More than a game : the impact of sport-based youth mentoring schemes on developing resilience toward violent extremism

This paper draws upon the findings of an evaluation of “More than a Game”, a sport-focused youth mentoring program in Melbourne, Australia that aimed to develop a community-based resilience model using team-based sports to address issues of identity, belonging, and cultural isolation amongst young Muslim men in order to counter forms of violent ex-tremism. In this essay we focus specifically on whether the intense embodied encounters and emotions experienced in team sports can help break down barriers of cultural and religious difference between young people and facilitate ex-periences of resilience, mutual respect, trust, social inclusion and belonging. Whilst the project findings are directly rel-evant to the domain of countering violent extremism, they also contribute to a growing body of literature which con-siders the relationship between team-based sport, cross-cultural engagement and the development of social resilience, inclusion and belonging in other domains of youth engagement and community-building.

Gaming privacy : a Canadian case study of a children’s co-created privacy literacy game

This paper reports the process and outcomes of the design of a game that educates children about management of privacy online. Using a participatory action research process, children worked with the researchers to develop and play a game which simulates certain aspects of online privacy management and allows for scaffolded experiential learning in a safe environment. The game allows children to develop autonomous skills and understandings, not only for more effective learning but also because it is only through autonomy that children can develop a sense of self which is necessary for understanding what it means to be private. The paper shows that children have quite sophisticated understandings of privacy, compared with some adult perceptions, and that these understandings include awareness of the risks posed by commercial organisations seeking to gather personal data from them. The paper shows how engaging children as research and design participants can lead to more successful approaches in the development of privacy literacy.

Video Game Training and Reaction Time Skills Among Older Adults

The aim of the current study was to examine whether reaction time (RT) among older adults could be improved through video game training. Twenty-nine participants between the ages of 50 and 84 either played (N = 14) or did not play (N = 15) a video game, Pac-Man: Adventures in Time. All participants completed a pre- and postassessment of RT. Results from this study showed that there were no significant differences between the control and experimental groups on RT performance across time. These findings indicate that the amount of training provided may have been inadequate to improve RT skills. It is therefore important to investigate the amount of training required to allow older adults to respond faster to environmental stimuli and transfer skills to activities of daily living.

Analysis of serious non-AIDS events among HIV-infected adults at Latin American sites

Acquired immune deficiency appears to be associated with serious non-AIDS (SNA)-defining conditions such as cardiovascular disease, liver and renal insufficiency and non-AIDS-related malignancies. We analysed the incidence of, and factors associated with, several SNA events in the LATINA retrospective cohort.

Game of Tropes: the Orientalist tradition in the Works of G.R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels (and their television adaption, Game of Thrones) have become arguably the most well known fantasy epic of the last decade. However, the world of A Song of Ice and Fire conforms to many of the same Orientalist tropes that have dominated Western literature since the popularisation of the 'Arabian fantasy' in the 18th and 19th centuries and its subsequent perpetuation in film and television. Derivative imaginings of the real world Middle East are commonly reflected in non-Earthly fantasy worlds and Martin's work incorporates this standard vision of the Eastern Other. Owing to its popularity, the A Song of Ice and Fire series represents a significant reinforcement of Orientalist stereotypes and proves that fantasy locations have significant power to cement these ideas in the popular imagination. Moreover, the negative portyal of the East in these works supports Said's argument that the Orient is an invention of the West, and that our depiction of the Other is a means of framing our own cultural superiority.

Does playing a sports active video game improve young children's ball skill competence?

OBJECTIVES: Actual and perceived object control (commonly ball) skill proficiency is associated with higher physical activity in children and adolescents. Active video games (AVGs) encourage whole body movement to control/play the electronic gaming system and therefore provide an opportunity for screen time to become more active. The purpose of this study was to determine whether playing sports AVGs has a positive influence on young children's actual and perceived object control skills. DESIGN: Two group pre/post experimental design study. METHODS: Thirty-six children aged 6-10 years old from one school were randomly allocated to a control or intervention condition. The Test of Gross Motor Development-3 assessed object control skill. The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence for Young Children assessed perceived object control skill. The intervention consisted of 6×50min lunchtime AVG sessions on the Xbox Kinect. Two to three sport games were chosen for participants to play each session. General linear models with either perceived object control or actual object control skill as the outcome variables were conducted. Each base model adjusted for intervention status and pre-score of the respective outcome variable. Additional models adjusted for potential confounding variables (sex of child and game at home). RESULTS: No significant differences between the control and intervention groups were observed for both outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that playing the Xbox Kinect does not significantly influence children's perceived or actual object control skills, suggesting that the utility of the Xbox Kinect for developing perceived and actual object control skill competence is questionable.