Article Electrical and Electronic Engineering Interdisciplinary Sciences

Real-Time Physiological Monitoring for Management of Normobaric Hypoxic Training Toward Wearable System Implementation

As a method to prevent lifestyle diseases, normobaric hypoxic training has been attracting attention. However, its exercise load and safety in non-athletes remain unclear. In this study, 20 healthy university students underwent a 15-min exercise test in a normobaric hypoxic room set at two different oxygen concentrations (O2: 20% and 16%), and the exercise load and safety were evaluated. The test comprised walking within the upper and lower limits of the heart rate (HR) calculated via the Karvonen method. The results showed that in case of 16% O2, the same energy was consumed despite significantly lower walking speed and distance than those in case of 20% O2. Therefore, it is suggested that the Karvonen method is effective in setting the load for hypoxic training. In addition, real-time monitoring of arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) could be used to evaluate the safety of hypoxic training. Based on these results, we have developed a wearable pulse oximeter that can measure both HR and SpO2 from the earlobe and a dedicated smartphone application for analysis. If these can be practically applied, hypoxic training can be conducted safely that will contribute to the prevention of lifestyle diseases and the consequent extension of healthy life expectancy.

View more >>

Article Education Psychology

The relationship of Mobile Phone Addiction and Irrational Procrastination in College Students: Mediating Effect of Perceived Stress

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of perceived stress in the relationship between mobile phone addiction and irrational procrastination. Recent studies have shown that mobile phone addiction can cause or aggravate irrational procrastination. 6220 Chinese college students completed the questionnaires about their information of demographic, mobile phone addiction, perceived stress and irrational procrastination (response rate of 91.6%). Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 25.0 and PROCESS 3.5. The mediation model was tested using Model 4 in Hayes' Process and the percentile Bootstrap algorithm with deviation correction, repeat sampling 5000 times and calculate the 95% confidence interval. The results show that mobile phone addiction of college students has a significant positive predictive effect on irrational procrastination after controlling for age, tobacco and alcohol use. In addition, mediation analysis indicated significant mediation of perceived stress in the relationship between mobile phone addiction and irrational procrastination in both male and female students.

View more >>

Article Psychology

Examining the effects of digital gameplay of the racing genre on mood and heart rate

This study aimed to determine racing esport games’ effects on the physiological and psychological indices using psychological scales and heart rate monitors. The participants were 10 male university students who did not play games diurnally (mean age ± 20.10, SD = 1.10). Participants wore a wristwatch heart rate monitor, and their resting heart rate was measured for 2 min. The duration of the game play was set to 30 min, and their heart rates were continuously measured during play. The changes in the psychological state before and after the game play were then examined using a two-dimensional mood scale-short term. The results showed that the average heart rate significantly increased during gameplay compared to the resting state. As for participants’ psychological state before and after the gameplay, the vitality, pleasure, and arousal levels increased while the stability level decreased. These results indicate that gameplay in the racing genre can induce a lively mood and increase the heart rate.

View more >>

Article Business & Management Economics Education Others Psychology

Impact on evaluation of Viewpoints to assess the positioning on half-court defense in the basketball

While there are some desirable and some not-so-desirable half-court positions in basketball, the "desirable positioning" may not always be clearly determined due to the values of the coach or manager. The most important factor in this is the "point of view". Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the perspectives that influence the evaluation of positioning in half-court defense for university teams be-longing to the first and second divisions of the Basketball Federation. A total of 192 players (110 male players and 82 female players) from university teams in the first and second divisions of the K-Student Basketball Federation were included in the study. As a result, the perspectives of the reasons for the decisions obtained in the descriptive form have been classified into the following categories: "Weak-side defensive position," "Strong-side defensive position," "Ball man defensive position," "General defensive position," "Defensive position related to play selection," "Defensive position related to coordination," and "Defensive position related to situational judgment. "The defensive positions were classified into seven categories: defensive positions related to situational viewpoints.

View more >>

Article Education Environmental Sciences Psychology

Effect of positive and negative ions in esports performance and arousal levels

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological effects of arousal levels in esports players during a racing-game under positive and negative ion environments. Participants (10 male) who belonged to the collegiate esports team were recruited. The influences of positive and negative ions were evaluated in a randomized, crossover, and placebo-controlled double-blind design. Each participant completed two experiments within a 4-week interval. Two experimental environments were used: positive and negative ions filled up the atmosphere (PNI), and a control (CON) condition. For the performance task, a car-racing game was adopted. Arousal state was measured by the Two-Dimensional Mood Scale (TDMS) and an electroencephalogram (EEG). Results indicated that the EEG level was significantly higher in PNI than CON condition. Also, the PNI had a significantly higher performance on the gaming task than the CON condition. The present study demonstrated the beneficial effects of positive and negative ion environments on esports players.

View more >>