A meta-analysis of studies of treatments for feline urine spraying

Feline urine spraying inside the home is a common problem behaviour that owners seek advice for from veterinarians. Individual trials relating to a variety of interventions produce variable results, and to date, no consensus on the value of different treatments has emerged. This study therefore aimed to meta-analyse, current data from appropriate published clinical trials that evaluate treatments for feline urine spraying. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for study selection were predefined and methodological quality was assessed by two independent reviewers. Ten studies in nine publications that either evaluated pharmacotherapy or pheromonatherapy (the use of a synthetic analogue of the F3 facial fraction in the cat) were suitable for analysis. There was a significant (P 0.001) association between the use of any intervention and the number of cats that ceased or reduced urine spraying by at least 90%. Analysis by intervention type indicated that fluoxetine, clomipramine and pheromonatherapy may each assist in managing urine spraying beyond a placebo based intervention. This is the first time meta-analytical techniques have been used and reported to evaluate the efficacy of interventions used in veterinary behavioural medicine, and it has established confidence in the value of both conventional treatments (pharmacotherapy) and a more recently developed treatment modality (pheromonatherapy) as an adjunct to the management of this problem. It is suggested that future research into treatment efficacy for this problem uses the benchmark standard of randomised, controlled trials lasting for at least 8 weeks, with the outcome criteria of cessation of feline urine spraying or reduction by at least 90%

HOW WELFARE REFORM IMPACTS NON-METROPOLITAN AND METROPOLITAN COUNTIES IN VIRGINIA

Labor and Human Capital,

Evaluation of an adult weight management service delivered by pharmacies and GP practices

This study aimed to determine whether an adult weight management programme delivered by pharmacies and GP practices in Birmingham was effective and if there was a difference between pharmacy and GP led programmes. In this repeated measures study (n=450) of a 12 week weight management programme consisting of weekly appointments and three follow up appointments delivered in pharmacies (n=183) and GP practices (n=267). Participants at baseline had a mean age of 42 (±12.4) years, and mean BMI of 34.5 (±6.0) kg/m² and were measured at baseline (n=450), 12 weeks (n=166) and 6 month follow up (n=82). Weight, BMI, waist circumference and quality of life (QoL) measurements were taken at each time point. Overall there was a significant decrease in weight (3.10kg (±4.32)), waist (6.20cm (±6.21)) and BMI (1.12kg/m² (±1.76)) between baseline and 12 weeks (p=0.000), and baseline and six month follow up (p=0.000). With 39% of participants losing more than 5% of their weight and 54% losing more than 5cm from their waist at 6 month follow up. QoL significantly increased between baseline and 12 weeks (p=0.000), and baseline and six month follow up (p=0.000). GP led programmes had a significantly (p=0.043) higher percentage weight loss than the pharmacy led programmes at 12 weeks. However, the pharmacy led programme demonstrated significant (p=0.009) weight loss between completing the 12 week programme and 6 month follow up, compared to the GP led programme where weight increased. The pharmacy led programme had a considerably higher retention rate and resulted in a 4.03%(±5.24) weight loss at follow up with significantly (p=0.019) more participants achieving more than 5% weight loss at the 6 month follow up compared with the GP led programme. The adult weight management programme is effective, resulting in a significant decrease in weight, BMI and waist circumference and a significant increase in quality of life at 12 weeks and maintained 6 months post intervention. The pharmacy led programme appears more effective than the GP led programme demonstrating a significantly greater retention rate with a significant percentage of participants maintaining their weight loss 6 months post intervention

Young ghosts: ethical and methodological issues of historical research in children's geographies

Geographers researching children and young people have often been at the forefront of disciplinary debates in geography surrounding methodological practice and ethical considerations (Matthews et al. 1998, Valentine 1999, Pain 2004, Hemming 2008, Hopkins and Bell 2008, van Blerk and Barker 2008). In this short paper, I want to focus on a less-popular research method used by children’s geographers – archival methods (cf. Gagen 2000, 2001) – and reflect specifically on some of its methodological and ethical challenges. I argue that thinking about historical research can challenge children’s geographers to consider other types of encounter from that of the (embodied) encounter between a researcher and a child (Horton 2008). These different and multiple encounters include those between the (adult) creator of ‘material’ and a young person, a young person (as creator) and their intended audience, and the further encounter between a young person from the past and a present-day researcher during fieldwork. The spatial and temporal deferral in some of these encounters suggests a re-thinking of how we approach and conceptualise research ‘with’ young people. Furthermore, these (dis)embodied encounters can challenge ethical norms in children’s geographies such as consent, confidentiality and positionality in different but overlapping ways. I contend that children’s geographers are well versed in these ethical issues, some of which transfer well into the practice of historical research. For example, issues surrounding children’s ‘voice’ and responsibility are quite similar (as I later discuss), but there is a difference between contemporary and historical research in terms of the media involved (your own tape recordings or someone else’s recorded tapes; fresh participatory artwork or dust-covered diaries) and a different retrieval process (direct embodied research with young people or deferred connections in another building, time and place)

Design of experiment and analysis techniques for fuel consumption data using heavy-duty diesel vehicles and on-road testing

Chassis dynamometer and on-road testing are usually employed to test vehicle operation. Testing on a chassis dynamometer reduces data variability compared to on-road testing due to the controlled environment but it does not account for other important variables that affects real-world vehicle operation. This study used on-road testing to investigate the differences between two test fuels under real-world conditions. Three heavy-duty diesel vehicles were driven on different routes for a period of three months. Each vehicle was instrumented with flow meters to gather fuel consumption data, which was then compared to the fuel rate broadcasted by the engine control unit (ECU). Additionally, the driveshaft torque was measured using a strain gage and a torque transmitter, which was used to confirm that the output torque was correlated to the vehicle’s fuel consumption. Data from both the ECU and the sensors were stored on a portable activity measurement system (PAMS), which also collected global positioning system (GPS) data and ambient conditions. The experimental procedure was based on SAE J1321. Due to the proprietary nature of the data, specific results of the study were not shown. However, the thesis details the design of experiments, including the selection, installation, benefits, and limitations of using additional sensors to improve data analysis. It also discusses the data storage and methods used for data analysis with the considerably large data sets obtained in the study. For example, while ~4.5 million data points were collected for each vehicle and each month of testing, more than 55% of the data points were discarded due to idling, engine cutoff during downhill operation, and adverse weather conditions. With respect to data analysis, the principal component analysis (PCA) identified the variables that caused the most variability in the datasets. PCA and data binning were used to compare datasets and determine the differences between them. The results show that the route with the most interstate data supplied the highest number of usable data points. Moreover, the ECU fuel consumption was consistent with the flow meter data with an average percent error of 2.5%. Measuring the engine torque using a torque meter can be difficult for on-road testing due to the excessive vibration experienced by the sensor

'An instruction in good citizenship': Scouting and the historical geographies of citizenship education

This paper examines informal citizenship training for youth and the historical geographies of education over time through analysing the Scout Movement in Britain and its activities in the first half of the twentieth century. In doing so, it highlights the complexity of youth citizenship and the significance of non-school spaces in civil society to our understandings of young people's positioning as citizen-subjects. Drawing on archival research, I demonstrate how a specific youth citizenship project was constructed and maintained through the Scout Movement. I argue that various processes, strategies and regulations were involved in envisioning 'citizen-scout' and developing both duty-bound, self-regulated individuals as well as a wider collective body of British youth. This analysis speaks to broader debates on citizenship, nationhood and youth, as well as highlighting how the historical geographies of citizenship education are an important area of study for geographers

Jives, jeans and Jewishness? Moral geographies, atmospheres and the politics of mixing at the Jewish Lads’ Brigade & Club 1954–1969

This paper examines a series of anxieties about mixing at the Jewish Lads’ Brigade and Club (JLB & C) in Manchester, UK during the 1950s and 1960s, primarily focused on inter-faith activities, relationships and marriages. This paper explores how a powerful moral geography of gender and religion came to be shaped, regulated and negotiated at this youth work space. The concerns expressed by some adults over teenage encounters in the post-war city were articulated and understood through the notion of ‘atmospheres’, and this paper suggests how this idea and language captured some of the anxieties and emotions surrounding cultures of leisure at this time. This paper contributes an in-depth and sustained focus on the moral geographies of the post-war city in relation to young people, as well as addressing an important gap in scholarship on Jewish youthful religiosities. Furthermore, it pushes at ideas about meaningful encounters through the consideration of the JLB & C as a meeting space and arena for visitors. Overall, the paper examines how the JLB & C acted as both a mirror to the wider social changes of the post-war era, while also being an active contributor in shaping those same processes of social change

Cultural-historical geographies of the archive: fragments, objects and ghosts

This article reviews the increasingly diverse ways in which geographers are engaging with archives. Although traditionally associated with historical geography, cultural-historical geographers have recently 'animated' the archive and its collections of fragments, objects and ghosts. Through this article, I provide an overview of the central characteristics of work in this field, as well as considering the discipline's wider relationship with archival material. Overall, I reflect on the key challenges for geographers in animating and 'bringing to life' the archive - and by extension - the past

Youth on Streets and Bob-a-Job Week: Urban Geographies of Masculinity, Risk, and Home in Postwar Britain

After World War Two, youth in Britain was constructed as unruly, troublesome, and deviant, particularly in public urban space and streets. However, not all children and young people were discouraged from entering these environments or engaging with the general public. Drawing from literature published by the Boy Scout Association and a case study of Bob-a-Job Week in Britain launched in 1949, I examine the institutional geographies of responsibility, risk, and reward embedded in this youth activity, orchestrated by the most popular youth organisation in Britain. This fundraising scheme involved Boy Scouts completing domestic tasks for householders and encouraged uniformed youth to be visible, proficient, and useful. Significantly, this also took place in largely urban areas- complicating our understanding of scouting as an idealised 'rural' practice with camping as its central activity. Furthermore, this paper explores how this fundraising spectacle also functioned as a hybrid space that permitted 'feminine' domestic tasks as appropriate for 'British boyhood' until the scheme's eventual demise in the 1990s. Overall, the complex geographies of Bob-a-Job Week reveal how this organisation negotiated the boundaries between domestic and public space, providing an insight into broader constructions of youth and gender in the postwar period

Scouting for girls? Gender and the Scout Movement in Britain

This article brings a feminist geopolitics to bear upon an analysis of the Boy Scout Movement in Britain in order to illustrate how an emphasis upon seemingly banal, embodied practices such as dressing, writing and crafting can provide a counter-view to prevailing notions of the elite, organisational `scripting' of individualised, geopolitical identities. Here, these practices undertaken by girls are understood not as subversive, or even transgressive, in the face of broader-scale constructions of the self and the collective body, but rather as related moments in the emergence of a complex, tension-ridden `movement' that exceed specific attempts at fixity along the lines of gender. Using archival data, this article examines various embodied practices by `girl scouts' that were made possible by such attempts at fixity but which also, in turn, opened up new spaces of engagement and negotiation. A cumulative shift from a determinedly masculine to a co-educational organisation over the course of the twentieth century thus reflects complex geographies of gender, national identity and citizenship and offers a historical contribution to the feminist geopolitics literature