Barrier

• New York, Sept. 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) announced today the awarding of 37 new grants with a total funding commitment of $8.4 million toward neuromuscular disease research.
• The newly funded projects aim to advance research discoveries and new therapy development in multiple areas including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD), limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), myotonic dystrophy (DM), and many more.
• “The Muscular Dystrophy Association has consistently been a leader in advancing treatments for people living with muscular dystrophy, ALS and related neuromuscular diseases,” said Donald S. Wood, Ph.D., President and CEO, Muscular Dystrophy Association.
• Internship recipients and mentors included:
  These are just a few of the many grants the Muscular Dystrophy Association has pledged to support.

• In the wake of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the federal government has announced A$200 million for women’s sport.
• The money will go towards improving sporting facilities and equipment for women, making women’s sport available on free-to-air television and supporting grassroots initiatives to recruit and retain women and girls in sport.
• There is much to celebrate in funding commitments dedicated specifically to women and girl’s sport.

Barriers to participation

Women and girls encounter a range of barriers to sport participation, including:
• Building facilities and ensuring elite women’s sport is on free-to-air TV will go some way to normalising women in sport, but all of these barriers must be addressed to recruit and retain young and amateur female players.
• Some young women may be motivated by competitive sport, but others might be interested in the social aspects.
• When more women are in leadership positions in grassroots sport, their interests are more likely to be reflected in decision-making.
• Read more:
  For postpartum moms, playing team sports boosted well-being and helped manage unrealistic expectations of motherhood

Better access to existing facilities

• In this, the issue is not about the provision of facilities but about lack of equitable use of these facilities.
• If clubs focused on equitable use of existing facilities – with shared access to facilities and time slots – then funding for women’s sport could be targeted at other areas of need.
• Under this policy, to access infrastructure funding, local councils and sport clubs will need to demonstrate their fair access plans for equitable use of facilities.

Better coaching practices

• These players sometimes need nuanced approaches to coaching to acknowledge and address those differences.
• A key success factor in coaching women is the ability for coaches to empower and support female athletes.
• Updating coaching courses to integrate specific training for supporting female athletes is an important area the federal government funding should target.

• Chandran has been awarded $60,000 as winner of this year’s prestigious Miles Franklin Award.
• Read more:
  Queer disobedience and uncomfortable truths: your guide to the 2023 Miles Franklin shortlist

Australian racism and Sri Lanka’s civil war

• Her debut novel, Song of the Sun God, was longlisted for the international Dublin Literary Award, shortlisted for Sri Lanka’s Fairway National Literary Awards and is currently being adapted for a television series.
• Her second novel, The Barrier, was shortlisted for the Norma K. Hemming Award for Speculative Fiction.
• “Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens follows the lives of residents and staff at a nursing home in Western Sydney,” explains Chandran.
• “It’s set against the backdrop of rising racism in contemporary Australia, but it also flashes back to the residents’ ancestral homeland of Sri Lanka, decades before, during the country’s civil war.” The novel was inspired by Chandran’s observations of rising tensions around race and racism in contemporary Australia’s culture and politics.

Vessel for uneasy truths

• This is not easy material and fiction sometimes gives us just the right vessel for carrying uneasy truths.
• My chief criticism of the book is that there’s a lot going on – sometimes too much at once.
• Book club members of Australia, it’s time to talk frankly and at length about race and racism in our own neighbourhoods.

• The research highlights critical insights, such as:
  85% of enterprises invest in cloud technologies, but only 19% have embraced and effectively use them to improve their business.
• Enterprises are facing pressures to maximize resources, and this strategic shift will inspire innovation and drive impact," said Manju Naglapur, senior vice president of cloud, applications & infrastructure solutions at Unisys.
• Cloud is still a key driver for business growth, with 85% of companies either increasing cloud spend or planning to over the next two years.
• Organizations should focus on optimizing their existing cloud infrastructure to achieve greater progress and realize the value of their cloud investments.