Developing sexual competence? Exploring strategies for the provision of effective sexualities and relationships education

School-based sexualities and relationships education (SRE) offers one of the most promising means of improving young people's sexual health through developing 'sexual competence'. In the absence of evidence on whether the term holds the same meanings for young people and adults (e.g. teachers, researchers, policy-makers), the paper explores 'adult' notions of sexual competence as construed in research data and alluded to in UK Government guidance on SRE, then draws on empirical research with young people on factors that affect the contexts, motivations and outcomes of sexual encounters, and therefore have implications for sexual competence. These data from young people also challenge more traditional approaches to sexualities education in highlighting disjunctions between the content of school-based input and their reported sexual experience. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these insights for developing a shared notion of what SRE is trying to achieve and suggestions for recognition in the content and approaches to SRE.</p

'Selling it as a holistic health provision and not just about condoms ?' Sexual health services in school settings: current models and their relationship with sex and relationships education policy and provision

In this article we discuss the findings from a recent study of UK policy and practice in relation to sexual health services for young people, based in - or closely linked with - schools. This study formed part of a larger project, completed in 2009, which also included a systematic review of international research. The findings discussed in this paper are based on analyses of interviews with 51 service managers and questionnaire returns from 205 school nurses. Four themes are discussed. First, we found three main service permutations, in a context of very diverse and uneven implementation. Second, we identified factors within the school context that shaped and often constrained service provision; some of these also have implications for sex and relationships education (SRE). Third, we found contrasting approaches to the relationship between SRE input and sexual health provision. Fourth, we identified some specific barriers that need to be addressed in order to develop 'young people friendly' services in the school context. The relative autonomy available to school head teachers and governors can represent an obstacle to service provision - and inter-professional collaboration - in a climate where, in many schools, there is still considerable ambivalence about discussing 'sex' openly. In conclusion, we identify areas worthy of further research and development, in order to address some obstacles to sexual health service and SRE provision in schools

Building governance and energy efficiency: Mapping the interdisciplinary challenge

Improving the energy efficiency of multi-owned properties (MoPs)—commonly known as apartment or condominium buildings—is central to the achievement of European energy targets. However, little work to date has focused on how to facilitate retrofit in this context. Drawing on interdisciplinary Social Sciences and Humanities expertise in academia, policy and practice, this chapter posits that decision-making processes within MoPs might provide a key to the retrofit challenge. Existing theories or models of decision-making, applied in the MoP context, might help to explain how collective retrofit decisions are taken—or overlooked. Insights from case studies and practitioners are also key. Theories of change might then be employed to develop strategies to facilitate positive retrofit decisions. The chapter maps the issues and sets an agenda for further interdisciplinary research in this novel area

Understanding the role of transport velocity in biomotor-powered microtubule spool assembly

We examined the sensitivity of microtubule spools to transport velocity. Perhaps surprisingly, we determined that the steady-state number and size of spools remained constant over a seven-fold range of velocities. Our data on the kinetics of spool assembly further suggest that the main mechanisms underlying spool growth vary during assembly

Machine Learning Clifford Invariants of ADE Coxeter Elements

There has been recent interest in novel Clifford geometric invariants of linear transformations. This motivates the investigation of such invariants for a certain type of geometric transformation of interest in the context of root systems, reflection groups, Lie groups and Lie algebras: the Coxeter transformations. We perform exhaustive calculations of all Coxeter transformations for A8, D8 and E8 for a choice of basis of simple roots and compute their invariants, using high-performance computing. This computational algebra paradigm generates a dataset that can then be mined using techniques from data science such as supervised and unsupervised machine learning. In this paper we focus on neural network classification and principal component analysis. Since the output—the invariants—is fully determined by the choice of simple roots and the permutation order of the corresponding reflections in the Coxeter element, we expect huge degeneracy in the mapping. This provides the perfect setup for machine learning, and indeed we see that the datasets can be machine learned to very high accuracy. This paper is a pump-priming study in experimental mathematics using Clifford algebras, showing that such Clifford algebraic datasets are amenable to machine learning, and shedding light on relationships between these novel and other well-known geometric invariants and also giving rise to analytic results

A system-wide approach to explaining variation in potentially avoidable emergency admissions: national ecological study

Background Some emergency admissions can be avoided if acute exacerbations of health problems are managed by the range of health services providing emergency and urgent care. Aim To identify system-wide factors explaining variation in age sex adjusted admission rates for conditions rich in avoidable admissions. Design National ecological study. Setting 152 emergency and urgent care systems in England. Methods Hospital Episode Statistics data on emergency admissions were used to calculate an age sex adjusted admission rate for conditions rich in avoidable admissions for each emergency and urgent care system in England for 2008–2011. Results There were 3 273 395 relevant admissions in 2008–2011, accounting for 22% of all emergency admissions. The mean age sex adjusted admission rate was 2258 per year per 100 000 population, with a 3.4-fold variation between systems (1268 and 4359). Factors beyond the control of health services explained the majority of variation: unemployment rates explained 72%, with urban/rural status explaining further variation (R2=75%). Factors related to emergency departments, hospitals, emergency ambulance services and general practice explained further variation (R2=85%): the attendance rate at emergency departments, percentage of emergency department attendances converted to admissions, percentage of emergency admissions staying less than a day, percentage of emergency ambulance calls not transported to hospital and perceived access to general practice within 48 h. Conclusions Interventions to reduce avoidable admissions should be targeted at deprived communities. Better use of emergency departments, ambulance services and primary care could further reduce avoidable emergency admissions

Association between purchase of over-the-counter medications and ovarian cancer diagnosis in the Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS): observational case-control study

BACKGROUND: Over-the-counter (OTC) medications are frequently used to self-care for nonspecific ovarian cancer symptoms prior to diagnosis. Monitoring such purchases may provide an opportunity for earlier diagnosis. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS) was to investigate purchases of OTC pain and indigestion medications prior to ovarian cancer diagnosis in women with and without ovarian cancer in the United Kingdom using loyalty card data. METHODS: An observational case-control study was performed comparing purchases of OTC pain and indigestion medications prior to diagnosis in women with (n=153) and without (n=120) ovarian cancer using loyalty card data from two UK-based high street retailers. Monthly purchases of pain and indigestion medications for cases and controls were compared using the Fisher exact test, conditional logistic regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. RESULTS: Pain and indigestion medication purchases were increased among cases 8 months before diagnosis, with maximum discrimination between cases and controls 8 months before diagnosis (Fisher exact odds ratio [OR] 2.9, 95% CI 2.1-4.1). An increase in indigestion medication purchases was detected up to 9 months before diagnosis (adjusted conditional logistic regression OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.04-1.83). The ROC analysis for indigestion medication purchases showed a maximum area under the curve (AUC) at 13 months before diagnosis (AUC=0.65, 95% CI 0.57-0.73), which further improved when stratified to late-stage ovarian cancer (AUC=0.68, 95% CI 0.59-0.78). CONCLUSIONS: There is a difference in purchases of pain and indigestion medications among women with and without ovarian cancer up to 8 months before diagnosis. Facilitating earlier presentation among those who self-care for symptoms using this novel data source could improve ovarian cancer patients' options for treatment and improve survival. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03994653; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03994653

Orbital Kondo Effect in Cex_xLa1−x_{1-x}B6_6: Scaling Analysis

Peculiarity of the Kondo effect in Ce$_x$La$_{1-x}$B$_6$ is investigated on the basis of the scaling equations up to third order. For the case where the $f^1$-$f^2$ charge fluctuation enters in addition to the $f^1$-$f^0$ one, the effective exchange interaction becomes anisotropic with respect to the orbital pseudospins which represent the two different orbitals in the $\Gamma_8$ ground state. Because of different characteristic energies for electric and magnetic tensors, scaling with the single Kondo temperature does not apply to physical quantities such as the resistivity and magnetic susceptibility. Possibility of a bizzare phase is pointed out where the RKKY interaction leads to the spin ordering without orbital ordering. This phase serves as a candidate of the phase IV which is observed to be isotropic magnetically.Comment: 10 pages, 4 eps figures, submitted to PR