Volunteer support for mothers with new babies: perceptions of need and support received

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 55 mothers of infants. Some had received Home-Start during their infant’s first year, others were offered the support but declined and the remainder were not offered Home-Start. Most of their support had come from informal sources, such as family and friends with less from professionals. Mothers who received Home-Start described beneficial aspects, in particular, the extent of practical support provided, preferable to calling on close relatives or friends. Difficulties related to volunteer characteristics and administrative problems. Overall volunteer support can be important to complement informal and formal support, but needs careful management

A Public Christian Library: A Unique Model For Evangelism

The following profile article is designed to share an example of a unique model of ministry based on the concept and vision of a public Christian library located in a marketplace environment, open and available to the general public. Prague Christian Library, located in the capital city of the Czech Republic, was originally established and received government approval as a non-profit foundation in the Spring of 1999

Meson2006 Summary: Theory

This is a summary of theoretical plenary contributions to the biennial hadron physics conference Meson2006, which was the ninth in this series. The topics covered in the meeting include low energy pion-pion and pion-nucleon interactions, photoproduction and hadronic production of light mesons and baryons,in-medium effects, recent developments in charmed mesons, charmonia and B mesons, the status of exotica, and some related topics such as final state interactions. In this contribution we review and summarize the plenary talks presented by theorists at the meeting, and emphasize some of the main points of their presentations. Where appropriate we will add brief comments on some aspects of QCD spectroscopy. Finally, following tradition, we conclude with a new Feynman story.Comment: 4 pages, 1 Feynman story. Invited summary talk (theory) at the 9th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interactions MESON2006 (Krakow, 9-13 June 2006

Origin and Dynamics of the Mutually Inclined Orbits of Upsilon Andromedae c and d

We evaluate the orbital evolution and several plausible origins scenarios for the mutually inclined orbits of Upsilon Andromedae c and d. These two planets have orbital elements that oscillate with large amplitudes and lie close to the stability boundary. This configuration, and in particular the observed mutual inclination, demands an explanation. The planetary system may be influenced by a nearby low-mass star, Upsilon And B, which could perturb the planetary orbits, but we find it cannot modify two coplanar orbits into the observed mutual inclination of ~30 deg. However, it could incite ejections or collisions between planetary companions that subsequently raise the mutual inclination to >30 deg. Our simulated systems with large mutual inclinations tend to be further from the stability boundary than Upsilon And, but we are able to produce similar systems. We conclude that scattering is a plausible mechanism to explain the observed orbits of Upsilon And c and d, but we cannot determine whether the scattering was caused by instabilities among the planets themselves or by perturbations from Upsilon And B. We also develop a procedure to quantitatively compare numerous properties of the observed system to our numerical models. Although we only implement this procedure to Upsilon And, it may be applied to any exoplanetary system.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, accepted to Astrophysical Journa

Exploring QCD: from LEAR to GSI

In this invited contribution I briefly review some of the principal topics in hadron spectroscopy that were studied at the CERN low-energy antiproton facility LEAR, from its beginnings in the early 1980s to the present. These topics include the nature of multiquark systems, the short-ranged nuclear force, and gluonic hadrons, including glueballs and hybrids. Lessons we have learned from the LEAR program that are relevant to the future GSI project are given particular emphasis.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Invited presentation to LEAP03, Yokohama, Japan, 3-7 March 200

Exotics and all that

This invited contribution summarizes some of the more important aspects of exotics. We review theoretical expectations for exotic and nonexotic hybrid mesons, and briefly discuss the leading experimental candidate for an exotic, the pi_1(1600).Comment: 4 pages. Invited contribution to Electron-Nucleus Scattering VII, Elba, 24-28 June 200

Rational Z_p-Equivariant Spectra

We find a simple algebraic model for rational G-equivariant spectra, where G is the p-adic integers, via a series of Quillen equivalences. This model, along with an Adams short exact sequence, will allow us to easily perform constructions and calculations.Comment: 24 page

Disability, the Organization of Work, and the Need for Change

[Excerpt] There is considerable historical and anthropological evidence that impairment is a human constant and that cultural responses to perceived abnormalities of the body and mind vary across time, culture and place. It is equally evident that throughout recorded history western society has systematically discriminated against or excluded various groups of people on the basis of perceived biological inferiority, and that this exclusion became systematic following the material and ideological changes associated with capitalist development. The combination of industrialisation, urbanisation, and associate ideologies including: liberal utilitarianism, Social Darwinism, and Eugenics, provided ‘scientific’ legitimacy to ancient myths, fears and prejudices, and the gradual but intensifying commodification of every day life. As a result \u27work\u27 became almost exclusively associated with wage labour and paid employment. This precipitated the development of an employment infrastructure geared to the needs of those deemed \u27capable\u27 of this type of activity. Hence, those considered incapable of work, and labelled \u27disabled\u27 were, apart from in, and immediately following, times of war, excluded from the workplace. This legacy remains with us today. Discrimination against disabled people is therefore institutionalised in the very fabric of western society; consequently, disabled people encounter a whole range of material, political and cultural barriers to meaningful mainstream employment and social participation