Career pathways in Scottish social services : a pilot study

The main aim of this study, commissioned by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), was to explore social workers' career pathways, in order to inform future workforce planning. The objectives were first, to obtain some preliminary data on the factors influencing social workers' career moves, secondly, to increase understanding of workforce mobility and, thirdly, to test out ways of gathering longitudinal data to inform future development of modelling and skills foresight

Children with complex support needs in healthcare settings for prolonged periods: their numbers, characteristics and experiences

This report details the findings of research conducted in England and Scotland to identify how many children with complex support needs are spending longer than one month in healthcare settings in Scotland and England, how and why they are in hospital, why they have not been discharged home or to appropriate alternative community-based facilities, and how well the hospital or healthcare setting is meeting their emotional, social and educational needs. It finds that many of these children could and should be discharged but are not, for a variety of reasons: primarily the lack of appropriate resources in the community and poor discharge planning processes, coupled with the inability of their families to manage their care and supervision without intensive support. Hospitals and healthcare settings in many cases are not meeting their needs and these children are being denied the protection offered by UK legislation governing children's rights and welfare

Shock tunnel studies of scramjet phenomena, supplement 6

Reports by the staff of the University of Queensland on various research studies related to the advancement of scramjet technology are presented. These reports document the tests conducted in the reflected shock tunnel T4 and supporting research facilities that have been used to study the injection, mixing, and combustion of hydrogen fuel in generic scramjets at flow conditions typical of hypersonic flight. In addition, topics include the development of instrumentation and measurement technology, such as combustor wall shear and stream composition in pulse facilities, and numerical studies and analyses of the scramjet combustor process and the test facility operation

What Have We Learnt About CO2 Leakage in the Context of Commercial-Scale CCS?

The viability of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) depends on the reliable containment of injected CO2 in the subsurface. Robust and cost-effective approaches to measure monitor and verify CO2 containment are required to demonstrate that CO2 has not breached the reservoir, and to comply with CCS regulations. This includes capability to detect and quantify any potential leakage to surface. It is useful to consider the range of possible leak rates for potential CO2 leak pathways from an intended storage reservoir to surface to inform the design of effective monitoring approaches. However, in the absence of a portfolio of leakage from engineered CO2 stores we must instead learn from industrial and natural analogues, numerical models, and laboratory and field experiments that have intentionally released CO2 into the shallow subsurface to simulate a CO2 leak to surface. We collated a global dataset of measured or estimated CO2 flux (CO2 emission per unit area) and CO2 leak rate from industrial and natural analogues and field experiments. We then examined the dataset to compare emission and flux rates and seep style, and consider the measured emission rates in the context of commercial scale CCS operations. We find that natural and industrial analogues show very wide variation in the scale of CO2 emissions, and tend to be larger than leaks simulated by CO2 release experiments. For all analogue types (natural, industrial, or experiment) the emission rates show greater variation between sites than CO2 flux rates. Quantitation approaches are non-standardized, and that measuring and reporting both the CO2 flux and seep rate is rare as it remains challenging, particularly in marine environments. Finally, we observe that CO2 fluxes tend to be associated with particular emission characteristics (vent, diffuse, or water-associated). We propose that characteristics could inform the design and performance requirements for CO2 leak monitoring approaches tailored to detect specific emission styles

Bioeconomic Factors of Beef Heifer Maturity to Consider when Establishing Criteria to Optimally Select and/or Retain Herd Replacements

Understanding the biology of heifer maturity and its relationship to calving difficulty and subsequent breeding success is a vital step in building abioeconomic model to identify optimal production and profitability. A limited dependent variable probit model is used to quantify the responses among heifer maturities, measured by a maturity index (MI), on dystocia and second pregnancy. The MI account for heifer age, birth BW, prebreeding BW, nutrition level, and dam size and age and is found to be inversely related to dystocia occurrence. On average there is a 2.2% increase in the probability of dystocia with every 1 point drop in the MI between the MI scores of 50 and 70. Statistically, MI does not directly alter second pregnancy rate; however, dystocia does. The presence of dystocia reduced second pregnancy rates by 10.67%. Using the probability of dystocia predicted from the MI in the sample, it is found that on average, every 1 point increase in MI added 0.62% to the probability of the occurrence of second pregnancy over the range represented by the data. Relationships among MI, dystocia, and second pregnancy are nonlinear and exhibit diminishing marginal effects. These relationships indicate optimal production and profitability occur at varying maturities, which are altered by animal type, economic environment, production system, and management regime. With these captured relationships, any single group of heifers may be ranked by profitability given their physical characteristics and the applicable production, management, and economic conditions

Shock tunnel studies of scramjet phenomena, supplement 5

A series of reports are presented on SCRAMjet studies, shock tunnel studies, and expansion tube studies. The SCRAMjet studies include: (1) Investigation of a Supersonic Combustion Layer; (2) Wall Injected SCRAMjet Experiments; (3) Supersonic Combustion with Transvers, Circular, Wall Jets; (4) Dissociated Test Gas Effects on SCRAMjet Combustors; (5) Use of Silane as a Fuel Additive for Hypersonic Thrust Production, (6) Pressure-length Correlations in Supersonic Combustion; (7) Hot Hydrogen Injection Technique for Shock Tunnels; (8) Heat Release - Wave Interaction Phenomena in Hypersonic Flows; (9) A Study of the Wave Drag in Hypersonic SCRAMjets; (10) Parametric Study of Thrust Production in the Two Dimensional SCRAMjet; (11) The Design of a Mass Spectrometer for use in Hypersonic Impulse Facilities; and (12) Development of a Skin Friction Gauge for use in an Impulse Facility. The shock tunnel studies include: (1) Hypervelocity flow in Axisymmetric Nozzles; (2) Shock Tunnel Development; and (3) Real Gas Efects in Hypervelocity Flows over an Inclined Cone. The expansion tube studies include: (1) Investigation of Flow Characteristics in TQ Expansion Tube; and (2) Disturbances in the Driver Gas of a Shock Tube

Living Well on Haemodialysis: feasibility and acceptability trial of an online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) programme for people receiving kidney haemodialysis

Background People receiving kidney haemodialysis need psychological support. Objectives To assess feasibility and acceptability of a 4-week online video-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) programme for people receiving kidney haemodialysis. Design Single group before-and-after study. Participants People with end-stage kidney disease currently receiving dialysis, who had received in-centre haemodialysis at least 90 days in the last two years. Measures Recruitment, retention and engagement (feasibility); weekly and post-programme feedback (acceptability); pre-intervention and 4-week follow-up (potential outcome measures): kidney disease quality of life (KDQOL-SF), psychological flexibility (Acceptance and Action Scale) and acceptance of illness (Acceptance of Illness Scale). Results The study recruited 13 participants of whom 85% completed at least half the programme and 69% completed the whole programme. Health and medical treatment issues were the main known reasons for non-participation and drop-out. Of the 16 separate elements of the programme (four ‘story’ videos and 12 videos explaining ACT techniques), 13 were positively evaluated by at least 75% of participants. Of 11 aspects of the programme, 8 were positively evaluated by at least 75% of participants, and 89% found the programme easy to use, understood how it worked, found it easy to access, trusted the information, had no technical difficulties, and understood the activities. However, only 66.7% agreed the programme was interesting and only 62.5% agreed they enjoyed the programme. All responding participants indicated they would recommend the programme to people starting dialysis. The direction of change was positive for 17/21 potential outcome measures, with significant (p < 0.05) improvements in psychological flexibility and energy/fatigue. Conclusions An online video-based ACT intervention was feasible and acceptable for people receiving kidney haemodialysis and the results provide pilot data for a planned larger trial

“I didn’t have any option”: Experiences of people receiving in-centre haemodialysis during the COVID-19 pandemic

People receiving in-centre haemodialysis (ICHD) during the COVID-19 pandemic had to adjust to more challenging treatment conditions. To explore people’s experiences of adjustment to ICHD during the pandemic. Thematic analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 14 adult UK ICHD patients. Findings: Four themes were identified: ‘perceptions of the threat’, ‘impacts on treatment’, ‘impaired communication’ and ‘coping and positive adjustment’. These described participants’ experiences of vulnerability to COVID-19; the ways the pandemic affected dialysis and clinical care; the impact that measures to reduce viral transmission had on communication and interaction within dialysis units; and ways that participants coped and made positive adjustments to the adversities imposed by the pandemic. The findings give insights into adjustment during extreme adversity. They also help to identify ways that support for ICHD patients could be improved as pandemic conditions recede, and ways that dialysis units could prepare for future outbreaks of infectious illness

Bounds on the mass-to-radius ratio for non-compact field configurations

It is well known that a spherically symmetric compact star whose energy density decreases monotonically possesses an upper bound on its mass-to-radius ratio, $2M/R\leq 8/9$. However, field configurations typically will not be compact. Here we investigate non-compact static configurations whose matter fields have a slow global spatial decay, bounded by a power law behavior. These matter distributions have no sharp boundaries. We derive an upper bound on the fundamental ratio max_r{2m(r)/r} which is valid throughout the bulk. In its simplest form, the bound implies that in any region of spacetime in which the radial pressure increases, or alternatively decreases not faster than some power law $r^{-(c+4)}$, one has $2m(r)/r \leq (2+2c)/(3+2c)$. [For $c \leq 0$ the bound degenerates to $2m(r)/r \leq 2/3$.] In its general version, the bound is expressed in terms of two physical parameters: the spatial decaying rate of the matter fields, and the highest occurring ratio of the trace of the pressure tensor to the local energy density.Comment: 4 page