1,652 research outputs found
Targeting Mr Average: Participation, gender equity and school sport partnerships
The School Sport Partnership Programme (SSPP) is one strand of the national strategy for physical education and school sport in England, the physical education and school sport Club Links Strategy (PESSCL). The SSPP aims to make links between school physical education (PE) and out of school sports participation, and has a particular remit to raise the participation levels of several identified under-represented groups, of which girls and young women are one. National evaluations of the SSPP show that it is beginning to have positive impacts on young people's activity levels by increasing the range and provision of extra curricular activities (Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), 2003, 2004, 2005; Loughborough Partnership, 2005, 2006). This paper contributes to the developing picture of the phased implementation of the programme by providing qualitative insights into the work of one school sport partnership with a particular focus on gender equity. The paper explores the ways in which gender equity issues have been explicitly addressed within the 'official texts' of the SSPP; how these have shifted over time and how teachers are responding to and making sense of these in their daily practice. Using participation observation, interview and questionnaire data, the paper explores how the coordinators are addressing the challenge of increasing the participation of girls and young women. The paper draws on Walby's (2000) conceptualisation of different kinds of feminist praxis to highlight the limitations of the coordinators' work. Two key themes from the data and their implications are addressed: the dominance of competitive sport practices and the PE professionals' views of targeting as a strategy for increasing the participation of under-represented groups. The paper concludes that coordinators work within an equality or difference discourse with little evidence of the transformative praxis needed for the programme to be truly inclusive. © 2008 Taylor & Francis
Childhood and the politics of scale: Descaling children's geographies?
This is the post-print version of the final published paper that is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2008 SAGE Publications.The past decade has witnessed a resurgence of interest in the geographies of children's lives, and particularly in engaging the voices and activities of young people in geographical research. Much of this growing body of scholarship is characterized by a very parochial locus of interest — the neighbourhood, playground, shopping mall or journey to school. In this paper I explore some of the roots of children's geographies' preoccupation with the micro-scale and argue that it limits the relevance of research, both politically and to other areas of geography. In order to widen the scope of children's geographies, some scholars have engaged with developments in the theorization of scale. I present these arguments but also point to their limitations. As an alternative, I propose that the notion of a flat ontology might help overcome some difficulties around scalar thinking, and provide a useful means of conceptualizing sociospatiality in material and non-hierarchical terms. Bringing together flat ontology and work in children's geographies on embodied subjectivity, I argue that it is important to examine the nature and limits of children's spaces of perception and action. While these spaces are not simply `local', they seldom afford children opportunities to comment on, or intervene in, the events, processes and decisions that shape their own lives. The implications for the substance and method of children's geographies and for geographical work on scale are considered
The Most Luminous z~9-10 Galaxy Candidates yet Found: The Luminosity Function, Cosmic Star-Formation Rate, and the First Mass Density Estimate at 500 Myr
[abridged] We present the discovery of four surprisingly bright (H_160 ~ 26 -
27 mag AB) galaxy candidates at z~9-10 in the complete HST CANDELS WFC3/IR
GOODS-N imaging data, doubling the number of z~10 galaxy candidates that are
known, just ~500 Myr after the Big Bang. Two similarly bright sources are also
detected in a systematic re-analysis of the GOODS-S data set. Three of the four
galaxies in GOODS-N are significantly detected at 4.5-6.2sigma in the very deep
Spitzer/IRAC 4.5 micron data, as is one of the GOODS-S candidates. Furthermore,
the brightest of our candidates (at z=10.2+-0.4) is robustly detected also at
3.6 micron (6.9sigma), revealing a flat UV spectral energy distribution with a
slope beta=-2.0+-0.2, consistent with demonstrated trends with luminosity at
high redshift. The abundance of such luminous candidates suggests that the
luminosity function evolves more significantly in phi_* than in L_* at z>~8
with a higher number density of bright sources than previously expected.
Despite the discovery of these luminous candidates, the cosmic star formation
rate density for galaxies with SFR >0.7 M_sun/yr shows an order-of-magnitude
increase in only 170 Myr from z ~ 10 to z ~ 8, consistent with previous
results. Based on the IRAC detections, we derive galaxy stellar masses at z~10,
finding that these luminous objects are typically 10^9 M_sun. The cosmic
stellar mass density at z~10 is log10 rho_* = 4.7^+0.5_-0.8 M_sun Mpc^-3 for
galaxies brighter than M_UV~-18. The remarkable brightness, and hence
luminosity, of these z~9-10 candidates highlights the opportunity for deep
spectroscopy to determine their redshift and nature, demonstrates the value of
additional search fields covering a wider area to understand star-formation in
the very early universe, and highlights the opportunities for JWST to map the
buildup of galaxies at redshifts much earlier than z~10.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, changed to match resubmitted version to Ap
A national survey of services for the prevention and management of falls in the UK
Background: The National Health Service (NHS) was tasked in 2001 with developing service provision to prevent falls in older people. We carried out a national survey to provide a description of health and social care funded UK fallers services, and to benchmark progress against current
practice guidelines.
Methods: Cascade approach to sampling, followed by telephone survey with senior member of the fall service. Characteristics of the service were assessed using an internationally agreed taxonomy. Reported service provision was compared against benchmarks set by the National
Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
Results: We identified 303 clinics across the UK. 231 (76%) were willing to participate. The majority of services were based in acute or community hospitals, with only a few in primary care or emergency departments. Access to services was, in the majority of cases, by health professional
referral. Most services undertook a multi-factorial assessment. The content and quality of these assessments varied substantially. Services varied extensively in the way that interventions were delivered, and particular concern is raised about interventions for vision, home hazard modification, medication review and bone health.
Conclusion: The most common type of service provision was a multi-factorial assessment and intervention. There were a wide range of service models, but for a substantial number of services, delivery appears to fall below recommended NICE guidance
Geometry of Star-Forming Galaxies from SDSS, 3D-HST and CANDELS
We determine the intrinsic, 3-dimensional shape distribution of star-forming
galaxies at 0<z<2.5, as inferred from their observed projected axis ratios. In
the present-day universe star-forming galaxies of all masses 1e9 - 1e11 Msol
are predominantly thin, nearly oblate disks, in line with previous studies. We
now extend this to higher redshifts, and find that among massive galaxies (M* >
1e10 Msol) disks are the most common geometric shape at all z < 2. Lower-mass
galaxies at z>1 possess a broad range of geometric shapes: the fraction of
elongated (prolate) galaxies increases toward higher redshifts and lower
masses. Galaxies with stellar mass 1e9 Msol (1e10 Msol) are a mix of roughly
equal numbers of elongated and disk galaxies at z~1 (z~2). This suggests that
galaxies in this mass range do not yet have disks that are sustained over many
orbital periods, implying that galaxies with present-day stellar mass
comparable to that of the Milky Way typically first formed such sustained
stellar disks at redshift z~1.5-2. Combined with constraints on the evolution
of the star formation rate density and the distribution of star formation over
galaxies with different masses, our findings imply that, averaged over cosmic
time, the majority of stars formed in disks.Comment: Published in ApJ Letter
Di-μ-bromido-bisÂ{[N,N-dimethyl-N′-(thioÂphen-2-ylÂmethylÂidene)ethane-1,2-diamine]Âcopper(I)]}
In the crystal structure of the title compound, [Cu2Br2(C9H14N2S)2], the molÂecule resides about a crystallographic inversion center. The coordination sphere around each copper ion has a distorted tetraÂhedral geometry, with ligation by two bridging bromide ions, an amine N atom and an imine N atom. The thioÂphene ring is disordered over two sites, with occupancies of 0.719 (3) and 0.281 (3). Weak C—H⋯π interÂactions feature in the crystal packing
Pressure Dependence of the Irreversibility Line in BiSrCaCuO:Role of Anisotropy in Flux-Line Formation
One of the important problems of high-temperature superconductivity is to
understand and ultimately to control fluxoid motion. We present the results of
a new technique for measuring the pressure dependence of the transition to
superconductivity in a diamond anvil cell. By measuring the third harmonic of
the {\it ac} susceptibility, we determine the onset of irreversible flux
motion. This enables us to study the effects of pressure on flux motion. The
application of pressure changes interplanar spacing, and hence the interplanar
coupling, without significantly disturbing the intraplanar superconductivity.
Thus we are able to separate the effects of coupling from other properties that
might affect the flux motion. Our results directly show the relationship
between lattice spacing, effective- mass anisotropy, and the irreversibility
line in BiSrCaCuO. Our results also demonstrate
that an application of 2.5 GPa pressure causes a dramatic increase in
interplanar coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Environmental niche patterns of native and non-native fishes within an invaded African river system
To test ecological niche theory, this study investigated the spatial patterns and the environmental niches of native and non-native fishes within the invaded Great Fish River system, South Africa. For the native fishes, there were contrasting environmental niche breadths that varied from being small to being large and overlapped for most species, except minnows that were restricted to headwater tributaries. In addition, there was high niche overlap in habitat association among fishes with similar distribution. It was therefore inferred that habitat filtering-driven spatial organization was important in explaining native species distribution patterns. In comparison, most non-native fishes were found to have broad environmental niches and these fishes showed high tolerance to environmental conditions, which generally supported the niche opportunity hypothesis. The proliferation of multiple non-native fishes in the mainstem section suggest that they form a functional assemblage that is probably facilitated by the anthropogenic modification of flow regimes through inter-basin water transfer. Based on the distribution patterns observed in the study, it was inferred that there was a likelihood of negative interactions between native and nonnative fishes. Such effects are likely to be exacerbated by altered flow regime that was likely to have negative implications for native ichthyofauna
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