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The good, the bad, and the ugly: A qualitative secondary analysis into the impact of doping and anti-doping on clean elite athletes in five European countries
No full textProtecting clean sport, and the rights of athletes to a clean sport environment, is at the centre of anti-doping policies. To better support and enable clean athletes and sport, an understanding of the clean athlete lifeworld is required. The current study explored the ways that clean athletes are personally affected by others’ actual or suspected instances of doping and anti-doping rule violations, and by aspects of the anti-doping system. Qualitative Secondary Analysis (QSA) was used to re-analyse and interpret 13 focus group transcripts generated from the ‘Research-Embedded Strategic Plan for Anti-Doping Education Clean Sport Alliance Initiative for Tackling Doping’ (RESPECT) project (see Petróczi et al., 2021b). The sample in the parent study included 82 self-declared clean elite athletes, from Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia, and the UK. Reflexive thematic analysis generated three overarching themes: The harm done by clean athletes having to coexist with dopers, how clean athletes are undermined by a disingenuous interest in clean sport, and the anxiety experienced by clean athletes over mistakes that could lead to anti-doping rule violations. The impacts of doping on clean athletes–direct or indirect–are experienced by all clean athletes in some way. The results indicate that current approaches to anti-doping rule compliance frequently undermine clean athletes and the perceived legitimacy of the anti-doping system.</p
Rumour, Slander and Propaganda in Fifteenth-Century Scottish Politics
Get PDFEarly modernists have recognised the importance of propaganda and public opinion in Scotland after the development of print culture and the Reformation. Consequently, there is an impression that these sixteenth-century developments were new features of political life. Yet, the role of rumour and slander in the political culture of fifteenth-century Scotland has gone unnoticed despite numerous references in the contemporary records. Several acts of political violence throughout the century were followed by attempts by the crown, and its opponents, to present a coherent narrative of events. These competing narratives were the impetus for the development propaganda in fifteenth-century Scotland
What is the role of ‘theory’ in training GP trainers?
No full textA recent evaluation paper of the London General Practitioner Trainer Course by Knight et al questions the importance of educational theory in preparing GPs to become trainers and asks ‘how much educational theory do GP trainers need to know in order to train effectively?’ This paper places the authors’ question under consideration, arguing that before the relationship between the theory and practice of education can be considered, the nature of ‘educational practice’ needs examination. There then follows a discussion of the work of Della Fish which presents two conceptualisations of educational practice in the context of postgraduate medical education in order to shed light on the different inferences contrasting epistemological and ontological conceptions can have, and the implications for curricula. This discussion is illustrated by offering the reader connections to papers in the field as evidence. At the heart of the paper is a conclusion that curriculum development and enquiry need to be sensitive to epistemological and ontological positionality as well as experiences and perceptions
The association between the housing structure and continued breastfeeding in two Southern African Countries
No full textAlmost half of the deaths in children under-5 years are linked to malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries(LMICs)(Reference Victora, Bahl and Barros1). The WHO recommends continued breastfeeding for up to two years as a key strategy against malnutrition, yet only 45% of children are breastfed for two years(2). There are many factors associated with shorter breastfeeding duration, housing structure has been associated with shorter breastfeeding duration in Kenya(Reference Kimani-Murage, Wekesah and Wanjohi3), a LMIC. We studied the association between housing structure and breastfeeding duration in two Southern African countries.Data were extracted, with permission, from the Demographic and Health Survey(DHS), a program which provides nutrition surveillance in 90+ countries. South Africa(SA) and Zimbabwe's 1998 and 2016 data were analysed using R (R-core team 2022) & SPSS-VS28 (IBM 2021). Individual and household recode files were merged using the cluster and household numbers. A complex sample plan was constructed using the sample strata and stratification variables, and data were weighted. Duration of breastfeeding (months) was the outcome variable and the number of rooms used for sleeping, place of dwelling, whether the household has a refrigerator and early initiation of breastfeeding were used as predictor variables. Data were tested for normality. As data were not normally distributed, a Poisson generalised linear model was fitted.Data for 2397 households were available for SA and 1756 households in Zimbabwe. The number of households with one room for sleeping has increased in SA but decreased in Zimbabwe between 1998 and 2016. These changes have been accompanied by a decrease in median (months) breastfeeding duration in both SA (15 to 12) and Zimbabwe (18 to 12.5). SA has experienced an increase in early breastfeeding initiation (44% to 66%) in contrast, Zimbabwe's early breastfeeding initiation has decreased (66% to 63%). Urban residency (R=−0.140, p < 0.01) and an increasing number of rooms for sleeping (R=−0.025, p < 001) was associated with a decreased duration of any breastfeeding in SA, having a refrigerator (R = 0.082, p < 0.01) was associated with an increased duration but initiation of breastfeeding within 1 hour of birth was not associated. Urban residence (R=−0.123, p < 0.01) and an increasing number of rooms used for sleeping (R=−0.033, p < 0.01) were associated with decreased duration of any breastfeeding in Zimbabwe but the timing of initiation of breastfeeding or having a refrigerator were not associated.Increasing one-room houses were associated with higher breastfeeding cessation in the current study, in line with(Reference Kimani-Murage, Wekesah and Wanjohi3)who found that one-room multi-purpose houses forced mothers to cease breastfeeding early. Crowding seems to be detrimental to breastfeeding maintenance in LMICs, opposite to developed nations(Reference Reno, Whipps and Wallenborn4). Built environment influences breastfeeding duration in LMICs hence intervention should consider this. The context in which the size of the dwelling place sits is crucial to correctly infer the drivers for change in breastfeeding duration
‘Banished to Woods and a Sickly Moon’: The Old Gods in Folk Horror
No full textThis chapter will consider the use of the gods Pan and Cernunnos in both early literary works that could be considered Folk Horror as well as more recent screen representations. It will examine the ancient evidence for these gods before going on to consider how and why these gods were adapted into works of literature and media, as well as the move from Pan to Cernunnos as the go-to ‘old god’ in popular culture
Beardon, L. (2020) Avoiding Anxiety in Autistic Children: A Guide for Autistic Wellbeing. London: Sheldon Press, Paperback £10.99
No full textCommemoration, Competition and Classical Reception in the Carolingian Court: the Poetry of Ermoldus Nigellus (c. 829).
No full textThis volume presents a study of Carolingian court culture through the lens of the work of the ninth-century Carolingian poet Ermoldus Nigellus who may have been a part of the Carolingian court, perhaps at Aquitaine with King Pepin, in the 820s. The poet, who was sent into exile to Strasbourg, addressed his three known poems to Frankish emperor Louis the Pious (778-840) and his son King Pepin of Aquitaine (797-838), in a bid to return to that court. Questions addressed in each chapter take episodes, descriptions, language and allusions from Ermoldus’s poetry and his Classical influences as the basis for their case studies, supplemented by contemporary sources and secondary scholarship. The first chapter provides general historical and cultural context for Ermoldus’s poetry and for the events and people (both men and women) who he chooses to commemorate. Then the study the education of a member of the aristocratic court and how literacy and Classical texts had an effect on shaping the identity of court intellectuals such as the poet. Next is a consideration of the evidence of the fierce competition at court amongst those intellectuals who vied for status and patronage. These chapters provide the foundation for the subsequent chapter on the notion of the ‘intellectual’ exile; the imagery, sources, and allusions with which he would identify himself; and a discussion of what exile would have meant to a court intellectual as educated and as competitive as Ermoldus. The final chapter surveys Ermoldus’s historiography. An appendix will follow that will be a verse translation of Ermoldus’s three poems with key points of interest (word choice, identification of people/places, corroborative sources, &c) briefly explicated. All chapters include a selection of relevant recommended reading