A Part of and Apart from Sport: Practitioners’ Experiences Coaching in Segregated Youth Sport

Sport can present a site of exclusion for many youth who experience disability even when it has a focus on inclusion (Fitzgerald, 2009). While sport practitioners can play a critical role in creating inclusive environments, they frequently struggle to do so. As a consequence, the sport opportunities for young people who experience disability are often inadequate and inequitable. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of youth sport practitioners who teach and coach youth in primarily segregated settings. The overall goal was to gain a better understanding of how sport practitioners think about disability and sport within the context of their practices. Guided by the method of interpretive description, we interviewed 15 sport practitioners. Analysis of the data led to the overarching theme, ‘a part of and apart from sport’, highlighting the ways in which segregated youth sport was understood to be more or less inclusive/exclusive by sport practitioners. Within this overarching theme, four subthemes were drawn: a) authentic connections, b) diversity and adaptations, c) expectations same…but different, and d) (dis)ability and competitive sport. While highlighting the need for self-reflective and knowledgeable coaches, our findings also bring attention to the concepts of ability and ableism and their impacts on the sport opportunities of youth who experience disability. Our discussion highlights the need to question assumptions underlying segregated sport

Nutrition Knowledge and Self-Efficacy among Classroom Teachers from a Large Urban School District in Los Angeles County

Purpose: School teachers play a critical role in providing nutrition information to students. Yet, in order for teachers to be a valuable source of nutrition information, they must be equipped with adequate knowledge to be able to convey accurate information to students. The purpose of this study was to assess nutrition-related knowledge and self-efficacy of teachers from a large urban school district in Los Angeles County. Methods: Using a convenience sample, 59 teachers from six elementary schools completed a one time only questionnaire assessing knowledge of food groups and self-efficacy to implement nutrition activities in the classroom. Differences in teachers’ responses to questions on knowledge and self-efficacy by demographics were also assessed. Results: The overall mean nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy scores were 50.4% and 71.4% respectively. Differences in nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy by demographic characteristics were observed. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that teachers in our sample did not have adequate levels of nutrition knowledge, and may not have possessed the necessary skills to effectively deliver nutrition education to their students. Current efforts to train and educate teachers on nutrition are perhaps falling short of the level needed to effect change in students’ dietary behaviors

A Part of and Apart from Sport: Practitioners’ Experiences Coaching in Segregated Youth Sport

Sport can present a site of exclusion for many youth who experience disability even when it has a focus on inclusion (Fitzgerald, 2009). While sport practitioners can play a critical role in creating inclusive environments, they frequently struggle to do so. As a consequence, the sport opportunities for young people who experience disability are often inadequate and inequitable. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of youth sport practitioners who teach and coach youth in primarily segregated settings. The overall goal was to gain a better understanding of how sport practitioners think about disability and sport within the context of their practices. Guided by the method of interpretive description, we interviewed 15 sport practitioners. Analysis of the data led to the overarching theme, ‘a part of and apart from sport’, highlighting the ways in which segregated youth sport was understood to be more or less inclusive/exclusive by sport practitioners. Within this overarching theme, four subthemes were drawn: a) authentic connections, b) diversity and adaptations, c) expectations same…but different, and d) (dis)ability and competitive sport. While highlighting the need for self-reflective and knowledgeable coaches, our findings also bring attention to the concepts of ability and ableism and their impacts on the sport opportunities of youth who experience disability. Our discussion highlights the need to question assumptions underlying segregated sport

Collisional dissipation rate in shearing flows of granular liquid crystals

We make use of discrete-element-method numerical simulations of inelastic frictionless cylinders in simple shearing at different length-to-diameter ratios and solid volume fractions to analyze the rate of collisional dissipation of the fluctuation kinetic energy. We show that the nonspherical geometry of the particles is responsible, by inducing rotation, for increasing the dissipation rate of the fluctuation kinetic energy with respect to that for frictionless spheres. We also suggest that the partial alignment of the cylinders induced by shearing concurs with the particle inelasticity in generating correlation in the velocity fluctuations and thus affecting the collisional dissipation rate as the solid volume fraction increases. Finally, we propose simple phenomenological modifications to the expression of the collisional dissipation rate of kinetic theory of granular gases to take into account our findings

MEG responses to the perception of global structure within glass patterns

Background The perception of global form requires integration of local visual cues across space and is the foundation for object recognition. Here we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study the location and time course of neuronal activity associated with the perception of global structure from local image features. To minimize neuronal activity to low-level stimulus properties, such as luminance and contrast, the local image features were held constant during all phases of the MEG recording. This allowed us to assess the relative importance of striate (V1) versus extrastriate cortex in global form perception. Methodology/Principal Findings Stimuli were horizontal, rotational and radial Glass patterns. Glass patterns without coherent structure were viewed during the baseline period to ensure neuronal responses reflected perception of structure and not changes in local image features. The spatial distribution of task-related changes in source power was mapped using Synthetic Aperture Magnetometry (SAM), and the time course of activity within areas of maximal power change was determined by calculating time-frequency plots using a Hilbert transform. For six out of eight observers, passive viewing of global structure was associated with a reduction in 10–20 Hz cortical oscillatory power within extrastriate occipital cortex. The location of greatest power change was the same for each pattern type, being close to or within visual area V3a. No peaks of activity were observed in area V1. Time-frequency analyses indicated that neural activity was least for horizontal patterns. Conclusions We conclude: (i) visual area V3a is involved in the analysis of global form; (ii) the neural signature for perception of structure, as assessed using MEG, is a reduction in 10–20 Hz oscillatory power; (iii) different neural processes may underlie the perception of horizontal as opposed to radial or rotational structure; and (iv) area V1 is not strongly activated by global form in Glass patterns

Rethinking physical activity communication: using focus groups to understand women’s goals, values, and beliefs to improve public health

Abstract Background Communication about physical activity (PA) frames PA and influences what it means to people, including the role it plays in their lives. To the extent that PA messages can be designed to reflect outcomes that are relevant to what people most value experiencing and achieving in their daily lives, the more compelling and effective they will be. Aligned with self-determination theory, this study investigated proximal goals and values that are salient in everyday life and how they could be leveraged through new messaging to better support PA participation among women. The present study was designed to examine the nature of women’s daily goals and priorities and investigate women’s PA beliefs, feelings, and experiences, in order to identify how PA may compete with or facilitate women’s daily goals and priorities. Preliminary recommendations are proposed for designing new PA messages that align PA with women’s daily goals and desired experiences to better motivate participation. Methods Eight focus groups were conducted with White, Black, and Hispanic/Latina women aged 22–49, stratified by amount of self-reported PA (29 low active participants, 11 high active participants). Respondents discussed their goals, values, and daily priorities along with beliefs, feelings about and experiences being physically active. Data were collected, coded, and analyzed using a thematic analysis strategy to identify emergent themes. Results Many of the goals and values that both low and high active participants discussed as desiring and valuing map on to key principles of self-determination theory. However, the discussions among low active participants suggested that their beliefs, feelings, experiences, and definitions of PA were in conflict with their proximal goals, values, and priorities, also undermining their psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Conclusions Findings from this study can be used to inform and evaluate new physical activity communication strategies that leverage more proximal goals, values, and experiences of happiness and success to better motivate PA among ethnically diverse low active women. Specifically, this research suggests a need to address how women’s daily goals and desired experiences may undermine PA participation, in addition to framing PA as facilitating rather than competing with their daily priorities and desired leisure-time experiences.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136775/1/12889_2017_Article_4361.pd

Results of a Pilot Study in the U.S. and Vietnam to Assess the Utility and Acceptability of a Multi-Level Pregnancy Test (MLPT) for Home Monitoring of hCG Trends After Assisted Reproduction.

Background To evaluate the utility and acceptability of using multi-level pregnancy tests (MLPTs) at home to monitor hCG trends following assisted reproductive technology (ART). Methods One hundred and four women presenting for ART at either Stanford Medicine Fertility and Reproductive Health Clinic (Stanford, CA) or Hung Vuong Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) participated in this pilot study. Women were asked to perform the MLPT at home, primarily on days when they were also scheduled to receive standard clinic-based serum hCG testing. These tests were administered up to 6 times over the 6-week period following embryo transfer or intrauterine insemination (IUI). Concordance of serial hCG readings for each time point was assessed by comparing trends in urine MLPT results with trends in serum hCG. Stable or increasing hCG level was interpreted as an indication of a progressing pregnancy, while a declining hCG was interpreted as a lack of established or progressing pregnancy. At study end, all participants were asked about the acceptability and convenience of using the MLPT at home for monitoring hCG trends following ART. Results Data from both urine and serum testing are available for 156 of 179 clinic visits (87.2%). There was high concordance of serial trend results between the two types of tests: among the 156 sets of serum and urine hCG data points, 150 (96.2%) showed a matching trend in hCG pattern and 6 (3.8%) resulted in a discordant trend. Seventy-three percent of women reported being satisfied or very satisfied with using the MLPTs at home. Almost all (96.6%) said that the MLPT was easy or very easy to use. Conclusion The MLPT offers women and health care providers a client-friendly diagnostic tool to detect very early pregnancy and monitor its progress. Trial registration This study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01846403 (May 1, 2013), and NCT01919502 (August 5, 2013)

ALBACORE OBS recovery cruise report

The primary goal of the 2011 ALBACORE (Asthenosphere and Lithosphere Broadband Architecture from the California Offshore Region Experiment) cruise was to recover 34 ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs) in a 150 km (north-south) by 400 km (east-west) region off the coast of Southern California (Fig. 1). The cruise took place on R/V New Horizon, departing out of San Diego on Sept 7, 2011 and arriving back in San Diego on Sept 16, 2011 with no port stops in between