SAGE Insight is moving

Dear Readers,

In June 2010 we launched SAGE Insight, this blog puts the spotlight on topical and interesting journal research, new and archived published in our journals. SAGE Insight was created to support our passion and commitment to widening access to (and the public understanding of) research, especially social research.  The articles on SAGE Insight provide a fresh perspective on major issues facing the public and policy makers.  SAGE Insight will move location next week and will be available through SAGE Connection.

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The move will make it even easier to stay up to date on the latest research trends along with the usual top tips and industry round ups you’ve come to expect from this blog. You can follow SAGE Insight posts by registering for email alerts at 
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We hope you continue to enjoy this blog. If it covers topics that you find interesting, use these articles to spread the debate: write about it on your blog, microblog, or newsletter. Link to us, or if you’re a SAGE journals author suggest your article for inclusion.

Lorna McConville
Senior Research and Development Marketing Manager
SAGE

 

Using mobile phone apps in weight-loss programs

Design and pilot results of a mobile phone weight-loss application for women starting a meal replacement programme

From Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare

Mobile phones using text messaging and monitoring have been shown to be useful additions to health programs. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a weight-loss intervention delivered by a smartphone app that supported individuals embarking on a diet and that was evidenced-based. Researchers developed and tested a mobile phone application (app) to support individuals embarking on a partial meal replacement program (MRP).

Overweight or obese women were randomly allocated to one of two study groups an intervention group and a control group. The intervention group received an MRP Support app. The control group received a static app based on the information available with the MRP. A total of 58 adult women) participated in the 8-week trial. Objective data suggested that users of the Support app were more engaged than those using the control app.  Women in the intervention group reported a greater increase in positive affect (i.e. mood) than those in the control group. At Week 8, those in the control group reported a greater decrease in the effort they were willing to put into staying on the diet than those who received the Support app  Preliminary data suggests that the MRP Support app has the potential to increase positive mood and maintain motivation during a weight loss programme. This study indicates that the support app could be a useful adjunct to existing MRPs for psychological outcomes.

Does Physical Education matter?

Do the duration and frequency of physical education predict academic achievement, self-concept, social skills, food consumption, and body mass index?

From Health Education Journal

This paper assesses more comprehensively than previous studies whether PE continues to have relevance in producing desirable, policy-based outcomes in United States (US) schools as a whole. It evaluates PE in terms of its relationships with BMI, academic achievement, social skills, and self-concept. More simply put, this study helps to answer the question: does PE matter?

 

What are the effects of the great recession on local governments?

Special issue: The new normal: local governments after the Great Recession

From State and Local Government Review

This special issue documents the crisis affecting city and county governments following the Great Recession.  It examines the severity and potentially lasting changes brought about by the economic downturn and presents new data collected from local government administrators. The lead article documents the profound challenges facing local governments in this new era. In a survey of 580 city and county governments, nearly half cited budget shortfalls as a top problem.  This important new research sheds light on the challenges faced by city and county governments that must provide most basic services. Other articles in this Special Issue take up complementary themes. This Special Issue is a collaboration between SLGR and the National Association of Counties and National League of Cities.

 

Moderate voices muted in political news

Moderatism or Polarization? Representation of Advocacy Groups’ Ideology in Newspapers

From Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

While commentators and scholars argue that political groups have become more polarized in the US, this study finds that moderate political groups are not as well covered in newspaper articles as more radical right and left-wing groups. “Extremes are more intuitively novel, entertaining, and colorful, representing another common news value,” wrote the authors “Moderate voices may be more difficult to portray as exciting than extreme voices.”

208 political advocacy groups that represented a range of political ideologies were examined as they were represented across 118 newspapers. The authors found that groups that expressed more polarized opinions on political issues were mentioned in larger newspapers, appeared earlier in articles, and were mentioned in more paragraphs. The authors wrote, “More people had the opportunity to note those groups, fueling perceptions of those groups as important or legitimate.”

The cancer fighting properties of breast milk

Human colostrum and breast milk contain high levels of tnf-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)

From  Journal of Human Lactation 

The benefits of breast milk are well known, but why breastfeeding protects against various forms of cancer remains a mystery. This study found high levels of cancer-fighting TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) in human milk, which might be one source of breast milk’s anticancer activity. Researchers took samples of colostrum, the first milk available to newborns, and of mature breast milk from new mothers. Researchers then obtained samples of blood from healthy women, and various ready-to-feed infant formulas. The colostrum, mature breast milk, blood and formula were then all tested to measure their level of TRAIL. The researchers found that colostrum and breast milk contained 400- and 100-fold, respectively, higher levels of TRAIL than blood. No TRAIL was detected in the formula.

“The important role of breastfeeding in the prevention of certain childhood cancers, such as lymphoblastic leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, and neuroblastoma, has been previously demonstrated,” wrote the authors. “However, endogenous soluble TRAIL represents a strong candidate to explain the overall biological effect of breastfeeding against cancer.”

Violent video games turning gamers into deadly shooters

Boom, headshot!”: Effect of video game play and controller type on firing aim and accuracy

From Communication Research

Playing violent shooting video games can improve firing accuracy and influence players to aim for the head when using a real gun this study finds. The researchers tested 151 college students by having them play different types of violent and non-violent video games, including games with human targets in which players are rewarded for hitting the targets’ heads. After playing the game for only 20 minutes, participants shot 16 bullets from a realistic gun at a life-size, human-shaped mannequin. Participants who played a violent shooting game using a pistol-shaped controller hit the mannequin 33% more than did other participants and hit the mannequins’ head 99% more often. The researcher’s findings remained significant even after controlling for firearm experience, attitudes about gun use, amount of exposure to violent shooting games, and overall level of aggressiveness of the player. The authors conclude “These results indicate the powerful potential of video games to teach or increase skills, including potentially lethal weapon use.”

Free access to Autism articles to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day

Selection of articles

From Autism

To mark World Autism Awareness Day 2012 SAGE has freed access to the top 3 downloaded articles for the Autism journal.

• Evidence-Based Practices and Autism
• Social Stories^TM to improve social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review
• Increasing social responsiveness in a child with autism: A comparison of music and non-music interventions

Visit the landing page to find, for a limited period, free access to the top 10 cited and top downloaded articles for this journal.

Witnessing the UK Wootton Bassett repatriations through media images: Implications for victimology

Witnessing Wootton Bassett: An exploration in cultural victimology

From Crime Media Culture

Wootton Bassett is a small town in England. It is situated close to the Royal Air Force Lyneham base where service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are repatriated. Media reporting and similar visual witnessing of repatriations has become a frequent occurrence since the first spontaneous saluting of what was then a small procession by Royal British Legion members in 2007. Since that time UK military deaths from the war in Afghanistan have reached over 350, As the number of people present at the repatriations has steadily increased, it would seem that this is an impulse expressing a collective grief. This paper explores the ‘public performance’ and ‘witnessing’ of these events. It identifies three themes within the photographs of the processions: the compression of private and public grief; gothicism and the emergence of ‘dark tourism’; and displays of resistance. In conclusion the article explores the implications of this analysis for victimology.

Male Genital Mutilation: Beyond the tolerable?

From Ethnicities

This article aims to show that, if Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) warrants the serious attention of policy-makers, then so too, despite quantitative differences, does Male Genital Mutilation (MGM). FGM is viewed by many as marking the boundary of toleration. Regarded as a painful, injurious, medically unnecessary tool of sexual control, inflicted by coercive communities on vulnerable individuals. However Male circumcision is believed generally to be benign, uncontroversial and medically justified. To regard it as intolerable or ‘repugnant’ is, for many, ridiculous. The author aims to enable liberals to overcome, often justifiable, claims of ethnocentricity, in order to develop a consistent approach to harmful cultural practices. The author argues that it is inconsistent not to object to both – even if greater priority is given to opposing the more invasive forms of FGM.