That's what I am, I'm an England player: exploring the gendered, national and sporting identities of England's elite sportswomen

According to Robinson (2008), England exists more in imagination than it does anywhere else, except on the sports field. However, Englishness remains relatively unexplored in discussions of sporting nationalism. For so long, academics have focused on the ways in which male sport plays a key role in (re)producing national identities, with the contribution of women to the relationship between sport and national identity formation undeniably ignored. Based on interviews with 19 elite sportswomen from England s netball, football, rugby and cricket teams, this thesis examines the relationship between gendered, national and sporting identities, giving a voice to England s heroines of sport . These sports were chosen as the women had only represented England, rather than Great Britain, in international sport. Few research studies have adopted this approach of speaking to athletes about their national identities, although significantly, those that have were not concerned with women (see Tuck, 1999; Tuck and Maguire, 1999; McGee and Bairner 2011). The challenge was not only to integrate personal experiences into discussions of sport and national identity, but also to try to incorporate gender into these very discussions. The question here is whether women s sport has a place in the national imagination, and how do those very women who embody their nation on the field of play articulate their experiences. Central to this research is an understanding of the ways in which we perform aspects of our identity. Building on work by Butler (1990) and Edensor (2002), we can understand how international sport provides a site where multiple identities are performed. Findings suggest that performances of femininities are contextual, and that elite sport is an arena where displays of heteronormative femininity are inappropriate. In addition, sport serves to clarify imaginings of Englishness, where previously it may have been confused or conflated with conceptions of Britishness. What was clear throughout the research, however, was the performative nature of the participants identities, as well as the way in which their identities can be conceptualised as multiple and fluid, subject to change depending upon context and circumstance

A triclinic polymorph of benzanilide : disordered molecules form hydrogen-bonded chains

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Diagnostics from polarization of scattered optical light from Galactic infrared cirrus

We propose polarization of scattered optical light from intermediate Galactic latitude infrared cirrus as a new diagnostic to constrain models of interstellar dust and the anisotropic interstellar radiation field (aISRF). For single scattering by a sphere, with Mie scattering phase functions for intensity and polarized intensity for a dust model at a given wavelength (Sloan $r$ and $g$ bands), and with models of anisotropic illumination from the entire sky (represented in HEALPix), we develop the formalism for calculating useful summary parameters for an integrated flux nebula (IFN): average of the phase function weighted by the illumination, polarization angle ($\psi$), and polarization fraction ($p$). To demonstrate the diagnostic discrimination of polarization from scattered light, we report on the effects of different anisotropic illumination models and different dust models on the summary parameters for the Spider IFN. The summary parameters are also sensitive to the IFN location, as we illustrate using FRaNKIE illumination models. For assessing the viability of dust and aISRF models, we find that observations of $\psi$ and $p$ of scattered light are indeed powerful new diagnostics to complement joint modeling of the intensity of scattered light (related to the average phase function) and the intensity of thermal dust emission. However, optically thin IFNs that can be modelled using single scattering are faint and $p$ is not large, as it could be with Rayleigh scattering, and so these observations need to be carried out with care and precision. Results for the Draco nebula compared to the Spider illustrate the challenge.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures; Accepted for publication in Ap

England’s proxy warriors? Women, war and sport

It has been claimed that the one place Englishness exists in on the sports field (Robinson, 2008), and often it is men’s sport that appears central to creating a sense of English national identity (Tuck, 2003). However, in light of England’s recent sporting success across multiple women’s sports (namely cricket, netball, association football and rugby union), there warrants a need to begin to question the place of these women in discussions of the nation (Bairner, 2015). Drawing on extensive interview data with women who have represented England at sport, this paper seeks to ‘give a voice’ to these women whose experiences have often been ignored by both the popular press and academics alike. This research discusses the way in which English women represent their nation, both on the field of play and more broadly, and sheds light on the complexity of the intersections of gender and national identity. It is argued that, through playing international, representative sport, the women actively embody the nation, with national identity often overriding gendered identity in these instances. In this sense, they become proxy warriors for the nation

LAND USE FROM SEASONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES: THE ARCHAEOBOTANICAL EVIDENCE OF SMALL ROMAN FARMHOUSES IN CINIGIANO, SOUTH-EASTERN TUSCANY - CENTRAL ITALY

this paper focuses on the archaeobotanical study of two Roman small farmhouses, san Martino and poggio dell’amore, located near cinigiano, in the province of grosseto-tuscany. the sites were probably occupied during seasonal agricultural works, a peculiar typology of site that has not been usually identified in Roman sites of central italy. the integrated analyses of pollen, non pollen palynomorphs, charcoal particles and seeds/fruits help to obtain interesting details on the site function, land use and palaeoenvironment of these archaeological contexts. the archaeobotanical reconstruction shows that the landscape was fairly treeless. pastures surrounded the small buildings while cereal fields were probably less extended or further away than legume fields cultivated to forage. shrubs and some fruit trees might mark boundaries of fields, while the woods, including oak woods, were distributed far from the sites. anthropogenic pollen indicators, spores of coprophilous fungi and parasite eggs point to the presence of excrements in the sites suggesting that the small buildings were used as small barns for domestic animals, or a temporary shed

Evidence of what works to support and sustain care at home for people with dementia: a literature review with a systematic approach

Background: This paper synthesises research evidence about the effectiveness of services intended to support and sustain people with dementia to live at home, including supporting carers. The review was commissioned to support an inspection regime and identifies the current state of scientific knowledge regarding appropriate and effective services in relation to a set of key outcomes derived from Scottish policy, inspection practice and standards. However, emphases on care at home and reduction in the use of institutional long term care are common to many international policy contexts and welfare regimes. Methods: systematic searches of relevant bibliographic databases crossing medical, psychological and social scientific literatures were followed by structured review and full-text evaluation processes, the latter using methodology-appropriate quality assessment criteria drawing on established protocols. Results: Of 131 publications evaluated, 56 were assessed to be of ‘high’ quality, 62 of ‘medium’ quality and 13 of ‘low’ quality. Evaluations identified weaknesses in many published accounts of research, including lack of methodological detail and failure to evidence conclusions. Thematic analysis revealed multiple gaps in the evidence base, including in relation to take-up and use of self-directed support by people with dementia, use of rapid response teams other multidisciplinary approaches, use of technology to support community-dwelling people with dementia, and support for people without access to unpaid or informal support. Conclusions: in many areas, policy and practice developments are proceeding on a limited evidence base. Key issues affecting substantial numbers of existing studies include: poorly designed and overly narrowly focused studies; variability and uncertainty in outcome measurement; lack of focus on the perspectives of people with dementia and supporters; and failure to understanding the complexities of living with dementia, and of the kinds of multifactorial interventions needed to provide holistic and effective support. Weaknesses in the evidence base present challenges both to practitioners looking for guidance on how best to design and deliver evidence-based services to support people living with dementia in the community and their carers and to those charged with the inspection of services

Compact millimetre wave and terahertz radiation sources driven by pseudospark-generated electron beam

A pseudospark (PS) plasma sourced electron beam was both computationally and experimentally studied for generation of millimetre wave and terahertz radiation. The beam-wave interaction region is a sinusoidal rippled-wall slow wave structure of a backward wave oscillator (BWO) in G-band. An electron beam of ∼1 mm diameter carrying a current of up to 10 A with a sweeping voltage of 42 to 25 kV and pulse duration of 25 ns propagated through the interaction region in a plasma environment without the need for a guiding magnetic field, which resulted in broadband millimetre radiation generation over a frequency range of 186-202 GHz with a maximum power of 20 W

Bullying behaviours and other conduct problems: longitudinal investigation of their independent associations with risk factors and later outcomes

Purpose Bullying behaviours and other conduct problems often co-occur. However, we do not yet know whether bullying behaviours are associated with early factors and later poor outcomes independently of conduct problems. While there are difering, specifc interventions for bullying behaviours and for conduct problems, it is unclear if such specifcity is justifed given parallels between both behaviours. Methods We used prospective data from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative sample of 2232 children. Mothers and teachers reported on children’s bullying behaviours and conduct problems at ages 7 and 10. We collected measures of risk factors, including temperament and family factors, when children were age 5. We assessed behavioural, emotional, educational and social problems when participants reached the ages of 12 and 18. Results Bullying behaviours and conduct problems co-occurred in childhood. Our fndings indicated that bullying behaviours and other conduct problems were independently associated with the same risk factors. Furthermore, they were associated with the same poor outcomes at both ages 12 and 18. Despite this, bullying behaviours were uniquely associated with behavioural, emotional, educational and social problems at age 18. Conclusions Our fndings suggest that anti-bullying programmes and interventions aimed at reducing conduct problems could beneft from greater integration. Furthermore, our study highlights the mental health problems children who bully may face in later years and the need to consider those in intervention plans