The EQIP GIS, Web-based Decision Program

Working together, NRCS and Purdue University staff developed a GIS, web-based EQIP decision program. Landowners and NRCS personnel enter required EQIP information via a mapping service. Other subroutines store the information for use by NRCS in ranking and funding EQIP applications that receive the highest scores subject to budget constraints.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Anarchy in the UK: Reading Beryl the Peril via historic conceptions of childhood

© 2014 Taylor & Francis. Much work within the field of childhood studies has focused on the social discourses through which childhood is understood. This article draws on this work in developing a critical framework for considering the appeal of Beryl the Peril. The article examines the influence of conceptualisations of childhood prevalent in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These theorised children as disruptive and requiring restraint. Approved literature for children sought to socialise them into the adult order. However, a more subversive strain, identifiable in Lewis Carroll's Alice novels, celebrated an anarchic vision of childhood. This article examines how Beryl the Peril negotiated these conflicting conceptions of childhood. Beryl is an unruly force; her opponent, and representative of social authority, is Dad. Their clashes play out the tensions in these articulations of childhood. The development of Beryl over nearly 60 years provides an opportunity to examine how her subversive spirit has remained appealing

A bespoke smoking cessation service compared with treatment as usual for people with severe mental ill health: the SCIMITAR+ RCT

BackgroundThere is a high prevalence of smoking among people with severe mental ill health (SMI). Helping people with SMI to quit smoking could improve their health and longevity, and reduce health inequalities. However, those with SMI are less likely to access and engage with routine smoking cessation services than the general population.ObjectivesTo compare the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a bespoke smoking cessation (BSC) intervention with usual stop smoking services for people with SMI.DesignA pragmatic, two-arm, individually randomised controlled trial.SettingPrimary care and secondary care mental health services in England.ParticipantsSmokers aged ≥ 18 years with SMI who would like to cut down on or quit smoking.InterventionsA BSC intervention delivered by mental health specialists trained to deliver evidence-supported smoking cessation interventions compared with usual care.Main outcome measuresThe primary outcome was self-reported, CO-verified smoking cessation at 12 months. Smoking-related secondary outcomes were self-reported smoking cessation, the number of cigarettes smoked per day, the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence and the Motivation to Quit questionnaire. Other secondary outcomes were Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items, Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment-7 items and 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey, to assess mental health and body mass index measured at 6 and 12 months post randomisation.ResultsThe trial randomised 526 people (265 to the intervention group, 261 to the usual-care group) aged 19 to 72 years (mean 46 years). About 60% of participants were male. Participants smoked between 3 and 100 cigarettes per day (mean 25 cigarettes per day) at baseline. The intervention group had a higher rate of exhaled CO-verified smoking cessation at 6 and 12 months than the usual-care group [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 12 months: 1.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.9 to 2.8; adjusted OR 6 months: 2.4, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.7]. This was not statistically significant at 12 months (p = 0.12) but was statistically significant at 6 months (p = 0.01). In total, 111 serious adverse events were reported (69 in the BSC group and 42 in the usual-care group); the majority were unplanned hospitalisations due to a deterioration in mental health (n = 98). The intervention is likely (57%) to be less costly but more effective than usual care; however, this result was not necessarily associated with participants’ smoking status.LimitationsFollow-up was not blind to treatment allocation. However, the primary outcome included a biochemically verified end point, less susceptible to observer biases. Some participants experienced difficulties in accessing nicotine replacement therapy because of changes in service provision. Efforts were made to help participants access nicotine replacement therapy, but this may have affected participants’ quit attempt.ConclusionsPeople with SMI who received the intervention were more likely to have stopped smoking at 6 months. Although more people who received the intervention had stopped smoking at 12 months, this was not statistically significant.Future workFurther research is needed to establish how quitting can be sustained among people with SMI.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN72955454.FundingThis project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 23, No. 50. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information

The EQIP GIS, Web-based Decision Program

Working together, NRCS and Purdue University staff developed a GIS, web-based EQIP decision program. Landowners and NRCS personnel enter required EQIP information via a mapping service. Other subroutines store the information for use by NRCS in ranking and funding EQIP applications that receive the highest scores subject to budget constraints

Architectural Sculpture

In her introduction to an exhibition presenting 81 international architects, Burchnett discusses the potential of theoretical or experimental architecture as a type of sculpture. Larsen seeks to posit a bridge between sculpture and architecture without resorting to revivalism, while Lippard takes up the archetypal topic of the box as a basic unit in architecture sculptural vocabulary. Volume two documents projects at eight institutions in conjunction with documentary exhibitions. Biographical notes. 26 bibl. ref