Supporting care leavers in Scottish further education colleges : a research account of a pilot programme aimed at supporting looked after young people and care leavers in further education colleges in Scotland

The aim of the research, conducted between August 2009 and June 2011, was to conduct an evaluation of a programme funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) which supported three pilot projects concerned with the engagement in further education (FE) provision of young people aged between 15 and 19 who are in local authority care (at home and away from home) or who have left care. The overall aim of the research was to identify clear lessons for the Council and for the Scottish FE college sector more generally, leading to improved participation by care leavers in post-school education

The Educational Attainment of Looked After Children - Local Authority Pilot Projects : Final Research Report

The aim of the research was to identify interventions that appeared to make the most difference in terms of both the educational experience and outcomes of the looked after children and young people participating in the local authority pilot projects. Data on attendance, exclusions and attainment were collected for a population of more than 600 children and young people. The research also analysed qualitative data, based on interviews with project co-ordinators, professionals, children and young people, and their parents and carers

A discrete element analysis of cohesive granular bulk solid materials

In bulk handling applications, such as conveying and storage, understanding the effect cohesion has upon the flow-ability of particulate systems at the macroscopic scale is crucial in increasing the avenues of operation unit design improvements and handling scenarios of industrial operational units. This research provides a better understanding of the role cohesion has on the flow-ability of bulk solids materials through the development, implementation and application of a macroscopic elasto-plastic adhesive (MEPA) contact model within an open source HPC general purpose Discrete Element Method (DEM) computer code. This investigation proposed a DEM history dependent particle-particle MEPA contact model that accounts for both elastic and plastic contact deformations and adhesive attractions. The research tasks are focused in three major areas: 1) DEM applications for the analysis of cohesive bulk solids, 2) modeling stress history ependency of cohesive strength, and 3) the prediction of flow properties in test applications that are comparable to experimental results. The MEPA model applied herein is a three branched non-linear contact model that simulates the virgin compaction loading, unloading/reloading and adhesion behavior of a part iculate solid

Fluid Intake and Hydration Status of Forest Workers -- A Preliminary Investigation

Dehydration and its milder form hypohydration have both short term and long term health effects. In the short term poor, body hydration impairs cognitive performance, physical strength and aerobic power, rendering the worker prone to injury and heat illness. In the long term the potential consequences of hypohydration are kidney stones and bladder cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate hydration status of forest workers in New Zealand and their preferred fluid replacement. The specific gravity (sg) of urine was used as an indicator of body fluid status. In addition daily fluid loss was compared with a tested algorithm of sweat rate to better understand if workers are hydrating at the desired rate. The results of this preliminary study clearly demonstrate that loggers are working at sub-optimal hydration levels and are consuming inappropriate fluids to replace sweat losses. The hypohydrated state of these workers may pose both an immediate and long term health and safety risk

'For a mere cough, men must just chew Conjex, gain strength, and continue working': the provider construction and tuberculosis care-seeking implications in Blantyre, Malawi.

BACKGROUND: Delay by men in seeking healthcare results in their higher mortality while on HIV or tuberculosis (TB) treatment and contributes to ongoing community-level disease transmission before going on treatment. OBJECTIVE: To understand masculinity's role in delay in healthcare seeking for men, with a focus on TB-suggestive symptoms. DESIGN: Data were collected between March 2011 and March 2012 in low-income suburbs in urban Blantyre using focus group discussions with community members (n=8) and health workers (n=2), in-depth interviews with 20 TB patients (female=14) and 20 uninvestigated chronic coughers (female=8), and a 3-day participatory workshop with 27 health stakeholder representatives. The research process drew to a large extent on grounded theory principles in the manner of Strauss and Corbin (1998) and also Charmaz (1995). RESULTS: Role descriptions by both men and women in the study universally assigned men as primary material providers for their immediate family, that is, the ones earning and bringing livelihood and additional material needs. In a context where collectivism was valued, men were also expected to lead the provision of support to wider kin. Successful role enactment was considered key to achieving recognition as an adequate man; at the same time, job scarcity and insecurity, and low earnings gravely impeded men. Pressures to generate continuing income then meant constantly looking for jobs, or working continuously to retain insecure jobs or to raise money through self-employment. All this led men to relegate their health considerations. CONCLUSIONS: Early engagement with formal healthcare is critical to dealing with TB and HIV. However, role constructions as portrayed for men in this study, along with the opportunity costs of acknowledging illness seem, in conditions of vulnerability, important barriers to care-seeking. There is a need to address hidden care-seeking costs and to consider more complex interventions, including reducing precarity, in efforts to improve men's engagement with their health

Control, struggle, and emergent masculinities: a qualitative study of men's care-seeking determinants for chronic cough and tuberculosis symptoms in Blantyre, Malawi.

BACKGROUND: Men's healthcare-seeking delay results in higher mortality while on HIV or tuberculosis (TB) treatment, and implies contribution to ongoing community-level TB transmission before initiating treatment. We investigated masculinity's role in healthcare-seeking delay for men with TB-suggestive symptoms, with a view to developing potential interventions for men. METHODS: Data were collected during March 2011- March 2012 in three high-density suburbs in urban Blantyre. Ten focus group discussions were carried out of which eight (mixed sex = two; female only = three; male only = three) were with 74 ordinary community members, and two (both mixed sex) were with 20 health workers. Individual interviews were done with 20 TB patients (female =14) and 20 un-investigated chronic coughers (female = eight), and a three-day workshop was held with 27 health stakeholder representatives. RESULTS: An expectation to provide for and lead their families, and to control various aspects of their lives while facing limited employment opportunities and small incomes leaves men feeling inadequate, devoid of control, and anxious about being marginalised as men. Men were fearful about being looked at as less than men, and about their wives engaging in extramarital sex without ability to detect or monitor them. Control was a key defining feature of adequate manhood, and efforts to achieve it also led men into side-lining their health. Articulate and consistent concepts of men's bodily strength or appropriate illness responses were absent from the accounts. CONCLUSIONS: Facilitating men to seek care early is an urgent public health imperative, given the contexts of high HIV/AIDS prevalence but increasingly available treatment, and the role of care-seeking delay in TB transmission. Men's struggles trying to achieve ideal images seem to influence their engagement with their health. Ambiguous views regarding some key masculinity representations and the embrace of less harmful masculinities raise questions about some common assumptions that guide work with men. Apparent 'emergent masculinities' might be a useful platform from which to support the transformation of harmful masculinity. Finally, the complex manifestations of masculinity indicate the need for interventions targeting men in health and TB control to assume supportive, multidimensional and long-term outlooks

Using geocoded survey data to improve the accuracy of multilevel small area synthetic estimates

This paper examines the secondary data requirements for multilevel small area synthetic estimation (ML-SASE). This research method uses secondary survey data sets as source data for statistical models. The parameters of these models are used to generate data for small areas. The paper assesses the impact of knowing the geographical location of survey respondents on the accuracy of estimates, moving beyond debating the generic merits of geocoded social survey datasets to examine quantitatively the hypothesis that knowing the approximate location of respondents can improve the accuracy of the resultant estimates. Four sets of synthetic estimates are generated to predict expected levels of limiting long term illnesses using different levels of knowledge about respondent location. The estimates were compared to comprehensive census data on limiting long term illness (LLTI). Estimates based on fully geocoded data were more accurate than estimates based on data that did not include geocodes