Investigating Identity: Gender,Overseas Experience,and Japanese Youth

Identity is prominent in academia, despite it being difficult to define and measure due to its dynamic and multifaceted nature. In Japan, awareness of the make-up of Japanese youth is increasingly crucial as Japan becomes a more internationalized and ageing society. This paper examines, by identity mapping and discriminant analysis, the cultural identities of 94 Japanese youth. While strong Global identities separated the respondents with from without overseas experience, ties to National identities and Relationships were found respectively for males and females. This paper suggests that regarding the study of cultural identities, gender does matter – at least in Japan.     

Sex differences in elbow and wrist joint loading during the cartwheel and round off with different hand positions performed by young gymnasts

The aim of the study was to determine if sex differences exist in the key elbow and wrist joint injury risk factors during different cartwheel (CW) and round-off (RO) techniques performed by young male and female artistic gymnasts. Sixteen active young gymnasts (8 males and 8 females) performed 30 successful trials of CW and RO with three different hand positions (parallel (10), T-shape (10) and reverse (10)). Synchronised kinematic and kinetic data were collected for each trial. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA (3 × 2, technique × sex) and effect-sizes (ES) were used for statistical analysis. In conclusion, female gymnasts exhibited greater normalised peak vertical ground reaction forces (VGRF), elbow and wrist compression forces and elbow internal adduction moments during CW and RO skills compared with male gymnasts. In both sexes, the parallel and reverse techniques increased peak VGRF, elbow and wrist compression forces and the elbow internal adduction moment. Increased elbow flexion resulted in decreased peak VGRF, elbow compression forces and elbow internal adduction moment. Injury risk factors including elbow extension and internal adduction moment with axial compression force suggest that a CW and RO in reverse and parallel techniques can be hazardous especially for young female gymnasts.     

Key somatic variables in young backstroke swimmers

The purpose of this study was to estimate the optimal body size, limb-segment length, girth or breadth ratios for 100-m backstroke mean speed performance in young swimmers. Sixty-three young swimmers (boys [n = 30; age: 13.98 ± 0.58 years]; girls [n = 33; age: 13.02 ± 1.20 years]) participated in this study. To identify the optimal body size and body composition components associated with 100-m backstroke speed performance, we adopted a multiplicative allometric log-linear regression model, which was refined using backward elimination. The multiplicative allometric model exploring the association between 100-m backstroke mean speed performance and the different somatic measurements estimated that biological age, sitting height, leg length for the lower-limbs, and two girths (forearm and arm relaxed girth) are the key predictors. Stature and body mass did not contribute to the model, suggesting that the advantage of longer levers was limb-specific rather than a general whole-body advantage. In fact, it is only by adopting multiplicative allometric models that the abovementioned ratios could have been derived. These findings highlighted the importance of considering somatic characteristics of young backstroke swimmers and can help swimming coaches to classify their swimmers and enable them to suggest what might be the swimmers’ most appropriate stroke (talent identification).     

How accurate are gender detection tools in predicting the gender for Chinese names? A study with 20,000 given names in Pinyin format

Objective:We recently showed that the gender detection tools NamSor, Gender API, and Wiki-Gendersort accurately predicted the gender of individuals with Western given names. Here, we aimed to evaluate the performance of these tools with Chinese given names in Pinyin format.Methods:We constructed two datasets for the purpose of the study. File #1 was created by randomly drawing 20,000 names from a gender-labeled database of 52,414 Chinese given names in Pinyin format. File #2, which contained 9,077 names, was created by removing from File #1 all unisex names that we were able to identify (i.e., those that were listed in the database as both male and female names). We recorded for both files the number of correct classifications (correct gender assigned to a name), misclassifications (wrong gender assigned to a name), and nonclassifications (no gender assigned). We then calculated the proportion of misclassifications and nonclassifications (errorCoded).Results:For File #1, errorCoded was 53% for NamSor, 65% for Gender API, and 90% for Wiki-Gendersort. For File #2, errorCoded was 43% for NamSor, 66% for Gender API, and 94% for Wiki-Gendersort.Conclusion:We found that all three gender detection tools inaccurately predicted the gender of individuals with Chinese given names in Pinyin format and therefore should not be used in this population.     

Negotiations of cultural identities by Indian women engineering students in US engineering programmes

The paper analyses the identities of Indian women engineers in the gendered organizational context of US engineering programmes. Participant narratives discuss the ways in which women are subjected to identity struggles in India due to gendered patrifocal norms that impose structural, societal, and familial pressures on women. Subsequently, when these women enter US engineering programmes, they encounter a highly masculine organizational and cultural space. Participants discuss identity dislocations, transformations, and assimilation as they seek to meld into the existing structures and find a career trajectory. I draw upon liminality theory to explore the cultural transitions, identity restructuring, and negotiations of Indian women engineers, navigating the intersections of competing and intersecting cultural norms of gender and engineering in India and the US, work, and family. The findings indicate the layers of gendered ideology that constitute engineering education in India and the US, the societal pressures of marriage and family rooted in patrifocal Indian norms, the barriers to finding an engineering job, the resources within the structures that support women, and the identification of patriarchy as the enactment of agency and as a site for change.     

老年人人体测量学参数与滑动摔倒危险性的关系

摘要：目的：摔倒是目前世界范围内老年人群身体健康所面临的一个主要威胁。然而对于老年人人体测量学参数与摔倒危险之间关系的研究很少。通过对老年人进行滑倒模拟测试,来确定人体测量学参数与摔倒的关系。方法：187名健康老年人在美国伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校临床步态和运动分析实验室参加了滑动测试。实验采集了受试者的人体测量学参数（身高、体重和足长）以及年龄和性别指标。所有受试者在一个安装有滑板装置的7 m长跑道上完成数次正常行走后,经历了一次事先未知的滑动,测试过程中有护具保证其安全。结果：测试中98名(52.4%)受试者摔倒,89名能够恢复正常步态。女性比男性(79% vs. 58%, P < 0.01)受试者,肥胖组比非肥胖组(39% vs. 20%, P < 0.01)老年人,身高低(P < 0.01)和足长小(P< 0.01)的老年人更容易发生摔倒。通过多元回归分析得到身体质量指数（BMI）、性别和身高是摔倒的危险因素。另外,身高与性别具有显著性交互作用。结论：研究结果表明女性、身高低、肥胖者（BMI> 30 kg/m2）以及足长小的老年人发生摔倒的危险性较大。     

重庆市体育专业学生学习状况的性别差异分析

通过自编问卷,随机对重庆市465名体育教育专业大学生进行调查,发现：在专业发展目标上,女生的知识取向明显高于男生,而能力取向明显低于男生;其中三年级是变化的关键期;男生学习状况、科研实践能力与发展目标的联系密切。极大地影响发展目标的确定,而女生的学习状况和科研实践则相对孤立、盲目,对发展目标的确定无直接影响。     

女性主义伦理学视野下道德教育的性别和谐

女性主义伦理学研究表明,道德是有“性别”之分的,男女两性在道德价值重心、思维方式和发展方式上均有差异。但道德教育理论和实践中客观存在的性别歧视,导致道德教育的性别失衡和性别冲突,从而限制了道德教育的发展。实现道德教育的性别和谐应该消除性别歧视,重新定义道德和有道德的人,使道德教育的核心概念包容女性气质。在此基础上,重建道德教育大厦,使其矗立于理性和情感的根基之上。     

‘At Some Point in the 1960s,Hell Disappeared’: Hell,Gender and Catholicism in Post-War England

This article explores changing understandings of Catholic hell in post-war England, focusing on how questions of sex and gender intersected with beliefs in the afterlife. It uses oral testimony from Catholic laypeople alongside the pronouncements of the clerical hierarchy to challenge the pervasive notion that ‘hell disappeared in the 1960s’. Hell did however, change in constitution during the post-war decades, transforming from a material ‘place’ to an abstract ‘state’ in the lay and institutional imagination. Rather than being about a straightforward ‘liberation’ from a coercive theology of damnation, the changing constitution of hell spoke of the way certain religious beliefs became re-categorised in late-modern England.     

Gender equality in the Olympic Movement: not a simple question,not a simple answer

This article explores the strategies followed by the International Olympic Committee for the achievement of gender equality. It is argued that this international body can go beyond simply adopting an equality of opportunities approach to gender equality. It suggests which other strategies can be incorporated for which it draws on the different ways of understanding gender equality in gender political theory.