Volunteer support for mothers with new babies: perceptions of need and support received

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 55 mothers of infants. Some had received Home-Start during their infant’s first year, others were offered the support but declined and the remainder were not offered Home-Start. Most of their support had come from informal sources, such as family and friends with less from professionals. Mothers who received Home-Start described beneficial aspects, in particular, the extent of practical support provided, preferable to calling on close relatives or friends. Difficulties related to volunteer characteristics and administrative problems. Overall volunteer support can be important to complement informal and formal support, but needs careful management

Assessing the medium-term impact of a home-visiting programme on child maltreatment in England: protocol for a routine data linkage study

ABSTRACT Introduction Child maltreatment involves acts of omission (neglect) or commission (abuse) often by caregivers that results in potential or actual harm to a child. The Building Blocks trial (ISRCTN23019866) assessed the short-term impact of an intensive programme of antenatal and postnatal visiting by specially trained nurses to support young pregnant women in England. The Building Blocks: 2–6 Study will assess the medium-term impacts of the programme for mothers and children (n=1562), through the linkage of routinely collected data to the trial data, with a particular emphasis on the programme’s impact on preventing child maltreatment. Methods and analysis We have developed a bespoke model of data linkage whereby outcome data for the trial cohort will be retrieved by linked anonymous data abstraction from NHS Digital, Office for National Statistics and the Department for Education’s National Pupil Database. Participants will be given reasonable opportunity to opt out of this study prior to data transfer. The information centres will match participants to the information held in their databases using standard identifiers and send extracts to a third-party safe haven. The study will have 80% power to detect a 4% difference (4%vs8%) for the binary primary outcome of child in need status (from birth to key stage 1) at a two-sided 5% alpha level by following up 602 children in each trial arm. Analysis will be by intention to treat using logistic multilevel modelling. A cost-and-consequences analysis will extend the time frame of the economic analysis from the original trial. Ethics and dissemination The study protocol has been approved by the National Health Service Wales Research Ethics Committee and the Health Research Authority’s Confidentiality Advisory Group. Methods of innovative study design and findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and conferences; results will be of interest to clinical and policy stakeholders in the UK.National Institute for Health Research Public Health Researc

Rendezvous radar for the orbital maneuvering vehicle

This paper describes the development of the Rendezvous Radar Set (RRS) for the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The RRS was to be used to locate, and then provide vectoring information to, target satellites (or Shuttle or Space Station) to aid the OMV in making a minimum-fuel-consumption approach and rendezvous. The RRS design is that of an X-Band, all solid-state, monopulse tracking, frequency hopping, pulse-Doppler radar system. The development of the radar was terminated when the OMV prime contract to TRW was terminated by NASA. At the time of the termination, the development was in the circuit design stage. The system design was virtually completed, the PDR had been held. The RRS design was based on Motorola's experiences, both in the design and production of radar systems for the US Army and in the design and production of hi-rel communications systems for NASA space programs. Experience in these fields was combined with the latest digital signal processor and micro-processor technology to design a light-weight, low-power, spaceborne radar. The antenna and antenna positioner (gimbals) technology developed for the RRS is now being used in the satellite-to-satellite communication link design for Motorola's Iridium telecommunications system

World War II and Fashion: The Birth of the New Look

This article discusses the changes that took place in the style of women\u27s fashions from the 1930s to the late 1940s, from the simpler wartime styles to the frilly, extravagant look popularized by Dior

Three Poems

Of science and religion I have little to say today. I imagine there are those born and raised as atheists, those who convert to atheism, and those for whom, like me, atheism—I guess I would call mine atheistic paganism—came like a sort of salvation compared to the emphasis on Satan and hell that I was raised with. At the same time, anything that makes anyone's life more pleasurable, not to say bearable, without at the same time making someone else's less so, seems to me a gorgeous thing. Of love I have a little more to say. I'm definitely for it; in fact I believe that the cash reward for introducing me to an eligible gentleman just went up last week. This afternoon, however, I thought I'd look at love and obstacles in terms of family and of self

The stream cannot rise above its source: The principle of responsible government informing a limit on the ambit of the Executive Power of the Commonwealth

The Executive Power of the Commonwealth is shrouded in mystery. Although the scope of the legislative power of the Commonwealth Parliament has been settled for some time, the development of the Executive power has not followed suit. Over the last decade, the High Court has developed jurisprudence on the Executive Power – largely invoking more questions than answers – and while not conclusively defining it, certainly suggesting that there are limits. This thesis argues that one limit is the principle of responsible government. Responsible government requires that the Executive government be accountable to the Parliament. The accountability aspect allows Parliament to scrutinise the conduct of the Executive. This is of critical importance because the Executive has its own sphere of activity, acting through its non-statutory power, prerogative power and nationhood power. When the Executive acts, the activities necessarily require the expenditure of money. The money the Executive expends is not its own money, rather, it is public money in the Consolidated Revenue Fund. This thesis examines two key cases of expenditure initiated by the Executive government; Pape, and the impugned Tax Bonus Act that provided the fiscal stimulus package in the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis; and Williams, which was a contract between the Commonwealth Government and Scripture Union Queensland for funding under the National Schools Chaplaincy Programme. Overall, this thesis highlights that as responsible government is entrenched in the Constitution, and the final say on all expenditure is provided by Parliament as representative of the people, the outcomes of the Pape and Williams cases point to the High Court limiting the ambit of the Executive Power by reference to the principle of responsible government

The preparation and properties of some polyurethanes

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1947. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive