Residential child care qualifications audit 2007

In recent years there has been a drive to develop a fully qualified residential child care sector in Scotland. In 2003 the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) announced the baseline qualifications for residential child care staff and set down a target for attaining it. This qualifications framework was subsequently reviewed and expanded in 2004. The Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care (SIRCC), commissioned by the Scottish Executive, has previously undertaken two inquiries into the qualification levels of the residential child care workforce in Scotland. The first Qualifications Audit (Frondigoun, Maclean, Hosie & Kendrick, 2002) was undertaken before the SSSC’s initial qualification framework was known and the second (Hunter, Hosie, Davidson & Kendrick, 2004) was based on it. The previous qualifications audit (Hunter et al., 2004) reported that 18% of residential child care staff were fully qualified in accordance with the SSSC’s qualification criteria (SSSC, 2004). The report forecast that the number of fully qualified staff would rise to 29.1% if all qualifications being undertaken were achieved. The purpose of this current audit is to determine whether levels of qualified staff have risen and to identify qualification trends throughout the residential child care sector in Scotland

Theatre Aurality and the Spatiality of Sound in Performance

Theatre aurality refers to emerging practices of sonic-led theatre and a critical field of theatre and performance analysis. It explores sound in and as theatre; and it refers to the phenomenal and discursive field of theatre sound and to the structures in which these occur; the socio-political and philosophical, as well as the aesthetic. This paper will focus on the work of Extant, the UK’s leading theatre company for the Blind and visually impaired, and its experiments with omnipresent, directional and tactile sound in Flatland, a production of theatre-in-the-dark. The sound design for this production generated the feeling of spaces in a number of ways, through near-ear and hand held devices and via a sound design which explored the particular ambiguity of dimensions in Flatland. Drawing on the philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy I will explore how we can navigate spaces through sound, through its feeling and hapticity, and how it can literally move its audience without recourse to the visual

The outcomes of secure care in Scotland

This paper describes the findings of a three year study of the use and effectiveness of secure accommodation in Scotland. Data were collected on 53 young people shortly after their admission to secure accommodation. Most young people were admitted because they were a danger to themselves and/or they were likely to abscond; a third were considered a danger to others. Secure accommodation was considered to have benefits in relation to keeping young people safe and addressing health issues. On other dimensions, such as behaviour or family relationships, signs of benefit were more ambiguous. Thirty-three young people were considered to have clearly benefited from placement. At follow-up, after two years, outcomes were assessed as: 'good' - 14 (26%); 'medium'- 24 (45 %); and 'poor' - 15 (28%). The research highlighted the importance of effectively managing the transition from secure care. Social workers attributed a good outcome more to an appropriate placement and education being offered when the young person left secure rather than simply the placement itself. A gradual 'step-down' approach from the structure and supervision of the secure setting was also linked to better outcomes. Young people respond well when offered continuity and the opportunity to develop relationships with one or more reliable adults who can help with problems as they arise

Mechanism and specificity of pentachloropseudilin-mediated inhibition of myosin motor activity.

Here, we report that the natural compound pentachloropseudilin (PClP) acts as a reversible and allosteric inhibitor of myosin ATPase and motor activity. IC(50) values are in the range from 1 to 5 μm for mammalian class-1 myosins and greater than 90 μm for class-2 and class-5 myosins, and no inhibition was observed with class-6 and class-7 myosins. We show that in mammalian cells, PClP selectively inhibits myosin-1c function. To elucidate the structural basis for PClP-induced allosteric coupling and isoform-specific differences in the inhibitory potency of the compound, we used a multifaceted approach combining direct functional, crystallographic, and in silico modeling studies. Our results indicate that allosteric inhibition by PClP is mediated by the combined effects of global changes in protein dynamics and direct communication between the catalytic and allosteric sites via a cascade of small conformational changes along a conserved communication pathway

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Mimesis and Remembrance

This article asks what is the function of theatrical simulation, or mimesis, in the testimonial performance genre? The analysis focuses on a verbatim project by Daedalus Theatre Company, A Place at the Table, an eye-witness expos of the atrocities of the conflict in Burundi and the civil war in Rwanda, 1993 - 1994. This production was a design-led, overtly theatrical response to the varying documented truths about these events, from UN Security Council reports to personal testimony, that positioned the performers as multiple testifying subjects, emerging in a range of performance genres from seemingly realist performance, to abstract embodied simulation of the disputed territories. These performances, a combination of conscious theatrical replaying, testimonial and remembrance, drew heavily on theatrical simulation; a particular testimonial mimesis. To explore how this might function as a part of the testimonial genre, I draw on the theories of mimesis by Roger Caillois and the more positive version thereof by Michael Taussig. Caillois's material mimesis is a dangerous lure between self and space based on the desire not for visual replication or the facsimilie of similarity, but for the act of being similar. Taussig interprets in this temptation a potential for the self to playfully sample the Other, an act of selfing of space which suggests agency in mimesis. My analysis of this in A Place at the Table countenances possibilities in the performance of the intolerable, and offers an example of Ranciere's witness as artist, not victim. Thus I argue for an emancipated understanding of mimesis that asks us to consider the agency of performing the remembered

Aurality and Performing the Unheard

Can attention to the aurality of performing simultaneously reveal and problematise the production of meaning in acts of performance? How does the performer’s aurality – in particular their vocal aura: breath, body and air – function as an arbiter of this? This paper investigates how theatricalised vocality, in particular the performance of the unheard voice, creates a gestic aurality, which in turn generates an opportunity for non-ocularcentric dialogue between the body and voice. I will argue that within gestic gaps emerge certain affects of aural performance, and in these incomplete acts of utterance and our un-finished acts of listening are the points at which noise emerges. This paper will suggest that at these moments of aural hiatus, noise becomes productive in the problematisation of meaning. The ‘noise’ of performance and its aural adumbrations present an affective acoustic model for performance analysis, not within or beyond but generated by the body. This allows and enjoys the aural excesses of theatre noise in our understanding of how subjectivities are acted and how performance functions which, in turn, agitates the prevalent ocularcentricism of performance analysis

Theatre Aurality

This book explores the critical field of theatre sound and the sonic phenomena of theatre. It draws together a wide range of related topics, including sound design and sonic sonographies, voice as a performance of sound, listening as auditory performance, and audience as resonance. It explores radical forms of sonic performance and our engagement in it, from the creation of sonic subjectivities to noise as a politics of sound. The introductory chapters trace the innate aurality of theatre and the history of sound effects and design, while also interrogating why the art of theatre sound was delayed and underrepresented in philosophy as well as theatre and performance theory. Subsequent chapters explore the emergence of aurally engaged theatre practice and focus on examples of contemporary sound in and as theatre, including theatre in the dark, headphone theatre and immersive theatre, amongst others, through theories of perception and philosophies of listening, vocality, sonority and noise

Aural Visions: Sonic Spectatorship in the Dark

Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre responds to a rising tide of experimentation in theatre practice that eliminates or obscures light. It brings together leading and emerging practitioners and researchers in a volume dedicated to exploring the phenomenon and showcasing a range of possible critical and theoretical approaches. This book considers the aesthetics and phenomenology of dark, gloomy and shadow-strewn theatre performances, as well as the historical and cultural significances of darkness, shadow and the night in theatre and performance contexts. It is concerned as much with the experiences elicited by darkness and obscured or diminished lighting as it is with the conditions that define, frame and at times re-shape what each might 'mean' and 'do'. Contributors provide surveys of relevant practice, interviews with practitioners, theoretical reflections and close critical analyses of work by key innovators in the aesthetics of light, shadow and darkness. The book has a particular focus on the work of contemporary theatre makers – including Sound&Fury, David Rosenberg and Glen Neath, Lundahl & Seitl, Extant, and Analogue – and seeks to deepen the engagement of theatre and performance studies with what might be called 'the sensory turn'. Theatre in the Dark explores ground-breaking areas that will appeal to researchers, practitioners and audiences alike