Consistent Off-Shell Tree String Amplitudes

We give a construction of off-shell tree bosonic string amplitudes, based on the operatorial formalism of the $N$-string Vertex, with three external massless states both for open and closed strings by requiring their being projective invariant. In particular our prescription leads, in the low-energy limit, to the three-gluon amplitude in the usual covariant gauge.Comment: 12 pages. Introductory and final parts modified in order to make them more clear. Cosmetic changes in formulae (13) and (14). Some misprints correcte

Learning tools for intercultural education of healthcare practitioners in Europe

This report documents information on the development and evaluation of the three learning/teaching tools which represent the key outputs of the IENE 3 Project. The report begins with a document on the methodology for creating the learning/teaching tools and it is followed by the presentation of the three tools and the data from their evaluation. The final section of the report presents a number of case studies, which aim at promoting the synthesis of learning about compassion, courage and intercultural communication

A snapshot review of culturally competent compassion as addressed in selected mental health textbooks for undergraduate nursing students

Background The recent scandals involving poor healthcare put nurses under the spotlight in an attempt to understand how compassionate they are towards their patients. The aim of this article is to investigate how compassion is embedded in the textbooks of the undergraduate mental health nursing degree. Methods A snapshot review of key textbooks used, was conducted through the distribution of a list of textbooks and search terms to a panel of mental health teachers in four United Kingdom (UK) universities. They were asked to comment on the list’s completeness, and the terms’ suitability, comprehensiveness and sensitivity regarding culturally competent and compassionate care. Relevant data were extracted independently by each author followed by meetings to compare and discuss their findings and engage in deeper levels of analysis. Results The review found that despite the fact that few textbooks touched on a number of the search terms none of them directly addressed the issue of compassion or culturally competent compassion. This means that mental health undergraduate nurses may not be adequately prepared to provide culturally competent compassion. Conclusions Culturally competent compassion is not something we are born with. Imaginative teaching methods, good textbooks, good role models and opportunities to practice what one learns under supervision is required to nurture compassion in order to re-establish itself as the essence of nursing. Key textbooks need to be revised to reflect the virtue of culturally competent compassion

Sickness, 'sin' and discrimination: Examining a challenge for UK mental health nursing practice with lesbian, gay and bisexual people

Western psychiatry has a history of pathologising and attempting to ‘cure’ same-sex attraction, the legacy of which can still affect mental health practice today. Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people have greater risk of experiencing certain types of mental distress, self-harm and suicidal thoughts and behaviour as well as at risk of experiencing discrimination within mental health services. The minority stress model is important for understanding the higher levels of mental distress among LGB people. A type of discrimination in mental health services is appearing that has its origins in certain practitioner religious beliefs where same-sex attraction is interpreted as sinful. This has led to the reappearance of the idea that LGB people can be cured of their same-sex attraction, but with religious rather than psychiatric conceptual underpinnings. This may have particular implications for mental health nursing practice, where nurses have religious beliefs that bring them into conflict with the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Code of Conduct that forbids discrimination, and their legal obligation to work within the UK Equality Act 2010

Coming out in the workplace: a comparative study between Italy and England

Introduction: The study aims to analyze the main characteristics and differences relating to the lived experiences of coming out in the workplace in two very different territorial contexts (Italy and England), looking at universities as a case study. Method: 30 sexual and gender minority university teachers (15 from Italy and 15 from England), ranging from 29 to 56 years of age (M = 41.66; SD = 10.13), were recruited in 2019 to participate in a qualitative research study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed in line with the assumptions of the six-step thematic analysis approach. Result: The propensity to come out in the workplace is mainly affected by legislative safeguards. However, policies and the regulatory framework alone are not enough. Results suggested that the cultural context and the working climate have an equally significant impact. Conclusion: The stigma toward LGBT + people cannot be eradicated overnight and changing cultural beliefs is a slow process that requires imaginative and creative methods to get students and the university community to interact with LGBT + people. Practical implications: Stimulating a bottom-up change within individual institutions can represent a possible strategy to activate a process of change and social inclusion toward the LGBT + community with an echo on the wider environmental and cultural context

Prescriptions for Off-Shell Bosonic String Amplitudes

We give, in the framework of the bosonic string theory, simple prescriptions for computing, at tree and one-loop levels, off-shell string amplitudes for open and closed string massless states. In particular we obtain a tree amplitude for three open strings that in the field theory limit coincides with the three-gluon vertex in the usual covariant gauge and two-string one-loop amplitudes satisfying the property of transversality.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, to appear in the proceedings of the workshop "Quantum Aspects of Gauge Theories, Supersymmetry and Unification", Corfu (Greece), 20-26 September 1998. Eq. (12) and numerical factors in eqs. (13) and (16) corrected; some minor changes and references adde

Learning to become evidence based social workers: student views on research education and implementation in practice

Professional guidelines for social workers in relation to research use in practice, present social workers as consumers, rather than producers of research evidence. This approach aligns with a growing emphasis on the use of evidence-based practice within social work. This paper reports on a small mixed methods study with a cohort of BA social work students (N = 38) with two aims: 1) to understand the experiences of students learning research at undergraduate level and 2) to explore how their learning and placement experiences interact and influence their development as ‘research-minded’ practitioners of the future. Descriptive statistics of the quantitative data and thematic analysis of focus groups are presented. Our findings support the existing literature relating to social work students attitudes to research, including feelings of anxiety and perceptions of difficulty, while also viewing it as important to their careers. We also found that within placement settings, students encounter negative, often dismissive views of research and experience little in the way of role-modelling of evidence-based practice. We consider these findings in light of the promotion of EBP in UK social work, and how this may influence our teaching of research and evidence use to future student cohorts

On off-shell bosonic string amplitudes

We give a simple prescription for computing, in the framework of the bosonic string theory, off-shell one-loop amplitudes with any number of external massless particles, both for the open and for the closed string. We discuss their properties and, in particular, for the two-string one-loop amplitudes we show their being transverse.Comment: 12 pages, Latex. One reference added. Introduction and conclusions expanded. Some other minor changes in the tex