Framing and reframing drug ‘problems’ in prison spaces and populations

During the last 20–30 years, drug use and drug selling have emerged as prioritised ‘problems’ within many prison contexts around the world. Drug ‘problems’ in prisons are simultaneously framed as both problems of crime and control and problems of well-being and health, and the populations in prisons involved in drugs are framed as both criminal and in need of treatment. These frames often compete, conflict and converge with each other, but in the prison space, these conflicts and convergences within the drugs debate are intensified. Most countries have responded with dual policies consisting of offering drug treatment while at the same time imposing increasing control and disciplinary sanctioning for drug ‘transgressions’ whether this is related to use or trade. Drawing on the approach to framing developed by Rein and Schon (1993) and elaborated on by van Hulst and Yanow (2016), the different levels of framing are explored in this chapter, firstly by examining the international and national levels of framing of drug ‘problems’ in prison (i.e. framing from above) drawing on contemporary policy frameworks and then by considering the ways in which those imprisoned adapt and respond to these frames and how they frame and reframe their involvement with drug use and supply in prisons (i.e. framing from below)

Drugs in prisons: exploring use, control, treatment and policy

Drugs are an increasingly salient concern in many prisons around the world. Specific prison drug policies are made, drugs are illegally used and legally prescribed, drug use and drug sale is sanctioned, drug profits are generated, and drug use is an important public health and treatment priority in most prisons. A growing number of prisoners are using drugs and a large proportion of people who use drugs have been in prison. As a consequence of such developments, everyday life in many prisons is dictated by drug-related issues. The purpose of this Special Issue is to critically examine and advance research relating to the growth in use, control and treatment of drugs within the prison environ- ment as well as research on relevant governmental policies and practices. The articles highlight a diverse range of issues including the dynamic nature of the drugs problem in prison in relation to the substances being used, how they are administered, the meanings and motives associated with drug use and dealing and the way in which the drug market operates, but also the ways in which supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction responses have developed within different prison settings. The papers draw on a range of different quantitative and qualitative research designs and methodologies, highlighting the voices of the prisoners themselves as well as the practitioners and policy- makers who are tasked with dealing with the problem of drugs in prisons

Time scale of entropic segregation of flexible polymers in confinement: Implications for chromosome segregation in filamentous bacteria

We report molecular dynamics simulations of the segregation of two overlapping chains in cylindrical confinement. We find that the entropic repulsion between the chains can be sufficiently strong to cause segregation on a time scale that is short compared to the one for diffusion. This result implies that entropic driving forces are sufficiently strong to cause rapid bacterial chromosome segregation.Comment: Minor changes. Added some references, corrected the labels in figure 6 and reformatted in two columns. Also added reference to published version in PR

Modelling and testing of long range battery electric vehicle performance

There are two significant issues facing road transport in the medium to long term: the depletion of cheap oil reserves and the need to reduce carbon emissions. A long term solution for passenger cars could be the introduction of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). However, one of the main problems associated with the current generation of BEVs is their short range relative to conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.To investigate this issue, a long range battery electric vehicle, the UltraCommuter (UC), was constructed by the University of Waikato in partnership with HybridAuto Ltd. This paper describes the development, modelling and testing of the UC and its performance in the 2007 World Solar Challenge.<br /

General aviation piston-engine exhaust emission reduction

To support the promulgation of aircraft regulations, two airports were examined, Van Nuys and Tamiami. It was determined that the carbon monoxide (CO) emissions from piston-engine aircraft have a significant influence on the CO levels in the ambient air in and around airports, where workers and travelers would be exposed. Emissions standards were set up for control of emissions from aircraft piston engines manufactured after December 31, 1979. The standards selected were based on a technologically feasible and economically reasonable control of carbon monoxide. It was concluded that substantial CO reductions could be realized if the range of typical fuel-air ratios could be narrowed. Thus, improvements in fuel management were determined as reasonable controls

A study of the stress wave factor technique for nondestructive evaluation of composite materials

The acousto-ultrasonic method of nondestructive evaluation is an extremely sensitive means of assessing material response. Efforts continue to complete the understanding of this method. In order to achieve the full sensitivity of the technique, extreme care must be taken in its performance. This report provides an update of the efforts to advance the understanding of this method and to increase its application to the nondestructive evaluation of composite materials. Included are descriptions of a novel optical system that is capable of measuring in-plane and out-of-plane displacements, an IBM PC-based data acquisition system, an extensive data analysis software package, the azimuthal variation of acousto-ultrasonic behavior in graphite/epoxy laminates, and preliminary examination of processing variation in graphite-aluminum tubes

A study of the stress wave factor technique for evaluation of composite materials

The acousto-ultrasonic approach for nondestructive evaluation provides a measurement procedure for quantifying the integrated effect of globally distributed damage characteristic of fiber reinforced composite materials. The evaluation procedure provides a stress wave factor that correlates closely with several material performance parameters. The procedure was investigated for a variety of materials including advanced composites, hybrid structure bonds, adhesive bonds, wood products, and wire rope. The research program focused primarily on development of fundamental understanding and applications advancements of acousto-ultrasonics for materials characterization. This involves characterization of materials for which detection, location, and identification of imperfections cannot at present be analyzed satisfactorily with mechanical performance prediction models. In addition to presenting definitive studies on application potentials, the understanding of the acousto-ultrasonic method as applied to advanced composites is reviewed

Tunnel junctions of unconventional superconductors

The phenomenology of Josephson tunnel junctions between unconventional superconductors is developed further. In contrast to s-wave superconductors, for d-wave superconductors the direction dependence of the tunnel matrix elements that describe the barrier is relevant. We find the full I-V characteristics and comment on the thermodynamical properties of these junctions. They depend sensitively on the relative orientation of the superconductors. The I-V characteristics differ from the normal s-wave RSJ-like behavior.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 4 (encapsulated postscript) figures (figures replaced