Why they desist: Understanding the life worlds of young people involved in crime

This study was made possible by a Research and Development Grant from Lotterywest. The aim of the project was to explore the experiences, interpretations and perceptions of young people with a history of crime who are attempting to move away from criminal activity. The project was designed to provide an avenue that allowed for the voices, stories and interpretations of these young people with a history of offending in a bid to explore some of the ways they negotiate their move away from crime. The study has sought to use these insights in order to identify potential pathways out of crime. The research shows that, although these young people’s experiences around crime are varied, they share common ideas in regards to changing their behaviour. In this study, the participants have identified some of the factors that make it difficult to achieve change. Their stories also highlight the complexities associated with connecting to other members of the broader community who have not had a criminal history. In the body of the report the following issues are highlighted and discussed: •The contextual factors that impact on young people’s decisions regarding desistance from crime •The imperative of personal decision-making processes •The importance of patterns and vulnerabilities around the “triggers” to re-offend •Identification of the strategies and motivators that maintain changes •Youth perceptions of support and intervention services The report also makes the following recommendations: •To maintain the current system of cautions for young people under 18 years of age •Provide the means by which the views of young people can be integrated into intervention strategies, thus encouraging young people to develop their own views and decisions regarding their lives •In intervention programs, to make a clear distinction between forms of support and punitive measures regarding attendance •To engender rewards and rituals for success in intervention programs •To explore further the manner in which social, cultural and political practices block pro-social connections to members of the community Overall, this project has identified that young people who have a history of engaging in criminal activity recognise that an integral aspect of changing their lives requires a committed decision on their part. However, while recognising that a personal decision is integral to positive change, this decision feeds into wider social, cultural and political factors. These factors include addressing substance misuse; recognising and challenging blockages that close down the possibility for young people to develop supportive relationships with others; providing access to appropriate housing and support services; and ensuring that young people are provided with significant opportunities for change

Estimating base resistance and N value in rotary press-in

In the Press-in Method, press-in machines use static jacking force to install prefabricated piles, while gaining a reaction force by grasping several of the previously installed piles. The emergence of this piling technique in 1975 solved problems in urban piling construction such as noise and vibration associated with the piling work, restricted construction conditions due to the existing structures, and so on. Among a variety of press-in methods, rotary press-in is a relatively new technique to install tubular piles into hard ground by applying axial and rotational jacking force at the same time. An additional feature of the Press-in Method is that it allows continuous measurement of penetration depth and jacking force during piling work. The concept of a PPT, Pile Penetration Test, has been developed to apply this feature to improving the efficiency of piling work and foundation design. This paper highlights the technique to estimate base resistance and N value from the data acquired during rotary press-in.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038080615000839

Assessment of base capacity of open-ended tubular piles installed by the Rotary Cutting Press-in method

The ‘press-in’ method is a piling technique that installs piles with a static jacking force while obtaining a reaction force from previously installed piles. The applicable ground conditions of this method have been significantly expanded by the ‘Rotary Cutting Press-in (RCP)’ method, whereby a vertical jacking force and a torque are applied simultaneously onto a pile with cutting teeth on its base while water is injected around the pile base. In this paper, a method to estimate the base capacity of RCP piles is proposed based on UWA-05 framework. The proposed method utilizes CPT or SPT results as input parameters and estimates the plugging condition (Incremental Filling Ratio, IFR) from these results. Four static load tests on open-ended RCP piles were shown to be well-predicted by the proposed method in terms of the base capacity, regardless of the embedment depth into a bearing stratum.Giken Lt

Measuring horizontal stresses during jacked pile installation

Jacking is an installation technique for displacement piles which is commonly used onshore in urban environments owing to its low noise and vibration. During pile jacking, stress changes occur in the soil which are substantial close to the pile, but also extend a significant radial distance. These stresses are difficult to measure accurately owing to arching around stress sensors. In the field, stress measurements are commonly made by means of an adjacent pile whose stiffness changes the stress field within the soil. Accurate measurements of stresses due to the installation of a single pile under laboratory conditions are needed in order to quantify this error. In this paper, null gauges that do not suffer from membrane deflection are used to measure horizontal stress changes during the jacked installation of a cylindrical pile in dry sand. Stresses are measured by means of both an adjacent pre-installed square pile and in-soil sensors. The paper also presents a comparison between the centrifuge results and the radial stress distribution estimated using conventional methods, such as Boussinesq's elastic analysis and elasto-plastic spherical cavity expansion. The research was funded by Giken Ltd. and the Coleman-Cohen Exchange Programme to whom a great acknowledgement is addressedThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ICE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/geng.14.0006

Green Care: a Conceptual Framework. A Report of the Working Group on the Health Benefits of Green Care

‘Green Care’ is a range of activities that promotes physical and mental health and well-being through contact with nature. It utilises farms, gardens and other outdoor spaces as a therapeutic intervention for vulnerable adults and children. Green care includes care farming, therapeutic horticulture, animal assisted therapy and other nature-based approaches. These are now the subject of investigation by researchers from many different countries across the world

Implementation of a local principal curves algorithm for neutrino interaction reconstruction in a liquid argon volume

A local principal curve algorithm has been implemented in three dimensions for automated track and shower reconstruction of neutrino interactions in a liquid argon time projection chamber. We present details of the algorithm and characterise its performance on simulated data sets.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures; typing correction to Eq 5, the definition of the local covariance matri

Elemental distribution within the long-period stacking ordered structure in a Mg-Gd-Zn-Mn alloy

High angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscope imaging and electron energy loss spectroscopy was used to elucidate the elemental distribution (Gd, Zn, Mn) within the long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) structure in a Mg-15Gd-0.8Zn-0.8Mn (wt%) alloy. While Gd and Zn enrichment was observed within the LPSO structure, no significant enrichment in Mn was observed. After averaging over a large region, a very weak Mn signal was resolved but no significant variations in Mn signal were observed over this region, suggesting that Mn is indeed present. These results provide useful information to support the future development of high performance Mg alloys

Testing the proposed link between cosmic rays and cloud cover

A decrease in the globally averaged low level cloud cover, deduced from the ISCCP infra red data, as the cosmic ray intensity decreased during the solar cycle 22 was observed by two groups. The groups went on to hypothesise that the decrease in ionization due to cosmic rays causes the decrease in cloud cover, thereby explaining a large part of the presently observed global warming. We have examined this hypothesis to look for evidence to corroborate it. None has been found and so our conclusions are to doubt it. From the absence of corroborative evidence, we estimate that less than 23%, at the 95% confidence level, of the 11-year cycle change in the globally averaged cloud cover observed in solar cycle 22 is due to the change in the rate of ionization from the solar modulation of cosmic rays

High-dispersion spectroscopic monitoring of the Be/X-ray binary A0535+26/V725 Tau I: The long-term profile variability

We report on optical high-dispersion spectroscopic monitoring observations of the Be/X-ray binary A0535+26/V725 Tau, carried out from November 2005 to March 2009. The main aim of these monitoring observations is to study spectral variabilities in the Be disc, on both the short (a week or so) and long (more than hundreds of days) timescales, by taking long-term frequent observations. Our four-year spectroscopic observations indicate that the V/R ratio, i.e., the relative intensity of the violet (V) peak to the red (R) one, of the double-peaked H-alpha line profile varies with a period of 500 days. The H-beta line profile also varies in phase with the H-alpha profile. With these observations covering two full cycles of the V/R variability, we reconstruct the 2-D structure of the Be disc by applying the Doppler tomography method to the H-alpha and H-beta emission line profiles, using a rigidly rotating frame with the V/R variability period. The resulting disc structure reveals non-axisymmetric features, which can be explained by a one-armed perturbation in the Be disc. It is the first time that an eccentric disc structure is directly detected by using a method other than the interferometric one.Comment: (10 pages, 9 figures, accepted to MNRAS