Church Organists:Analysing their Willingness to Play

There currently exists a scarcity of church organ players even though they have traditionally been well paid. This paper presents an empirical investigation into the factors that affect the church organ player’s willingness to play. Results suggest pay does not attract the organ player to the position but being paid in situ increases their willingness to play, as do larger choir sizes and a better instrument quality. We also identify that organ players should be taught when they are young, as the younger the church organ player started learning the instrument then the greater their willingness to play.Religious participation; Willingness to play; Church Organ player

Developing and modelling complex social interventions: introducing the Connecting People Intervention

Objectives: Modeling the processes involved in complex social interventions is important in social work practice, as it facilitates their implementation and translation into different contexts. This article reports the process of developing and modeling the connecting people intervention (CPI), a model of practice that supports people with mental health problems to enhance their social networks. Method: The CPI model was developed through an iterative process of focus group discussions with practitioners and service users and a two-stage Delphi consultation with relevant experts. Results: We discuss the intervention model and the processes it articulates to provide an example of the benefits of intervention modeling. Conclusions: Intervention modeling provides a visual representation of the process and outcomes of an intervention, which can assist practice development and lead to improved outcomes for service users

Blogging- The new research dissemination strategy?

We spoke to a real life ‘pracademic’ (n. someone working at the interface of research and practice) on the value of blogging for research dissemination. Blogging has come a long way in recent years, becoming a platform for many academics previously accused of inhabiting ivory towers, who now advertise the potential or real impact their research can have on society. Martin Webber is our ‘pracademic’ who has created a successful blog on the ‘holy trinity’ of social work-research, practice and education. Here he discusses the power of blogging as a research dissemination tool

Regional Productivity Differentials: Explaining the Gap

Issues of productivity and competitiveness at a regional level have increasingly been a focus for both academic and policy concern. Significant and persistent differences in productivity are evident both in the UK and across Europe as a whole. This paper uses data relating to individual business units to examine the determinants of regional productivity differentials across British regions. It demonstrates that the substantial differences in regional productivity can be explained by a fairly limited set of variables. These include industry mix, the capital employed by the firm, business ownership and the skills of the local labour force. Also important are location-specific factors including travel-time from London and population density. Taken together, these factors largely explain regional productivity differentials. The analysis extends those studies that have identified but not quantified the role of different ‘productivity drivers’ in a systematic fashion or that have focused on only a limited set of drivers. It has important policy implications particular in relation to the role of travel time and possible effects of density and agglomeration.Regional competitiveness; Productivity; UK; Regional development; business-data analysis;

Announcing the Social Care Elf: a new member of the National Elf Service

How do you keep up to date with the latest reliable social care research? Ask a hundred people who work in social care and you’ll probably get a hundred different answers! There’s no simple and easy way to keep abreast of the latest evidence because it’s so scattered in terms of where it’s published, often in obscure locations, frequently behind pay-walls

Country-level Business Performance and Policy Asymmetries in Great Britain

The HM Treasury identifies key ‘drivers’ of business performance and productivity differentials, which include skills, investment and competition. This paper presents an empirical investigation into the effects of these drivers on business-level productivity per employee across England, Scotland and Wales in order to identify whether spatial differences in the influence of these drivers exist. We adopt the Cobb-Douglas production function approach and our results suggest that, after taking account of sector specific effects, productivity differentials do exist between businesses across Great Britain and that policy instruments do potentially enhance productivity. The results indicate that these key drivers are equally applicable across countries of Great Britain. However, there is evidence to suggest that scale effects for labour and capital do differ across England, Wales and Scotland and that policy makers should be aware of these asymmetries.Productivity per employee; HM Treasury’s key drivers; scale effects

Effectiveness of knowledge translation of social interventions across economic boundaries : A systematic review

There is increasing evidence to suggest that the application of knowledge in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) is failing, that a gap exists between what is known from research and what is done to apply it. Despite widespread agreement that the application of evidence is needed, there are few published studies of how to effectively translate knowledge of social interventions, particularly those aimed at improving outcomes for mental health populations. To address this gap we assessed knowledge translation of social interventions for adults with mental health problems across economic boundaries using a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature. This review aimed to identify the extent of translational research available and to explore the effectiveness of different strategies and interventions. Studies were included if they translated knowledge between richer and poorer countries and reported a social component (as opposed to purely health) which aimed to improve social outcomes for adults with mental health problems. Our findings provide evidence for the successful translation of locally adapted social interventions to LMIC, though the specific knowledge translation mechanisms varied greatly. With only 23 studies meeting inclusion criteria for this review, further investigation is needed to ascertain the conditions surrounding knowledge translation of social interventions globally

pH dependent polymer micelles

The present invention relates to the use of poly(vinyl N-heterocycle)-block-poly(alkylene oxide) copolymers in micelle containing pharmaceutical formulations. The copolymers advantageously respond to pH differences in the environment to which they are exposed forming micelles at higher pH values. The micelles, which comprise a therapeutic compound and a copolymer, deliver drug in a pH dependent manner.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste