Insights into coaching effectiveness: Perspectives from coaches and players in South African Women's Rugby

Sports coaching involves navigating ambiguity and uncertainty in stakeholders’ perspectives and managing a dynamic micro-political environment. This study explores the relationship between coaching efficacy and effectiveness in South African Women's Rugby. It examines how a coach's belief in their ability to influence athlete learning and performance (coaching efficacy) correlates with the actual impact on athletes (coaching effectiveness). By aligning coaches’ perceived competence with tangible athlete outcomes, the study provides insights into factors influencing coaching practices and athlete development. The study involved 28 women players (mean age: 24.8 ± 4.0 years) and 8 coaches (mean age: 41 ± 3.8 years) who participated in semi-structured online interviews. The interview script, derived from the Coaching Effectiveness Survey (CES) tool, was analysed using Braun and Clarke's 6-step process of thematic content analysis. Under the four efficacy dimensions, sub-themes emerged as follow: 1) motivation (climate created by the coach and a motivational climate experienced by the players), 2) technique (coaching physical, technical, and tactical aspects of rugby), 3) game strategy (guiding players to successful outcomes), and 4) character-building efficacy (cultivating a positive environment for sportswomanship and holistic development). The findings incorporate feedback from players and coaches, highlighting firsthand experiences of coaching effectiveness. This approach enables experts to identify effective coaching strategies and those needing refinement within Women's Rugby. The study's findings promise to inform future coach development frameworks and foster a comprehensive understanding of coaching effectiveness in the dynamic landscape of Women's Rugby worldwide

A proposed approach to monitor private-sector policies and practices related to food environments, obesity and non-communicable disease prevention

Private-sector organizations play a critical role in shaping the food environments of individuals and populations. However, there is currently very limited independent monitoring of private-sector actions related to food environments. This paper reviews previous efforts to monitor the private sector in this area, and outlines a proposed approach to monitor private-sector policies and practices related to food environments, and their influence on obesity and non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention. A step-wise approach to data collection is recommended, in which the first (‘minimal’) step is the collation of publicly available food and nutrition-related policies of selected private-sector organizations. The second (‘expanded’) step assesses the nutritional composition of each organization’s products, their promotions to children, their labelling practices, and the accessibility, availability and affordability of their products. The third (‘optimal’) step includes data on other commercial activities that may influence food environments, such as political lobbying and corporate philanthropy. The proposed approach will be further developed and piloted in countries of varying size and income levels. There is potential for this approach to enable national and international benchmarking of private-sector policies and practices, and to inform efforts to hold the private sector to account for their role in obesity and NCD prevention

Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries. Evaluation of multi-annual plans for cod in Irish Sea, Kattegat, North Sea, and West of Scotland (STECF-11-07)

A joint ICES / STECF meeting was held in Hamburg 20-24 June 2011, to prepare an impact assessment for Southern hake, Nerphrops and Angler fish and Baltic cod and an Evaluations of existing plans for Kattegat, North Sea, West of Scotland and Irish Sea cod. The meeting involved STECF, ICES scientists dealing with Economy and Biology and included Observers (Commission staff, Managers, Stakeholders). Three separate reports to the STECF were prepared by the EWG-11- 07, one on the Impact Assessment of Southern hake, Nerphrops and Angler fish (STECF 11-06) and another on the Impact Assessments for Baltic cod (STECF 11-05) and the third on the Evaluation of Cod in Kattegat, North Sea, West of Scotland and Irish Sea (STECF 11-07). All reports were reviewed by the STECF during its 37th plenary meeting held from 11 to 15 July 2011 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The observations, conclusions and recommendations, in this report represent the outcomes of the Evaluation of Multi-Annual plans for cod in Kattegat, North Sea, Irish Sea and West of Scotland

Suppression of hole-hole scattering in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures under uniaxial compression

Resistance, magnetoresistance and their temperature dependencies have been investigated in the 2D hole gas at a [001] p-GaAs/Al$_{0.5}$Ga$_{0.5}$As heterointerface under [110] uniaxial compression. Analysis performed in the frame of hole-hole scattering between carriers in the two spin splitted subbands of the ground heavy hole state indicates, that h-h scattering is strongly suppressed by uniaxial compression. The decay time $\tau_{01}$ of the relative momentum reveals 4.5 times increase at a uniaxial compression of 1.3 kbar.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. submitted to Phys.Rev.

Combined and single effects of pesticide carbaryl and toxic Microcystis aeruginosa on the life history of Daphnia pulicaria

The combined influence of a pesticide (carbaryl) and a cyanotoxin (microcystin LR) on the life history of Daphnia pulicaria was investigated. At the beginning of the experiments animals were pulse exposed to carbaryl for 24 h and microcystins were delivered bound in Microcystis’ cells at different, sub-lethal concentrations (chronic exposure). In order to determine the actual carbaryl concentrations in the water LC–MS/MS was used. For analyses of the cyanotoxin concentration in Daphnia’s body enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used. Individual daphnids were cultured in a flow-through system under constant light (16 h of light: 8 h of dark), temperature (20°C), and food conditions (Scenedesmus obliquus, 1 mg of C l−1). The results showed that in the treatments with carbaryl egg numbers per female did not differ significantly from controls, but the mortality of newborns increased significantly. Increasing microcystin concentrations significantly delayed maturation, reduced size at first reproduction, number of eggs, and newborns. The interaction between carbaryl and Microcystis was highly significant. Animals matured later and at a smaller size than in controls. The number of eggs per female was reduced as well. Moreover, combined stressors caused frequent premature delivery of offspring with body deformations such as dented carapax or an undeveloped heart. This effect is concluded to be synergistic and could not be predicted from the effects of the single stressors.

’We do not have a writing culture’: exploring the nature of ‘academic drift’ through a study of lecturer perspectives on student writing in a vocational university

Vocational universities are increasingly becoming susceptible to pressures associated with the phenomenon known as ‘academic drift’. Yet the specific influence of such pressures is experienced differently at various institutional levels and by different stakeholders in such universities. Exploring lecturers’ understanding and perceptions of student academic writing can make visible the ways in which these pressures are realised, for example, in the types of writing given value and writing pedagogies deemed suitable in the context of the vocational university. In this paper, we report on an ethnographically shaped study exploring lecturers’ writing pedagogies and perceptions of students as academic writers at a South African vocational university. The study analytically illustrated how wider socio-political, regulatory and ideological framings of these universities were implicated in lecturers’ writing practices and pedagogies. The study found that lecturers and students were generally constricted by narrow vocationalist agendas, which reinforced negative conceptions of students as academic writers. Our findings suggest that while the explicit impact of academic drift drivers was minimally felt at the undergraduate diploma level of study in our research site, this appeared to close off the potential for writing to act as a means to facilitate students’ epistemic access to their disciplines

Uncoverings: The Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, Volume 32 (2011)

Preface by Laurel Horton The Dublin Quilt: A Civil War Textile Document by Loretta B. Chase and Jan Coor-Pender Dodge Seeking Enlightenment: A Quilt Historian\u27s Guide to Freemasonry Aimee E. Newell Tivaevae: Women\u27s Quilting in the Cook Islands by Phyllis Herda The Collaborative Relationship between Professional Machine Quilters and Their Customers in the Contemporary Quilt Movement by Margaret M. Bingham The Policy of Good Design: Quilt Designs and Designers from the WPA Milwaukee Handicrafts Project, 1935-1942 by Valerie J. Davis and Jackie Schweitzer Reminiscences of Women\u27s Work: Chintz Applique Album Quilts of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia by Carolyn Ducey Patchwork Prints in America: 1878-1900 by Deborah E. Kraak Contributors In memoriam: Ardis B. James Inde