Seasonal changes in body composition of inter-county Gaelic Athletic Association hurlers

Longitudinal change in body composition for elite-level inter-county hurlers was reported over a single season and four consecutive seasons. Body composition measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of 66 senior, male, outfield players was obtained. Four successive measurements were taken: off-season (OFF₁), pre-season (PRE), mid-season (MID) and the off-season of the following season (OFF₂). A subsample of 11 hurlers were measured at all time points over 4 consecutive seasons. DXA-derived estimates of fat and lean mass were normalised to stature for analysis (kg?m^?2); data are (mean [lower: upper, 95% confidence interval]). A concurrent increase of lean mass (0.31 [0.19: 0.43] kg?m^?2) and loss of fat mass occurred (?0.38 [?0.50: ?0.26] kg?m^?2) OFF₁ to PRE. Lean mass accrual was maintained PRE to OFF₂ while the initial loss of fat mass was restored MID to OFF₂ (0.52 [0.40: 0.64] kg ? m^?2), with the trunk acting as the primary region of change. Over the four seasons, a net increase of lean mass was observed (~ 0.9 [0.4: 1.4] kg per annum) with a negligible overall change for fat mass over time. However, the cycling of fat mass (OFF to PRE and MID to OFF) within each season was recurrent season-to-season.     

“Lift Up a Living Nation”: Community and Nation,Socialism and Religion in The English Hymnal, 1906

The lead editors of The English Hymnal (1906), Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams, found Victorian hymnody in need of serious revision, and not just aesthetically. This musical book was intended as an expression of the editors' Christian socialist politics involving in the participation of the congregation. This article examines how they achieved this by the encouragement of active citizenship through communal music-making, using folksong tunes alongside texts which affirmed community. This article argues that the editors wedded religion and high-quality music with a focus on citizenship drawn from British Idealism; using a cultural movement to seek social change.     

Quality assurance of assessment and moderation discourses involving sessional staff

Quality assurance is a major agenda in tertiary education. The casualisation of academic work, especially in teaching, is also a quality assurance issue. Casual or sessional staff members teach and assess more than 50% of all university courses in Australia, and yet the research in relation to the role sessional staff play in quality assurance of student assessment outcomes is scarce. Moderation processes are a pivotal part of robust quality assurance measures. Drawing upon previous work surrounding four discourses of moderation, this pilot project reports the results of research into the role and impact of sessional staff in moderation processes at tertiary level. Qualitative data were gathered through focus interviews. Results, in the form of various moderation discourses, indicate that sessional staff impact the formal quality assurance processes in numerous ways.     

Flowers,Dancing, Dresses,and Dolls: Picture Book Representations of Gender-Variant Males

Over the past fifty years, children’s picture books have made great strides toward literary equity by including more perspectives from and stories about marginalized groups, such as those whose gender identities do not conform to heteronormative standards. While texts featuring gender-variant male characters engage in topics that are far too often shoved into the proverbial closet, what is yet to be determined is the degree to which they adequately reflect the complexity of (gender) identity and to what extent such picture books can counter narratives related to traditional “masculinity.” The purpose of this paper is to critically examine picture book representations of gender variance, as exhibited by male characters, in order to determine the books’ potential for exploring issues of social justice with elementary-age students. This study utilizes a critical multiculturalist lens to challenge the ways in which gender variance is represented in children’s literature and the reasons that young gender-variant male protagonists achieve—or do not achieve—communal acceptance.     

Idiomatic Communication in the Stages of Coming Together and Falling Apart

Idiomatic communication is a strategic and unique form of communication that is indicative of a close relationship. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between idiomatic communication with solidarity and satisfaction to validate Social Penetration Theory using Knapp's stages of escalation and de-escalation. The results of the study (N = 275) found that couples in de-escalation stages report less idioms, and use idioms with less frequency, than couples in the escalation stages. Couples in de-escalating stages use confrontation, nickname, and teasing insult idioms with more negative effects than escalating couples. Finally, the use of idiomatic communication is significantly related to solidarity and relational satisfaction.     

Locating and building knowledges outside of the academy: approaches to engaged teaching at the University of Sheffield

This article draws on three case studies, which illuminate a number of practical, ethical and intellectual issues that arise from ‘engaged’ teaching activities within the curriculum. Projects from the disciplines of Architecture, English and Journalism Studies illustrate the possibilities offered by learning and teaching projects which emphasise public facing, co-produced knowledge as central components. It is argued that such approaches enable dynamic forms of learning to emerge, which work to expand the parameters of subject-specific knowledge while enabling the development of citizenship attributes and employability skills amongst students in ways that deepen, rather than dilute, intellectual rigour. The article locates these practical pedagogical reflections within theoretical frameworks offered by those working (largely in North America) on publicly engaged approaches to scholarship and seeks to draw connections with contemporary developments in learning and teaching in the UK.     

The Women Take Over: Oral argument,rhetorical skepticism,and the performance of feminist jurisprudence in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt

Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt was the most important abortion case to come before the United States Supreme Court in 25 years. It was also the first time that three women were seated on the high court to hear a case that challenged the fundamental right to choose abortion. I investigate the questioning by Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan at oral argument for Whole Women’s Health as a rhetorical enactment of feminist judging and argue that the rhetorical skepticism of the SCOTUS women—their persistent questioning, defiant expressions of doubt, and incredulous style—challenged the discursive boundaries of abortion jurisprudence and advanced a feminist demand that regulations to abortion rights receive heightened scrutiny from the courts. Importantly, Whole Women’s Health demonstrates how rhetorical skepticism may operate as a powerful mode of feminist legal invention—to disrupt the norms of legal reasoning and draw the traditions of legal discourse into doubt in order to authorize a discursive space for feminist legal judgment.