Coach and athlete perceptions of ambiguous behaviors and sexual harassment

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of coaches and athletes of ambiguous behaviors (i.e. actions which may or may not be construed as sexual harassment) in order to inform curriculum development in coach education. This study replicates and extends a previous American study which examined perceptions and experiences of sexual harassment among 210 female college athletes in the USA (Volkwein, et al., 1997). The Americans’ research design was based on earlier work in education by Garlick (1994). The present study is the first, large-scale UK survey of sexual harassment among student athletes (n = 311) and coaches (n = 182). A sexual harassment questionnaire (Garlick, 1994) was adapted to a sport setting and UK context. The questionnaire contained statements regarding 19 ambiguous behaviors. Factor analysis identified four subcategories of the questionnaire: Invitations/1-to-1; Social enquiries; Invasion of personal space; Personal Enquiries. A 2 x 2 (Gender by Role) MANCOVA, with age as a covariate revealed no interaction effect (Wilk’s = .99, F (4, 481) = 1.46, p > .05), but both main effects were significant (gender Wilk’s = .93, F (4, 481) = 8.62, p < .001, role Wilk’s = .956, F (4, 481) = 5.56, p < .001). Further analysis confirmed that athletes rated each of the four sub-scales as significantly more appropriate than coaches. Females rated social enquiries and invasion of personal space as more appropriate than males

The Football Association’s Child Protection in Football Research Project 2002-2006: Rationale, design and first year results

In common with most sport organisations, the English Football Association has come relatively recently to the issue of child protection. Abuses of various kinds have been known about in the sport for many years but, until the late 1990s, very little systematic work was undertaken to address this. The launch of a Child Protection Strategy by the Engalish FA in May 2000 reflected recognition by those in authority within the sport that child abuse and protection were properly the subject of football policy and should become embedded in all aspects of the affiliated game. In addition to adopting child protection, the then-Chief Executive Officer of the FA made a commitment to evidence-based policy in his strategic plan for the game. In line with this commitment, the FA commissioned a 5 year study of the impact of child protection on the game, the first year of which constituted an audit of the state of child protection in the affiliated game. Data were collected through 11 internet surveys, 32 club case studies, over 200 interviews with various stakeholders and an analysis of 132 case files for child abuse referrals. This paper sets out the context of child protection in sport more generally and the background to the FA's child protection reseach project in particular. It also presents selected first year results for key stakeholder groups

Measuring the impact of child protection through Activation States

Child protection (CP) has risen to the top of the UK sports policy agenda in the past four years and the Football Association has invested in this major strategy as part of its commitment to “use the power of football to build a better future” (FA, 2000a). Evidencing the impact of child protection is, however, a complex task, exacerbated by the dearth of measurement tools that exist for this purpose in sport. This article presents a new model of ‘Activation States’ that has been designed and used to measure shifts in football culture as child protection has begun to impact upon the sport. The model is used to map changes over time related to the knowledge, feelings, actions and discourses of key stakeholders in football. The research for which the model was designed is a longitudinal study, commissioned by the English Football (soccer) Association, on the impact of the organisation’s child protection strategy on the culture of soccer. Sample data from the project are used to illustrate the model and to examine its potential and limitations as a tool for measuring impacts in child protection and other social inclusion themes

Has Motivational Interviewing fallen into its own Premature Focus Trap?

Since the initial conception of the behaviour change method Motivational Interviewing, there has been a shift evident in epistemological, methodological and practical applications, from an inductive, process and practitioner-focussed approach to that which is more deductive, research-outcome, and confirmatory-focussed. This paper highlights the conceptual and practical problems of adopting this approach, including the consequences of assessing the what (deductive outcome-focussed) at the expense of the how (inductively process-focussed). We encourage a return to an inductive, practitioner and client-focussed MI approach and propose the use of Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Systems such as NVivo in research initiatives to support this aim

Proteomic and Physiological Responses of Kineococcus radiotolerans to Copper

Copper is a highly reactive, toxic metal; consequently, transport of this metal within the cell is tightly regulated. Intriguingly, the actinobacterium Kineococcus radiotolerans has been shown to not only accumulate soluble copper to high levels within the cytoplasm, but the phenotype also correlated with enhanced cell growth during chronic exposure to ionizing radiation. This study offers a first glimpse into the physiological and proteomic responses of K. radiotolerans to copper at increasing concentration and distinct growth phases. Aerobic growth rates and biomass yields were similar over a range of Cu(II) concentrations (0–1.5 mM) in complex medium. Copper uptake coincided with active cell growth and intracellular accumulation was positively correlated with Cu(II) concentration in the growth medium (R2 = 0.7). Approximately 40% of protein coding ORFs on the K. radiotolerans genome were differentially expressed in response to the copper treatments imposed. Copper accumulation coincided with increased abundance of proteins involved in oxidative stress and defense, DNA stabilization and repair, and protein turnover. Interestingly, the specific activity of superoxide dismutase was repressed by low to moderate concentrations of copper during exponential growth, and activity was unresponsive to perturbation with paraquot. The biochemical response pathways invoked by sub-lethal copper concentrations are exceptionally complex; though integral cellular functions are preserved, in part, through the coordination of defense enzymes, chaperones, antioxidants and protective osmolytes that likely help maintain cellular redox. This study extends our understanding of the ecology and physiology of this unique actinobacterium that could potentially inspire new biotechnologies in metal recovery and sequestration, and environmental restoration

Obfuscated Fuzzy Hamming Distance and Conjunctions from Subset Product Problems

We consider the problem of obfuscating programs for fuzzy matching (in other words, testing whether the Hamming distance between an $n$-bit input and a fixed $n$-bit target vector is smaller than some predetermined threshold). This problem arises in biometric matching and other contexts. We present a virtual-black-box (VBB) secure and input-hiding obfuscator for fuzzy matching for Hamming distance, based on certain natural number-theoretic computational assumptions. In contrast to schemes based on coding theory, our obfuscator is based on computational hardness rather than information-theoretic hardness, and can be implemented for a much wider range of parameters. The Hamming distance obfuscator can also be applied to obfuscation of matching under the $\ell_1$ norm on $\mathbb{Z}^n$. We also consider obfuscating conjunctions. Conjunctions are equivalent to pattern matching with wildcards, which can be reduced in some cases to fuzzy matching. Our approach does not cover as general a range of parameters as other solutions, but it is much more compact. We study the relation between our obfuscation schemes and other obfuscators and give some advantages of our solution

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

The Name of the Game: A Review of Sexual Exploitation of Girls

Sexual harassment and abuse has been a recognized problem in the workplace, schools, and residential homes for more than three decades. Many professional policies highlight the potential for abusing positions of trust and forbid intimate relationships between, for example doctors and patients, and psychologists and clients. Yet, abuse of power in the coach-athlete relationship has only recently been acknowledged. This paper will discuss definitions of sexual exploitation, prevalence figures, methods used for entrapping athletes, potential risk factors, signs of abuse and harassment, and the consequences for survivors