The use of touch in developing a therapeutic relationship

The use of touch within health and social care is the focus of this article. The different types of touch will first be defined, before moving on to examine the many benefits that expressive touch can bring to the health and social care role and to developing a supportive therapeutic relationship between the support worker and their patient. Relevant sections of the Code of Conduct for Healthcare Support Workers and Adult Social Care Workers in England (Skills for Care and Skills for Health, 2013) will be highlighted throughout. The important aspects of communication, compassion and empathy will be explored. Touch is not always appropriate or welcomed by the patient, and the support worker must take into account preferences, cultural needs and beliefs while also gaining consent

Individual-level personality influences social foraging and collective behaviour in wild birds

There is increasing evidence that animal groups can maintain coordinated behaviour and make collective decisions based on simple interaction rules. Effective collective action may be further facilitated by individual variation within groups, particularly through leader-follower polymorphisms. Recent studies have suggested that individual-level personality traits influence the degree to which individuals use social information, are attracted to conspecifics, or act as leaders/followers. However, evidence is equivocal and largely limited to laboratory studies. We use an automated data-collection system to conduct an experiment testing the relationship between personality and collective decision-making in the wild. First, we report that foraging flocks of great tits (Parus major) show strikingly synchronous behaviour. A predictive model of collective decision-making replicates patterns well, suggesting simple interaction rules are sufficient to explain the observed social behaviour. Second, within groups, individuals with more reactive personalities behave more collectively, moving to within-flock areas of higher density. By contrast, proactive individuals tend to move to and feed at spatial periphery of flocks. Finally, comparing alternative simulations of flocking with empirical data, we demonstrate that variation in personality promotes within-patch movement while maintaining group cohesion. Our results illustrate the importance of incorporating individual variability in models of social behaviour

Isolation and individual electrical stimulation of single smooth-muscle cells from the urinary bladder of the pig

In contrast to striated muscle, measurements on strips of smooth muscle cannot be uniquely interpreted in terms of an array of contractile units. Therefore scaling down to the single-cell level is necessary to gain detailed understanding of the contractile process in this type of muscle. The present study describes the development of a method for isolating contractile single smooth muscle cells from pig urinary bladders. Contractile responses evoked by individual electrical stimulation were used as a measure of cell quality during development of the method. Responses were evaluated by measuring latency, contraction and relaxation times, as indicated by visible length changes, and stored on-line in a computer. Initial length, relative shortening and shortening speed were determined by measuring cell lengths in previously timed still video frames using a computer-controlled crosshair device. Increase of stimulus pulse duration resulted in improved responses, indicating that the observed shortening represented a physiological contractile response. Ultimately this method of evaluation was applied to two sets of cell preparations obtained by two different methods, one using only collagenase digestion, the other using mechanical manipulation as well. Both sets showed two main patterns of response to electrical stimulation: a pattern of contraction upon stimulation followed by enhanced contraction when stimulation was switched off (CK), and a pattern of contraction upon stimulation followed by relaxation when the stimulus was switched off (CR). The set of preparations containing the highest percentage of CR cells was found to be superior (i.e. greater initial length, shorter latency and contraction times, increased shortening and higher shortening speed). The method of isolation used for this set gives a high yield of contractile cells available for experimental use over a long span of time

Cartographie du Middelkerke Bank: dynamique sédimentaire, structure géologique, facies sédimentaires

The paper analyses the first results obtained in the framework of the RESECUSED project (MAST) whose objectives are the detailed analysis of the behaviour of sediments and bedforms of and on the Middelkerke Bank (Belgian Continental Shelf) and the study of the interaction between water movement, sediment transport and bedform mobility. The results include a preliminary analysis of the residual bottom load transport paths deduced from side scan sonar registrations, a map of the sandwaves on the bank, the first grain-size results of the superficial sediment and a study on the internal structure of the bank

Constraints on Earth system functioning at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum from the marine silicon cycle

The Paleocene‐Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ca. 56 Ma) is marked by a negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) and increased global temperatures. The CIE is thought to result from the release of 13C‐depleted carbon, although the source(s) of carbon and triggers for its release, its rate of release, and the mechanisms by which the Earth system recovered are all debated. Many of the proposed mechanisms for the onset and recovery phases of the PETM make testable predictions about the marine silica cycle, making silicon isotope records a promising tool to address open questions about the PETM. We analyzed silicon isotope ratios (δ30Si) in radiolarian tests and sponge spicules from the Western North Atlantic (ODP Site 1051) across the PETM. Radiolarian δ30Si decreases by 0.6‰ from a background of 1‰ coeval with the CIE, while sponge δ30Si remains consistent at 0.2‰. Using a box model to test the Si cycle response to various scenarios, we find the data are best explained by a weak silicate weathering feedback, implying the recovery was mostly driven by nondiatom organic carbon burial, the other major long‐term carbon sink. We find no resolvable evidence for a volcanic trigger for carbon release, or for a change in regional oceanography. Better understanding of radiolarian Si isotope fractionation and more Si isotope records spanning the PETM are needed to confirm the global validity of these conclusions, but they highlight how the coupling between the silica and carbon cycles can be exploited to yield insight into the functioning of the Earth system

Crises and collective socio-economic phenomena: simple models and challenges

Financial and economic history is strewn with bubbles and crashes, booms and busts, crises and upheavals of all sorts. Understanding the origin of these events is arguably one of the most important problems in economic theory. In this paper, we review recent efforts to include heterogeneities and interactions in models of decision. We argue that the Random Field Ising model (RFIM) indeed provides a unifying framework to account for many collective socio-economic phenomena that lead to sudden ruptures and crises. We discuss different models that can capture potentially destabilising self-referential feedback loops, induced either by herding, i.e. reference to peers, or trending, i.e. reference to the past, and account for some of the phenomenology missing in the standard models. We discuss some empirically testable predictions of these models, for example robust signatures of RFIM-like herding effects, or the logarithmic decay of spatial correlations of voting patterns. One of the most striking result, inspired by statistical physics methods, is that Adam Smith's invisible hand can badly fail at solving simple coordination problems. We also insist on the issue of time-scales, that can be extremely long in some cases, and prevent socially optimal equilibria to be reached. As a theoretical challenge, the study of so-called "detailed-balance" violating decision rules is needed to decide whether conclusions based on current models (that all assume detailed-balance) are indeed robust and generic.Comment: Review paper accepted for a special issue of J Stat Phys; several minor improvements along reviewers' comment