match weighted physical (r= -0.23, p<0.01) and weighted-change in physical fatigue (r=−0.16, p<0.05). ConclusionsMental and physical fatigue were found to increase across netball matches in elite development athletes. Mental fatigue emerged as a largely separate construct to physical fatigue.

Dimensions of social media marketing capabilities and their contribution to business performance of firms in Thailand

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the contribution of social media marketing capability on business performance of firms in Thailand. The conceptualization of social media marketing capability was developed using five aspects of the spanning capabilities of Day’s strategic framework.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaire data were collected from business entrepreneurs in Thailand who attended seminar and training courses (N =364). Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze data.FindingsAmong five aspects of social media marketing capability, social media product development capabilities and social media marketing implementation capability were positively and significantly related to customer relationship performance and financial performance; social media marketing communication capability had a significantly positive relationship only with customer relationship performance, whereas social media planning capability was found to have a significantly positive relationship only with financial performance. However, the analysis did not find the significant relationship between social media pricing capability and the two aspects of firm performance.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the results were obtained using cross-sectional data collection. Second, the data were collected using convenience sampling. Third, the performance variables used in the analysis are perceptual measures. Finally, the study was only conducted in Thailand context and did not lend itself to any general applicability.Practical implicationsThis research suggests that it is important for Thai companies that rely on social media to develop marketing capabilities and learn how to incorporate social media into their marketing activities.Originality/valueThis study built a conceptual foundation of social media marketing capabilities based on Days strategic framework which provided a complete and comprehensive view about social media applications that can be integrated into different areas of marketing activities.

The Effect of Gender Composition on Perceptual Accuracy: a Three-Level Approach Using Dyadic Data

Emerging evidence that perceptual measures of peer deviance typically used in criminology may be inaccurate has resulted in recent investigations into the factors that condition misperception. Studies find that lower levels of self-control and lack of time spent with friends contribute to misperception, while friendship closeness increases accuracy. One unexplored factor that has been shown to impact peer-to-peer interactions is gender. Filling in this gap, the current study explores how gender structure in combination with friendship quality and individual levels of self-control, may cause differences in the perceptual accuracy of peer deviance among friendship pairs. Using item-response-based mixed-effects models, results demonstrate that women in female-only friendships produce the most accurate perceptions of peer deviance. Men in male-only friendships produce the least accurate perceptions. Since men are typically self-report greater engagement in deviant behavior than women, this finding highlights that peer deviance perceptions are most flawed among people who are engaging in the most deviance. Additionally, higher quality friendships have more accurate perceptions while those who have less self-control are markedly less accurate. Implications for feminist research and peer deviance measurement are reviewed.

Sleep Deprivation: Cytokine and Neuroendocrine Effects on Perception of Effort.

An increased perception of effort and subjective fatigue are thought to be central to decreased exercise performance observed after disrupted sleep. However, there is limited understanding of mechanisms that underpin these phenomena. We investigated the role of interleukin-6 (IL-6), the soluble IL-6 receptor, and neuroendocrine factors (cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and brain-derived neurotropic factor) in mediating these responses at rest and during exercise. In a randomized order, 10 healthy active men completed three experimental trials following different sleep conditions: a single night of sleep deprivation, partial sleep deprivation equivalent to 4 h of sleep, and normal sleep. The experimental sessions consisted of physiological and perceptual measurements of exercise intensity throughout 45-min moderate intensity and 15-min maximal effort cycling. Cytokine and neuroendocrine factors were assessed at rest and in response to exercise. Sleep deprivation resulted in increased resting IL-6, lower blood glucose, increased perceived fatigue and perception of effort, lower free-living energy expenditure, and reduced maximal exercise performance. In contrast, sleep deprivation did not alter physiological, cytokine, or neuroendocrine responses to exercise. Variations in the resting concentration of IL-6 were associated with lowered blood glucose, an increased perception of effort, and impaired exercise performance. Resting concentrations of cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and BNDF showed subtle interactions with specific aspects of mood status and performance but were not affected by sleep deprivation. There were minimal effects of partial sleep deprivation. These findings demonstrate that cytokine and neuroendocrine responses to exercise are not altered by sleep deprivation but that changes in the resting concentration of IL-6 may play a role in altered perception of effort in this context.

Short-term isothermic heat acclimation elicits beneficial adaptations but medium-term elicits a more complete adaptation

PurposeTo investigate the effects of 60 min daily, short-term (STHA) and medium-term (MTHA) isothermic heat acclimation (HA) on the physiological and perceptual responses to exercise heat stress.MethodsSixteen, ultra-endurance runners (female = 3) visited the laboratory on 13 occasions. A 45 min sub-maximal (40% Wmax) cycling heat stress test (HST) was completed in the heat (40 °C, 50% relative humidity) on the first (HSTPRE), seventh (HSTSTHA) and thirteenth (HSTMTHA) visit. Participants completed 5 consecutive days of a 60 min isothermic HA protocol (target Tre 38.5 °C) between HSTPRE and HSTSTHA and 5 more between HSTSTHA and HSTMTHA. Heart rate (HR), rectal (Tre), skin (Tsk) and mean body temperature (Tbody), perceived exertion (RPE), thermal comfort (TC) and sensation (TS) were recorded every 5 min. During HSTs, cortisol was measured pre and post and expired air was collected at 15, 30 and 45 min.ResultsAt rest, Tre and Tbody were lower in HSTSTHA and HSTMTHA compared to HSTPRE, but resting HR was not different between trials. Mean exercising Tre, Tsk, Tbody, and HR were lower in both HSTSTHA and HSTMTHA compared to HSTPRE. There were no differences between HSTSTHA and HSTMTHA. Perceptual measurements were lowered by HA and further reduced during HSTMTHA.ConclusionA 60 min a day isothermic STHA was successful at reducing physiological and perceptual strain experienced when exercising in the heat; however, MTHA offered a more complete adaptation.

Perceptual Quality Assessment for Screen Content Images by Spatial Continuity

In this paper, we propose an effective blind quality assessment method for screen content images (SCIs), called perceptual quality measure by spatial continuity (PQSC). With the center-surround mechanism in the human visual system (HVS), the proposed method extracts the statistical features on chromatic and textural variations in SCIs to measure the visual distortion. First, by considering the chromatic continuity between spatially adjacent pixels, photo-metric invariant chromatic descriptors are extracted as zero-order and first-order features. Second, motivated by the perceptual mechanism that the HVS is sensitive to image texture variation, we employ local ternary pattern operator to effectively depict the spatial continuity of texture. With these extracted chromatic and textural features, we further adopt histogram to compute the statistical chromatic and textural features. Support vector regression (SVR) is used to train the quality prediction model from visual features to human ratings. Experimental results on three public benchmark databases demonstrate that the performance of our method is superior to the current blind image quality assessment methods, even better than some full reference image quality assessment counterparts.

Broad-minded planning and narrow-minded action

Purpose Existing studies of shopping momentum effect show that an initial purchase causes the consumer to switch from a deliberative mindset to an implemental mindset, thereby leading to buy subsequent items based on Gollwitzer’s Rubicon model. Since purchase activity goes through the actional phase which has not been studied yet, the purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of the actional mindset compared with those of the planning and deliberative mindsets. Design/methodology/approach This study conducts three experiments to examine whether the implemental mindset can be differentiated from the actional mindset via recalls and perceptual processing measures. Findings The findings provide evidences that the actional mindset is different from the implemental mindset, and the planning phase is associated more with broad-mindedness, whereas the actional phase is with narrow-mindedness. Research limitations/implications Manipulation of the actional mindset can be extended to real purchases in physical shopping spaces, and various choice objects could be tested with a larger number of participants. Practical implications To boost the shopping momentum effect, marketers should put customers into an actional mindset by leading them to show their decisions such as carrying a shopping bag and uploading their purchased items. To avoid overbuying, customers should stay in planning mindsets without verbalizing their decisions. Putting goods into virtual shopping baskets in online shopping could be a good way to avoid overbuying. Originality/value The paper empirically explores the characteristics of actional mindset in terms of cognitive and perceptual processing and suggest meaningful implication in online shopping situation.

Physiological and perceptual responses of youth soccer players to an intensified period of competition

Intensified periods of competition create large increase in physical workload and can expose soccer players to numerous playing styles. The purpose of the study was to investigate the response of youth soccer players to an intensified period of competition and assess whether initial fitness influenced outcomes. Elite males across two consecutive years (n1 = 18, n2 = 18) were assessed for lower body strength and high-intensity endurance. Objective and subjective measures of fatigue were collected throughout five-day international tournaments using countermovement jumps (CMJ), a perceptual wellness questionnaire and match GPS data. Mixed effects models quantified the effects of time and fitness on outcomes. In general, results were consistent across both years. No significant interaction effects were obtained between time and fitness variables for any outcome ([Formula: see text] ≤ 6.5; p ≥ .225). CMJ height and power remained consistent across both tournaments ([Formula: see text] ≤ 5.3; p ≥ .262). In contrast, significant ([Formula: see text] ≥ 17.7; p &lt; .003) effects of time were obtained for GPS data with metrics exhibiting U-shape patterns with values returning to initial levels during final games. Greater variation was obtained for perceptual wellness data; however, responses to general muscle soreness and stress levels showed consistent decreases across both years ([Formula: see text] ≥ 12.7; p ≤ .013). Practitioners should be aware that basic measures collected from CMJ and GPS data may not be sensitive to fatigue accrued in youth soccer players across intensified periods of competition. In contrast, simple perceptual measures including general muscle soreness and stress may be more sensitive and assist with implementation of active recovery or load management strategies.

A tamper detection suitable fragile watermarking scheme based on novel payload embedding strategy

Intentional tampering in digital image content is one of the common malpractices in the current digital arena. So in this paper, the authors have proposed a novel fragile watermarking scheme for the localization of tampered image content effectively. Proposed fragile watermarking scheme detects forged image content robustly in block level of two consecutive pixels. In this work, the watermark embedding procedure is comprised of two phases- i.e., authentication code generation from some selected salient bits of each pixel of the original image content, and encryption of the authentication code before realizing it for embedding into the insignificant bits of each pixel in the original cover image. The authentication code is computed from each block using Hamming Code. Subsequently, the encrypted code is concealed into the pixels of that particular block using the suggested payload embedding strategy i.e., pixel adjustment process. The proposed fragile watermarking procedure ensures the high level of security since the encrypted authentication code is embedded into the cover image through an indirect mechanism i.e. block-level pixel adjustment process. This scheme has been implemented and tested on several grayscale images in order to confirm the tampering detection capability against various image manipulation attacks. The experimental results exhibit better performance in terms of various perceptual quality measures like peak signal to noise ratio, structural similarity index, and image fidelity. Further, the presented results demonstrate that the scheme is suitable for detecting whether a concerned image has undergone any form of tampering or not and achieves standard results in terms of false-positive rate, false-negative rate, true positive rate, tamper detection accuracy, and normalized cross-correlation.