Evaluating an online support package delivered within a disability unemployment service: study protocol for a randomised controlled feasibility study

Background Mental health problems such as anxiety and depression are known to be higher in those who are unemployed. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a recognised support for people with such problems and can improve the ability of people to get back to work.<p></p> Methods/design Participants with symptoms of low mood will be recruited from the disability employment service, Remploy. Participants will receive either immediate or delayed access to an online CBT-based life skills intervention, the “Living Life” package. The primary end point will be at 3 months when the delayed group will be offered the intervention. This feasibility study will test the trial design and assess recruitment, retention, acceptability and adherence, as well as providing efficacy data.<p></p> Discussion The study will inform the design and sample size for a future full randomised controlled trial (RCT) which will be carried out to determine the effectiveness of the online package in improving mood and employment status.<p></p&gt

Crouzon Syndrome: a case report

Crouzon Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder resulting from a mutation of the Fibroblast Growth Factor Recep- tor 2 Gene. The main presenting feature of this syndrome is craniofacial synostosis but multiple physical dysmorphic features have been reported. There is a dearth of literature detailing the presentation of this syndrome in the foot and lower limb. Therefore, this case report will describe the clinical characteristics of a 22 year old female referred for podiatric assessment. It will also explore the possible treatment options considered for this case

Print, Debate and the Public Sphere in the London Tithes Cause, c.1600-1650

The debates over tithe payments in early modern London have been understudied as well as largely misunderstood and misdescribed in histories of the early modern period; it has been suggested that the tithe debates '[do] not seem to have been of very great interest or importance', and some of the extant material concerning the tithe debates has been described as having 'no information likely to be of general interest'. This has led Edith Bershadsky to suggest that 'the majority of historians' concerned with early modern history have 'regarded London tithes as an insignificant question'. In this thesis I challenge these misconceptions by providing a detailed study of the London tithes cause, with a particular focus on ideas of print, debate and the public sphere. The majority of the historiography on early modern tithes has focused on the legal ambiguity surrounding the clerical tax, and only recently - and still rather sporadically - have thoughts turned to their wider social, political and religious significance. Here I adopt an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the tithe debates and focus particularly on the patterns of language and rhetoric employed by the disputants in printed and manuscript sources, both 'literary' and 'non-literary'. By focusing on the City of London over a period of 50 years in this thesis, and by assessing the source material from both quantitative and qualitative angles, I provide a more thoroughgoing narrative of continuity and change in the course of the tithe disputes - both in terms of the theoretical discussion of their legality and the practical aspect of their enforcement. In Chapter 1 I examine the proliferation of printed works defending the divine right to tithes in the early years of James I's reign and suggest that there was a concerted effort by James and his Archbishop, Richard Bancroft, to foster a publishing circle of lay and clerical individuals to defend the Church's right to tithes. Chapter 2 focuses on perhaps the single-most influential text in the early modern tithe debates - John Selden's The Historie of Tithes (1618). In this chapter I am particularly concerned with ideas of intertextuality and censorship, and I contextualise Selden's work by analysing it next to works - some of which were state-sponsored - written to refute Selden's claims. Chapter 3 transitions to a consideration of the more practical aspects of the tithe disputes in London and is concerned with the clerical attempt to improve the value of their livings through tithes in the 1630s. Here ministers of an array of styles of churchmanship united to petition Charles I, but met resistance in the form of the civic authorities. In this chapter I engage with archival material held at Lambeth Palace and correct a number of misconceptions that have been passed down through the historiography of the tithe debates, and I explore how the lay and clerical corporate bodies interacted with one another. In Chapter 4 I focus on the turbulence of the 1640s and examine how the tithe debates were conducted in printed pamphlets as well as in the intra-mural parochial vestries. Here we see how the non-payment of tithes becomes linked with ideas of liberty of conscience and religious toleration in the conforming literature, and how conforming lay persons attempted to effect change at a parochial level through the mechanisms available to them. Throughout the thesis, then, I argue: that the tithe debates were near universal in their impact upon various aspects of early modern life; that the discussion of tithes was considered vitally important both locally and nationally; that a great deal of effort and time was put into the publication of arguments for and against the system of tithes; and that there existed a public sphere in London in which the issue of tithes was hotly debated, both in literature and in 'real life'. More broadly, this thesis shows that in focusing on the issue of tithes we are able to see how individuals and institutions interacted and communicated over a fiercely-debated topic in the early modern period, and how these politically engaged people employed their linguistic and rhetorical skills to involve themselves in the continuing reformations of both Church and State

Emulsion design for reduced fat baking margarine

Water-in-Oil emulsions present a potential strategy for fat reduction in conventional baking margarine (and thereupon bakery products), by replacing a portion of the fat with a water-based fat mimetic. Using hydrocolloids, polymers, and stabilisers, this aqueous phase may be structured in such a way as to emulate the physical and mechanical behaviour of the fat, but with almost none of the associated energy contribution - presenting potential for a realistic, marketable solution towards weight management and calorie control. This work has adopted a holistic strategy in order to characterise and understand the various structural components and processes consolidating to form a final, optimized, baking margarine emulsion structure. The relationship between the microstructure and the physicomechanical properties of standalone structured aqueous hydrocolloid phases is studied, and modelled for more complex systems. Emulsification processing parameters were optimized for production of water in palm oil baking margarine emulsions, before then applying these learnings for successful formulation of reduced fat palm oil emulsions incorporating the structured aqueous phase. A conventional margarine process is optimised for a contemporary role of emulsification to successfully create fully emulsified 30% reduced fat baking margarine emulsions, with potential for considerably higher aqueous phase fractions depending upon particular baking application

Vestfirðir, and the Emergence of Fishing Communities in Pre-Modern Iceland

Despite being a country synonymous with fishing and having very strong maritime traditions, the clear origins and development of specialist fishing communities prior to the mechanisation era in Iceland, particularly the Vestfirðir region, remain unclear. Further to this, the details of their chronological development are often erratic if not unknown. Historical records often recollect periods of success or failure, largely driven by economic narrative, however, the context, factors and responses to these changes have never been fully explored. Compounding this absence of information is the tendency for narratives to be accounting for Iceland as a whole, without giving allowance to any regional differences. By adopting an interdisciplinary methodology, underpinned by the application of geoarchaeology (the interpretation of the cultural record contained within soils and sediments), the chronological developments and historical narrative can begin to be established. The result of this research is a clearer understanding of the environmental history of fishing communities in the Vestfirðir region spanning over eight centuries, displaying evidence of a resilient and responsive society. As a result of this research, a clear distinction can now be made between sites which served maritime and terrestrial purposes based on the interpretation of the cultural material. The findings have produced a narrative detailing how a society has responded to wider environmental and social pressures driven by changes within Iceland and throughout Europe. The sites surveyed display unique variance in their characteristics of adaptation, reflecting a society which maintained a high degree of resilience and flexibility which essentially provides the foundation for one of the most successful fishing grounds in the world today

Effect of Differential Rotation on the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars: Realistic Nuclear Equations of State

The merger of binary neutron stars is likely to lead to differentially rotating remnants. In this paper, we survey several cold nuclear equations of state (EOSs) and numerically construct models of differentially rotating neutron stars in general relativity. For each EOS we tabulate maximum allowed masses as a function of the degree of differential rotation. We also determine effective polytropic indices, and compare the maximum allowed masses with those for the corresponding polytropes. We consistently find larger mass increases for the polytropes, but even for the nuclear EOSs we typically find maximum masses 50% higher than the corresponding values for nonrotating (TOV) stars. We evaluate our findings for the six observed binary neutron star (pulsar) systems, including the recently discovered binary pulsar J0737-3039. For each EOS we determine whether their merger will automatically lead to prompt collapse to a black hole, or whether the remnant can be supported against collapse by uniform rotation (possibly as a supramassive star) or differential rotation (possibly as a hypermassive star). For hypermassive stars, delayed collapse to a black hole is likely. For the most recent EOSs we survey the merger remnants can all be supported by rotation against prompt collapse, but their actual fate will depend on the nonequilibrium dynamics of the coalescence event. Gravitational wave observations of coalescing binary neutron stars may be able to distinguish these outcomes -- no, delayed or prompt collapse -- and thereby constrain possible EOSs.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Ap

Disodium (2RS,3SR)-tartrate

The asymmetric unit of the anhydrous title compound, 2Na+·C4H4O6 2−, contains two sodium cations and one tartrate anion. Each sodium ion is six coordinate, with bonding to six O atoms from both the carboxyl­ate and hydroxyl groups of the anion. A three-dimensional coordination network is formed with sodium ions stacking in layers along the c-axis direction. This network is supported by additional O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

Using System Dynamics to Model and Better Understand State Stability

The world can be complex and dangerous - the loss of state stability of countries is of increasing concern. Although every case is unique, there are important common processes. We have developed a system dynamics model of state stability based on an extensive review of the literature and debriefings of subject matter experts. We represent the nature and dynamics of the ‘loads’ generated by insurgency activities, on the one hand, and the core features of state resilience and its ‘capacity’ to withstand these ‘loads’, on the other. The challenge is to determine when threats to stability override the resilience of the state and, more important, to anticipate conditions under which small additional changes in anti-regime activity can generate major disruptions. With these insights, we can identify appropriate and actionable mitigation factors to decrease the likelihood of radical shifts in behavior and enhance prospects for stability