The role of families in the stratification of attainment: Parental occupations, parental education and family structure in the 1990s.

The closing decades of the 20th century have witnessed a large increase in the numbers of young people remaining in education post-16 rather than entering the labour market. Concurrently, overall educational attainment in General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) qualifications in England and Wales has steadily increased since their introduction in 1988. The 1990s represent a key period of change in these trends. Some sociologists argue that processes of detraditionalisation have occurred whereby previous indicators of social inequality, such as social class, are less relevant to the transitions of young people from school to work. Sociologists from other traditions argue that inequalities persist in the stratification of educational attainment by the family backgrounds of young people but that these factors have changed during this period. This thesis is an investigation of the influence of family background factors upon GCSE attainment during the 1990s. This includes extensive statistical analysis of measures of parental occupation, parental education and family structure with gender, ethnicity, school type and housing tenure type within the Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales. These analyses include over 100,000 respondents in 6 cohorts of school leavers with the harmonisation of data from cohort 6 (1992) to the Youth Cohort Time Series for England, Wales and Scotland 1984-2002 (Croxford, Ianelli and Shapira 2007). By adding the 1992 data to existing 1990s cohorts, the statistical models fitted apply to the complete set of 1990s cohorts and are therefore able to provide insight for the whole of this period. Strong differentials by parental occupation persist throughout the 1990s and do not diminish despite the overall context of rising attainment. This relationship remains net of the other factors listed, irrespective of the measure of parental occupation or the GCSE attainment outcome measure used. This builds upon and supports previous work conducted using the Youth Cohort Study and suggests that stratification in educational attainment remains a significant factor. Gender and ethnicity remain further sources of persistent stratification in GCSE attainment. Following a discussion of the weighting system and features of the Youth Cohort Study as a dataset, a thorough investigation of missing data is included, with the results of multiply imputed datasets used to examine the potential for missing data to bias estimates. This includes a critique of these approaches in the context of survey data analysis. The findings from this investigation suggest the importance of survey data collection methods, the limitations of post-survey bias correction methods and provide a thorough investigation of the data. The analysis then develops and expands previous work by investigating variation in GCSE attainment by subjects studied, through Latent Class Analysis of YCS cohort 6 (1992). Of the four groups identified in the model, a clear division is noted between those middle-attaining groups with respect to attainment in Science and Mathematics. GCSE attainment in combinations of subjects studied is stratified particularly with respect to gender and ethnicity. This research offers new insight into the role of family background factors in GCSE attainment by subject combination

Measures Matter: Scales for Adaptation, Cultural Distance, and Acculturation Orientation Revisited

Building upon existing measures, four new brief acculturation scales are presented, measuring sociocultural adaptation, psychological adaptation, perceived cultural distance, and acculturation orientation. Following good scale reliability in initial samples, the English scales were translated into nine different languages (Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish). The translated scales were administered to a large sample of sojourners (N = 1,929), demonstrating good reliability and adequate structural equivalence across languages. In line with existing theory, sociocultural adaptation and psychological adaptation were positively correlated, and showed a negative association with perceived cultural distance. General measures of well-being were correlated with adaptation and distance, with better adaptation relating to higher well-being, and more distance relating to lower well-being. Acculturation orientation toward the home and host culture were measured separately and a weak negative correlation was found between the two, supporting their independence. Arguing against dichotomization, these subscales were analyzed as continuous variables. Regression analysis showed sojourners to be better adapted, if they were oriented more toward the host culture and less toward the home culture. These new scales are proposed as alternatives to existing measures

Prophylactic Intra-Aortic Balloon Counterpulsation in High Risk Cardiac Surgery: The PINBALL Pilot Multicentre, Registry-Linked, Randomised, Controlled Feasibility Trial

Background: Prophylactic intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation (IABC) is commonly used in selected patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, but definitive evidence is lacking. The aim of the multicentre PINBALL Pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) was to assess the feasibility of performing a definitive trial to address this question. Methods: Patients listed for CABG surgery with impaired left ventricular function and at least one additional risk factor for postoperative low cardiac output syndrome were eligible for inclusion if the treating surgical team was uncertain as to the benefit of prophylactic IABC. The primary outcome of feasibility was based on exceeding a pre-specified recruitment rate, protocol compliance and follow-up. Results: The recruitment rate of 0.5 participants per site per month did not meet the feasibility threshold of two participants per site per month and the study was stopped early after enrolment of 24 out of the planned sample size of 40 participants. For 20/24 (83%) participants, preoperative IABC use occurred according to study assignment. Six (6)-month follow-up was available for all enrolled participants, [IABC 1 death (8%) vs. control 1 death (9%), p = 0.95]. Conclusion: The PINBALL Pilot recruitment rate was insufficient to demonstrate feasibility of a multicentre RCT of prophylactic IABC in high risk patients undergoing CABG surgery

Тепловой баланс помещения с электрической кабельной системой отопления

Solvothermal oxidation of metallic gallium in monoethanolamine for 72 h at 240 °C yields a crystalline sample of γ-Ga₂O₃ (∼30 nm crystallites). While Rietveld refinement (cubic spinel structure, <i>Fd</i>3̅<i>m</i>; <i>a</i> = 8.23760(9) Å) reveals that Ga occupies two pairs of octahedral and tetrahedral sites (ideal spinel and nonspinel), it provides no information about their local distribution, which cannot be statistical owing to the short Ga–Ga contacts produced if neighboring ideal spinel and nonspinel sites are simultaneously occupied. To create an atomistic model to reconcile this situation, a 6 × 6 × 6 supercell of the crystal structure is constructed and refined against neutron total scattering data using a reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) approach. This accounts well for the local as well as long-range structure and reveals significant local distortion in the octahedral sites that resembles the structure of thermodynamically stable β-Ga₂O₃. ⁷¹Ga solid-state NMR results reveal a octahedral:tetrahedral Ga ratio that is consistent with the model obtained from RMC. Nanocrystalline samples of γ-Ga₂O₃ are produced by either a short solvothermal reaction (240 °C for 11 h in diethanolamine; ∼15 nm crystallites) or by precipitation from an ethanolic solution of gallium nitrate (∼5 nm crystallites). For these samples, the Bragg scattering profile is broadened by their smaller crystallite size, consistent with transmission electron microscopy results, and analysis of the relative Bragg peak intensities provides evidence that a greater proportion of tetrahedral versus octahedral sites are filled. In contrast, neutron total scattering shows the same average Ga–O distance with decreasing particle size, consistent with ⁷¹Ga solid-state NMR results that indicate that all samples contain the same overall proportion of octahedral:tetrahedral Ga. It is postulated that increased occupation of tetrahedral sites within the smaller crystallites is balanced by an increased proportion of octahedral surface Ga sites, owing to termination by bound solvent or hydroxide

Structure, spin correlations and magnetism of the S=1/2S = 1/2 square-lattice antiferromagnet Sr2_2CuTe1−x_{1-x}Wx_xO6_6 (0≤x≤10 \leq x \leq 1)

Quantum spin liquids are highly entangled magnetic states with exotic properties. The $S = 1/2$ square-lattice Heisenberg model is one of the foundational models in frustrated magnetism with a predicted, but never observed, quantum spin liquid state. Isostructural double perovskites Sr$_2$CuTeO$_6$ and Sr$_2$CuWO$_6$ are physical realizations of this model, but have distinctly different types magnetic order and interactions due to a $d^{10}/d^0$ effect. Long-range magnetic order is suppressed in the solid solution Sr$_2$CuTe$_{1-x}$W$_x$O$_6$ in a wide region of $x = 0.05-0.6$, where the ground state has been proposed to be a disorder-induced spin liquid. Here we show that the spin-liquid-like $x = 0.2$ and $x = 0.5$ samples have distinctly different local spin correlations, which suggests they have different ground states. Furthermore, the previously ignored interlayer coupling between the square-planes is likely to play a role in the suppression of magnetic order on the W-rich side at $x \approx 0.6$. These results highlight the complex magnetism of Sr$_2$CuTe$_{1-x}$W$_x$O$_6$ and hint at a new quantum critical point at $x \approx 0.3$.Comment: 19+8 pages, 6+8 figure

Understanding Society Innovation Panel Wave 11: Results from Methodological Experiments

This is the final version. Available from the University of Essex via the link in this recordThis paper presents some preliminary findings from Wave 11 of the Innovation Panel (IP11) of Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study. Understanding Society is a major panel survey in the UK. In May 2018, the eleventh wave of the Innovation Panel went into the field. IP11 used a mixed-mode design, using on-line interviews and face-to-face interviews. This paper describes the design of IP11, the experiments carried and the preliminary findings from early analysis of the data

Structure, Spin Correlations, and Magnetism of the S = 1/2 Square-Lattice Antiferromagnet Sr2CuTe1-xWxO6 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1)

Quantum spin liquids are highly entangled magnetic states with exotic properties. The S = 1/2 square-lattice Heisenberg model is one of the foundational models in frustrated magnetism with a predicted, but never observed, quantum spin liquid state. Isostructural double perovskites Sr2CuTeO6 and Sr2CuWO6 are physical realizations of this model but have distinctly different types of magnetic order and interactions due to a d10/d0 effect. Long-range magnetic order is suppressed in the solid solution Sr2CuTe1-xWxO6 in a wide region of x = 0.05-0.6, where the ground state has been proposed to be a disorder-induced spin liquid. Here, we present a comprehensive neutron scattering study of this system. We show using polarized neutron scattering that the spin liquid-like x = 0.2 and x = 0.5 samples have distinctly different local spin correlations, which suggests that they have different ground states. Low-temperature neutron diffraction measurements of the magnetically ordered W-rich samples reveal magnetic phase separation, which suggests that the previously ignored interlayer coupling between the square planes plays a role in the suppression of magnetic order at x ≈ 0.6. These results highlight the complex magnetism of Sr2CuTe1-xWxO6 and hint at a new quantum critical point between 0.2 &lt; x &lt; 0.4.</p

Rehabilitation goals of people with spinal cord injuries can be classified against the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Core Set for spinal cord injuries

Objectives: To establish whether inter-professional rehabilitation goals from people with non-traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) can be classified against the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) SCI Comprehensive and Brief Core Sets early postacute situation. Setting: Neurological rehabilitation unit. Methods: Rehabilitation goals of 119 patients with mainly incomplete and non-traumatic SCIs were classified against the ICF SCI Core Sets following established linking rules. Results: A total of 119 patients generated 1509 goals with a mean (and s.d.) of 10.5 (9.1) goals per patient during the course of their inpatient rehabilitation stay. Classifying the 1509 rehabilitation goals against the Comprehensive ICF Core Set generated 2909 ICF codes. Only 69 goals (4.6%) were classified as ‘not definable (ND)’. Classifying the 1509 goals against the Brief ICF Core Set generated 2076 ICF codes. However, 751(49.8%) of these goals were classified as ‘ND’. In the majority of goals (95.7%), the ICF code description was not comprehensive enough to fully express the goals set in rehabilitation. In particular, the notion of quality of movement or specificity and measurability aspects of a goal (usually described with the criteria and acronyms SMART) could not be expressed through the ICF codes. Conclusion: Inter-professional rehabilitation goals can be broadly described by the ICF Comprehensive Core Set for SCI but not the Brief Core Set

Appropriateness of acute admissions and last in-patient day for patients with long term neurological conditions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To examine the appropriateness of admissions and in-patient stay for patients with long term neurological conditions (LTNCs). To identify variables predictive of appropriateness and explore management alternatives.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Adults admitted as acute patients to Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (England). Data were collected prospectively and examined by a multi-disciplinary expert panel to determine the appropriateness of admission and length of stay (LoS). Management alternatives were discussed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 119 participants were recruited. 32 admissions were inappropriate and 83 were for an inappropriate duration. Whether a participant lived in their own home was predictive of an inappropriate admission. The number of LTNCs, number of presenting complaints and whether the participant lived alone in their own home were predictive of an inappropriate LoS. For admissions judged to be inappropriate, the panel suggested management alternatives.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Patients with LTNCs are being admitted to hospital when other services, e.g. ambulatory care, are available which could meet their needs. Inefficiencies in hospital procedures, such as discharge planning and patient transfers, continue to exist. Recognition of the need to plan for discharge at admission and to ensure in-patient services are provided in a timely manner may contribute towards improved efficiency.</p