Search Results (12)

Background: This paper is the first-ever discussion of sport logistics as an intersection of the academic disciplines of logistics and sport management. Methods: It reviews past literature and states that logistics in sport is widely overlooked in academic literature. It illustrates the importance and pervasive nature of logistics in the sport industry and questions how sport logistics can be positioned at the interface of logistics and sport management science. Both disciplines are contrasted under the common lens of Porter’s value chain. Results: Operations, organization and marketing are identified along with economics and strategy as areas of sport management (highly) involved with logistics. Sport logistics is defined as a research area dealing with storage and transportation issues in sport organizations. Conclusions: Based on a case example from practice, athlete equipment logistics, the authors elaborate on the unique characteristics of managing logistics in sport, e.g., low competition, personal relationships and high demand predictability. They call for a broader discourse on sport logistics in academia. Full article

To counteract the COVIC-19 pandemic, many governments have introduced social distancing measures. While these restrictions helped contain the virus, it had adverse effects on individuals’ mental and physical health—especially children. The aim of the present study is to review the evidence on the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on children’s physical activity and their determinants. A scoping review was conducted in the databases PubMed, Web of Science, SportDiscus, and BISp-Surf. Inclusion criteria were empirical and peer-reviewed studies, youth samples, investigation of COVID-19 restrictions, and investigating changes and/or determinants of physical activity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Risk of bias was assessed using the checklist by Downs and Black. The search resulted in 1672 studies, of which 84 studies were included in the analysis. The results highlighted a decrease in physical activity during the pandemic, ranging between −10.8 min/day and −91 min/day. If an increase was detected, it related to unstructured and outdoor activities. The main determinants of children’s physical activity during the pandemic were age, gender, socioeconomic background, and the outdoor environment. The results imply that governments need to consider the negative effects that restrictive measures have on children’s physical activity and act to ensure high levels of physical activity. Full article

Maternal obesity greatly affects next generations, elevating obesity risk in the offspring through perinatal programming and flawed maternal and newborn nutrition. The exact underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) mediates its effects through a membrane-bound receptor or by trans-signaling (tS), which can be inhibited by the soluble form of the co-receptor gp130 (sgp130). As IL-6 tS mediates western-style diet (WSD) effects via chronic low-grade inflammation (LGI) and LGI is an important mediator in brain–adipose tissue communication, this study aims at determining the effects of maternal obesity in a transgenic mouse model of brain-restricted IL-6tS inhibition (^GFAPsgp130) on offspring’s short- and long-term body composition and epigonadal white adipose tissue (egWAT) metabolism. Female wild type (WT) or transgenic mice were fed either standard diet (SD) or WSD pregestationally, during gestation, and lactation. Male offspring received SD from postnatal day (P)21 to P56 and were metabolically challenged with WSD from P56 to P120. At P21, offspring from WT and transgenic dams that were fed WSD displayed increased body weight and egWAT mass, while glucose tolerance testing showed the strongest impairment in ^GFAPsgp130WSD offspring. Simultaneously, egWAT proteome reveals a characteristic egWAT expression pattern in offspring as a result of maternal conditions. IL-6tS inhibition in transgenic mice was in tendency associated with lower body weight in dams on SD and their respective offspring but blunted by the WSD. In conclusion, maternal nutrition affects offspring’s body weight and egWAT metabolism predominantly independent of IL-6tS inhibition, emphasizing the importance of maternal and newborn nutrition for long-term offspring health. Full article

(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced non-profit sports clubs to shut their doors. As a consequence, neither sports activities nor social gatherings could take place for an indefinite period. This situation poses potential risks to sports clubs as clubs could lose members, volunteers, and revenue. The purpose of this study is to investigate how strong clubs have been affected so far by COVID-19 and which capacities help or hinder clubs in dealing with the crisis. (2) Methods: The study is based on large-scale primary data (n = 4295) collected among German sports clubs in autumn 2020. Three fractional regression models are applied to examine which organizational capacities are related to potential threats caused by COVID-19. (3) Results: Clubs perceive the risk of losing members as most threatening, followed by the challenge of retaining volunteers. Potential financial threats are perceived as smaller by clubs without their own sports facilities and paid employees. (4) Conclusions: Overall, sports clubs with a strong solidarity culture seem to be affected less by potential threats through COVID-19. To become more resilient to unexpected external influences, capacity building in specific areas of sports clubs should be considered. Support from public institutions and sports associations is needed. Full article

Maternal obesity is associated with an increased risk of hepatic metabolic dysfunction for both mother and offspring and targeted interventions to address this growing metabolic disease burden are urgently needed. This study investigates whether maternal exercise (ME) could reverse the detrimental effects of hepatic metabolic dysfunction in obese dams and their offspring while focusing on the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), representing a key regulator of hepatic metabolism. In a mouse model of maternal western-style-diet (WSD)-induced obesity, we established an exercise intervention of voluntary wheel-running before and during pregnancy and analyzed its effects on hepatic energy metabolism during developmental organ programming. ME prevented WSD-induced hepatic steatosis in obese dams by alterations of key hepatic metabolic processes, including activation of hepatic ß-oxidation and inhibition of lipogenesis following increased AMPK and peroxisome-proliferator-activated-receptor-γ-coactivator-1α (PGC-1α)-signaling. Offspring of exercised dams exhibited a comparable hepatic metabolic signature to their mothers with increased AMPK-PGC1α-activity and beneficial changes in hepatic lipid metabolism and were protected from WSD-induced adipose tissue accumulation and hepatic steatosis in later life. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that ME provides a promising strategy to improve the metabolic health of both obese mothers and their offspring and highlights AMPK as a potential metabolic target for therapeutic interventions. Full article

Radiotherapy, a common component in cancer treatment, can induce adverse effects including fibrosis in co-irradiated tissues. We previously showed that differential DNA methylation at an enhancer of diacylglycerol kinase alpha (DGKA) in normal dermal fibroblasts is associated with radiation-induced fibrosis. After irradiation, the transcription factor EGR1 is induced and binds to the hypomethylated enhancer, leading to increased DGKA and pro-fibrotic marker expression. We now modulated this DGKA induction by targeted epigenomic and genomic editing of the DGKA enhancer and administering epigenetic drugs. Targeted DNA demethylation of the DGKA enhancer in HEK293T cells resulted in enrichment of enhancer-related histone activation marks and radiation-induced DGKA expression. Mutations of the EGR1-binding motifs decreased radiation-induced DGKA expression in BJ fibroblasts and caused dysregulation of multiple fibrosis-related pathways. EZH2 inhibitors (GSK126, EPZ6438) did not change radiation-induced DGKA increase. Bromodomain inhibitors (CBP30, JQ1) suppressed radiation-induced DGKA and pro-fibrotic marker expression. Similar drug effects were observed in donor-derived fibroblasts with low DNA methylation. Overall, epigenomic manipulation of DGKA expression may offer novel options for a personalized treatment to prevent or attenuate radiotherapy-induced fibrosis. Full article

In-stadium spectators affect the emotional value and atmosphere of sport live broadcasts. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Europe, the presence of in-stadium spectators, however, was suspended until further notice. Conceptualizing professional clubs as economic platforms, network effects due to the lack of in-stadium spectators may affect stakeholders’ utility. Thus, the main aims of this study are to examine the influence of missing in-stadium spectators for professional clubs by investigating network effects on (1) TV viewers’ emotional arousal and (2) TV viewers’ attention towards sponsor messages during live football broadcasts. Using a quantitative research design, a controlled lap was conducted, and broadcasts were presented to n = 26 highly involved participants. Heart rate, eye-tracking, and betting odds data served as measurements of arousal, attention, and game outcome uncertainty and were aggregated on a second-by-second basis (k = 140,400). Multilevel regression analysis showed significant differences in viewers’ arousal and attention to sponsors, contingent on the presence of in-stadium spectators and game outcome uncertainty. The presence of in-stadium spectators increased arousal, while attention towards sponsor messages decreased, depending on game outcome uncertainty. Based on the presence of network effects, implications to sustainably adapting professional football clubs’ business models based on stakeholders’ different interests can be given. Full article

European groundwater reservoirs are frequently subject to reactive nitrogen pollution (N_r) owing to the intensive use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer and animal manure in agriculture. Besides its risk on human health, groundwater N_r loading also affects the carbon (C) and N cycle of associated ecosystems. For a temperate grassland in Germany, the long-term (12 years) annual average exports of N_r in form of harvest exceeded N_r inputs via fertilization and deposition by more than 50 kgN ha⁻¹. We hypothesize that the resulting deficit in the N budget of the plant-soil system could be closed by N_r input via the groundwater. To test this hypothesis, the ecosystem model LandscapeDNDC was used to simulate the C and N cycle of the respective grassland under different model setups, i.e., with and without additional N_r inputs via groundwater transport. Simulated plant nitrate uptake compensated the measured N deficit for 2 of 3 plots and lead to substantial improvements regarding the match between simulated and observed plant biomass and CO₂ emission. This suggests that the C and N cycle of the investigated grassland were influenced by N_r inputs via groundwater transport. We also found that inputs of nitrate-rich groundwater increased the modelled nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, while soil water content was not affected. Full article

India ranks first among the rainfed agricultural countries in the world. The impact of changing climate threatens rainfed food production as well as the food security of millions of people in the tropics and subtropics. The Government of India initiated Watershed Development Programmes (WDPs) for the overall development of these areas. We, therefore, established a comprehensive, location-specific, bottom-up tool to analyse and compare the climate vulnerability of watershed areas. For this, we deducted a new Climate Vulnerability Index for Rainfed Tropics (CVI^RFT) to evaluate the potential effectiveness of programmes to adapt to climate change impacts. The CVI^RFT comprises of three dimensions of vulnerability, i.e., adaptive capacity, exposure and sensitivity. These dimensions consist of ten major components and 59 indicators with emphasis on rainfed farming and WDP interventions. To test the tool, we collected primary data through household surveys (n = 215, split among three watershed communities) in Kerala. We show that there were strong variations in the exposure dimension, moderate in sensitivity and negligible in adaptive capacity across the watersheds. After analysing the major components under the dimensions, we suggest focusing on policy orientation towards redesigning of the WDPs with emphasis to economic diversification, livelihood strategies, social networking coupled with stakeholder participation, natural resource management and risk spread through credit and insurance flexibility. The CVI^RFT is replicable to similar physio-geographic areas of rainfed farming, with the refinement of indicators suited to the locality. Full article

Europe’s elite football clubs are a small group of about 30 clubs mostly originating from the Big Five leagues in England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and France. These clubs top Deloitte’s Football Money League ranking Europe’s top football clubs by revenues. They also win the vast majority of national and European football competitions, and account for the major share of FIFA World Cup appearances. Nevertheless, empirical analyses studying the antecedents of financial success of this peculiar sample are rare. This paper extends previous research by building an empirical model of financial performance and applying it to a unique, high-quality dataset of the top 30 EU football clubs by club revenues analyzed over ten consecutive seasons from 2004 to 2013. Fixed effects models are performed to account for time trends and club fixed effects. The results show that financial success is driven by national and international sporting success, as well as brand value; sporting success is driven by team investments, and team investments tend to be driven by (foreign) private majority investors. Full article

In many Western countries, local community sport clubs are important providers of leisure, sport, and social programs. These sport clubs are nonprofit organizations, which operate in an increasingly challenging environment. This study considers a club’s direct local environment, i.e., the community the club is located in. The open systems model and the resource dependence represent the theoretical framework. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of the financial and economic environment in the community on the resource situation of sport clubs (human, infrastructure, and financial resources). The empirical evaluation is undertaken using data from a nationwide survey of non-profit sport clubs in Germany (organizational level; n = 19,345), which are combined with secondary data on community characteristics (community level; n = 3153). Given the hierarchical data structure, multi-level analyses are applied. The results show that volunteer problems are smaller among clubs in communities with high unemployment. Facility and financial problems are greater in large communities. Sport clubs located in communities that could break even were also more likely to break even themselves. The findings show that resource problems are not necessarily due to poor club management, since higher-level (community) factors significantly affect the resource situation of sport clubs too. Full article

The beneficial effects of diversified income portfolios are well documented in previous research on non-profit organizations. This study examines how different types of organizational missions affect the level of revenue diversification of organizations in one industry, a question that was neglected in previous research. Based on contingency theory, it is assumed that different missions are associated with different funding sources. Since missions can be complementary or conflicting, specific attention needs to be paid to the combination of missions. The sport sector is chosen as an empirical setting because non-profit sports clubs can have various missions while their overall purpose is promoting sport. Panel data from a nationwide survey of non-profit sports clubs in Germany are used for the analysis. The regression results show that revenue diversification is significantly determined by organizational mission. Historically, typical mission statements like promoting elite sport, tradition, conviviality, non-sport programs, and youth sport have a positive effect on revenue diversification, while clubs with a commercial orientation and a focus on leisure and health sport have more concentrated revenues. The findings have implications for club management in the sense that some missions are associated with higher financial risk and that the combination of missions should be chosen carefully. Full article