Exploring the beliefs of young people with cerebral palsy and their families about sport and physical activity in relation to paediatric physiotherapy exercise

Background and Purpose Physiotherapy programmes are an important part of therapeutic input for young people with cerebral palsy (YPwCP), but adherence can be problematic. The involvement of physical activities (PA) could be a possible solution, but YPwCP have lower levels of physical leisure participation than their typically developing peers. Method This qualitative study aimed to explore the beliefs of young people with disabilities and their families about PA in relation to physiotherapy programmes. PA was broadly defined to include not only disability sports, but any aerobic exercise and ‘beliefs’ as perceptions, knowledge and attitudes. A purposive sample of participants from the researcher’s physiotherapy service was invited to undertake semi-structured interviews. Inclusion criteria were 8-19 years of age, having a disability, cognitively able and able to understand and express themselves in English. Parents/care givers were included to capture their discrete perspectives and enable reflective discussion about any synergies or differences between their beliefs and those of their children. Data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results Two YPwCP and their mothers participated. Three main themes arose: • The feelings evoked by PA, in particular feelings of otherness were underpinned by the desire for ‘normal’ participatory experiences alongside typically developing peers. • External factors and others attitudes affect participation in PA, in particular unfavourable judgements and tokenism within mainstream environments contrasted with a normalising acceptance in disability sports settings. • Physiotherapy and PA are different, participants believed that physiotherapy, physiotherapists and medical venues possessed superior quality, legitimacy and potency. Conclusion The study revealed YPwCP and families’ unique beliefs and preferences concerning PA and the status of physiotherapy and physiotherapists within daily life. Physiotherapists should consider the influence of these beliefs when seeking to signpost to PA or enhance longer-term adherence to programmes within a context of reduced clinical contact

Surviving a Genome Collision: Genomic Signatures of Allopolyploidization in the Recent Crop Species

Polyploidization has played a major role in crop plant evolution, leading to advantageous traits that have been selected by humans. Here, we describe restructuring patterns in the genome of Brassica napus L., a recent allopolyploid species. Widespread segmental deletions, duplications, and homeologous chromosome exchanges were identified in diverse genome sequences from 32 natural and 20 synthetic accessions, indicating that homeologous exchanges are a major driver of postpolyploidization genome diversification. Breakpoints of genomic rearrangements are rich in microsatellite sequences that are known to interact with the meiotic recombination machinery. In both synthetic and natural B. napus, a subgenome bias was observed toward exchanges replacing larger chromosome segments from the C-subgenome by their smaller, homeologous A-subgenome segments, driving postpolyploidization genome size reduction. Selection in natural B. napus favored segmental deletions involving genes associated with immunity, reproduction, and adaptation. Deletions affecting mismatch repair system genes, which are assumed to control homeologous recombination, were also found to be under selection. Structural exchanges between homeologous subgenomes appear to be a major source of novel genetic diversity in de novo allopolyploids. Documenting the consequences of genomic collision by genomic resequencing gives insights into the adaptive processes accompanying allopolyploidization

The New Classical Counter-Revolution: False Path or Illuminating Complement?

In this paper the author responds to Laurence Seidman’s recent article, ‘The New Classical Counter-Revolution: A False Path for Macroeconomics’. The author challenges the view that new classical macroeconomics has been a false path and provides a critique of Seidman’s arguments with respect to his interpretation of the 1970s ‘stagflation’, the relevance of new classical macroeconomics for practical policymaking, the contribution of real business cycle theory, and the new classical content of contemporary macroeconomic textbooks. The author concludes that the new classical counter-revolution has had an extremely productive influence on the current mainstream new neoclassical synthesis framework.

Towards a Unified Theory of Economic Growth: Oded Galor on the Transition from Malthusian Stagnation to Modern Economic Growth

An interview with Oded Galor on the development of unified growth theory.Unified Growth Theory; Population; Technology; Demographic Transition; Sustained Growth

Optical thickness as related to pollutant episodes and the concentration of visibility degrading pollutants

A network of six sun photometers was placed in the central and northeast United States during the months of July through October, 1931. The objective of the program was to obtain measurements of atmospheric turbidity which can be related to the concentration of visibility-degrading pollutants in the atmosphere. These measurements serve as ground truth for a program to develop remote sensing techniques for measuring the vertically integrated aerosol concentrations in pollution episodes. The sun photometers measure the direct solar radiation in four passbands: 380 nm, 500 nm, 875 nm and 940 nm. The first three passbands will be used for measuring the aerosol optical depth and the last for measuring precipitable water

Assessing the value of forest landscapes: a choice experiment approach

Landscape planning and design occupies a major role in forest policy in the UK. Since the 1980s, UK forests have been managed increasingly for multi-purpose objectives, a policy which has been underpinned by international agreements on sustainable forestry. Within this context, there is a need to understand public preferences for forest landscapes in designing policies that meet the needs of multi-purpose forestry. This paper is based on a study to investigate public willingness to pay (WTP) for regular visual and recreational access to a wide variety of generic forest landscapes. A total of thirty-three forest landscapes were investigated, each of which was defined as a combination of the configuration of the planting and the landscape factors. Computergenerated images of each of these landscapes were used to underpin a series of choice experiments conducted as part of a questionnaire survey of over 400 households across Great Britain. The results confirm the importance of landscape in contributing to the social and environmental benefits provided by forests, and suggests that current policies of woodland expansion may generate additional benefits, especially if more woodland is located close to urban populations. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these results for forest policy across the UK. © AB Academic Publishers 2009

Making space for young lesbians in church? Intersectional sites, scripts, and sticking points

This article is a case-study exploration of Christianity and sexuality in the lives of young lesbians in the United Kingdom. Religion matters as a personal and political force, but secularizing trends arguably obscure its influence on the complex convergence and intersection of personal, political, familial, and institutional realms (Brierley, 2006; Heelas and Woodhead, 2005). While the question of homosexuality has been a central focus in much discussion, highlighting around the presumed discontinuity between sexual identity and Christian identity (O’Brien, 2004), there is still a gap in terms of locating first-hand narratives of self-identified young queer Christians. Rather than assuming that these are separate and divergent paths (Wilcox, 2000), this article explores intersectional convergences and divergences, illustrating how religious participation can convey (de)legitimation within family, community and society. Such (de)legitimation is revealed in unpacking scripts of inclusion and exclusion (Taylor and Snowdon, 2014), which are (re)circulated via hetero-homo normative ideals, and perpetuated and contested in the context of intersectional Equalities legislation (Monro and Richardson, 2010). Here, we examine the highly gendered and heteronormative “role models,” “mentors,” and (familial) mediations experienced by young lesbian Christians, as intersecting public–private domains in the production of queer religious subjectivity and dis-identification