Resurrecting the interval of need concept to improve dialogue between researchers, policymakers, and social care practitioners

Academics, social care practitioners, and policymakers speak different languages. If academic research is to have an impact on society, it must be understandable and convincing to the end users. We argue that the conceptualisation of social care ‘need’ is different among these stakeholders, leading to poor communication between them. Academics should use concepts that have more meaning to practitioners. We propose resurrecting a little-used concept from the 1970s, ‘interval of need’, to help to bridge this gap. The interval of need concept identifies how often people require help, supplementing the usual data about types of tasks where assistance is needed. The history of the concept is described, followed by a test of its usefulness for today’s researchers by applying it to data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. An updated version of interval of need is proposed. Validation checks were conducted against mortality data, and through conceptual validation from a social work practitioner. The nature of the dataset limited comparability with previous studies. However, we conclude that the interval of need concept has promising scope to enhance communication of research findings, potentially leading to improved outcomes for service users. This paper strives to mark a turning point in the language and analysis of social care, ensuring that academic investigation in this field is convincing and clear to practitioners and policymakers

Hadley V. Baxendale: Still Crazy After All These Years? Panel Discussion

The following discussion about Hadley v. Baxendale took place on June 8, 2004, at the Conference on The Common Law of Contracts as a World Force in Two Ages of Revolution, held at the Oxstalls Campus of the University of Gloucestershire, in Gloucester, England. The Conference marked the 150th anniversary of Hadley. The following discussion was intended to be a free-ranging exploration of Hadley, its rule, its role in legal pedagogy, and its likely future

The prevalence of hepatitis C virus among people of South Asian origin in Glasgow: results from a community based survey and laboratory surveillance

Background South Asians often present late with HCV or HBV related liver disease which could have been avoided with early diagnosis and subsequent treatment; however the prevalence of HCV/HBV among South Asians in Glasgow is not known. Accordingly, to inform the need for case finding among this group we aimed to examine the prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) among South Asians living in Glasgow. Methods A community-based survey recruited individuals at six mosques and four community centres serving the South Asian community during 2009-2010; participants had predominantly never been HCV tested. Laboratory surveillance data involving all individuals tested for HCV during 1993-2009 were examined and South Asians were identified using Nam Pehchan software. Results In the community-based survey, 2.6% of 1288 participants tested HCV-antibody positive; the prevalence ranged from 0.6% among those born in the UK to 3.1% among those born in Pakistan. The odds of testing HCV-antibody positive were significantly raised among those who had surgery in South Asia (aOR: 5.0, 95% CI: 2.0-12.3) and had either medical/dental treatment or an injection in South Asia (aOR: 2.2, 95% CI: 1.0-5.0). Of 6404 South Asians identified from laboratory surveillance data, 9.3% tested HCV positive. An estimated 38% (330/870) of HCV-infected South Asians living in Glasgow remain undiagnosed. Conclusions South Asians living in Glasgow, particularly those born outside the UK are at greater risk of HCV infection than the general population. Efforts to increase awareness and testing in this population are warranted.</p

3 G Diversity Summit

The 3G Summit sought to bring students together from multiple Universities to create collaboration across diversity groups in the New England area. The I Am U URI group put a call out to new members to work across Universities on collaborative goals. The summit was designed to accomplish 3 goals. Get people from multiple Universities to come together and talk about their experiences. Brainstorm things that everyone wants to work on. Establish contact information and ways to work together. This Summit was sponsored by HRL and the GLBT Center. Audio from this event can be streamed directly from this page

Sequential Sampling Models of Choice: Some Recent Advances

Choice models in marketing and economics are generally derived without specifying the underlying cognitive process of decision making. This approach has been successfully used to predict choice behavior. However, it has not much to say about such aspects of decision making as deliberation, attention, conflict, and cognitive limitations and how these influence choices. In contrast, sequential sampling models developed in cognitive psychology explain observed choices based on assumptions about cognitive processes that return the observed choice as the terminal state. We illustrate three advantages of this perspective. First, making explicit assumptions about underlying cognitive processes results in measures of deliberation, attention, conflict, and cognitive limitation. Second, the mathematical representations of underlying cognitive processes imply well documented departures from Luce’s Choice Axiom such as the similarity, compromise, and attraction effects. Third, the process perspective predicts response time and thus allows for inference based on observed choices and response times. Finally, we briefly discuss the relationship between these cognitive models and rules for statistically optimal decisions in sequential designs

MP755: Eastern Regional Potato Trials 2003: Summary of NE1014 Regional Project Field Testing of New Potato Clones

The objectives of this regional potato trial are (1) to develop pest-resistant, early-maturing, long-dormant potato varieties that will process from cold storage; (2) to evaluate new and specialty variet­ies developed in the Northeast; (3) to determine climatic effects on performance to develop pre­dictive models for potato improvement; and (4) determine heritability/linkage relationships and improve the genetic base of tetraploid cultivated varieties. The results presented in this report reflect a portion of the activity directed toward objectives 1, 2 and 3.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/1020/thumbnail.jp