Realising the benefits of sports and physical activity : the human capital model

Despite the fact that physical activity is universally acknowledged to be an important part of healthy functioning and well being, the full scope of its value is rarely appreciated. This paper introduces a novel framework for understanding the relationships between physical activity (and specific forms of activity like sports) and different aspects of human development. It proposes that the outcomes of physical activity can be framed as differential ‘capitals’ that represent investments in domain-specific assets – Emotional, Financial, Individual, Intellectual, Physical, and Social. These investments, especially when made early in the life course, can yield significant rewards, both at that time and for years to come. The paper also outlines some of the conditions necessary for the realization of Human Capital growth through sports and physical activity, focusing on the social factors that influence participation for children and young people

Loss Compensation in Time-Dependent Elastic Metamaterials

Materials with properties that are modulated in time are known to display wave phenomena showing energy increasing with time, with the rate mediated by the modulation. Until now there has been no accounting for material dissipation, which clearly counteracts energy growth. This paper provides an exact expression for the amplitude of elastic or acoustic waves propagating in lossy materials with properties that are periodically modulated in time. It is found that these materials can support a special propagation regime in which waves travel at constant amplitude, with temporal modulation compensating for the normal energy dissipation. We derive a general condition under which amplification due to time-dependent properties offsets the material dissipation. This identity relates band-gap properties associated with the temporal modulation and the average of the viscosity coefficient, thereby providing a simple recipe for the design of loss-compensated mechanical metamaterials

Comparative pore surface area in primary and secondary porosity in sandstones

This research was supported by STFC grant ST/I506102/1. DRN undertook measurements for a project contributing to an MSc degree in Integrated Petroleum Geoscience at the University of Aberdeen. Skilled technical support was provided by J. Bowie.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sport and austerity in the UK: an insight into Liverpool 2014

The UK’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) in 2010, outlined £81 billion of cuts across government departments by 2014/15. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat reform was premised on the ‘Big Society’ making up for their austere cuts to the state. In this piece, we debate the impact of this on sports development, taking the case study of inner city Liverpool. This example is marked because, on the one hand, it presents cuts to municipal sports facilities which are threatened with closure as a result of shrinking local authority budgets, and on the other this role is partially taken on by an offshoot of Everton Football Club (EFC). The points we debate are: 1) is the change in responsibility from the local authority to a private enterprise, staffed by volunteers, a new turn in sport policy?; and 2) what are the consequences of this on grassroots sport participation

Sport policy and English primary physical education: the role of professional football clubs in outsourcing

Sports policy in England has led to considerable recent investment in Primary Physical Education (PE) via the ‘PE and Sport Premium’. An outcome of this has been growth in the outsourcing – handing over control of services to external agencies – of PE, including sport coaches from professional football clubs’ community programmes. Despite the growing research on healthy stadia, we know very little about the work performed by community arms of professional clubs in relation to delivering Primary PE. This article discusses the challenges of outsourcing PE to coaches who work for professional football clubs, while offering some evidence related to the employment and development of sports coaches. Given that the evidence of sport coaches’ involvement in Primary PE is limited and that funding and outsourcing it likely to continue England until (at least) 2020, it is important and timely to discuss critically the role of professional football clubs within the current sport policy

Comparison of blinkers and explosive events:A case study

Blinkers are brightenings at network cell junctions that are traditionally identified with SOHO/CDS and explosive events or high velocity events are identified in high resolution UV spectra obtained from HRTS and SOHO/SUMER. Criteria are determined to facilitate objective automatic identification of both blinkers and explosive events in both SOHO/CDS and SOHO/SUMER data. Blinkers are identified in SUMER data, if the temporal resolution of the data is reduced to that of CDS. Otherwise short lived, localised intensity enhancements that make up the blinker are identified. Explosive events are identified in CDS data when the line width is significantly increased, and occasionally if there is an enhancement in the wing of the line profile. A theoretical statistical model is presented which hypothesises that blinkers and explosive events are random and not connected in any way. The results given in this paper suggest that this hypothesis can not be rejected and our probability interpretation of the recent results of Brković & Peter (2004, A&A, 422, 709) are inconclusive

ACTION RESEARCH: UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL IN THE COMMUNITY HEALTH IMPROVEMENT INTERVENTION

This thesis outlines research undertaken by formal collaboration between Everton Football Club’s Football in the Community (FitC) scheme; Everton in the Community (EitC) and Liverpool John Moores University. In recent years, there has been recognition of the influence that English Premier League football clubs can have in attending to the health improvement agenda through football-based community-coaching interventions. Few FitC programmes have suitable evaluation procedures in place, there remains limited evaluative empirical evidence. Study 1 (reconnaissance phases) adopted multi-method approach within an action research framework to explore the effectiveness of a health improvement intervention for children (June 2006-July 2007). Results showed most children had a fun and enjoyable time, however there were some negative comments regarding coaching practice. Strategic and operational issues were highlighted that limited the effectiveness of the intervention. Study 2 (action planning) adopted a focus group meeting approach to disseminate the findings from Study 1 with senior management of EitC to reflect, discuss and highlight change strategies to improve the effectiveness of future health improvement interventions. Study 3 (implementation and monitoring phase) extended the principles of ethnography adopted throughout the thesis in line with action research to facilitate the change strategy within EitC on behalf of senior management. Results highlight individual, social, political, ethical and contextual barriers emerged during the facilitation of the change strategy, leading to the shift in key change person (i.e., gatekeepers) from senior management to a community coach. Positive changes were achieved, although not the initial change strategy agreed. Key findings highlight the usefulness of ethnographic approaches in understanding and facilitating the complexity of change involved in action research. It is recommended that commissioners should encourage FitC programmes to engage in evaluation and organisational development initiatives

Submission of Evidence on the Disproportionate Impact of Covid-19 on Grassroots Football: An agenda to protect our game and communities.:Submitted to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee

In this submission, we discuss why grassroots football (and particularly the vulnerable communities that rely on it) will be negatively affected by COVID-19. The centrality of football – in terms of the both professional football clubs and grassroots football – to people’s everyday lives has been brought into focus by the pandemic. But, to date, the response by government and the football authorities has privileged the narrow stratum of the elite professional game (i.e. the English Premier League [EPL]) to the detriment of other levels, notably grassroots football. In the short-term, the pandemic is likely to have a disproportionately negative impact on the physical and mental well-being of those adults and children in the most deprived communities in England