The Prevalence of Rough Sleeping and Sofa Surfing Amongst Young People in the UK

Whilst data on statutory homelessness is well recorded in the UK, there is a lack of data on informal homelessness (such as ‘sofa surfing’) and rough sleeping, other than that which relies on partial information and street counts. This paper presents findings from a recent online survey of young people and helps to fill this gap. It found that rates of sofa surfing and rough sleeping among young people were much higher than previously thought. Twenty-six percent of young people (aged 16–25) had slept rough at some point in their life and 35 percent had ‘sofa surfed’ (stayed with friends or family on their floor or sofa because they had nowhere else to go). The paper explores the implications of this for how we conceptualise homelessness. It suggests that homelessness may often be neither cause nor consequence of wider forms of exclusion, but that we may need to explore further the factors that enable some people to move swiftly out of homelessness more easily than others.CentrepointThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Cogitatio Press via https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v4i4.59

The Choice Between Fixed and Random Effects Models: Some Considerations for Educational Research

We discuss fixed and random effects models in the context of educational research and set out the assumptions behind the two approaches. To illustrate the issues, we analyse the determinants of pupil achievement in primary school, using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. We conclude that a fixed effects approach will be preferable in scenarios where the primary interest is in policy-relevant inference of the effects of individual characteristics, but the process through which pupils are selected into schools is poorly understood or the data are too limited to adjust for the effects of selection. In this context, the robustness of the fixed effects approach to the random effects assumption is attractive, and educational researchers should consider using it, even if only to assess the robustness of estimates obtained from random effects models. When the selection mechanism is fairly well understood and the researcher has access to rich data, the random effects model should be preferred because it can produce policy-relevant estimates while allowing a wider range of research questions to be addressed. Moreover, random effects estimators of regression coefficients and shrinkage estimators of school effects are more statistically efficient than those for fixed effects.fixed effects, random effects, multilevel modelling, education, pupil achievement

The Choice between fixed and random effects models: some considerations for educational research.

We discuss the use of fixed and random effects models in the context of educational research and set out the assumptions behind the two modelling approaches. To illustrate the issues that should be considered when choosing between these approaches, we analyse the determinants of pupil achievement in primary school, using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. We conclude that a fixed effects approach will be preferable in scenarios where the primary interest is in policy-relevant inference about the effects of individual characteristics, but the process through which pupils are selected into schools is poorly understood or the data are too limited to adjust for the effects of selection. In this context, the robustness of the fixed effects approach to the random effects assumption is attractive, and educational researchers should consider using it, even if only to assess the robustness of estimates obtained from random effects models. On the other hand, when the selection mechanism is fairly well understood and the researcher has access to rich data, the random effects model should naturally be preferred because it can produce policy-relevant estimates while allowing a wider range of research questions to be addressed. Moreover, random effects estimators of regression coefficients and shrinkage estimators of school effects are more statistically efficient than those for fixed effects.fixed effects, random effects, multilevel modelling, education, pupil achievement

Is a liberal framework of individual rights sufficient to make sense of the harms of wrongful discrimination, and can such a framework provide effective remedies for those harms?

Liberalism holds that each of us is entitled to certain rights necessary for our freedom and autonomy, including rights protecting our property and person, a right to deliberative freedom, and to freedom of association. A liberal understanding of wrongful discrimination (‘discrimination’) is predicated on a rights-based analysis of what discrimination is. Thus anti-discrimination law is characterised as an interference with deliberative freedom, and a failure to respect autonomy. A rights-based response to discrimination is cast in terms of the protection and enforcement of rights, but a liberal concern with rightsconflict and unjustified state coercion is used to defend the limited scope of anti-discrimination law. I argue that anti-discrimination law fails to protect the victims of discrimination in the exercise of their rights, or otherwise to remedy the harms of discrimination. I rely on Hohfeld’s conceptual account of the form of rights, noting the basic two-party jural relationship, the strict correlativity between specific rights and duties, the powers associated with rights, and the distinction between in rem and in personam remedies. I argue that a liberal framework of individual rights does not provide a conceptual or practical basis for a remedial response to discrimination. I question the enforcement of moral rights that have no legal rights analogue, but argue in any event that anti-discrimination rights-remedies – legal or moral – are generally only compensatory rather than remedial. They do not put a rights-holder who suffers discrimination in the same position as a rights-holder who is not discriminated against, and is able to enjoy her rights freely, subject only to permissible interference. I argue that discrimination requires a remedial response based on a causal rather than a simply moralised, rights-based analysis of its harm

Supporting pro-amateur composers using digital audio workstations

This thesis investigates the activity of pro-amateur composers in order to identify possible design improvements to a category of composition software called digital audio workstations. Pro-amateur composers are composers who are not full-time professional musicians but who have a considerably greater level of expertise than amateurs. In contrast to the collaborative settings that this group is normally studied in this thesis will focus on situations where pro-amateur composers work independently. Existing research on the use of composition software is reviewed, revealing that the composition process can involve a wide variety of component activities and overarching macro structures, and that other aids are often used in addition to composition software. Studies have also indicated that the design of composition software may constrain the creativity of composers. Four important considerations are identified for studying composers: triangulating multiple data capture methods, avoiding study designs that constrain what activities can be observed, capturing use of any external aids, and studying the use of a variety of composition software (or a prototype design) to mitigate any constraints that are due to the software's design. Four pro-amateur composers were observed composing in their usual environments using a methodology based on interaction analysis. Based on information recorded about the settings, artefacts used, and activities carried out, three major patterns are observed. Firstly, existing tools support different composition activities to varying degrees, with additional support needed for improvisation, reflection, and auditioning incompletely specified material; secondly, composers make coordinated use of multiple representations; and finally, composers make use of strategies that enable selective allocation of time and effort (habituation, limited exploration, and self-constraining). Previous authors have used many different notions of external cognition when studying the use of composition software. A literature review of such studies identifies techniques that can be applied to improve the representations used in composition software. Seven techniques are described: selective representation, diverse media types, structured representations, incomplete specification, representing alternatives, task lists, and representing history. A detailed review of evidence from the literature and the observational study is used to identify implementation suggestions for each technique. The technique of task lists has been studied significantly less in the literature on composition software and appears to be a fruitful avenue for further exploration. A prototype to-do list website designed for coordinated use with Ableton Live is created to further investigate the task lists technique by studying how it is used by five pro-amateur composers. Using thematic analysis of interviews triangulated with video recordings and logs, four main themes are identified: using to-do lists to plan and focus, changing to-do list items over time, organising to-do lists, and applicability of to-do lists. Seven key patterns of activity that are enabled by task lists are also described: planning activity, journalling activity, interleaving activities, reflection, organising the to-do list, idea capture, and collaboration. Task lists appear to be useful because explicitly representing tasks, processes, and plans helps the composer to consider those subjects; and also because task lists ease many related activities, such as tracking incomplete work, monitoring deviation from a planned creative direction, or identifying and re-using useful strategies. Two important considerations for design of task lists in DAWs are identified: how task lists are integrated with the DAW, and how to increase the visibility of the composer's activity. For both considerations, specific suggestions are made for how these could be achieved

Facial fatness as a complicating factor in facial reconstruction

Includes bibliographical referencesAlthough it is a reasonable assumption that a significant proportion of the variation in facial tissue thicknesses comes from anatomical differences between populations, we do not know how much of normal variation is caused by including the full range of individual obesity or slimness. Current population standard soft tissue thickness data used in facial reconstructions ignores the variation between individuals which, in theory, could be greater than the variation between populations or sexes. The aim of this study was to test if facial tissue thickness is due to the amount of sub - cutaneous fat, sex or racial origins. Methods currently used do not give a true reflection of the individual because they ignore the variation in fatness. An initial study determined if a corrective value for the non - linear distortion found between radiographic images and the physical tissues was needed. This was done by imaging cadaver heads and taking measurements from the images and the physical heads. The results demonstrated that measurements taken from LODOX® images are analogous with soft tissue measurements. Volunteers were then sought from the student body and had physical measurements and X - rays taken. The measurements allowed for both BMI and body fat percentage to be calculated. Analysis showed that body fat percentage had less of an impact than BMI, with the areas of the face most affected by change in fatness being around the chin, jaw and cheek. Analysis of the variances showed that fatness has a low impact on the soft tissues of the different ancestry groups, while having a greater impact on the soft tissues of the different sexes. The effect of changing fatness on the soft tissues is not seen in all areas of the face, but to ignore it in facial reconstruction ignores that the success of a reconstruction is not exactness but in its ability to incite recognition and lead to potential identification of the unknown target individual

Agonistic Interventions into Public Commemorative Art:An Innovative Form of Counter-memorial Practice?

In light of recent controversies around the removal or modification of public commemorative art, such as memorials and monuments, this paper interrogates the value of competing approaches to counter-memorial practice using the framework of agonistic memory. It argues that much counter-memorial practice today, as it relates to historical memory, is dominated by a “cosmopolitan” mode that fails to offer a convincing response to the rise of right-wing populism and its instrumentalization of conflicts over public commemorative art. The article investigates two case studies of counter-memorial interventions that focus on the memory of fascism in Europe today and seeks to identify and assess emergent agonistic practices

Maternal health in Lao PDR : repositioning the goal posts

This paper reviews attempts made in the Lao People\u27s Democratic Republic (PDR) to achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5: Improve Maternal Health and its two targets: (1) to reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio and (2) to achieve universal access to reproductive health. It will be shown that significant strides have been made in relation to both the targets, especially in the province of Xayaboury where the contraceptive prevalence rate is the highest and maternal mortality is the lowest in the country. That said, it is unlikely that either target will be realised by 2015 for the nation as a whole. Some of the reasons for this are canvassed such as problems with the existing health infrastructure and its personnel, the cost of health care, the demographic profile and cultural expectations of women of childbearing age, geographic barriers, the absence of communication and transport infrastructure and the influence of international donors on how monies are expended. As discussions now begin to set the framework for the post-MDG compact of the international community to address poverty and well-being, it would be valuable to consider the multiplicity of factors which directly impact maternal and infant mortality rates (such as family planning, age at first birth, access to antenatal care and government expenditure on maternal health care) and explain what causes change, over non-contextualised statistics that simply report changes

Human visual search behaviour is far from ideal

Evolutionary pressures have made foraging behaviours highly efficient in many species. Eye movements during search present a useful instance of foraging behaviour in humans. We tested the efficiency of eye movements during search using homogeneous and heterogeneous arrays of line segments. The search target is visible in the periphery on the homogeneous array, but requires central vision to be detected on the heterogeneous array. For a compound search array that is heterogeneous on one side and homogeneous on the other, eye movements should be directed only to the heterogeneous side. Instead, participants made many fixations on the homogeneous side. By comparing search of compound arrays to an estimate of search performance based on uniform arrays, we isolate two contributions to search inefficiency. First, participants make superfluous fixations, sacrificing speed for a perceived (but not actual) gain in response certainty. Second, participants fixate the homogeneous side even more frequently than predicted by inefficient search of uniform arrays, suggesting they also fail to direct fixations to locations that yield the most new information

Revisiting fixed- and random-effects models: some considerations for policy-relevant education research

The use of fixed (FE) and random effects (RE) in two-level hierarchical linear regression is discussed in the context of education research. We compare the robustness of FE models with the modelling flexibility and potential efficiency of those from RE models. We argue that the two should be seen as complementary approaches. We then compare both modelling approaches in our empirical examples. Results suggest a negative effect of special educational needs (SEN) status on educational attainment, with selection into SEN status largely driven by pupil level rather than school-level factors