This study aims to examine youth players’ physiological responses and technical-tactical performance when playing simulated 3x3 and 5x5 basketball games. Fifteen well-trained male basketball players (16.6 ± 0.2 years old) participated in scrimmage basketball games under two different conditions: 3x3 (half-court) and 5x5 (full-court). The players’ heart rate, muscle oxygen saturation and total hemoglobin data were collected and computed to describe physiological responses, while video analysis was used to characterize their technical-tactical performance. A Bayesian one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to quantify the predictive influence of both game conditions on the physiological and the technical-tactical variables. The results indicated that different game conditions influenced the players’ physiological responses slightly, as only hemoglobin sample entropy increased between the 3x3 and 5x5 game scenarios. Conversely, statistical differences in most of the technical-tactical variables were moderate and decisive in favour of the game condition model. Overall, this study emphasizes that playing 3x3 and 5x5 basketball games lead to relatively negligible differences in the players’ physiological response but pronounced variations in their technical-tactical performance. Therefore, important implications may be drawn to the applied field as the specificity of technical-tactical adaptations when playing 3x3 or 5x5 formats should be considered by basketball coaches to better design the training sessions for players that fall within our sample age category.

This study aimed to examine relationships and group differences among adult people’s (aged 18–74) physical activity (PA), expression of stress, depression, emotional intelligence (EI), logical thinking (LT), and overall health assessment. Two hypotheses were formulated before the study. The first hypothesis is that overweight and obesity in young adults (18 to 34 years) females and males, in particular, should increase sharply and this should be associated with decreased PA, abruptly deteriorating subject health, increased stress, depression, and poorer emotion management and EI. Second hypothesis: We further thought that the better people’s reflective thinking, the more they should live a healthier life (e.g., exercise more and eat healthier), their overweight and obesity should be small or none. We aimed to confirm or reject these two hypotheses. We applied a quantitative cross-sectional study design. The study results revealed that during the lifespan of 18–24 and 25–34 years (young adults) there was a sharp increase in overweight and obesity, a decrease in PA (and especially vigorous physical activity (VPA)) (and this was particularly evident in the male), while research participants felt less stress and depression, subjective assessment of health did not change, and EI increased steadily with age (18–24 to 65–74 years). The higher the EI of the research participants from 18–24 to 65–74 years of age the higher their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), the less stress and depression they felt. Based on the results, it can be said that both females and males prefer PA “with a hot heart rather than a cold mind.” We base this conclusion on the fact that females and males who have the highest EI also have the highest MVPA while LT is not associated with MVPA.

New solutions and techniques for developing country policies are used under real conditions. The present study aims to propose a new approach for evaluating and ranking the European countries by using the interrelation between two groups of criteria, associated with the Human Development Index (HDI) and the World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI). HDI and its components rank countries by value and detail the values of the components of longevity, education and income per capita. WISPI focuses on the effective rendering of security services and the outcome of rendered services. The priority of criteria is determined in the descending order of their correlation values with other group criteria. The criteria weights are set simultaneously for both groups by applying the weight balancing method WEBIRA. The methodology based on minimising sum of squared differences of the weighted sums within groups is used. Finally, the generalised criteria measuring the level of the country are calculated using the SAW method. Cluster analysis of the countries was carried out and compared with MCDM results. The study revealed that WEBIRA ranking of countries is basically consistent with the results of cluster analysis. The proposed methodology can be applied to develop the management policy of the countries, as well as to their evaluation and ranking by using various indices, criteria and procedures. The results of this research can also be used to reveal national policy choices, to point out government policy priorities.

The aim of our study was to determine whether EI and LT vs. intuitive thinking (CRT score) are related to participation in professional sports, independent exercise, and exercise at a gym/health center compared with no exercise. We selected 20 of the most popular types of exercise in Lithuania among respondents who exercise independently or at a gym/health center, and we ranked these types of exercise according to the participants’ emotional intelligence and logical thinking. We studied 4545 women and 1824 men aged 18–74 years with a focus on whether emotional intelligence and logical thinking are related to type of exercise. Participation in any exercise was significantly related to emotional intelligence in men and women. Women in professional sports solved the lowest number of logic tasks. Women who exercise independently or at a gym/health center had better logical thinking than those who do not exercise. Among men, logical thinking was not associated with the type of exercise. We found the tendency for a negative correlation between EI and LT in the 20 most popular types of exercise. Emotional intelligence correlated positively with participation in MVPA. The highest emotional intelligence was in women who participate in dance or Pilates and in men who participate in martial arts, wrestling, boxing, or yoga. Logical thinking was the highest in men who participate in triathlon and in women who perform CrossFit. Men who practice martial arts or track and field and women who participate in cycling were in the top five for emotional intelligence and logical thinking.

This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate whether COVID-19 had an impact on people’s (aged 18–74) physical activity distribution, eating, and alcohol consumption habits as well as body mass index. We interviewed 6369 people (4545 women and 1824 men) in Lithuania before the COVID-19 pandemic started and 2392 during COVID-19 (1856 women and 536 men). They were aged 18–74 years. We found that both genders had not stopped their physical activity (PA) completely because of lockdown imitations (for example, prohibition from attending sport clubs), but they started doing different physical exercises at sport clubs. We determined the PA distribution according to the Danish Physical Activity Questionnaire (DPAQ). Despite increases in independent PA and the quantity of light PA, the amount of total energy used in metabolic equivalent of task (MET) units per day decreased significantly for both genders irrespective of age. Although the amounts of sedentary behavior, moderate PA (MPA), vigorous PA (VPA) or a combination of MPA and VPA (MVPA) did not change significantly. Surprisingly, lockdown reduced the duration of sleep for older women but increased their amount of intense VPA (>6 METs). However, the amount of intense VPA decreased for men. Both genders reported overeating less during the pandemic than before it, but did not start consuming more alcohol, and their body mass index did not change. Thus, the COVID-19 in Lithuania represented ‘good stress’ that mobilized these individuals to exercise more independently and overeat less.