Introduction: The effectiveness of impact assessment instruments

The global application of impact assessment instruments to achieve a variety of policy integration goals (e.g. the mainstreaming of environmental, gender or economic efficiency concerns) continues to proliferate. These instruments represent important components of contemporary political governance and hence are an important locus for applied research. This special issue of Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal critically examines 'state-of-the-art' knowledge and understanding of the effectiveness of impact assessment instruments. Six articles explore this subject from a variety of orientations (in terms of theoretical versus empirical emphasis, policy integration concerns, contributors' beliefs and framing etc.). Individually and cumulatively, these articles make a powerful contribution to learning about the 'thorny' issue of effectiveness and its implications for the theory and practice of impact assessment

Assessing the different dimensions and degrees of risk of child sexual abuse in institutions

This research report has been published by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It identifies four dimensions of risk of child sexual abuse in institutional settings: situational, vulnerability, propensity and institutional risks. It draws on the existing research to examine how risk factors might operate cumulatively in the context of institutions. It examines to what extent various risk factors are more likely to occur in some institutions or activities than in others

Care Planning and Review for Looked After Children: Fifteen Years of Slow Progress?

This Critical Commentary reviews progress in research into planning and reviewing for children in care in England and Wales since the publication of two major studies in the late 1990s (roughly coinciding with the New Labour period). It briefly considers the changing context of law, regulation and guidance and the aims and objectives of the care planning and review system. It then reviews the limited research literature available, in relation to a series of key topics. Consideration is also given to guides for children and practitioners on the subject. The commentary concludes by suggesting that this is an area in which research has failed to keep pace with changes in policy and practice, and recommends a more systematic approach

Clinically relevant investigation of flattening filter-free skin dose

As flattening filter-free (FFF) photon beams become readily available for treatment delivery in techniques such as SBRT, thorough investigation of skin dose from FFF photon beams is necessary under clinically relevant conditions. Using a parallel-plate PTW Markus chamber placed in a custom water-equivalent phantom, surface-dose measurements were taken at 2 × 2, 3 × 3, 4 × 4, 6 × 6, 8 × 8, 10 × 10, 20 × 20, and 30 × 30 cm2 field sizes, at 80, 90, and 100 cm source-to-surface distances (SSDs), and with fields defined by jaws and multileaf collimator (MLC) using multiple beam energies (6X, 6XFFF, 10X, and 10XFFF). The same set of measurements was repeated with the chamber at a reference depth of 10 cm. Each surface measurement was normalized by its corresponding reference depth measurement for analysis. The FFF surface doses at 100 cm SSD were higher than flattened surface doses by 45% at 2 × 2 cm2 to 13% at 20 × 20 cm2 for 6 MV energy. These surface dose differences varied to a greater degree as energy increased, ranging from +63% at 2 × 2 cm2 to -2% at 20 × 20 cm2 for 10 MV. At small field sizes, higher energy increased FFF surface dose relative to flattened surface dose; while at larger field sizes, relative FFF surface dose was higher for lower energies. At both energies investigated, decreasing SSD caused a decrease in the ratios of FFF-to-flattened surface dose. Variability with SSD of FFF-to flattened surface dose differences increased with field size and ranged from 0% to 6%. The field size at which FFF and flattened beams gave the same skin dose increased with decreasing beam energy. Surface dose was higher with MLC fields compared to jaw fields under most conditions, with the difference reaching its maximum at a field size between 4 × 4 cm2 and 6 × 6 cm2 for a given energy and SSD. This study conveyed the magnitude of surface dose in a clinically meaningful manner by reporting results normalized to 10 cm depth dose instead of depth of dose maximum

HERA prospects on Compositeness and New Vector Bosons

The absence of deviations from the Standard Model for the differential cross section ${d\sigma}/{dQ^2}$ at HERA is used to set limits on electron quark compositeness scale and on new vector bosons, especially the hadrophilic one recently introduced as a possible explanation for LEP/SLC and CDF anomalies.Comment: Latex file, 7 pages and 1 ps fig, few comments on others experiments are added, results are unchanged. To appear in Phys. Let.

Shifting landscapes: from coalface to quick sand? Teaching geography, earth and environmental sciences in UK higher education

In this paper we examine contemporary academic working lives, with particular reference to teaching-only and teaching-focused academics. We argue that intensification in the neoliberal university has significantly shifted the structure of academic careers, while cultural stories about those careers have not changed. We call for academics to re-examine our collective stories about standard academic career paths. Challenging the stories and making visible the ways that they create and multiply disadvantage is a crucial step in expanding the possibilities for academic identities and careers. The paper begins by describing teaching-focused academics within the context of the wider workforce. We then draw on narratives of those in these roles to illustrate the processes that (re)inscribe their marginalisation. We uncover the gendering of the teaching-focused academic labour market. We end the paper by suggesting interventions that all academics can take and support to address the issues we highlight

Psychosis and sexual abuse: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: J. E. Rhodes, N. D. O’Neill, and P. W. Nel, ‘Psychosis and sexual abuse: An interpretative phenomenological analysis’, Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, March 2018, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2189. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the first-person perspective of psychosis sufferers who survived childhood sexual abuse. Methods: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to explore the experiences of 7 women with a history of sexual abuse and psychosis. Results: Analysis generated six themes: (a) degradation of self, interlinking shame, guilt, and sometimes disgust; (b) body-self entrapment, experiencing bodily constraint and distortion; (c) a sense of being different to others, involving interpersonal problems; (d) unending struggle and depression, a pervasive sense of defeat; (e) psychotic condemnations and abuse, describing psychotic phenomena related to harm and sexual abuse; and (f) perception of links to the past, the links made from past abuse to current functioning. Conclusion: Participants suffered extreme psychological, physical, and interpersonal difficulties past and present. Psychotic experiences reported exhibited themes of condemnation by external entities and reflected the topic of sexual abuse. Participants did not generally link psychosis to their past abusive experiences.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio