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Despite the growing number of international students in Portugal, there is a scarcity of quantitative research regarding how international and Portuguese students experience higher education. This study aimed to analyse the indirect effect of social support from friends on the relationship between depressive symptoms and loneliness among Portuguese and international students. Furthermore, the study proposed nationality as a moderator variable of the proposed mediation model. The survey data sample consisted of 940 participants (470 Portuguese and 470 international students) enrolled in a private university in Lisbon, Portugal, from January to May 2023. The bootstrap result for the indirect effect of social support from friends was significant, indicating that friends’ social support mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and loneliness. Moreover, the results showed that the nationality of the students moderated the direct association between social support from friends and loneliness. No moderation effect was found in the indirect association (via social support from friends) between depressive symptoms and loneliness. This research advances our understanding of friends’ social support among university students of different nationalities while providing empirical data associated with depressive symptoms and loneliness. Moreover, the study delves into possible strategies to combat the expression of depressive symptoms and further loneliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that elite athletes of specific ethnicities and/or nationalities dominate certain sports disciplines (e.g., East Africans in marathon running). However, we do not know the nationalities of the fastest non-professional IRONMAN triathletes. Therefore, this study intended to identify the fastest athletes by country of origin competing in IRONMAN triathlon events, focusing on non-professional age group triathletes. Data from all IRONMAN age group athletes competing worldwide between 2002 and 2022 in all official IRONMAN races were collected. Sex, age group, country of origin of the athletes, location and year of the event, split times, overall race times, and transition times were obtained. Additionally, the dataset was augmented with specific data (i.e. event characteristics such as temperatures for water and air and course characteristics for all three split disciplines) related to the different race locations. We limited the analysis to the top 150 countries by participation (i.e. countries with at least 13 successful finishers records in the sample). A total of 677,320 records of IRONMAN age group triathletes originating from 150 different countries and participating in 443 races over 65 different locations were analyzed. European countries such as Germany, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Czechia, Estonia, and Slovenia have the fastest IRONMAN age group athletes. IRONMAN Hawaii, IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz and IRONMAN Hamburg are the fastest races. Hilly running and cycling race courses led to slower race times, while flat surfaces, rolling cycling and ocean swimming led to faster race times. Optimal water temperatures were found at 23–25 °C and optimal air temperature ranged between 19–21 and 25–28 °C. The fastest IRONMAN age group triathletes from European countries such as Germany, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Czechia, Estonia, and Slovenia. With the presented results for optimal air and water temperatures and description of the optimal cycling and running course characteristics, IRONMAN age group athletes might be able to select an IRONMAN race with the best conditions in order to achieve a fast IRONMAN race time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]