18,848 research outputs found

    Identifying and responding to people with mild learning disabilities in the probation service

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    It has long been recognised that, like many other individuals, people with learningdisabilities find their way into the criminal justice system. This fact is not disputed. Whathas been disputed, however, is the extent to which those with learning disabilities arerepresented within the various agencies of the criminal justice system and the ways inwhich the criminal justice system (and society) should address this. Recently, social andlegislative confusion over the best way to deal with offenders with learning disabilities andmental health problems has meant that the waters have become even more muddied.Despite current government uncertainty concerning the best way to support offenders withlearning disabilities, the probation service is likely to continue to play a key role in thesupervision of such offenders. The three studies contained herein aim to clarify the extentto which those with learning disabilities are represented in the probation service, toexamine the effectiveness of probation for them and to explore some of the ways in whichprobation could be adapted to fit their needs.Study 1 and study 2 showed that around 10% of offenders on probation in Kent appearedto have an IQ below 75, putting them in the bottom 5% of the general population. Study 3was designed to assess some of the support needs of those with learning disabilities in theprobation service, finding that many of the materials used by the probation service arelikely to be too complex for those with learning disabilities to use effectively. To addressthis, a model for service provision is tentatively suggested. This is based on the findings ofthe three studies and a pragmatic assessment of what the probation service is likely to becapable of achieving in the near future

    Radical Left Parties and the Role of Euroscepticism

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    Globalization has shifted the political competition landscape in Western Europe. Extensive research has studied the impact of this on the radical right, yet little attention has been paid to the radical left. This dissertation, comprised of three papers, analyses the impact of the increased European integration emphasis on the radical left. My first paper analyses whether there is a beneficial policy position for the radical left on European integration. The chapter finds that there is an electoral benefit to a Eurosceptic position for radical left parties but also shows that this benefit is constrained when a Eurosceptic competitor, i.e. radical right party, enters the party system. My second paper follows from this and examines an alternative approach for the radical left on European integration. While the benefit of a Eurosceptic position can be constrained, blurring the position on European integration can help avoid losing pro-EU voters. The chapter finds that position blurring on EU integration is beneficial when there is electorate polarization but harmful when the electorate is in consensus on EU integration. When there is consensus, radical left parties benefit from a clear position on EU integration. My third paper is co-authored with Royce Carroll and zooms into the findings of the first two chapters by examining the demand side of Euroscepticism. The paper finds that European integration is an important issue for vote choice of the electorate. The results of the chapter show that the more Eurosceptic voters are, the higher their propensity to vote for a radical left party becomes. These three papers demonstrate how the issue of European integration is in the centre of radical left strategy from a supply and demand side perspective. This thesis contributes to the literature by providing a detailed understanding of the success of small parties beyond their issue ownership

    Strategies for Early Learners

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    Welcome to learning about how to effectively plan curriculum for young children. This textbook will address: • Developing curriculum through the planning cycle • Theories that inform what we know about how children learn and the best ways for teachers to support learning • The three components of developmentally appropriate practice • Importance and value of play and intentional teaching • Different models of curriculum • Process of lesson planning (documenting planned experiences for children) • Physical, temporal, and social environments that set the stage for children’s learning • Appropriate guidance techniques to support children’s behaviors as the self-regulation abilities mature. • Planning for preschool-aged children in specific domains including o Physical development o Language and literacy o Math o Science o Creative (the visual and performing arts) o Diversity (social science and history) o Health and safety • Making children’s learning visible through documentation and assessmenthttps://scholar.utc.edu/open-textbooks/1001/thumbnail.jp

    Image classification over unknown and anomalous domains

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    A longstanding goal in computer vision research is to develop methods that are simultaneously applicable to a broad range of prediction problems. In contrast to this, models often perform best when they are specialized to some task or data type. This thesis investigates the challenges of learning models that generalize well over multiple unknown or anomalous modes and domains in data, and presents new solutions for learning robustly in this setting. Initial investigations focus on normalization for distributions that contain multiple sources (e.g. images in different styles like cartoons or photos). Experiments demonstrate the extent to which existing modules, batch normalization in particular, struggle with such heterogeneous data, and a new solution is proposed that can better handle data from multiple visual modes, using differing sample statistics for each. While ideas to counter the overspecialization of models have been formulated in sub-disciplines of transfer learning, e.g. multi-domain and multi-task learning, these usually rely on the existence of meta information, such as task or domain labels. Relaxing this assumption gives rise to a new transfer learning setting, called latent domain learning in this thesis, in which training and inference are carried out over data from multiple visual domains, without domain-level annotations. Customized solutions are required for this, as the performance of standard models degrades: a new data augmentation technique that interpolates between latent domains in an unsupervised way is presented, alongside a dedicated module that sparsely accounts for hidden domains in data, without requiring domain labels to do so. In addition, the thesis studies the problem of classifying previously unseen or anomalous modes in data, a fundamental problem in one-class learning, and anomaly detection in particular. While recent ideas have been focused on developing self-supervised solutions for the one-class setting, in this thesis new methods based on transfer learning are formulated. Extensive experimental evidence demonstrates that a transfer-based perspective benefits new problems that have recently been proposed in anomaly detection literature, in particular challenging semantic detection tasks

    Walking with the Earth: Intercultural Perspectives on Ethics of Ecological Caring

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    It is commonly believed that considering nature different from us, human beings (qua rational, cultural, religious and social actors), is detrimental to our engagement for the preservation of nature. An obvious example is animal rights, a deep concern for all living beings, including non-human living creatures, which is understandable only if we approach nature, without fearing it, as something which should remain outside of our true home. “Walking with the earth” aims at questioning any similar preconceptions in the wide sense, including allegoric-poetic contributions. We invited 14 authors from 4 continents to express all sorts of ways of saying why caring is so important, why togetherness, being-with each others, as a spiritual but also embodied ethics is important in a divided world

    The applied psychology of addictive orientations : studies in a 12-step treatment context.

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    The clinical data for the studies was collected at The PROMIS Recovery Centre, a Minnesota Model treatmentc entre for addictions,w hich encouragesth e membership and use of the 12 step Anonymous Fellowships, and is abstinence based. The area of addiction is contextualised in a review chapter which focuses on research relating to the phenomenon of cross addiction. A study examining the concept of "addictive orientations" in male and female addicts is described, which develops a study conductedb y StephensonM, aggi, Lefever, & Morojele (1995). This presents study found a four factor solution which appeared to be subdivisions of the previously found Hedonism and Nurturance factors. Self orientated nurturance (both food dimensions, shopping and caffeine), Other orientated nurturance (both compulsive helping dimensions and work), Sensation seeking hedonism (Drugs, prescription drugs, nicotine and marginally alcohol), and Power related hedonism (Both relationship dimensions, sex and gambling. This concept of "addictive orientations" is further explored in a non-clinical population, where again a four factor solution was found, very similar to that in the clinical population. This was thought to indicate that in terms of addictive orientation a pattern already exists in this non-clinical population and that consideration should be given to why this is the case. These orientations are examined in terms of gender differences. It is suggested that the differences between genders reflect power-related role relationships between the sexes. In order to further elaborate the significance and meaning behind these orientations, the next two chapters look at the contribution of personality variables and how addictive orientations relate to psychiatric symptomatology. Personality variables were differentially, and to a considerable extent predictably involved with the four factors for both males and females.Conscientiousness as positively associated with "Other orientated Nurturance" and negatively associated with "Sensation seeking hedonism" (particularly for men). Neuroticism had a particularly strong association with the "Self orientated Nurturance" factor in the female population. More than twice the symptomatology variance was explained by the factor scores for females than it was for males. The most important factorial predictors for psychiatric symptomatology were the "Power related hedonism" factor for males, and "Self oriented nurturance" for females. The results are discussed from theoretical and treatment perspectives

    Strung pieces: on the aesthetics of television fiction series

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    As layered and long works, television fiction series have aesthetic properties that are built over time, bit by bit. This thesis develops a group of concepts that enable the study of these properties, It argues that a series is made of strung pieces, a system of related elements. The text begins by considering this sequential form within the fields of film and television. This opening chapter defines the object and methodology of research, arguing for a non-essentialist distinction between cinema and television and against the adequacy of textual and contextual analyses as approaches to the aesthetics of these shows. It proposes instead that these programmes should be described as televisual works that can be scrutinised through aesthetic analysis. The next chapters propose a sequence of interrelated concepts. The second chapter contends that series are composed of building blocks that can be either units into which series are divided or motifs that unify series and are dispersed across their pans. These blocks are patterned according to four kinds of relations or principles of composition. Repetition and variation are treated in tandem in the third chapter because of their close connection, given that variation emerges from established repetition. Exception and progression are also discussed together in the fourth chapter since they both require a long view of these serial works. The former, in order to be recognised as a deviation from the patterns of repetition and variation. The latter, In order to be understood in Its many dimensions as the series advances. Each of these concepts is further detailed with additional distinctions between types of units, motifs, repetitions, variations, and exceptions, using illustrative examples from numerous shows. In contrast, the section on progression uses a single series as case study, Carnivàle (2003-05), because this is the overarching principle that encompasses all the others. The conclusion considers the findings of the research and suggests avenues for their application

    Identification of new regenerative therapies in reproductive medicine and their application as a future therapeutic approach for endometrial regeneration

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    El útero es uno de los principales órganos internos del sistema reproductor femenino. Está compuesto de tres capas tisulares: perimetrio, miometrio y endometrio. Esta última capa recubre la cavidad intrauterina y es responsable directa de la implantación embrionaria (para la cual necesita un grosor endometrial mínimo). Entre las patologías que afectan al endometrio pueden distinguirse, entre otras, la atrofia endometrial (insuficiente grosor endometrial) y el síndrome de Asherman (presencia de adhesiones intrauterinas y tejido fibrótico), las cuales conforman el hilo conductor de esta tesis, compuesta de 4 artículos científicos. En ambos casos, el tejido endometrial se encuentra degenerado, lo que dificulta la implantación embrionaria, ocasionando problemas de fertilidad. A día de hoy, ninguna de estas patologías cuenta con una cura totalmente efectiva. Hasta el momento, una de las opciones terapéuticas más prometedora es la inyección de células madre. Por ello, el primer objetivo de esta tesis fue evaluar como la inyección de células madre derivadas de la médula ósea (aisladas con la detección del antígeno CD133), que había resultado ser efectiva tanto en un modelo humano como en uno animal, estaba modificando el endometrio molecularmente. Para así, intentar entender cuáles son los mecanismos paracrinos a través de los cuales llevan a cabo su acción terapéutica. Este primer estudio reveló que estas células madre parecían estar promoviendo la regeneración endometrial mediante la creación de un escenario inmunomodulador (sub-expresión del gen CXCL8), que daría paso a la sobreexpresión de genes involucrados en la regeneración tisular, como SERPINE1, IL4, y JUN. Otro tratamiento que ha ido ganando acepción con los años es el plasma rico en plaquetas, eje central del manuscrito 2. Este manuscrito evidencia como este plasma, especialmente si proviene de sangre de cordón umbilical, es capaz de promover procesos celulares, como la migración y la proliferación de las células endometriales, así como eventos regenerativos en un modelo animal con daño endometrial inducido. Sea cual sea la aproximación terapéutica de elección, se ha hipotetizado que esta regeneración tisular podría surgir de la estimulación del nicho de células madre presente en el endometrio. Es por ello que el objetivo 3 supuso el estudio de los trabajos publicados, tanto de modelos murinos como humanos, relativos a esta población de células madre endometriales. Esta búsqueda permitió concluir que aún quedan lagunas de conocimiento, bien sea en la definición de marcadores celulares específicos o en de la contribución de la médula ósea a este nicho de células madre endometriales. Finalmente, dada la mencionada falta actual de una terapia definitiva para las pacientes con atrofia endometrial o síndrome de Asherman, el cuarto y último objetivo de esta tesis supuso el estudio de todas aquellas aproximaciones que se han llevado a cabo en modelos animales que simulan este tipo de patologías humanas. Este trabajo concluyó que si bien están emergiendo nuevas terapias muy prometedoras, como son aquellas derivadas de la bioingeniería (por ejemplo, uso de hidrogeles o biomoldes), todavía falta perfeccionar y estandarizar los modelos tanto animales como in vitro que permitan una mejor traslación clínica de las mismas.The uterus is one of the main internal organs of the female reproductive system. It is composed of three different tissue layers: perimetrium, myometrium, and endometrium. This last layer covers the intrauterine cavity and is directly responsible for embryo implantation (for which it needs a certain minimum endometrial thickness). Among the pathologies affecting the endometrium, we can distinguish, among others, endometrial atrophy (characterized by an insufficient endometrial thickness) and Asherman's syndrome (a rare disease characterized by the presence of intrauterine adhesions and fibrotic tissue), which form the common thread of this thesis, composed of four original manuscripts. In both cases, the endometrial tissue is degenerated, which hinders the correct embryo implantation, causing then fertility problems. To date, none of these pathologies has a totally effective cure. So far, one of the most promising therapeutic options is the injection of stem cells. Therefore, the first objective was to evaluate how the infusion of bone marrow-derived stem cells (isolated with the antigen CD133), which had proven effective in both a human and an animal model, was modifying the endometrium at the molecular level. Then, this work aimed to understand the paracrine mechanisms through which these cells were carrying out their therapeutic and regenerative action over the endometrial tissue. This first study revealed that these stem cells appeared to be promoting endometrial regeneration by creating an immunomodulatory scenario (down-regulation of the CXCL8 gene), which would give way to the over-expression of genes (SERPINE1, IL4, and JUN) involved in tissue regeneration. Another treatment gaining acceptance over the years is a blood derivate, platelet-rich plasma, which was the focus of the second manuscript. This work shows how this plasma, mainly derived from umbilical cord blood rather than adult peripheral blood, can promote cellular processes, such as cell migration and proliferation of different types of endometrial cells (from primary culture and from stem cell lines). These plasmas also revealed how they triggered the over-expression of certain proteins involved in regenerative events in a mouse model with induced endometrial damage. Whatever the therapeutic approach of choice, it has been hypothesized that regeneration could arise from stimulation of the stem cell niche present in the endometrium. That is why objective three involved studying those works, both murine and human models, concerning this population of endometrial stem cells. This search concluded that there are still gaps in knowledge, either in the definition of specific endometrial stem cell markers or in the contribution of the bone marrow to this endogenous endometrial stem cell niche. Finally, given the aforementioned current lack of definitive therapy for patients with endometrial atrophy or Asherman's syndrome, the last objective involved studying all those approaches that have been carried out in animal models that simulate this type of human pathology. This work concluded that although new therapies are emerging, such as those derived from bioengineering (e.g. use of decellularized scaffolds or hydrogels), there is still a need to perfect and standardize both animal and in vitro models to allow a better clinical translation of these therapies

    THE DREAM OF A ZERO WASTE SOCIETY: EXPLORING THE PRACTICES AND BEHAVIOURS OF WASTE GENERATION IN GREATER MEXICO CITY

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    This research aims to re-conceptualise consumption and waste generation through a broader set of theoretical questions and analytical methodologies to establish a more holistic theoretical framework for comprehending the global South's "waste crisis." This thesis is primarily based on the following question: "why do we dispose of things?". By focusing on practices and behaviours of consumption and disposal by citizens of GMC, this thesis seeks to unpack the networks, symbols, skills, and meanings of these practices. This moves the conceptualisation of waste generation away from being conceived as an irremediable consequence of population growth or as primary responsibility on the consumers' shoulders. Therefore, this thesis proposes that consumers are embedded in a "throwaway environment" that pushes them toward unsustainable practices. However, this does not mean that the consumers have a "throwaway culture"; consumers might be "carriers" of practices, but they are still active participants. By unravelling the multiple layers of framing that aggregate into the consumption and disposal of citizens in GMC, we shall see how GMC society's historical, social, and political framework serves as dispositions that guide an individual to act. This study focuses on modifying the narrative of considering consumers as careless, lazy, or consumption-driven. It also sheds light on how ignoring these behaviours and practices will only bring temporary and reactionary solutions when dealing with waste. This dissertation also offers an analytical framework that explores how consumers' elements interrelate and are synergetic. By re-conceptualising consumption and waste generation, I propose not focusing on the insidious moral narrative of whether consumption and disposal are acceptable and to what degree. Instead, we should concentrate on a policy strategy that will help reduce the flow of materials. As a result, we might be able to curve a waste crisis by accepting shared responsibility (mostly borne by governments and businesses
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