An A-Z of Beatrix Potter

From Peter Rabbit to Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, The Tailor of Gloucester to The Fairy Caravan, the works and characters of Beatrix Potter have bewitched children the world over for more than a century – and have never been out of print. This lively and curious book explores Potter's works via a series of short, interlinked essays that take their starting point from 26 key words and phrases from her children's books, her letters, journals and other writings. For students and enthusiasts alike, this engaging collection of essays offers fresh angles on familiar Potter themes and topics (A is for Animal; C is for Clothes) whilst others cast light on uncharted corners of her imagination (D is for Dancing; U is for Uncanny; G is for Ginnett's Circus). Entries like F is for Fairy, T is for Trees, S is for Seasons and R is for Rabbit Tobacco look at topics related to race, gender and the environment as other essays use key words to open up discussion of Potter's legacies and impact (L is for Lake District; P is for Peter Rabbit; H is for The Horn Book), including global reception, TV and film adaptations, and the development of Potter's beloved Lake District as a thriving tourist destination. Paying close attention to the texts while also considering the broader contexts at play, this book broaches questions that offer intriguing ways into the works readers feel they know so well: how does a youthful encounter with a circus come to shape Potter's imagination? Why does eating and food feature so extensively in her writing and how does this relate to contemporary debates on diet and environmental crisis? Providing a close-up encounter with one of the most celebrated children's authors, this book invites new recognition of the ways in which Beatrix Potter's writing explores ideas which remain deeply relevant today, including the relationship between humans and the natural environments they inhabit

Seasonal forest resources support fish biomass in floodplain lakes of an Amazonian tributary

The Flood Pulse Concept is a foundational ecological theory that emphasizes the critical role of lateral connectivity between a river channel and its floodplain. Many tropical rivers inundate the surrounding floodplain in the flood stage, thereby receiving large amounts of terrestrial organic matter that can be decomposed by microbes and directly consumed by animals. This dynamic could simultaneously drive down oxygen concentrations while also supporting fish production. We used two lines of evidence to investigate the fate of terrestrial organic matter during the low‐ and high‐water seasons in the Juruá River, Amazonas, Brazil: spot measurements of dissolved oxygen and isotopic measurements (δ13C, δ15N) of fishes and food source pathways originating from C3 and C4 plants, phytoplankton, and periphyton. Dissolved oxygen concentrations were low (mean ≤ 3.0 mg/L) throughout the floodplain during high water, while higher values (mean = 6.5 mg/L) were evident during low water, suggesting variable rates of ecosystem respiration, production and atmospheric exchange across seasons. Most fish species, including the commercially and culturally important pirarucu (Arapaima sp.), had a strong dependence on terrestrial C3 plants during the falling‐water season (median source proportions 34%–77%), while fishes shifted to rely on the phytoplankton pathway (median proportions 11%–82%) during low water. Our results demonstrate that terrestrial C3 plant resources are channeled into the food web through detritivorous fishes, such as bodó (Liposarcus pardalis), and frugivorous fishes, such as pacu ( Mylossoma aureum ). During high water, a dispersed food web takes shape as fish move into the flooded forest, driven by terrestrial resources and accompanied by low oxygen conditions. During low water, a concentrated food web emerges in the remaining oxbow lakes, consistent with fast‐growing algal resources

Embedding anti racism in education with Professor Sally Elton-Chalcraft [podcast]

In this podcast series the University of Cumbria profiles its researchers, hearing in detail about their work and the impact this has on wider society. Professor Sally Elton-Chalcraft, Director of the Learning Education and Development Research Centre at the University of Cumbria, discusses addressing racism in education, with a focus on riots following the Southport stabbings (podcast duration: 30 minutes)

Rethinking early warning scores

Dr Stephanie Heys, Susan Rhind, Camella Main and Daisy Pegler discuss misplaced metrics when caring for pregnant and recently pregnant women in pre-hospital care. Despite escalating global concern around the high rates of morbidity and mortality in pregnant patients, the early signs of clinical deterioration in pregnant patients often go unrecognised, particularly in the pre-hospital environment (Ebert et al, 2020; McCullough et al, 2024). A critical, yet underappreciated, contributing factor is the application of generic early warning scores, such as the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2). The NEWS2 has been applied with a blanket approach in the pre‑hospital setting without considering groups of patients where they are not validated, such as pregnancy and immediately following pregnancy

Always make it current

No. 6 (June 2025) in the 'Mastery in Writing' series of articles: https://www.paramedicpractice.com/content/mastery-in-writing. Georgia Howat and David Hepworth joining you this month on the Mastery in Writing series. We were having a conversation about what constitutes an ‘up-to-date’ source/citation. It's a question students often ask, and the answer varies, context dependent on who, what and why you are referencing. You'll be familiar with 5–10 years as the suggestion for current evidence, which sounds reasonable in terms of currency – but isn't always when it comes to your academic writing. Let's think context

Balance training Parkinson

Introduction: The disease Parkinson give all in the beginning problems with walking and especially with the balance. The treatment ideas improve, this is great and is a great achievement, because now have people the feeling be active to “stopped” this disease and indeed, it will slow down the great number of symptoms that makes the quality of life very difficult. Design of this article: The purpose of the design was to search for the reason, why this aspect- balance- was so fragile and so fast affected. Then is the search for the functioning of the damaged brain the first” stop”, because there will be the answer, why people with this disease are using “cues” to get the influence of that damaged brain under control. Cues are capable to transform a freezing moment in movements- possibilities. That difference must be done in the brain and that means that are different ways to create a movement. Result: This fact that there are more possibilities to get a movement done, means that there is through this disease a problem to choose immediately the optimal way. This -not capable- to choose the optimal way, must have a reason and one of them is that the brain must choose for an pathological tone (rigidity) to master the gravity. Conclusion: Looking at the way people with the disease of Parkinson move and search for cues to get an better control and get the force of gravity under control, let us believe that this gravity force, forces people to use lower systems with an pathological tone and muscle pattern. This conclusion, direct us, that this gravity force asked for too much tone. That asked for measurement and treatments in which that tone increase isn’t necessary. So that the selectivity can be trained on his highest level

Developing occupational therapy and physiotherapy clinical support workers in their role in supporting student education

Introduction: Global healthcare services face increasing pressures and workforce shortages. But at the same time, there are increasing learners in practice as part of longer-term workforce strategies, which, in turn, create extra demands on educators and teams. Anecdotally, we understand that clinical support workers (CSWs) are sharing responsibilities for student learning, yet there is limited understanding of this involvement or activities to support role development. The aims of this study were to (1) explore the CSW role in the practice education of students and (2) evaluate a training programme for CSWs. Method: A mixed-methods design was utilised; 17 CSWs completed a survey prior to completing a training programme, and 11 participated in focus groups after the programme. Findings: We identified five themes: (1) supporting students is an expectation , (2) supporting students ‘boosts the role’ , (3) legitimacy of the CSW role to support students , (4) application of new learning to practice and (5) enablers and barriers to engagement with the programme. Conclusion: CSWs are part of practice education ‘Communities of Practice’, evidenced through regular involvement with student learning. Responsibilities for student learning are perceived as adding value, although there is an absence of structures to legitimise the role. CSWs identified barriers and enablers to engaging with the programme, such as blended learning approaches and management support

Over a decade later, what has changed? Updating the partner abuse state of knowledge articles and online database

As identified in the introduction to the first Partner Abuse State of Knowledge (PASK) issue (Hamel et al., 2012), the 1970s were a critical period in the development of our understanding about intimate partner violence (IPV) and its effects on victims and their families. This was a time when IPV was still considered a private matter, rather than the significant social and family problem that it is, but when, thankfully, there emerged the first widespread accounts of battered women, much of this via personal testimony, as well as the more methodologically-sophisticated, larger scale community-based and national surveys on the prevalence and severity of family violence in the home. Now, more than 50 years later, the wealth of data collected about IPV has generated a great deal of insight into its prevalence, gender differences, risk factors, motivation, and consequences, including he differences that exist across racial and ethnic groups as well as the LGBTQ+ communities. However, despite the evidence we now have about the dynamics and complexities of IPV, this information is not always made available, and there remains much debate about how it ought to inform public policy and clinical practice. Indeed, despite there being hope that this is changing and that a “revolution is taking place in the field of domestic violence” (Hamel & Nicholls, 2007; p. xxxix), there remains a gap between the extant research and practice. The articles contained in the original PASK project, published between 2012 and 2013 in this journal, were was the culmination of over 2 years of work by 42 authors, whose 17 manuscripts covered all of the major topic areas in the field of domestic violence. It remains the largest published database of information about IPV, with a total of 2,647 manuscript pages and tables, available online at www.domesticviolenceresearch.org. As an open access resource, PASK is importantly accessible to those beyond academia, across a wide range of sectors, from victim advocates, mental health professionals and other treatment providers to law enforcement and policy-makers and interested others, both within the US and more widely (e.g., within the United Kingdom). The webpage appears in the top Google results when using the search term “domestic violence research.” Furthermore, a search on Google Scholar found the original PASK research manuscripts have been cited over 5,500 times with the systematic review of the risk factors of IPV by Capaldi et al. (2012) having been cited alone over 2,000 times. This valuable and important database of evidence has clearly had a significant and international impact. The aim of the current update is to report on findings published since 2012 on all the significant topic areas and systematically synthesise these with the previous PASK reviews, to provide a comprehensive account of the current state of knowledge of the IPV literature. The current issue presents the first 5 of the 20 total articles to be published in this volume of Partner Abuse

“We’re not the right people to deal with it”: How policing the pandemic revealed significant inadequacies in UK mental health provision

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a variety of responses. While many UK public agencies were encouraged to close their doors, police officers continued to work enforcing the rapidly changing government restrictions and first responding to emergency incidents. One pre-existing responsibility was responding to people in mental health crisis; an area both fraught with complexity and where the police are often thought ill-equipped to handle (Trebilcock & Weston, 2019). Drawing on interviews with frontline police officers and other related personnel, this chapter exposes the inadequacy of mental health provision in the UK. While documenting how the police became the service of first and last resort for mental health by both agencies and service users long before the pandemic, we also illustrate how the Covid restrictions placed on officers exposed the extent of work they do with people presenting with mental ill health. To conclude, the chapter considers how the policing pandemic response to mental health offers contemporary and new challenges to the level of police involvement in this contested and complex area