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

CPT and Lorentz violation effects in hydrogen-like atoms

Within the framework of Lorentz-violating extended electrodynamics, the Dirac equation for a bound electron in an external electromagnetic field is considered assuming the interaction with a CPT-odd axial vector background $b_\mu$. The quasi-relativistic Hamiltonian is obtained using a $1/c$-series expansion. Relativistic Dirac eigenstates in a spherically-symmetric potential are found accurate up to the second order in $b_0$. $b_0$-induced CPT-odd corrections to the electromagnetic dipole moment operators of a bound electron are calculated that contribute to the anapole moment of the atomic orbital and may cause a specific asymmetry of the angular distribution of the radiation of a hydrogen atom.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure; (5.14) is corrected to conform to the normalization convention for Laguerre polynomials adopted at present; minor grammatical change

Hybrid-Entanglement in Continuous Variable Systems

Entanglement is one of the most fascinating features arising from quantum-mechanics and of great importance for quantum information science. Of particular interest are so-called hybrid-entangled states which have the intriguing property that they contain entanglement between different degrees of freedom (DOFs). However, most of the current continuous variable systems only exploit one DOF and therefore do not involve such highly complex states. We break this barrier and demonstrate that one can exploit squeezed cylindrically polarized optical modes to generate continuous variable states exhibiting entanglement between the spatial and polarization DOF. We show an experimental realization of these novel kind of states by quantum squeezing an azimuthally polarized mode with the help of a specially tailored photonic crystal fiber

Mass Transfer, Transiting Stream and Magnetopause in Close-in Exoplanetary Systems with Applications to WASP-12

We study mass transfer by Roche lobe overflow in close-in exoplanetary systems. The planet's atmospheric gas passes through the inner Lagrangian point and flows along a narrow stream, accelerating to 100-200\kms velocity before forming an accretion disk. We show that the cylinder-shaped accretion stream can have an area (projected in the plane of the sky) comparable to that of the planet and a significant optical depth to spectral line absorption. Such a "transiting cylinder" may produce an earlier ingress of the planet transit, as suggested by recent HST observations of the WASP-12 system. The asymmetric disk produced by the accretion stream may also lead to time-dependent obscuration of the star light and apparent earlier ingress. We also consider the interaction of the stellar wind with the planetary magnetosphere. Since the wind speed is subsonic/sub-Alfvenic and comparable to the orbital velocity of the planet, the head of the magnetopause lies eastward relative to the substellar line (the line joining the planet and the star). The gas around the magnetopause may, if sufficiently compressed, give rise to asymmetric ingress/egress during the planet transit, although more works are needed to evaluate this possibility.Comment: 6 pages with 2 figures. Accepted in ApJ. Small changes (add discussion on asymmetric disks

Clinical signs of trachoma are prevalent among Solomon Islanders who have no persistent markers of prior infection with Chlamydia trachomatis.

Background: The low population-prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis and high prevalence of trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) provide contradictory estimates of the magnitude of the public health threat from trachoma in the Solomon Islands. Improved characterisation of the biology of trachoma in the region may support policy makers as they decide what interventions are required. Here, age-specific profiles of anti-Pgp3 antibodies and conjunctival scarring were examined to determine whether there is evidence of ongoing transmission and pathology from ocularChlamydia trachomatis (Ct)infection.Methods:A total of 1511 individuals aged ≥1 year were enrolled from randomly selected households in 13 villages in which >10% of children aged 1-9 years had TF prior to a single round of azithromycin mass drug administration undertaken six months previously. Blood was collected to be screened for antibodies to theCtantigen Pgp3. Tarsal conjunctival photographs were collected for analysis of scarring severity.Results:Anti-Pgp3 seropositivity was 18% in 1-9 year olds, sharply increasing around the age of sexual debut to reach 69% in those over 25 years. Anti-Pgp3 seropositivity did not increase significantly between the ages of 1-9 years and was not associated with TF (p=0.581) or scarring in children (p=0.472). Conjunctival scars were visible in 13.1% of photographs. Mild (p<0.0001) but not severe (p=0.149) scars increased in prevalence with age.Conclusions:Neither conjunctival scars nor lymphoid follicles were associated with antibodies toCt,suggesting that they are unlikely to be a direct result of ocularCtinfection.Clinical signs of trachoma were prevalent in this population but were not indicative of the underlying rates ofCtinfection. The current World Health Organization guidelines for trachoma elimination indicated that this population should receive intervention with mass distribution of antibiotics, but the data presented here suggest that this may not have been appropriate

Evidence for global cooling in the Late Cretaceous.

The Late Cretaceous ‘greenhouse’ world witnessed a transition from one of the warmest climates of the past 140 million years to cooler conditions, yet still without significant continental ice. Low-latitude sea surface temperature (SST) records are a vital piece of evidence required to unravel the cause of Late Cretaceous cooling, but high-quality data remain illusive. Here, using an organic geochemical palaeothermometer (TEX86), we present a record of SSTs for the Campanian–Maastrichtian interval (~83–66¿Ma) from hemipelagic sediments deposited on the western North Atlantic shelf. Our record reveals that the North Atlantic at 35¿°N was relatively warm in the earliest Campanian, with maximum SSTs of ~35¿°C, but experienced significant cooling (~7¿°C) after this to <~28¿°C during the Maastrichtian. The overall stratigraphic trend is remarkably similar to records of high-latitude SSTs and bottom-water temperatures, suggesting that the cooling pattern was global rather than regional and, therefore, driven predominantly by declining atmospheric pCO2 levels

(Il)Legitimisation of the role of the nation state: Understanding of and reactions to Internet censorship in Turkey

This study aims to explore Turkish citizen-consumers' understanding of and reactions to censorship of websites in Turkey by using in-depth interviews and online ethnography. In an environment where sites such as YouTube and others are increasingly being banned, the citizen-consumers' macro-level understanding is that such censorship is part of a wider ideological plan and their micro-level understanding is that their relationship with the wider global network is reduced, in the sense that they have trouble accessing full information on products, services and experiences. The study revealed that citizen-consumers engage in two types of resistance strategies against such domination by the state: using irony as passive resistance, and using the very same technology used by the state to resist its domination

The MIF antagonist ISO-1 attenuates corticosteroid-insensitive inflammation and airways hyperresponsiveness in an ozone-induced model of COPD

Copyright © 2016 Russell et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Introduction. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is an inflammatory cytokine associated with acute and chronic inflammatory disorders and corticosteroid insensitivity. Its expression in the airways of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a relatively steroid insensitive inflammatory disease is unclear, however. Methods. Sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) macrophages and serum were obtained from nonsmokers, smokers and COPD patients. To mimic oxidative stress-induced COPD, mice were exposed to ozone for six-weeks and treated with ISO-1, a MIF inhibitor, and/or dexamethasone before each exposure. BAL fluid and lung tissue were collected after the final exposure. Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and lung function were measured using whole body plethysmography. HIF-1α binding to the Mif promoter was determined by Chromatin Immunoprecipitation assays. Results. MIF levels in sputum and BAL macrophages from COPD patients were higher than those from non-smokers, with healthy smokers having intermediate levels. MIF expression correlated with that of HIF-1α in all patients groups and in ozone-exposed mice. BAL cell counts, cytokine mRNA and protein expression in lungs and BAL, including MIF, were elevated in ozone-exposed mice and had increased AHR. Dexamethasone had no effect on these parameters in the mouse but ISO-1 attenuated cell recruitment, cytokine release and AHR. Conclusion MIF and HIF-1α levels are elevated in COPD BAL macrophages and inhibition of MIF function blocks corticosteroid-insensitive lung inflammation and AHR. Inhibition of MIF may provide a novel anti-inflammatory approach in COPD