'Some people are not allowed to love': intimate citizenship in the lives of people labelled with intellectual disabilities

Disability helps us think differently about the ‘ideal’ neoliberal-able citizen who may not equate to ideas of productive, sexual, ‘normal’. Intimate citizenship – our rights and access to intimacy – is often ignored by those working with people labelled with intellectual disabilities and in research. In this article, we discuss the outcome of a dialogue between self-advocates labelled with intellectual disabilities, academics, service providers, Aboriginal leaders, students and artists about intimate citizenship through love, intimate work and consumption

The effects of anxiety and situation-specific context on perceptual–motor skill: a multi-level investigation

We examined the effects of anxiety and situation- specific contextual information on attentional, interpretational, and behavioural processes underpinning perceptual– motor performance as proposed by Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans (2012) using an in situ task. Twelve skilled cricket batsmen played against a skilled spin bowler under conditions manipulated to induce low and high levels of anxiety and the presence of low and high levels of situation-specific context. High anxiety decreased the number of good bat– ball contacts, while high levels of situation-specific context increased the number of times the ball was missed. When under high anxiety, participants employed significantly more fixations of shorter duration to more locations, but the effects of anxiety were restricted to the attentional level only. Situation-specific context affected performance and behavioural measures but not anxiety, cognitive load or perceptual–cognitive processes, suggesting that performance is influenced through different mechanisms from anxiety that are independent of working memory load

Mad mothering: learning from the intersections of madness, mothering, and disability

The article brings together the fields of mad studies (LeFrancois et al.), matricentric feminism (O’Reilly, Matricentric Feminism) and critical disability studies (Goodley, “Dis/entangling Critical Disability Studies”). The aim is to expose and challenge “relations of ruling” (Smith 79) that both produce and discipline “mad mothers of disabled children.” The analysis begins by exploring the un/commonalities of the emerging histories of the three disciplines. The article then identifies analytical points of intersection, including critiques of neoliberalism; troubling the “norm” (including radical resistance and activism); intersectionality, post-colonial and queer theory. Finally, the article turns to points of divergence and possible tensions between these theoretical approaches as it explores the absence of disability in matricentric feminism, the contested place of mothering in critical disability studies, and the absence of mothering in mad studies

Examining the importance of local and global patterns for familiarity detection in soccer action sequences

Pattern recognition is a defining characteristic of expertise across multiple domains. Given the dynamic interactions at local and global levels, team sports can provide a vehicle for investigating skilled pattern recognition. The aims of this study were to investigate whether global patterns could be recognised on the basis of localised relational information and if relations between certain display features were more important than others for successful pattern recognition. Elite (n = 20), skilled (n = 34), and less-skilled (n = 37) soccer players completed three recognition paradigms of stimuli presented in point-light-stimuli format across three counterbalanced conditions: ‘whole-part’; ‘part-whole’; and ‘whole-whole’. ‘Whole’ clips represented a 11v11 soccer match and ‘part’ clips presented the same passages of play with only two centre forwards or two peripheral players. Elite players recognised significantly more accurately than the skilled and less-skilled groups. Participants were significantly more accurate in the ‘whole-whole’ condition compared to others, and recognised stimuli featuring the two central attacking players significantly more accurately than those featuring peripheral players. Findings provide evidence that elite players can encode localised relations and then extrapolate this information to recognise more global macro patterns

Biogenesis of the mitochondrial phosphate carrier

The mitochondrial phosphate carrier (PiC) is a member of the family of inner-membrane carrier proteins which are generally synthesized without a cleavable presequence. Surprisingly, the cDNA sequences of bovine and rat PiC suggested the existence of an amino-terminal extension sequence in the precursor of PiC. By expressing PiC in vitro, we found that PiC is indeed synthesized as a larger precursor. This precursor was imported and proteolytically processed by mitochondria, whereby the correct amino-terminus of the mature protein was generated. Import of PiC showed the characteristics of mitochondrial protein uptake, such as dependence on ATP and a membrane potential and involvement of contact sites between mitochondrial outer and inner membranes. The precursor imported in vitro was correctly assembled into the functional form, demonstrating that the authentic import and assembly pathway of PiC was reconstituted when starting with the presequence-carrying precursor. These results are discussed in connection with the recently postulated role of PiC as an import receptor located in the outer membrane

'They never pass me the ball’: exposing ableism through the leisure experiences of disabled children, young people and their families.

In this paper, we explore the participation of disabled children, young people and their families in leisure activities. Drawing on the accounts of disabled children, young people and their parents and carers, we reflect on the leisure spaces that they access and record some of their experiences within them. Using the concept of ‘ableism’ (Campbell 2009) we interrogate the data gathered as part a two-year project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (RES – 062-23-1138) (http//www.rihsc.mmu.ac.uk/postblairproject/):‘Does every child matter, Post-Blair: the interconnections of disabled childhoods'. By doing so we identify some of the inherent and embedded discriminations in favour of those children and young people who are perceived to be ‘able’ that simultaneously work to exclude the young 'kinds of people' (Hacking 2007), categorised as 'disabled', and their families from leisure facilities and opportunities. We suggest that currently, disabled families and children occupy a mix of ‘mainstream', ‘segregated’ and ‘separate’ leisure spaces. We discuss the impact of occupying these spaces and ask: What do the experiences of accessing leisure by disabled children, young people and their families reveal about the processes and practices of ableism? To what extent are children and families required to 'pass'as'normal enough' to gain access to leisure spaces? To what extent are ‘segregated’ leisure opportunities regulated and produced by a kind of ‘diagnostic apartheid’ (Campbell 2008a: 155)? What is the role and value of 'separate' leisure activities? </p

Examining the importance of local and global patterns for familiarity detection in soccer action sequences

Pattern recognition is a defining characteristic of expertise across multiple domains. Given the dynamic interactions at local and global levels, team sports can provide a vehicle for investigating skilled pattern recognition. The aims of this study were to investigate whether global patterns could be recognised on the basis of localised relational information and if relations between certain display features were more important than others for successful pattern recognition. Elite (n = 20), skilled (n = 34), and less-skilled (n = 37) soccer players completed three recognition paradigms of stimuli presented in point-light-stimuli format across three counterbalanced conditions: ‘whole-part’; ‘part-whole’; and ‘whole-whole’. ‘Whole’ clips represented a 11v11 soccer match and ‘part’ clips presented the same passages of play with only two centre forwards or two peripheral players. Elite players recognised significantly more accurately than the skilled and less-skilled groups. Participants were significantly more accurate in the ‘whole-whole’ condition compared to others, and recognised stimuli featuring the two central attacking players significantly more accurately than those featuring peripheral players. Findings provide evidence that elite players can encode localised relations and then extrapolate this information to recognise more global macro patterns

Pattern recognition in soccer: perceptions of skilled players and experienced coaches

The ability to perceive and recognise patterns of play is important for skilled performance in sporting environments with strict spatiotemporal constraints. An extensive body of laboratory-based experimental research has examined pattern recognition, yet there has been a lack of qualitative investigations into pattern recognition underpinning skilled performance. We interviewed six skilled soccer defenders and seven experienced coaches to investigate the perceived importance of pattern recognition to ‘game reading’ in soccer and its development in practice. A two-stage reflexive thematic analysis identified seven higher-order and twenty-two lower-order themes relating to the contribution of pattern recognition to game reading in competition and practice. Participants reported that danger and distances, visual perception, anticipation, experience, opposition team, organisation and communication, and development in practice were deemed fundamental to performance in competition. Participants explained that developing pattern recognition skills in representative practice environments supported transfer of these skills into competition. Defenders and coaches emphasised the importance of distance between player and ball, as well as identifying ‘triggers’ which appear linked to a defender’s experience, positional awareness, and organisational skills. Providing defenders with representative scenarios during practice is recommended to stimulate problem-solving and promote familiarity with an opposition team’s patterns of play to support skilled performance

The effect of consistent and varied follow-through practice schedules on learning a table tennis backhand

In table tennis the follow-through action after a shot is an important part of skill execution. In this experiment, we aimed to extend literature around the contextual interference effect by investigating whether the way the follow-through is organised in practice affects learning of the backhand shot in table tennis. Thirty unskilled participants were allocated to blocked-variable practice, random-variable practice or a control-constant group and aimed backhand shots towards a target following ball projection from a machine. Each group completed these shots in a pre-test, a training phase with follow-through manipulations, a post-test, and a retention test. The random-variable group improved their shot accuracy from pre-test to post-test and from pre-test to retention test (both P < 0.01, d = 1.03), whereas neither the blocked-variable nor the control-constant group displayed any change in shot accuracy. Practising the follow-through in a random-variable fashion enhanced learning of the preceding shot compared with blocked-variable practice or no follow-through instructions. The benefits of learning motor skills under conditions of high contextual interference also apply to how follow-through actions are organised. The findings are of value to coaches and suggest that instructions related to the follow-through action should be considered as well as the primary skill itself