The construction of the decline of children’s outdoor play as a social problem in the UK

The past three decades have seen a substantial growth of interest in children’s play in scholarly and popular writing, the mass media and government policymaking. Implicit and explicit in this growing interest is the idea that children’s play, or more specifically, a decline or lack of children’s outdoor play, represents a serious problem in the UK and other western societies and that it therefore requires the intervention of a range of professional and political powers. The rapid and widespread affirmation that claims about children’s play have received deserves critical examination. This study examines the construction of children’s play as a social problem in four major UK newspapers. Focusing on the period from 1985 to 2016, it draws on theoretical and conceptual tools from the constructionist study of social problems and methodological tools from Qualitative Media Analysis to examine the roles played by various claimsmakers in the construction of the problem and the rhetoric used in support of their cause. It hence offers important insights into the prominent position children’s play holds on the public agenda and identifies some of the underlying cultural currents from which claims about children’s play draw

An investigation of Surf Life Saving Australia's Junior Development Program for Nippers

The primary aim of Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA), through their State and Territory bodies is to provide safe coastal environments for Australian beach goers. With over 312 affiliated clubs across Australia, SLSA provides an opportunity for primary school aged children (Nippers) to experience water safety and aquatic education in an open water environment. Nippers in the Under 8-Under 13 years age groups are involved in a participation-based education program known as the Junior Development Program (JDP), which aims to develop skills required for future lifesaving (Giles & Slade, 2012). The overall aim of this research was to identify and explore the barriers and enablers to involvement in SLSA’s JDP from the perspective of the participants, their parents/carers and those involved in the delivery of the program. Utilising a multiphase mixed method design, 341 Nippers from eight surf lifesaving clubs in New South Wales completed a questionnaire and 30 interviews were conducted – 19 with parents/carers from seven of the eight participating lifesaving clubs, and 11 Age Managers from six of the eight clubs. The findings indicated that the Nippers perceived most lifesaving skills were important and were happy/very happy to be learning about safety of themselves and how to assist others in the surf. Most concerns related to unknowns in terms of sea creatures and adverse weather conditions like storms and lightening. Interviewees believed Nipper participation was based on interpersonal and intrapersonal reasons, with socialisation a positive aspect of the program. In line with common fears reported by Nippers, interviewees reported unfavourable environmental conditions, including big surf, cold weather, weed and stingers, as barriers to participation. The findings and opinions from those involved in the JDP provide insights into barriers and enablers to participation in the program, which is intended to provide important guidance for future delivery of the JDP across Australia.Masters by Researc

Young Children’s Responses to Conflictual Adult Conversation

The current study evaluated relationships among children\u27s cognitions following exposure to scripted conflictual interactions between adults. Thirty- five mother-child dyads were assessed using self-report measures, and continuous measures of behavioral and physiological distress (cardiac function, skin conductance). Four hypotheses were investigated: Exposure to conflict would be related to greater distress following the conflictual script; attributional errors would be related to greater distress; child distress would be positively correlated with parental conflict at home; maternal psychopathology would be positively related with distress responses to the stimulus. All hypotheses were found to be non-significant. Explanations for non-significance include the normative sample, the stimulus\u27 conflict relevance and intensity, and the trend of higher psychopathology and life stressors in the non-conflictual group

A Neuroimaging Web Interface for Data Acquisition, Processing and Visualization of Multimodal Brain Images

Structural and functional brain images are generated as essential modalities for medical experts to learn about the different functions of the brain. These images are typically visually inspected by experts. Many software packages are available to process medical images, but they are complex and difficult to use. The software packages are also hardware intensive. As a consequence, this dissertation proposes a novel Neuroimaging Web Services Interface (NWSI) as a series of processing pipelines for a common platform to store, process, visualize and share data. The NWSI system is made up of password-protected interconnected servers accessible through a web interface. The web-interface driving the NWSI is based on Drupal, a popular open source content management system. Drupal provides a user-based platform, in which the core code for the security and design tools are updated and patched frequently. New features can be added via modules, while maintaining the core software secure and intact. The webserver architecture allows for the visualization of results and the downloading of tabulated data. Several forms are ix available to capture clinical data. The processing pipeline starts with a FreeSurfer (FS) reconstruction of T1-weighted MRI images. Subsequently, PET, DTI, and fMRI images can be uploaded. The Webserver captures uploaded images and performs essential functionalities, while processing occurs in supporting servers. The computational platform is responsive and scalable. The current pipeline for PET processing calculates all regional Standardized Uptake Value ratios (SUVRs). The FS and SUVR calculations have been validated using Alzheimer\u27s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) results posted at Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI). The NWSI system provides access to a calibration process through the centiloid scale, consolidating Florbetapir and Florbetaben tracers in amyloid PET images. The interface also offers onsite access to machine learning algorithms, and introduces new heat maps that augment expert visual rating of PET images. NWSI has been piloted using data and expertise from Mount Sinai Medical Center, the 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), Baptist Health South Florida, Nicklaus Children\u27s Hospital, and the University of Miami. All results were obtained using our processing servers in order to maintain data validity, consistency, and minimal processing bias

Predicting Landslides in Costa Rica Using Self-Organizing Map Machine Learning

Landslides are natural hazards commonly understated in both number of occurrences and cost of economic impacts. The Costa Rican terrain is predominately geologically young and therefore, severely impacted by landslides. It has limited resources and infrastructure and with a large portion of the population being poor, this causes communities to build in hazardous locations and infrastructure that can be easily crippled by landslides. Being able to identify where and when landslides are going to occur is key to mitigating the effects, either by stabilizing the slope or by evacuating communities. Machine learning is one method that has been increasingly used to monitor and predict landslides in recent times. These methods do not have the shortcomings of traditional analytical methods and can be easily adapted for different locations, changing or missing data, and number of factors studied. This research proposes that Self Organizing Maps (SOM) can be used as a versatile and effective method for landslide prediction. The results of this study have shown how SOM can be used for multi scale susceptibility analysis and for prediction with use of precipitation data, by producing significant results identifying high risk areas with a varying number and combination of variables. It has also shown that when precipitation data is used, it can identify high risk locations based on precipitation amounts and static variables (slope, TWI, curvature, NDVI, etc.). At the five-time scales tested, four of the tests produced correlations between increased precipitation and higher landslides risk (6 hour r2 = 0.38, 12 hour r2 = 0.36, 1 day r2 = 0.24, 1 month r2 = 0.33). This study has shown the versatility and effectiveness of SOM by producing significant results, as well as being able to use current weather conditions to produce landslide prediction analysis