When Taekwondo Referees See Red, but It Is an Electronic System That Gives the Points

Previous studies in taekwondo have considered the use of the manual scoring system or the electronic system with only the use of the electronic body protector. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between the color protectors and success in 1,327 taekwondo matches from six World Grand Prix Series of two 4-year Olympic periods when electronic body and head protectors are used. In the total sample, the results did not show a relationship between the match outcome and the color of the protectors (p = 0.97, C = 0.001). For the individual six editions, the results showed a positive and strong relationship between wearing blue protectors and winning matches and one between wearing red protectors and winning matches (p = 0.001, C = 0.19; p = 0.001; C = 0.19). Regarding the weight categories, 8 and 5 of 48 showed higher percentages of blue and red winners, respectively. Regarding sex, male competitors showed a positive relationship between blue color and winning the match in 6 of 24 weight categories, and wearing red and winning the match was shown in 2 of 24 weight categories. Female competitors showed a positive relationship between blue color and winning the match in 2 of 24 weight categories, and wearing red and winning the match was shown in 3 of 24 weight categories. When it comes to the influence of being a seeded athlete, the results did show a significant confounding effect on the color of the protectors worn by the winner of the match in 2 of 13 weight categories in which a color effect was observed (p = 0.02, C = 0.28; p = 0.02, C = 0.28). In conclusion, wearing red does not provide a higher chance of winning the match. It seems that seeing red has a stronger effect than wearing red, especially in male contenders. Moreover, being a seeded athlete does not explain the result of the match. It seems that the introduction of the electronic helmet protector, in addition to the electronic body protector, made the scoring system more objective, decreasing the advantage of wearing red in winning matches.

Co-pigmentation of caffeic acid and catechin on wine color and the effect of ultrasound in model wine solutions

Objective Wine color is usually considered to be one of the important indicators to judge the red wine quality, and is also employed to evaluate the wine ageing, while the wine color can be influenced by many factors. Methods In this paper, the effects of caffeic acid and catechin on the wine color and the mechanism were investigated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy for the red wine and the constructed model solutions with the addition of catechin, caffeic acid and malvidin-3-O-glucoside, respectively. The spectrum changes of the model wine solutions (Mv-glc, Mv-glc + caffeic acid and Mv-glc + catechin) during the 120 days storage were monitored to analyze the influence of co-pigmentation on the red wine color. Results The results indicate that the color properties of red wine could be affected by caffeic acid and catechin to a certain extent. Moreover, caffeic acid had the stronger auxiliary color effect on the malvidin-3-O-glucoside than that of the catechin in the model wine solutions, and the former effect continued to increase with the prolongation of storage time, while the latter effect (catechin) only had the temporary auxiliary color effect in the beginning, and weakened from red to orange yellow with the increasing of storage time. Furthermore, ultrasound irradiation had a further improvement on the co-pigmentation, resulting in the modification of wine color. Conclusion All results indicate that the co-pigmentation reaction of wine color could be modified by the addition of caffeic acid and ultrasonic treatment so as to obtain a high quality of red wine.

Processing the Word Red and Intellectual Performance: Four Replication Attempts

Colors convey meaning and can impair intellectual performance in achievement situations. Even the processing of color words can exert similar detrimental effects. In four experiments, we tried to replicate previous findings regarding the processing of the word “red” (as compared to a control color) on cognitive test scores. Experiments 1 and 2 (Ns = 69 and 104) are direct replications of Lichtenfeld, Maier, Elliot, and Pekrun (2009). Both experiments failed to uncover a red color effect on verbal reasoning scores among high school students and undergraduates (Cohen’s d = 0.04 and –0.23). Experiments 3 and 4 (N = 103 and 1,149) failed to identify an effect of processing red on general knowledge test scores (Cohen’sd = 0.19) and 0.01) among undergraduates and adults. Together, these results do not corroborate the assumption that processing the word red impairs intellectual performance.