Brief Therapy: The Process of Change and Episodes of Care

Brief therapy seems to be all the rage today. In most countries, third party payers, government health bodies, and service provider agencies are increasingly demanding “cost-benefit” or “cost-effectiveness” support for all outpatient psychotherapy. Employers supporting employee assistance programs, to help workers through life difficulties, are equally interested in the most time-effective interventions to retain valued employees and restore their productivity. In truth, it is the rare client who wouldn’t choose a treatment promising the quickest resolution to their distress. Yet, what is brief therapy, and is the pressure to practice it causing more problems for practitioners than the approach promises to fix? Are there any central factors to guide us in this pressure-toproduce environment

Assessment of contact involvements and scrums in international rugby union match-play using video analysis and microsensor technology methods

This study sought to assess the validity of contact involvement (CI) detection using microsensor technology (MST, Catapult Vector) within the context of a Tier One national rugby union (RU) squad, consisting of 44 players. Sensitivity of MST units to detect CI and scrums was assessed in eight test matches, by comparison with match data obtained by video analysis. This paper is the first to assess the sensitivity of MST to the full range of skilled CI which occur in RU, including evaluating “non-performance” collisions, such as incidental collisions or foul play. Sensitivity to tackles made (52.9–84.9%) and ruck hits (53.3–87.2%) was lower than previous research, although ball carries (71.9–93.5%) showed broadly similar sensitivity to established results. The sensitivity of the MST to detect scrums was substantially lower than previous findings, with large positional variation evident (51.4–91.5%). Further refinement of MST software should be considered in order to facilitate valid monitoring of RU performance and injury risk. An additional finding was that video analysis generally demonstrated satisfactory intrarater reliability. This result supports the use of video analysis as a reliable method of assessing RU performance, including CI

Sunmaster: An SEP cargo vehicle for Mars missions

Options are examined for an unmanned solar powered electric propulsion cargo vehicle for Mars missions. The 6 prime areas of study include: trajectory, propulsion system, power system, supporting structure, control system, and launch consideration. Optimization of the low thrust trajectory resulted in a total round trip mission time just under 4 years. The argon propelled electrostatic ion thruster system consists of seventeen 5 N engines and uses a specific impulse of 10,300 secs. At Earth, the system uses 13 engines to produce 60 N of thrust; at Mars, five engines are used, producing 25 N thrust. The thrust of the craft is varied between 60 N at Earth and 24 N at Mars due to reduced solar power available. Solar power is collected by a Fresnel lens concentrator system using a multistacked cell. This system provides 3.5 MW to the propulsion system after losses. Control and positioning to the craft are provided by a system of three double gimballed control moment gyros. Four shuttle 'C' launches will be used to transport the unassembled vehicle in modular units to low Earth orbit where it will be assembled using the Mobile Transporter of the Space Station Freedom

A study of football footwear bending stiffness

For the past century, football boots have constantly changed, with new designs and materials being developed by sporting goods manufacturers to meet player demands. Investigating the effect of such changes on performance was important to further develop football boots. Bending stiffness has been demonstrated as an important performance parameter in running footwear; a concept with potential to investigate football footwear. As football boots consisted of an upper and an outsole, with the latter being manufactured from a far stiffer material than the upper, it could be speculated that the outsole limits the boot's flexibility. The aim of this paper was to create a testing device to quantify whether the whole shoe needed to be considered when designing football boots. The test device consisted of a simplified foot based on biomechanical factors linked to an Instron machine to quantify the load during bending. The bending stiffness of the uppers and boots were found to be non-linear, highlighting the need to specify the angle at which the stiffness was recorded. The upper was shown to have a significant effect on the bending stiffness of the overall boot construction, whilst different upper constructions were shown to affect the bending stiffness. With regard to the findings in this paper, it was concluded that the upper was an important consideration in boot design. © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Networked territorialism: the routes and roots of organised crime

In the digital age, space has become increasingly structured by the circuitry of global capital, communications and commodities. This ‘network society’ splinters and fragments territorial space according to the hidden logic of networked global capital; with successful criminal entrepreneurs connecting bases in low-risk, controllable territories with high-profit markets. Drawing on a recent, large-scale study of organised crime in Scotland, in this paper we elaborate the relationship between place, territory and criminal markets in two contrasting communities. The first is an urban neighbourhood with a longstanding organised crime footprint, where recognised local criminal groups have established deep roots. The second is a rural community with a negligible organised crime footprint, where the drug economy is serviced by a mobile criminal network based in England. Through comparison of the historical roots and contemporary routes of these criminal markets, we note both similarity and difference. While both communities demonstrated evidence of ‘networked territorialism’, key differences related to historical and social antecedents, in particular the impact of deindustrialisation

Pasture Improvement Needs and Options for New Zealand Sheep and Beef Farms

In recent years in New Zealand, sheep and beef farming has been outcompeted for prime land. This means that the government and industry targets to increase sheep and beef production have to be achieved on farms with significant constraints on pasture production. They are increasingly restricted to hilly and other locations with variable climates and soils, and landscape constraints on farming practices. Thus there are limits on the ability to improve pasture production – whether by pasture renewal or through means like grazing management, fertiliser use, or weed and pest control

Circulating levels of anti-angiogenic VEGF-A isoform (VEGF-Axxxb) in colorectal cancer patients predicts tumour VEGF-A ratios

Purpose: Bevacizumab as an adjunct to chemotherapy improves survival for some patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Immunohistochemical staining of samples from the registration ECOG E3200 trial of bevacizumab with FOLFOX demonstrated that only patients with carcinomas expressing low levels of VEGF-A(165)b, an anti-angiogenic splice variant of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor family of proteins, benefited from bevacizumab treatment. To identify a more useful biomarker of response we tested the hypothesis that circulating VEGF-A(165)b levels correlate with immunohistochemical staining. Experimental Design: 17 patients with biopsy proven colorectal adenocarcinoma had pre-operative blood samples drawn. They underwent resection and had post-resection blood drawn. The plasma was analysed for levels of VEGF-A(xxx)b using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the tumour blocks stained for VEGF-A(xxx)b and pan-VEGF-A. The normalised ratio of VEGF-A(xxx)b expression to that of panVEGF-A expression scored by IHC was calculated and correlated with plasma VEGF-A(165)b levels. Results: Plasma levels of VEGF-A(xxx)b significantly correlated with the VEGF-A(xxx)b:panVEGF-A ratio (r=0.594, P<0.02) in colorectal cancers. Median plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels were 151 pg/ml. The mean (1.5±0.17) and median, IQR (1.8, 1-2) IHC scores of the patients with greater than median plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b were significantly greater than those with less than median plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels (mean ± SEM=0.85±10.12, median, IQR=1, 0.54-1). Conclusion: These results suggest that plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels could be an effective biomarker of response to Bevacizumab. These results indicate that a prospective trial is warranted to explore the use of plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels to stratify patients for colorectal cancer treatment by bevacizumab

To have your citizen science cake and eat it? Delivering research and outreach through Open Air Laboratories (OPAL)

Background: The vast array of citizen science projects which have blossomed over the last decade span a spectrum of objectives from research to outreach. While some focus primarily on the collection of rigorous scientific data and others are positioned towards the public engagement end of the gradient, the majority of initiatives attempt to balance the two. Although meeting multiple aims can be seen as a ‘win–win’ situation, it can also yield significant challenges as allocating resources to one element means that they may be diverted away from the other. Here we analyse one such programme which set out to find an effective equilibrium between these arguably polarised goals. Through the lens of the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) programme we explore the inherent trade-offs encountered under four indicators derived from an independent citizen science evaluation framework. Assimilating experience from the OPAL network we investigate practical approaches taken to tackle arising tensions. Results: Working backwards from project delivery to design, we found the following elements to be important: ensuring outputs are fit for purpose, developing strong internal and external collaborations, building a sufficiently diverse partnership and considering target audiences. We combine these ‘operational indicators’ with four pre-existing ‘outcome indicators’ to create a model which can be used to shape the planning and delivery of a citizen science project. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that whether the proverb in the title rings true will largely depend on the identification of challenges along the way and the ability to address these conflicts throughout the citizen science projec