Rural schools,social capital and the Big Society: a theoretical and empirical exposition

The paper commences with a theoretical exposition of the current UK government's policy commitment to the idealised notion of the Big Society and the social capital currency underpinning its formation. The paper positions this debate in relation to the rural and adopts an ethnographically‐informed methodological approach to provide an in‐depth look at two contrasting English rural primary schools and their relationship with their village communities. The empirical investigation seeks to explore the extent to which the potential for building social capital is evidenced in current rural school–community relations within these two locales. The findings reveal a highly differentiated countryside in which any attempt to essentialise the abilities of rural schools to generate social capital in order to build the Big Society should be avoided.     

Associations between childhood abuse and interpersonal aggression and suicide attempt among U.S. adults in a national study

The aim of this study is to examine associations among childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse and violence toward self (suicide attempts [SA]) and others (interpersonal aggression [IA]). Data were obtained from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions Waves 1 and 2 (n = 34,653). Multinomial logistic regression examined associations between type of childhood abuse and violence categories, adjusting for demographic variables, other childhood adversity, and DSM-IV psychiatric disorders. The prevalence of reported childhood abuse was 4.60% for physical abuse, 7.83% for emotional abuse, and 10.20% for sexual abuse. Approximately 18% of adults reported some form of violent behavior, distributed as follows: IA, 13.37%; SA, 2.64%; and SA with IA, 1.85%. After adjusting for demographic variables, other childhood adversity, and psychiatric disorders, each type of childhood abuse was significantly related to increased risk for each violence category as compared with the no violence category. Furthermore, the odds ratio of childhood physical abuse was significantly higher for SA with IA when compared with IA, and the odds ratio of childhood sexual abuse was significantly higher for SA and SA with IA when compared with IA. Childhood physical, emotional, and sexual abuse is directly related to the risk for violent behaviors to self and others. Both internalizing and externalizing psychiatric disorders impact the association between childhood abuse and violence. The inclusion of suicidal behaviors and interpersonal aggression and internalizing/externalizing psychiatric disorders within an integrated conceptual framework will facilitate more effective interventions for long-lasting effects of child abuse.     

What's in a name: putting the skills of librarianship back into circulation

Anne Brice, recipient of the 2014 Cyril Barnard Memorial Prize, reflects on the themes of names and skills of the health library and information professions. She questions whether service users share the same concerns of librarians that this nomenclature is too narrow and too closely associated with the buildings that provide its name. She proposes that in mediation between the users and their required knowledge sits a unique opportunity to place the profession in the centre of knowledge translation.     

Keeping up‐to‐date with current practice

Acknowledging the need for continuous improvement to keep health libraries at the forefront of patient care, Richard Bridgen considers the alternative ways in which library and knowledge services can be provided, from regional hubs to embedded services. Richard echo's the words of the CILIP Chief Executive Officer that services are likely to be judged on provision rather than breadth of collection and emphasises the need for a properly educated workforce to enable staff to keep up with changes in their professional domains.     

Critical Making as Materializing the Politics of Design

The notion of “critical making” suggests a new form of design, through which the political qualities of an issue are materialized by participatory means. In this essay I trace and describe this process through the Growbot Garden project—a design project directed at reimagining agricultural technologies to support small-scale agriculture. Through a discussion of this project I draw out the ways that politics were actively projected onto and through artifacts by the participants. In effect, these artifacts were a material expression of their desires and commitments. By creating these artifacts, the participants enacted a novel mode of “doing” political design as a collaborative and public endeavor of articulation.     

Accelerometry to Assess Preschooler's Free-Play: Issues with Count Thresholds and Epoch Durations

This study examines the utility of current accelerometer threshold definitions and epoch durations for physical activity intensity classification in preschool-aged children. Using video footage of children engaged in active play, directly observed 1-sec epoch physical activity intensity scores were derived from a modified version of the Children's Activity Rating Scale, averaged into 15-sec epochs (corresponding to the accelerometer scale), and compared to accelerometer-measured classifications. Overall, 6,540 individual 1-sec epochs were captured and classified from six children, yielding 429 time-matched 15-sec epoch physical activity intensity classifications from both methods. Children participated in 25 distinct physical activity behaviors and spent 75% of free-play in one intensity level for ≤5 sec. The maximum amount of time spent participating in an activity prior to changing activity intensity was 98 sec. Agreement between methods was generally poor (overall: κ = .22; child range: κ = .00 to .66), and the difference between methods was significantly asymmetrical (McNemar's test overall: p = .01). Accelerometer thresholds and epoch durations used to classify preschoolers' physical activity intensity yielded biased estimates in the current study. Further investigation is necessary to establish optimal physical activity measurement methods with this population.     

The effect of the bend on technique and performance during maximal effort sprinting

This study investigated changes in performance and technique that occur during maximal effort bend sprinting compared with straight-line sprinting under typical outdoor track conditions. Utilising a repeated measures design, three-dimensional video analysis was conducted on seven male sprinters in both conditions (bend radius: 37.72 m). Mean race velocity decreased from 9.86 to 9.39 m/s for the left step (p = 0.008) and from 9.80 to 9.33 m/s for the right step (p = 0.004) on the bend compared with the straight, a 4.7% decrease for both steps. This was mainly due to a 0.11 Hz (p = 0.022) decrease in step frequency for the left step and a 0.10 m (p = 0.005) reduction in race step length for the right step. The left hip was 4.0° (p = 0.049) more adducted at touchdown on the bend than the straight. Furthermore, the bend elicited significant differences between left and right steps in a number of variables including ground contact time, touchdown distance and hip flexion/extension and abduction/adduction angles. The results indicate that the roles of the left and right steps may be functionally different during bend sprinting. This specificity should be considered when designing training programmes.     

The effect of ball carrying method on sprint speed in rugby union football players

Different methods of ball carrying can be used when a player runs with the ball in rugby union. We examined how three methods of ball carrying influenced sprinting speed: using both hands, under the left arm and under the right arm. These methods were compared with running without the ball. Our aim was to determine which method of ball carrying optimizes sprinting speed. Altogether, 48 rugby union players (age 21±2 years, height 1.83±0.1?m, body mass 85.3±12?kg, body fat 14?±?5%; mean±s) were recruited. The players performed twelve 30-m sprints in total (each player performed three trials under each of three methods of carrying the ball and sprinting without the ball). The design of the study was a form of Latin rectangle, balanced across the trial order for each of the methods and for pairwise combinations of the methods in blocks of four per trial. Each sprint consisted of a 10-m rolling start, followed by a 20-m timed section using electronic timing gates. Compared with sprinting 20?m without the ball (2.58±0.16?s), using both hands (2.62±0.16?s) led to a significantly slower time (P?<0.05). Sprinting 20?m with the ball under the left arm (2.61±0.15?s) or under the right arm (2.60± 0.17?s) was significantly quicker than when using ‘both hands’ (P?<0.05), and both these methods were significantly slower than when running without the ball (P?<0.05). Accordingly, running with the ball in both hands led to the greatest decrement in sprinting performance, although carrying the ball under one arm also reduced the players' sprinting ability. Our results indicate that to gain a speed advantage players should carry the ball under one arm.     

Effects of modified-implement training on fast bowling in cricket

The effects of training with overweight and underweight cricket balls on fast-bowling speed and accuracy were investigated in senior club cricket bowlers randomly assigned to either a traditional (n = 9) or modified-implement training (n = 7) group. Both groups performed bowling training three times a week for 10 weeks. The traditional training group bowled only regulation cricket balls (156 g), whereas the modified-implement training group bowled a combination of overweight (161?-?181 g), underweight (151?-?131 g) and regulation cricket balls. A radar gun measured the speed of 18 consecutive deliveries for each bowler before, during and after the training period. Video recordings of the deliveries were also analysed to determine bowling accuracy in terms of first-bounce distance from the stumps. Bowling speed, which was initially 108?±?5 km?·?h^?1 (mean?±?standard deviation), increased in the modified-implement training group by 4.0 km?·?h^?1 and in the traditional training group by 1.3 km?·?h^?1 (difference, 2.7 km?·?h^?1; 90% confidence limits, 1.2 to 4.2 km?·?h^?1). For a minimum worthwhile change of 5 km?·?h^?1, the chances that the true effect on bowling speed was practically beneficial/trivial/harmful were 1.0/99/<?0.1%. For bowling accuracy, the chances were 1/48/51%. This modified-implement training programme is not a useful training strategy for club cricketers.