Are schools panoptic?

Schools are often understood by social researchers as panoptic spaces, where power is exercised through constant surveillance and monitoring. In this paper, I use Foucault’s notorious account of the Panopticon as a point of departure for a detailed empirical investigation of the specificities of surveillance in schools. Drawing on ethnographic data from fieldwork in a primary school, I argue that how surveillance actually operated in this context diverged from the panoptic programme in two crucial ways: surveillance was (i) discontinuous rather than total, and therefore open to resistance and evasion, and (ii) exercised through sound and hearing as much as through vision

Five-country Study on Service and Volunteering in Southern Africa Malawi Country Report

This study on the nature and form of civic service and volunteering in Malawi followed a qualitative, descriptive research approach, drawing on information from an extensive document search, interviews with key informants responsible for supporting and/or implementing service and volunteering programmes and a focus group discussion with representatives of national and international organisations running structured service programmes, as well as those involved in district and community-based activities

Schwartz rounds: a staff support intervention staff can engage with?

Schwartz Rounds are a staff support intervention which have been adopted in over 100 healthcare trusts in the UK since 2009. They aim to provide a space for staff to come together to think about the emotional impact of the work they do. Research into rounds is in its infancy, however, to date, findings are generally positive. The current study aimed to develop a theoretical understanding of staff motivation to attend or not attend rounds. Interview data from ten NHS employees and one previous employee were analysed using a grounded theory approach. A theory was developed which suggests staff will make the effort to overcome contextual factors of lack of time and resources to attend rounds if they view them as beneficial. Reported benefits of rounds were similar to those described in previous research. Staff are less likely to attend rounds if they do not understand the aims of rounds or if they view sharing emotional experience as risky. High demands and a perceived lack of support may influence the degree to which staff trust and feel able to use rounds. The limitations and implications of the study are discussed and areas of future research suggested

Enabling occupational therapy students to take a fresh approach to psychosis

This practice evaluation describes the implementation of a 2-day workshop on psychosis with third-year undergraduate occupational therapy students at Brunel University. The work was undertaken by the teaching team at Brunel University, a clinical psychologist working in assertive outreach and an occupational therapist working in community mental health. The background to the project and the way in which the 2-day workshop was adapted to accommodate the university timetable are outlined. An evaluation of the workshop, its place in the occupational therapy programme and the feedback from students are presented

Intermolecular C-H...N and C-H...O interactions in (2S,4S,5R)-(-)-3,4-dimethyl-5-phenyl-2-(1,3-thiazol-2-yl)-1,3-oxazolidine

The title compound, C₁₄H₁₆N₂OS, prepared from (1R,2S)-(-)-ephedrine, contains the oxazolidine ring in an envelope conformation, with the nitrogen atom 0.623 (2) Å from the plane of the other four oxazolidine ring atoms. Intermolecular C--H...N and C--H...O interactions generate a two-dimensional hydrogen-bonded network, with shortest C...N and C...O distances of 3.403 (3) and 3.463 (2) Å, respectively

Stop-list slicing.

Traditional program slicing requires two parameters: a program location and a variable, or perhaps a set of variables, of interest. Stop-list slicing adds a third parameter to the slicing criterion: those variables that are not of interest. This third parameter is called the stoplist. When a variable in the stop-list is encountered, the data-flow dependence analysis of slicing is terminated for that variable. Stop-list slicing further focuses on the computation of interest, while ignoring computations known or determined to be uninteresting. This has the potential to reduce slice size when compared to traditional forms of slicing. In order to assess the size of the reduction obtained via stop-list slicing, the paper reports the results of three empirical evaluations: a large scale empirical study into the maximum slice size reduction that can be achieved when all program variables are on the stop-list; a study on a real program, to determine the reductions that could be obtained in a typical application; and qualitative case-based studies to illustrate stop-list slicing in the small. The large-scale study concerned a suite of 42 programs of approximately 800KLoc in total. Over 600K slices were computed. Using the maximal stoplist reduced the size of the computed slices by about one third on average. The typical program showed a slice size reduction of about one-quarter. The casebased studies indicate that the comprehension effects are worth further consideration

Conceptual techniques for reducing parasitic current gain of lateral pnp transistors

Two techniques have been conceptually proposed as possible means of reducing parasitic beta in lateral p-n-p transistors. One method uses a degenerate substrate and high concentration P /plus/ guard-ring diffusion, another places the base contact at the center of an annular ring structure