Scaffolding women coaches' development: A program to build coaches' competence and confidence

Research continues to demonstrate the under representation of women coaches and that barriers outweigh support. The purpose of this practical article is to describe the process undertaken by a National Governing Body of Sport (NGB) to deliver a learning and development programme to support women hockey coaches in Scotland, the Women in Coaching (WiC) programme. Our aim is to share understanding about this example of good practice to provide insight and direction for change that can enhance the experiences and provisions of coach education and development for women coaches. First, we explain the use of scaffolding as a concept to capture the approach adopted in the programme to bring together a range of learning situations (e.g., coach education, workshops, systematic observation of coaching practice, mentoring). We then describe and discuss the evidence gathered to inform programme development (i.e., workforce analysis, interviews with coaches). Next the delivery of the programme and assessment of its impact are discussed (i.e., pre-post self-perceptions, players’ perceptions, coaching behaviours, reflective survey). Finally we present best practices based on the lessons learned from our involvement with the programme over the past six years

Rurality and Its Effects on Prenatal Care in Southcentral Kentucky

Despite ongoing efforts to increase positive healthcare outcomes for prenatal care in rural Kentucky, there continues to be limited access to adequate and quality resources. Research questions for this research project explored the prenatal care resources for Allen, Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Hart, Logan, Metcalfe, Monroe, Simpson, and Warren counties, compared healthcare disparities that exist in those counties with other rural regions of Kentucky, and identified limitations of such prenatal care resources in successfully achieving positive care outcomes. In addition to evaluation of applicable online resources through organizations local to the region, some healthcare professional and representatives were interviewed to find out about available resources, and the amount of care received for prenatal recipients

Communicating the risks and hazards of methylmercury to the Ojibwe population

Fatal poisonings due to the consumption of fish containing high concentrations of methylmercury have been well documented, and demonstrate that the consumption of mercury-contaminated fish and other organisms can contribute to adverse human health effects. Native Americans of the Great Lakes region are one of the populations potentially subjected to greater concentrations of methylmercury than the general population because fishery is an integral part of their culture. The purpose of this study is to investigate the Ojibwe of the Great Lakes region\u27s understanding of the risks and hazards associated with the consumption of fish contaminated with methylmercury and increase their awareness, thus allowing them to make independent science-based decisions

Sub-national projection methods for Scotland and Scottish areas: a review and recommendations

This report responds to a request for advice by National Records of Scotland (NRS) on how to adapt and improve the methodology used for the Scotland Sub-National Population Projections (SNPP). The 2014- based Scotland SNPP are currently being prepared

Assessing the Strategies for Increasing Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity in Children Birth to 5 Years of Age in the Prevention of Obesity: Systematic Review of the Literature

Purpose: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify the most current research studies describing the impact of increasing physical activity in children ages birth to five years for the prevention of childhood overweight/obesity. Background: From 1980 to 2001 researchers found an increased prevalence of being overweight from 6.3% to 10.0% and increased at-risk-for-overweight from 11.1% to 14.4% in children including infants less than 6 months of age. Studies have shown children who were ever overweight during the ages 24, 36, or 54 months were more than five times as likely to be overweight at age 12 years compared to those not overweight at all three referenced ages. The recently released 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans only targets people greater than 6 years of age. Currently, the 2002 National Association for Sport and Physical Education guidelines is currently the only source that specifies the types of physical activity for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The research behind the NASPE guidelines extend from 1985 to 2000, nonetheless they were a utilized as a reference for recommended physical activity levels in young children in this systematic review of the literature. Methods: The literature review began on July 2009 and concluded in January 2010 with searches in PubMed, CINAHL and PsycHe. The search criteria included: publication date January 2000 through December 2009, English language, and children (from infancy through 5 years of age). The Medical Subject Headings Terms (MeSH) included health promotion, wellbeing, active living, physical activity, exercise, and childhood in order to expand the number of qualitative and quantitative research projects conducted in the target population. The exclusion criteria were: any disability, Prader Willi syndrome and diabetes. The challenges of this literature review included insufficient research on physical activity in the selected age group and use of different methodology across studies. Conclusion: Of the 37 journal articles included in this review, only one study stated definitively that physical activity predicts future body fat. Only six articles (16%) identified physical activity as a successful weight loss intervention when combined with nutrition education, counseling and long term trials involving entire families. However, studies involving older children and adolescents indicate correlations between the built environment, reduced physical activity and childhood obesity. The factors most influential in young children’s physical activity levels were: gender, age, social-economic status, race, ethnicity, parental or caregiver’s weight status, infant prematurity, maternal education and mental health and extended family health beliefs. Caregiver/teacher training on developmentally appropriate physical activity practices influences children’s motor skill development confidence, which impacts activity levels. There were seven distinct observational instruments/physical activity assessment tools validated for use in the target population to assist researchers in developing evidence-based strategies. These tools should facilitate further studies essential for policy makers supporting consistent physical activity and screen time regulations for young children and reliable quality child care indicators. Although the Healthy People 2020 goals have yet to be established, there should be sufficient support for addressing the lack of physical activity guidelines for children birth through five years of age to reduce the rates of childhood obesity.Master of Public Healt

Working Class Women's Agency in the Labour Movement in East London, 1840 – 1914

This research reveals a hidden history of working-class women’s lives and agency in industrial East London, 1840 to 1914. “Sweated” industrial women were integral to East London’s industrial labour geographies, as demonstrated in the specific trades of bookbinding, upholstery, garment making and tailoring, confectionery and ropemaking, amongst others. Women were ideologically restricted into the sphere of domesticity, which limited their equal access to the labour force and disavowed their public voice. Working-class women developed resilience and feminist resistance to their class exploitation through their local labour geographies. As women learned from the previous generations’ resistance, they created and developed conduits of self-expression within the labour movements’ platforms. As middle-class women joined working-class women in the labour force, they intersected in a labour movement in which class both differentiated and consolidated people. A prosopography shows that working-class women workers’ public manifestation of agency was through trade unionism. Between 1840 and 1914, working-class women’s self-expression grew louder. This thesis examines agency through a framework of four pillars of volition, materialist, political and corporeal agency. As working-class women claimed their right to the public sphere, they developed their feminist citizenship from below

User localization during human-robot interaction

This paper presents a user localization system based on the fusion of visual information and sound source localization, implemented on a social robot called Maggie. One of the main requisites to obtain a natural interaction between human-human and human-robot is an adequate spatial situation between the interlocutors, that is, to be orientated and situated at the right distance during the conversation in order to have a satisfactory communicative process. Our social robot uses a complete multimodal dialog system which manages the user-robot interaction during the communicative process. One of its main components is the presented user localization system. To determine the most suitable allocation of the robot in relation to the user, a proxemic study of the human-robot interaction is required, which is described in this paper. The study has been made with two groups of users: children, aged between 8 and 17, and adults. Finally, at the end of the paper, experimental results with the proposed multimodal dialog system are presented.The authors gratefully acknowledge the funds provided by the Spanish Government through the project “A new approach to social robotics” (AROS), of MICINN (Ministry of Science and Innovation)

The central committee on women's training and employment : tackling the servant problem, 1914 - 1945

Domestic service dominated women's lives in the first half of the twentieth century. The largest sector of female employment, paradoxically there was a perceived servant problem. Defined as a shortage of female applicants, it generated much debate both within and outside Parliament. One potential answer was training unemployed women to fill domestic service vacancies. To this end, successive Governments sanctioned and funded training centres, operating alongside State-run Employment Exchanges. This aspect of domestic service has been largely neglected by historians, yet it formed a vital component of Government policy, receiving active support from successive ministries. This thesis focuses on the semi-autonomous organisation administering those training centres - the Central Committee on Women's Training and Employment (CCWTE). Operational from 1914 until 1940 in a predominantly male-ordered society, the female-run CCWTE played a central role in State unemployment programmes. Yet, the CCWTE gradually became confined to domestic service training, being forced to abandon its other courses. This thesis seeks to show how this narrowing of opportunities was entrenched in traditional views of women's place in the home - albeit someone else's home. The male-dominated Government's aim was twofold - reduce the number of unemployed female claimants, fill domestic service vacancies. This aim ignored a fundamental element of the domestic service - its unpopularity among workers. Without addressing root issues of status and conditions, the training scheme to solve the servant problem was doomed to failure. This thesis explores the impact of the CCWTE's training work in relation to the servant problem, against constraints imposed by economic and political changes. Also included is an investigation of the role of official migration schemes. Since the servant problem was entwined with broader issues of employment and unemployment, this thesis affords insights into attitudes towards the female workforce, often manifested in gender and class bias, discriminatory practices and restricted opportunities

Child food insecurity in the UK: a rapid review

The National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme. The Health Services Research Unit is core-funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Corporatising water and wastewater services in Scotland : governance, regulation and operations

Originally submitted March 2016.This thesis examines the provision of Scotland's Water and Wastewater Services (WWS) and considers how regulation, governance and operations have changed since the turn of the century. The adoption and implementation of a policy framework which affords a key role to private sector participation in a formally public utility is a central focus of this thesis. The analysis developed below of the politics of water locates the Scottish case firmly within wider global processes: this involves studying the transmission of policy ideas from supra-national agencies to the Scottish national level, and the actors within these policy networks. Neoliberal globalisation provides some of the conceptual framing of this research, and the empirical substance of the thesis is drawn from fieldwork conducted at the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), UK and Scottish levels. The research argues that the increasing corporatisation of WWS in Scotland observed over the span of this research is possible due to a specific configuration of structures and agents. EU directives, devolution and marketisation provide some of the structural conditions for water policy making. Epistemic water communities, comprising think tanks, policy entrepreneurs and regulators are key agents identified in this research promoting corporatisation. This thesis argues that corporatisation is steadily eroding the public nature of Scotland's water system.This thesis examines the provision of Scotland's Water and Wastewater Services (WWS) and considers how regulation, governance and operations have changed since the turn of the century. The adoption and implementation of a policy framework which affords a key role to private sector participation in a formally public utility is a central focus of this thesis. The analysis developed below of the politics of water locates the Scottish case firmly within wider global processes: this involves studying the transmission of policy ideas from supra-national agencies to the Scottish national level, and the actors within these policy networks. Neoliberal globalisation provides some of the conceptual framing of this research, and the empirical substance of the thesis is drawn from fieldwork conducted at the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), UK and Scottish levels. The research argues that the increasing corporatisation of WWS in Scotland observed over the span of this research is possible due to a specific configuration of structures and agents. EU directives, devolution and marketisation provide some of the structural conditions for water policy making. Epistemic water communities, comprising think tanks, policy entrepreneurs and regulators are key agents identified in this research promoting corporatisation. This thesis argues that corporatisation is steadily eroding the public nature of Scotland's water system