Scholarship on Gender and Sport in Sex Roles and Beyond

In this paper we critically review how research on girls or women and sport has developed over the last 35 years. We use a post-positivist lens to explore the content of the papers published in Sex Roles in the area of women, gender and sport and examine the shifts in how gender and sport have been conceptualized in these accounts. In order to initiate a broader dialogue about the scholarly analysis of gender and sport, we subsequently explore ideas inspired by feminist theorizing that have dominated/guided related research in other outlets over this time period but have received relatively little attention in papers published in Sex Roles. We conclude by briefly making suggestions for further research in this area

Search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO–Virgo run O3b

We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC–2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: a generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate

Intermodal rail freight activity in Britain: where has the growth come from?

British intermodal rail freight activity increased by 62% between 1998/99 and 2010/11, increasing its share of the rail freight market from 20% to 30% and becoming the largest of the commodity groups for which statistics are published. These statistics provide little insight into the nature of intermodal flows. In particular, they do not show the extent to which the growth has come from increasing volumes in the long-established market for moving containers between seaports and hinterland terminals (and vice versa) relative to new intermodal flows that are purely domestic in nature or which use the Channel Tunnel. This paper examines in more depth the evolution of the intermodal sector since the late 1990s and reveals the contribution of different sub-markets to the overall growth trend, making use of both primary and secondary data sources. The findings reveal that most of the growth has resulted from ever greater volumes on the corridors between ports and hinterland terminals, but that there has been some innovation in service provision in other intermodal markets. Implications of these findings on the extent to which additional growth could be achieved to broaden intermodal rail freight activity are explored

BMI and psychological distress in 68, 000 Swedish adults: a weak association when controlling for an age-gender combination

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Study results concerning associations between body mass index (BMI) and psychological distress are conflicting. The purpose of this study was to describe the shape of the association between BMI and psychological distress in a large sample of Swedish adults.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data was measured with the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), in 68,311 adults aged 18–74. Self-reported data was derived from a merger of the 2000, 2004 and 2008 <it>Life and Health</it> (<it>Liv och Hälsa</it>) questionnaires focusing general perceived distress as well as living conditions. Logistic regression analysis was used to describe the association between BMI and psychological distress when controlled for age and gender in combination.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Women reported an overall higher psychological distress than men. A significant pattern of decreasing psychological distress with increasing age emerged among women in all BMI categories. Trends of this same pattern showed for men. Small or no differences were seen in psychological distress between those in normal weight, overweight, and obesity I categories (among women: 20.4%, 18.4%, 20.5%; among men: 12.8%, 11.2%, 12.9%). For both genders, any notable increase in psychological distress appeared first in the obesity II category (among women: 27.2%. Among men: 17.8%).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Psychological distress decreases with increasing age regardless of BMI; a pattern more obvious for women. Being categorized with obesity II leads to a markedly higher psychological distress than being categorized with normal weight, overweight or obesity I. From this, we suggest that future obesity research focusing on psychological distress could investigate the role of stigma and norm susceptibility in relationships where people are evaluated through the eyes of the other.</p