Health needs assessment of children in secure settings

The project was commissioned by the former East Midlands CSIP Office on behalf of the relevant PCTs. To examine the physical and mental health status of children in secure settings using structured assessment tools To identify current healthcare provision To identify gaps when needs and provision are compared To provide information to help develop outcomes for children and young people To contribute to the development of recommendations for commissioner

Prison mental health spend in the East Midlands 2007-2009

Prison mental health spend in the East Midlands 2007-200

Health needs assessment of short sentence prisoners

Health Needs Assessment of Short Sentence Prisoner

A health needs assessment of offenders on probation caseloads in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire - report of a pilot study

This study was commissioned by the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) in the East Midlands to investigate the health needs of a sample group offenders managed by The Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Probation Services

The transportation of Narain Sing: punishment, honour and identity from the Anglo–Sikh Wars to the Great Revolt

This paper examines fragments from the life of Narain Sing as a means of exploring punishment, labour, society and social transformation in the aftermath of the Anglo–Sikh Wars (1845–1846, 1848–1849). Narain Sing was a famous military general who the British convicted of treason and sentenced to transportation overseas after the annexation of the Panjab in 1849. He was shipped as a convict to one of the East India Company's penal settlements in Burma where, in 1861, he was appointed head police constable of Moulmein. Narain Sing's experiences of military service, conviction, transportation and penal work give us a unique insight into questions of loyalty, treachery, honour, masculinity and status. When his life history is placed within the broader context of continuing agitation against the expansion of British authority in the Panjab, we also glimpse something of the changing nature of identity and the development of Anglo–Sikh relations more broadly between the wars of the 1840s and the Great Indian Revolt of 1857–1858

Reduced neural sensitivity to social stimuli in infants at risk for autism

In the hope of discovering early markers of autism, attention has recently turned to the study of infants at risk owing to being the younger siblings of children with autism. Because the condition is highly heritable, later-born siblings of diagnosed children are at substantially higher risk for developing autism or the broader autism phenotype than the general population. Currently, there are no strong predictors of autism in early infancy and diagnosis is not reliable until around 3 years of age. Because indicators of brain functioning may be sensitive predictors, and atypical social interactions are characteristic of the syndrome, we examined whether temporal lobe specialization for processing visual and auditory social stimuli during infancy differs in infants at risk. In a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study, infants aged 4–6 months at risk for autism showed less selective neural responses to social stimuli (auditory and visual) than low-risk controls. These group differences could not be attributed to overall levels of attention, developmental stage or chronological age. Our results provide the first demonstration of specific differences in localizable brain function within the first 6 months of life in a group of infants at risk for autism. Further, these differences closely resemble known patterns of neural atypicality in children and adults with autism. Future work will determine whether these differences in infant neural responses to social stimuli predict either later autism or the broader autism phenotype frequently seen in unaffected family members

Pyrrhotite and associated sulphides and their relationship to acid rock drainage in the Halifax Formation, Meguma Group, Nova Scotia

The physical disruption of sulphide-bearing metasedimentary rocks of the Halifax Formation leads to oxidation of iron-sulphide minerals and the generation of acid rock drainage (ARD). Although pyrrhotite occurs in many places throughout the Halifax Formation, previous ARD studies have not considered in detail the mineral chemistry, texture, and distribution of this mineral nor how these factors may potentially influence the development of ARD. For this study, pyrrhotite-bearing samples of the Halifax Formation were collected in the field and from drill core at four locations in southwestern Nova Scotia. Samples were taken from different geological settings, such as proximal and distal to granitic intrusions and from different stratigraphic positions, to obtain a variety of mineral assemblages. Petrographic, microprobe and X-ray diffraction work indicate that the pyrrhotite in all samples is mainly monoclinic Fe7Sg, and its composition is relatively homogeneous regardless of geological environment. Inclusions of chalcopyrite and detectable quantities of As, Co and Ni are common. In regionally metamorphosed, grecnschist-facies areas, pyrrhotite is preferentially aligned along cleavage planes and thus is easily accessible to oxidizing air and fluids. Because pyrrhotite is regionally developed, contains potentially toxic trace elements, and occurs along cleavage planes, it is considered to play a significant role in ARD development in the Halifax Formation. Also, pyrrhotite oxidizes substantially faster than many other sulphide minerals and may be especially significant in the early stages of ARD. RÉSUMÉ La dislocation physique des roches métasédimentaires sulfuriféres de la Formation d'Halifax mène à une oxydation des minéraux renfermant du sulfure de fer ainsi qu'à la production d'exhaures de roches acide (ERA). Même si on relève la présence de pyrrhotine en de nombreux endroits partout à l'intérieur de la Formation d'Halifax, les études antérieures des ERA ne se sont pas attardées de fa÷on approfondie sur la nature chimique minérale, la texture et la répartition de ce minéral ni sur la manière dont ces facteurs peuvent éventuellemcnt influer sur l'apparition des ERA. Les chercheurs ont, aux fins de cette étude, prélevé sur le terrain ainsi que sur des carottes de sondage à quatre emplacements dans le sud-ouest de la Nouvelle-Écosse, des échantillons de la Formation d'Halifax renfermant de la pyrrhotine. On a prélevé les échantillons de différents cadres géologiques stratigraphiques, comme des intrusions proximales et distalcs à granitiques et différentes positions stratigraphiques, afin d'obtenir toute une variété d’associations minérialogiques. Des travaux à la microsonde, de diffraction aux rayons X et pétrographiques révèlent que la pyrrhotine de tous les échantillons est essentiellement du F7Sg monoclinique et qu'elle est d'une composition relativement homogene, peu importe I'environnement géologique. Les inclusions de chalcopyrite et de quantités détectablcs d'As, de Co et de Ni sont courantes. Dans les secteurs des faciès des schistes verts régionalement métamorphisés, la pyrrhotine est principalement alignée le long de plans de clivage et elle est ainsi facilement accessible aux fluides et à l'air oxydants. Vu la présence régionale de la pyrrhotine, vu qu'elle renferme des éléments traces pouvant être toxiques et vu qu'elle sc trouve le long de plans de clivage, on considère qu'elle joue un rôle prépondérant dans la production des ERA à l'intérieur de la Formation d'Halifax. La pyrrhotine s'oxyde par ailleurs bcaucoup plus rapidement que de nombreux autres minéraux sulfurls et ce facteur peut être particulièrement déterminant dans les premiers stades de la production des ERA. [Traduit par la rédaction

Short-changed: spending on prison mental health care

Last year, £20.8 million was spent on mental health care in prisons through inreach teams. This is 11% of total prison health care spending or just over £300 for each member of the prison population. Prison inreach teams aim to provide the specialist mental health services to people in prison that are provided by community-based mental health teams for the population at large. But inreach teams have been hindered by limited resourcing, constraints imposed by the prison environment, difficulties in ensuring continuity of care and wide variations in local practice. Government policy for prison health care is based on the principle of equivalence. This means that standards of care for people in prison should be the same as those available in the community at large, relative to need. The level of need for mental health care in prisons is particularly high, because of the much greater prevalence of mental illness, especially severe mental illness, among prisoners than among people of working age in the general population. While more is spent per head on mental health care in prisons than in the wider community, this is not nearly enough to accommodate this much higher level of need. The resources currently available for mental health care in prisons are only about a third of the amount required to deliver the policy objective of equivalence. Spending on prison mental health care also varies widely across the country. In London and in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber, the NHS spends more than twice as much per prisoner than it does in the East Midlands and the South West. This variation cannot be explained by different levels of need or costs: it amounts to a postcode lottery in prison mental health care. Major investment is needed in the overall level of provision for mental health care in prisons and in its geographical allocation if equivalence is ever to be achieve

Test–retest reliability of functional near infrared spectroscopy in infants

Abstract. There has been a rapid rise in the number of publications using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for human developmental research over the past decade. However test–retest reliability of this measure of brain activation in infants remains unknown. To assess this, we utilized data from a longitudinal cohort who participated in an fNIRS study on social perception at two age points. Thirteen infants had valid data from two sessions held 8.5 months apart (4 to 8 months and 12 to 16 months). Inter- and intrasession fNIRS test–retest reliability was assessed at the individual and group levels using the oxyhemoglobin (HbO2) signal. Infant compliance with the study was similar in both sessions (assessed by the proportion of time infants looked to the stimuli), and there was minimal discrepancy in sensor placement over the targeted area between sessions. At the group level, good spatial overlap of significant responses and signal reliability was seen (spatial overlap was 0.941 and average signal change within an region of interest was r=0.896). At participant level, spatial overlap was acceptable (>0.5 on average across infants) although signal reliability varied between participants. This first study of test–retest reliability of fNIRS in infants shows encouraging results, particularly for group-based analysis

The fundamental rights of irregular migrant workers in the EU : understanding and reducing protection gaps

Published: July 2022This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, aims to inform policy debates about how to protect more effectively the fundamental rights of irregular migrant workers in the EU. It analyses the nature and causes of the gaps between the fundamental rights protections enshrined in EU legal standards and the rights realised by irregular migrants working in EU Member States in practice, and it discusses strategies for how these ‘protection gaps’ can be reduced