Privileged or exploited council tenants?: The discursive change in Conservative housing policy from 1972 to 1980

The process of social construction in which competing and sometimes contradictory definitions contend with one another plays a decisive part in policy making. Justifications for policy intervention often require a narrative identifying villains or victims to delineate creatively a 'social problem' that needs to be addressed by appropriate measures. This article shows how contrasting political and media representations of council tenants in the 1960s and 1970s provided the emotive justifications for two distinct policies: 'Fair Rents' and the 'Right to Buy'. The article concludes that more attention should be paid to the way that the successful mobilisation of bias legitimises policy interventions

Power, discursive space and institutional practices in the construction of housing problems

A constructionist approach to the study of social problems and housing policy provides a theoretically informed means of analysing the ways in which housing policy is formulated and implemented. Yet despite a strong commitment by housing researchers to policy-relevance, constructionist studies of how specific social problems are generated and deployed have so far made only a limited impact on housing research. The paper addresses this lacuna by first discussing important literature and the key conceptual issues in this field of study. This is followed by a discussion of two examples from recent UK housing policy (the shift in the 1980s from defining lone mothers as the victims of housing shortages to a morally questionable group subverting needs based allocation policies and the re-emergence of anti-social behaviour as a problem on housing estates). The paper's conclusion is that the 'construction of problems' provides a rich source of new material as well as offering significant opportunities to develop a more critically informed housing research agenda

Outcomes and safety of concomitant nevirapine and rifampicin treatment under programme conditions in Malawi.

SETTING: Thyolo District Hospital, rural Malawi. OBJECTIVES: To report on 1) clinical, immunological and virological outcomes and 2) safety among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients with tuberculosis (TB) who received concurrent nevirapine (NVP) and rifampicin (RMP) based treatment. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: Analysis of programme data, June-December 2007. RESULTS: Of a total of 156 HIV-infected TB patients who started NVP-based antiretroviral treatment, 136 (87%) completed TB treatment successfully, 16 (10%) died and 5 (4%) were transferred out. Mean body weight and CD4 gain (adults) were respectively 4.4 kg (95%CI 3.3-5.4) and 140 cells/mm(3) (95%CI 117-162). Seventy-four per cent of patients who completed TB treatment and had a viral load performed (n = 74) had undetectable levels (<50 copies/ml), while 17 (22%) had a viral load of 50-1000 copies/ml. Hepatotoxicity was present in 2 (1.3%) patients at baseline. Two patients developed Grade 2 and one developed Grade 3 alanine transaminase enzyme elevations during TB treatment (incidence rate per 10 years of follow-up 4.2, 95%CI 1.4-13.1). There were no reported deaths linked to hepatotoxicity. CONCLUSIONS: In a rural district in Malawi, concomitant NVP and RMP treatment is associated with good TB treatment outcomes and appears safe. Further follow-up of patients would be useful to ascertain the longer-term effects of this concurrent treatment

Large K-exciton dynamics in GaN epilayers: the non-thermal and thermal regime

We present a detailed investigation concerning the exciton dynamics in GaN epilayers grown on c-plane sapphire substrates, focussing on the exciton formation and the transition from the nonthermal to the thermal regime. The time-resolved kinetics of LO-phonon replicas is used to address the energy relaxation in the excitonic band. From ps time-resolved spectra we bring evidence for a long lasting non-thermal excitonic distribution which accounts for the rst 50 ps. Such a behavior is con rmed in di erent experimental conditions, both when non-resonant and resonant excitation are used. At low excitation power density the exciton formation and their subsequent thermalization is dominated by impurity scattering rather than by acoustic phonon scattering. The estimate of the average energy of the excitons as a function of delay after the excitation pulse provides information on the relaxation time, which describes the evolution of the exciton population to the thermal regime.Comment: 9 pages,8 figure

Effect of particle-hole symmetry on the behavior of tracer and jump diffusion coefficients

This paper analyzes the effect of particle-hole symmetry on the behavior of the tracer diffusion coefficient as well as the jump diffusion coefficient. The coefficients are obtained by performing a random walk of individual atoms in a two-dimensional square lattice at monolayer, using the n-fold way Monte Carlo simulation. Different hopping mechanisms have been introduced to study the effect of particle-hole symmetry. For hopping kinetics where the initial-state interactions are involved, the diffusion coefficient at high coverage falls several orders of magnitude due to the effect of particle-hole symmetry. For hopping kinetics where the final-state interactions are present, the effect is the opposite. For those involving both initial- and final-state interactions, like the so-called interaction kinetics, the effect of particle-hole symmetry is also discussed. This effect seems to be critical for repulsive lateral interactions, for which the behavior of the diffusion coefficients is modified by introducing the particle-hole symmetry condition.Fil: Torrez Herrera, J. J.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - San Luis. Instituto de Física Aplicada; Argetnina;Fil: Ranzuglia, Gabriela Alicia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - San Luis. Instituto de Física Aplicada; Argetnina;Fil: Manzi, Sergio Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - San Luis. Instituto de Física Aplicada; Argetnina;Fil: Pereyra, Victor Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - San Luis. Instituto de Física Aplicada; Argetnina

Rethinking professional practice: the logic of competition and the crisis of identity in housing practice

The relationship between professionalism, education and housing practice has become increasingly strained following the introduction of austerity measures and welfare reforms across a range of countries. Focusing on the development of UK housing practice, this article considers how notions of professionalism are being reshaped within the context of welfare retrenchment and how emerging tensions have both affected the identity of housing professionals and impacted on the delivery of training and education programmes. The article analyses the changing knowledge and skills valued in contemporary housing practice and considers how the sector has responded to the challenges of austerity. The central argument is that a dominant logic of competition has culminated in a crisis of identity for the sector. Although the focus of the article is on UK housing practice, the processes identified have a wider relevance for the analysis of housing and welfare delivery in developed economies

WHO Clinical Staging of HIV Infection and Disease, Tuberculosis and Eligibility for Antiretroviral Treatment: Relationship to CD4 Lymphocyte Counts.

SETTING: Thyolo district, Malawi. OBJECTIVES: To determine in HIV-positive individuals aged over 13 years CD4 lymphocyte counts in patients classified as WHO Clinical Stage III and IV and patients with active and previous tuberculosis (TB). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: CD4 lymphocyte counts were determined in all consecutive HIV-positive individuals presenting to the antiretroviral clinic in WHO Stage III and IV. RESULTS: A CD4 lymphocyte count of < or = 350 cells/microl was found in 413 (90%) of 457 individuals in WHO Stage III and IV, 96% of 77 individuals with active TB, 92% of 65 individuals with a history of pulmonary TB (PTB) in the last year, 91% of 89 individuals with a previous history of PTB beyond 1 year, 81% of 32 individuals with a previous history of extra-pulmonary TB, 93% of 107 individuals with active or past TB with another HIV-related disease and 89% of 158 individuals with active or past TB without another HIV-related disease. CONCLUSIONS: In our setting, nine of 10 HIV-positive individuals presenting in WHO Stage III and IV and with active or previous TB have CD4 counts of < or = 350 cells/microl. It would thus be reasonable, in this or similar settings where CD4 counts are unavailable for clinical management, for all such patients to be considered eligible for antiretroviral therapy

Effect of smoke on the transmissivity of photosynthetically active radiation inside the canopy

International audienceBiomass burning activities emit high concentrations of aerosol particles to the atmosphere. Such particles can interact with solar radiation, decreasing the amount of light reaching the surface and increasing the fraction of diffuse radiation through scattering processes. This work reports results from photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) and aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements conducted simultaneously at Reserva Biológica do Jaru (Rondonia State, Brazil) during LBA/SMOCC (Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia/ Smoke, Aerosols, Clouds, Rainfall, and Climate) and RaCCI (Radiation, Cloud, and Climate Interactions in the Amazon during the Dry-to-Wet Transition Season) field experiments from 15 September to 15 November 2002. AOD values were retrieved from an AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) radiometer, MODIS (Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer) and a portable sunphotometer from the United States Department of Agriculture-Forest Service. Daily mean downward PAR irradiance at the top of canopy was reduced by up to 50% due to the smoke aerosol particles. This radiation reduction affected turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heats at the surface, observed particularly for high values of aerosol optical depth. The increase of aerosol optical depth also enhanced the transmission of photosynthetic active radiation inside the canopy. This result was a consequence of enhanced availability of diffuse radiation due to light scattering by the aerosol particles. A complex relationship was identified between light availability inside the canopy and net ecosystem exchange (NEE). The results showed that the increase of aerosol optical depth corresponded to an increase on CO2 exchange, indicating more CO2 uptake by the vegetation. However, for a higher AOD value, the corresponding NEE was lower than for intermediate values. Further studies are needed to better understand these findings, which were reported for the first time for the Amazon region under smoky conditions

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Hand Hygiene among Students and Nurses Staff in Mwanza Tanzania: A Cross-Sectional Hospital-Based Study during Global COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Hand hygiene (HH) is a critical component of infection prevention and control (IPC) which aims at preventing microbial transmission during patient care hence reducing the burden of healthcare associated infections (HCAIs). Information on the level of HH knowledge, attitudes and practices among healthcare workers (HCWs) from low- and middle-income countries is scarce. This study determined knowledge, attitude and practices of HH among students and staff nurses in Mwanza, Tanzania.Methods: This cross-sectional hospital-based study was conducted between August and October 2020 among student and staff nurses from 2health centres, 2district hospitals, 1regional referral hospital and 1zonal referral hospital. Self-administered pretested structured questionnaires were used for data collection. All data was transferred to Microsoft excel spreadsheet for cleaning and coding, then to STATA software version 13.0 for analysis.Results: A total of 726 nurses aged 18 to 59 years with median (IQR) age of 29(24-38) years were enrolled. About 3 quarters 76.4% (555/726) of nurses had good level of knowledge on HH as most of them 88.3% (641/726) had received rigorous IPC trainings during COVID-19 pandemic. About 42.0% (305/726) of the participants reported that, the action of HH was effortless. Majority of the participants, 81.1% (589/726) practiced hand washing more than hand rubbing routinely. Being a student nurse [OR: 0.30, 95%CI: 0.21-1.44, p&lt;.001], working in inpatient department [OR: 0.38, 95%CI: 0.27-0.55, p&lt;.001], high level of education i.e., degree and above [OR: 1.74, 95%CI: 1.36-2.24, p&lt;.001] and having working experience of 5 years and above [OR: 2.41, 95%CI: 1.52-3.82, p&lt;.001] was associated with being knowledgeable of HH.Conclusion: Majority of the participants had good level of knowledge on HH because they had received rigorous training on IPC, notably HH during the global COVID-19 pandemic