'It burdens me': The impact of stroke in central Aceh, Indonesia

This is the accepted version of the following article: Norris, M., Allotey, P. and Barrett, G. (2012), ‘It burdens me’: the impact of stroke in central Aceh, Indonesia. Sociology of Health & Illness, 34: 826–840. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01431.x, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01431.x/abstract.The complex primary and secondary consequences of stroke have often been equated with the concept of biographical disruption, although a number of mediating factors have been identified. However, the research to date is almost exclusively based in western contexts, despite the fact that stroke is increasing most rapidly in low-income and middle-income countries. This research explores the experience of stroke in the rural community of central Aceh, Indonesia. The participants included 11 stroke survivors and 18 carers, with data collected through in-depth interviews and photographic facilitated interviews, supported with participant observation over a nine month period. The participants discussed and illustrated the disruptive result of their stroke, but for most, their ability to maintain religious duties and contribute to their family resulted in a form of biographical continuity. Their strategies and challenges are discussed alongside the implications for care in this context

Flight test summary of modified fuel systems

Two different aircraft designs, each with two modified fuel control systems, were evaluated. Each aircraft was evaluated in a given series of defined ground and flight conditions while quantitative and qualitative observations were made. During this program, some ten flights were completed, and a total of about 13 hours of engine run time was accumulated by the two airplanes. The results of these evaluations with emphasis on the operational and safety aspects were analyzed. Ground tests of the engine alone were not able to predict acceptable limiting lean mixture settings for the flight envelopes of the Cessna Models 150 and T337

The first signs of language: Phonological development in British sign language

A total of 1018 signs in one deaf child’s naturalistic interaction with her deaf mother, between the ages 19-24 months were analysed. This study summarises regular modification processes in the phonology of the child sign’s handshape, location, movement and prosody. Firstly changes to signs were explained by the notion of phonological markedness. Secondly, the child managed her production of first signs through two universal processes: structural change and substitution. Constraints unique to the visual modality also caused sign language specific acquisition patterns, namely: more errors for handshape articulation in locations in peripheral vision, a high frequency of whole sign repetitions and feature group rather than one-to-one phoneme substitutions as in spoken language development

Hot corrosion resistance of nickel-chromium-aluminum alloys

The hot corrosion resistance of nickel-chromium-aluminum alloy was examined by cyclically oxidizing sodium sulfate coated specimens in still air at 900, 1000 and 1100 C. The compositions tested were within the ternary region: Ni; Ni-50 at.% Cr; and Ni-50 at.% Al. At each temperature the corrosion data were statistically fitted to a third order regression equation as a function of chromium and aluminum contents. Corrosion isopleths were prepared from these equations. Compositional regions with the best hot corrosion resistance were identified

Nonbiomedical stroke practitioners in Aceh

This is the accepted version of the following article: Norris, M., Allotey, P. and Barrett, G. (2011), Nonbiomedical stroke practitioners in Aceh. International Journal of Stroke, 6: 152–154. doi: 10.1111/j.1747- 4949.2010.00575.x, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-4949.2010.00575.x/abstract.Stroke resources in Indonesia are limited; however, there has been demand to include nonbiomedical practitioners in stroke care. This paper will present a snapshot of available nonbiomedical stroke ‘services’ used by stroke survivors in two subdistricts of Aceh, Indonesia. Data were collected through interviews, observations, focus groups and vignettes with stroke survivors, their carers, biomedical and nonbiomedical stroke practitioners. Two categories of nonbiomedical practitioners were identified, all of whom discussed and demonstrated an understanding and approach to stroke treatment with multiple layers of influence, predominantly, education, religion and culture. There were a number of areas of overlap between the two categories; some of these influences were also evident in the biomedical practitioners

Asymptotics of Relativistic Spin Networks

The stationary phase technique is used to calculate asymptotic formulae for SO(4) Relativistic Spin Networks. For the tetrahedral spin network this gives the square of the Ponzano-Regge asymptotic formula for the SU(2) 6j symbol. For the 4-simplex (10j-symbol) the asymptotic formula is compared with numerical calculations of the Spin Network evaluation. Finally we discuss the asymptotics of the SO(3,1) 10j-symbol.Comment: 31 pages, latex. v3: minor clarification

Consistent Nonparametric Tests for Lorenz Dominance

This paper proposes a test for Lorenz dominance. Given independent samples of income or other welfare related variable, we propose a test of the null hypothesis that the Lorenz curve for one population is dominated by the Lorenz curve for a second population. The test statistic is based on the standardized largest difference between the empirical Lorenz curves for the two samples. The test is nonparametric in the sense that no distributional assumptions are made and the test is consistent because it compares the Lorenz curves at all quantiles. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic under the null hypothesis. Since the limiting distribution of the test statistic is nonstandard, being dependent on the underlying Lorenz curves, we propose the use of two computer based procedures for conducting inference. The first is a simulation method that simulates p-values from an approximation to the underlying limiting distribution of the statistic while the second is based on the nonparametric bootstrap. We examine the performance of the methods in a Monte Carlo study and with a comparison of the income based Lorenz curves for the US and Canada.Lorenz dominance, test consistency, simulation.

Personal propulsion unit Patent

Lightweight propulsion unit for movement of personnel and equipment across lunar surfac

Evaluation of business link in the East Midlands

An evaluation of activities delivered through the Business Link service in the East Midlands region between April 2007 and March 2010, focussing on: net economic impacts; Strategic Added Value (SAV); and potential lessons for the future delivery of business support services