The promises and pitfalls of sex integration in sport and physical culture

Scholars working in the academic field of sport studies have long debated the relationship between modern sport and gender (e.g. Hargreaves and Anderson, 2014; Hargreaves, 1994; Lenskyj, 1986; Messner, 2002). Within this body of work, modern sport forms – along with a great diversity of related activities, including dance, fitness training, physical education, etc. – have consistently been shown to carry meanings relative to the structures of gender prevailing in the wider social settings within which they take place, with patterns of participation and consumption clearly mapping onto gendered ideals. However, rather than simply mirroring such social norms, research suggests that many sporting practices were invented or have been purposefully developed in order to train young men and women in socially-approved gender behaviors to begin with (Cahn 1994; Hargreaves 1994; Theberge, 2000). Thus, much of contemporary physical culture finds its roots in the process which scholars describe as the ‘social construction of gender’; in other words, doing sports and other activities in gender-differentiated ways has long been a means of producing and maintaining difference in the lives of men and women, girls and boys.Peer reviewedAccepted author manuscript of a peer reviewed article accepted for publication by Taylor & Francis in Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics online on 28/12/2015

Plant responses to simulated carbon capture and storage (CCS) CO2 pipeline leakage: the effect of soil type

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been proposed as a bridging technology to enable the transition to an energy system based on renewable sources. Many high CO2?emitting industries (such as the power industry) are distant from potential carbon storage sites (such as offshore geological reservoirs) and an infrastructure of CO2 transportation must therefore be developed to carry the CO2 to safe storage. As such there is a need to understand the risks involved and the mitigation of potential leaks associated with CCS and dense?phase CO2 transportation networks. Since 2012 a number of experimental studies have provided a mechanistic understanding of the risks posed to crops as a function of CO2 leakage from CCS infrastructure. However, what remains largely unresolved is the role played by both soil type and soil structure in mitigating and / or enhancing plant stresses. In this study we provide an experimental framework to evaluate these effects. Wheat and beetroot were grown in four different experimental soils to test the effects of specific soil attributes (organic, low pH; organic, open structure; organic, limed; loam, neutral pH) on crop performance when exposed to high levels (?40%) of CO2 in the soil environment. Comparison between treatment and controls and across the soil types reveals little difference in terms of biomass or plant stress chemistry. From a stakeholder perspective these findings suggest that soil type may play only a minor role in mitigating or amplifying plant stress in response to the unlikely event of a CO2 leak from CCS infrastructure

Dwight Davis and the Foundation of the Davis Cup in Tennis: Just another Doubleday Myth?

Dwight F. Davis is widely credited with having invented, or at least conceived, the original idea for the international tennis competition that bears his name, the Davis Cup. This paper aims to debunk this myth through comprehensive critical analysis of the period preceding Davis's apparent epiphany in 1899. Previous national-team-based competitions are investigated, alongside key figures in American and British/Irish tennis, to demonstrate that numerous others had proposed the idea for an international team-based competition long before Davis and that Davis may have appropriated his idea from others with whom he came into contact. Davis's wealthy background, political ambitions, and model-American image arguably helped smooth the process of his idea being officially accepted by the United States National Lawn Tennis Association, which likely saw in Davis a perfect "frontman" for American tennis at a time when the nation used sporting prowess to promote its identity, particularly in relation to the British, in international sporting competitio

The 'Ghosts' of Lawn Tennis Past: Exploring the Forgotten Lives of Early Working- Class Coaching-Professionals

This article examines the lives of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century lawn tennis coaching-professionals, notably Tom Burke, Harry Cowdrey, Charles Haggett and George Kerr. These men, considered equally if not more gifted than the first-ranked amateur players of the period, have received scant attention or recognition, either as ‘expert’ players or for their role as coaches/ instructors within the ‘amateur’ game. Ostensibly, these working-class boys/ men sought employment in clubs, as ball-boys, groundskeepers, stringers and instructors, but, being immediately classified as ‘professionals’, were subsequently marginalised within clubs and barred from amateur competitions. Few outside of the club environs encountered them, few observed or learned of their skills, and fewer still reported their exploits. While many of the top amateur players of the period recognised the need for coaching-professionals, the British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) was intransigent. They staunchly refused to sanction professional competitions in Britain, fearing they would provide a pathway away from amateurism, and propel the amateur to seek remuneration from their tennis. Coachingprofessionals had little choice but to remain as ‘servants’ within their clubs, confined by the rigid class system and unyielding amateur ethos. Hitherto largely ignored within lawn tennis historiography, these men are the ‘ghosts’ of lawn tennis past

The Development and Transformation of Anglo-American Relations in Lawn Tennis around the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Anglo-American relations in tennis are a fascinating subject, particularly in the period of the late-19th/early-20th century, during which the developments seen both on and off court were reflective and indicative of broader societal shifts, as the US gradually replaced Britain as the world’s leading industrialized nation. The aims of this paper are to discuss how Anglo-American relations in lawn tennis shifted throughout this period, from when lawn tennis was “invented” in Britain to the onset of the Great War, and to contextualize these developments in the light of shifting geo-political/economic and cultural relations more generally between the two nations, alongside developments within sport and tennis more specifically. Shifts in the following areas are examined: attitudes toward and opinions of the relative standards of both American and British tennis players from the general public, correspondents and the media of the other nation, in terms of their overall rank and possibilities of success; and, attitudes from tennis officials toward the formal organization of competitions between players of both nations

Disfluency in dialogue:an intentional signal from the speaker?

Disfluency is a characteristic feature of spontaneous human speech, commonly seen as a consequence of problems with production. However, the question remains open as to why speakers are disfluent: Is it a mechanical by-product of planning difficulty, or do speakers use disfluency in dialogue to manage listeners' expectations? To address this question, we present two experiments investigating the production of disfluency in monologue and dialogue situations. Dialogue affected the linguistic choices made by participants, who aligned on referring expressions by choosing less frequent names for ambiguous images where those names had previously been mentioned. However, participants were no more disfluent in dialogue than in monologue situations, and the distribution of types of disfluency used remained constant. Our evidence rules out at least a straightforward interpretation of the view that disfluencies are an intentional signal in dialogue. © 2012 Psychonomic Society, Inc

Attitudes of healthcare workers in U.S. hospitals regarding smallpox vaccination

BACKGROUND: The United States is implementing plans to immunize 500,000 hospital-based healthcare workers against smallpox. Vaccination is voluntary, and it is unknown what factors drive vaccine acceptance. This study's aims were to estimate the proportion of workers willing to accept vaccination and to identify factors likely to influence their decisions. METHODS: The survey was conducted among physicians, nurses, and others working primarily in emergency departments or intensive care units at 21 acute-care hospitals in 10 states during the two weeks before the U.S. national immunization program for healthcare workers was announced in December 2002. Of the questionnaires distributed, 1,165 were returned, for a response rate of 81%. The data were analyzed by logistic regression and were adjusted for clustering within hospital and for different number of responses per hospital, using generalized linear mixed models and SAS's NLMIXED procedure. RESULTS: Sixty-one percent of respondents said they would definitely or probably be vaccinated, while 39% were undecided or inclined against it. Fifty-three percent rated the risk of a bioterrorist attack using smallpox in the United States in the next two years as either intermediate or high. Forty-seven percent did not feel well-informed about the risks and benefits of vaccination. Principal concerns were adverse reactions and the risk of transmitting vaccinia. In multivariate analysis, four variables were associated with willingness to be vaccinated: perceived risk of an attack, self-assessed knowledge about smallpox vaccination, self-assessed previous smallpox vaccination status, and gender. CONCLUSIONS: The success of smallpox vaccination efforts will ultimately depend on the relative weight in people's minds of the risk of vaccine adverse events compared with the risk of being exposed to the disease. Although more than half of the respondents thought the likelihood of a bioterrorist smallpox attack was intermediate or high, less than 10% of the group slated for vaccination has actually accepted it at this time. Unless new information about the threat of a smallpox attack becomes available, healthcare workers' perceptions of the vaccine's risks will likely continue to drive their ongoing decisions about smallpox vaccination

The writing on the wall: the concealed communities of the East Yorkshire horselads

This paper examines the graffiti found within late nineteenth and early-twentieth century farm buildings in the Wolds of East Yorkshire. It suggests that the graffiti were created by a group of young men at the bottom of the social hierarchy - the horselads – and was one of the ways in which they constructed a distinctive sense of communal identity, at a particular stage in their lives. Whilst it tells us much about changing agricultural regimes and social structures, it also informs us about experiences and attitudes often hidden from official histories and biographies. In this way, the graffiti are argued to inform our understanding, not only of a concealed community, but also about their hidden histor

Current opportunities to catalyze research in nutrition and cancer prevention – an interdisciplinary perspective

Cancer Research UK and Ludwig Cancer Research convened an inaugural international Cancer Prevention and Nutrition Conference in London on December 3–4, 2018. Much of the discussion focused on the need for systematic, interdisciplinary approaches to better understand the relationships of nutrition, exercise, obesity and metabolic dysfunction with cancer development. Scientists at the meeting underscored the importance of studying the temporal natural history of exposures that may cumulatively impact cancer risk later in life. A robust dialogue identified obesity as a major risk for cancer, and the food environment, especially high energy and low nutrient processed foods, as strong and prevalent risk factors for obesity. Further engagement highlighted challenges in the post-diagnostic setting, where similar opportunities to understand the complex interplay of nutrition, physical activity, and weight will inform better health outcomes. Going forward, holistic research approaches, encompassing insights from multiple disciplines and perspectives, will catalyze progress urgently needed to prevent cancer and improve public health