National and Regional Estimates of the Prevalence of Opiate and/or Crack Cocaine use 2008-09: A summary of key findings

<p>This report summarises the results of a follow-up study to a three year project to estimate the prevalence of ‘problem drug use’ (defined as use of opiates and/or crack cocaine) nationally (England only), regionally and locally. The follow-up was carried out two years after the final sweep of the original project, so could therefore be considered as ‘sweep 5’. An overview of the national and regional estimates are presented in this report, as are comparisons with the estimates produced by the third (2006-07) sweep of the study. Estimates for 2007-08 are not available as a study was not commissioned for that year.</p> <p>Information about the number of people who use illicit drugs such as heroin, other opiates or crack cocaine is key to formulating effective policies for tackling drug-related harm as these drugs are associated with the highest levels of harm. It also helps inform service provision at the local level and provides a context in which to understand the population impact of interventions to reduce drug-related harm.</p> <p>Direct enumeration of those engaged in a largely covert activity such as the use of class A drugs is difficult and standard household survey techniques tend to underestimate the extent of such activity. Indirect techniques making use of various data sources offer a more reliable way of calculating prevalence estimates for the use of opiates and/or crack cocaine. The estimates presented in this report are derived using two indirect measurement techniques: the capture-recapture method (CRC ); and the multiple indicator (MIM ) method. These methods are described in detail in Hay et al., 2006 and Hay et al., 2007a. Methodological developments throughout the course of the previous three sweeps are discussed elsewhere (Hay et al., 2007b, Hay et al., 2008). The individuals covered by this study were people aged 15 to 64 and resident in each DAT area, and known to be using heroin, methadone, other opiate drugs or crack cocaine.</p&gt

A Tone-Aided/Dual Vestigial Sideband (TA/DVSB) system for mobile satellite channels

Tone-aided modulation is one way of combatting the effects of multipath fading and Doppler frequency shifts. A new tone-aided modulation format for M-ary phase-shift keyed signals (MPSK) is discussed. A spectral null for the placement of the tone is created in the center of the MPSK signal by translating the upper sideband upwards in frequency by the same amount. The key element of the system is the algorithm for recombining the data sidebands in the receiver, a function that is performed by a specialized phase-locked loop (PLL). The system structure is discussed and simulation results showing the PLL acquisition performance are presented

Q and A with Dr Katharine M Millar on support the troops: military obligation, gender and the making of political community

We speak to Dr Katharine M Millar about her new book, Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender and the Making of Political Community, which examines the gendered politics of ‘support the troops’ discourse in the US and the UK, focusing particularly on the early years of the so-termed ‘war on terror’

What makes violence martial? Adopt a sniper and normative imaginaries of violence in the contemporary United States

What makes violence martial? Contemporary militarism scholarship, owing to an analytical overdetermination of the role of military institutions, frequently conflates martiality with violence writ large. Drawing upon the illustrative case of Adopt A Sniper, a US military support charity founded by police officers operating during the global war on terror and intended to help supporters ‘directly contribute to the killing of the enemy’, this article interrogates the intuitive ‘line’ between martial and other, particularly colonial, forms of violence. To do so, I develop the concept of ‘normative imaginaries of violence’ – articulations of intersubjective beliefs; political community; spatial geographies; gendered, sexualized, racialized and classed power relations; and logics of legitimation. Through this lens, and informed by the work of Frantz Fanon, the article demonstrates that though coloniality and martiality are deeply intertwined, they are neither reducible to nor epiphenomenal of each other. Through a juxtaposition of the titular sniper with two additional figures invoked by Adopt A Sniper – the militiaman and the vigilante – I outline a novel, genealogical method that enables us to trace the entangled histories of contemporary violences and identify the implicit politics of ordering at work in existing, often fragmented, analyses of political violence

Morphology of the recently re-classified Tasman masked booby (Sula dactylatra tasmani) breeding on the Kermadec Islands

Once thought to be extinct, the Tasman Booby Sula tasmani has recently been re-classified as a subspecies of the Masked Booby S. dactylatra on the basis of genetic data. This re-classification raises the issue of whether this novel clade has a distinct morphology. Morphological differences in size, as well as coloration of integuments, bill and iris have been found in other subspecies of the Masked Booby but have not yet been reported for live Kermadec Islands breeding individuals. Museum specimens from this breeding location have been separated from other Pacific breeding subspecies by their longer wings. We sampled a total of 21 individuals from North Meyer Islet, Kermadec Group, New Zealand, and applied molecular sexing to obtain sex-specific morphometric measurements. We matched dimorphism in vocalization with genetic sexing results and photographic documentation of human-assessed bill, foot and eye coloration. While culmen measurements were consistent with reports from museum specimens, wing chords from living specimens of Tasman Masked Boobies were 3% and 4% larger in males and females, respectively. Females had larger culmens and wings than males, consistent with the low extent of sexual dimorphism reported from museum skins. Adult Tasman Masked Boobies had yellow to buff-yellow feet, while fledglings, as in most sulids, had grey to greyish-yellow feet. Our findings confirm the distinctively long wing and particular iris coloration previously reported for the taxon and provide the first description of integument coloration of live specimens. This study highlights the importance of including in situ assessment in taxon descriptions

Self-reported stress and posttraumatic growth following the transition to motherhood : investigating the role of social support and self-efficacy

The onset of parenthood signifies a transition point in a person’s life, which requires adaptation to a variety of changes and is often considered a time of great stress and great joy. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) or positive psychological outcomes can be experienced as a result of an individual’s struggles with highly stressful or challenging life events, such as the birth of a child. The current research explores the relationship between PTG and the transition to motherhood. Two studies investigated women’s retrospective perceptions of PTG regarding their first experience of parenthood. Study One employed a quantitative methodology to examine the extent to which participants’ perceived social support, self-efficacy, and level of perceived stress surrounding the birth of their first child, predicted PTG. A sample of 83 participants completed the Post Traumatic Growth Inventory; the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; the Mastery - Self-Efficacy Scale; and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised. Data were analysed using a standard multiple regression analysis to determine which variable/s significantly and independently predicted the level of PTG. Results indicated that perceived social support was the only variable to achieve significance (F(3,78)= 3.333; p \u3c 0.05). To gain a holistic perception of how and why social support played such a vital role in predicting PTG, a second study was conducted. Study Two followed-up with a qualitative exploration of ten women’s perceptions of social support across the transition to motherhood, in order to illicit greater understanding of its relationship to PTG. Thematic content analysis of transcripts revealed four main themes: reassurance, help seeking, self-efficacy, and changes in the self. Additionally the role of the women’s expectations and recommendations for others is discussed. This research has therapeutic implications for therapists who may be able to utilise these findings to encourage and enhance positive outcomes, coping, and adaptation in individuals experiencing a crisis and/or stressful life transitions. Additionally this research adds to the evidence supporting the use of the PTGI as a general measure of growth, thereby allowing it to be applied to incidents and experiences outside of those traditionally defined as traumatic