Measuring Performance: The State Management Report Card for 2008

Grades each state's management performance, based on five criteria in each of the categories of money, people, infrastructure, and information. Includes an overview of each category with average grades and grade distribution maps

The Coaching Workforce Survey 2010 - Baseline Report

This report provides information for Sport Northern Ireland on the characteristics of sports coaching in Northern Ireland and the issues and opportunities that coaches face. A sample of sports coaches responded to an online questionnaire promoted through governing bodies of sport. 1,679 coaches provided responses to the survey, of whom 1,467 were resident in Northern Ireland. The dominance of three sports in terms of participation is reflected in the survey. Coaches in football (176), Gaelic football (211) and rugby union (229) accounted for 42% of responses to the survey. Hockey coaches (143) accounted for a further 10%. As London 2012 approaches, the timing of the survey in 2010 allows an impression to be gained of coaches. On the one hand, the coaching workforce is young, well educated and well qualified. Furthermore, coaches are keen to develop their coaching skills. On the other hand, the majority of coaching is done on a voluntary basis by people who are married and hold down full-time jobs, generating conflicting demands. Survey responses confirm the importance of clubs in providing facilities and coaching opportunities for adults and juniors - 84% of coaches deliver sessions in a club setting. Sports coaching in Northern Ireland is very reliant on volunteers, particularly in the club context. The relatively small numbers of paid staff in the workforce are employed mainly by governing bodies and local authorities. Most coaches responding to the survey possess a valid coaching qualification and, of these, 39% are qualified at Level 2 or above. There is a clear desire expressed by a significant number of coaches to develop as coaches and achieve higher level qualifications in the process. Coaches frequently cite time and cost as the most significant barriers to their progress through the system. Coaches in Northern Ireland are well educated and well motivated, with most expressing a desire to develop as a coach. The overwhelming majority aim to continue coaching for the foreseeable future. They frequently identify and implement innovative solutions to the challenges of coaching, and exhibit a high degree of commitment to their roles

Reassessment of the evidence for postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in Triassic archosaurs, and the early evolution of the avian respiratory system.

Uniquely among extant vertebrates, birds possess complex respiratory systems characterised by the combination of small, rigid lungs, extensive pulmonary air sacs that possess diverticula that invade (pneumatise) the postcranial skeleton, unidirectional ventilation of the lungs, and efficient crosscurrent gas exchange. Crocodilians, the only other living archosaurs, also possess unidirectional lung ventilation, but lack true air sacs and postcranial skeletal pneumaticity (PSP). PSP can be used to infer the presence of avian-like pulmonary air sacs in several extinct archosaur clades (non-avian theropod dinosaurs, sauropod dinosaurs and pterosaurs). However, the evolution of respiratory systems in other archosaurs, especially in the lineage leading to crocodilians, is poorly documented. Here, we use µCT-scanning to investigate the vertebral anatomy of Triassic archosaur taxa, from both the avian and crocodilian lineages as well as non-archosaurian diapsid outgroups. Our results confirm previous suggestions that unambiguous evidence of PSP (presence of internal pneumatic cavities linked to the exterior by foramina) is found only in bird-line (ornithodiran) archosaurs. We propose that pulmonary air sacs were present in the common ancestor of Ornithodira and may have been subsequently lost or reduced in some members of the clade (notably in ornithischian dinosaurs). The development of these avian-like respiratory features might have been linked to inferred increases in activity levels among ornithodirans. By contrast, no crocodile-line archosaur (pseudosuchian) exhibits evidence for unambiguous PSP, but many of these taxa possess the complex array of vertebral laminae and fossae that always accompany the presence of air sacs in ornithodirans. These laminae and fossae are likely homologous with those in ornithodirans, which suggests the need for further investigation of the hypothesis that a reduced, or non-invasive, system of pulmonary air sacs may be have been present in these taxa (and secondarily lost in extant crocodilians) and was potentially primitive for Archosauria as a whole

Peter Wiegold

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The Notation of Time: A Reply

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