Usability and Accessibility of the ArtontheBrain™ Virtual Recreation Activity for Older Adults With Low Vision Due to Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Experiencing visual art can inspire, be an overall positive leisure activity, and has been linked to improved cognition, especially in older adults. Access to artwork in a museum environment can comprise a variety of barriers, including difficulties linked to its visual experience for persons that are visually impaired. The present study explored the barriers and facilitators experienced by 15 older adults (age 65 to 93) living with age-related macular degeneration when using an iPad to access ArtontheBrain™, a virtual art museum recreation experience created by members of this team. Using the Concurrent Think Aloud method, participants were asked to continuously comment on their experiences with the application while being audio/video recorded. Indeed, codes were determined by identifying frequently stated and emphasized ideas or behaviors of participants using the ArtontheBrain™ application. Transcripts underwent thematic analysis and indicated that the main access barriers were linked to control of the contrast, magnification, and the tactile interface on the tablet device. The learn and play activities as well as the text-to-speech feature were identified as facilitators for ArtontheBrain™ engagement. The present findings should also be considered in the larger context of application development, as this study provides insight pertaining to the needs of low vision individuals regarding usability and accessibility.

Smartphone Usage: Reasons among Gender in University of Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Smartphones have been an essential device in most of our daily activities. However, there is not much information regarding the difference of smartphone usage between gender among medical students. Therefore, this study aims to determine the prevalence of smartphone usage and the reasons of its usage among medical students by gender. A cross-sectional study was done, using self-administered questionnaires given to 300 medical students in University of Cyberjaya. The students were selected using stratified and simple random sampling methods. All respondents were using smartphone with majority from age of 18-21 years old (55.3%), female (67.7%), Malay (85%) and studying in 1st year (24.7%). The most popular reason of smartphone usage for male and female was entertainment mainly leisure activity (91.8% and 93.6%, respectively). There was no significant difference between gender and reasons of smartphone usage among medical students. Regardless, time must be managed wisely to avoid overuse of smartphones that can disrupt relationships with others. Keywords: smartphone, reason, medical student, gender, Selangor.

In the Shadows of Cancer. Leisure and Subjective Wellbeing of Breast and Ovarian Cancer Patients in Honduras, Nicaragua and Portugal

In contemporary societies, a significant proportion of women will be affected by breast or ovarian cancer over the course of their lives. Dealing with illness is known to impact profoundly on the general quality of life of women, but this assessment is usually made in clinical terms, and less attention is given to the social determinants of quality of life for cancer patients, and to the implications of cancer for their subjective wellbeing. In this article, we specifically discuss the impact of being engaged in a leisure activity for the subjective wellbeing of women experiencing breast or ovarian cancer. Based on an exploratory comparative study among Honduras, Nicaragua and Portugal, we analyze the influence of leisure engagement, country of residence, treatment and social support for the subjective wellbeing of women dealing with cancer, proposing a discussion on the intersections of wellbeing, leisure and illness. The research was supported by a survey applied to 128 women diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer. Significant relationships were found amongst subjective wellbeing, leisure engagement, country and support from patients’ associations. Results highlight the need to consider the effects of leisure among cancer patients, and the importance of institutionalized support to improve their quality of life.

Leisure Cycling Entrepreneurialism in Johannesburg, South Africa

It is estimated that by 2050 as many as five billion bicycles could be in use globally. Reasons for this growth vary, with utility cycling strong in Europe and Asia; while in the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand cycling is a sport and leisure activity, with cycling deemed the ‘new golf’. Within this context, there is a rise in community or local bike shops (or LBS) which sell bicycles, related equipment and services. This qualitative study explored LBSs in greater Johannesburg, focusing on who the entrepreneurs are, how they service their clients, and what links the sector has to serious leisure. It was found that the owners demonstrated high levels of serious leisure cycling engagement and passion for the sport. A sense of being part of a bigger cycling community strongly influenced their entrepreneurial practices. This included how they ran their businesses, the employees they hired, as well as how they viewed cycling in general. The research also yielded insights into operational and sectoral realities, trends and challenges. Generally, it was found that the local bike shops in greater Johannesburg are key players in the supply, growth and development of sport and leisure cycling, thereby making a positive contribution to the cycling community. This is important in the light of the COVID-19 challenges experienced by the sport and leisure sector, as a loss of these shops will likely have a negative impact on cycling in Johannesburg.

‘Event-tualising’ Physical Leisure Activity: How Gauteng Parkrunners Brought the Parkrun Home during COVID-19

On the 27th of March 2020, South Africa entered hard lockdown (alert level 5) following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the banning of all physical activity outside a place of residence. As a result, official parkrun events were immediately suspended. In June 2020, the country moved to alert level 3, no longer curbing the use of public spaces for leisure, entertainment, and physical activity, albeit with restrictions. However, group sports leisure, such as parkruns remained prohibited. Thus, parkrun, a highly successful global movement where individuals gather on Saturday mornings for a timed 2 or 5km run, jog, or walk, with family and friends, was severely affected by COVID-19 prevention measures. In mitigation, parkrun officials launched, in June 2020, the (not)parkrun to enable individuals to log (on the parkrun website) their own 5km activity, irrespective of time, day or route. In this regard, parkrun enabled parkrunners to bring the event ‘home’, that is, to informally claim public space and time for their physical leisure. By analysing participation figures and feedback posted on the national parkrun blog and social media pages, this research shows how the (not)parkrun enabled Gauteng parkrunners to ‘event-tualise’ their runs to counter act the de-eventualisation of the parkrun by lockdown regulations.

Musician and Poet

Music-making was a popular leisure activity in aristocratic households in the early seventeenth century and a growing number of courtier poets wrote and exchanged verse in aristocratic salons and literary coteries. Chapter 12 continues the exploration of Herbert’s intellectual achievements and reputation as a polymath. It traces his interest in playing the lute and singing, and the musical preferences and fashions demonstrated by the music books he owned and the preludes, fantasias, pavanes, galliards, courantes, voltes, sarabands, and airs assembled in his unique manuscript lute book. It probes his inclusion among the metaphysical poets, exploring the influence of John Donne and Giambattista Marino, but also that of Ben Jonson, Thomas Carew, and Sir Philip Sidney, and of Horace, Juvenal, and Ovid. It uses the themes of love, beauty, immortality, and death to examine examples of his sonnets, elegies, epitaphs, satires, and lyrical poems, some of which were published posthumously as The Occasional Verses of Lord Herbert of Cherbury in 1665, and looks briefly at his Latin philosophical poems and his rough draft for a masque. It explores his preference for deploying verbal ingenuity and erudition rather than feelings, his deployment of metaphysical conceits and concepts, his innovative experimentation with rhyme and the extent of his participation in the literary coterie culture of the times. It claims a place for him among the leading minor poets and suggests that this was an impressive achievement for a man heavily engaged in other intellectual fields as well as political and estate matters.

A Demographic Study on the Purchase Pattern of Consumers with respect to Social Learning Theory during COVID-19 times

Shopping is a necessity in everyone’s life. Mostly shopping is need based and sometimes it is a leisure activity in the form of entertainment. However when the condition leads to extreme buying situation resulting into destructive and harmful activity, then this is the result of Compulsive Buying Behaviour (CBB). While studying the consumer buying behaviour and process, the external stimuli is not the sufficient reason, to generate a response, rather the consumers’ characteristics significantly influence the way they perceive the stimuli, utilize their internal processes and result in a specific buying behaviour. Hull (1951) developed a model as a behavioural model to explain the social learning theory: Stimulus – Response Model (S – R Model). Few of psychologist and marketing researchers tried to find out the characteristics of consumers within “black box” and analyze the impact of both factors to determine specific buying behaviour. In this research project we have tried to analyse Social Learning Theory with respect to the purchase pattern of the consumer in Kolkataduring the COVID-19 Pandemic. The respondents are mostly the parents who are influenced by their children to exert Compulsive Buying Behaviour. The collected responses will be analysed using one way ANOVA to find out which of the factors significantly influence purchase behaviour. The findings of the study will help the organisation to decide their marketing strategies.