'You Have to Learn to Love Yourself 'Cos No One Else Will.' Young Women with 'Social,Emotional or Behavioural Difficulties' and the Idea of the Underclass

This article discusses some of the findings of a small-scale qualitative study involving young women identified and processed as deviant, that is as having 'social, emotional or behavioural difficulties', in their school years. It also explores some of the ideas currently much discussed in both the press and academic literature about the underclass and lone motherhood, arguing for an understanding that acknowledges the complex interweaving of structure and agency in the lives of disadvantaged young women.     

Stimulating a more Circular Economy through Public Procurement: Roles and dynamics of intermediation

Public procurement can accelerate transitions to a more circular economy by creating new demand for resource efficiency. Interactions during pre-procurement consultations influence the impact of such purchasing by helping define tender specifications. Intermediation throughout these processes can facilitate interactions between participants, assisting in sourcing, generating, and translating knowledge. However, roles for intermediaries and dynamics of intermediation are not fully understood. This paper intends to address how intermediation can promote a more circular economy. It examines a pilot project led by the Dutch Ministry of Defence to incorporate post-consumer recycled content in textiles through extensive consultation activities. Eighteen in-depth interviews were conducted with those directly involved in the pilot, and analyzed using constant comparative analysis. Six intermediaries were identified and found to play a critical role in the process by 1) coordinating government and industry through aligning project goals, 2) facilitating cooperation of industry players to stimulate new business relationships, and 3) collaborating with the buyer to push for higher post-consumer recycled material in the final tender. With respect to public demand articulation, greater insight is needed to discover how to best combine buyers’ motivations for cost savings, sellers’ motivations of increased returns, and the sustainability requirements often imposed by third parties. These dynamics may mark transitions toward circularity as further projects arise, offering a more permanent role for intermediation.     

Energy availability in athletes

This review updates and complements the review of energy balance and body composition in the Proceedings of the 2003 IOC Consensus Conference on Sports Nutrition. It argues that the concept of energy availability is more useful than the concept of energy balance for managing the diets of athletes. It then summarizes recent reports of the existence, aetiologies, and clinical consequences of low energy availability in athletes. This is followed by a review of recent research on the failure of appetite to increase ad libitum energy intake in compensation for exercise energy expenditure. The review closes by summarizing the implications of this research for managing the diets of athletes.     

Using social cognitive theory to predict physical activity and fitness in underserved middle school children

Few researchers have used social cognitive theory and environment-based constructs to predict physical activity (PA) and fitness in underserved middle-school children. Hence, we evaluated social cognitive variables and perceptions of the school environment to predict PA and fitness in middle school children (N = 506, ages 10-14 years). Using multiple regression analyses we accounted for 12% of the variance in PA and 13-21% of the variance in fitness. The best predictors of PA were barrier self-efficacy, classmate social support, and gender; whereas, only gender predicted fitness. The results affirmed the importance of barrier self-efficacy and gender differences. Our findings regarding classmate social support are some of the first to illuminate the importance of school-specific peers in promoting PA.     

Engaging students in active learning: use of a blog and audience response system

Librarians provide instruction to medical students as part of a core course in the medical school curriculum. Instruction was provided, in part, through didactic sessions covering professional-level medical information resources, PubMed search skills, psychosocial information, and evidence-based medicine. Librarians redesigned instructional sessions with the goals of increasing student engagement and minimizing the lecture format, maximizing the number of students receiving feedback on their search and evaluation skills, and permitting students to see a variety of possible responses as well as engage in peer- and self-evaluation. Librarians integrated the use of a blog and an audience response system (ARS) into the instruction to help accomplish these goals.