Patterns of Nutrient Intake among Male and Female High School-Aged Cross-Country Skiers and Speed Skaters

This study aimed to determine the appropriate nutritional intakes and dietary habits of high school-aged cross-country skiers and speed skaters. The subjects, all high school students from N Prefecture, included 18 male cross-country skiers, 5 male speed skaters, 10 female cross-country ski players and 4 female speed skaters. Physical measurements, food intake frequency survey results, bone mineral density and exercise stress test outcomes, and lactic acid measurements were evaluated. Female athletes in both sports had higher body fat percentages relative to the average range stated for female athletes. Male speed skaters had a significantly higher maximum oxygen in-take than that male cross-country skiers did. By contrast, this parameter did not differ significantly among female athletes. A negative correlation was observed between the fat free mass and muscle mass, and a positive correlation was observed among the body fat percentage, fat percentage, and fat mass. Both male and female athletes had protein intake ratios within the reference ranges. All athletes except male speed skaters had lipid energy ratios that were higher than the upper limit of the reference value. Both male and female athletes also reported carbohydrate energy ratios within the reference ranges, but had cereal energy ratios below the reference values. Athletes should pay attention to the ingestion of various nutrients to ensure a sufficient energy intake. Accordingly, adolescent athletes should consume daily meals containing a good balance of staple foods, main dishes, side dishes, milk and other dairy products, and fruits.

National Innovation Capacity Index: A Cross-Country Comparative Analysis

The national innovation capacity(NIC) has received increasingly more attention from academia and policy makers. This study develops a methodology for measuring NIC with a view to provide the evidence for policy-making concerning national innovation capacity-building, and conducts a crosscountry comparison based on the panel data of 2006-2015.(1) National innovation capacity index(NICI) is established to measure the performance of NIC from two perspectives, namely national innovation strength index(NISI) and national innovation effectiveness index(NIEI).(2) Developed countries usually perform better than developing countries in terms of the NICI if there is no huge gap in economic scale between two kinds of countries.(3) Emerging countries show greater imbalance between the NISI and the NIEI, and have generally higher average annual growth rate of the NISI and the NIEI than that of developed countries.(4) National innovation strength is closely related to national economic scale while national innovation effectiveness is closely related to national development level. Some theoretical considerations in this research may make contributions to innovation development studies.(1) NIC is regarded as the capacity for scientific discovery and technology invention, and for driving economic, social and environmental development, which emphasizes the driving effect and the influence of innovation on development.(2) The concepts such as the NISI and the NIEI are introduced to measure the NIC so as to distinguish the contribution of the size of innovation activities to the NIC and the contribution of the efficiency and efficacy of innovation-driven development to the NIC.(3) The indicator system of the NICI is designed from the perspective of the full spectrum of capacity-building process ranging from input to output by introducing the "innovation condition" as a broad sense "innovation input" and the "innovation outcome" as a broad sense "innovation output".

National Innovation Development Index: A Cross-country Comparison of Innovation Development Performance

Innovation development has received increasingly more attention from academia and policymakers. The policy-making for promoting it heavily relies on evidence provided by measuring national innovation development. This study tries to build a bridge between innovation development measurement and policy-making. The literature shows that there is very limited theoretical and methodological research on measuring national innovation development. This paper proposes a national innovation development index(NIDI) for measuring the performance of national innovation development by integrating the definition of innovation from five perspectives and the definition of development from four perspectives. The NIDI consists of five sub-indexes, science and technology development sub-index, innovation condition development sub-index, industrial innovation development sub-index, social innovation development sub-index, and green & low-carbon development sub-index, which is measured by the composite sub-index approach. This paper uses the NIDI methodology to investigate 40 countries based on the panel data from 2006 to 2015, which helps classify countries into three categories including leading, advanced and catching-up countries. The cross-analysis between sub-indexes of the NIDI brings new insights into the competitive advantage and disadvantage, which helps governments to choose more specific policies to overcome shortcomings resulted in the poor performance of sub-indexes of the NIDI so as to improve their innovation development performance systematically. Besides, the findings in this article indicate that the level of economic development in a country is to a large extent determined by the level of national innovation development.

The Effect of Industrial Structure Change on Carbon Dioxide Emissions: A Cross-Country Panel Analysis

Reduction of carbon dioxide(CO2)emissions is one of the biggest challenges for global sustainable development,in which economic growth characterized by industrialization plays a formidable role.We innovatively adopted the input and output(I-O)table of 41 countries released by World I-O Database to determine the industrial structure change and analyze its impact on CO2 emission evolution by developing a cross-country panel model.The empirical results show that industrial structure change has a significantly negative effect on CO2 emissions;to be specific,0.1 unit increase in the linkage of manufacturing sector and service sector will lead to a decrease of 0.94 metric tons per capita CO2 emissions,indicating that upgrading industrial structure contributes to carbon mitigation and sustainable development.Further,urbanization,technology and trade openness have significantly negative impact on CO2 emissions,while economy growth and energy use take positive impacts.In particular,a 1%increase in per capita income will contribute to an increase of 8.6 metric tons per capita CO2 emissions.However,the effect of industrial structure on environment degradation is moderated by technology level.These findings fill the gaps of previous literature and provide valuable references for effective policies to mitigate CO2 emissions and achieve sustainable development.

Energetic Demands and Nutritional Strategies of Elite Cross-Country Skiers During Tour de Ski: A Narrative Review

The Tour de Ski(TDS:6-9 sprint and distance races across 9-11 days)represents the most intense competition series of the cross-country(XC)ski season and is characterized by accumulated stress from consecutive days of high-intensity(~85%-160% VO_(2max))racing,travel,cold temperatures and low to moderate altitude(500-1500 m above sea level).Here,nutritional strategies play a key supportive role for optimized health,recovery and performance.This narrative review aims to provide an evidence-based discussion on the energetic demands of the TDS and recommendations for nutritional strate-gies to optimize health and performance of XC skiers during and following the TDS.We highlight several challenges that may arise during the TDS,including the following:poor energy availability(EA)due to decreased appetite or a pressure to maintain a low body weight,suboptimal carbohydrate availability due to a failure to replenish muscle glycogen stores across consecutive-day racing and increased risk of illness due to a combination of factors,including high-intensity racing,poor nutrition,sleep,travel and hygiene.We encourage XC skiers to maintain optimal overall EA across the~1.5-week period,ensure high daily carbohydrate availability,as well as the use of strategies to maintain a healthy immune system.In addition,we include practical guidelines on the management of nutrition support prior to and during the TDS.We recognize that many nutritional questions remain unanswered both in the context of elite XC ski racing and specifically for extreme demands like the TDS that should be addressed in future investigations.

Cross-Country Trek

On August 8, 1998, Wu Qi and Yu Yan arrived at Beijing, the destination of a journey that had taken them more than three years. In travelling across 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, by foot, bus and train, these two young women from Guangzhou had covered a distance of 120,000 kJlometers, the first continuous cross-country journey accomplished by women. On the eve of International Women’s Day (March 8th) of 1995, Wu Qi and Yu Yan quit their jobs and started out on their

Improvement of heat－tolerance by training Ⅲ． Evaluation of effectsofcombined training of march and cross－country race on heat

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Stakeholder demands and corporate social responsibility:Evidence from the Olympic Games

We propose that stakeholder demand can explain firms’corporate social responsibility(CSR)activities and empirically test our proposition using 2002–2016 panel data from multiple countries.We select the Olympic Games as our experimental context and use a difference-in-differences design.We find that firms domiciled in countries that host the Olympic Games subsequently experience a significantly smaller increase in CSR commitment than firms in countries that unsuccessfully bid to host the Olympics.We also find that firms domiciled in cities that host the Olympic Games exhibit a significantly smaller increase in CSR than those domiciled in other cities in the same country.Additional tests indicate that firms in host countries with greater increases in the levels of happiness tend to experience an even smaller increase in CSR.Our findings are consistent with the stakeholder demand explanation,as stakeholders are less likely to require local firms to invest in CSR if utilities,such as those from environmental improvement,increase.

The Road to the Beijing Winter Olympics and Beyond: Opinions and Perspectives on Physiology and Innovation in Winter Sport

Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics,and China strengthens research on various aspects to allow their athletes to compete successfully in winter sport.Simultaneously,Government-directed initiatives aim to increase public participation in recreational winter sport.These parallel developments allow research to advance knowledge and understanding of the physiological determinants of performance and health related to winter sport.Winter sport athletes often conduct a substan-tial amount of training with high volumes of low-to-moderate exercise intensity and lower volumes of high-intensity work.Moreover,much of the training occur at low ambient temperatures and winter sport athletes have high risk of developing asthma or asthma-related conditions,such as exercise-induced bronchoconstriction.The high training volumes require optimal nutrition with increased energy and dietary protein requirement to stimulate muscle protein synthesis response in the post-exercise period.Whether higher protein intake is required in the cold should be investigated.Cross-country ski-ing is performed mostly in Northern hemisphere with a strong cultural heritage and sporting tradition.It is expected that innovative initiatives on recruitment and training during the next few years will target to enhance performance of Chinese athletes in classical endurance-based winter sport.The innovation potential coupled with resourcing and population may be substantial with the potential for China to become a significant winter sport nation.This paper discusses the physiological aspects of endurance training and performance in winter sport highlighting areas where innovation may advance in athletic performance in cold environments.In addition,to ensure sustainable development of snow sport,a quality ski patrol and rescue system is recommended for the safety of increasing mass participation.