Childhood Sporting Activities and Adult Labour-Market Outcomes

It is well known that non-cognitive skills are an important determinant of success in life. However, their returns are not simple to measure and, as a result, relatively few studies have dealt with this empirical question. We consider sports participation while at school as one way of improving or signalling the individual's non-cognitive skills endowment. We use four waves of Add Health data to study how sports participation by schoolchildren translates into labour-market success. We specifically test the hypotheses that participation in different types of sports at school leads to, ceteris paribus, very different types of jobs and labour-market insertion in general when adult. We take seriously the issue of endogeneity of sporting activities in order to tease out a causal relationship between childhood sporting activity and adult labour market success. As such, we contribute to the literature on the returns to non-cognitive skills.Job quality, sport, non-cognitivr skills.

Classification and stigma: Theorising the identity impact of dyslexia for students in UK higher education

This thesis investigates the identity impact of dyslexia for students in UK higher education. It responds to gaps in the literature exploring the experiences of students with dyslexia and theorises the impacts of dyslexia’s stigma and universities’ dyslexia classification as defect and disability. To explore these areas, in the project I interviewed five UK students with dyslexia and triangulated these findings with four university learning support tutors. The students noted dyslexia’s heterogeneity, invisibility and situational nature contrasted with societal assumptions of specific negative traits and universities’ standard support. Moreover, previously unidentified dyslexia impacted students’ academic choices and self-esteem. Universities’ classification of dyslexia as a disability, directed by UK law and evident in university policy, led to stigma as dyslexia was categorised as an individual problem needing remedial help. In the analysis I apply critical perspectives from the related fields of education research, disability studies and identity work addressing social justice, health and disease. These ideas explore social classification, question societal assumptions about difference, highlight stigma and the implications of stigma management, and challenge the distribution of power between student and institution. This thesis theorises the impact on student identity of dyslexia’s stigma by probing students’ academic self-concept and stigma management through non-disclosure, hiding or rejecting dyslexia as an identity aspect and considers the consequences of identity deception, conflict and dependency on support. The conclusions primarily contribute to dyslexia research in higher education, applying critical perspectives to develop theory and highlight priorities for the field. I also suggest implications for university policy and practice in dyslexia support provision, to lessen its stigma and encourage a wider appreciation of the benefits of cognitive diversity in UK higher education

Cooperation Transforms Work Into Play for the Coeds in Our Cooperative Halls

Unlike Carrie Chapman Catt who washed dishes for nine cents an hour while attending Iowa State College, the modern Iowa State coed who needs to earn part of her way through school lives in one of the efficient, well-organized cooperative dormitories on the campus

Childhood Sporting Activities and Adult Labour-Market Outcomes

We here ask whether sports participation at school is positively correlated with adult labour-market outcomes. There are many potential channels for this effect, although, as usual, identifying a causal relationship is difficult. We appeal to two widely-separated waves of Add Health data to map out the correlation between school sports and adult labour-market outcomes. We show that different types of school sports are associated with different types of jobs and labour-market insertion when adult. We take the issue of the endogeneity of sport seriously and use data on siblings in order to obtain estimates that are as close to unbiased as possible. Last, we compare the effect of sporting activities to that of other leisure activities

StrathSat-R : Deploying inflatable CubeSat structures in micro gravity

This paper presents the concepts, objectives and design of a student-led sounding rocket experiment which shall test novel inflatable devices in space conditions. This experiment is envisaged as the first step towards developing a CubeSat programme at the University of Strathclyde, which can exploit the novel concepts developed and the technical skills gained. The experiment itself aims to test novel, student developed, inflatable space structures in micro gravity and reduced pressure conditions. It consists of three distinct sections, the ejection housing on the rocket and the two ejectable modules that are based on CubeSat architecture. Shortly before reaching apogee, the two modules are ejected from the rocket and will deploy their own inflating structure during free flight. After landing, the ejectable modules recovery will rely upon a GPS position relayed to the team from the module by Globalstar transmission and a RF beacon for tracking with the recovery helicopter. The two modules carry two different structures resulting in distinct mission objectives: The aim of FRODO is to deploy an experimental passive de-orbiting system for high altitude spacecraft which will in the future utilise solar radiation pressure for orbit removal. The aim of SAM is to serve as a technology demonstrator for the residual air deployment method of a smart bio-inspired space structure. This paper contains details about the science objectives of the mission and how they will be achieved, its experimental design and the management of the student-led project

Using cross-cultural conversations to contextualize understandings of play: a multinational study

The following study examines two researchers’ perspectives on play in the lives of children from diverse cultural contexts. Two questions guided this study: (1) how do researchers conceptualize children’s play and (2) what shapes their understanding of play. In order to answer these questions, a critical discourse was established between two researchers who had each completed ethnographic studies of play in the UK and Jamaica. The initial research studies comprised of observations, semi-structured interviews, field notes and collection of artefacts relating to play. Through discourse, new understandings were unearthed by examining the different contexts of play. The aim of this study is to contextualize our understanding of play and to expand our notions of play beyond researcher positionalities. This discursive method allows concepts of play to be grounded, but not restricted by national contexts through juxtaposition with multinational policies, programmes and practices

The Effects of Combined Movement and Storytelling Intervention on Motor Skills in South Asian and White Children Aged 5–6 Years Living in the United Kingdom

Early motor development has an important role in promoting physical activity (PA) during childhood and across the lifespan. Children from South Asian backgrounds are less active and have poorer motor skills, thus identifying the need for early motor skill instruction. This study examines the effect of a movement and storytelling intervention on South Asian children’s motor skills. Following ethics approval and consent, 39 children (46% South Asian) participated in a 12-week movement and storytelling intervention. Pre and post, seven motor skills (run, jump, throw, catch, stationary dribble, roll, and kick) were assessed using Children’s Activity and Movement in Preschool Study protocol. At baseline, South Asian children had poorer performance of motor skills. Following the intervention, all children improved their motor skills, with a bigger improvement observed for South Asian children. Early intervention provided remedial benefits to delays in motor skills and narrowed the motor skills gap in ethnic groups

Social-specificity in practice

This thesis examines the connection between developments in Western philosophy concerning the definitions and understanding of society, social and community, in relation to nonhuman elements within our environments, and an increasingly distanced relationship to the production and consumption of food. Through identifying a sub-category of critical arts practice, social-specific art, this thesis explores these ideas and the potential they have for altering perceptions of the human position on Earth. Three projects that engage different communities or collectives with different consumables, are presented here as examples of work I have developed within the context of a social-specific practice. The artworks involve collaborations and exchanges of skills and knowledge about the contents of different food and drink or the environment needed to create them. The work has been produced alongside discussions and research into the philosophical ideas of Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory; the notion of social as associations and the abandoning of society altogether, and Jane Bennett’s vibrant materiality; an attempt to increase awareness of the vibrancy of other actors on Earth, with the view that it could reduce environmentally destructive human behaviour. The terms society and social have been examined in relation to the human understanding of their entanglement with their environment and thus the term social-specific has been coined. My projects have been placed in the context of previous artists practicing critical art, including Helen and Newton Harrison, Joseph Beuys and the Critical Art Ensemble, as key influences in the movement towards and development of a social-specific practice that aims to connect humans with the hidden actors that, in this case, create the food and drink they consume

Manipulating Sales Revenue To Achieve Cognitive Reference Points: An Examination Of Large U.S. Public Companies

Significant research (e.g., Carslaw, 1988; Thomas, 1989) provides evidence that managers manipulate earnings to reach cognitive reference points in income.  More specifically, when the second-from-the-left earnings digit falls just below zero, management finds ways to round earnings up to just above this breakpoint so that the first earnings digit increases by one.  The current study demonstrates that for a sample of large publicly-traded U.S. companies this same type of manipulative behavior appears to be occurring with respect to reported sales revenue

(Per)chlorate-reducing bacteria can utilize aerobic and anaerobic pathways of aromatic degradation with (per)chlorate as an electron acceptor.

UnlabelledThe pathways involved in aromatic compound oxidation under perchlorate and chlorate [collectively known as (per)chlorate]-reducing conditions are poorly understood. Previous studies suggest that these are oxygenase-dependent pathways involving O2 biogenically produced during (per)chlorate respiration. Recently, we described Sedimenticola selenatireducens CUZ and Dechloromarinus chlorophilus NSS, which oxidized phenylacetate and benzoate, two key intermediates in aromatic compound catabolism, coupled to the reduction of perchlorate or chlorate, respectively, and nitrate. While strain CUZ also oxidized benzoate and phenylacetate with oxygen as an electron acceptor, strain NSS oxidized only the latter, even at a very low oxygen concentration (1%, vol/vol). Strains CUZ and NSS contain similar genes for both the anaerobic and aerobic-hybrid pathways of benzoate and phenylacetate degradation; however, the key genes (paaABCD) encoding the epoxidase of the aerobic-hybrid phenylacetate pathway were not found in either genome. By using transcriptomics and proteomics, as well as by monitoring metabolic intermediates, we investigated the utilization of the anaerobic and aerobic-hybrid pathways on different electron acceptors. For strain CUZ, the results indicated utilization of the anaerobic pathways with perchlorate and nitrate as electron acceptors and of the aerobic-hybrid pathways in the presence of oxygen. In contrast, proteomic results suggest that strain NSS may use a combination of the anaerobic and aerobic-hybrid pathways when growing on phenylacetate with chlorate. Though microbial (per)chlorate reduction produces molecular oxygen through the dismutation of chlorite (ClO2(-)), this study demonstrates that anaerobic pathways for the degradation of aromatics can still be utilized by these novel organisms.ImportanceS. selenatireducens CUZ and D. chlorophilus NSS are (per)chlorate- and chlorate-reducing bacteria, respectively, whose genomes encode both anaerobic and aerobic-hybrid pathways for the degradation of phenylacetate and benzoate. Previous studies have shown that (per)chlorate-reducing bacteria and chlorate-reducing bacteria (CRB) can use aerobic pathways to oxidize aromatic compounds in otherwise anoxic environments by capturing the oxygen produced from chlorite dismutation. In contrast, we demonstrate that S. selenatireducens CUZ is the first perchlorate reducer known to utilize anaerobic aromatic degradation pathways with perchlorate as an electron acceptor and that it does so in preference over the aerobic-hybrid pathways, regardless of any oxygen produced from chlorite dismutation. D. chlorophilus NSS, on the other hand, may be carrying out anaerobic and aerobic-hybrid processes simultaneously. Concurrent use of anaerobic and aerobic pathways has not been previously reported for other CRB or any microorganisms that encode similar pathways of phenylacetate or benzoate degradation and may be advantageous in low-oxygen environments