What makes a looked after child happy and unhappy?

What is good for a looked after child is usually decided by adults with the child’s voice often peripheral. One way to make the child central to decision-making is to ask them what makes them happy or unhappy. In doing this, the definition of happiness has to be neither a description of what has gone well in life nor an immediate state of mind, but should encompass the Aristotelian concept of eudaimonia. This is often translated as happiness but also incorporates notions of well-being and flourishing. The study reported here was undertaken as part of a children’s health needs assessment in an English local authority. It sought to understand why looked after children experience such high levels of poor mental health and make growing demands on therapeutic services. The proportion of young people displaying above average scores on validated measures, such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), is growing each year. The aim was to find out what looked after children say makes them happy and unhappy and what they see as likely to increase their well-being, and to compare their suggestions with those of the professionals and carers involved in their lives. Focus groups with children and professionals then discussed the same question, with the professionals also examining their understanding of SDQ results and their relevance to practice. The study found significant differences between the views of the children and professionals in both the range and emphasis of what is seen as important. Moreover, these adult assumptions were rarely tested by meaningful discussions with young people when key decisions were made; indeed, these seemed to be made about rather than with the children. In addition, the SDQ was not widely used by professionals to assess children’s emotional health and well-being needs. The study concluded that discussions about happiness can usefully support holistic understandings of looked after children’s experiences and aid planning and practice development

Comparative moisture and heat sorption properties of fibre and shiv derived from hemp and flax

Abstract: Unlike many mineral-based insulation materials bio-based lignocellulosic fibre and shiv offer a number of benefits including thermal and hygroscopic properties. The microstructure, porosity and chemical compositions of the plant cell walls play a major role in the moisture exchange process. In this paper, the effects of microstructure, chemical composition, porosity and pore size distribution of both fibre and shiv, from hemp and flax plants, on both moisture and heat sorption were studied for the first time. The physical and chemical characteristics of the fibre and shiv from hemp and flax were studied by using scanning electron microscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Water moisture sorption and heat of sorption were studied using a dynamic vapour sorption apparatus and a simultaneous thermal analysis system, combined with a humidity generator and using a copper furnace. Results showed that both the fibre and shiv of hemp and flax adsorbed a similar amount of moisture at a given relative humidity, which was dependent on the availability of hydroxyl groups for water in the cell wall. The macroscopic surface area and porosity of the specimen on a large scale had little influence on the availability of hydroxyl groups in the cell wall. The water molecules bound with cell wall molecules through hydrogen bonds over the full range of relative humidities, with a consistent hysteresis difference between the first sorption isotherm and subsequent sequential sorption cycles found in the hemp shiv specimens. For both hemp and flax, the isothermic hysteresis of the shiv was much higher than that of the fibre, which was shown to be dependent on the lignin content. The result of heat sorption indicated that some blocked sorption sites become available to water vapour molecules due to the change in molecular structure of the cell wall during the adsorption process. This study has improved understanding of the hemp and flax sorption behaviour and is important for optimal application of bio-based insulation materials for construction

Campus Vol VII N 4

Howard Studio. Camile Champlin, Freshman . Picture. 4. Hawk, Pete. It\u27s Just a Game . Prose. 6. Anonymous. How To Snow Finals . Prose. 8. Martin, Lyn. Keep Granville Clean! . Prose. 9. Anonymous. Last Will and Testament of the Senior Class . Prose. 10. Anonymous. Untitled. Poem. 13. Anonymous. Untitled. Prose. 13

Predicting Farms’ Noncompliance with Regulations on Nitrate Pollution. ESRI WP609, January 2019

Despite ongoing efforts by regulatory authorities, there is significant noncompliance with the EU Nitrates Directive among farms in Ireland. Nutrient pollution harms water quality and ecosystems, and farms are subject to fines for noncompliance. This paper examines reasons for noncompliance and develops methods to predict which farms have the highest probability of being in breach of the Nitrates Regulations. We estimate econometric models of noncompliance using rich administrative data on farm and farmer characteristics collected by Ireland’s Department of Agriculture. We identify significant relationships between farm characteristics and the odds of a farm exceeding regulatory limits. We also find that econometric models can predict exceedances more accurately than a regulatory rule-of-thumb that flags farms with nitrates levels above a set threshold in the previous year. This approach illustrates the potential benefits of using statistical analysis of administrative data to assist regulatory enforcement when behavioural factors are involved

Predicting which farms are most likely to breach nitrate pollution regulations. ESRI Research Bulletin 202009 May 2020.

New research analyses which farms and farmers exceed emissions limits set by the EU Nitrates Regulations. Violations are most likely when a farm business undergoes substantive change, perhaps via an alternative business model, expanded production, or the buying or selling of land. Violations reduce water quality and lead to penalties for farmers

‘Assisted’ Facial Recognition and the Reinvention of Suspicion and Discretion in Digital Policing

Automated facial recognition (AFR) has emerged as one of the most controversial policing innovations of recent years. Drawing on empirical data collected during the United Kingdom’s two major police trials of AFR deployments—and building on insights from the sociology of policing, surveillance studies and science and technology studies—this article advances several arguments. Tracing a lineage from early sociologies of policing that accented the importance of police discretion and suspicion formation, the analysis illuminates how technological capability is conditioned by police discretion, but police discretion itself is also contingent on affordances brought by the operational and technical environment. These, in turn, frame and ‘legitimate’ subjects of a reinvented and digitally mediated ‘bureaucratic suspicion’

Freight logistics services for rural economies : User needs and future challenges

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

TechSat 21 and Revolutionizing Space Missions using Microsatellites

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) TechSat 21 flight experiment demonstrates a formation of three microsatellites flying in formation to operate as a “virtual satellite.” X-band transmit and receive payloads on each of the satellites form a large sparse aperture system. The satellite formation can be configured to optimize such varied missions as radio frequency (RF) sparse aperture imaging, precision geolocation, ground moving target indication (GMTI), single-pass digital terrain elevation data (DTED), electronic protection, single-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IF-SAR), and high data-rate, secure communications. Benefits of such a microsatellite formation over single large satellites include unlimited aperture size and geometry, greater launch flexibility, higher system reliability, easier system upgrade, and low cost mass production. Key research has focused on the areas of formation flying and sparse aperture signal processing and been sponsored and guided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). The TechSat 21 Program Preliminary Design Review (PDR) was held in April 2001 and incorporated the results of extensive system trades to achieve a light-weight, high performance satellite design. An overview of experiment objectives, research advances, and satellite design is presented