Measuring the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on the UK’s Leisure and Sport during the 2020 Lockdown

This research evaluates the effect of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic on sport Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and consumer expenditure in the leisure sector in the United Kingdom (UK). The leisure sector is divided into leisure at home and away from home, examining in this way the different patterns that emerged because of the national lockdown in 2020. The effect on sport GDP is examined using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) surveys and the UK Sport Satellite Account (SSA). The study found that, because of its reliance on human contact, sport GDP is likely to decline by more than twice the rate of the overall economy. Furthermore, this finding is consistent with the 2020 consumer expenditure on leisure that shows increases in spending on home leisure but also a huge decline in spending on out-of-home entertainment. The decline in GDP is extremely likely to put pressure on profit margins and hence threaten the survival of private enterprises, raising issues of sustainability under conditions of a pandemic. Increases in long-term public funding for reducing sport inequalities should be considered along with short-term relief packages for the sport sector. Additional policy suggestions are offered to address these issues.

COMPETITION AND METHODS OF COMPETITION IN THE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT

The article examines the concept of "compe-tition". The actual competitive cases and ways of competition between the largest manufacturers of digital technology are con-sidered. The author examines the competi-tion in the markets of computing processors, smartphones and home entertainment sys-tems. The article presents sales charts of competing companies and comparisons of consumer characteristics of goods that di-rectly affect their competitiveness.

Internet of Things: A Review of Functionality, Applications, Architectures and Challenges

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm that embodies the vision of merging smart objects while utilizing the internet as the backbone of the communication system to establish a smart interaction among physical entities in pervasive environments. In IoT, data is generated in realtime and stored in permanent repositories. Additional data in the form of meta-data that describes things adds to the data volume and to manage this data, architecture is required. IoT finds its applicability in a plethora of applications such as transportation, smart city, smart health, smart environment, home entertainment, sports, etc. but there is no universal architecture for all IoT implementations. We have layered architectures and domain-specific architectures for different IoT applications. Besides a large number of architectures for IoT, it faces several potential challenges such as scalability, reliability, heterogeneity, etc. This paper presents an understanding of the Internet of Things in terms of its functionality, layered and domain-specific architectures, and its potential challenges.

The Mahjong Phenomenon

Key changes in popular culture and the economy—most importantly, the growth of mass consumerism and a market for goods from the “exotic East”—primed the pump for a mahjong craze in the 1920s. Entrepreneurs made use of the latest techniques in advertising, store display, and new forms of media like film to create and corner a mahjong market. Marketers successfully promoted an image of the game that linked it to social elites, enabling it to ride the shirttails of media attention to activities of the rich and famous. However, mahjong’s appeal—both as a game and as a form of class aspiration—spread across lines of class, race, and region, and its varied forms made the game available to the masses. The mahjong industry connected novel forms of production, distribution, and marketing with established markets for “Oriental” goods and patterns of home entertainment.

The Shining (1980)

The Shining (1980)USADirector Stanley KubrickRuntime 144 minutesBlu-ray, 4K UHDUSA, 2019Distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (region A/B/C)

Massive MIMO-Based Network Planning and Performance Evaluation for High Speed Broadband Connection in Rural Areas of Tanzania

The need for high speed broadband connection in rural areas is inevitable since services like e-governance, virtual classrooms, telemedicine, video-on-demand, home entertainment, etc. are needed. However, in order to provide broadband services, service providers must incur high deployment costs and wait for long time for return on investments. Thus, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) with its favorable propagation phenomenon can be exploited as an alternative to boost signal coverage in rural areas while providing high speed broadband connection. In this chapter, planning and performance evaluation for massive MIMO network has been conducted for rural areas in Tanzania. Infovista and MATLAB tools were used for network simulation. The results show that massive MIMO network at 5MHz bandwidth performs better in terms of RSRP and SINRu when compared to 10 MHz and 20MHz channel bandwidths.

WHY DO (W)EEE HOARD? THE EFFECT OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ON THE RELEASE OF HOME ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTS INTO THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Home entertainment (HE) products are particularly rich in metals and plastics and thus have enormous potential as a source of materials from within Distinct Urban Mines (DUMs). Consumers’ end-of-life (EoL) management decisions (i.e. stockpiling, hoarding, reusing, discarding of WEEE) strongly influence the exploitation potential of a DUM. This study aimed to assess the effect of consumer behaviour on the release of HE (W)EEE into the circular economy. A survey was undertaken in Southampton (Hampshire, UK) to assess perceptions and behaviours relating to the EoL management of HE (W)EEE. The study provides previously unavailable data and critical evaluation on the ownership, use and hoarding levels of HE EEE in a typical city DUM, and the reasons behind their hoarding. Results indicated that ownership levels were very high, with an average of 12 home entertainment items owned per household. This makes urban areas extremely plausible as DUMs; we estimate that there are over 1 million HE devices owned and ~440,000 HE devices hoarded in Southampton and >150 million HE EEE owned and ~61 million HE devices hoarded in UK households. Hoarding is common, especially for smaller or older equipment, due to their perceived residual value. HE product lifecycles averaged 4-5 years. The most common EoL routes were donating to relatives, friends or charities; hoarding; recycling; or discarding items in general refuse. To encourage the recovery of EoL HE equipment: i) convenient and accessible WEEE collection points should be established for regular (periodic) harvesting and ii) promoted via awareness campaigns and incentives.