Sexual abuse and the grooming process in sport: Learning from Bella's story

Through a process of collaborative autoethnography, we explore the experiences of one female athlete named Bella who was groomed and then sexually abused by her male coach. Bella's story signals how the structural conditions and power relationships embedded in competitive sporting environments, specifically the power invested in the coach, provide a unique sociocultural context that offers a number of potentialities for sexual abuse and exploitation to take place. We offer Bella's story as a pedagogical resource for those involved in the world of sport to both think about and with as part of a process of encouraging change at the individual and institutional levels.     

Activity-related typologies and longitudinal change in physical activity and sedentary time in children and adolescents: The UP&DOWN Study

Background: Children and adolescents can be distinguished by different typologies (clusters) of physical activity and sedentary behavior. How physical activity ...     

Self-determination theory and physical activity among breast cancer survivors

The study aim was to examine constructs of autonomy support and competence as well as the motivation continuum from the self-determination theory (SDT) as a framework for understanding physical activity (PA) motivation and behavior in breast cancer survivors. Questionnaires assessing demographics, medical factors, PA, motivation continuum, perceived autonomy support, and competence were completed by 558 breast cancer survivors. Results showed that lymphedema (chi2 = 7.9, p < .01) (chi2 = 4.6, p < .05) were associated with meeting PA guidelines. Moreover, survivors meeting PA guidelines reported more identified regulations and intrinsic motivation (p < .01), autonomy support (p < .01), and competence (p < .01). Forced entry hierarchical regression analysis showed that SDT constructs explained 20.2% (p < .01) of the PA variance. Significant independent SDT predictors included identified regulation (Beta = .14, p < .05) and competence (Beta = .23, p < .01), with autonomy support approaching significance (Beta = .9, p = .057). SDT may be a useful model for understanding PA motivation and behavior in breast cancer survivors.     

Assessment of Competence in Radiography Education

An action research project concerning the development of clinical assessment procedures in radiography education investigated the views of university‐based clinical lecturers and hospital radiographers concerning the existing assessment framework. Based on the outcomes of this initial review a revised summative assessment tool was developed, including assessment of professional conduct as well as technical competence. Evaluative comment from radiographers and students on the trialling of the tool was positive, and would seem to indicate a sound basis for further development.     

The Effect of English Language Proficiency Level and Educational Background on Academic Achievement

The English Proficiency Level (EPL) of 205 first year business students from 16 Asian countries was assessed on arrival in Australia using the Australian Second Language Proficiency Ratings (ASLPR). Academic grades were recorded for their first, second and third semesters. Statistical analysis of the students' records shows that educational background is the major determinant of success in business courses, with no statistically significant effect coming from EPL. In practice, English proficiency is used as a major selection criterion in its application to the entry of full fee paying international students; on the basis of the evidence presented here, there is no need for a stringent EPL criterion to be applied, which is an important finding for those involved in the selection of international students who wish to study in Australian institutions. An important policy impinging on academic achievement is that students who fail their first semester are allowed to continue their studies; the policy leads to an estimated 39% of students allowed such grace going on to obtain a pass for the course; EPL bears no relationship to academic achievement for students in this category, the major determinant being their educational background. Thus, it is important that stringent conditions are applied to potential international students' educational background, but that they are not disadvantaged by their English language ability.     

A comparative survey of Personalised Information Retrieval and Adaptive Hypermedia techniques

A key driver for next generation web information retrieval systems is becoming the degree to which a user’s search and presentation experience is adapted to individual user properties and contexts of use. Over the past decades, two parallel threads of personalisation research have emerged, one originating in the document space in the area of Personalised Information Retrieval (PIR) and the other arising from the hypertext space in the field of Adaptive Hypermedia (AH).