Mental health practitioners\u27 perceptions of touch

Need for touch--Protection of client and practitioner--Appropriateness--Personal boundaries--Client psychopathology--Sexual and legal issues--Interpretation--Practitioner judgement

China:US intercountry adoption: a Quantitative Grounded Theory Study

This study sought to identify the factors influencing the scale and nature of intercountry adoption (ICA) between the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America; and to describe the significance and contribution of each to ICA processes. It took a documentary data analysis approach based upon Quantitative Grounded Theory; firstly interpreting available data and thematically analyzing the literature in order to identify correlations between changes in the data and the environment for ICA. The results showed that changes in policies, ethical narratives and ideological shifts (principally the rise of nationalism) appeared to influence both the scale and type of ICAs in successive years. This paper concluded that China:US ICA is likely to continue only in small numbers with older and special needs children. However, China:US adoptions provide some examples of ‘best practice’. Understanding the interplay of factors explored theoretically in this study may guide future ICA arrangements between other country-pairs. Originality/value Although a range of data have been collected on China:US ICA over a number of years, no systematic attempt has been made to link changes in those data to changes in the legal, social or cultural climate in which such adoptions take place. As well as providing new insights into the dynamics of ICA, the paper develops an original method which could be applied to parallel arrangements between other countries

Dysregulation of cadherins in the intercalated disc of the spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat

The structural integrity of cardiac cells is maintained by the Ca2+-dependent homophilic cell-cell adhesion of cadherins. N-cadherin is responsible for this adhesion under normal physiological conditions. The role of cadherins in adverse cardiac pathology is less clear. We studied the hearts of the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive (SHRSP) rat as a genetic model of cardiac hypertrophy and compared them to Wistar-Kyoto control animals. Western blotting of protein homogenates from 12-week old SHRSP animals indicated that similar levels of [beta], [gamma]-, and [alpha]-catenin and T, N and R-cadherin were expressed in the control and SHRSP animals. However, dramatically higher levels of E-cadherin were detected in SHRSP animals compared to controls at 6, 12 and 18áweeks of age. This was confirmed by quantitative Taqman PCR and immunohistochemistry. E-cadherin was located at the intercalated disc of the myocytes in co-localisation with connexin 43. Adenoviral overexpression of E-cadherin in rat H9c2 cells and primary rabbit myocytes resulted in a significant reduction in myocyte cell diameter and breadth. E-cadherin overexpression resulted in re-localisation of [beta]-catenin to the cell surface particularly to cell-cell junctions. Subsequent immunohistochemistry of the hearts of WKY and SHRSP animals also revealed increased levels of [beta]-catenin in the intercalated disc in the SHRSP compared to WKY. Therefore, remodelling of the intercalated disc in the hearts of SHRSP animals may contribute to the altered function observed in these animal

Evaluating youth empowerment in neighbourhood settings:applying the capabilities 3C model to evidence and extend the social justice outcomes of youth work in Scotland

This paper examines how collective capabilities at a neighbourhood level can support youth voice and empowerment. By applying Ibrahim’s 3C collective capabilities model in a new context with young people, we propose that it offers a useful framework to demonstrate the existing value and extend the social justice potential of youth work practice. Our findings aim to address the concern that youth work in Scotland supports individual but not collective transformation. They offer a framework to analyse the development of collective youth capabilities, with the potential to hold policy makers to account for commitments to youth decision-making such as The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill. The 3C model conceptualises three key processes in the development of collective agency as conscientisation, conciliation and collaboration. The model recognises the personal and group processes of engagement that lead to grassroots action, but also prompts analysis of power relations between grassroots actors and the institutions that govern public decision-making. Drawing on a case-study example, we highlight the ways in which youth work practice might extend its social justice potential, highlighting the need for collaboration and power sharing with policy institutions in order to support meaningful youth empowerment

“Exploring the Basement of Social Justice Issues”: A Graduate Upon Graduation

Photograph of rides building up, taken J. Stevens' Fair, 20 June 1961 whole general view, looking West. See Leeson's notebook 9, pages 92-95 for notes

Popular Backyard Flock program reduces biosecurity risks of amateur production

The California Animal Health and Food Safety laboratories provide free necropsy (postmortem examination) services to owners of backyard poultry through the Backyard Flock program funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. We collected and analyzed data on the number of poultry submissions to the program between 2007 and 2012, the lab totals by location and the diseases diagnosed. During those 6 years, submissions increased 383%, with chickens representing 91% of them, and the greatest increases occurred in Santa Clara, Los Angeles and Sonoma counties. The necropsy data showed that the digestive (32.5%) and hemolymphatic (16.9%) systems were the most commonly affected. Marek's disease accounted for 13.3% of diagnoses (492 cases). With the rapid rise in the number of poultry being raised by amateur producers, biosecurity education is essential

Explaining variation in referral from primary to secondary care: cohort study

Objectives To determine the extent to which referral for defined symptoms from primary care varies by age, sex, and social deprivation and whether any sociodemographic variations in referral differ according to the presence of national referral guidance and the potential of the symptoms to be life threatening

Girls Shift Digital: Reflecting on the Impact of Moving Online in Girls' Creative Youth Projects

Over the past months, countless youth organisations and charities have adapted their services to support vulnerable young people who are unable to access face-to-face provision during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the organisations are also facing financial difficulties due to the crisis. What follows is an account of the processes and challenges of adapting specifically girl-centric creative-cultural programmes to the UK’s lockdown conditions. Using two organisations which we are both involved with as case studies, we explore the challenges and limitations of how the projects are shifting the delivery of their programmes online. Girl-Kind North East and the Young Women’s Film Academy are projects located in the North East of England, and provide girls with spaces to produce and showcase creative work. The projects differ in multiple ways (such as their foundational origins, organisational structure and funding), but both are underpinned by a feminist commitment to amplifying North East girls’ voices through creative production, and employing girl-made artefacts as tools for social action in their wider communities. There is also some overlap in the personnel and activities of the two organisations, which is significant in relation to our ensuing discussion